Faithful Men Disciple and Send Faithful Men

You have your bibles, open them to two. Timothy Tewod Timothy chapter two. The title of my message is faithful men, disciple, and send faithful men. This is about the multiplication of the church. Healthy churches multiply. Say that again, healthy churches multiply, Healthy churches plant churches. Healthy churches equip men and send men to plant churches. I didn't say healthy churches send men to seminary. I said healthy churches send men to plant churches. Again. I'm not against seminary, Okay, I've got splinters in my backside from sitting in many a seminary class. Not against seminary. I'm against the seminary being used to do what God gave as a specific job to the church. We do not send men to people who don't know them, haven't tested them and tried them, to validate them, and send them out for ministry. If you want to partner with them in that process, that's one thing. But to abdegate is completely and utterly unacceptable. Faithful men, disciple and sin faithful men. Tewod Tienty chapter two. Look there at those first two verses. You, then, my child be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, in trust to faithful men who will be able to teach others. Also, now, my thesis that I'm arguing here is that this is obviously an admonition toward raising and training up men who will be able to serve in leadership in the church and to serve in planting new churches. It's my thesis here that that's what Paul is saying to young Timothy and by extension, saying to the rest of us. But I realized that as we talk about this, that there's a there's a number of hurdles to overcome. The first hurdle to overcome is the one we've already dealt with, this idea that this is not a local church duty, that it's not a local church responsibility. And again, I don't believe that the onus is on me to prove that this is a local church responsibility. I think the onus is on anyone who argues that it's not to prove that from scripture. You don't ask me to prove a negative from scripture, Okay, don't ask me to prove there's not the seminary's responsibility. You prove from scripture that it is okay, and you can't. You can't and you won't. And even if you find healthy seminary professors, I teach as an adjunct professor in seminaries. I'm currently teaching as an adjunct that Reformed Theological seminary in Houston. You talk to seminary professors, professors with a healthy mindset, they will not tell you it is our job to disciple, equip and train men and send them out. They won't tell you that. That's not why the seminary exists. That's what we believe in our current mindset, but it's not why the seminary exists. Seminaries don't live with men. Seminaries don't watch men and their interactions and the congregation. Seminaries don't walk with men in this process of evaluation. That's a local church responsibility. So there's the first hurdle. The second hurdle for many Americans is the idea that we actually need to plant churches. Now. Granted, if we if we if we want to talk about you know, foreign missions, so to speak. We want to talk about foreign missions. And you know, most Americans can get on board with that. We can, we can we can get on board with that because that's you know that, that's that's that's hot, that's that's that's sexy. Man. That that just that sounds good. I'm going somewhere else to be a missionary. I mean, right, we even got a special word for it. If I do it here, I'm just a church planter. If I cross a border, I'm a missionary. You know, we even got a word for it. An amazing thing, you know. But here, of course, we don't need to do that. Here, we got churches all over the place, got church on every corner for the middle of talked last night about growing up right in the middle of an equilateral triangle a mile from three different Baptist churches. Lord help here today. We don't need any more churches, or do we? There are some two hundred million unchurched Americans. That makes us number four on planet Earth. And the number of lost people and the number of unchurched people, which means that outside of Russia, China, and India, every other country we send missionaries to has less lost people than we do here. Where I live in Houston, there between three and four million unchurched people just in my hometown three to four million, something else you might not be aware of. No county in the United States has a greater church population today than it did ten years ago. We are in decline, and the last decade, church membership declined by nine and a half percent while the US population grew by eleven and a half percent, which means that we're behind population growth. Every year, between thirty five hundred and five thousand churches die while only fifteen hundred are planted. In the decade of the nineties, one hundred thousand churches died. In that one decade, one hundred thousand churches died. We now have sixty percent fewer churches per ten thousand than we had in nineteen twenty, sixty percent fewer. In nineteen twenty, we had twenty seven churches for every ten thousand Americans. By nineteen fifty that was down to seventeen churches for every ten thousand Americans, and by the end of the nineteen nineties we were down to about ten churches for every ten thousand Americans. And yet we're not convinced that we need to plant churches. Eighty to eighty five percent of American churches are either plateaued or declining. Eighty to eighty five percent of American churches are either plateaud or declining. The average church membership in the United States is less than one hundred. The average church in America has less than one hundred members. Now again, here here in Georgia, here in the Atlanta area, we don't understand that. In Houston, where I live, we don't understand that. I mean, in Atlanta or in Houston. You know churches that run five thousand, you know, they're like a dime a dozen. There are churches. I hear about churches all the time in Houston that run five, six, seven thousand that I've never heard of before. People are like, I go to so and so on and so, oh okay, I've never heard of that. Oh really, yeah, we got like five thousand members. Oh my bad. That's not the real world. That's not the real world. The average church in America is less than one hundred members. The majority of church growth happens in congregations that are less than three years old. The majority of church growth happens in congregations that are less than three years old. Listen to this from Phil Newton writing a couple of years ago in the Founder's Journal, with projected population growth in the next twenty years, at least twenty nine thousand new churches would need to be started in the Deep Southern States as the Bible Belt, just to keep up with population growth, and that did not consider the existing population and existing communities that lack adequate gospel centered churches. Twenty nine thousand churches in the Deep South in the next twenty years just to keep up with the population twenty nine thousand churches. There is a desperate need to plant churches, and very few who are thinking intentionally, purposefully, or strategically about how and why to do it, so much so that now now we have a new plan, and the new plan is just the satellite movement, satellite multi site plan. So we're recognizing that there need to be these churches, but as a result of a number of things, not least of which is the cult of personality, we would rather send a video feed somewhere than to plant a church. There are a number of problems with this, and I don't have time, nor do I have the inclination or the strength to hold back bad voting to talk about it right now. But let me just address one issue here again, just to show that we're pragmatists. We're not thinking strategically, we're just being pragmatic reactionaries. A number of the churches doing this are Baptist churches. I'm a member of the Southern Baptist can mentioned. I can talk about Southern Baptists because I are one. There are a number of Southern Baptist churches, prominent Southern Baptist churches with prominent Southern Baptist ministers who now have satellites where they have a campus pastor, but they're piped in by video feed. So now there are multiple churches under the leadership of one man who says he's a Baptist, but that model of church government is Episcopal. They need to leave the convention immediately and acknowledge that they're not Baptist anymore. Yes, that just happened. Some of them are past presidents of the SBC, past presidents of the Southern Baptis Convention, who ought to at least know what the Baptist form of government is. Amen, but we're not that we don't. If you were to talk to them about this, they would look at you like like you know, as we say, down down here like a calf staring at a new gate, and you would be the one with the problem why you're being so technical, or they throw the new phrase, I like my way of reaching people that are better than your way of not reaching people, Like that's just supposed to settle it, but it doesn't. It doesn't. And I just bring this up to say that we are being pragmatic reactionaries as opposed to being thoughtful, theological and purposeful. So Paul here in Second Timothy, gives us a picture in order to understand it, we have to understand Second Timothy. There is a theme in Two Timothy. It's kind of a two pronged theme that runs through the entire letter. And we're going to do just a little bit of survey here and you'll understand why it's important that we do this. But the first prong of the theme is preserve and proclaim the Gospel as it was given by the apostles. Preserve and proclaim the Gospel as it was given by the Apostles. That's the first part of the thing. That's what Paul is about here, that's his purpose here. His desire is for young Timothy to hold on to the Gospel, to preserve it and to proclaim it. Paul knows that he is not long for this world, and he knows that as an apostle, he has a duty and a responsibility that goes beyond his lifetime. And his desire is that the Gospel is preserved because he recognizes that there are constant threats to the Gospel, and that this gospel is not only preserved, but that it is also proclaimed, that it is spread abroad. That's the theme here. Along with that, there is a second theme, and that second theme is endure the hardship that inevitably will follow as a result of doing the first thing. So here's the message to Timothy. And understand contextually that Timothy is a young man who has been at least for a large part of his life fatherless and struggles a little bit with his courage. And Paul basically writes in my letter and says, Timothy, they're about to kill me. They're gonna kill me for preaching the Gospel. I hope to see you before I die, but in case I don't, and if they kill me before I see you again, here's what I want you to do. Preserve the gospel that they're going to kill me for. Preach the gospel that they're going to kill me for, and endure the hardship that will follow inevitably as a result of preserving and preaching the gospel that they're going to kill me for. That in a nutshell is the message of two Timothy with a couple of asides. And the aside are personal notes on individuals who have either stayed with him or abandoned him. We see that at the end of chapter one and at the end of chapter chapter four, just kind of like bookmarks. So here's the theme, and here's the example. Let's look at the thing. For example, look in chapter one, verse eight, Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner. Don't be ashamed of the testimony or of me his prisoner. There's the preserve and proclaim part. What comes back next, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God. There's endure. Then you go down to verse thirteen, following the pattern of sound words that you have heard from me in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus, by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you. Then we come to our chapter, chapter two, and there's the first statement that we've already read what you've heard from me verse two, in the presence of many witnesses, and trust to faithful men who will be able to teach others. Also there's preserve and proclaim next verse share in suffering as a good soldier in Christ Jesus. Turn with me to chapter three, because it happens in every chapter. In chapter three, he reverses the order beginning verse ten. You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, and at Iconium and at Lystra, which persecutions I endured. Yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. There's the endure. Look at verse fourteen. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you've learned it, and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. There's the preserve and proclaim. Chapter four he gets the order back again. First, he starts with preserve and proclaim. Look a verse one. I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is the judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching but have itching ears. They will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. There's preserve and proclaim next verse as for you always be sober minded, endure suffering, do the work of an indivangelists, fulfill your ministry. In every chapter there is this two pronged thing in every chapter, preserve the Gospel and proclaim it, and endure the suffering that will follow inevitably as a result. And then he personalizes it. At the end of chapter one, he talks about those who have done him wrong and abandon him and as well as those who have not. And at the end of chapter four he does the very same thing. So he personalizes the theme for young Timothy. As a result of this pattern, I believe we have a means of understanding what Paul is saying here in chapter two, verse two, when we see the pattern of the entire letter. Chapter two, verse two becomes almost a thesis statement for the entire letter, a thesis statement for what it is that Paul is saying to young Timothy, for the charge that he is giving to young Timothy here at the end of his life. First, he says, there's a content here what you heard from me? This is extremely important. First, the content is apostolic teaching. Paul makes it clear in verse one, Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus. So he identifies himself there as an apostle. Then at chapter one, verse eleven, to which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, we're talking about apostolic de doctrine here. And now I know we throw the word apostle around a great deal. On the way here from a hotel, I passed by a sign for a church here in town that has an apostle. Amazing thing, that's unbelievable. Right here, there's an apostle. You talk about being a little uncomfortable when people say that they, you know, heard the Lord say something to them. How about an apostle. How about an apostle. That office has the authority to give a scripture. That apostle has That office has the authority to shape the church. That office has authority that has surpassed only by the authority of Christ himself, who gave us the apostles. Folks, we don't have apostles today. When we talk about Apostolic teaching, we're talking about the teaching that was validated, communicated to us by the apostles, confirmed to us, and preserve for us in scripture. This is a common Pauline thing second Thessalonians two fifteen. So, then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the tradition that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter. Hold to the Apostolic doctrine tit Us one nine. When talking about the office of elder and the requirements comes to a crescendo there in verse nine of chapter one. They must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught again, as taught by whom by the Apostles. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine. What is sound doctrine? Sound doctrine is Apostolic doctrine. And also rebuke those who contradicted, who contradict what Apostolic doctrine. It's also a common New Testament theme. This is Foundational Acts, Chapter two, verse forty two. They devoted themselves to the Apostles teaching the fellowship, the breaking of bread into the prayers. Apostolic teaching is our foundation. This leads us to what I would argue what ought to be a commitment to confessionalism as a g and guard. And I know that's a dirty word for many people talking about being confessional, so on and so forth. I know there are no creed but Christ. Yeah, a funny thing about that. It's a creed. No creed but the Bible. That's great. So do we include the apocrypha? Now, the apocryph is not part of the Bible. Don't look now, but you just watched confessional. You've got to be confessional even to say no creed but the Bible. First of all, that's a creed. Secondly, you immediately have to define what you mean by Bible, no creed but Christ? Does that mean that we let the Mormons and the Jehovah's Witness and the Muslims in No? Why not? Because they don't believe in the same Jesus, really tell me why. But before you open your mouth, recognize something. You're about to wax confessional. We have to be confessional. Here's the only question. Are we going to make it up as we go along? Or are we going to stand in the stream of and on the shoulders of those who have been Orthodox through the ages. Verses nine and ten of chapter one give us a little picture of an early confession. It's even written in as almost sort of a hymn, if you will. And then there's another one in chapter two. But look at the first one in chapter one, who saved us and called us to a holy calling not because of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace which he gave us in Christ, Jesus before the Ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our savior Christ, Jesus who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel. So it gives him a little mini treatise there, and then he gives him an even shorter one in chapter two, verse eight. Remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel. Remember that. And then in chapter two eleven to thirteen there is another him and early hym the saying is trustworthy. One of the trustworthy sayings. He gives us five and the pastoral epistles. For if we died with him, we will also live with him. If we endure, we will also reign with him. If we deny him, he will he also will deny us. If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself. So again we have early sort of many crudal statements, even within the context of two Timothy here. But what does this mean in a practical sense for us when we think about being faithful men who disciple and send faithful men first and foremost, we need to make sure that what they believe and that what we're communicating is Apostolic doctrine. So this means we should be confessional, and we should hold ourselves and those whom we disciple to those confessions. Even churches who argue that they're not confessional still put a many confession on their website about us in the about us section what we believe? What do they have? It's a many confession. And many of these people are like, we're no, but christ really because on your website in the about us section you got a deal about that long. It says what you believe about the Bible and about God and about Jesus and about salvation and about the Holy Spirit and about the Second Company. It's right there. It's right there. It's right there. And by the way, you spent all this time to make it up because you're so you know, just bent against being confessional. But it looks exactly like the one that you find on thousands of other websites that are about this long and that cover the exact same topics. So we all recognize the need to be confessional. I think this also says something about our hymnity because Paul does something here. He gives us a couple of statements in the form of early hymns. Why because they're important teaching tools. You see, we've moved away from understanding hymnity as a means of teaching to a place of understanding humanity merely as a means of setting the mood. Music is important. Why because it gets us ready to hear the word. Really, because we should be hearing the word there too, not just hearing the word, but hearing the word in a form that helps us remember the word that we're hearing. You know, one of the difficulties is that this puts you outside of the stream of modern American church life. Modern American church life again written large, you walk into the average church. Doesn't matter what that church is or where that church is. You walk into the average church. And here are some kind of baselines that you can expect. Number one, you walk into that church, and by and large it will be Armenian by default. They will not have thought through the doctrines, but basically it'll be our Minian by default. Well, there we go. We've already got a wall up when people come to visit us and we're not Armenian by default. You walk into your average church and they will be dispensational Zionists by default. They won't know what that means, but they'll believe in their heart of hearts that Israel is the most important nation in the world today, it's always been the most important nation in the world, that they're at the center of God's heart, and that if we don't treat them right, God's going to get us. Thirdly, the atmosphere will be mildly charismatic. Again, people might not be barking like dogs, and you know, you might not have you know, audible tongue talking sessions. But in your average church, they're not going to be Sensatianists. In fact, they're going to see Sessatianism as a heresy because it's either you're open to new revelations in the form of brother Joe has a word from God because he had a vision or a dream or whatever, or you don't believe God is still God. The atmosphere is also going to be from a musical standpoint, somewhere between you know, seventies folk rock and nineties acoustic rock. So if you're doing anything other than that, maybe a little bit out of bounds. What does this mean for thoughtful confessional, reformed, covenantal, Calvinistic. What does it mean for those of us who find ourselves in that arena. What it means is most people are going to be at least slightly turned off by us. What it also means is we need to hear Paul's words in chapter four because we live in a time when people will not endure sound teaching. They won't put up with it, which makes it even more important that we fight fiercely for apostolic doctrine, because I'm going to tell you the natural tendency is to give a little in each one of these areas so that we can attract more people. And the fact of the matter is, if you do, you will. If you will just be mildly charismatic, there are a lot more people who will come if you will just hold up dispensation of Zionism. There are a lot more people who will come if you will just not be so confessional. There are a lot more people who would come if you would just adopt somewhere between seventies folk rock and nineties soft rock acoustic rock. More people would come. And you pay for it because when we look at it, the landscape of run of the mill American evangelicalism. What we see is miles and miles wide and about half an inch deep. That's not preserving and proclaiming the Apostolic Gospel. How about the context of this. What you've heard from me in the presence of any witnesses. This means that there is corporate proclamation you've heard. You didn't just hear this from me personally. You heard this from me in the presence of any witnesses. This means that Paul didn't just reserve his doctrinal stuff for his small group of hardcore want to be preachers and then give something else to everybody else. What you've heard from me in the presence of any witnesses. This implies that our preaching should be doctrinal in nature. Amen, Hallelujah, Praise the Lord. Preach doctrine. Our preaching should be doctrinal in nature. We should use those multi syllabic words and tell people what those words mean. It also means our preaching should be expository in nature. That our goal is not to find out what people want and then try to give people what they want. That would be as wrong as me as a parent trying to figure out what my children like and then only feeding them mat Eventually their teeth would rot and fall out of their heads, which is exactly what's happening spiritually to many of the people who don the doors of churches. They're being starved to death. This also means our preaching should be exhaustive in nature. We should preach the whole counsel of God, all of it, all of it. Not only is this corporate proclamation, but there's also personal instruction. We know this because of what we see in Chapter one, beginning of verse three. I thank God, whom I serve as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. This is not Paul's relationship with everybody. As I remember your tears, I long to see you that I may be filled with joy. He's had some personal experiences with this young man where they've gone through some hardships together. Paul has walked through him, walked with him through through some difficult days. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice, and now I am sure dwells in you as well. He knows his family history, his spiritual family history. For this reason, I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God which is in you. Threw the laying on of my hands. There's a picture here of some kind of acknowledgment or ordination of this young man by Paul. For God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and love and to sound mind. This is a man who invested in a young man. Let me just say first off, this is difficult. It's difficult first and foremost because it's time consuming and serving in pastoral ministry. It's a whole lot easier to take an eager young man and point him toward a seminary than it is to take him under your winging training. You can't say amen, y'all, to say ouch, it's a whole lot easier. This is time consuming, this is work. You have to be purposeful and intentional about this. But we're called to do it. Why how are we going to get it to other young men? This is also risky. It's risky. If I can just be flat out honest with you, our church will be eight years old in April, and we've been training men intentionally for at least six of those eight years, developed our own program to train them, develop the system whereby they go from formal training to observation and testing and so on and so forth, and then are launched into eldership or launched as church planters. We've currently got more than we can say grace over where we are. We're being tested and tried, and the weight is heavy when you do serious shipherding and pastoral ministry, the weight is heavy, and it would be great for us to have more elders. I wish we had more elders, but we don't why Because one young man that we trained, we sent him to another state to help basically restart a church there. To a young men that we trained, we sent up several miles north of where we are, about thirty forty five minutes with about seventy members from our church to plant another church in an area that needed a church. So there's three who could be elders with us right now who are not. Three more young men that we've trained who could not subscribe fully to our confession, who have now gone off to plant another work. So there's three more strong teachers and they're gone. We have three elders right now, one of them were going to send in the very near future to college station for another plant slash restart. And the weight just stays heavy. And it's easy to sit there and say, man, when it should be great, and we had all those guys right now, why it should be great? If we were just just stopped with eight or nine elders who were strong men and strong teachers and could share the weight, wouldn't it be awesome to minister in that kind of context. Yeah, yeah it would. But faithful men, disciple and send faithful men. We don't just invest to make our work easier. We invest because we have a kingdom mindset, which means we invest with a view towards sending, not with a view toward sending enfranchising so that our name could still be great, but with a view toward investing and sending so that the kingdom might expand the commission and trust to faithful men. This is not what you do for every man. And trust to faithful men, which men, well, we've got to be selective obviously, men who are gifted men. So there's your first thing. Are these gifted men not? Do they just want to do it? Are they gifted. There's a lot of men who want to do it, but they're not gifted. Amen. Secondly, called men. You can have men who are gifted but not called. You force these men into ministry, it'll be disastrous. We don't beg anybody. Third qualified, men gifted, called qualified. There's a reason that the New Testament gives us qualifications for those who serve in the office of elder. Those qualifications are non negotiable. Those qualifications are important. Those qualifications need to be observed. Does anybody meet those things perfectly? Of course not, of course not. But they better be characterized by those qualifications, and in pursuit of those qualifications, and these must be tested. Men going to seminary and getting a degree is not the same as being tested. That just means you have information, doesn't mean you're a shepherd. Amen. Here's the question. If this is true, then I ask all of us as elders and pastors. I know not all of us are elders and pastors, but those of us who are, let me ask you, do you have anything currently in place to identify gifted and called men, Anything in place to examine the qualifications of men, anything in place to test these men within the context of ministry and the local body, so that you can see if they should be sent. Because if we don't have this in place, let me explain to you where a lot of our problems come from. Here's where a lot of our problems come from. Within our context. A lot of our problems come from the fact that you know, here we are and we're grabbing on to you know, this this biblical ecclesiology, and we believe in you know, biblical eldership and so on and so forth and all these sorts of things. And now we're looking out there and we're looking for men to serve an eldership, and we believe in plurality, so we want multiple elders, and were looking out there and you know, we just kind of go, this guy looks good, that guy looks good. Whatever. If we don't have these things in place, then ultimately what's going to happen is we'll have men who aren't gifted, who aren't called, who aren't qualified, and who haven't been tested. They come into the eldership and hello, trouble because we're not being purposeful. This is why I believe it's wrong, let alone unbiblical it's wrong to have the congregation send men into eldership, because in Titus All doesn't say, hey, man, I've let you there to set in order. What remains if the congregation sends you some men. No, he tells Titus to evaluate that there's also continuity who will be able to teach others. Also, I think this says more about our attitude, who will be able to teach others. Also, there's something about having an attitude of multiplication that is infectious. And when we have an attitude that says, we're constantly evaluating men to see if these men are called, if they're gifted, if they're qualified, so that we can then test them to see if we can send them. And we have that attitude, and men come from that kind of setting. You know what kind of attitude they have when they come into eldership. They have an attitude that says, I need to be on the lookout for men who are called, and who are gifted, and who are qualified, so that I can test them and then send them just like I've been sent. Because evidently that's how people are supposed to be sent. Calvin Wrights, he again shows how earnestly desirous he is to transmit sound doctrine to posterity, and the exhorts Timothy not only to preserve its shape and features as he formerly did, but likewise to hand it down to godly teachers, that being widely spread, it may take root in the hearts of many. For he saw that it would clickly quickly perish if it were not soon scattered by the ministry of many persons. And indeed we see what Satan did not long after the death of the Apostles, For just as if preaching had been buried for some centuries, he brought in in numerous reveries, which, by their monstrous absurdity, surpassed the superstitions of all the Heathens. We need not wonder therefore, if Paul, in order to guard against an evil of such a nature and of such magnitude, earnestly desires that this doctrine shall be committed to all godly ministers who shall be qualified to teach it. There are more heresies today abroad than at any other time, and it amazes me that we think that somehow will be guarded against them by us. Moses, we must fight fiercely for seund doctrine in our own lives and in the lives of others. We must constantly check ourselves to see that our doctrine is not wandering. You know what, I love the fact that Paul goes up and he meets with the apostles, and then several years later he goes back again to meet with it. This is Paul, who's an apostle. But because this apostleship was so unique, he goes to the other apostles and it meets with the other apostles and with Peter in order to be checked out. And then he goes and he does his thing, and several years later we read about this and Colossians. Several years later he comes back again to make sure that he was still in line with Apostolic doctrine. If Paul did that, who do you think you are that you don't have to do that. This is why I worry about that whole No Creed but Christ, No Creed but the Bible. Paul had to check himself against something, But I don't. Other people have wandered off into error using this same Bible. But I won't why because I'm me, God help us. So there is a sense in which this passage calls us to check ourselves. But there is another sense in which this passage also calls us to understand the magnitude of the task. Because if I know that I'm susceptible to it, that's going to change the way that I preach to my congregation. Because they're susceptible to it. They don't just need five ways to have a happy life and ten ways to reduce stress. They need sound doctrine because all of us, all of us have itching ears, and we need sound doctrine. We need to be brought back again and again and again constantly to be brought back. Well, then there also need to be men who rise up into leadership and go out and plant churches. Guess what they need. They need the sound doctrine. So we give them the sound doctrine, and then we check them on sound doctrine, and then we check them again on sound doctrine, and then we send them out so that they can do the same thing. Brothers, don't hear this. Don't hear me saying that we've got this figured out in our locale and all y'all just need to get on board. We don't know come here from sickham. We just trying. Amen. Paul doesn't outline the format, so please don't send me one hundred and fifty nine emails saying hey, could you send us over your format? That's not what this is about. But here's what I would ask you. Number one, Do you have the protection of a confession? If you don't, why don't you? Why don't you? Number two? Do you have the protection of a body of elders who hold to that same confession? If you don't, why don't you? Thirdly, do you have a means of communicating to your people what it is that you believe confessionally? If you don't, why don't you. Four? Do you preach with a view towards strengthening people doctrinally and guarding them from themselves because of their own itching ears. If you don't, why don't you. Five? Do you have a standard by which purposefully you look for, identify, invest in, and test and train gifted called and qualified men? If you don't, why don't you? And finally, do you have an open hand that says we're not just identifying and investing in and testing these gifted called and call five men so that they can all be here to bolster the work that we're doing, and the lighten the load that is on our shoulders. But our hands are open, so that as we do this, we delight in seeing them go and do Likewise, If you don't, why don't you, faithful men, disciple and send faithful men who disciple and send faithful men. We are called to be disciple making disciples, and we're called to make disciple making disciples. This gospel that we preach is always just a generation away from being shipwrecked. And it's one thing for us to look around at, you know, just sort of running the mill evangelicalism in America and say, I cannot believe how far a drift things are. That's easy to do. You know what's hard. Here's what's hard. What has happened to allow us to become so a drift? And what is there about my ministry that puts a check on it? That's easy? Right? There is hard. And what I'm encouraging us to do is this. Why because the Gospel must be preserved and proclaimed and we have to be purposeful about doing it. Why because doing so inevitably will bring hardship our way. Paul writes this letter at the end of his life, and he gives these words, for I'm already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight. I've finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing. Ultimately, here's why I love this letter. Paul writes a timid young man, and he basically says to him, I know you struggle with fear, but that doesn't come from God. So here's what I want you to do. I want you to remember me, because more than likely they're about to kill me very soon. But don't just remember me. Don't be ashamed of me, don't be ashamed of my chains, and don't be ashamed of the gospel that I preached, even though they're killing me because of that gospel. Because in essence I'm writing you to say this, Preserve that gospel and proclaim that gospel, and n trust that gospel to faithful man who will do the exact same thing. All the while be ready to endure the hardship that will follow inevitably as a result of you doing this. How do I know? Remember I said, they're about to kill me for it, So Timothy, let me put the cookies on the bottom shelf. When they kill me, go do what they're killing me for. Why because doing it is more important than avoiding dying. Let's pray, Father, grant by your grace that we would not take the Gospel for granted, that we might recognize, even in ourselves, that we have a tendency toward heresy, toward legalism, toward idolatry, and as a result, we always need to preserve the Apostolic doctrine, proclaim the Apostolic doctrine because others struggle with the same things. All of us have itching ears, all of us want what we want, the way we want it, and when we want it. Grant by your grace that we would endure hardship, even if it's just the hardship of not being as popular as we could if we compromised a little bit here and a little bit there, And grant that we might do this not so that we can hold ourselves up as martyrs to be praised, but that the gospel might go forth, that the pure Gospel might go forth, that the true Gospel might go forth from our lips and from the lips of others. Grant us a willingness to invest ourselves, to invest our lives and men whom you have gifted and called, and men who are qualified to carry on this same gospel. Grant that we would invest ourselves in them, not just so that they might help us, but so that they might help the cause of Christ. Grant that our churches and our ministries would be marked by this process of faithful men, discipling and sending, faithful men who might disciple and send faithful men. I pray for pastors who are alone and isolated, who look out desperate to find help. Lord, I pray that you would grant them endurance and faith to wait on you and not to move too soon on individuals who are not called and gifted and qualified and tested. And I also pray that you would bring them help to strengthen their hands. Lord, I pray for that pastor who is holding on to men who ought to be let go, that you would grant him faith and the grace to release men into the harvest so that he might invest in other men. Lord, I even pray for those who find themselves caught in this quagmire of reactionary pragmatic utilitarianism, just doing the next thing that works to alleviate pressure or increase the crowd. I pray that you would grant them grace to repent and to trust that you will build your church, and that we need only be faithful. And Lord, I pray for your bride, radiant and pure. Thank you that you protect her. And I thank you that in a world that is awash with false churches, there is a true church, and that she is everything that you say she is. Grant by your grace that we would love her, that we would serve her, that we would give our lives to her, and that all these things that we do we do because of our love for the Bride of Christ. Grant these things. We pray his name Amena as