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There isn't really a whole lot that needs to be said at this point. I'm very confident
that the folks who planned the conference and who ministered, spoke and preached and
taught and led the interviews covered the ground that we really desired to cover. And
I'm so profoundly thankful to everyone who has been on this platform and I need to express
that gratitude to them. They have served us well with diligence, preparation of mind and
heart for a long time leading up to this. And we're very grateful. These are men who
are fully engaged in ministry all the time, and to add the burden of a conference like
this and all the preparation and all the thought, and all the prayer, we're grateful. I know
that preaching is like the tip of the iceberg. That's what you see, but what you don't know
is what lies below that. And we want to express our deep gratitude to all the men who helped
us in this conference and whose ministry will go on from here.
You might be interested to know that just yesterday there are 127 countries in the world
that were Live Streaming this conference, just yesterday. There were 25 thousand different
points at which the conference was being Streamed Live, and we don't know how many people were
at each of those points.
Amazing time to be alive, isn't it? Amazing...amazing time. At some time in history in the past,
you could take hundreds of years to spread truth that far. Not too many years ago it
would take maybe a few years, or maybe months or weeks but simultaneously, really amazing.
So thank you to all of the speakers, we...the good news is, everything we said has gone
around the world. That's a serious, serious responsibility for us, but these men discharge
their responsibility with nobility as servants of the Lord. And what was said needed to be
said, and was said the way it should have been said, and we're thrilled with that.
I'm also very grateful that you have the book in your hand or somewhere because it's very
important that these things be written down. As I said in the Q&A today, when God wanted
to communicate, He wrote a book. He didn't make a video. Wrote a book because that freezes
the truth, that holds it in place. And you need to take that book and when you read through
the book, you're going to refresh the learning experience you've been having here. You're
going to be the force of experts to carry this message to the ends of the earth where
the Lord lets you go. We have people here in this auditorium from at least 30 nations
of the world, and all across our country in North America, and you're going to be a force
to carry this truth. You're going to be aided and helped by the book which is carefully
written and carefully footnoted and documented and I want you to read it very carefully.
I believe the case that we have made this week can withstand the most intense scrutiny
and I would eagerly invite any who have heard what has been said and find it hard to believe
to take a Bible and take the book and measure carefully the arguments against the Word of
God. We invite that scrutiny.
This conference is first and foremost to help the church. I don't have any illusions about
non-believers understanding what we're talking about. And as we've said, there are many non-believers
in this movement. I don't expect them to understand the truth. I don't expect them to have a desire
for the truth, a hunger for the truth, or to search out the truth. That's not what unbelievers
do unless they're in the midst of being prompted by the Holy Spirit.
But we do want to help the church. We've been speaking to the people who believe the Bible
is the Word of God and who believe that God has revealed Himself clearly and consistently
and without contradiction. This is for the true church...the true church, so that they
can discern, so that they can be protected from error and so that they can be a source
of truth for others outside the church. We've been talking to God's people, God's true church
in the mixed kingdom, full of wheat and tares.
In response to this conference, over the last number of hours and last couple of days, there
have been some attacks back. And we've been really unable to escape them because, as you
know, they show up on the Internet and some of you probably have become aware of them.
And I just want to address those, I just want to talk to you from my heart a little bit
tonight, and Steve Lawson earlier asked me how I felt about what I was going to say and
I said, "That's hard to answer since I have no idea what I'm going to say." But I am going
to say what's on my heart. And I do think it's important to answer the criticisms that
have come. And I want to do that by just kind of labeling them of the Word and then giving
you a brief answer.
The first thing that became obvious that we were being accused of being unloving. Unloving.
But I would suggest to you that the most loving thing anybody could ever do would be to tell
someone the truth. (Applause) That is how love acts. It is unloving to leave people
in darkness and error. We speak the truth in love and it's not just talking about the
attitude or the tone of voice in which we speak it. To speak the truth in itself is
an act of love to deliver people from error.
In Acts 20, you remember, Paul met with the Ephesian elders and he said to them, "I have
not ceased for the space of three years to warn you with tears." Knowing that both from
the outside and the inside, perverse, deceptive men will rise up to lead you astray. In fact,
to be a pastor, an elder in the church, you have the duty according to Titus 1 the qualifications
of the pastor, of being able to point out error and to give biblical arguments against
it. This is how you care for the sheep. This is how you protect them.
We have also been accused of being divisive. I would agree with that. Truth by its very
nature is divisive. That's why Jesus said, "I came to bring a sword, to divide people,
divide families.: Truth by very nature is separated by error and it is far more important
to be divided by the truth than united by error. I understand that truth is divisive.
I remember years ago when I wrote the book The Gospel According To Jesus, a leading evangelical
preacher that you would all know, took me to lunch and said, "You have divided the body
of Christ." And I said, "May I ask you a question?" He said yes. I said, "Is what I wrote true?
Is it true?" That's the only question I have. Of course the truth divides. It immediately
separates error and reality.
A third criticism has come and I read about this one today, that the issue is not clear
in the Bible and that a conference like this and disagreement with us from some well-known
folks and some even well-known Bible scholars, demonstrates that the Scripture is not clear
on this issue. And I would like to say in response to that, that if the issue is unclear
as some are claiming, it has only become unclear under the influence of false teachers. It
was clear to the Apostles. It was clear to the early church fathers, and you'll read
quotes from them in the back of the book. It was clear to the Reformers. We learned
that. It was clear to the Puritans. It is clearly delineated in creeds like the Westminster
Confession. It has been clear to erudite, noble, Reformed theologians who have been
quoted, like B.B. Warfield. It was clear to Spurgeon. It was clear in a more modern area
to Jim Boice, it was clear to R.C. Sproul. Has it now become unclear because of Aimee
Semple McPherson, Kathryn Kuhlman, Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Bakker, Kenneth Copeland? That's a ludicrous
idea. In the true and historic stream of sound doctrine, this issue has always been crystal
clear.
Another accusation has been that we are talking about something that is only true of the extreme,
lunatic, fringe of the movement. That is patently not true. There is error in this movement
that sweeps through the entire movement. As we heard today in the Q&A, ninety percent
of the people around the world connected to the Charismatic Movement take ownership of
the Prosperity gospel. Twenty-four or twenty-five million of them deny the Trinity. A hundred
million of them are Roman Catholics. As Nathan said, "Do the math." This is not some fringe.
This is the movement. And it is growing at a rapid rate.
Others have said you're attacking the movement that has given us such rich worship. That
this music that has come from the Charismatic Movement is enriching the worship of the church.
Well, I would beg to differ with that. I'm convinced that the contemporary style of Charismatic
music is the entry point for Charismatic theology into churches. If you buy the music, the theology
follows because all of a sudden you're singing the same songs, you're listening to the same
artists, you're experiencing the same emotions, experiencing the same feelings. Church may
be a non-Charismatic church but all the music, the style is exactly the same as in a Charismatic
church, that's the entry point.
Show me a church that has a strong doctrinal statement, strong doctrinal statement, historic
doctrinal statement and I'll show you a church reluctant to embrace even the music. Show
me a church that loves great hymns, great theology put to music, I'll show you a church
that's reluctant to embrace the music of the Charismatic Movement. And because the music
doesn't come in, the theology doesn't either. That's the seductive entry point. I'm not
talking about specific things because there is contemporary music that's beautiful and
we should and we can sing that. But when it is uncritical and when it is music that is
not about the mind, but is about the flesh, when it's not about truth understood, but
it's about emotion felt, it induces the same kind of feelings that are consistent with
the Charismatic Movement and opens the door.
If we're all singing the same music, then how can we divide each other? I think that
the Charismatic Movement has significantly diminished worship. It has taken it out of
the area of truth, out of the mind and reduced it to feelings of the flesh.
There are others who criticize by saying, and this came pretty early in this conference,
you're attacking brothers...you're attacking brothers. I wish I could affirm that. We said
this one way or another already this week, this is a movement made up largely of non-Christians...non-Christians.
A few years ago I was doing an interview with NBC and there was a huge scandal in the evangelical
world and this reporter on NBC television here was talking to me and he said, "Why do
you let this stuff happen? Who...this is his question...who polices your movement? Who
polices your movement?" He couldn't process the fact that evangelicalism was this free-for-all
that didn't have to answer to any authority, or any centrality?
And I said, "Well, really nobody polices the movement. And that's sad. Who should police
the movement? I'll tell you who should police the movement. Every faithful pastor, and every
faithful elder, and every faithful theologian, every faithful preacher and teacher of the
Word of God. And I will say this. If Reformed leaders who know the truth and know the gospel
and know the Word of God don't police this movement, the spiritual terrorists will dominate.
It's like Islam. We keep hearing, "Wow, the terrorists, they're just a small minority
on the lunatic fringe." And we all keep saying, "Why then don't conservative Muslims come
together openly in mass and reject the terrorists?" They don't. I think there's a heavy burden
that weighs on the back of all men who know the Word of God to rise up and denounce this
movement. But you don't hear that.
So people say, "Ah MacArthur, he's fixated on this, he's a one-trick pony, he's a one-ring
circus, he's always haranguing about the Charismatics.
Well if you're a part of Grace Church, you'd know better than that. We've spent over 40
years going verse-by-verse through the New Testament. I don't think we're fixed on one
thing. I came here in 1969 and since 1969 we've had one conference on the Charismatic
Movement, and this is it, and it's come too late, really, it's come too late. We lanced
a wound that should have been lanced long ago. But we've tried to exercise patience.
I'm not fixated on this. And by the way, they were accusing me of that yesterday when we
were only two days. Two days out of 45 years...there are other issues who have occupied us, like
the exaltation of Jesus Christ, and every other thing in the Word of God.
And then we have been accused of offending people and hurting their feelings. I don't
want to purposely do that. I was introduced by a Charismatic leader once at a book sellers
convention who introduced me as, "This is my friend, John MacArthur, who is much nicer
in person than he is in his sermons." I hope that's always true. I hope that I hold the
truth with kindness. I hope I hold the truth with love. But when I open the Word of God,
it must speak. And to be honest with you, I do care about the feelings of people. I
do care about offending them. But not nearly as much as I care about offending God. (Applause)
This is an alien movement. It is an alien movement. I don't want to get into all the
history of that, but I've been thinking about this a lot lately. There is a stream of sound
teaching, sound doctrine, sound theology that runs all the way back to the Apostles. It
runs through Athanasius and Augustine, and it runs through Luther and Calvin, and it
runs through the great Reformation and the Reformers, and it runs through, as we were
hearing last night, the Puritans and everything seemed to clear to them. It runs through the
Westminster Divines and runs through the pathway of Charles Spurgeon and David Martyn Lloyd-Jones
and it keeps running and it runs through people like S. Lewis Johnson, and Jim Boice and names
that we've used and it runs down through today to the R.C. Sprouls and others, and that's
the stream of sound doctrine. The heroes of this generation of people in that stream,
we know who they are. You've been hearing about them this week. Our hearers run back
down through that same stream. We go back to the John Rogers, we go back to the 288
Marion martyrs, we go back to Foxes Book of Martyrs, and we shed tears on the pages of
that book when we see what was done to the people who carried the truth to the next generation
at such a great price.
We have a deep and abiding love for a person like William Tyndale for what he has done.
Those are our heroes. But you have to understand, this other stream of evangelicalism goes back
about to 1966...1966, When the hippies came out of San Francisco, showed up in Orange
County, joined Calvary Chapel and we had the launch of an informal, barefoot beach drug-induced
kind of young people that told the church how the church should happen, how it should
act. Hymns went out. Suits went out. For the first time in the history of the church, the
conduct of the church was conformed to a sub-culture that was born in LSD and Marijuana in San
Francisco, migrated to Southern California. It's a completely different stream. That launches
the informal culturally driven, culturally defined, give them what they want, kind of
church that ends up in the seeker-friendly church, takes a branch in the Vineyard and
the Vineyard leads to the excesses of the contemporary Charismatic Movement. That's
a completely different stream. That's not our stream. Those aren't our heroes.
I don't go back to Lonnie Frisbee who led the Jesus Movement and died of AIDS as a homosexual,
I don't go back there. That's not my stream. But that's the stream that has produced the
culturally bound, culturally driven, seeker-driven church movement. And while there are good
and bad and better and best, and worst elements of it, that's where it comes from. We're very
different...very different. Our heroes are very different. We know who our people are
and if you say you're on this side and you are on this side, then you have a responsibility
to be faithful to this marvelous history. If anybody is going to police this movement,
it has to be the people here.
This concerns me so much that if you haven't seen it already, I wrote a twelfth chapter
in the book, don't open the book, I want you to read the book. But in the opening chapter,
the title of the chapter is An Open Letter To My Continuationist Friends; An Open Letter
To My Continuationist Friends. Who are my continuationist friends? People who are my
friends, real friends of mine whom I respect, who have made great contributions to the church,
the body of Christ, who've taught all of us, who've taught me, who've ministered alongside
me, hand-in-hand with me, with whom I've prayed, sometimes for hours and hours, with whom I've
spoken and talked, hammered out convictions. But they call themselves continuationists
because they want to give place to the Charismatic Movement.
I want to suggest that they're not helping...they're not helping. We need them to help police the
movement. And in that final chapter, Open Letter To My Continuationist Friends, I give
eight important statements as to why they must help us.
Number one, the continuationists position gives an illusion of legitimacy to the broader
Charismatic Movement. If you say I'm a continuationist, you've just given credence to that movement.
You may want to contain that a little bit. You may want to control that. But when theologically
respected, conservative continuationists who represent a very small minority in the Charismatic
Movement, when they give any credibility to the movement, the whole movement gets respect
because of who they are.
And then you have this young generation of young, restless, Reformed, young people coming
along and attaching to their heroes who are open to this Charismatic Movement and affirming
the continuation of the signed gifts, and so they follow their heroes. And either embrace
that idea of continuation, or are open to that idea which is essentially one and the
same.
When notable continuationists, scholars give credence to Charismatic interpretations, or
fail to directly condemn unbiblical Charismatic practices, they provide theological cover
for a movement that is deadly dangerous.
Secondly, the continuationists position degrades the miraculous nature of the true gifts that
God bestowed upon the first century church. And we're summing up with these statements
what you heard this week. The second point again, continuationists position degrades
the miraculous nature of the true gifts that God bestowed upon the first century church.
We know God was giving revelation during the time of Christ and the Apostles. And the gifts,
signs and miracles were to validate those who were proclaiming and writing that revelation.
Hebrews 2:3, "The gospel at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed
to us by those who heard Him. God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders and various
miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His will.
Now listen, that text is meaningless...meaningless if the signs and wonders and miracles and
tongues and prophecy and healing belong to everybody and everybody's experience today.
It's meaningless. It isn't any sign of anything.
Furthermore, when continuationists use the terminology of the New Testament gifts, but
then define them to mean something else, they depreciate the remarkable character of the
real thing. They diminish the glorious way in which the Holy Spirit worked in the foundation
of the church. If the gifts practiced in Charismatic Churches today are equivalent to the gifts
described in the New Testament, then those original gifts were nothing special and so
the era was nothing special. Hi-jacking New Testament terminology and redefining biblical
gifts essentially degrades what was genuinely miraculous and what God was doing in the first
century. Reformed continuationism aids this misrepresentation.
Thirdly, the continuationists position severely limits the ability of its advocates to confront
others who fall into Charismatic confusion. What are they going to say to people who plunge
into chaos and confusion? In the book, you're going to read some of THE most bizarre things
that have been basically proffered as spiritual experiences by some of the very most well-known
Charismatics, one of whom was even here today. You're going to read about the bizarre kind
of things that should be wholesale denounced. And we keep waiting for the denunciation to
come from the continuationists you would think would know better.
But it doesn't come. They have given up the high ground and they can't speak because they
allow for it. So by what criteria do they then discredit the claims?
Number four, by insisting that God is still giving new revelation to Christians today,
the Continuationists Movement opens the gates to further confusion and error. I mean, this
is just another way of saying what we're saying. They say there's prophecy today but it can
be wrong. There's tongues today, but it's not languages. There's healing today but it's
not like the healings in the time of Christ and the Apostles. The Continuationists position
then invites any Christian to interpret anything as from God. Any kind of gibberish, any kind
of supposed spiritual experience, or impression, or notion, or idea that floats into the head
can be considered prophecy. It removes the authoritative, objective standard for questioning
the legitimacy of anybody's claim to revelation.
Continuationists by allowing for any of it, end up allowing for all of it because they
don't have any criteria to decide what is and what isn't accurate. The very idea that
Christians should expect extra-revelation, extra-biblical revelation from God, mystical
experiences, words of prophecy just creates a theological train wreck. When you get beyond
the Word of God, you can't contain the error.
Number five, by insisting that God is still giving new revelation to Christians today,
the Continuationists Movement tacitly denies the doctrine of sola scriptura. I don't need
to camp on that because Steve made an unforgettable case for that last night. And I'll tell you
this, no...none of my friends, none of my Reformed Continuationist friends would deny
the closing of the canon. They wouldn't deny that. They certainly wouldn't deny there are
66 books in the Bible. They wouldn't deny the authority of Scripture. They wouldn't
deny the sufficiency of Scripture. Yet they default on the very thing they deny because
they teach believers to expect extra-revelation. There's so many ways that can be abused. And
I'll tell you who abuses it most, people in positions of power who want you to think they
speak for God.
Number six, by allowing for irrational tongues speaking even as a private prayer language,
continuationists open the door to a mindless ecstasy of Charismatic expression. They will
admit that tongues is not a language today, so what is it? It's this simple. If the prophecy
today isn't like the biblical prophecy because today's prophecy is fallible, if the tongues
isn't like the biblical tongues because it's gibberish and not a language, if the healings
aren't like the healings of Christ, they're not continuationists. They're closet cessationists.
(Laughter/applause) They've just said it's not what it was, so what have they done? They've
simply accepted a counterfeit. You can't be proud about that. That's not a noble posture
to accept a counterfeit. And it's a counterfeit by their own admission.
Number seven, by asserting the gift of healing has continued to be present, the continuationists
position affirms the same basic premise that undergirds the fraudulent ministry of Charismatic
faith healers. If you say the gift of healing is still around, and you say it whimsically,
there's no evidence it's around, either experimentally or biblically, but if you say it's still around,
then you have just validated healers. Who would want to do that? Are they not the lowest
of the low? Are they not the worst of the worst? They don't go to hospitals, they prey
on the most desperate, the most severely ill, the most hopeless, the most destitute, very
often the poorest, telling them lies and getting rich. Who would want to do anything to aid
and abet them?
And finally, the continuationists position ultimately dishonors the Holy Spirit by distracting
people from His true ministry, enticing them with counterfeits. Is it not enough to have
the indwelling Spirit in the fullness of the Spirit? Is it not enough to have the gifts
of the Spirit, to have the fruit of the Spirit, to be graced by the Spirit? Is it not enough
to have all the promises of the Spirit? Do I need to come to God and say, Give me more,
give me that other thing? I want that. What kind of deficiency are you accusing the Spirit
of? You have dishonored the Holy Spirit. And you have enticed people toward counterfeits,
rather than heart-felt, all-consuming gratitude for the fullness of all that the Spirit has
given us. And He gives not His Spirit by...what?...by measure. The continuationists position, I
think, sends stumbling blocks into the path of sanctification, spiritual growth. For two
reasons. One, it makes people think they don't have what they need, and two, it makes people
think there's something they need to chase. It's really sad.
A lot more can be said about that, and you're going to read a lot of detail about it in
the book. But I'm convinced that the broader Charismatic Movement has opened the door to
more theological error, listen, more theological error than any other doctrinal aberration
in this modern day. Liberalism was bad. Psychology was bad. Ecumenism was bad. Pragmatism was
bad. Mysticism was bad. Nothing is as bad as Charismaticism cause of its extensive impact.
And once that kind of experientialism gets a foothold, there's no brand of heresy or
wickedness that will not ride it into the church.
So that Charismatic theology then becomes the strange fire of our generation and evangelical
Christians have no business flirting with it at any level. And I think this is the time
for the true church to respond. This is a time for the people who now stand on the shoulders
of the Reformers in every area of their theology to be faithful to Reformation theology to
its full rich intent. If we claim allegiance to the Reformers, then we ought to conduct
ourselves with the same level of courage. Don't call yourself a Charismatic Calvinist.
John Calvin would reject that. John Calvin did reject that. You'll have to drop the Calvinist
part.
I'm concerned because I think these good and godly friends could make a massive difference
in what this young generation and next generation believes about this movement, if they would
take a stand where they need to take a stand.
Now, you might think I'm done, but I'm not. I want you to open your Bible to the last
chapter of 1 Timothy and I'm not going to take a lot of time with this, but there's one other thing I need to say and
it is this, if I did not take this stand and if these other men did not take the stand
they're taking with me, we would be unfaithful to our pastoral calling. This isn't a pet-peeve
of mine, this isn't a personal issue with me, this is a discharge of my duty as a pastor
and I will be held accountable before God for the discharge of this responsibility.
As Paul winds down his life as Conrad was saying to us earlier, he writes to Timothy.
He's passing the baton, he's passing the mantle, he reminds Timothy in 1 Timothy 6 that it's
been a fight, it's been a fight, a good fight, he calls it, faith. Been a battle. And then
he tells Timothy in verse 20 of chapter 6, "O Timothy, O Timothy, guard what has been
entrusted to you." What's he talking about? What do you mean what's been entrusted to
you?
Literally, guard the treasure. What's the treasure? Divine revelation. "Guard what has
been deposited into your mind, divine truth and avoid worldly and empty chatter and the
opposing arguments of what is falsely called knowledge which some have professed and thus
gone astray from the faith." That's a final signoff in the first epistle that he writes
to Timothy as he passes the baton. The last word "guard the treasure of the truth, avoid
the worldly, empty chatter, the arguments of false knowledge which some have professed
and gone astray from the faith. This is a...this is a foundational responsibility of the man
of God, is to be a guardian of the treasure, to protect the treasure in his time and to
pass it on for subsequent times.
Paul's very concerned about Timothy. So after writing to Titus which is the next to the
last Pauline letter, he writes a final letter to Timothy, that's 2 Timothy, look at it.
A final letter. He's very concerned about Timothy, very concerned. Verse 6 he says,
"Kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands." He
was ordained into the ministry for the preaching of the Word of God. And he had allowed that
to fall into disuse. He was intimidated by people in the church who were giving him difficulty.
He was intimidated by the threat of persecution outside the church, the intimidation from
within, the intimidation from without was pushing him into silence. This was cowardice.
In verse 7 God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power and love and discipline.
This is scary time for Paul because the baton will be passed to Timothy, and Timothy is
looking weak.
"Don't be ashamed of the truth," is what he's saying in verse 6. "Don't be ashamed and preach
and proclaim the truth through the gift that is yours and was confirmed by the laying on
of the hands of the elders. Don't be a coward. In verse 8, "Don't be ashamed of the testimony
of our Lord." Are you kidding? You mean Timothy after all those years with Paul, after seeing
all the triumph of Paul's ministry could be caving in and becoming ashamed of the testimony
of the Lord and ashamed of being identified with Paul. Apparently this is a fearful time,
I think, in Paul's life and he's fearful for Timothy.
How serious is it? Verse 15, "Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me
in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. Guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells
in us the treasure which has been entrusted to you." I get it today. There are all kinds
of people whose stock in trade is their communication ability. They're cool, glib, clever, captivating
audiences, but the instruction from Paul to Timothy is about retaining sound words and
guarding the truth as a treasure. Ministry is a guardianship. We not only proclaim the
truth, we protect the truth. Paul's heart is really broken at the end of his life. He
says to Timothy in verse 15, "You're aware of the fact that all who are in Asia turned
away from me, including Phygellus and Hermogenes." Everybody had abandoned him, he was alone.
Just amazing. Except for the house of Onesiphorus who often refreshed me and wasn't ashamed
of my chains.
Everybody had abandoned Paul. The price was too high. Paul is at the end of his life,
"Please, Timothy, I've given you the treasure, guard the treasure, retain sound words." Chapter
2, he carries on the same cry. "Be strong in the grace that is Christ Jesus. The things
you've heard from me, this is the treasure, revealed truth that came through the Apostle
Paul, you heard it in the presence of many witnesses. Entrust to faithful men who will
be able to teach others also." There's four generations: Paul to Timothy to faithful men
to others also. You're in the relay
Now it grieves me all the time to see these sort of quasi-churches that pop up that identify
themselves as being isolated from anything in the past. This is not your grandfather's
church, this is not your grandmother's church, we don't have an organ, come as you will...anything
to create some kind of image that is completely isolated from anybody's experience of a church.
Paul says, "I gave you the truth, you give it to the next generation so they can give
it to the next. It's all about being faithful to retain what has been handed to you. Not
about creativity.
Then he says, "Suffer hardship like a good soldier of Christ. Don't entangle yourself
in the affairs of everyday life. Complete like an athlete." He just goes through all
of those pictures, the athlete, the farmer, the soldier, the teacher. Verse 9, after saying,
"Remember Jesus Christ, He's your model of faithfulness." I suffered hardship even to
imprisonment, but the Word of God is not imprisoned.
This is the ultimate, ultimate word for any young minister. From the Apostle who is about
to put his head on a block, an axe head will flash in the sun and severed from his body
and he'll be with the Lord, and the next generation is going to be in the hands of Timothy.
I think about that when I look at the character and the style of many of these men who are
pastors. What will the next generation be like if what they receive is in their hands?
What must Timothy do? Verse 14, "Remind them of these things and solemnly charge them in
the presence of God not to wrangle about words which is useless and leads to the ruin of
the hearers. But be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who doesn't need
to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth." There it is. Retain sound doctrine,
guard the treasure, handle the truth accurately. That's the mandate.
Avoid again, avoid worldly empty chatter, it just leads to further ungodliness and that
kind of talk spreads like gangrene, it does great damage. Leads people away from the truth.
Then in verse 20, as we just kind of move through here, in a large house there are only
not only gold and silver vessels but vessels of wood and earthenware, some to honor and
some to dishonor. Can I be a little bit crude for a minute? Every house in ancient times
had these kind of vessels. Didn't have the advantage of plumbing to bring the water in,
or take the waste out. So they had vessels of gold and silver. Vessels of gold and silver
were for honorable things, put the food on it, you serve the food on it. Vessels of wood
and earthenware were for dishonorable things. Took out the garbage, you took out the waste.
What do you want to be? You want to be a privy pot, as it was called? Or do you want to be
a golden platter? If someone cleanses himself from these...what? What do you mean these?...the
influence of empty worldly chatter that leads to ungodliness and talk that spreads like
gangrene. If you cleanse yourself from the influence of unbiblical things, you will be
a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the master, prepared for every good work.
Flee from youthful *** and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace with those who call
on the Lord from a pure heart, refuse foolish and ignorant speculations, knowing they produce
quarrels.
I mean, all of this goes down the same path, doesn't it? The same path. And we heard from
Conrad to ably today, stick with the Scripture, down in chapter 3 verse 15, "They're able
to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable
for teaching, reproof, correction, training in righteousness, so the man of God may be
adequate, equipped for every good work. And remember that everything you do is in the
presence of God in Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead and by His appearing
in His Kingdom...and then the command...preach the Word all the time, even in a time when
they will not endure sound doctrine but wanting to have their ears tickled will accumulate
for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires."
I mean, do you get the tone of all of this? You know, from the time that I was a young
man, when my father gave me the first Bible I began to preach out of, he wrote in the
front of it, "Dear Johnny: Preach the Word." And he passed the mantle to me. Preach the
Word. Preach the Word.
It didn't take me long to find out that the command to preach the Word had a context and
that context we just looked at. And that I had an accountability to God to be faithful
to the Word. And what that meant was faithfulness to sound doctrine, to guard the treasure that
had been trusted to me.
Paul closes out his life, really, by reminding Timothy again, "I fought the good fight."
There he says it again, it's been a fight, finish the course, kept the faith, the faith,
the body of truth that constitutes the Christian faith. And I'm going to go on to my reward.
It hasn't been easy for him, all who are in Asia forsake him. Verse 10, "Demas having
loved this present world has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica, Crescens has gone to
Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia, only Luke is with me." Imagine, everything that he had done
and he's all alone and he's lonely and it's only Luke and he asks for Mark to come for
fellowship. And for a coat and for some parchments.
At his first defense, verse 16, "No one supported me," he said. "But everybody deserted me.
May it not be counted against them, but the Lord stood with me and strengthened me so
that through me the proclamation might be fully accomplished and that all the Gentiles
might hear and I was rescued out of the lion's mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every
evil deed, bring me safely to His heavenly Kingdom. To Him be the glory forever and ever
Amen."
It's going to be like that. You know, I'm surrounded by wonderful people. I'm so blessed.
I...I can't say with Paul, "Everyone has forsaken me." I'm blessed. Not everyone has forsaken
me. But I think any of us who takes stands on issues like this know what it is to be
vilified and falsely accused and attacked and assaulted. And at the end of the day,
we just say, "The Lord strengthen me." You're going to have to do that. You may find yourself
isolated in a situation trying to take a stand on this issue. The Lord wills strengthen you
and He will reward you for your faithfulness.
What a heartfelt letter to Timothy. If you wonder how Timothy responded, the answer to
that comes at the end of Hebrews when the writer of Hebrews writes this, verse 23, Hebrews
13. "Take notice that our brother, Timothy, has been released." From where? Prison. Timothy
was in prison, he was released. Timothy had let his gift go silent to avoid that. He was
a coward when Paul wrote. This was what he was trying to make sure didn't happen. He
got that letter, I think it gripped his heart. I think he became bold and he went to prison.
But he was released. Just a small word, I'm glad it's there. I'm so glad it's there. Paul's
letter changed the course of Timothy's life. And may it do the same for you, for all of
us, may we guard the treasure, retain sound words, study to show ourselves approved unto
God, workmen needing not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word and then having rightly
divided the Word, may we preach the Word faithfully. And if no one stands with us, so be it. The
Lord will not forsake us.
Father, we thank You for our time together in these days. It has been beyond a blessing,
we feel like we have been to the mountain. We've come close to the glory and it should
be our feeling, should be our attitude, because we have, because we've been intently focused
on You and Your Word, and that is where the glory resides. For it is in Your Word that
You are revealed as the all-glorious one. Thank you for the fellowship we've enjoyed,
thank You for the fresh new friendships we've made. And, Lord, we've endeavored to offer
You an offering of service in this conference, to lift up before You our minds and hearts
to be prepared for a new level of service, a new level of usefulness to You who in our
own small way, individual by individual stem the tide that brings dishonor to You. God,
our Father, Christ our Savior, and blessed Holy Spirit our strengthener, our helper.
All of this is for Your glory and Your honor, all of it. And we have offered it humbly,
knowing the best we can give is far short of what You're worthy. All our words, all
our thoughts, all our insights, all our efforts whether speakers or listeners, all that we
have brought to this, we have done to give You glory. May it be only the beginning, only
the start of lives that are committed to this for Your glory. May we feel the pain when
You were dishonored. And may You use us, Lord, as instruments to *** brans from the burning
and to help believers to escape unnecessary deception. We offer this week up to You as
the truth reverberates from this place around the world, take it where You will, use it
as You desire and that's all we can ask and we rejoice and rest in what You do with what
we have placed on the altar. Be glorified, O Lord, we pray. Amen.