2 Timothy 3:10-17 Classic Examples of True Christian Faith

The speaker talks about watching basketball and discusses his grandson's analysis of the teams. He then transitions to discussing the book of Second Timothy and the characteristics of false teachers. He mentions Janus and Jambres as examples of false teachers and warns Timothy of the presence of false teachers in their time and in the present day. He then mentions that Paul will discuss the positive characteristics of a Christian teacher. The speaker highlights the importance of preaching sound doctrine and lists several characteristics that a Christian teacher should possess. The speaker also mentions Timothy's background and the influence of his grandmother and mother in his life. Good morning, how are y'all doing today? Yes, we watched basketball yesterday. Barbara had a very important activity she was trying to do. So she was taking a peek from the kitchen table while I was watching some of it and studying for the lesson for today. And we watched Duke, yes, we watched Duke, John, and hang on, they're going to beat you. So just hang on, they're coming, they're coming. And it's interesting, I talked to my grandson in Arkansas and he was actually happy because Arkansas won. And he said, now Pops, who is your dark horse? And every year we talk about a dark horse that goes to the March Madness. And I said, well, this year, because of the team they have, it's Houston. I don't know whether you've looked at Houston or not, but Houston is the number one seed. All of them are great, big, big dudes. And they won last time and they're a pretty hot team. And he said, you know, it's interesting, I had chosen them on my brackets as the number one team this year. And he is finishing a degree in analytics. And I want you to know he has analyzed every one of those teams. I mean, if you want to know anything about any of the March Madness basketball teams, I'll give you his telephone number and he will give you their analysis to 127 decibels. If you, John, if you want to hear about Baylor, he can tell you all about Baylor. So anyway, it's going to be a good week and they're going to be playing again this next week. So you all hang on, there's a lot of basketball in the air. If you like basketball, some people don't like basketball. But if you like basketball, I told Barbara yesterday when I saw a couple of them had a black eye, a bloody nose, and they were run over and had a cut. I said, isn't it wonderful that basketball is a non-contact sport? And I mean, man, they get beat up. They go up in the air and fall down on their back and nothing to catch them with on the way down. I mean, it's a tough, tough place. Today, we're going to try to finish chapter three in the book of Second Timothy. And just to rehearse just a moment, let me help you know where we have come from. Last week, Paul was trying to share with Timothy the characteristics of the false teachers who were in the city of Ephesus and also in Asia Minor, where Timothy was ministering. And he was wanting him to know that these false teachers were all crooks and charlatans. And finally, toward the end of it all, he made a comparison from the Old Testament that you remember. He compared these false teachers, the charlatans, the crooks, the actually the nondwells. He compared them with two magicians out of Egypt in the book of Exodus. And the two magicians were Janus and Jambres. And if you read the book of Exodus about chapter seven, just as Moses is getting ready to have the first miracle, turning water to blood, you remember that Pharaoh had Janus and Jambres, although in the book of Exodus, their names are not mentioned. So you will not find their names in the book of Exodus. All you will find is there were some magicians. But if you want to know who they are, you've got to go to the middle of a Bible that you don't have, and that is the Reims-Douay Bible that has a list of 22 apocryphal books. And in the list of 22 apocryphal books, there are two books, one by Janus and one by Jambres. And so that's why those particular books were never, ever considered to be inspired by God. They simply were intended to be historical documentation, which they are. In fact, there are many, many books in there that are kind of interesting in the apocryphal. I remember as a young child, a Catholic altar boy, I remember reading some of the apocrypha, and I remember reading some of the book from several of them. So they're kind of interesting, but they're history. They're historical. And so Janus and Jambres were magicians, and they too could turn water to blood. They had the way they could do it, and they did up to three miracles with Moses. But when they got to one that they couldn't handle, then Pharaoh knew that they were charlatans, and so he had them killed. That's the way it happened in those days. If you produced, you got to live. If you didn't produce, you got to die. And so Pharaoh killed Jambres and Janus and took them away. But they were the magicians that Paul talks about as a false teacher, as a charlatan, as a crook, as a non-do-well. And he tried to help young Timothy understand that wherever he goes, there will be false teachers. Now, they may have different names. They may be doing different kinds of things. In fact, in our day, as you all and I know very well, we have a lot of false teachers. And we have a lot of people who are not teaching the eternal Word of God. They're teaching as if it were the Word of God, and they may be telling stories about the Word of God, or they may be totally adulterating the Word of God, but they are not teaching the Word of God. And so we have false teachers in our day. We have a Janus and a Jambres all around us, and they're going to be there. And Paul wants Timothy to understand, this is going to happen. And it's going to happen throughout all of the Christian faith. And now, 2100 years later, guess what? It's still happening. And it's not going to change. There are going to be false teachers out there. So get ready. Understand that when you see some of these people telling you all these wonderful things, like some of these teachers, these professors in these liberal colleges are telling you that there was no crucifixion, and that Jesus Christ was not the Son of God, He was just another good prophet, yadda yadda yadda yadda. In the 21st century, all the people who are writing and calling, oh, what is right, wrong, and what is wrong, right? That's all part of this false teaching stuff that's going on, and we see it all around us in riots and in marches and in all kinds of activities. So Paul is saying to young Timothy, just be aware, it's going to be there. So don't be surprised when it comes. Now, in the middle of this chapter, about verse 11, he's getting ready to make a change. In fact, beginning in verse 10, he starts making the change. And the change is going to be toward the end of this chapter. Since he has told Timothy what characteristics to look for in false teachers, it stands to reason that the rabbi, Paul, a rabbinical student who was a magnificent rabbinical teacher, you can understand that if he's going to tell you one side of the story, he's also going to tell you the other side of the story. And so this chapter is divided in half at verse 10, and at verse 10, the apostle Paul starts telling Timothy the positive side of the opposition, or the opposite of false teaching. So what is the opposite of false teaching? Well, beginning in verse 10, the apostle starts talking about that, and he says something to Timothy in 10 that's really kind of interesting. He says, but thou, mark that, would you please? But thou, it's an emphatic word in the Greek, but you, and if someone comes up to you and says to you, you, and that's what Paul is saying to Timothy, you, but you, Timothy, I want you to know, you have carefully followed, and now Paul starts giving Timothy 10 spiritual characteristics of a magnificently wonderful preacher of eternal God. And he's going to give him nine characteristics which Paul himself possesses and which he wants Timothy to possess. And so he's going to start helping him understand, here's what the false teachers look like, now over here I'm going to give you what a Christian teacher looks like. And here are some characteristics of Christian teaching, so he says, but thou, Timothy, you have carefully followed, and then he starts naming them. Now, he names nine things, let me just share them with you. He names doctrine, manner of lifestyle, your purpose, your faithfulness, your long-suffering, and your love, or your charity, perseverance, persecutions, afflictions, those are the nine. And he says now, the Christian teacher, the Christian preacher, he who carries the banner of the Lord Jesus Christ, I want you to know, in front of you are all kinds of roadblocks, many of them are going to be afflictions, and persecutions, and prosecution, and you're going to have all kinds of trouble, and here are the characteristics that will make you prepared and ready for those troubles. I'm going to pick out a couple of them that I want to help you understand about. He starts off by simply saying, but you're going to preach the doctrine that I'm preaching. Now, Timothy was hooked to the hymn with Paul. We'll talk about that toward the end of the book, because toward the end of this chapter, the Apostle Paul goes back and rehearses the history of where Timothy came from. You know, Timothy came from Galatia. Timothy was met by the Apostle Paul and Barnabas on the first missionary journey from Antioch to Galatia, when they went to the twin cities of Iconium and Lystraderbe, in the little nation of Galatia, up on the upper part of Asia Minor. And when they went up there to the little country of Galatia, they met this family, and in this family was this young teenage boy by the name of Timothy. So they met him on the first missionary journey, and Paul's going to talk about that, how that they met him, and that they found out that his grandmother, Lois, was an outstanding Jewish woman, and his mother, Eunice, was an outstanding Jewish woman. Now, when we get to the end of the chapter, I'm going to tell you what that did in the life of young Timothy. Four or five words there do not explain what happened to Timothy, so we'll talk about that when we get there. So let's look at some of these characteristics. Paul said, Timothy, here's what you have to preach. You have to preach doctrine. Now, what is doctrine? Very simple, the gospel. And every part of the intensity and the intent of what the gospel means is doctrine. Everything we believe, everything that is of the truth of God, everything that comes out of the heart of God for his kingdom, for the redemption of the world, knowing that the Old Testament was a book of redemption. Not redemption through itself. You could not be saved by reading the Old Testament. You could be helped, and it was a great blessing, and it was doctrine, but it was not the doctrine unto salvation. You cannot get to salvation unless you get to whom? Jesus Christ. And so the Old Testament, although they were wonderfully breathed, God's free breathed scriptures that God had put in the hands of the Jewish people, although they did not lead to salvation. What they did do was they led you to a path of characteristics that eventually, if you stayed in that path, you would end up in, guess what? Redemption. Eventually, you would come to the place where you would find Jesus Christ. Isn't Jesus Christ all over the Old Testament? I mean, you go and read the book of Isaiah, he was bruised for our iniquities, his chastisement of us all, our peace was upon him, and with his stripes. I mean, who else got crucified that way, folks? And if young Timothy knew the story of the Lord Jesus Christ and his scourging on the cross and his bruising and his striping, would he not immediately relate to Isaiah? You see, the Old Testament was a book unto salvation. And they were breathed, they were God breathed scriptures. And they were very important in the life of all these young children, especially in the life of the Jewish people. We'll talk about that as we get to the end. So doctrine was very important. And so Paul says, Timothy, whenever I have preached doctrinally, you do the same. Now, you know that Paul's doctrine was to save all. His doctrine was that he should preach that all people might come to the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ by faith in him through his redemptive blood at the cross where he gave us his supreme sacrifice and gave us a path from sinfulness into eternal life by redemption. And so the Apostle Paul says, Timothy, this is the doctrine that you're to teach. Not only are you to teach doctrine, I'm going to skip a couple here, but he says also you need to preach long-suffering. Now, the Apostle Paul suffered a great deal, folks. Now, he's going to have four words in here that he's going to talk about, all of which go toward suffering. Persecution, prosecution, perseverance, they're all toward suffering. And the Apostle Paul had a lot of suffering. By the way, on the first missionary journey, do you all recall what happened to the Apostle Paul in the city of Lystra? Hello, this is going to be a test question when you get to heaven. When you get to the pearly gates, St. Peter's going to walk up and say, what happened to Paul at Lystra? And he's going to want you to tell him, he was stoned. Remember, in the first missionary journey, Paul and Barnabas were in the city of Lystra, Derbe. It was a twin city like Fort Worth, Dallas, Minneapolis, St. Paul. There were three cities there, Iconium and Lystra, Derbe. And the three cities were in the heart of Galatia and Timothy and Lois and Eunice and his ungodly Greek father lived in Lystra. And that's where Paul met Timothy the first time. And he asked, surely, when Timothy, later on the second missionary journey, when the Apostle Paul had picked up Silas, and now Barnabas had taken young John and went off on another missionary journey, and Paul and Silas now start the second missionary journey, the first thing they do, they go back to Lystra, Derbe, and lo and behold, here comes Timothy. He's had a year or three to grow up, and he's a young man now, he's a wonderful young man, he has a great grasp of the Scripture. And as we get to the end of the chapter, you'll come to understand how he had such a great grasp of the Scripture. Timothy evidently was a very strong proponent of the Scripture of the eternal God out of the Old Testament. And he probably knew a great deal of it, but he got it somewhere, and we'll find out where he got it. So Paul said, but surely he must have known that Paul suffered, and if he was going to be hooked at the hip with the Apostle Paul, then his life would have suffering as well, right? And so Paul is saying, and surely, when Timothy joined the party on the second missionary journey, he remembered that Paul had been stoned in Lystra, and he remembered that Paul had gone through a lot of persecution, and Paul had gone through a lot of suffering, and Paul had suffered a great deal, he knew that suffering was coming, and yet he stayed hooked to his hip. Isn't it wonderful? That when trials come that you cannot overcome, you stay hooked to the hip. Amen? And blessed be the name of the Lord, you stay hooked to the hip. And that's what Timothy did, so he understood his suffering. I'm going to jump to a couple of others. Now, you know charity, love. Now Paul always used the word charity. In my copy of the Scripture it says love, same thing. 1 Corinthians 13, 13. But now there are minus these three. Faith, hope, love. Charity, he called it, in 13, 13 of Corinthians. But the greatest of these is love. And so we don't need to talk with Paul. You understand how Timothy was hip to the charity thing. But now, he goes to this next word after he says charity, and he says perseverance. Now, that word means, it actually is a picture word. Many, many words in Greek are picture words. In fact, when you say the word, if you study Greek, when you say the word, you don't see the word, you see the picture. Let me give you an illustration. Lombano, which is just a Greek word. Lombano. Lombano. It's a good Greek word that means to throw. Simply to throw. Lombano. It means to take something and to throw it. In fact, it is a Greek picture of a daddy sitting on the floor with a toddler and a little ball. Have you done that? And what does the little toddler say to you? Papa, throw it to me. Throw it to me. And you toss it to him, and he hits you in the face with it, or he throws it back. And you toss it to him, he throws it at you again. Now, that's the same thing that that word Lombano means. It means to throw. Now, this word Lombano happens to be in the scripture where it talks about Satan trying to throw Jesus down. And the word that's used in that particular scripture where it says, and Satan tried to throw him down for three counts, and he couldn't do it. And that word Lombano, to throw, is right there. Now, perseverance means to be ready to be thrown down. And to be ready to bear up under. And that's the other picture of this word. It's like you have a heavy load on your shoulder, and you're bearing up under it, and you're going to continue to carry it until the end of the process when you no longer need to carry it. And so the Apostle Paul is saying to Timothy, Timothy, you've got to be ready to be thrown down. Timothy, you've got to be ready to bear up under. You've got to stay up under the log, son. And Timothy was hooked at the hip. And he wasn't about to change. And then there's another one he's on. It is in him. Persecution. What is persecution? Well, we understand persecution. We know that it means that there are a lot of things that come into the lives of Christian people. And that which comes into the lives of Christian people, actually, oftentimes, is persecution. There are many kinds of persecution. Paul suffered physical persecution. Paul suffered psychological persecution. Paul suffered emotional persecution. There are many, many ways that you can be persecuted rather than just physically. And so he's saying to Timothy, Timothy, I want you to understand this persecution simply means that I am constantly with a target on my back. I am actually continually under surveillance. They're watching me. Timothy, they're hounding me. I have to be ready for that kind of persecution. They're warning me. Anytime they can get close to me, they want to grab me. They've already tried to put me in prison several times. They've already tried to kill me two or three times. I've been stoned several times. I've been in shipwreck. Timothy, I want you to know, you've got to be under perseverance. You've got to be able to persevere under what's going to be happening to you. And he says, you need to be ready, son, because it's going to be coming. And Timothy was. And then finally he says to him, but also in afflictions. Now, there's no telling how many scars the Apostle Paul will have on his body. There's just no telling. Maybe someday in heaven, I want him to show me. He took his body home to heaven. Paul took a glorified body home to heaven. And one of these days when I get there, I'm going to say, Paul, would you show me how your body was afflicted? And I'm sure all of his body. Because one time he was beaten 39 stripes in a little city up on the Asia Mountain coast, Philippi, before they put him in prison where he was chained to the floor in the city of Philippi. Other occasions, he was in Jerusalem with some Macedonian Christians, some Macedonian Jews who had become Christians. And he was going to take them to the temple on Pentecost. That's why he had gone back to Jerusalem, was to be there for Pentecost. And when he started to take them through the gate, they had on Macedonian clothes. And if you're a Macedonian, you couldn't go in there. You're not supposed to pass that gate because there's a sign on the temple gate that says, anyone who crosses this gate who is not Jew will be killed. I've seen that sign in Istanbul. That sign is in St. Sophia, a museum in the city of Istanbul. That sign that used to be on the temple. Anyone who crosses this barrier who is not Jew will be killed. And Paul takes these two guys through there who happen to be Jewish Macedonians. But they didn't know that. All they could see was their Macedonian clothes. And so the Jews rushed around and they were to grab Paul. They took Paul to the Roman Empire there at the Praetorium in Jerusalem next door to the temple. And he said, this man has caused a riot. He needs to be punished. Remember what they did? The captain stripped him to the waist, tied him over a big old rock, and got ready to give him 39 swipes. And just as he started to whip him, Paul said, is it right to whip a Roman citizen? You remember? And the captain said, are you a Roman? And Paul said, I was born a Roman. The captain said, I bought my Roman ship. And he backed off and he said, okay guys, we can't beat this man. But that was one occasion when he got out of the beating. But he had a lot of affliction. He was afflicted, he was persecuted, he was hounded, he was under surveillance, he was constantly being looked toward. And the Apostle Paul, through it all, kept strong faith in eternal Jesus Christ. And so he comes to Timothy in verse 11 and he says, which happened to me at Antioch. Now, he's referring to his afflictions. So you go up and you look at the word affliction and then you come down to the middle of this verse and he starts telling about one of the times when he was afflicted. Now, surely Timothy knew that. Because Timothy was in Lister when he was stoned. And Timothy knew that he had had many, many different kinds of afflictions, beatings and shipwrecks and all kinds of stuff. And yet Paul is going to come back and say, Timothy, I want you to know, my afflictions were like this, you see, which happened to me at Antioch, at Pisidia, not Antioch on the coast, but Antioch and Pisidia. And then he comes on and says, and also at Iconium and Lystra. And that's where Timothy was from. Timothy's home was Lystra. So Timothy would relate to what Paul was talking about here. He said, one of my major afflictions was in Lystra. They didn't kill me. They stoned me in Lystra. They stoned me and left me for dead. And they thought that I was gone, expired. And they walked away and left me, and the Christian people in Lystra came out and got me and brought me in and got me back to health again. But I was stoned. They thought I was dead. In Lystra, what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord delivered me. Now, that's where Paul's going with Timothy. He's saying, Timothy, son, if you work for the Lord in his kingdom, you're going to suffer. Many, many people suffer. Many, many people die. Many, many people are hounded. Many, many people are under surveillance. Many, many people have targets on their backs. And many Christian people today, as we sit here, are dying for the kingdom of God. I never get up that I don't think Some wonderful Christian brother or sister has died today for the cause of Christ. Somewhere in this world, some mission field, somewhere, someone's been put to death because they love Christ. Ladies and gentlemen, are you hooked to the waist of Jesus Christ? And are we ready for that kind of persecution? But the Apostle Paul says, it happened to me, Timothy, at your hometown, where they stole me and left me for dead. He said, yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ will suffer persecution, Timothy. So, my son, don't be surprised. Since you and I are walking on the same path, and you and I are trying to fill out and to fulfill everything that Christ wants us to do in our life. I want you to know, son, you're going to suffer persecution as well. And so, since he's just talking about persecution, now he's going to start talking about He says, but, you know I just got through telling you about these false teachers? He's going to refer back to them. Look what he says. But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. Boy, is that ever true in the 21st century? Is that ever true in the 21st century? How many people are evil? How many people are impostors? And it looks like, instead of getting better, it's just getting worse. Somebody said, cheer up, it could get worse. He said, I did. I did, and it did. I did cheer up, and it did get worse. Sometimes you just have to say, cheer up, it could be worse. And when you cheer up, it probably is. So, just hang on to it. Paul said, I want you to know, it's coming. Now, why was he telling Timothy this? Not simply for Timothy's sake. Again, when this letter was read to the church in Ephesus, the letter then was passed on to all the other churches. So this was not a letter just to the Ephesians. This was a letter to all of the saints in Asia Minor. This letter was probably read in all seven of the apocalyptic churches. This letter was probably read in Cork. This letter was probably read in Rome. And so when Paul was writing these letters, he wasn't writing strictly to a church per se. He was writing to that church for their information now, and pass it on. And these letters were read in all of the churches. So Paul is able to say to all of the churches, get prepared, understand, persecution is on the way, suffering is on the way, you must be ready to suffer for the cause of Christ. If you're going to live for Him, you must be ready to suffer and die for Him. And so that's what he's saying to young Timothy. That's what he's saying to the churches. But as for you, I love that he says that. He gets through the evil guys, and he looks at Timothy again, and he says, but as for you, Timothy, you continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, for knowing from whom you have learned them. Okay. Now he's going to go back to Timothy's boyhood. Because he says in the next verse, from your childhood, you have known the holy scriptures. Not only have you known the holy scriptures, but since your childhood, you have known the holy scriptures which have been able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. Now, pause. The gospels did not show up in the first century until sometime around in the 70s. So Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Well, John didn't show up until the 90s. The gospel of John was 90, 91, 94. The other Matthew, Mark, and Luke showed up around 70 AD, 72, 73. This is 68. This is 67 or 68. The gospels have not been written. Oh, there are parts of them. Little snippets, maybe some letter-like things of the gospels. Yeah, they've read about Jesus Christ. They've had little lectures about Jesus Christ. They have read about his ministry on earth. They've read about his crucifixion and his resurrection. They have read parts of the gospel, but not like you. You have the whole thing. They only had the Old Testament and parts of the gospel. So anything that had been written was being passed around. Later on, it will be brought together, and in the 70s, the gospels are going to be appearing as these are the letters of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Well, John in 90, but the other three in 70. And so, what he's saying to Timothy is here, What has made you wise unto salvation is the very fact that your grandmother, Lois, and your mother, Eunice, were outstanding believers in the inspired word of God. They were believers in the Old Testament. The Old Testament that was the inspired word of God. Now, let me tell you what happened in a Jewish home. When you had a little boy in a Jewish home, that little boy had three responsibilities growing up under Judaism. Now, you've got to understand, Timothy's father was Greek. You know? So his father had nothing to do with his career. But it's kind of interesting. In a Jewish home, what happens is the mother is responsible for the education of the young child, boy in particular, especially males. The mother is in charge of the spiritual education of the young children, boys, as they grow up in the home. And it was called learning at the mother's knee. Learning at the mother's knee. And the mother was responsible to train the children in the inspired holy scriptures, the Old Testament scriptures. And they were required to teach those little children at their knee. And that's why we have a lot of little kindergartens that are called at the mother's knee. And that's what it means. Come to the mother's knee and let them train you and let them educate you, give you good Christian education, give you inspirational education. And that's what happened here to young Timothy at his mother's knee from the time he was born until he was five. Now, in a Jewish home at the age of five, everything changed. Everything changed. If there was a Jewish father, if there was a Jewish father, then at five, the Jewish father took over. Everything the mother had done, she had done from birth to five. At five, the Jewish boys should be able to read. And the Jewish boys were reading at five. The mothers were instructed to teach them to read. And the only thing they read was the holy scripture. Now, hear me carefully. No Jew anywhere was supposed to read anything but the holy scripture. None of the Jewish rabbis were to have read anything but holy scripture. None of them were to participate in anything but the holy scripture. And that's why it is so interestingly different in the book of Acts when Paul is in Athens and he's on Mars Hill and he's up there where they have all of these little alcoves to all of the gods that the Greeks had. And you remember one of the alcoves was empty. And Paul said, I want to tell you about that god that's in that empty alcove. You remember? Mars Hill? The Hill of Mars? Mars Hill? And he said, I want to tell you about that god who's in that alcove. They said, there's nobody in there. He said, yeah, I know there is. He said, you've got little figures and all the rest of it, but there's nobody in there. I want to tell you about this guy. And the apostle Paul starts talking to them about Jesus Christ. Now, here's the interesting part. Paul was a rabbi. Paul was educated in Jerusalem. Paul was a Pharisee. Paul was a Pharisee of Pharisees. Paul knew more scripture than you and I will ever even think about. Paul was able to quote the entire Pentateuch from Genesis through Deuteronomy in memory any time. Walk up to him and say, give me Exodus 9. He gave it to you. Didn't even have to think about it. He gave it to you. Give me Deuteronomy 9. He gave it to you. Give me Deuteronomy 18. He gave it to you. And so they were very intensely educated in the word of God. They were educated in the inspired word of the Old Testament. And he said to them, he said to them, by the way, this that I'm telling you is nonetheless like what some of your poets have written. Wait a minute! He wasn't supposed to know any of those poets. He was a Jewish rabbi. He was a Jewish Pharisee. He wasn't supposed to have read any of that stuff. Yet Paul quotes four of their poets on Mars Hill. You know how he knew it? He went to university in Asia Minor. He went to university in his hometown. Where was Paul born? Tarsus? Paul went to the University of Tarsus. You should have seen their ball club. They had a great ball club. He went to the University of Tarsus. While he was at the University of Tarsus, guess what he read? Greek literature, history, and poetry. And he had it all. And he was such a genius, he could just take it in and keep it all in him. Anytime he needed, he just spread it out. And on Mars Hill, with these Greek philosophers, in that beautiful place where he was talking to them about that alcove that didn't have anybody in it. Let me tell you about that guy that stopped there. He said, your poets have even written it. Now Paul understood what he was talking about. So, Timothy, when he became five, had to change everything he was doing. Because in seven years, Timothy would have to be able to quote a great deal of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. And he would have to be able to read the Hebrew scripture. Well, he didn't have a daddy to teach him. But Lois and Eunice were there. Praise God for Mamas and Grandmas. Who take and educate their children. When Mamas and Papas flop by the way, the grandpapers take over and they just educate the kids. Praise God for Lois. And praise God for Eunice. They took over the daddy's place. And at five years of age, Timothy started reading and memorizing Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. He was reading the inspired spirit scripture of God. Don't be confused. The Old Testament is inspired as well. It is very inspired. How could it not be inspired if Isaiah couldn't write? He was bruised for our iniquities. It is not the way to salvation. You'll never be saved by believing the Old Testament. But you are saved through the redemption of Christ. The Old Testament, the Apostle Paul says on another occasion, is our schoolmaster. It is our pedagogy. It is our schoolmaster that brings us to Christ. And that is what the Old Testament is. It is the schoolmaster that brings you to Christ. Here is little Timothy. Five years of age, folks. Reading Hebrew scripture. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Because at twelve, he was going to have to do Bar Mitzvah. Bar means boy. Mitzvah means commandment. At twelve, he was to become a man of the commandment. Mitzvah. And so he had to prepare from five to twelve to be able to stand in front of rabbis and stand in front of religious leaders and open the Hebrew scripture. And when they asked him to read somewhere, he was supposed to be able to read it and then he was supposed to be able to interpret it. So not only was it simply reading the word of God, it was learning the word of God, it was internalizing the word of God, it was able to interpret the word of God and to share the word of God out of the Old Testament. And that is what that five-year-old to twelve-year-old did. Evidently, he did it well. And evidently, Lois and Eunice were unusual teachers. Because they sent Paul to Jerusalem after he had college in Tarsus. Paul didn't show up in Jerusalem until he was probably 17 or 18. And when he showed up in Jerusalem, here's something that's very interesting, who he himself, Paul, said. In one of the epistles, he gave his pedigree. Born of Benjamin, tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, remember? When he gave that pedigree, when he gave that in that scripture, he also referred to this as well. When he said, When I came to Jerusalem, I was above and beyond all of my cohorts. Do you realize what he just said? He was ahead of all of the young men who had been studying at the temple since they were twelve years of age. And he was able to outdo all of them who were at the temple. Ladies and gentlemen, Paul was a genius. He was a man who could internalize. He was a man who could take the word and bring it back to you. And at twelve, he did bar mitzvah, able to read, and he went to Jerusalem and he outdid all of his compadres. None of them could keep up with him. He was ahead of all of them. And he became that wonderful person who later on became Pharisee of Pharisees. Knew more about the Old Testament than most all of the priests and all of the Pharisees and all of the religious leaders and all of the priests and all of your lawyers A lawyer in Jerusalem was not a legal beagle. He was a Bible lawyer. And Paul was above all of them. He said, because of that, from your childhood, you have known the Holy Scriptures which have been able to make you wise. Very intelligent. And not only make you wise, but for salvation because as you came to the Damascus... That day, you said, Lord, who are you? Now, ladies and gentlemen, everybody who calls Jesus Lord is saved. Lord Jesus, I'm a sinner. I cannot save myself. Please, Lord Jesus, come into my life and save me and bring me into your kingdom. That's how you got into the kingdom of God. Every one of you said, Lord Jesus, I'm a sinner. Whether you were five like my sweetheart or whether you were 80 like some other people I know, you said the same thing. Paul said, Lord, who are you? To which Jesus in division said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. Don't you know, Paul, that you cannot kick against the goats? That's another story. I don't have time for that one. And Paul then says, watch, second affirmation, Lord, what would you have me to do? He's in. Saved by a simple statement. Salvation is not difficult, ladies and gentlemen. It's impossible. It's impossible. You cannot get there except by invitation. Nobody comes into the kingdom of God except by invitation. And on the road to Damascus, Paul got his great invitation. I was 15. My friend gave me my invitation. Barbara was five. Her pastor gave her the invitation. Many of you in here had a wonderful invitation given to you by this brother who's our dear friend, Jimmy Betrayer. He gave you the invitation. Many of you had invitations by other wonderful pastors all over the kingdom of God. But every one of them told you the same thing. They all said, if you want to come into the kingdom of God, you've got to ask Jesus to come into your heart. And you have to say, Lord Jesus. And you did. And you're here. And you're saved. And the kingdom of God is in you. And so they said, you know, that's what caused you, Timothy, to come to faith. Because you knew the Holy Scriptures. You came to faith. And you came to faith because you were faithful in what you were doing. And now in verse 16, he says, Timothy, all Scripture. Now, Paul is looking back. He's looking forward. And he's looking at the day. He's looking at what they have in their hands. The Old Testament. Parts of what is going to become the New Testament. And he's looking to the future. When you and I can go to the bookstore and for 25 cents, buy a Bible. Maybe for 25 cents. Get the whole thing. For a quarter. He was seeing that in his day. And he knew that this thing would be available for all Scripture, whether Old or New Testament, is given by inspiration of God. And it is for several things. It is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness. So, Timothy, understand. This is God breathed. Do you remember what Peter said in 2 Peter? For holy men of God were moved along as they spoke by the Holy Spirit. They did not speak. The Holy Spirit in them spoke. And as the Holy Spirit spoke through them, they wrote. And all of that was inspired. It was breathed into them by God. Just like one day when you said, Lord Jesus, I'm a sinner. God breathed on you. He breathed into you by the power of the Holy Spirit the breath of eternal life. That's what he did with the Scripture. That's why the Scripture is said to be a living document. The Holy Word of God is a living document. It lives every day of your life. It lived before you were here and lived after you're gone. And until Jesus Christ comes in His eternal kingdom, it will still be very much alive. And it's alive in our hearts. And he says so. I want you to know, Timothy, it is breathed by God. And it is for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction. Because, oh man of God, Timothy, oh man of God, you may be complete, thoroughly equipped in every good work. That's why God gave us the breathed Scripture. And that's why He gave us redemption through Christ. So he says, young Timothy, you really need to thank Mama and Grandma. You really need to thank them for what they did for you. Because had they not pursued what needed to happen in your life for you to become a true Jew, you would never have become what you have become. I want to read you something. But I want to try to read this to you. Okay? The last few months, Barbara and I have had a real trial. In fact, we have both been praying Job 121. The Lord gives. The Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. You know, Job's three friends said, Job, you're such a sinner. Why don't you curse God and die? And Job said no. And Job's sweet wife came and said, Job, you must be a sinner. God wouldn't do this to anybody who wasn't a sinner. And Job said no. I will not. And Job concluded by saying, although He slay me, I will not curse Him. And that's where Barbara and I are right now. I'll read you something. Dear Sunday School class, and we have some copies of this in the back if you'd like one as you leave. Dear Sunday School class, our twin great grandbabies, Piper and Perry, were delivered Wednesday by sea sanction in Birmingham, Alabama. All the prognosis is not good. One baby, Penny, did not survive tonight. We lost it. The other baby, Piper, has serious complications and is being monitored closely. Tell you a funny little thing, Tricia, who is with her husband Mark in Birmingham with Haley and Zach right now, Tricia sent us a text yesterday morning. She said, Hooray for Piper! She pooped in her diaper. Piper is 24 weeks old, folks. And they're feeding her with an eyedropper. And they're feeding her my mother's milk. And Piper is still there. We're praying for Piper. We want you to pray for Piper. Her name is Piper Hope. The baby's name was Penny, Penny Joy. Hope and Joy. We lost Joy. We lost our Joy. Hey, guess what? Barbara and I get to see Penny. We get to have her. Please pray for the family during this difficult time. Our granddaughter Haley came through the surgery fine, doing well. Her husband Zach is by her side. They come to your prayers as they come to grips with this serious chapter in their lives as they have lost one child and the second is in serious condition. Also remember our daughter Tricia and her husband Mark Spriggs. In prayers they minister to Haley and Zach in Birmingham. Our children have great faith and trust in a gracious loving God and pray for his divine will to be accomplished. Haley and Zach are members of a strong church in Birmingham that surrounds them with prayer and love and strong Christian fellowship. In fact, Zach and Haley are teaching in that church. Strong Christian church. Those people have been feeding them every night of the week. They know and trust God to be an everlasting comforter during a time of heartbreak and loss. Thank you for surrounding Barbara and me in prayer, love, and comfort. You have always been a great strength in challenging times. Thank you. We claim the passage of Job 121 as our comforting passage. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Thank you for lifting our family in prayer. Blessed be the name. Thank you. Father God, thank you for loving us. Thank you that we know this is not the end. Thank you for letting us know that one day we shall see Penny in her perfectness exactly as you had determined she would be and we will see her. Because, Father, you loved her. You loved her so much that you wanted her back. And we're so grateful that you took her. We're grateful, Father, because you wanted her. And now, should you choose to allow us to have Piper, may we covet to be to her a family of God that will bring her, too, to faith and righteousness on that day. Thank you, Father, for taking care of Haley. Thank you for protecting her life. Thank you, Father, for their faith and their strong commitment to you and the wonderful church that they have. Thank you for the way they surround them. And thank you, Father, for taking care of them. Thank you for healing me. Thank you for healing my sweetheart. Thank you for giving us faith that this, too, shall pass. And we are comforting that in your love. Thank you, Father, for the Word of God. It is the power of yourself to salvation. And for that, we give you praise. May the God of all creation be praised in the eternity of eternities. And may His love and grace and glory be lifted to the heights. For He is good. He's all good. He's all gracious. He's all love. He is all God. And for that, we trust you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Brother Jimmy, we'll see you next week.