Galen Call's Sermon Library
"Serving God Expectantly- Part 2" - October 12, 1986
Other than mine, for not warning them a little more. So if you have something to share, please raise your hand. Just come on down a few rows and join us up here. The God hunt. What has God done in your life in the last week or so that you'd like to share this evening? Unusual timing, answer to prayer, circumstances he's worked out in your life or in some other way special care God has given to you. Now I'll come either side, so I'll start in the middle, and that'll help. We'll be first. We have two weeks in a row of bashfulness. I knew Doris Ann would come if nobody else would because I know she's had some special things happening. That wasn't what I was going to say. You can come anyway. Moody, my husband, gets the tapes, and I got him a journal, too. Just to see how exciting it is for him to see God answering as he has been praying for a special nurse's aid. She came and said that she and her husband had met one of the Minnesota Vikings that was a Christian. She didn't tell Moody that he was a Christian, but Moody knew. They were invited to his house for dinner, and they were so impressed because this athlete had invited them. But Moody knew it was I spy. Thanks. Moody is in the Harmony Nursing home, and if you've never been to see him, you should. I finally managed to get over this week, and I had to leave early because my sides were breaking because of all the stories that he has to tell. Another one. I'm Nick Parker, and I'm from a long way away, but we're here for a while. We've been realizing lately just how good God's timing is. We have to make a decision shortly to leave Minnesota, and we're fairly new Christians in fact two years. We've never had to make a decision in the law, and it's just been great to see how his timing is perfect in providing the classes on decision making and the God hands and everything. It's just been a series of things that has happened that it's been just great to see. Thanks. You could decide to stay, too. Another one. Good. See, it's not really difficult, you just have something simple. See all sorts of people kind of trying to get up off the chair if they just can't quite make it. Here we go. Two of them. Come on up, Beth. We even let staff do it. That's fine. We have eyes fires, too, don't we? As you know, John, you and I spent some time with Wes at the hospital while his wife was having surgery, and it was a simple prayer we sat there, and the doctor said the surgery would take about an hour, an hour passed, and so did two. As we talked, I just closed my eyes, and I could see that Wes was getting a little concerned about the time, and I asked the Lord, "Let us hear soon so that we know how well Judy is doing." It wasn't but five or ten minutes later, and they called Wes up and found out that everything was fine. They came to the point and realized my own life, that we take so many things for granted, and that we have to realize and understand that God's hand is involved with everything. So praise the Lord for that. Thanks, Paul. My name is Beth Cook, and since the beginning of the summer, I've been praying for my brother who has been without a job, and it was an answer to prayer on Friday. He got a job, a full-time job, and in addition, it's been very hard in their marriage. He's been married only two years because just four weeks before he was laid off, they had their first child. And I've just seen a strengthening in their marriage through this time, and just a change in his attitude. He's been asking for my prayer. He's not a Christian, and neither is his wife, and they've been asking for my prayer. And when I say, "I'm praying for you," they say, "Good, I'm glad to hear that." So I just praise the Lord for that. Are they local people? No, they live in Iowa. Can we have a name? Brad. Pray for Brad, and? Caitlin. Caitlin, thanks. Everybody else. Here comes one. Hi. Give me your name. My name is John Che. My wife's not here, but it's a prayer request or answer a prayer for her. She started working as a nurse about a month ago, and at the VA hospital, and we live in White Bear Lake, and so she has 25 months to go. And one morning, she got into an accident because she just started working while she didn't get much information on the other driver, and it was his fault. And about a month went by without anything from our insurance agent, and I called him back, and he had basically given up on us because there was not enough information. And so I decided to just make one phone call to the guy's insurance agent, and they called us back and said, "We'll send you the money for it," and it came out about $200. And so it's something that we've been praying about, but it was a great answer to prayer. A good time for God. Thank you. We'll take time for one more here, if it's quick, and then we'll move on to some more singing. Here we go. I attend Northwestern. My name is Lynette Hendrickson. I go to Northwestern College, and this past year I was planning on living at home, and mostly because of financial reasons. And about three weeks before school started, the Lord provided me with a state grant, and so I decided to live in the dorms then, and at that late date I didn't have any choice as far as roommates go, and so I said, "Lord, you know, this is all in your hands completely I'm going to trust you for getting in the right room." And just this last week, one of my roommates said, "Lynette, you don't know how nice it is to have you as a roommate." And that just really touched me, and I just said, "Thank you, Lord, for putting me in the right room." You mean at a college like Northwestern, you can make a mistake in a roommate, eh? Thanks. Okay, let's sing together, and it's number 364. He leadeth me, and indeed he does. Well, that's a hymn that has a lot of emotional impact in my life because the last two churches I resigned, that was the hymn we sang before I announced my resignation. John wants to sing it again to see if I have an announcement. Bill and Mary Layman said to give greetings to you, "Bill and Mary, we're a part of our church for a couple of years, several years ago now, Bill works for 3M and is heading up 3M's operation in the Far East, they live in Hong Kong, and it was with Bill and Mary that we stayed that first night of our mission's trip. Actually Bill had to leave town and on business, so we missed singing him, but we saw Mary and their youngest son, Matt, and said to be sure to give you greetings. You met Nick Parker here a few moments ago, if you didn't know him before. His brother is a news anchorman in Hong Kong, and yes, we did hear him on television, but he wasn't seen. He was a reporter that night, but he wasn't done so we could see what he looks like, but I could tell from his voice and of course from his name that he was your brother. Anyway, greetings from them and also greetings from both the Linetis, our missionaries in Indonesia, on the island of Taliabu, along with their co-workers, Darrel and Kyla Palmer, who were with us last year in our missions festival. Some of you befriended them and they asked to be remembered to you at the church as well. Well, I'd like for you to open your Bible, please, with me to the Book of 2 Timothy, the third chapter. God has made many wonderful promises to his children, but nowhere has he promised that our service for him would be easy. In this last epistle that came from his inspired pen, the Apostle Paul talks about our service for Jesus Christ. The first two chapters, he tells us how to serve God acceptably, and in the last two chapters, how to serve God expectantly. He has told us that there are certain things that we can expect in our service for Christ. In the first place, we can expect that the world will oppose us in our service. And the closer we come to the end of the age, the more difficult it will become to serve the Lord. Now, what are we to do in light of that expectation? Well, he tells us in verse 10 that we are to follow his example, and we are to endure the persecutions and sufferings faithfully. He tells us as well in verse 14 that we are to continue in our convictions, the things that we have learned, those things that we have become convinced of, we are to abide in them and not lose our convictions, though the times will be difficult. And then finally he assures us in verse 10, excuse me, verse 11 that the Lord will deliver us from our persecution and suffering. So we can expect the world will oppose us. The second thing he tells us to expect is that the Word will achieve its ends. We do not need to be afraid that somehow our service for Christ will be void. The Word of God, which we preach and share with people, will accomplish its ends. We are not promoters of ourselves and of our own opinions, but rather we are ambassadors of an eternal and an errant revelation of the infinite personal God. Thus, there is authority in the message which we have to declare, an authority not originating with the messenger, but rather with the author of the message. We can expect that the Bible, the Holy Scriptures, will achieve its purposes in both time and eternity. There is a wonderful statement about this in the book of Isaiah, the 55th chapter. Right toward the end of the chapter, we have these verses, verses 10 and 11, where a picture is even given of this truth that the Word of God will be fruitful. It says in verse 10, "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bare and sprout and furnishing seed to the sore and bread to the eater, so shall my word be which goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty without accomplishing what I desire and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it." Now, that is God's promise. Jesus put it this way very briefly in John 10, 35, "The Scriptures cannot be broken." By that, He means that the authority of Scripture cannot be set aside, the message of Scripture cannot be nullified, it will accomplish its purpose. From our text that we'll look at tonight in 2 Timothy, we learn three life-changing truths about this book, the Bible. In the first place, we learn that the Scriptures are unique in their origin. Think at verse 16, "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work." The Scriptures are unique in their origin. They are God breathed, just as your words are the product of your breath, moving across your vocal cords. So these words in the Bible are the result of God breathing or His activity in the lives of its human authors. The linguistic key to the Greek New Testament has this helpful statement. The rabbinical teaching was that the Spirit of God rested on and in the prophets and spoke through them so that their words did not come from themselves but from the mouth of God and they spoke and wrote in the Holy Spirit. The early church was in entire agreement with this view. The later church, sad to say, is not in agreement entirely with that view, but this church is. The Scriptures are God breathed. This inspiration that we're talking about here is different than the merely human inspiration which an author may get for his book or an artist may get for his painting. The inspiration here is the work of the Holy Spirit, superintending or guiding the writers. As 2 Peter 1, 21 says, "These writers were born along, carried as it were, by the Holy Spirit, so that without suppression of their own human personalities, but rather with an elevation of those personalities to a higher level, they wrote all that God wanted them to write without error in any detail whatsoever." One of my favorite commentators is William Hendrickson, a reformed commentator and a man that passed away just about a year and a half ago, a gifted, skilled, scholarly man of God. This is what he says regarding inspiration. It should never be considered apart from those many activities which serve to bring the human author upon the scene of history. By causing him to be born at a certain time and place, by stowing upon him certain rather specific endowments, equipping him with a definite kind of education, causing him to undergo predetermined experiences, and bringing back to his mind certain facts and their implications, the Spirit prepared his human consciousness. That same Spirit moved him to write. Finally, during the process of writing, that same primary author, in a thoroughly organic connection with all the preceding activity, suggested to the mind of the human author that language, the very words, and that style which would be the most appropriate vehicle for the interpretation of the divine ideas for people of every rank and position, age, and race. Hence, though every word is truly the word of the human author, it is even more truly the word of God. When we talk about the Scriptures being inspired, we're talking about the very words of Scripture and not just the thoughts that were involved. Thus we speak of what is called the verbal plenary inspiration of Scripture. That means the words verbal, the words themselves were given by God, and plenary, the whole, the completeness of it, the Scriptures in their entirety are inspired of God. Someone asked, "Well, did the church decide which books were inspired?" The answer is no, they merely recognized the phenomenon of inspiration. I believe that when you and I get a hold of this truth, that the Scriptures are unlike any other book in human literature, that they are indeed the very word of God. When we get a hold of that, then we will see that the Bible cannot be treated casually or carelessly, but rather it demands that we carefully listen to what it says and then obey its precepts. The Scriptures are unique in their origin. That's the first truth that we see in our text tonight. There's a second one. It is that the Scriptures are useful in their purpose. Notice in verse 17, it says they are profitable. That is, there is advantage. There is benefit in the Scriptures. They are profitable for teaching, that is for doctrine. The Scriptures impart to us God's revelation regarding Jesus Christ. There is no revelation of Jesus Christ apart from the Scriptures. Oh, I know every now and then we have some person somewhere who claims to have found a lost gospel or additional writings regarding Jesus. None of them, even if they are ancient writings, can compare to this book, for they are the revelation that God has given regarding His Son. The Scriptures are profitable for teaching us, imparting to us knowledge of God and of His Son Jesus, the Christ, and then they're profitable for reproof, that is for refuting of error and rebuking of sin. The Scriptures produce conviction in our lives. False doctrines and false teachers must be exposed. How is that to be done? Through the Scriptures, the teaching of the Word of God for they are profitable for reproof. Just as Titus is told over here, a couple of pages later in the first chapter in the ninth verse by the apostle, Titus is told this, holding fast the faithful Word, which is in accordance with the teaching that he may be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict. The rebuking of false doctrine is not to be based upon our own logic or wisdom, but when we refute false teaching it must come from the Word of God for it alone can truly reprove. And then it's profitable for correction, it says. That's really the positive side of the former. It is the restoration to a straight path of one who was astray. It literally means to set upright on the feet. We see the Lord Jesus doing this, for example, with His words when He restores Peter and says to him, "Peter feed my sheep." Peter was astray, he was discouraged, depressed because of his own failure in his denial of the Lord. So the Lord Jesus Christ gives to him a word, and that word is a word of correction, setting him up on his feet again. How thankful I am for the Word of God, aren't you, that it not only tells us where we have gone astray, but it has the ability to set us back upon our feet, to restore us to the straight path, once again, to correct us. And finally it is beneficial for training in righteousness. In the Word of God we find nurture and instruction in the will of God. We cannot find that anywhere else. For God has not revealed His will anywhere else, but in the pages of these 66 books that we call the Bible. The Scriptures are unique in their origin, and they are useful in their purpose. And through teaching, reprove, correction, training, and righteousness, their ultimate purpose is achieved, and that is that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. That is that every believer may be brought to a place of maturity. What does that mean to be brought to maturity? Well he tells us that we might be adequate in the first place, adequate means fitted, that we might be able to meet all of the demands upon us. Do you ever feel ill-equipped, unfitted, do you ever feel like you can't meet all the demands that are placed upon you for answers? The demands upon you by temptation? The demands placed upon you by people who persecute you? Indeed you can't in yourself, but the Word of God is able to fit you, it is able to make you adequate for all of the situations of life. And it's also able to equip you for every good work. That word equipped means to be furnished, to be completely outfitted. Some of you have been on the canoe trips up north to the boundary waters. When you do that, one of the things you have to do is stop at an outfitter, so that before going out in the lake, whether it be for a few days or a few weeks, you are able to get the equipment you need so that you can live out there. The Word of God is able to furnish and equip us. It is our outfitter for whatever life has to bring. The Word of God is useful in its purpose. It matures us. It brings us to the place of being adequate and equipped for every good work. And I like the emphasis there for every good work. So often we speak of the church as being a volunteer organization. I don't like that concept. For we are not volunteers. We are purchased servants of Jesus Christ. We are not volunteers in any sense of the Word. We talk about volunteering to come next Saturday to help clean here. And I understand what we are saying there, but in a sense we do not have the liberty to volunteer for things because we are servants of Jesus Christ and we have been prepared for good works. That's what we are here for. Not just to volunteer when we are the whim to do so, but to serve the Lord by our works. Well, it's the Scriptures that are useful in accomplishing that purpose in us so that we can work for the Lord profitably. Now the third truth that I see is that the Scriptures are urgent in their proclamation. Notice what Timothy was to do. He has already been told to continue chapter 3 and verse 14. But now he is to go beyond that. He is told in verse 2 to preach the Word. That means to proclaim it. He is to be a herald of the truth. A herald in those days was a very responsible person. A herald was an official, usually of the government, who was the official announcer of matters of great importance. Perhaps compared to the press secretary today that follows our president around. After the meeting this afternoon over in Iceland, although I haven't heard it directly, I've only heard it by bits and pieces, I understand the press secretary had to give the disappointing news regarding the collapse of those talks. Well, who is this man that stands before the press? He is the official spokesman for the president. You see a herald in those days was something similar. He couldn't stand before cameras and microphones obviously. So there were even many heralds. These responsible people would fan out throughout the nation to declare the announcement to proclaim the Word of the leader. Now that is the picture that the apostle draws upon when he tells Timothy and you and me to proclaim the Word of God. We are here in a mission. We are God's official announcers. We have a message to proclaim and that message is the Word of God. Not what we want to say, but what God has to say. I had some people come to me after the service this morning and I appreciated their encouragement. They said we are glad you had the courage to say what you did this morning regarding Sunday and its importance in our lives. You know, may I just share this with you very honestly, I don't find that it takes courage to say things like that. Because here's the way I feel about it, it's not coming from me. Now if it's source were in me, if I had thought up those things or if I were telling you what I wanted you to do on Sunday, then it would take some courage in my part. All I have to do is pass along the message to you. That's God's message and that's all you have to do too. We don't have to originate anything. All we have to do is to be faithful heralds of the message God has given to us. It doesn't require courage. All it requires is faithfulness to say what God has told us to say. That's what Timothy was to do, proclaim the Word of God. That's what you're to do. It's what I'm to do. We're to proclaim the Word of God to our generation. Now notice when Timothy was to do this, preach the Word, be ready in season and out of season. That is he's always to be ready, always on duty. That's you and me too. Whether it's convenient or inconvenient, we are on duty as heralds of our King. How was Timothy to do this? How are we to do it? To proclaim it, well, he tells us, we're to reprove, we're to rebuke, we're to exhort with great patience and instruction. How are we to proclaim the Word? In the first place we are to bring the Word to people so that their consciences can be convicted. We are to reprove with the Word of God. The verb of the Word used back in verse 16. As we proclaim the Word of God, we are to do it in such a way that the conscience of the hearer may be stricken, he may be wrought under conviction. That may not always be comfortable for us, but that's what God tells us to do. We're not to be afraid to reprove a person or a people. And then he tells us we are to rebuke. It gets even stronger. Sin has to be faced directly. It must be reprimanded. Sin has to be censured. We cannot compromise. We cannot negotiate with sin. That's the mistake of so many churches these days. They try to read some kind of a settlement with sin so that there's no offense and no one gets upset. But you see, in preaching the Word of God, we have to rebuke at times so that sin is directly seen and people can see what they need to do. And then he tells us we're to exhort. This is a kinder word, perhaps. It's a word that means to encourage with tenderness. We are to urge people on. We are to exhort. And notice that he says that all of this is to be done with patience and with instruction. I like that because some people have the idea that preaching doesn't have any content to it, that it's all fire and brimstone. And there's some preaching that is that way. But whatever the style may be of the preacher, the point is that there's also to be content there. There's no instruction in the preaching of the Word. Now why was Timothy to preach the Word? Couple of reasons. In the first place, because Jesus Christ is about to come. Notice verse 1, "I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus." Who is, and the tense of this, who is about to judge? He sees the judge is just on the other side of the door with his hand on the handle, about to open it and come in. And he says he's about to judge the living and the dead. That is those who are alive when he comes and those who have died. By the way, Paul may have had himself in mind in the latter group and had Timothy in mind in the former group because Paul knew he was about to die. And he says, "By his appearing in his kingdom preached the Word." What is he saying? He's saying Jesus Christ is about to come, Timothy, "Therefore proclaim the message of God." And so I say to you, here tonight at Grace Church, "Proclaim the Word of God." You say why should I do that? Because Jesus Christ is about to come. He is the judge to whom all must give answer. Every one of us will give a count of ourselves to God. Preach the Word. He's also the deity who will gloriously appear. Like the sun rises in the morning and it's brilliance. He will appear. He is the God who is coming. Preach his Word. He is the King who will reign in his kingdom with the faithful. Preach the Word. Jesus Christ is about to come. We must never lose sight of that fact that he is coming soon. And then he says, "Preach the Word for a second reason." More directly, he says, "Preach the Word." Verse 3, "For the time will come when they the hearers will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled. They will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. Do you be sober in all things and do a hardship, do the work of an evangelist fulfill your ministry?" The second reason that Timothy and we are to proclaim the Word of our King is this, that hearts will grow cold, especially as the end of the age comes. There will come a time when men will not tolerate the truth. They will no longer put up with it. I cannot help but feel that many in our society are already at that point. One of the exciting things about visiting another culture, seeing the Far East, is to sense the openness of the people to the gospel. If I didn't know that God had called me to be pastor here at this church for this time, I think I would resign and go to the Far East as a missionary. Because the doors are so wide open, people are eager to hear the Word of God and willing to respond to it. Now granted because of the oriental manner, there are times when they respond simply to please the preacher. But the fact is that one can stand before a crowd of 10,000 people over there in preach and see not just hundreds respond, but thousands literally respond to the gospel. People are hungry for the Word of God. They want to hear it, but that is not the case for the most part in our own society. Our society might be reflected by these words. They will not tolerate the truth. It all warns that people will intensely desire teachers to suit their own tastes. They will want teachers to pander to their fancies. He puts it this way. They will have itching ears. And they will want teachers who will reach up and scratch those ears. And it says that they will accumulate for themselves these teachers. Not just one of these teachers will come along, but there will be many of them. They will heap them up. Many of these teachers will appear. And believe me, there are always those teachers who are willing to scratch the ears of those wishing to be tickled. And he says that they will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. You see, you cannot turn away from the truth without turning to something else. You see that? When people reject the truth of the message of the Word of God, they will inevitably turn aside to something else. And Paul calls it here, myths, lies, stories, legends. Preach the Word of God. Why? Because Jesus Christ is coming, but before He comes, the age will become hard and people will not tolerate the truth anymore. Nonetheless, preach the Word to Timothy. He gives final instructions. In contrast to the false teachers, he says to him, "You be sober." Don't pander to those who wish you to tell them what they want to hear. And by the way, isn't our society full of that today? People telling their preachers, telling their teachers what they want to hear, and then those people then responding and telling them that very message. The prophets prophesy, but they prophesy falsely just as they did in the Old Testament. Now to Timothy, he says, "You be sober, be calm and steady." Don't become intoxicated yourself with all the contemporary fads, Timothy. Let me tell you, there are a lot of fads going around, faddish kinds of themes for churches and teachers and preachers and authors to follow. All you have to do is take a look at the many, many, many religious books coming off the press today that could all be condensed and put in a thimble as to their import. And you understand that today there's an awful lot of intoxication with many different fads that don't amount to anything. And so to Timothy, he says, "Be sober, be balanced, stay on course, don't follow after the fads that come along," and he says to him, "Endure hardship." He is not to court it, but he's not to complain about it either. As he instructed him earlier in the writing, he is to suffer with Paul for the gospel of Christ. He tells him, "Do the work of an evangelist." That is, keep on telling the good news. Don't hold back, Timothy, to avoid suffering. It's a good word for us too, isn't it? There are times when we're tempted to hold back because we don't want to undergo the mocking or we don't want to be made fun of by our fellow students or by those that work around us. But do the work of an evangelist, and then he says, "fulfill your service, fulfill your ministry, carry out to the full what God has called you to do." You and I have a glorious message to proclaim. It is a message that is both old and new. It is ancient in that God inspired it, and it was written by human authors inherently thousands of years ago. It is old in that ancient sense, but it's new in the sense that it's relevant. It speaks to the very age in which we live today. You and I are called to serve the Lord. We can serve Him in this difficult time, and do so expecting that the Word of God will accomplish all that God has purposed for us to accomplish. Not one word of it will ever fall void. God will do all that He intends to do and without fail. There have been many who have attacked the Word of God. There have been those who have subtly tried to undermine it, but none of them have succeeded nor shall they ever. For the Word of God stands forever, and that is the rock upon which our faith is built, and that is the message which God has called us to herald to this generation. I like a poem that I heard quoted several years ago in which I copied down. It is called The Anvil. Last eve I passed beside a blacksmith's door and heard The Anvil ring the Vesper Chime. Then looking in, I saw upon the floor all hammers worn with beating years of time. How many anvils have you had, said I, to wear and batter all those hammers so? Just one, said he. And then with twinkling I said, The Anvil wears the hammers out, you know. And so thought I, the anvil of God's word for ages, skeptic blows have beat upon. Yet though the noise of falling blows was heard, the anvil is unharmed. The hammers gone, let's pray. Father we thank you for your blessed word, for the fact that you have called us to proclaim it. And thank you that it will not return void, that as it is sown, as we scatter it as faithful sores so it will bring forth fruit, some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred fold. Make us faithful communicators of the word this week. May we never shrink from it or be embarrassed by the Bible, but may we recognize what a miracle it is and how precious it is because you have breathed it, you have inspired it for us. In Jesus' name, amen. [BLANK_AUDIO]