But thou didst follow my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, patience, persecutions, sufferings; what things befell me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: and out of them all the Lord delivered me.
Yea, and all that would live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
But evil men and impostors shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
But abide thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them;
And that from a babe thou hast known the sacred writings which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
Every scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness:
That the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work.
In the last two sessions, we have been fellowshipping on 2 Timothy. We feel that God, at any time, has a special word. At this time, particularly through 2 Timothy, we would like to hear what God wants to speak to us.
Second Timothy was written by the Apostle Paul when he was in prison, knowing that the time for him to leave the world was at hand. Therefore, he wrote this letter to his dear son in the faith, Timothy, because he knew that he was going to leave the world very soon.
But Paul was much concerned in his heart about the testimony of the Lord. He knew that the testimony of the Lord had to continue. He could pass away, but the testimony of the Lord could not pass away. God had to raise up people to receive this testimony, and he felt that Timothy was such a person.
So Paul wanted to encourage Timothy before he left the world. He told Timothy to be strong—strong in the grace of Christ Jesus.
This condition was very much like the time when Moses was going to leave the world. God took Moses, and God raised up Joshua. If we read Joshua 1, we see that God told Joshua many times, “You have to be strong.”
When we look at today’s condition, we see that the world is close to its end. We can feel the stress and pressure around us. We also see many difficulties in the church—many things happening that we could not even have dreamed of before.
In such an environment, particularly for the young people, it would be easy to become full of despair. Even the older ones are stressed and pressed by these negative things. Our natural response would be to withdraw, to compromise, or to ask, “How can I preserve myself?”
But just in this environment, we need to be strong in the grace of our Lord, because the testimony of the Lord has to be kept throughout the ages. The testimony of the Lord has never been discontinued.
No matter what the outward conditions are, and no matter what the condition of the church may be, the testimony of the Lord can never be discontinued. There are always people raised up to keep the testimony of the Lord.
The testimony is that our Lord Jesus is truly the Lord. He is the Lord of all. He is not only Lord of us individually; He is the Lord of the church and of our whole life. Besides Him, there is no other lord in the church. This is our testimony.
If we are faithful to keep this testimony, then we shall see that the Lord will be the Lord of all the world. He will be the Lord of the universe. This testimony is extremely important.
For this testimony, there have been many battles on the earth. There is a battle throughout the ages, and it is a battle for the testimony. The purpose of God is for our Lord Jesus to be Lord of all, but the enemy is not willing to let it go like that.
The enemy wants to be lord, so he devises all kinds of means to attack the testimony of our Lord. Wherever there is a person or a group in which this testimony is present, the enemy seeks to do some work against that person or group. He knows that if this testimony can be established, his kingdom is ruined, and he himself is ruined.
Therefore, Paul had to labor for the testimony of the Lord. He asked Timothy not to be timid and not to be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor ashamed of Paul, who was in prison for the Lord. Timothy was to suffer with Paul for this testimony.
God today is looking for faithful people on this earth—people faithful to the Lord Himself. As we mentioned last night, it is not easy to find faithful people on the earth.
Even when we find people who appear faithful, sometimes their faithfulness is foolish faithfulness. They may be faithful to a person, to a faction, to a system, or to a group, but they are not faithful to the Lord. This faithfulness is foolish.
We need to be faithful to our Lord. We need to be faithful to His testimony. We need to lay down ourselves in order to be faithful to Him.
We also need to instruct those who can instruct others, so that the testimony of the Lord can continue. Whatever we have received from the Lord, we must not only keep by faith and by the grace of the Lord; we also need to entrust and instruct others.
Today, we have many strange teachings. Therefore, we have to handle the word of truth accurately—to cut a straight line in the truth of God.
It is as if one is plowing a field: one has to go in a straight line. Or it is as if one is offering a sacrifice: the priest has to cut the sacrifice cleanly.
We know that the Word of God is the realm of the testimony. The Word of God is like the wheel of a car. At the center is the hub; spokes go out in all directions; and on the outside is the rim.
The center of the Word of God is Christ Himself. If we want to handle the Word of God accurately, we have to lay hold of the center of the Word of God, which is Christ Jesus.
The spokes that radiate outward represent all the aspects of truth. Every aspect of truth comes out from the center and reaches the rim. The rim represents the church.
We have to remember that the church is not the center. Although the church is very precious in the will of God, the church is not the center. Christ is the center. The church is the rim.
If we hold fast the Lord as our Head, then we can see all aspects of truth coming out from Him. These truths all have their proper and important place. We cannot take one aspect of truth and make it the whole, nor can we have only one aspect of truth and deny the others.
The church is the vessel and receiver of this truth. The church cannot select only one aspect of truth and refuse or deny the others. The church has to receive all the truth that comes from Christ, because all truth has to return to Christ.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have to handle the Word of God accurately. Then we will not be blown here and there by strange doctrines.
Last night we mentioned the abnormal condition of the church—the church as a great house. Outwardly it may be great, but inwardly it may not be pure. In a great house there are vessels of gold and silver, but also vessels of wood and earth; some are unto honor, and some unto dishonor.
Do you know in what time we are living? If we read the prophecies of the Old Testament, we see that when the Israelites were exiled to Babylon and then some returned to Jerusalem, they wanted to rebuild the temple.
When they returned, they were in despair. Even when the temple was rebuilt, it could not be compared with the temple Solomon had built. Solomon’s temple had required many workers, much time, and precious materials. It had been glorious and majestic.
But the exiles who returned were only a handful. They had few people, little treasure, limited strength, and a very small building. According to man’s reckoning, it amounted to nothing.
Those who were building the temple were discouraged. They thought, “If this is the case, why should we labor so hard? We can never build something like the temple that was there before.”
But God spoke to them through the prophets: “Do not despise the day of small things.” They should not expect merely to recover the outward form of the past. Even if they could reproduce the same outward form, there would be no glory of God within it.
God wants to save us from being occupied with the previous day. He wants us to be humble before Him. This may be the day of small things, but even though something is small, it may be genuine. It may not appear outwardly impressive, but it may possess spiritual reality.
God spoke through the prophet that the glory of the latter house would be greater than the glory of the former house.
In this great house, God wants to obtain a group of vessels of gold and silver. Perhaps these vessels are not large, and perhaps they are not many. Vessels of wood and earth may be large and numerous, but God is looking for what is true and genuine.
Let us not expect merely something great or outwardly new. We want what is genuine from the Lord. We want to see the reality of redemption expressed out of His own life and nature.
In God’s recovery work, He is no longer paying attention to outward greatness. He does not seek merely to recover the former outward appearance. He wants to recover spiritual reality.
Perhaps that spiritual reality appears small in the eyes of men. Nevertheless, this is what our Lord wants. Gold and silver can be suitable for His use—for the testimony of Him.
We should not sorrow because of the past, and we should not be discouraged because we do not see something outwardly great. That is not the way of God. The way of God is spiritual reality.
The way of God is to be together with those who call upon the Lord out of a pure heart. We need to pursue the Lord Himself together. This is the way God has set before us.
When we come to 2 Timothy 3, Paul tells Timothy, “You should know that in the last days perilous times shall come.” We should know the day and time in which we are living. We are at the end time.
The expression “the last days” has a special meaning in the Bible. It appears in the Old Testament. For example, in Genesis 49:1, Jacob gathered his sons and said that he would tell them what would befall them in the last days.
We also find this expression in Numbers 24:14 and Isaiah 2:2. Isaiah speaks of the time when the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established above the mountains, and people from all nations will come to it.
In the New Testament, Peter quotes Joel in Acts 2:17, saying that in the last days the Holy Spirit would be poured out. Hebrews 1:2 says that in these last days God has spoken in His Son. First Peter 1:5 speaks of salvation ready to be revealed in the last time, and 1 John tells us, “Little children, it is the last hour.”
The last days in the Bible are a unique term. They refer to the days of Messiah. The law ended, and the days of Messiah began. The Old Testament prophets did not know how long the days of Messiah would be, nor did they understand that Messiah would come once and then come again.
But in the light of New Testament revelation, we know that the days of Messiah extend from the first coming of our Lord Jesus into the world until His return. The apostolic age was already in the last days. Now we are at the end of the last days.
In these days, perilous times are present. If the days were already dangerous in the time of the apostles, today they are even more dangerous.
Often, when we read the description in 2 Timothy 3—lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, without natural affection, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—we apply it to the world.
But if we read 2 Timothy in its context, Paul is not referring primarily to the world. He is referring to the so-called church, to the great house.
What is seen in this great house is the same kind of condition found in the world. The church and the world were originally separate, but in this great house the inward condition is no different from the world.
How do we know that Paul is speaking of the great house? Because he says, “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.” The world does not have a form of godliness. This outward form belongs to religious people.
There may be an appearance of godliness because people want to maintain an outward appearance of respectability. But they have the form of godliness without its reality. This is like the scribes and Pharisees.
The scribes and Pharisees appeared to love the Lord and the Word of God. They copied the Scriptures, read them, studied them, explained them, and applied them. Yet, over time, the traditions of the fathers became the substance of Judaism.
For example, the law says that one should not work on the Sabbath. The scribes and Pharisees then interpreted every detail of what might be considered work.
When the Lord Jesus and His disciples passed through a grainfield, His disciples plucked ears of grain, rubbed them in their hands, and ate. The Pharisees said that they had violated the Sabbath. According to their tradition, plucking might not be work, but rubbing the grain was work.
They also added many outward requirements, such as washing hands before eating and observing ceremonial practices. Outwardly, there was indeed a form of godliness.
If you go to the Wailing Wall, you may see many people praying. They may have a form of godliness, but inwardly there may be no reality of it. The Lord said of such people that they devoured widows’ houses while making long prayers.
They had the form of godliness but not the reality of godliness. This is hypocrisy.
When our Lord was on earth, what He hated most was hypocrisy. He loved sinners; He was a friend of sinners. But hypocrisy He would not tolerate.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
Brothers and sisters, in this great house today, the church has lost its proper character. It has become a great house. It may still have an outward form of godliness, but inwardly there is no godliness.
Godliness is the expression of the life of God. It is the character of the Lord Christ. In the scribes and Pharisees, people could see only the scribes and Pharisees; they could not see God.
The danger of our day is that we may have the appearance of godliness without the reality. Hypocrisy is most dangerous because it can be considered true. If something is completely false, few people will fall into it. If something is completely true, it is not dangerous. The most dangerous thing is something that looks real but is actually false.
We have tasted the grace of our Lord. Yet, because of outward temptations and pressures, our love for the Lord can become cold.
The Lord spoke to the church in Ephesus: although they had much labor and could maintain a good outward form, He had something against them because they had left their first love.
The dangerous day is a day in which our love toward God is becoming cold. We have to love something. If we do not love God, what do we love? We love ourselves.
The Scripture says that men will be lovers of self. Everything becomes for self. But the Lord tells us that we have to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him. Today, however, we may ignore this call and love ourselves instead.
The passage also says that men are not lovers of good. In the Bible, “good” refers to the will of God. Only the will of God is truly good. No matter how good something may appear, if it is not the will of God, it is not good.
At the beginning of Genesis, Cain and Abel offered sacrifices. Cain offered the best produce he could bring from the ground, but God rejected it because it was not according to God’s way. God required the blood of the lamb.
There may be many good things done in the church, but we must ask whether they are according to the will of God. If they are not according to His will, they are not truly good.
When people do not love what is good—that is, the will of God—they love the world and its pleasures. They become lovers of pleasure and lovers of money. Yet the Lord said that no one can serve both God and mammon.
These things are happening in the so-called church. Where they prevail, there is jealousy and division. We are indeed living in dangerous times.
How can we stand and keep the testimony of the Lord? We must not remain as babies, blown back and forth.
In so-called Christianity today, there are many strange doctrines and teachings. These teachings are devised by men and arranged into systems. One teaching blows the children of God in one direction, and another doctrine blows them in another direction. The children of God are blown back and forth and cannot stand still.
How can we keep the testimony of the Lord? We need to grow up in the Lord. The Bible says that we have to be rooted and built up in Christ. We have to be rooted in Christ and grounded on Christ.
Many children of God may know something about the Lord, but they have not put down roots in Christ. They have not established themselves firmly upon Christ. Therefore, in this dangerous time, they are not able to stand.
Paul mentions two things by which we can stand firm in dangerous times and give testimony to our Lord. These are found in 2 Timothy 3:14: what we have learned and what we have been assured of.
What we have learned is Christ. What we have been assured of is the truth of Christ. We need both: learning Christ and being assured concerning the Word of God.
Paul tells Timothy, “Thou didst follow my teaching.” Timothy had closely followed and thoroughly understood Paul’s teaching. This was not superficial knowledge. It had become life within him.
What was Paul’s teaching? Did Paul have his own teaching? Paul said that what he instructed, he had received from the Lord. In other words, Paul had no teaching of his own. Paul’s teaching was the teaching of the Lord.
In Acts 2:42, the believers continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching. The apostles are plural, but the teaching is singular. There were many apostles, but there was only one teaching.
We should not say that Paul had one teaching, James another teaching, Peter another teaching, and John another teaching, as though we could choose whichever teaching we prefer. God gave the mystery of His truth to the apostles and prophets through His Spirit. Though there were many apostles, their teaching was one.
Paul did not preach himself. He preached Jesus Christ as Lord. The Lord is so rich that He used many apostles to bring forth the fullness of Christ, but the message was one: Jesus Christ is Lord.
If a man today has a teaching of his own, we should not follow it merely because he calls himself an apostle. Even if an angel should bring a teaching other than the teaching of our Lord, Paul says that such a one should be accursed. We are to be obedient only to the teaching of our Lord.
We should not merely hear His teaching; we must receive it, so that it becomes living fruit in us.
Paul then speaks of conduct. Conduct is our daily living. The teaching of the Lord should become the life of the Lord expressed in our daily life. Teaching and conduct cannot be separated.
One kind of teaching produces one kind of life. A good tree bears good fruit, and a bad tree bears bad fruit. If what we have received is truly the teaching of our Lord, then Christ should be lived out in our daily life.
If Christ cannot be lived out from us, then we must ask whether the teaching we have received is sound. Perhaps it is not biblical; or perhaps, even if it is biblical, it is only letter and has not come to us in spirit. Then it cannot reach our spirit or change our conduct.
Paul said, “For to me to live is Christ.” Because he received the Lord, what was lived out from him was not Paul but Christ. We must not only receive the teaching of the Lord; we must live out Christ.
Man needs to have a purpose. Sometimes people misunderstand and think that after believing in the Lord, they should no longer have any ambition.
Before believing in the Lord, people may have many dreams and ambitions. A child may say, “I want to be a fireman,” or, “I want to be president.” Then, after believing in the Lord, some may think they must have no ambition at all.
But Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5 that he had an ambition. Whether living or absent from the body, his ambition was to please the Lord.
Christians should have an ambition—not ambition for ourselves, but ambition to please the Lord. This is a holy ambition.
In Philippians 3, Paul expresses such an ambition: to gain Christ. No matter the cost, no matter the difficulty, he wanted to gain Christ. He counted all things as loss and forsook all things in order to gain Christ.
We need this ambition. If we have this ambition, then in the hands of God we can become an honorable vessel, suitable for His use. Many Christians simply drift through life because they do not have such a purpose before the Lord.
Paul also speaks of faith. This is not merely the initial faith by which we believe in the Lord Jesus for salvation. It is the faith by which we live day by day.
We must not only believe in the Lord; our faith before God must be firm. Daily, we are to live a life of faith. Paul said that we walk by faith and not by sight.
Throughout his life, Paul lived by faith. Through the eye of faith, he saw the invisible God. Hebrews 11 tells us that without faith it is impossible to please God, because he who comes to God must believe that He is.
God is. This is His name: “I AM THAT I AM.” Whatever you need, He is. He is all.
We believe that God is, and that He rewards those who seek Him. This faith enables us to do on this earth the work that God wants us to do. This faith gives us revelation and enables us to accomplish what God wants accomplished.
Not only do we give testimony to God; God also gives testimony to those who live by faith.
Longsuffering has particularly to do with people. Among people, we need to learn forgiveness. First Corinthians 13 is the chapter on love, and it begins by telling us that love suffereth long.
First Corinthians 13 is situated between chapters 12 and 14. Chapter 12 speaks of the body of Christ, and chapter 14 speaks of the functioning of the body. Between them is chapter 13, the chapter concerning love.
This love has a context: it particularly concerns love in the body of Christ. What is the first quality of love among members of the body? Longsuffering.
We may think that coming among brothers and sisters should be like heaven, while the world is like hell. In the world we suffer, but when we come to the church, we expect everything to be easy and beautiful.
Yet perhaps there is nowhere that longsuffering is more needed than in the church, in the body. The members of the body are so close that they cannot simply be separated.
If two people in the world disagree, they may simply part from one another. It is like living in a mobile home: if you do not like the neighborhood, you can move away. Some Christians live this way spiritually. They stay in one place for a while, and when they dislike something, they move to another place.
But in this way, one never grows and never learns the lesson. Brothers and sisters are different. There is only one thing that is the same: our Lord is the same, our God is the same, and the Holy Spirit has given us unity in the Spirit.
Because we are so close in the body, we cannot avoid occasions of suffering. A brother or sister may misunderstand you, oppose your opinion, or put you under pressure. What will you do?
In the physical body, if your teeth bite your tongue, you cannot remove your teeth because they have hurt your tongue. The body has to bear with itself.
But this longsuffering is love. If there is love in it, the more we suffer, the more we love. If we truly love one another in the house of God, we need longsuffering.
Ephesians 4:2 tells us to endure one another in love. Colossians 3:13 tells us to bear with one another and forgive one another, even as the Lord forgave us.
Today, there are many difficulties in the house of God, and many people feel that they cannot overcome them. But we must submit to the longsuffering of our Lord. This love is the love of God. Without the love of God, it is not possible. This love does not fail.
Endurance has to do with circumstances and things. If we follow the Lord and want to keep His testimony, we must endure misunderstanding and many difficulties. The one who endures to the end shall be saved.
Paul also speaks of persecutions. When Paul was on earth, he was persecuted for the testimony of the Lord.
As Paul approached the end of his life, he thought particularly about the sufferings he had endured at the beginning of his work. He remembered Lystra, where he was stoned and dragged out of the city, being thought dead.
But when the saints surrounded him, he rose up again. He knew the resurrection power of our Lord. He had been caught up to the third heaven and into paradise, where he heard unspeakable words.
Paul’s persecution had a special connection with Timothy, because Timothy was there. Therefore, brothers and sisters, let us not think it strange that those who desire to live godly lives in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.
If we truly learn these things before the Lord, the life of Christ in us can grow. Then we will not be deceived or led astray with others. Then we can keep the testimony of our Lord.
There is another side. Paul says that Timothy was to abide in the things of which he had been assured, knowing from whom he had learned them. From childhood, Timothy had known the sacred Scriptures, which are able to make one wise unto salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
We are in a dangerous time, and one thing is very important: we have to take root in the Word of God. We have to know what we need to know.
When I first came to the United States, I met many Christians. I discovered one thing: what many believed was what they had heard, not what they had seen in the Word of God. They had heard many things, but they had not studied the Word of God.
Because of this, they could easily be carried away. The Word of God is the basis of our faith. If we want to know whom we have believed, we cannot merely depend upon what we have heard. We have to test everything according to the Word of God.
If we do not know the Word, how can we prove things? How can we compare what we hear with the Word of God? Otherwise, whatever people say, we simply follow, and we can easily be blown back and forth.
We should study the Word of God diligently. It may even be better to read fewer interpretations of the Bible and read more of the Word of God itself.
Every Scripture is inspired of God. It is God-breathed. It is the life of God and the Spirit of God.
We need to come to the Word of God in order to obtain life and spirit, so that we, as men of God, may be completely fitted unto every good work—that is, fitted to be obedient to the will of God.
I especially hope that the young brothers will study the Word of God. You still have good memories. Study the Word of God, memorize the Word of God, and contemplate the Word of God.
Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the Word of God in you. No matter what you hear, compare it with and return to the Word of God, because your root and your foundation must be the Word of God.
On the one hand, we learn Christ before God. On the other hand, we learn the Word of God. Then, in this dangerous time, we can stand firm for the testimony of our Lord.
Our Lord, we cry out to You. In this dangerous day, preserve us so that we may truly learn Christ and truly understand Your Word.
May we be vessels of Your testimony on this earth. Hear our prayer, in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.