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 this end time, has a special word for us. In particular, 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.
Paul was deeply concerned in his heart about the testimony of the Lord. He knew that he could pass away, but the testimony of the Lord could not pass away. God had to raise up a people to receive this baton of 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, to be strong in the grace of Christ.
This condition was very much like the time when Moses was going to leave the world. God took Moses, but God raised up Joshua. If we read Joshua 1, we see that God told Joshua many times, “You have to be strong.”
Brothers and sisters, when we consider today’s condition, we not only see that the condition of the world is close to its end; we can also feel the pressures from our surroundings. We also see many difficulties in the church—many things happening that we could not even have dreamed of before.
It would be easy for us to be filled with despair and fear. When we are stressed and pressed by these negative things, our natural response is to withdraw, to hide, to compromise, and to ask, “How can I preserve myself?”
But it is just in this environment that we need to be strong in the grace of our Lord, because the testimony of the Lord has to be carried on.
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 have always been people raised up to keep the testimony of the Lord on this earth.
This 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 Lord of the church and of our whole life. Beside Him, there is no other Lord. This is our testimony.
If we are faithful to keep this testimony, then we shall see that the Lord will be Lord of the whole world. He shall be Lord of the universe. This testimony is extremely important.
For this testimony, there have been many battles on the earth. In the spiritual realm, there is a battle—a battle of the ages. This battle is a battle for the testimony.
The purpose of God is that our Lord Jesus should 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 ways to attack the testimony of our Lord.
Where there is a true testimony, whether in a person or in a group, the enemy wants to 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 asked Timothy not to be timid and not to be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord. He was not to be ashamed of Paul, who was in prison for the Lord, but was to suffer with Paul for this testimony.
God today is looking for faithful people on this earth—people faithful to our Lord Himself. It is not easy to find faithful men on this earth.
Even when we find some people who appear faithful, sometimes their faithfulness is foolish faithfulness. They may be faithful to a person, a doctrine, a system, or even a group, but they are not faithful to the Lord. This kind of 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 the grace of the Lord; we also need to entrust it to and instruct others.
Today we have many strange teachings on the earth. Therefore, we have to handle the word of truth rightly, cutting a straight line in the truth of God.
It is as though, when you are tilling a field, you have to go in a straight line. Or, when offering a sacrifice, the priest has to cut the sacrifice cleanly.
The word of God is like the wheel of a cart. There is a center, a hub; there are spokes radiating outward; and at the outside there is the rim.
This tells us something concerning the word of God. There is a center to the word of God, and the center of God’s word 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. The center of the word of God is Christ Jesus.
The spokes that radiate outward represent all the truths, or aspects of the truth. These aspects of truth come out from the center and reach 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 the rim. The center can be only one: our Lord Jesus Christ.
If we hold fast to our Lord as our Head, then we can see that all the aspects of truth come out from Him. These truths are in balance, and each has its own very important position.
We cannot consider one aspect of truth to be everything, and we cannot have only one aspect of the truth while rejecting the others. All aspects of the truth are in balance.
The church is the vessel and receiver of this truth. The church cannot say, “I just want this one aspect of the truth,” and refuse or deny other aspects. The church has to receive all the truth that comes from Christ, because all truth must go back to Christ.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have to handle the word of God very clearly. Then we will not be blown here and there by strange teachings.
Last night we also mentioned the abnormal condition of the church. The church has become like a great house. Although outwardly it is large, inwardly it is not pure.
In a great house there are vessels of gold and silver, and also vessels of wood and earth; some are unto honor, and some unto dishonor.
Brothers and sisters, do you know in what dispensation and at what time we are living? If we read the prophecies in the Old Testament, we find that when the Israelites were exiled to Babylon and then returned, some of them came back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple.
When they returned, they wanted to rebuild the temple, but they were in despair. Even when they completed it, it could not be compared with the temple Solomon had built.
When Solomon built the temple, there was great manpower and much precious material. That temple was indeed glorious and majestic. But the returning exiles were only a handful. They had few people, few resources, limited strength, and the building they could construct was very small.
According to man, it seemed to count for nothing. Those who were building the temple were discouraged. They wondered, “If this is the case, why should we toil and labor so hard? We can never have the same thing as before.”
They still expected a glorious temple like the one that had been built before. Although most of them had never seen that temple, some of the older ones had seen it. In their concept, what had been torn down before should be rebuilt just the same. If the former temple was large, then the restored temple should also be large.
But it was not possible for those people to recover what was before, and therefore they were discouraged. God spoke to them through the prophet: “Do you not know that this is the day of small things?”
God wanted to save them from the occupation with the former days. He wanted them to be humble before Him. This was the day of small things, but it was genuine. Outwardly, there may not have been much to see, but inwardly there was spiritual reality.
God spoke to them through the prophet that the glory of this latter house would be greater than the glory of the former.
Brothers and sisters, today we are in this great house. In this great house, God wants to obtain a group of people as vessels of gold or silver.
If a vessel is of gold or silver, perhaps it is not very large, and perhaps there are not many such vessels. If it is wood or earth, it may be large and there may be many.
Let us not expect something outwardly impressive. We want what is true and genuine. We want to have what is from the Lord, issuing from His own life and nature.
In God’s recovering work, He is no longer paying attention to outward greatness. He does not want to recover the outward form. He wants to recover the spiritual reality within.
Perhaps this spiritual reality is not much in the eyes of men, and perhaps it is very small. But we thank and praise the Lord: this is what He wants. Gold and silver can be suitable for His use—for the testimony of Him.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, let us see the way that God has prepared for us. We shall 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 in spiritual reality. The way of God is in our Lord Jesus. We have to be together with those who call upon the Lord out of a pure heart. We need to pursue our Lord Himself together.
This is the way that God has set before us.
When we come to 2 Timothy 3, we are told that dangerous days will come in the last times. In other words, we should know the day and time in which we are living: we are in the last times.
The term the last days has a special meaning in the Bible. It already appears in the Old Testament.
For example, in Genesis 49:1, before Jacob died, he gathered his twelve sons and said, “I will tell you that which shall befall you in the latter days.”
In Numbers 24:14, Balaam spoke prophecy concerning what would happen in the latter days. In Isaiah 2:2, we are told that in the latter days the mountain of the Lord’s house would be established above the mountains, and peoples from the whole world would come to it.
In many other prophecies we also read about the last days. Coming to the New Testament, Acts 2:17 quotes the prophet Joel: in the last days the Holy Spirit would be poured out upon all flesh.
Second Timothy 3 speaks of the last days. Hebrews 1:2 says that God has spoken in His Son in these last days. First Peter 1:5 speaks of a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. First John tells us, “Little children, it is the last hour.”
The term the last days in the Bible is a unique term. It refers to the days of Messiah. The law ended, and the days of Messiah began. The days of Messiah are the last days.
The Old Testament prophets did not know how long the days of Messiah would be. They did not know that Messiah would come the first time and then come the second time. But now, in the light of the New Testament revelation, we know that the days of Messiah extend from the time our Lord Jesus came into this world until His return.
This is called the last days. In apostolic times, believers were already told that they were in the last days. If that was true then, how much more are we at the end of the last days.
In these days, difficult times shall come. If it was already dangerous in the time of the apostles, today it is even more dangerous.
Often we apply this passage to the world. We say that the people of the world are lovers of self, lovers of money, without natural affection, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Certainly, this is an image of the world.
But if you read 2 Timothy in its context, when the apostle says that difficult times shall come in the last days, he is not referring primarily to the world. He is referring to the so-called church, to this great house.
What we see in this great house is the same thing we see in the world. The church and the world were originally separated, but in this great house the inward condition is no different from the world.
How do we know that this refers to the great house? Because it says, “having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.” The world has no form of godliness. It is only in the religious sphere that there is an outward appearance of godliness.
We may feel that we must maintain an outward appearance in order to seem respectable. Yet there can be a form of godliness without the reality of it. This is like the scribes and Pharisees.
When our Lord was on earth, there was a group of people called the scribes and Pharisees. Their history began during the exile of the Israelites to Babylon.
A group of people rose up who wanted to preserve the word of God. They copied the word, read the word, studied it, explained it, and applied it. In this way, they became the scribes and Pharisees.
After a long period, the traditions of the fathers became the content of Judaism. For example, the law said that one should not work on the Sabbath. The scribes and rabbis then interpreted what constituted work.
You remember that the Lord Jesus and His disciples passed through a grainfield. His disciples were hungry, so they picked heads of grain, rubbed them in their hands, and ate. The Pharisees said that they had violated the Sabbath. To pick the grain was one thing, but to rub it was considered work.
This is the way of the scribes and Pharisees. They required ceremonial washings before eating. They placed the words of God on their foreheads. Even today, if you go to Israel, you can see these things.
Outwardly, there was indeed a form of godliness. If you go to the Wailing Wall, you can see many people who have the form of godliness. But inwardly there may be no reality of it.
The scribes and Pharisees devoured widows’ houses and made long prayers. They had the form of godliness, but they did not have the reality of godliness. This is hypocrisy.
When our Lord was on earth, He loved sinners. He was the Friend of sinners. But He would not tolerate hypocrisy. To the scribes and Pharisees, He said, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.”
Brothers and sisters, in this great house today, the church has lost its quality and has become a great house. It may still have the appearance of piety, but inwardly there is no godliness.
Godliness is the expression of the life of God. It is the character of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the time of the scribes and Pharisees, people could see the scribes and Pharisees, but they could not see God.
Today, it may be the same. Can people see Christ from us? We may have the appearance of godliness, but not its reality. This is the day of danger.
What is most dangerous? Hypocrisy is most dangerous, because in hypocrisy something may be considered true when it is actually false. If something is completely false, few will fall into it. If something is completely true, it is not dangerous. But the most dangerous thing is something that looks real but is actually false.
Today we are in this dangerous time. In these days, men do not love God. It is a matter of course for people in the world not to love God, but it is very abnormal for those who have tasted the grace of our Lord not to love Him.
We have known the love of our Lord, but under the pressures and temptations around us, our love for the Lord can become cold.
The Lord rebuked the church in Ephesus. Although they had many merits and still had a good outward form, He said, “I have this against thee, that thou didst leave thy first love.”
The day of danger is the day when our love toward God becomes cold. It is not merely that we do not love God; if we do not love God, we will love something else. We will love ourselves.
“I love myself. Everything is for myself.” But the Lord says that we must deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him. Today we have largely ignored this call. The Lord wants us to deny ourselves, but we love ourselves.
The Bible speaks of loving what is good, and the good refers to the will of God. Only the will of God is good. No matter how good something appears, 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 obtain from the earth. According to man, it seemed good, but God rejected it because it was not according to the will of God.
Brothers and sisters, many good things may be done in the church, but are they according to the will of God? If they are not according to the will of God, then they are not good.
Men often do not seek the will of God or wait upon Him. They do what they think is right. If you do not love what is good, then the result is that you will love the world and become a lover of pleasure.
In the great house, many people are lovers of money. Yet the Lord said that we cannot serve both God and mammon. All these things are happening in the so-called church.
When these things happen, jealousy and division prevail. We are in a dangerous time.
When we are in a dangerous time, how can we stand? How can we keep the testimony of the Lord?
In Ephesians 4, we are told that children may be tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of teaching. Today, in so-called Christianity, there are many strange teachings.
One wind blows in one direction, devised by men and organized into a system of teaching. It carries the children of God in one direction. Then another doctrine blows them in another direction. The children of God are tossed back and forth, and they cannot stand.
How can we keep the testimony of the Lord? We need to grow up in the Lord. We have to be rooted and built up in Christ. We must be rooted in Christ and grounded on Christ.
Today, many children of God have received the Lord, but they have not put down roots in Christ. They have not established themselves firmly in Christ. Therefore, in dangerous times they are not able to stand.
Paul mentions two things so that we can stand firm in dangerous days and give testimony to our Lord. These two things are found in 2 Timothy 3:14: what you have learned, and what you have been assured of.
What you have learned is that you have learned Christ. What you have been assured of is the truth that is in Christ.
Paul said to Timothy, “Thou didst follow my teaching.” Timothy had closely followed and thoroughly understood Paul’s teaching. This was not superficial knowledge. It was not merely something Timothy had heard; it had become life within him.
What was Paul’s teaching? Did Paul have a teaching of his own? No. Paul’s teaching was the teaching of the Lord. Paul himself had no independent teaching.
In Acts 2:42, the believers continued steadfastly in the teaching of the apostles. The apostles are plural, but the teaching is singular. There were many apostles, but there was one teaching.
The apostles did not each have their own separate teaching—Peter’s teaching, John’s teaching, Paul’s teaching, or James’s teaching. Many apostles taught the same thing, because their teaching was one.
Martin Luther used the letter to the Galatians as his sword in the battle for justification by faith. He called the letter of James an epistle of straw because, in his view, it could not be used in that battle.
But we thank and praise God: although there are many apostles, there is only one teaching. God revealed the mystery of His will to the apostles and prophets through His Spirit.
Today, even if there are many apostles, their teaching must be one. The true apostolic teaching proclaims Jesus Christ as Lord.
Paul said, “You have followed thoroughly my teaching,” because his teaching was the Lord’s teaching, not his own. If today a man has a teaching of his own, let us not follow that teaching.
Whether a person calls himself an apostle or not, no matter whether he is a pastor or even an angel, if his teaching is not the teaching of our Lord, Paul says that it should be rejected. We are to be obedient only to the teaching of our Lord.
We must not merely hear His teaching; we must receive it so that His teaching becomes living and real in us.
Paul also speaks of conduct. If the teaching is the teaching of our Lord, then the life of our Lord should appear in our daily living. Teaching and conduct cannot be separated.
One kind of teaching produces one kind of life. A good tree brings forth good fruit, and a bad tree brings forth bad fruit.
Brothers and sisters, if what we have received is the teaching of our Lord, how can Christ fail to be lived out in our daily life? If Christ cannot be lived out from us, then the teaching we have received is questionable.
Perhaps the teaching is not biblical. Even if it is biblical, perhaps it is only letters. It may not be spirit and life to us; it may not reach our spirit or transform us.
Paul says, “For to me to live is Christ.” Why? Because the Lord whom he received was living in him. What he lived out was not Paul, but Christ.
Brothers and sisters, we must not only receive the teaching of the Lord; we must live it out.
Man must have a purpose. Sometimes people misunderstand this. They say that before they believed in the Lord, they had ambition, but now that they believe in the Lord, they should no longer have ambition or dreams.
Children are often asked what they are going to be in the future. One may say, “I want to be a doctor,” while another may have the ambition to become president of the United States. Before we believed in the Lord, we had ambitions. Is it true that after believing in the Lord we should no longer have ambition?
Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5 that he had an ambition. Some translations render it as purpose, but in the original language it means, “I have an ambition.”
Christians should have an ambition—not an ambition for ourselves, but an ambition to please the Lord and to gain Christ.
In Philippians 3, Paul says, “I want to gain Christ.” No matter what it costs, no matter how difficult it is, he counted all things as loss. For Christ, he had forsaken all things.
If we have this ambition, God can make us honorable vessels suitable for His use. Yet many Christians simply drift along and do not have this ambition before the Lord.
Paul also speaks of faith. This is not merely initial faith, the faith by which we believe and are saved. It is a daily life of faith.
We must not only believe in our Lord; we must live by faith, stand by faith, and walk by faith. Throughout his life, Paul lived by faith and not by sight.
Through the eye of faith, he saw the invisible. Today we must recover this faith.
Hebrews 11:6 says:
And without faith it is impossible to be well-pleasing unto Him;
for he that cometh to God must believe that He is,
and that He is a rewarder of them that seek after Him.
When men come before God, they must believe that He is. In the original language, it simply says that God is. “I AM THAT I AM” is His name. No matter what you need, He is. He is all.
We believe that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. This faith enables us to do on this earth the work that God wants us to do. This kind of faith gives us revelation and enables us to accomplish what God wants us to accomplish.
Then not only do we give testimony to God, but God also gives testimony to us.
Then Paul speaks of longsuffering. Longsuffering has particularly to do with people. Among people, we need to learn to forgive.
For example, 1 Corinthians 13 is the chapter of love. The original language says, “Love suffereth long.” This is very beautiful.
Sometimes people speak of love as sweetness or satisfaction, but the Bible says that love is longsuffering. Why? Because the love in 1 Corinthians 13 is between chapters 12 and 14.
Chapter 12 speaks of the body of Christ, in which everyone is a member. Chapter 14 speaks of the functioning of the members. Between them is chapter 13, the chapter of love.
This love particularly refers to love among the members of the body. What is the first characteristic of love among members of the body? Longsuffering.
Today we come to the church and are with brothers and sisters. We may think this is like heaven, while the world is like hell. In the world we suffer, but when we come to the church, we expect that we should love one another. How beautiful that would be.
But perhaps there is nowhere that requires more longsuffering than the church, the body. The members in the body are so close, and they cannot simply break away from one another.
If two people in the world disagree, they can separate. It is like living in a mobile home: if you do not like your neighbors, you can simply move away.
Many Christians today live in one place for a while, and when they do not like something, they move to another place. In the summer they move north, and in the winter they move south. They never grow, and they never learn the lesson.
Brothers and sisters, we are different, but there is 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, in the body.
Because we are so close, sometimes we cannot avoid suffering. A brother or sister may misunderstand you, say something against you, oppose your opinion, or put pressure on you. What do you do?
When you eat too quickly and without paying attention, your teeth may bite your tongue. The tongue may say, “I cannot stand this.” But can the tongue simply leave the mouth? No, it cannot.
Longsuffering is love. If there is love, then even when we suffer long, we can endure. The more we suffer, the more we love.
Let us remember that we are in the house of God. If we truly love one another, then we must have longsuffering.
Ephesians 4:2 tells us to bear with one another in love. Colossians 3 tells us to forgive one another. As the Lord forgave us, so we also should forgive.
Today there are many difficulties in the house of God, and many people feel that they cannot overcome them. But we have to submit to the longsuffering of our Lord. Of course, this love is the love of God. Without the love of God, it is not possible. This love never fails.
Then there is endurance. Endurance has to do with things. If you want to keep the testimony of the Lord, you must know that you will suffer misunderstandings and see many difficulties. Then you need endurance.
The one who endures to the end shall be saved.
Then Paul speaks of persecution. When Paul was on the earth, he was persecuted for the testimony of the Lord.
When a person becomes old, he often thinks about the past. Throughout his life, Paul suffered much. But at this point, he was particularly thinking about the suffering he experienced when he first began his work.
When he was in Lystra, he was stoned and dragged out of the city, and people supposed that he was dead. But when the saints surrounded him, he rose up again in the resurrection power of our Lord.
Some say that it was at that point that he was caught up to the third heaven and entered Paradise, where he heard unspeakable words that it is not lawful for a man to utter.
Paul particularly thought about this persecution because it had to do with Timothy. Timothy was there.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, let us not think that we can live in this world without suffering persecution. The Bible says that all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. This is not a strange thing.
If before our Lord we truly have this learning, then the life of Christ in us can grow. We will not go astray with others, and we can keep the testimony of our Lord.
This is one side. On the other side, Paul says that Timothy should continue in what he had been assured of, knowing whom he had believed. From childhood, Timothy had known the sacred Scriptures.
The Scriptures are able to make those who believe in Christ wise unto salvation. Brothers and sisters, in these dangerous times, one thing is very important: we have to take root in God’s word.
When I first came to the United States, I saw many Christians. I discovered one thing: they believed what they had heard, but not necessarily what they had seen in the word of God. They had heard much, but they had not studied the word of God.
Because of this, they could easily be carried away. The word of God must become our foundation.
If we want to know whom we have believed, we cannot depend merely on what we have heard. We must test everything according to the word of God.
If we do not know the word of God, how can we prove or compare what we hear with the word of God? If we simply follow whatever people say, we do not know whether it is truly the word of God. Therefore, we can easily be tossed back and forth.
God’s children should study diligently. It is even better not to read too many interpretations of the Bible, but to read more of the word of God.
The Holy Scripture is inspired of God. It is God-breathed. It contains 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.
Then we, as men of God, may be complete and furnished unto every good work. That is, we may be obedient to the will of God.
I hope particularly that the young brothers will study the word of God. While you still have a good memory, memorize the word of God and contemplate the word of God before God.
Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the word of God within you. No matter what you hear, compare it with the word of God and return to the word of God.
Your root and your foundation must be the word of God. On the one hand, we have learning before God; as the Bible says, we learn Christ. 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.
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, on this earth, be vessels of Your testimony. Listen to our prayer.
In the name of our Lord Jesus, amen.