We come to this last ministry time, and I just want to say how thankful I am to be here, to be able to share and receive during this time.
I have a problem here with my mics. Are these two mics working against each other here? All right.
You saw, of course, this morning an act of mercy when our brother Stephen did not take up Timothy. I am sure that took a nice hunk out of his message, but he deferred to my message tonight, where we want to share on Timothy.
I am so thankful for that mercy, especially after the tribulation of last night, when Lucio ravaged through my message pretty badly.
Let us begin tonight by reading from 2 Timothy to get background. I think everybody knows a lot about Timothy. He has been in the program, studying for this matter of passing the torch, for a long time. Let us turn to 2 Timothy 1.
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, according to the promise of life in Christ Jesus,
To Timothy, my beloved son:
Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
I thank God, Whom I serve with a clear conscience the way my forefathers did, as I constantly remember you in my prayers night and day, longing to see you, even as I recall your tears, so that I may be filled with joy.
For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well.
For this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.
For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and discipline.
Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me, His prisoner; but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, Who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which He granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, but now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, Who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
For which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher.
For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know Whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.
Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.
Guard, through the Holy Spirit Who dwells in you, the treasure which has been entrusted to you.
Then, in 2 Timothy 2:1-2:
You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
Then, beginning in 2 Timothy 2:19:
Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Everyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness.”
Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also vessels of wood and earthenware; and some to honor and some to dishonor.
Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.
Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
Let us have a word of prayer.
Lord, we thank You for the songs and the message within the song regarding Your testimony. We are so aware of the fact that You, in fact, call and choose even children when they are young.
We pray now, as we look at Timothy’s life as an example of somebody prepared for the torch of the testimony, that You will speak to our own hearts about our own preparedness, readiness, willingness, and faith to take that which You have called us to do. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
I am still getting a lot of feedback up here. Is this just me, or is there…? All right. All right. Here we go. Yeah, there we go.
Of course, we heard this morning—and you realize it is true—that Timothy was one of those brethren who took up the torch of the testimony at the end of Paul’s life.
As we read this opening chapter in 2 Timothy, we become aware of how much Paul had invested in Timothy and how much he loved Timothy, even as his own son.
We meet Timothy for the first time in Acts 16, as Paul starts out on his second missionary journey with Silas. When he gets to Lystra and Derbe, he discovers that there is a young man there who already has a reputation among the saints as being a young man of character and some gifting.
We do not immediately know—it does not tell us in Acts—exactly how he came to the Lord. But we see that he was taken by Paul and circumcised. He was, in fact, of a Jewish mother and a Greek father, and had not been circumcised, but he was circumcised at that point.
We assume he was a teenager, but we do not really know for sure. He began traveling with Paul and Silas and others as they went from place to place. I am sure Timothy’s eyes saw things he had never seen before.
By the time 1 Timothy was written, and then 2 Timothy subsequently, probably more than fifteen years had gone by. So, although we consider these exhortations to be addressed to a young man—perhaps even a teenager—the fact of the matter is that Timothy must have been a bit older than that.
Maybe like the Chinese: still a teenager at thirty years old.
But in any case, when we begin to read these two letters sent to our dear brother Timothy from Paul, we begin to see some of the background and understand the reason for this man’s preparedness, gifting, and life in the Lord.
Wonderfully, we discover it started with Grandma and Mama.
In fact, these wonderful two women—Grandma Lois and Mama Eunice—we discover in 2 Timothy 3:15, that “from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through Jesus Christ.”
We discover that these two sisters, Lois and Eunice, read the Old Testament to Timothy when he was just a little boy.
Now, I have a feeling here tonight that probably about twenty percent of you are here because you had a grandma and a mother who loved the Lord. I hope you take seriously that which they put in your heart when it comes time for you to take the torch of the testimony.
When you go through history and look at some of those great heroes of the faith, as we call them, back in the background you often find a devoted, godly mother or grandmother.
As in the case of Count Zinzendorf, I think you all know the story. Basically, his grandmother raised him up, teaching him Scripture and getting him to sing these conference songs that the little children sing. From the time he was just a little child, he grew up absorbed in the Word of God.
That, by the way, is one of the greatest blessings to me of getting together all these years at the family conference: what the children learn year by year. When I hear those songs, I almost want to be in those classes.
I feel like they have touched and learned some things that are truly precious. As Jerry prayed, may those songs be written in their hearts to sing ten years from now, fifteen years from now. From the test comes the testimony.
That was Timothy’s life. What a blessing, to be raised by a godly mother.
Now, they read the Old Testament Scriptures. But probably when Paul came through on his first missionary journey to Derbe and Lystra—or Iconium; we are not really positive where Timothy was from—Grandma and Mama heard the gospel, and they got saved.
Whether Timothy got saved through his mother and grandmother or through Paul’s ministry, we do not really know. But it is amazing: when Paul comes back about two and a half years later and goes through there, how did this kid become a young man of God?
He was teaching the Bible, evidently—or teaching about Jesus Christ—and he had godly character in him.
Now I want to make a plug, because I wish that every young child could enter into God’s seminary. God’s seminary is the church as the body of Christ in reality.
How did Timothy grow up like that? I mean, when Paul got there, he was well known and respected. Paul saw him and saw that there was something in his life.
All of that happened just by brothers and sisters. As far as we know, we do not know if other apostles had gone through Lystra and Derbe. But let us assume for the moment it was just the elders who had newly been saved, and brothers and sisters meeting together who had newly been saved.
Yet there was such reality of Jesus in the midst of them that Timothy was learning the Lord Jesus—not just learning the teachings of the Old Testament, but learning about Jesus, learning Jesus, and hearing Jesus.
God has chosen His church to ground His children in the Lord. We see this as one of the things that happened in Timothy’s life.
We see in 2 Timothy 1:6 that, at some point, Paul laid hands on Timothy and he received some gift. It does not really tell us what, but he was filled with the Holy Spirit and received some gift.
This gift, we are sure, was used to edify the body of Christ. This was part of Timothy’s young preparation in those days.
Then we see in 2 Timothy 1:8-9, from Paul’s exhortation to Timothy, that Timothy was exposed, as he traveled with Paul, to the gospel and to the mysteries of Christ: the mysteries of the body of Christ and the mysteries of God’s eternal purpose.
It is so wonderful when somebody can be in an atmosphere where such wonderful things are preached. Paul was a steward of the mysteries of Christ, and his gospel was so deep and so rich.
Timothy must have seen the Lord Jesus in His church, high and lifted up, and at the center of God’s purpose. Wonderful—being exposed to gospel preaching as Timothy had in his own experience.
Then we find in 2 Timothy 1:13, where Paul exhorts him, “Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me.” We realize that in Timothy’s heart were hidden sound teachings and words.
This is all part of the preparation of one who would bear the torch of the testimony of Jesus Christ.
But, you know, young people, there are some young people who hear Paul preach and it goes in one ear and right out the other. You say, “What did that guy say?”
As many of the young people have been saying all week, “What did Dana say? What?” That is why they should have heard Lucio. But anyway, as the case may be, people say, “What did he say?” It just goes in one ear and out the other.
For some people, it goes in one ear and down in the heart. Now, that was Timothy.
The precious first sense of preparation for Timothy, as one who could take the torch of testimony, is 2 Timothy 1:14. This is a precious reality, brothers and sisters: Timothy had a treasure in him by the Holy Spirit.
Some translations say “a good deposit.” Now, what is that? Is that treasure Jesus? Well, no. That treasure is what Jesus has worked into Timothy’s life.
It is something in his character now. It is something that has been deposited there. It is holiness walked out. It is righteousness understood. It is power having been used and tested.
There was a deposit in Timothy. So even though Timothy was a timid young man, in fact, he had a treasure in him.
God builds that treasure in a young person’s life in order that it can be used for Him later on. Paul says to Timothy, “Now, Timothy, guard that treasure that is in you.”
It really is a tragedy to me when I see somebody whom I knew as a young person, who really had that treasure in them, but they did not guard it.
They went off to school, got into business, this happened, that happened, and the next thing you know, you see them. Whether they are Christian or not, you are not so clear, but you can see the deposit is missing.
Do you guard whatever the Lord puts in your heart?
Paul went on to say, “I thank God that I know and am persuaded that whatever I commit to God, He keeps.”
Now, young people, whatever you have heard this week, whatever fellowship you have had, whatever you have touched this week of the Lord Jesus, would you just commit that to the Lord and say, “Lord, would You keep that? Would You keep that in my heart? Would You let that be part of my deposit?”
You see, this is all preparation for that time when you and I are to bear that torch of the testimony.
Paul carefully watched Timothy, even as they ministered together and sometimes apart. Paul writes to him, and you sense even in his first letter that he is watching Timothy.
We heard this morning from 2 Timothy 4 that Paul testifies that the end of his time has come, that he has fought the fight, run the race, and kept the faith.
But at the same time, while he was fighting spiritual battles in his own life, he was watching Timothy. Part of the important preparation in our lives is that the Lord gives us a good fight to fight.
One way we become strong is when we fight the good fight of faith.
Paul exhorts Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:12:
Fight the good fight of faith.
For those who are growing, learning, and preparing to take the torch, there is a fight of faith that must precede taking the torch. If you are completely inexperienced—if you have not killed your bear and your lion—you are not able to stand against Goliath.
So there is a fight of faith that must be undertaken. Paul mentions two special areas which apply to young people and to young adults pursuing a career in this world.
The first fight is found in 1 Timothy 1:18-19:
This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may fight the good fight, keeping faith and a good conscience.
There it is: keeping faith and a good conscience. That is a fight.
That faith means that when the world gets you into university classes and they start laughing at you for believing in God, you need to go back to the Word and fight that fight of faith.
You need to hold on to the faith that you have in Jesus Christ. It is a fight. The enemy wants to snatch it away.
I know we get overwhelmed sometimes at the university by how smart our professors are. But, you know, a lot of that—they are just full of baloney. You will find that out later on. But for now, you need to fight the good fight of faith.
But here is the deal: keeping a good conscience. If your conscience gets defiled—that is to say, if you start regularly disobeying what your conscience tells you to turn from and ask forgiveness for—your faith will be ruined in the process.
You cannot go on with living faith if your conscience is busted.
As we remember John encouraging little children in 1 John 3, he says that when you pray, you will receive whatever you ask if your heart does not condemn you. Faith is connected to your conscience.
If your conscience is bad, your faith will fizzle out.
I often tell young people: you start out praying big. “Oh, Lord, we pray that You would help us today and help me keep my faith.”
Then your conscience hits you: “Well, even though I do not really deserve it so much—I know I have not been studying much. I really have not been praying too much. Well, anyway, sorry, Lord. I did not mean to bother You.”
What just happened? That faith balloon just went pfft, because the conscience was bad. You have got to fight that battle.
In 1 Timothy 6:12, Paul is talking about another fight:
Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
Now he is talking about the fight to keep your testimony as a man of God.
Notice what he goes on to say in 1 Timothy 6:13-14:
I charge you in the presence of God, Who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, Who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.
What do you think the issue is that Paul says is such a battle in this matter of fighting the good fight of faith, keeping your confession, and keeping your testimony? You know what it is? The temptation of money.
Verse 12 comes right on the heels of what Paul has been talking about: how riches and temptations become a snare and every kind of foolish and harmful desire, leading men into ruin and destruction.
For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
But flee from these things, you man of God.
Now, that is your confession. By the grace of God, you have been saved through Jesus Christ, and you are a man of God. God has placed His deposit in you, and you are standing for the testimony that Jesus Christ is Lord over your life from start to finish.
Then money gets in there, Mammon gets worshiped, and Jesus is out the window. You will suffer many a pang if you do not fight this fight.
Basically, you have to read 1 Timothy 6 to see it all. But Paul says, “You know something, man of God? Be content with what you have, and do not be ambitious for riches and riches, because it will drive you off course.”
Be content. The Lord will supply what you need. You need a job, but he is saying, “Be careful.” There is a snare in every step you take in vocation, in this world of climbing up the old ladder and all that stuff.
Beware, O man of God. Fight the good fight of faith. Hold fast your confession.
How do you do that? By the life that is within you.
Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called.
Do you live by Christ’s life? Is Christ your life? Do you confess that? Do you testify that? Do you realize that this is what we are called to: Christ in us and us living in Christ?
You need to fight that good fight of faith, or else you will find that you are trying to serve two masters, and you will not be able to do so.
These are the kinds of tests involved in our growing up. There are other exercises that Paul exhorts Timothy to practice in preparation for being a torchbearer.
We mentioned in 2 Timothy 3:15 that Timothy grew up in the Word of God. His grandmother and mother taught him the Word of God. He developed a devotional life in the Word of God.
He could open the Word of God and receive life from it. He could pray and understand the Word of God.
But now, in 2 Timothy 2, Paul says, “Now, Timothy, you have got to step up.” It is one thing to take the Bible as a source of devotion, but I want you to take hold of the Bible and make it yours.
“I want you to study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman who can rightly divide the word of truth.” There is a problem in the church: heresy and wrong teaching.
In 2 Timothy 2:15, Paul is saying, “You have got to take hold of the Word of God. You have got to be able to rightly divide it.”
It is not just a devotional book. It needs to be the word of life to you and something that you can teach to other people.
The very next verses tell us why. There are people like Hymenaeus and Philetus who are going around telling Christians that the resurrection has already taken place.
I do not know if you understand what that means, but that means everybody left on earth missed it. It upset the faith of some. These screwballs are going around, and somebody needs to be able to rightly divide the word of truth.
Those screwballs go around and do all kinds of damage. Timothy, lay hold of the Word of God. Dear young people, lay hold of the Word of God.
Let me take it another step further. If I am right, Paul is talking to a thirty-plus-year-old Timothy.
Now, there is a whole generation of thirty-plus people who have just gotten married, have one kid in the oven, a new job, and are thinking about buying a house. You are the Timothy Paul is talking to.
Let us not just lay this on young people. Some of them are just learning how to fight the good fight of faith, but some of you who are thirty years old are still absolutely passive.
I do not know if we find it in the Bible somewhere that between age twenty-five and forty-five you go on vacation from the body of Christ. It is not in my Bible. I do not know why people do that.
But Paul is exhorting Timothy, a thirty-plus-year-old guy. It is time to grow up, Timothy. Basically, that is what he is saying—by these kinds of disciplines.
Paul says, “I am glad to hear that you are working out down at the gym three days a week.” There is nothing wrong with that.
By the way, the gymnasium, physical exercise, and such training could also include, according to the Greek understanding, scholastic training.
Your physical training and workout? Fine. Physical discipline? Good. Scholastic discipline? Good. How about spiritual discipline?
Are you exercising your spirit as much as you are exercising your body?
Up in Manhattan, we have a whole bunch of people who belong to the gym. They have headphones on, and they are running on whatever those things are, listening to something. I am not sure it is always Christian music.
All right, you are going to get some exercise. You are going to stay healthy and in good shape. Good for you. But how about spiritual exercise?
Do you realize that this is so important to being somebody who can carry the torch of the testimony: to be exercised in spirit, to hear the voice of the Lord, and to commune with Him?
All these things are part of becoming a true overcomer.
In a way, what Paul is actually telling Timothy is this: “Timothy, you have come to the age where you need to start deliberately choosing your course in life.”
Up to this point, people have been doing things for you. You went to school, so you had to study. Now you are at a point where you are setting your own life, and I want you to set it according to your calling in Christ Jesus.
This sounds simple, except for the fact that even during the time since Timothy was a young man in Lystra and Derbe, in that precious, wonderful body of Christ in which he learned the Lord, there had been a change in the church.
In those succeeding fifteen years or more, the church had changed. It was no longer God’s seminary.
Why? Paul says in 2 Timothy 2:20, “In a large house”—and he is referring to the church.
Now the church had grown. Praise God, people got saved. Praise God, fellowships got bigger. But they were not doing so well in raising the children in the Lord.
Because the house was so big, there were all kinds of vessels there. There were good vessels—golden, silver, noble vessels—but there were also scoundrels, carnal vessels, and vessels out for their own gain.
In the large house, where the light used to be clear and the testimony on the lampstands so pure—where it was the house of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth—now it was a large house, and there were all kinds of things.
You might find some good servants of God in your fellowship, or you might find some guys who are sort of ministering by the seat of their pants. They are doing it as an afterthought, and they are not committed to the Word of God or to the will of the Lord.
So, Timothy, now you need to set your own course. You need to determine how you are going to live.
Here is what Paul suggests, as we look at 2 Timothy 2:19. “Timothy, I want you to stand on the firm foundation. I want you to be firmly grounded, regardless of what you see going on around you.”
For young people getting out of high school, going out to college, and entering the church culture of the United States, it is a very confusing thing. There is good and there is bad out there.
Our young people get into stuff that is called Christian. In the city all the time, we hear of folks who go to a Bible study and have a great time. Then after the Bible study, they go out to the bars, drink, get drunk, and hang out until two o’clock in the morning.
Now, there is something wrong with that kind of lifestyle.
Paul says, “You stand on this firm foundation.” You know what it is?
The Lord knows those who are His.
There may be some pretenders—some of these Hymenaeuses and Philetuses who say that the resurrection has already come; some false teachers, some pretenders. But the Lord knows those who are His.
You can take that to the bank. You can also take this to the bank:
Those who name the name of the Lord Jesus abstain from wickedness.
You can count on it. Those who really love the Lord stay away from that which is iniquitous, wicked, and wrong. Take that to the bank, Timothy. Decide to live by that standard.
After talking about the large house, Paul basically tells Timothy, “I want you to be a vessel of honor.”
I think Paul’s heart would have been broken if Timothy had become a vessel of dishonor. But listen to what he says in 2 Timothy 2:21:
Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.
Now, Timothy, set your course this way:
Flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
If you want to be somebody who carries the testimony of the Lord, I think you are going to have to make a decision and pick the right friends.
You understand? I know you want to hang out with everybody. Today is a very inclusive generation of young people, but it is time to pick your friends.
Pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Those are the ones with whom you can set the right kind of course.
All of these things we see in Timothy’s preparation. The time has now come, as Paul writes and realizes his time is about gone, for Timothy to take up the torch of the testimony and carry on.
We find in 2 Timothy 2:1-2 what many Bible scholars think is an allusion to the marathon and the passing of the baton:
You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
If you look closely at verse 2, there are actually four handoffs.
First, Paul says, “The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses.” Here is the first link: Paul.
Paul is saying, “Timothy, you have heard me speak over and over again. I want you to pass along not things we spoke about in private—perhaps we prayed and some miracle happened—but I want you to pass on the gospel as I have presented it.”
“Be a steward of the mysteries, even those that you have heard me explain—those things you have heard me share in the presence of many people.”
You need to take it up. You need to make it yours.
Paul is not saying, “Timothy, go down the street and say, ‘Now, I want to read you Paul’s message. Hi, my name is Paul, and I want to talk about it.’” No.
You have got to make the gospel that you have heard from me real to you. You have got to digest it and then begin to share it as it comes through you in reality.
That takes some digesting. It takes going back to the notes from the conferences you attended with the Apostle Paul.
Paul says, “It is time for you to take the torch from my hand.” But not only to take the torch from my hand; “I want you to pass it on.”
“Entrust these to faithful men.” Take this torch of testimony and pass the things that I have shared with you along to some faithful men.
Then comes the next step: those faithful men are able to teach others also. There are four groups: Paul, Timothy, faithful men, and others also.
There is a handoff there. There is a passing of the torch there. We see it going on in Paul’s life as he exhorts Timothy to do these things.
Timothy has now come to the place where it is time to take the torch. Now, how is he going to do it?
We talked last night about the church being gold and seeing the church as gold. That is faith: the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.
The church according to the gold standard. I exhorted us that we need to minister out of that gold standard, and not out of a lower standard.
Could you imagine taking Paul’s torch? Talk about the gold standard. Let me take Mark’s torch, or somebody’s torch, but to take Paul’s torch and share these mysteries?
As many times as Timothy heard Paul preach these things, I am sure he said, “Wow, this ministry is so vast and tremendous. Who could possibly pass it along?” Then Paul says, “Okay, it is your turn.”
That is the gold standard of a torch, would you not say?
Now Timothy is a timid guy. When he hears that he has to pass this gold standard on to other people, you know he broke out in hives.
“Oh no, no, no. Oh, Paul, did You not write to Titus? Tell him to take the torch.”
But obviously Paul sees something in this more introverted, fearful guy that is important: one who has that deposit within him and now needs to pass it on. Of course, to Titus as well. It is not like Paul could only pass a torch to one person.
But we are talking about having faith. This is something that most people would cave under if they had to carry such a responsibility.
Paul knows the reality, so before he talks about passing the torch, he says:
Timothy, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
That is the only way he could pass the torch: be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
We know Timothy was kind of a timid guy. He was a little passive, was he not? He even had some stomach problems—one of those guys who is always saying, “Ah, I am not feeling so good tonight.”
Paul said, “Drink a little wine and get busy.”
From at least three references in the letters to Timothy, we see that Timothy still had a complex that he was young.
We have some Asian brothers in our fellowship in New York who are probably between thirty-two and thirty-eight and still think they are teenagers.
“No, no, not me. I am too young.” That is Timothy. “No, I am too young.” Paul says, “You are thirty-five, Timothy.” “Well, I know, but that is still too young.”
How long is too young? In Flushing, we had a young people’s group whose leaders were forty-five and fifty years old.
I am all for people remaining youthful, but there is a time to stand up and say, “I am an adult.”
Only by the grace of God are you going to be able to do that. Indeed, a new level of grace is going to be needed.
We have a confusion today about grace that they did not have back in those days: that grace is just something freely and passively received.
“Oh, I have received the grace of God. He loves me. He has forgiven me. He has enabled me. He has helped me. It is just by grace.”
Now comes the part of grace which is: freely received, freely give.
There is a part of grace that has to be laid hold of. If Timothy is going to lay hold of the torch that Paul is giving him, he is going to have to lay hold of this with what I can only call a responsible grace.
As our brother Jerry shared, back in those days things around here were chaotic, but Jerry suddenly realized, “The Lord wants me to take responsibility.”
Now, that is grace. That was not law. Do not think responsibility is law. It is the grace of God, but it is grace to be taken.
There comes a point in our lives where the Lord says, “Will you reach out to Me now? Will you trust Me now?”
That is exactly the point Timothy needed to go through: “Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.”
This phrase, which is actually the Greek word endynamóō—be strengthened—is used in Ephesians 6:10:
Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.
Be clothed in the Lord and in the power of His might to do spiritual warfare. This grace needs to be laid hold of.
Paul does not want to leave this entirely to Timothy’s imagination, so he gives him a couple of simple explanations of what this responsible grace is.
This is the kind of grace you could call a soldier’s grace. Notice the next verse:
Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.
Soldier’s grace. What is soldier’s grace? Yes, sign up and obey. That is the deal.
You signed up in your Lord’s service. Now, whoever that general is, or whatever king you are working for, you obey what they say. You go where they tell you to go. You fight when they tell you to fight.
You do not entangle yourself. You do not say, “Oh, I am sorry, I cannot fight. I am still waiting for my delivery from Walmart. I have a sixty-inch TV coming. Sorry, I cannot fight today.”
No one who is in the service does this. They are willing to suffer and obey by the grace of God.
What are we really talking about here? We are talking about grace: denying yourself, taking up your cross, and following Him.
This is part of what it means to bear the torch of the testimony. There comes a point in your life where, with all the grace of God you have and all the blessings and deposits that you have received, it is time to deny yourself, take up that cross, and follow Him.
The soldier’s cross is this: now I am willing to endure hardship because I am enduring hardship with You.
It is a very interesting thing. Paul says, if you look closely, “Suffer hardship with”—and “me” is not really there. Perhaps it means suffer hardship with Christ, or with Paul, but it means you are now in a corporate hardship.
You are in hardship with Christ, with Paul, and with all the brethren, where you are now called upon to serve with sacrifice. Now, that is growing up.
I hope you realize that when people are blessed week after week at the fellowship where you are, somebody is sacrificing week after week to bring life and blessing there.
At some point, you become one who is a giver. It is a sacrifice, a denial of self, a joining in the service.
What I am trying to say is that Paul is saying to Timothy, “Timothy, it is time for you to enlist.” That is what you are doing when you take this torch.
Then Paul says that you need athlete’s grace:
If anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules.
An athlete’s grace is an inner discipline.
In a month from now, we are going to see the Olympics—hopefully. Our brother Billy Graham here is from Rio. Next month, either it works or it does not, right?
The thing that amazes me is how these people have been getting up every morning at four o’clock and running ten miles before they go to work. They have been doing that for three years before they ever got to the Olympics.
How do they do it? There is some inner discipline—self-discipline. In the end, nobody else is going to do it for you. You get out and run, or it does not happen.
There is that inner discipline. Of course, Paul is talking about spiritual discipline, but nevertheless you have to follow the rules.
There are rules of spiritual discipline that are necessary if you are going to be an athlete and actually win, gain reward.
Rule number one: multitasking makes you shallow.
The attention span of young people has been cut in half in the last twenty years.
I watch young people sometimes when somebody is speaking up here—when I am not speaking—and I see some of them fidget the whole time. They get some water, then go back to the bathroom, then come back, then sit down, then get the Bible, then put the Bible down, then get something else out and work on that awhile.
That is while somebody is speaking here. Where is the attention span? Who can concentrate?
“Well, I cannot concentrate on anything, but I can do ten things at once. Watch.”
Inner discipline. Eventually, you are going to learn something, and it is this: if you do not spend time with the Lord—quality time with the Lord, uninterrupted time, with no earbuds—you are not going to hear the Lord.
How are you going to be a good soldier for the Lord if you cannot even hear the Lord? You have not spent the time to hear the Lord because you go from listening to music, to listening even to messages, to watching television, to doing this and that.
Timothy: inner discipline.
Timothy grew up in a society because of his mother where they took the Sabbath off, prayed, meditated, and thought about God. That is a good place to start.
Have you ever taken a Saturday off just to think about God and read His Word? I am telling you, this is the kind of inner discipline that is necessary if we are going to carry the torch.
Rule number two: web reliance will not make you a scholar.
Young people have access to everything. They Google everything.
In our little group in Manhattan, we do a daily devotion every day. We have about forty people who do a devotion, and it rotates around.
I do not want to be mean, but I would say two days a week I get a devotion that comes out straight pumped from the internet.
That is to say, they looked up the Scripture portion we are dealing with, they found it, they Googled it, or they did the Blue Bible or the White Bible or whatever Bible. They looked up a few references, and they spit it out.
You can tell. It is almost like sometimes they even have the dates and titles of a commentary in it.
Now listen: I know you have access to all the commentaries you can possibly touch, but have you ever looked at the Bible and said, “Lord, what does that mean? You teach me.”
You know what I am saying? This web dependence is ridiculous. There is a lot of junk out there, by the way, on the internet that will drive you in some wrong direction.
It is not to run to a book; it is to run to the Lord. Timothy, if you are going to run the race, you have got to do it according to the rules of spiritual development.
Then Paul makes the third illustration of what it means to take up your cross, take up the torch, and be responsible by the grace of God: the farmer’s grace.
How many of you have a relative who is a farmer? There you go. Oh, we have some people. That is great. You know how hard they work.
The hardworking farmer—boy, that takes grace.
When I was just a young pup, still in seminary, I was actually a pastor out in a rural community. Those guys got up at four o’clock in the morning to milk the cows. Then they went off to work all day long, came back, and harvested their beans and all that.
I mean, they worked hard. Why did they do that? Because they expected reward.
The hardworking farmer ought to be the first to receive his share of the crops.
The grace of a farmer is two things, actually: working hard and serving the Lord hard. You can do that by the grace of God.
And now this is tough: be patient for the harvest.
I have actually seen some farmers who planted a field full of crops, and a bad problem came along—locusts or whatever—and they lost their whole crop.
A whole year’s worth of work, tilling, watering, and the whole thing was lost. Then they went out the next year and planted again.
Now, that is faith.
If I will serve the Lord with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, surely the Lord will bear fruit in the end.
These are the things called for in Timothy as he takes up this torch of the testimony: this kind of life.
Paul does not simply leave it like that: “Take grace.” He gives Timothy the key to moving forward in this grace and laying hold of the torch. It is this: remember Jesus Christ.
There it is. Right after all those things, Paul says in 2 Timothy 2:7:
Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.
Take all these things I have said, take them to the Lord, and let Him explain what they mean for you in your life.
Remember Jesus Christ. Just think of your Master. Think of your Lord. Think of His hard work. Think of His keeping to the rules. Think of His suffering hardship, and you will find grace to do the same.
When you look off unto Jesus, as one of those great little songs they sang tonight said, you look off to Jesus and suddenly the grace is there to do what needs to be done—to be faithful.
All of this was to prepare Timothy to take the torch. But there is one other Scripture I would like to end with. It is 2 Timothy 4:1-2:
I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, Who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom:
Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.
Paul goes on to talk about sharing, ministering, and being faithful, even in an era and a day when people become godless, worldly, and unwilling to listen. “I want you still to be faithful.”
But what I want you to see—and what I would like you to do tonight, if we can—is this: all these things we have been talking about all week, this matter of taking up the torch of the testimony, this matter of the testimony of the Lord in His church, can only be seen and understood in the right time zone.
It is what I call the kingdom time zone: KTZ.
A lot of these exhortations do not make sense unless you know what time it is: that we are right near the end.
In light of this time zone that we are in—the nearness of the Lord Jesus—these things suddenly become important.
When we look at these two verses in 2 Timothy 4, it is interesting. We can learn a lot here. In my translation, I have, “I solemnly charge you.”
Actually, you know what the word is? It has the word martyr in it: martyria. It is diamartyromai. It is a verb, and what it means is witness upon witness.
“I solemnly charge you” means, “I witness upon witness.”
Let us see exactly what Paul means here, because this is a term used when there is a very solemn act. I think even in the marriage ceremony in the United States, “I solemnly charge you” may be words we use.
Paul is bringing Timothy to this place, and now he wants to give him this solemn charge.
He says, “I solemnly charge you, first of all, Timothy, in the presence of God, Who is here witnessing this moment.”
Notice that he says, “I charge you in the presence of God.” Timothy, this is not just you and me.
Brothers and sisters, young people, thirty-pluses, and everybody: I charge you in the presence of God. He is here.
I hope you know that and realize that He is watching to see your consecration in this matter.
“I charge you in the presence of God.” It is not just my witness, Timothy; it is God’s witness. Do you understand? I am witnessing; God is witnessing.
And Jesus Christ, Who is to be the Judge of the living and the dead.
So, Timothy, I charge you. I double charge you in the presence of God, and I triple charge you in the presence of Jesus Christ, Who is your Judge.
He is watching you. He is seeing who does good, who needs reproof, who needs a blessing, and who gets reward. He is your Judge, and you are standing before Jesus, your Judge.
May you see once again Jesus in the midst of us—watching, looking upon you. He is the Lord of our ministry.
“Timothy, I solemnly charge you.” I am charging; I witness; the presence of God witnesses; Jesus Christ the Judge witnesses you.
Then Paul goes on to say, “And by His appearing.”
Now I charge you that what you commit yourself to now has a connection to His appearing. Your faithfulness could be connected, time-wise, to His appearing.
I charge you to realize that the importance of you being faithful to take the torch has to do with the timing of His return. Do you realize that?
Then, on top of that, not only by His appearing, but by His kingdom.
Here you are about to take the torch, Timothy, and I solemnly charge you: you are in the presence of God and the presence of Jesus Christ, your Lord and Judge.
You are in the presence of His appearing, and you are in the presence of His kingdom—your reward and your service.
The Holy Spirit has to bring us into that time zone, for this to be impressed upon our own hearts.
When we make such a solemn charge—“Lord, I will consecrate my body as a living sacrifice in full service of You. I am willing to take the torch”—this has meaning.
Those things that I have received over the years and kept in a notebook here and there, I want to chew on them. I want to understand. I want to be able to share with others.
What a revival I believe would come if all of us who have received the riches and treasures of conferences, Christian testimony, ministry, and MP3s would begin to digest them and make them our own.
Then we could speak of these things and pass on the torch of the testimony.
I believe there are some in this room tonight who have been prepared by a lifetime of grace and blessing: by godly parents, godly grandparents, and a godly upbringing, even in the body of Christ.
You have learned the Lord. You have learned how to obey and submit, how to share, and how to pray.
But all of that is preparation.
Will you take the torch of the testimony? Will you be one of those who stands up?
It does not matter what the environment is. If it is the large house, where there is good and bad, dark and light, will you stand up with the torch of the testimony?
The foundation of God is sure. What a testimony.
As we live in this world, are we willing to preach, teach, and exhort brothers and sisters and those who are not believers?
There is a certain solemnity, as my translation says: “I solemnly charge you.”
Dear brothers and sisters, only the grace of God will enable the torch to be passed from one to another.
But we have watched the Lord do wonderful things over these years. The wonderful fruit of it all would be if all of us would take that torch, be faithful, and hold it up.
As we gather together on Sundays, hold up the torch of the testimony. As we live our lives in this world, hold up that torch in the presence of God, in the presence of Jesus, in light of His appearing, and in light of His kingdom.
May the Lord help us be faithful. Let us pray.
We are so thankful, Lord, that You are able to go against all the temperaments, all the spirit of this world and society.
As we hear that the millennial generation is totally selfish and into themselves, we stand against that and say, “That is not what a man of God is.”
May those in that millennial generation be those willing to lay down their lives for the Lord Jesus and to be faithful witnesses.
For those who are older and for those who are younger, we look back and see that You have providentially prepared us with many blessings and much deposit.
Lord, we do not want to lose that deposit; we guard it. Then, not only do we want to guard that deposit, but we want to pass along the things which we have received unto other faithful people who will carry the torch down the road.
We thank You that we could watch as Timothy came to this moment in his life. We do not know if he ever saw Paul again, but we know he was faithful for another thirty years, until he died a martyr as a faithful brother in the church of Ephesus.
So we pray for ourselves, that we would be found faithful. Regardless of the change of the guard or what may happen, Lord, may we be those who take the torch and carry it forward.
For Jesus’ sake, we pray. Amen.