Berkshire Hills Baptist Church

August 27, 2023

Remember This
2 Timothy 2:8-19
Outline:
I. Introduction
II. Remember Who Jesus Is
III. Remember the World Cannot Stop the Work
IV. Remember Who We Are
V. Remember, Believers Will Suffer Sometimes
VI. Remember What the Main Goal Is: Evangelism
VII. Conclusion
VIII. Invitation and Closing Prayer
 
I. Introduction
 
2nd Timothy. We've been going through this book. The Apostle Paul wrote
specifically to Timothy, but it's what Timothy's supposed to teach
everybody else. So it's essentially written to us too. It's come down through
the ages and there's so much good truth in these verses. I encourage you,
just to read-through it on your own throughout the week and see what you
can pick out and look at it and try to grasp because it's important. 
 
As we look at our world, as we look at what is happening in our world, it is
evident that to some, they would say - "well Satan's winning". Well, if he is,
it's a short victory, amen? Because God will be victorious. But he's left us
here and because he's left us here, we need to live the best Christian life
that we can. You know, since Christianity began, there's always been those
who wanted to take the word of God and teach it just a little different than
what God had planned. And that's one of the things that Paul continues to
encourages us, the word of God continue to encourages, look at what it
says. 
 
I mean, this has been happening since the beginning of the church. People
take verses, they take words out of verses and so it's really helpful to break
it down and look at it and remember what is important. You know, years
ago, when they had the first Council of pastors or Bishops, because one of
the guys and one of the Churches had been teaching that Christ Jesus was
a created being and they took that whole doctrine from John 3:16. "For God

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so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son ..." From that they
said, 'See Jesus is a created being.' 
 
They didn't look at the rest of the scripture, they didn't compare scripture
with scripture and so there was a whole doctrine that Jesus was created
and he [the person believing Jesus was a created being] was quickly called
down about that. Even in the church that Timothy was at and others, we've
seen as we've studied through Timothy and also Thessalonians - one of the
ways a false teachers were trying to convince people to fall away from their
faith, was by saying, 'listen Jesus said, he's coming back soon. He ain't
here yet. Where is he? Maybe your faith is in vain, maybe you're believing
on the wrong thing.'
 
And that's one of the things that is being covered here in 2nd Timothy.
Don't listen to them. Instead, remember this? 
 
First, look at verse 8. 
 
"Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the
dead according to my gospel ..." 1 Tim 2:8
 
By the way, when Paul says 'my gospel', it doesn't mean a different gospel
as some people say. When he says my gospel, he's doing a comparison
always.
 
I used to think he was a egotistical. This is my gospel! No, that's not what
he means. Remember there were a lot of false gospels going on during this
time period. And so Paul always called it in 'my gospel' to differentiate it
from the false gospels. You know, if you taught a class and you always said
the same thing, if somebody started teaching something else you would
say, you need to listen to my teaching because it's based on the truth.
That's what Paul saying. He's not saying it's a different gospel, he just
saying that according to his gospel .. his truth that he got from Jesus
Christ. That's what you need to listen to. 
 
And what's he say? That we need to "remember that Jesus Christ of the
seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel." 

II. Remember Who Jesus Is

First thing we need to remember, always is who Jesus is. First of all, it says
he is of the seed of David. To any Jews in the crowd, when this got read to,

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they'd immediately know that meant he was the Messiah. Because the
prophecies in the Old Testament said what? That Jesus was going to sit on
the throne of David, the Messiah. And so when he says 'of the seed of
David', he just saying listen, he's a Jew but he is the Messiah. Never forget,
Jesus is the one that was sent so that we can have forgiveness of sins. 
 
Never forget that he was sent not just for the Jews but to the whole world,
that whosoever will can call upon his name. Who is Jesus? He is the
Messiah. 
 
Not only that it says he was raised from the dead. You say well that's not ..
Paul said, according to my gospel. That's not the whole gospel,  that's the
part of it that leads us to all the rest. Because just think about it. How could
he be raised from the dead unless he died? And if he died, why did he die?
And that's the gospel. Jesus Christ, died on that cross according to the
scriptures. Shed, his blood, was buried according to the Scriptures, and
was raised again the third day, according to the Scriptures. Why? So that
all have faith and what he did for them would have eternal life.
 
So remember who Jesus is. Some people say, 'Well he's just a good
teacher.' He is, but he's more than that. He's our Savior, he's the promised
Messiah. And he got raised from the dead, which is vitally important. So,
always remember who Jesus is. 
 
III. Remember the World Cannot Stop the Work
It tells us in verse 9, "Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto
bonds; but the word of God is not bound."  The world may try to stop us, 
but they'll never stop the work. And we need to remember that. That word
of God here can mean one of two things. Jesus is called the Word. So
Jesus is not bound, but it also means the word of God. What we have now,
what we call scripture. It's not held .. bound means only a few people can
understand it. The way I understand what it means. Instead, it's free for all.
It's not close to some and open to others. And that's what some people
teach, some denominations, some faith people.
 
What do they say? "Well you don't really understand the word of God. Let
me teach you what it means." No, it's not bound. That means that each and
every one of us in this room, if you read it and you look at it and you and
you contemplate on it, the Holy Spirit of God will teach you what it means.
Amen?
 

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That's why it's so important to realize. It's not bound, it's not held so some
people can understand and other people, can't. If you got the Holy Spirit of
God, which every child of God does, he can help you understand it.
 
IV. Remember Who We Are
What else? Well, we need to remember who we are. In verse 14, he says
"Of these things put them in remembrance." What things? Well it's all the
things in verses 9 through 13. 
 
What do we need to remember? In verse 11: "It is a faithful saying: for if we
be dead with him, we shall also live with him". Just like Jesus Christ died,
buried, rose again, he came back to life from the dead. Scripture tells us
that we were dead in sins and now we live in him.
 
2 Corinthians 13:4, " For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he
liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live
with him by the power of God toward you."
 
Galatians 2:20, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live ..."
 
Why? Because now you're not living in your sins, you're living in Christ.
Just like Jesus was raised from the dead, when we're crucified with him,
our old man is buried and our new man is raised. Now, we won't be
complete until that trumpet sounds. But we are a new creature and we
should live that way. So remember who you are. Remember that you are
alive in Christ, remember that you now are dead to sin? You won't be
judged for your sin to keep you out of heaven. Is that a good thing or bad
thing? That's a good thing.
 
V. Remember, Believers Will Suffer Sometimes
Notice also it says, in verse 12, though: "if we suffer, we shall also reign
with him." Just like Christ suffered, Scripture over, and over tells us what?
That Believers are going to suffer sometimes. You know, there's a lot of ..
we were talking about faith healers, and other people on television. There's
a lot of people that preach, as long as you have faith, you'll never have
problems. I don't know what Bible they're reading. But it's not the word of
God. Because the Bible tells us, if you serve him, you will suffer as a
Christian. It does say if you do something stupid and suffer, that's on
you. And we all do things stupid sometimes.
 

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But he says, if you suffer as a Christian, then you should be happy about
that. Just like the apostles when they were beaten and suffered, put to
shame. They rejoiced that was all because of Christ. And it says, 'if you
suffer with him, just like he did ..' I mean. I don't know why anybody would
teach that if you're a believer, you will never suffer. We are Christians, we
follow Christ. 
 
Look at the suffering Christ went through. His family and friends rejected
him. He was run out of town, or they tried, anyway. He was arrested falsely,
beaten, hung on that cross. If our Lord could suffer for his faith, we have to
reckon that sometimes we will too. But notice, it says, that's why I mean
when you look at Scripture and try to learn from it, notice the words. It says,
"if we suffer." That doesn't mean as a Believer, you're going to suffer from
the time you get saved till the day you die, but if you suffer realize that it
helps you to reign with him. "If."
 
Look at the next verse, though. Verse 12, the second part: "if we deny him,
he will also deny us." You saying, 'well, does that mean I'll lose my
salvation?' No, I believe all of these are written to believers, to a believing
Timothy, to Believers that followed him. And sometimes even believers can
deny Christ. You're saying, well that's impossible. Remember Peter? He
denied Christ three times. Felt real bad about it when he was finally faced
with Christ, but he did that. 
 
But he asked forgiveness and got it and continue to serve the Lord. But if
you're denying him, when you get to the Great White Throne judgement, I
don't believe he's going to deny you as his child, as his own. He will deny
that you ever tried to serve him, denied that you were laboring for him.
Deny that you are worthy of any crowns. Deny, you hearing what we all
strive to hear: "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."
 
But it also says, and this is interesting too, verse 13, "If we believe not, yet
he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself." Even if you get to the point,
and this is what the problem was with the early church and that Paul was
dealing with here, was that there were ones coming in that would cause
people to deny their faith. 'You missed the resurrection. Therefore, you
must not be saved' and they go, 'well, maybe I'm not.'
 
And they would stop believing because of one bad instance like that. Or
they would start believing some .. But if they had truly trusted Jesus Christ,
we believe, what? If you trust Christ and you are born again, can you lose

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that? No. Remember, you can lose the fellowship with him, but you'll never
lose the relationship. But even if you stopped believing any, It says he's still
faithful. He's still Jesus Christ. 
 
What else it tells us? Also tells us in verse 14, "... these things put them in
remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about
words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers." 
 
We have to be careful that we don't get so caught up in the minors that we
forget the majors when it comes to scripture. In Titus 3:9, "But avoid foolish
questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law;
for they are unprofitable and vain."
 
I believe that's what he's talking about here when he says to not strive
about words. The Judaizers that'd come in, they try to make the Gentiles
into Jews. 'You got to follow the law.' And they would try to convince him
that. Do we have to follow the law? No, the law just tells us we're sinners.
We're saved by grace, amen? Saved by grace through faith and that not of
yourselves. It's a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. But
he says, sometimes what happens, and I'll be honest? 
 
I'm on Facebook with a lot of different people, religious people,  Christians.
And before I got on Facebook, I was kind of naïve. I didn't realize how
many different areas of belief in different areas there were. Even amongst,
let's just narrowed it down to Baptist, narrow down to conservative Baptist.
I'm amazed at how many different types of things people believe in. And so
we have these discussions. Some of them, they don't .. I usually, and this is
what you should do to.
 
I usually answer with Bible verses if I can. 'The Bible says this.' And
sometimes I get unfriended. Their loss because they're not listening to the
word of God, they're only listen to the part they want to listen to. But when it
comes to fellowship .. no you may believe something about some area of
Scripture and I may believe something different. But what it boils down to -
do you believe Jesus Christ died for your sins? Are you a born-again
Believer?
 
You say, yes I am. Do you know you're going to heaven, a hundred
percent. Have you been baptized? Are you trying to serve God the best you
can? Yes, I am. We can have Fellowship. I mean, brothers and sisters fight
all the time about things. But we're still brothers and sisters in the Lord. But

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just be careful that it doesn't get into the point where you're arguing so
much that you miss the big picture. You can have discussions, but when it
comes to striving, fighting, arguing to the point where you get angry at each
other, now, you passed over that line into sin. Be careful. 
 
It tells us don't strive about these things. 
 
Now, because it says it's no profit and it subverts or perverts the hearer
what they believe. Timothy had that problem because those were trying to
teach people that they neither be Jews, or they were teach them the
Resurrection had already past. So there were discussions about this. 
 
Did yo ever have a discussion with somebody? "How many mosquitoes
went on the ark? Were there termites on the ark. If they were, how much
damage did they do before they finally landed?" You know, those are fun
things to discuss, but if it gets to a point where that's all you want to discuss
with somebody. You don't want to discuss the mercy of God, the goodness
of the Lord, the love that we should have one for another. There might be a
problem, you know what I mean?

VI. Remember What the Main Goal Is: Evangelism

But now, we need to remember what the main goal is. Verse15. 
 
"Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to
be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." 2 Timothy 2:15
 
Talk about verses that caused a lot of problems with people. That's one of
them. I'm going to tell you, to the best of my ability, what it means. Then
you can decide how you're going to apply it to your life. 
 
We start off with that word 'study'. That does not mean an academic
pursuit. You know, when you were in school? You had a test, what'd you
do? Well, most of us .. we study for it, so that we can do well on the
test. We memorize facts and memorize situations. We did all that. That's
study. That's not what this word means. 
 
You know what this word really means in the Greek? Let me see if you can
figure out for yourself. Turn to, in 2 Timothy, turn to chapter 4. Look at
verse 9. 
 
"Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me:"
 

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Now look at verse 21:
 
"Do thy diligence to come before winter."
 
In verse 9 and verse 21, the Greek word for 'diligence' is the same word,
translated 'study' in 2:15. So the words study here actually has the meaning
of 'do your diligence'. Labor, do your best. To do what? To show yourself
approved unto God. So often we want to skip that center part, and many
people look at it and they'll go, "Oh it's up there." They'll go "study blah,
blah blah, blah blah ... rightly dividing the word of truth." 
 
They forget the middle part. The middle part is the important part. Study, do
your diligence to do what? To show yourself approved unto God. Whatever
you do, do it with the thought of, 'Is this what the Almighty wants me to be
doing?' Okay? 
 
The second part describes ourselves the way we should be if we're
approved. "A workman that needeth not to be ashamed." So if you're going
to be approved by God and doing your diligence to be approved by God,
what do you need to be? A workman, somebody who puts effort into
serving God. Does that makes sense so far? Okay.
 
Now, if we're going to be a workman, what are we supposed to work at
primarily? Well, we talked about this before.
 
The day you were .. one day, you were a sinner, the next day you accepted
Christ, your born again. Holy Spirit comes to dwell within you. Your sins are
forgiven. You know you're going to heaven. Why doesn't God take you to
heaven? Why? Because he has a plan for you here. What is the number
one plan for every believer? Evangelism. Sharing the Gospel of Jesus
Christ.
 
Because when you get to heaven, you don't have to share the gospel.
You're still worshipping God. Some people say we're here to worship God.
We are, but that's not the primary thing because we'll be able to worship
God in heaven. You're here to serve him. Well, that's true but that's not the
primary thing because we'll do that in heaven. The primary thing is the
service needs to be number one: evangelism. Sharing the word of God. 
 
So we're to do diligence, study, to be what? To be approved to God? To be
approved to God, we need to be a workman that's not ashamed. And

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remember, we looked at this a few weeks ago talking about not being
ashamed. You're not ashamed when you stand up for the truth of the word
of God. Now, we get to that last part, "rightly dividing the word of truth". 
 
Okay. That word rightly dividing has the idea of dissecting. It was used a
lot to describe making a new road. Let's say you come to, you know, in the
old days, back when everything was trees. There weren't roads anywhere ..
but there was a town and you wanted to make a road from here to the next
town. What'd you do? You figured out the straightest course. Right? And
you just started tearing down everything in your path to make that road.
You dissected the forest to make the road, you rightly divided it.
Why? Because you had a goal. Remember, what's our goal? Sharing the
gospel of Jesus Christ. 
 
So if we're going to rightly divide the word of truth, that means making a
straight path for the word of truth. Now. What is the word of truth? There's
actually two different things we can look at that.
 
Ephesians 1:13, "In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of
truth, the gospel of your salvation ... "
 
Colossians 1:5, "For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, wherein
ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel ..."
 
So primarily what the word of truth is, is the gospel. So if we're going to be
a workman, we need to make a straight path for the gospel. That means
when you're talking to somebody, and they say, "Hey how many fleas were
on the ark?" You can say something like .. you know, you can get into that
discussion.
 
But that's not the primary goal. The primary goal is the word of truth. The
Gospel. You can say, 'You know, I don't really know. Maybe I'll ask Noah
when I get to heaven because I know I'm going to heaven, but how about
you?' You see? The primary thing is make that straight path to the gospel.
No matter what the unbeliever may be asking you, bring it around to the
gospel right away. You can cover the rest of that stuff later on. Rightly
dividing the word of truth. 
 
Now, the word of truth also can mean the whole word of God. You know,
Jesus said "sanctify them by thy truth, thy word is truth". So primarily it's the

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gospel. Secondary, it's the whole word of God. Rightly dividing, making a
straight path for what God meant it to mean.
 
Now, there's a lot of off shoots the talk about different things, but if we just
remember, Our primary goal .. if we want to be approved to God, if we want
to be a workman is not ashamed, we need to get right, straight to the
gospel, the word of truth. Does that make sense? Okay. 
 
{Congregant mentions that John the Baptist was the first to prepare the
way for the word of God.} Yes he was. Exactly. He looked over. And what
did he say? "Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the
world." And all the other preaching. Get to the gospel right away. And see,
and that way you're not discussing things that have no earthly significance.
Now I'll be honest, sometimes they're fun to talk about. Fun to speculate
with other believers as long as you don't get angry. But, especially with
unbelievers, if you want to be a workman that's not ashamed, you need to
work first on sharing the gospel. Know what the goal is. So that's the
general thing.
 
VII. Conclusion
What are we supposed to remember? We're supposed to remember who
Jesus is, first of all. Remember that he is the one that came, died, rose
again so we could be saved. Secondly, we need to remember who we are.
We're the ones who believe, and if we're not careful, we can also deny and
also lose some of that faith. So, be very careful. Then we need to
remember, finally, what the goal is. What is the goal? Tell people about
Jesus Christ.
 
You say, well sometimes it's kind of hard. That's why you shouldn't be
ashamed. Just stand up. Ask the Holy Ghost. 'What should I say?' Years
ago, when I was working at the foundry, I had a guy who was always
asking me Bible questions. And I would try really hard. 'Lord, how am I
going to get this back to the gospel?' Because that's what he really needs.
'Cuz some of the questions were really good and I really want to get going
deep, but I knew that I had to get back to the gospel right away. Do I
always do that? I know sometimes I forget, but most of time that's what we
need to do. 
 
VII. Invitation and Closing Prayer

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Let's bow our heads, shut our eyes. Just for a moment, ask yourself, do
you know who Jesus Christ is? Do you know what he's done for you? Have
you accepted him as your Savior? If you have, then you need to remember
that because he overcame death - you will too! And one day, just like he
was resurrected, we will be too. Just be careful you don't deny him when
things get tough. 
 
Be careful you don't stop believing because somebody tells you something
that's not really in scripture or may only be partly there. Keep the faith.
Thirdly, remember what the goal is. For believer, our goal is to win people
to Jesus Christ. Every person we meet, just ask the Lord, how am I going
to be able to present Jesus to this person? Because honestly, you can
debate with somebody about all the intricacies of the law, all the nuances of
the social law, things that .. but if you don't lead them to Jesus Christ,
they're still going to hell. They could know the Bible front and back. Satan
knows the Bible front and back, but if they don't know Jesus Christ, they
won't be in heaven. 
 
Let's go to the Lord in prayer. You know how the Lord touched your heart.
You know what you need to pray for. So let's all pray together. 
 
Heavenly Father, Lord we thank you for your word. We thank you, Lord, for
allowing us to to look at it. To examine it, place it in our hearts, allow
us Lord to remember what's important. To remember, Lord, to serve you
and that we want to be approved by you, we want to be workman that
aren't ashamed. We want to be those that get the gospel to those who
need it. Thank you in Jesus name, amen.

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