2 Tim 2

It's the little word in the English language, be, and there are several times in this chapter that we look and read about it. I'm just going to read some of the verses. 2 Timothy, please, chapter 2, verse number 1, Paul to Timothy, Thou therefore my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

That's the first one. Verse 2, And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. That's number 2, who shall be able to teach others also.

Verse 4, No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he should please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. That's number 3. Notice verse number 6, The husband, man that laboreth, must be first partaker of the fruits. Down further, verse 11, It is a faithful saying, for if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him.

Verse number 15, Study to show thyself approved unto God. Be diligent, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Here's another one, verse number 21, If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work.

He shall be a vessel unto honor. Now the Lord will bless what our brethren have brought to our attention as we continue. Since we have come to this conference, and this is only the second day, there are at least two families that we know of where a loved one has been taken home to heaven.

One of our good friends from the West and the Vancouver area, British Columbia, Canada, and my preaching brother know the beloved brother. He's just gone home to be with Christ. I used to preach with him for years, and he was a good preacher of the gospel of the grace of God.

Now it's on my heart this afternoon to talk first of all to the mature people in the assembly, wherever you come from. Lovely to see beloved saints of God, male and female, in the mature years of life. But I want to talk to the younger folk, and I don't want to be negative, but I want to be real.

Here brethren, we might as well face it. We are losing ground. Now I want to just bring that message from this passage, and I'll be as short as is possible to be, and you can fill in the further details.

First little thought I have been pondering early today is the setting of this passage. Here is a mature man. He's likely in his middle 60s, Paul the Apostle, and likely in a few days time at the most, he will be in heaven.

He is a real concern for those who come after him, specifically in this passage, young Timothy. Now it's lovely to go over his history. There's not time to do that today, but I want you to think in your mind an older man writing to a younger man, and he's likely at least in his middle 30s.

Some of our brethren put him more than that. He has a message for his heart. Now the next thing I want to was thinking about was the style.

What's this passage all about? Well, those of you who know it better than I do will recall that the Spirit of God directs Paul the Apostle to use metaphors, similes, pictures to get a message across to his younger friend. It would seem that when Timothy read this himself, he got the message. For example, study, be diligent to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

And then just a word about the scribe. Likely when Timothy read the parchment, he remembered a day when the scribe came to his city and preached the gospel of the grace of God. Unlikely in Acts chapter 14, he was one for heaven.

And in chapter 16, he remembered the day when he was encouraged to leave his secular employment and move out with the great Apostle Paul in the second and third missionary journeys of the book of the Acts. Now that will introduce what's on my heart. Let me talk to my senior brethren here today.

I want to ask you in all honesty before God, have you a burden in your heart for the testimony where you're located? And somebody asks, what do you mean? When is the last time you saw a younger man say in their early thirties to take a age group out of the air? Developing. We've heard about that. And has a life to back it up and brought them into responsibility to learn the ways of the Lord.

Now I know the assemblies belong to the Lord Jesus. I understand that. But he's using you and I to develop the light that it will shine brighter until he comes.

My dear sense of God, we must have to face it. I don't know the assemblies very well in Iowa, but I'm looking at a wider spectrum. There are very, very few.

And our older brethren, one by one, have been taken home to heaven. Who's going to fill the ranks? Now, let me address the younger man. You got an interest in the work of God? People say, yeah.

Well, I'd like to ask you something. What is your lifestyle? You're married. You have a family.

You have a responsibility in your place of employment. You might have little ones around your feet. And there's, everyone says, well, we have no time to read the word and become a student of the word of God and to learn the God of heaven and the Lord Jesus Christ.

As our brother Murray has indicated to us already, there's no easy way to this. But it pains our hearts that in the big picture, there are less and less of our rising generation who want to set themselves with their young partner in life to be a help to the people of God. Now, that doesn't mean you have to go full time.

I can give you my own personal experience in a sentence. This very month, 40 years ago, we arrived in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. And at the age of 35, I was encouraged by the shepherds of the assembly to help and to take responsibility along with my beloved brethren.

Every one of them are home in heaven. I took the last dear brother's funeral and invited by himself. I was on his bedside a few hours before he passed into heaven.

You're a young friend today. If God and the sovereignty allows some of the older brethren in your assembly to be taken, now I want to ask you something. Are you prepared? Are you fit to yourself for that day when it will come? Keep your Bible open and I'll just point these out to you.

I won't speak on them all. See how time goes. Ponder the eight references in 2 Timothy 2 on that little word, be.

In fact, there are 13 chapters in our New Testament of the pastoral epistles. And in every one of them, at least once the little word appears. Look at verse number one, for example, of our chapter.

When the older man says to the younger man, Timothy, be strong. My son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. That's number one.

Number two, verse two, faithful men who shall be able to teach, be skillful. Let me address the younger men here tonight, this afternoon. I want to ask you something.

Are you learning the word of God in its context? We were taught by older men to learn scripture in its context. And some are sitting here today and they used to sit in the same places where I used to sit. And we learned from older brethren and had a burden on our heart to be skillful in the word.

Somebody asked you to open 2 Timothy, just say without any notice, could you handle it? Now more about that in a minute. See verse number four, who has chosen him to be a soldier. You see, Paul's encouraging Timothy to be a soldier enrolled in the Royal Army.

See verse number six. Here's another one. He that laboreth must first be partaker of the fruits.

I have called that be a sampler. If you sample your own ministry on your own meditations, brother, sister, have you got something out of your own development in the presence of God alone? Here's another one. Verse number 11, you see the Lord Jesus Christ, since we be dead with him, we shall also live with him.

That ground has been covered. Romans chapter eight, brother William has handled that. Be sustained.

Oh, how dreadful, how needful in our day to be sustained. See 15, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, be a scholar. I understand we can't all be PhDs.

I understand that. But the men that I sat at their feet as a young fellow over 50 years ago, none of them had a college education, but they were skilled in the word and they knew God and they knew his word and they had a love for younger men and they give the put into us a yearning, a desire to read the word. I can hear some of them say, for example, the more you read and study the word, the more you'll want to do it.

The less you read it, the less you'll want to read it. Let me just challenge you right now. Dear brother and sister, honestly, I know you have to all kinds of chores in life to do in the conference and all the rest of it.

So when's the last time you read the Bible? Young husband, when's the last time you read it with your wife and children? These are all very practical observations. And here this man, Timothy, if he's going to mature and develop, he has to learn the B's of this passage. Now here's another one.

See verse number 21, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified and meet for the master's use, be set apart. I understand that on the positional setting, that's true. What we need to enter into practically every day.

And I want to spend a minute, if the clock allows me, on verse number 24. It says there, the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all. Now, young friend, if you don't know the context here, here are men in the assembly in Ephesus, an outstanding company at that particular time.

And the passage shows they're misplacing truth. The resurrection's passed already. Names are mentioned and all the rest of it.

Now here's Timothy, and he's in the center of that. And Paul tells him in his first letter, Timothy, let no man despise thy youth. He's not a teenager.

He's likely at least middle or late thirties. He's had experience. He's been assigned to four assemblies in the New Testament.

This man knows God and he knows his word and he knows how to handle people. You know what he said to him? Be gentle. The servant of the Lord must not strive.

Here's a wee word on the side. No places mentioned, names, no names of brethren, nothing. But we were in a Bible reading not too long ago, and a certain brother made a statement, and the other brethren there devoured him nearly.

They attacked him. That was nothing to do with the person of Christ. It was something that they enjoyed that he didn't enjoy or vice versa.

Dear brethren, you see, whenever you're in a context where men are trying to teach wrong doctrine, you need to know how to handle it. Let me talk to the younger man here for a minute. Dear young friend, whatever knowledge you have and a skill and ability, I want to ask you, do you know how to handle older brethren? Well, we have a very skillful way of getting around it and to say, well, you know, in our assembly, there's a clash of personalities.

And I would suggest for all of us, myself included, we need to know how to address other people. And you need to know how to address sisters too. That's 1 Timothy chapter 5 shows.

Now let me just touch on one or two of these things and let someone else do a little teaching. All right. Young friend, Paul says to Timothy, verse number 1, be strong.

As you all know, the sense of the word is keep on being strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. If young Timothy is going to continue and he's going to have opposition in the Ephesian company, he needs to be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And you can expand that this way.

You see, some dear friends have great ability and skill, but they have very little grace. And I take it that every gift that has been given from the ascended head, Romans chapter 12 shows that there's commensurate grace and knowing how to handle it. My brother Murray here is talking about patience.

Well, that's included. Now I can't go down every statement, but I want to just pick out one or two here. It's really on my heart to talk about verse number 2 of this chapter.

Paul says, Timothy, you know, to paraphrase the idea, you know what I have taught you. And it's in the mouth of witnesses. So the older man taught the younger man.

All you have to do is look at the book of Acts and you'll find out what he did moving through the different spheres of life and all the rest of it. And then what's in view that Timothy will be able to pass on to other brethren, faithful men, the teaching he has learned from the apostle who learned it from the ascendant head, and they will be able to teach others in their day and generation, four ranks. We all know the relay race is likely in the background and it's on my heart today to tell you, dear people, that there's quite a number in the 21st century and they've gone home to heaven of the older brethren.

There are ranks to be filled. Have you been taught by others and in your own thinking and your own exercise and burden before God to get down to the book? We get all kinds of excuses and they say, I'm so busy, Stan, you don't know what you're talking about. I always say to them, welcome to the club.

And I would say to you, younger friends, if you're going to know the word of God and keep all your responsibilities, you'll need to take time in every cycle of 24 hours to read the book and to pray over it and to yearn over it and to ask God to show you what it means and to get others to help you in all the references that we have and availabilities these days. Some of my beloved brethren, it would appear, and I don't want to be unkind, but it would appear that spiritual gift stops with them. They don't want to bring other younger men on.

What about it, brother? What I'm telling you, brother, right there is real. I was in a certain assembly, wasn't I? And the beloved brother is in his nineties, godly man. I've sat at his feet for years, but he can't stand on his feet and he welcomes the folk sitting on a chair.

You think is that right? When you look around the company and you say to yourself, what about all these younger men? Ah, well, the older man says, you know what? There's no younger men in our assembly of any interest. I always say to the older men with all kindness, brother, maybe you're part of the problem. Maybe you didn't bring them on.

Beloved brethren, somebody taught you and somebody taught me or we wouldn't be here today. We might as well face it. And we have an unbounded responsibility to tell others.

I call spiritual gift a flow through. And you see these faithful men, they were able to teach others in the fourth rank. And so to use the idea, some have finished their course with joy and they have passed the baton to the next generation for the next lap and so on to the end of the race.

I'd like to ask you today, dear brother, when's the last time in your assembly that you have encouraged a younger brother that has a burden on his heart and he's not a place taker to help the people of God. Younger men, I'll give you my own personal experience. I was 35 years of age when I was brought into leadership with my wife and three children, little ones.

And every one of the other five could have been my father. And I sat there for a year, 12 months and never said a word. Our daughter, Ruth, she says to me, I can't believe it, dad, that you would sit for a year and say nothing.

Now, younger men, I want to appeal to you. You see, you need to know and learn the ways of God. An older man taught us, we have to teach others.

And if you forget everything that I have got to say today, oh, can we get it a home to your heart? Will you take an interest in divine things? I said to my brethren in the West, we can't make younger folk live for God. You see, again, I don't know Iowa well enough, but we have a thing that's affecting our testimonies across the world and it's sport. I can remember godly men of a former day, brother Albert McShane, for example, brother David here sat at his feet.

He used to tell me, Stan, you'll never be any good if you're going to put your emphasis and strength in the sport world. Before I was saved, I loved sport. I would have played 24 hours a day, but I found this out, that you can't do both.

God help you this afternoon to make choices. And to every choice, there are consequences and we're needing you and the assemblies are needing you and the Lord is needing you. Are you prepared to listen to what others have taught that you and your turn will be able to help others.

Now, let me just pick up on another one here. See, I'll just deal with verse number 15 to follow on. Be diligent, show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Now, I know that personality comes in here. Let me say this. If you read the first letter, the first Timothy, you find out that his personality was choice for sake of putting the point across.

He likely was an introvert and the apostle was inviting them to stir up the gift that was given to him and recognized by the presbytery and the apostle and himself, all the rest of it. Now, I want to suggest that Timothy wasn't a pusher. He wasn't pushing himself to the front, but the older man and others could see this man is God's man.

He has a tremendous future. Now, if he's going to be successful, he'll need to know the word. And I pointed out to you that in the context, these people have gone wrong in the resurrection.

They have misplaced truth. They have affected others. Timothy, if you're going to be successful and effective, you'll need to directly divide the word of truth and all the similes that that brings us into.

And we have often pointed out and we'll point it out again. If you don't know in this context, the Bible can say anything. But I want to tell you that this young man took the older man's advice.

How do you know? Listen to what Paul said about him. Philippians 2, I have no man like minded who would naturally care for your estate. What a man.

I think we could say he had a shepherd heart. He was sent to Thessalonica, a young company that were grieving. He was sent to Corinth, where there were carnal believers.

He was sent to Philippi, where there was a difficulty between two sisters. I tell you, that's not easy to handle. And he was sent here to Ephesus, where they went Roman doctrine.

Well, why was he sent? Well, we call him an apostolic delegate. He's assigned by an apostle, directed by God to help in any given situation. What a man was young Timothy.

My own dad used to say to me whenever I was in my twenties, was in the assembly and preaching and all the rest of it. He used to say to me, son, you'll never be any good for God until you start to read the word and get to know God and let the legitimate things take second place. I want to ask you today, young friend, are you up for it? Can you see the need? And if you have a burden in your heart that the spirit of God has given you and you have a desire, that's first Timothy chapter three.

If any men desire, the work, it's not a position of a shepherd. He desires a good work. Keep at it.

Let me just say a word or two at the end here now. I'll have to leave these other things that were on my heart. I want to talk about verse number 24.

The servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle. I want to tell you, brethren, Timothy was no pushover. Timothy knew God and Timothy knew the ground.

And as he would teach and as he would look around the company, like chapter five of first Timothy, looking for those that would be useful in future service as under shepherds, he would say, now, Timothy, take a very close look. Lay your hands suddenly on no man. Now I'll give you an example of this.

See, Timothy could have been a striver, but he wasn't. He was a gentleman. When your name comes up, brother, in the assembly or a conference, do the people all know, well, brother, so-and-so is a gentleman.

That's very important. That's what Peter says. Be courteous.

So there are other things. I'll just say this. If Timothy was assigned to handle these two women in Philippians chapter four, I wonder how he would do it.

Timothy was a godly young man. And Paul can see that when he leaves for heaven, he has a big responsibility on his shoulders. And there's Titus, there's Titicus and Titus and Trophimus and all the rest of them, 17 names in second Timothy chapter four.

And when Paul is going home to heaven, he has a grip behind that he is encouraged. And the work of God went on. No interruptions.

That's the way it should be. And so he's saying here now, it's God that will grant repentance in this particular section of the chapter to those that have gone wrong. And you have to be courteous.

Now, dear brother, I want to tell you this, as I said to him. There was an assembly in the West, large assembly. This beloved brother, he still is a friend of mine, by the way.

And my older brethren said, there's a man ready for leadership. He had a lot of qualities. But you see, whenever his name came up, there was a reservation.

And here's the bottom line. Some of the brethren said, we should wit we way. And somebody else says, why? Because this brother has a short fuse.

Maybe you don't have that problem here. And it took three years to manifest it. And sad circumstances arose where right away he was disqualified.

And others were hastening in. That's what I've told you. Timothy is to lay hands suddenly on no man.

Some sins go beforehand. Others follow after. And so the Lord helped us not to strive.

How do you get along in your oversight meetings, dear brethren? I know it's none of my business. And our assembly, we were there the other Tuesday night. And a very delicate matter come up.

And they're all younger than I am, except one brother. And the correspondent says to me, Stan, we need your help, man. Would you just step in here? And the item was dealt with in the fear of God.

God could have used anybody. But I thank God I was there that night. And the dear brother got a fair hearing.

And today he's in assembly fellowship going on for God. Go and help us. Not easy to handle some of the things.

Sure, it's none. Maybe you might be annoyed at me. But I have tried in the right spirit to challenge all our hearts, myself included.

I'm very concerned in this country and other continents that we're not seeing the younger men coming on that should be. Go and ask yourself why. God help you and help me.

30 minutes are up to do what's right and to encourage where we can. And don't dump somebody forever, but work with them that maybe God has a future for them. Thank you very much.