Approved And Unashamed
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Greetings…
The apostle Paul in his final days writes two letters to his “son in the faith,” Timothy.
It is a very familiar passages in that second letter that I would like us to consider this beautiful Lord’s day.
15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
v
Rightly Handle God’s Word
Rightly Handle God’s Word
Cut Straight.
Cut Straight.
The Greek word for “rightly handling” in the ESV or “rightly dividing” in the NKJV is “orthotomounta.”
It literally means to “cut in a straight line.”
It is a compound word from “straight” and “to cut.”
This word came to mean “to analyze and be guided accordingly.”
I’m sure many of you hear have heard the old saying “measure twice and cut once.”
In other words, you analyze the measurement until you are certain it is accurate and then you allow that analysis to guide the path of your cut.
Thus, Paul is telling Timothy, for one to present himself or herself before God as one seeking approval and being unashamed they must “analyze properly and then be guided by that proper analysis” concerning the word of truth.
One of the greatest lies Satan has ever achieved in the history of mankind is to get humanity to believe that God’s word does not need to be rightly handled or properly analyzed.
How many times have you heard from those that call themselves preachers and teachers of God’s word say something to the effect…
“We are all headed to the same goal, heaven, but we are all on different paths.”
This is the cry of those that do not want to admit that God’s word is truth and therefore singular in meaning.
When something is true there is no variations in it’s conclusion.
It is true that 2 + 2 = 4 and if someone says that this is simply not true we know they are either mentally incapable of understanding truth or they are unwilling to understand truth.
Now when it comes to God’s word, God is not “the author of confusion.”
33 For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.
God did not give us his word with various and different interpretations depending on a persons intelligence and emotions but that which is “truth.”
Jesus said God’s word is truth.
17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
Jesus said, because he created us with the ability to use analyze his word and determine the truth…
John 8:32 (ESV)
32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
Paul literally calls God’s word truth in our text.
2 Timothy 2:15 (ESV)
15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
Summary
Summary
When it comes to God’s word we cannot afford to measure only once and assume we have determined the truth of God’s word.
We also cannot assume that any “man” “preacher or not” is guaranteed to have rightly handled the word of truth.
Trust but verify should be every Christian’s motto when it comes to hearing the word of God taught to them.
Now let me break this down in a way we have all witnessed.
There are many groups that say the bible teaches “that it is sinful to stop women from being preachers.”
There are also many groups that say the bible teaches “woman cannot be preachers because it is sinful.”
There are many groups that say the bible teaches “humans can perform miracles today.”
There are many groups that say the bible teaches “humans can no longer perform miracles today.”
And yet 99% of these groups that claim to rightly handle the word of truth will turn around and say even though “such and such group” is sinning by having a woman preacher or not we are all simply on a different path to the same place heaven and are all teaching “truth.”
Now everyone knows this isn’t true because everyone knows what truth is.
No one is ok with getting the wrong change back and the teller telling them “the change I gave you is true based on my truth.”
So to be able to present ourselves to God as one seeking approval we must rightly analyze God’s word.
We must also then allow that proper analysis to guide us or as Paul told Timothy to help us to…
Do Your Best
Do Your Best
Zealous Devotion.
Zealous Devotion.
Again the idea of the Greek word here is to zealously devote oneself to being found approved by almighty God.
The apostle Paul, when he was allowing Stephen to be stoned to death and actively seeking to through men and women in prison for being Christians, did so with a zeal for God.
1 And looking intently at the council, Paul said, “Brothers, I have lived my life before God in all good conscience up to this day.”
Philippians 3:6 (ESV)
6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
The apostle Paul understood that zeal alone is insufficient.
Romans 10:2 (ESV)
2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.
There is no doubt that zeal or being fervent in spirit, is required of God’s children.
11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.
But that zealous devotion or fervent spirit must be guided properly.
Matthew 7:21 (ESV)
21 Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
If God teaches that women are to be silent when it comes to preaching in the worship assembly then anyone teaching others wise is not teaching the truth.
1 Corinthians 14:33–34 (ESV)
33 For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints, 34 the women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says.
12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.
If God teaches that baptism does save then anyone teaching baptism has nothing to do with salvation is not teaching the truth.
1 Peter 3:21 (ESV)
21 Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ
Mark 16:16 (ESV)
16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
Summary
Summary
Brothers and sisters, ladies and gentleman, we simply cannot present ourselves as approved unto God if we are not zealously devoted to the rightly handled word of truth.
Now, this does not mean we will be perfect in every way in our zeal and devotion to the word of truth and the expectations laid down for us.
But as we have already looked at, Jesus was clear, “we can know the truth.”
John 8:32 (ESV)
32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
Conclusion
Conclusion
No we will not be perfect nor will we perfectly handle the word of truth always.
But if we are “doing our best” always and “doing our best to rightly handle the word of truth” this will be accounted to us as righteous.
Invitation
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.
8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.