Hold Fast To Sound Words
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Greetings…
Today, we are going to be turning our attention to the inspired second letter written by the great apostle Paul to Timothy who Paul had left in Ephesus to preach and correct the Judaizing teachers there, amongst other issues that had happen.
Within this second and likely last letter Paul wrote is a powerful command of Paul to his “son in the faith” Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:13-14.
13 Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 14 By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.
Let’s take a moment and look at this for our lesson today.
Sound Words
Sound Words
What Are Sound Words?
What Are Sound Words?
The Greek word for “sound” here is “ὑγιαίνω” i.e., hygiaino which means…
It comes from the literal meaning of “being in good health” and where we get our English word “hygiene” from.
Thus, the meaning of this word here is to be “healthy i.e., free from error, be correct.”
The Greek word for “words” here is “λόγος” which we are all very aware of as Jesus is called the “λόγος” in John 1:1.
It means in its most basic meaning, “the contents of communication.”
In the case of our text it is specifically speaking of God’s word.
When we combine these we find that “sound words” here is dealing with the error free word of God.
This is significant because most in Christendom do not believe God’s word is error free.
I’m not saying they do not profess such but the in practice and principle do not believe such.
Let me explain.
If someone teaches that it is wrong to have a woman preacher say like the Baptist teach and yet also say that the Methodist are right in teaching that women can be preachers you cannot believe the bible to error free because they are direct contradictions that are being presented as right.
Either one is right and the other wrong or they are both wrong and need to find the right but they simply cannot both be right and be direct contradictions to each other.
Summary
Summary
The soundness of God’s word is important for us to understand.
We must know God’s word is error free and act accordingly, which brings us to our second point…
What Are We To Do With Sound Words?
What Are We To Do With Sound Words?
Hold Them Tight.
Hold Them Tight.
Let’s look again at 2 Timothy 1:13.
2 Timothy 1:13 (ESV)
13 Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
2 Timothy 1:13 (NKJV)
13 Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.
2 Timothy 1:13 (NASB)
13 Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.
This word here in the Greek is “ἔχω” or “echo” and it means in this context…
“to seize, i.e., to have a grip on something”
In other words, we are to have retain a firm grip on God’s error free word.
What does it mean to have a firm grip on God’s error free word?
It means we cannot be ok with simply “feeling like” we know something from God’s word.
I cannot tell you the number of times I have heard our brother or sisters tell their neighbors who tell them “they simply feel they are right” that God’s word demands us “know we are right and not rely on our feelings.”
And then they turn right around and ignore the very thing they have just said when trying to justify their own beliefs.
To have a firm grip on the error free word of God i.e., to “hold fast to sound words” means we must actually “know the truth” and not just “assume the we know the truth.”
Nadab and Abihu assumed they knew the truth but didn’t and died.
1 Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them. 2 And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.
Paul, before he was an apostle, assumed he knew the truth about this man named Jesus but he didn’t.
1 But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 3 Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him.
4 And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” 5 And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. 6 But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.”
We cannot be like those that “assume” they know “sound words”, no we must be the people that actually know the sound words of God.
In order for us to have a firm grip on God’s error free word we must as we just read, “rightly handle the word of truth” or as Paul told Timothy in our text…
Find Their Pattern.
Find Their Pattern.
Our heavenly Father and architect of the word (1 Corinthians 2:10-16) has always told his people to seek the patterns of sound words he has given us.
We see this from early on wherein God demands his people follow his pattern perfectly.
14 Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. 15 This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark 300 cubits, its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits. 16 Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above, and set the door of the ark in its side. Make it with lower, second, and third decks.
22 Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.
9 Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so you shall make it.
4 And this was the workmanship of the lampstand, hammered work of gold. From its base to its flowers, it was hammered work; according to the pattern that the Lord had shown Moses, so he made the lampstand.
As God’s children today we have a responsibility to find the patterns within God’s word also known as “biblical hermeneutics.”
This simply means the “science behind studying God’s word” and though we certainly do not have time to go through this thoroughly today, we can look at God’s demand for us to study and study properly.
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.
17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Not only must we understand God’s word is error free and that we must have a firm grip on it, and seek out its pattern but once we have that firm grip on the truth discovered by studying the patterns we must…
Guard Them.
Guard Them.
In 2 Timothy 1:14 Paul writes…
2 Timothy 1:14 (ESV)
14 By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.
When we learn the truth there is a reality that comes with that.
We now know and can differentiate between good and evil.
14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
This means we have been given a greater responsibility now.
We must not “choose to ignore truth.”
Hebrews 10:26 (ESV)
26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins
We must guard God’s word in our heart to keep our pathway pure.
9 How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word.
11 I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.
We must continually be consuming and longing for God’s law.
20 My soul is consumed with longing for your rules at all times.
Summary
Summary
When we truly grasp the fact that God’s word is error free, and as such we must have a firm grip on the patterns set forth that prove God’s word as true, and guard that with all our heart, we then can, as John put it…
1 John 5:13 (ESV)
13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Holding Fast To Sound Words is a blessing not a curse.
However, knowing God’s word and not hold fast to it most certainly is a curse.
17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
Let us each of us here not be satisfied with simply “feeling like we know something,” but rather let us hunger and thirst for the truth of God’s word and seek to rightly handle it.
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.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. 33 But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny 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.