Beware of Enemies (2 Timothy 4:14–15)
[ UNEDITED SERMON TRANSCRIPT ]
Well, you may be seated. of this great, great little epistle, Paul's last will and testament, talking about safeguarding the faith, passing the baton to his protege, his son of the faith, which is Timothy, saying, hey, Timothy, you're in a difficult, difficult church, and yet God is good, he's on the throne, And he's encouraging him. He's motivating him. Even at the end, and he's in this Mamertine prison facing execution, so he's awaiting the end of his life as well, but encouraging us. Now, today we're going to talk about opposition. recognizing there are enemies that are against us, sometimes in the church and sometimes outside the church. But do you ever get up in the morning on Sunday morning and feel like everything is going against you to get to church? Has that ever happened to anybody or just me every now and then? Because I got a total routine. I'm a routine guy. I get here at 6.30 every Sunday morning. I've got my routine. I go through. I get my little, you know, my... sermon out, and I just circle things and tweak things and scratch some things out, get ready. Then we have a little prayer time. I make sure everything's ready for the service, walk around a little bit to the campus and see everything's going.
Well, when I left at 8 a.m. 10 today to come over here next door. I walked around my desk and my little top drawer that you write little notes on was sticking out and it hit me right here in the thigh. I mean, really, really hard. So hard that I was like, wow, I can't believe my pants didn't rip. This is incredible. So I'm like, oh, good. I'm good to go. So I come over here, and I'm meeting some of the gals who are the greeters here. And one greeter, eagle-eyed greeter, says, Pastor, you're bleeding in your leg. Look how much blood's down there. I'm looking down, and there was a whole splotch of blood. I mean, just all the way through here, dripping down. And I'm like, you've got to be kidding me. How come my pants didn't, oh, what am I going to do? I don't have any other pants. I don't have time to go home. And so I had to, I'll tell you what I did later. I'm not going to tell you what I did. But anyway... But you can tell what I did worked, okay? So I got under the sink in the bathroom and got it all out of there, took the blow dryer out of the baptistry and everything worked well. A little bit drippy on the first service, but nobody noticed and that was good.
But what happened was, as soon as I got everything good, I'm coming over here, and it's about quarter till 9, and that's a little late for me to get over here to the building. And I walk outside. It's raining, and I have my Bible and my pad and my phone with me. And I walk out the door, and the corner of my hand hits the door, and everything goes flying, everything. My Bible's upside down. This is my preaching Bible. My phone just flipped around. My tablet I'm preaching on just bounced around and flat, face flat on the ground. no, what in the world am I going to do? Am I going to be able to preach? Is this thing going to work? And I had to go inside, get it all dried off, and I'm like, okay, Lord, is this you testing me, or is Satan coming against me? He doesn't want me to preach this message, or am I just reading too much into this whole thing, and I'm just a dork and shouldn't have gone out the door the way I did, you know, to get over here? I mean, who knows, you know, but God uses it, and I made it. I'm whole. I got a Band-Aid on here. The blow dryer's back in the baptistry. Everything's back in order. We're good to go.
So now I hope you're ready to go because this message, I think, is very important for us in our day and age. And I think what Paul says at the end of his letter, even though you're going to read these two verses and go, man, what are you going to get out of this? Well, listen, I can tell you this. God's word is rich. I mean, you can't even begin to plumb the depths of what God says in his word, even in some of the narrative sections like we're looking at at the end of this letter. As Paul's signing off, he's got all his friends. He's got some enemies along the way. He's going to talk about one today. But he's really trying to mentor Timothy. And he's trying to mentor the church of Jesus Christ. That's us.
Every single one of us in this room are going to feign opposition at various levels and to various extents. And I hope you're going to see that today as we read together. So let's read these two verses here, verse 14 and 15 of chapter 4. If you don't have a Bible with you, you can look it up on your phone. Or if you can't look it up on your phone, there's a Bible in the seat back in front of you. Follow along here. It says this, verse 14, "'Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm.'" Two verses, incredible meat for us to chew on today. Because we live in a world where we are living against the grain. Just being a Christian, even if you're not totally fired up and living it the way you should be living it, you're living to some extent against the grain, against the beliefs and the philosophies and the isms of this life that are completely divergent from what God says.
And so we're going to talk about the fact is what does that opposition look like in your life? Maybe you're saying, man, I don't have any opposition. I'm feeling good. This is great. I love this Disneyland cruise with the Bible. It's awesome, you know. Well, maybe you're not living it the way you should be living it. Because we're going to see some things today and I think learn some things today about opposition. And one of the sad realities is there's going to be opposition in the church. I mean, God told us that in Acts chapter 20 when Paul's saying goodbye. I've spent three years with you Ephesian elders. I'm saying goodbye to you, but I got some warnings for you. I want you to know that Satan's going to creep in in ravenous wolves and false teachers who are going to come into the church of Ephesus and they're going to come up through the leadership. Be on guard. And this is exactly what he's saying to Timothy. And this is what we see all over the Scripture is God tells us those things, those important things for our life.
But what's crazy is sometimes the church of Jesus Christ can get so petty in maybe our little squirmishes that we might have within the body that you think, okay, Satan's taking advantage of this. I remember a story I read years ago, and I looked it up. It was about 2015. This gentleman named Tom Rainer, who used to be the executive vice president of Lifeway Resources, a Southern Baptist convention organization. Then he started and founded this Church Answers, and he provides answers and research for pastors and ministry workers and things like that. Well, I remember 10 years ago, my eye caught this title, which just fascinated me, and I wanted to read what he said. It was this, 25 Silly Things Church Members Fight Over. And after I read the article, I was just like, wow, we can be so petty. We can be so silly. We can be so absurd about the things that really don't matter.
But what shocked me was this guy Tom Rainer says, I was shocked because I put it out there on Twitter to say, hey, can anybody in the church just let me know what are some of the things your church has fought over? And it was unbelievable. He said he got hundreds of responses, and he put the silliest and the most absurd in a list of 25. Now I'm going to read just a few of them that I think are the craziest, but listen to this. One church had an argument over the appropriate length of the worship pastor's beard, and it was dividing the church. They wouldn't have to worry about that here. We might have to kick Mac off the eldership maybe. Another church had an argument and a vote to decide if a clock in the worship center should be removed. Are you serious? Who cares? Who cares? Except for you guys who, you know, look at your phone clocks, you know.
Here was another one. Here's the church fight. A petition to have all church staff clean-shaven was put out in the church. Really? Or what about this one? A dispute over whether the worship leader should have shoes on during the service. Well, of course he should. I mean, that's just a no-brainer, isn't it? Who wants to have that smell while you're singing? And what about this? One church was fighting over the type of coffee and decided to move to a stronger blend. Now listen, wait a minute. I mean, this is totally stupid, but some members left the church over it. Are you kidding me? Or what about this one? An argument broke out in the church on whether the church should allow deviled eggs at the church meal. They're good. I love those deviled eggs, aren't you? Oh man, those are so good. Have them every Easter. Is that right or is that wrong? I don't know.
And then this one, there was a disagreement over using the term potluck instead of pot blessing because Christians aren't into luck. Okay, is that absurd? Is that silly? Is that petty? Of course it is. I mean, can you imagine Paul writing about that, saying, hey, Timothy, make sure you guys serve the right coffee, you know? Listen, he doesn't deal with any of that stuff because that's all the stuff that Satan wants us to get focused on. So we have these little inside skirmishes that don't mean anything except distract us away from the greater mission of the Lord Jesus Christ. What really matters is the gospel. What really matters is God's word. What really matters is how we live that life in a way that's going to honor God and shine the light in the midst of darkness.
Romans 12, verse 18 says this, if possible... as far as it depends upon you, be at what? Peace with all people. Isn't that interesting? Is that even possible in a crazy world in which we live in? When he says everybody, not just people in the church, that's one thing, but everybody. I mean, everybody's fighting about something. You talk about social media or anything else, there's fights everywhere. But we as believers live counter-culturally. We work hard to avoid peace-breaking moments, maybe over the insults or the wrongs or the disrespect someone might bring our way. We embrace the reality that you and I are part of the problem sometimes because saints still sin. So don't play into the social media trends of victimhood. Everybody's a victim now. Don't be the one who's always offended. Never believe it is always someone else's fault.
We learn from Peter in 1 Peter when he's writing a letter to some scattered saints because they're on the run because of the Neronian persecution. Nero was blaming the fires of Rome on the Christians and everybody was buying it so they were persecuting them to the point of even killing them. So they're running for their lives. And here is what Peter said. Listen to this. He says, above all, keep fervent in your love for one another because love covers a multitude of sins. He said, let's focus on what really matters. We need to be fervent in our love. We need to be caring for one another, encouraging one another. But you can't be fervent in love if your focus is on the faults and the weaknesses of others. We've got to focus on our own issues first. Someone is not going to like you. Someone is not going to like me, whether they're right or whether they're wrong reasons, because we live in a fallen world.
This is reality. God tells us what we need to know, and he tells us there are going to be people who are going to slander us. There's going to be people who oppose us. There's going to be people who don't want to listen to us. They're going to hurt us. They're going to post lies about us. And here's what Jesus said. In this greatest sermon ever preached, the Sermon on the Mount, here's what he said. Blessed are you when people insult and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you. Did you hear that? Blessed are you. Really? Because of me. Rejoice and be glad for your reward in heaven is great for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. I mean, that sounds outrageous, doesn't it? To say, hey, there's a blessing when you suffer for my sake.
Jesus said in John chapter 15, the night before he went to the cross, he said these words, if the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you. And Paul said the same thing to the Philippians. He says, let it is an appointed for you not only to believe in him. Listen to this. It's been appointed for you to suffer for his namesake. And part of that suffering is going to be opposition just because you believe in Christ, just because you live the light in the midst of darkness. Maybe you stand up for truth when nobody else will and everybody hates you for it. Jesus said, I say to you, love your enemies and do good to those who hate you. So we'll have our enemies in varying degrees and extents.
And I don't know if you've noticed this, I'm sure you have, but our world, our culture is becoming increasingly hostile to the things of God. to what God designed, to what God established, to what we stand for in our beliefs. If I just say in the public arena that I believe that God's design is for heterosexual marriage, there's going to be some grief. If you say, I believe in two sexes, male and female, and there are no other, you're going to have people who will not want to talk to you or maybe try to cancel you. If you believe that you say, I believe all abortion is wrong because I believe life begins at conception and that's God ordained. There's going to be people who don't want to hear that, but not only don't want to hear that, they're going to oppose you in some way.
But these are things we believe because God's told us this is the truth. And then how we behave, how we live out forgiveness and compassion and kindness and goodness. But because of these offensive and insensitive beliefs, people are going to dislike us and slander us and threaten us. So basically, the truth is, if you follow Christ, you will rub people the wrong way. Now, that's not our goal. That's not what we want to do. Who wants to do that all the time? Who wants to always be opposed all the time? But listen, if you're going to live for the Lord Jesus Christ, there's going to be some of that because not everybody appreciates the fact that they see light in the midst of darkness that exposes their sin for what it is.
So we learn some very helpful truths about handling opposition from Paul's closing words in these two verses about Alexander the coppersmith and about what he said about accountability before God and what he says to Timothy about being on guard. Listen, the world says fight back. Don't let them get away with anything. Stand your rights no matter what. Sue them if you have to. God has a better plan, and I want you to see that better plan right here in three things that we see in this text that we just read. Number one is this, is know there will be some spiritual opposition. Well, that's what I've been talking about the last 10 minutes. There's going to be a reality there. This is nothing that should surprise us. It shouldn't be strange to us. It shouldn't be caution.
I mean, we're living in a very unique cultural moment right now where there seems to be more opposition if you're a Jew and if you drive a Tesla and if you support getting rid of waste, fraud, and abuse, or if you criticize Hamas sympathizers, it seems like the world's going to come against you. That's where the culture is right now. But opposition against our faith is not anything new for disciples of Jesus Christ. We're repeatedly told to expect it. Again, Peter, writing to scattered believers, said these words, Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you. Now listen to this. As though some strange thing were happening to you. It's not strange. It's normal. It's normal. The Christian life is never, ever described as a cakewalk. And there's going to be suffering. There's going to be trials. There's going to be the demons that we talked about last week who desert you, who are your right-hand people, and all of a sudden they desert you. They're gone.
And then we obviously know there's three perennial enemies that God tells us in the faith that are always going to be attacking. Until Jesus comes back, these are always going to be there. You've got Satan and his demons who are going to come after you. You've got the world system of evil that is completely against the faith. And then you've got thirdly, your own fleshly lusts that are going to be tempting you and driving you away. And we fight those enemies with the tools that God has given us. But there's going to be opposition. Opposition, right? Opposition. So what I'd like to do with this first point is draw out some theological, I think, framework that I think will be helpful because the question that we want to ask is, how do we process this opposition? Where is it? What's triggering it in my life?
Well, I think there are four possible biblical answers to that. I want you to see number one, sometimes this opposition is sovereignly ordained. God is the sovereign one ordaining and overseeing providentially everything in our life. An example of that is God triggering that. As he told Paul, when he was converted on the road to Damascus, previously coming against the believers, now he's a believer himself. Here's what the Lord said. He said in Acts chapter 9, I've chosen, you're a chosen instrument of mine to bear my name before the Gentiles. I think he was excited about that. This is great. My life's been changed. I'm going to preach the gospel. But then he got the second point. Here's what the Lord said, I will show you how much you must suffer for my name's sake. And that's exactly what happened the rest of his life as an apostle of Jesus Christ. Wherever he went, he was always opposed. He was in jail. He was being beaten. He was being left for dead. He was, you name it, there was opposition, slandered. So sovereignly, God ordains that. It triggers that opposition.
A second thing would be satanically motivated. Satan is going to try to just upend your life with opposition and kind of dull your excitement and try to diminish that and discourage you. Well, listen to this. Peter thought he was doing a favor for Jesus Christ when Jesus asked, who do men say that I am? And they gave some answers. And then Peter says, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus said, wow, Peter, that is right. But God gave you the answer. You didn't come up with that with yourself. And a few moments later, you find Jesus saying, listen, you guys, I'm heading to Jerusalem. I'm going to suffer there. I'm going to die there. And then I'm going to rise again. And Peter goes, oh, no, you're not. No, no, no, no, no. We're not going to let that happen. And what did Jesus say? Get behind me, Satan. Satan was using an apostle of Jesus Christ to try to upend the purposes of God. So satanically motivated, that could trigger opposition.
Thirdly, senselessly self-inflicted measures could trigger opposition. You're just doing stupid things. You're not acting like a Christian. You're going too far out of the world. Listen to what Solomon said. He told us that a fool displays folly. A fool is ignorant and careless, and a fool will quarrel. You say, what do you mean foolishness? Well, Christians can be foolish. We can be foolish when we act obnoxious or rude or critical or unforgiving or harsh or condescending or judgmental. You can bring that kind of opposition into your life that you shouldn't have brought into your life.
But then the fourth thing I see in Scripture that brings opposition to our life is just being a saint and living like a saint. And you provoke that. This is Paul's life. Godly living will expose the sinful underbelly of lifestyle of beliefs and choices and false teaching and teachers. If you look at your page up there in verse 12, indeed, verse chapter 3, verse 12, indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. There's going to be opposition. It's going to happen.
So now who is this guy in verse 14, Alexander the coppersmith? Well, we know he's mentioned four times in Scripture. He's mentioned two times in the book of Acts in chapter 13, and he's there in Ephesus with Paul, and there's a riot that's breaking out. in the city of Ephesus, and apparently Alexander was brought forth so he could speak. Well, the crowd didn't want to hear anything from a Jewish guy, and so they started yelling and screaming for two hours. Artemis or Artemis of this, I can't remember the exact phrase anyway, but they were just screaming for two hours so it would drown him out. So we know in some way Alexander was a ministry partner to Paul, and so then we find next years later, in 1 Timothy 1, we find, uh-oh, Alexander is not living out the faith and he's not repenting. He and Hymenaeus have been delivered over to Satan in church discipline. They're in the last of the stage. They're letting him go. And so now we see this Alexander guy who's this metal worker who's against Paul. He leaves Ephesus and apparently comes all the way to Rome. And based on the wording that we see right here in this text that says, Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm. It seems like while Paul doesn't specify the specific harm there, he does use the words and the way the word is written. One of the commentators I read said this. His name is George Knight. He said this. It may be that Paul mentions Alexander here because the harm he did was to have Paul arrested. He had Paul arrested. The word used here for what Alexander did was used as a legal term meaning to inform against, and Paul notes that Alexander vigorously opposed our message. So not only did he fall away from the faith, now he was being a tool to be used, if this is the same Alexander, and it seems to me it is, to intentionally undermine and get rid of Paul. What an opponent.
John Calvin said of Alexander, quote, no class of enemies is more dangerous than this, unquote. You say, well, wait a minute. I mean, the enemies of the church, I mean, they're the worst. I think he has a point here. You know why? Because Christianity is the only religion that has the truth about reality and everything. I mean, if God's revealed himself in the word and he's the God of all gods and he's written this scripture through 40 different authors to us and we have it this many years later and it's the word of God, we know the reality of what life is all about, its purpose, our need and the sin that we have and our need for forgiveness and eternal life. And we have the ministry of the Holy Spirit. We know all these details that God has given us. You better believe this is something that is a high class and danger of enemy. He was misrepresenting the truth of God's word, which was blasphemous. And he was misrepresenting the apostle Paul, which was blaspheming God's mouthpiece of God. Writing 13 of the letters. If you go back, we don't have time, to 1 Timothy 1, verse 20, he talks about, he listened, hi, Menaeus and Alexander, I've delivered over Satan, and here's what he says, so that they will not blaspheme. They're blaspheming God against the truth and against the truth of God in Paul's life.
Let me share with you a little bit of lengthy commentary that was written by John Phillips, who is a guy I love listening to. He's from England, has his greatest British brogue, and he would always come to this Jacksonville conference that I went to for many, many years, and just a great preacher. Here's what he said in this section. He said, quote, The Jewish community in Rome, though powerful in its own right, might have been glad to have the spotlight removed from them and focused on the Christians. And so in Acts 18.2, we know the Jews had tasted Roman anti-Semitism and were always nervous about it. Nero was well acquainted with the Jewish community because he had married a Jewess. During their more compatible moments, Nero might well have listened to her Jewish views. And perhaps Nero welcomed and encouraged Jewish Alexander. And his sneers and his slanders might have been a balm to Nero's guilty soul during his crusade against the Christians. And Nero might have been nervous about confronting Paul and might have wanted Alexander's help in the trial. And Paul was no pushover even to Roman Caesar. Listen, all that to say... The important thing is that we're going to be facing some spiritual opposition, and Paul had it fiercely because he was an apostle, fiercely because he lived for the Lord, fiercely because sovereignly God ordained it, and Satan was bringing out all the stops. And he's telling Timothy, listen, I'm passing you the baton, buddy. Listen, there's going to be a fight. There's going to be a fight. You're going to have some enemies.
So let me ask the question this morning, what about you? Do you find any opposition to your faith? How are you living out that faith that might bring some opposition? So we need to know there's going to be some spiritual opposition. Secondly, we need to know that there's going to be a sovereign accounting. This is very interesting to me. The very first thing Paul said after he said he did me much harm is he said these words, the Lord will repay him according to his deeds. I mean, Alexander was unjust. He was unfair. He was slanderous. He was intentional. He was hurtful. So what does Paul do? Wow. This is amazing.
You know what Paul could have done? Paul could have rallied all the Christians to march against Rome in protest, right? No, he didn't do that. You know what Paul could have done? He could have tweeted out a coordinated attack against Nero's immoral personal life, which was widely known, and tried to bring him down as the emperor. No, he didn't do that. He could have written a letter to the imperial regime calling Christians to stop paying their taxes for all the waste, fraud, and abuse in Rome and its unjust treatment of Christians, but he didn't do that. He could have contacted the best team of Jewish attorneys that he could find to devise a defense that will overturn his unjust conviction, and he didn't do that. He could have sent his ministry team all over the Roman Empire to appeal to every key leader to use their political capital to call a reversal of his conviction, and he didn't do that.
What's amazing to me is it simply said, hey, God's going to take care of this. God's got this. God's the ultimate avenger. Listen, Alexander is going to face the Lord by his deeds, and his deeds are not giving a great testimony. Paul was resting calmly in the ultimate reality. He didn't need to devise his own deliverance plan because he was committed to God's will and God's way and God's word. He knew what the Bible said in the Old Testament. In Leviticus chapter 19 verse 18, listen to this. You shall not take a vengeance nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbors yourself for I am the Lord. Well, it seems to me that's what he was doing.
He remembered Deuteronomy 32, 35, vengeance is mine, and retribution in due time their foot will slip. He knew what it said in Romans 12, verse 19. Why? Because he wrote it. He said, never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine, and I will repay you. Listen, Paul left the vengeance in the hands of God. And listen, if you know anything about Paul, and you do because we've been going through these letters together, Paul was passionate about the word. He was passionate about the gospel. He loved the ministry. It seemed like it didn't even move him that he was thrown in jail, that he was beaten, that he was stoned, and everything else, that he was slandered. It didn't seem to mean anything to him because he said, I'm living for another day until the Lord takes me away. Nothing was going to stop him. He wasn't thinking about vengeance.
Listen, the Lord won't forget what Alexander did, nor will he forget what we have done or someone's done toward us. He's the righteous judge, isn't he? He never forgets. He's going to right all the wrongs. Romans chapter 2 reminds us the righteous judgment of God will render to each person according to his deeds. Listen, can I say this because the scripture just said this, that you and I can never have a revengeful moment in our lives. We're not allowed to do that. Now we're going to be tested. We're going to be tempted. Maybe in our thoughts, maybe in our actions. That's just out of play for us. All revenge belongs to God. It's not us. It's countercultural revenge.
And we know this. We talked about this a couple weeks ago. Both believers and unbelievers will be judged by their deeds. Believers are saved by grace through faith apart from your deeds. But then your deeds begin to manifest the truth about the faith you claim to have. And the unbelievers will be judged by their deeds. So don't miss this truth. Only a believer, only a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ can do deeds, listen to this, which are acceptable to God. Did you get that? Only believers, because now we do good deeds before any good deeds we did as an unbeliever were good bad deeds. They weren't done for the glory of God. They weren't done by the power of the Holy Spirit. They were done because we wanted to do it or maybe we wanted to feel good or whatever. It could have been altruistic. Only deeds done for the glory of God and done by the power of the Spirit are acceptable to God.
So yes, good deeds can be done by believers, only believers, if done for the glory of God and by the power of the Spirit, and for the good of others. But listen, this is sad. Unbelievers, good deeds. And listen to this. Unbelievers have great good deeds that we benefit from, our church benefits from. the world benefits from because God has made that common grace to all people. But those good deeds will not be acceptable to God at all because we're not saved by deeds. We're saved by grace through faith. Now, if you struggle with this, I'm going to suggest that you probably don't realize just how unrighteous you are and we all are. I think one of the problems we have in theology today is that it's not low enough or high enough.
You say, what do you mean by that? Well, here's what I mean. We don't see how low we really are as corrupted sinners in mind, soul, word, deed, and body. And we don't see how high God really is as holy and perfect in all his ways. And the gap is huge between the two. And by the way, there's nothing wrong with wanting justice because we're made in God's image and he's a just God. And so we have a sense of justice built in us. There's nothing wrong with that. Even using some of the avenues that what God would give us in the land that we live in. But then why are you doing that? What's your pursuit for? What's the purpose? You know, we could all be crying out, I just want justice now. I just want justice now. Listen, we don't always know what is best. We know there's going to be ultimate justice.
Here's Paul saying, listen, I've been slandered. I've been beat up. I've been thrown out for dead. And I understand that. And I could have maybe gone. I mean, he used his Roman citizenship to be able to be heard in his case. He took that. Didn't turn out well for him. He took that opportunity to perhaps maybe get some justice that way and didn't turn out well. But God was sovereign. But all revenge and thought, word, emotion, and deed is sin. You know, I confess, you know, one of the challenges that I face is when I'm just driving down the road in life, and then there's some crazy driver that's weaving in and out and causing everybody to stop and go and stop and go. And so there's something inside of me that just wells up almost every time I see that, and I have this desire to want to drive, catch up with a guy, get in front of him, and just slow down.
Now, that's revenge, right? I shouldn't want that, and so I've got the invisible Holy Spirit in me convicting me, and then I've got my visible wife next to me saying, uh-uh, right? But I think we all maybe are tempted sometimes with this fleshly lust that want to take things in our own hands and maybe bring justice to a situation, and there are times and opportunities to do that, but how we do that makes a big difference.
We have a testimony today. Listen, to know that our Savior experienced, listen to this, the greatest travesty of justice when he suffered and died on the cross and didn't deserve it, but we did and we weren't there. We weren't on the cross. We should have been there. But to know he experienced that travesty of justice for us by God's full ordained plan, even at the hands of responsible unholy sinners who did it and they're guilty for it. Why? So he could bring to us an undeserving deliverance for our sin against him. That's amazing to me. You see, he's the Lord of revenge and he's going to repay. Alexander is going to receive what he deserves. We got in Christ what we don't deserve. And that's available to anybody and everybody. But notice, I don't detect any malice. I don't detect any spite in Paul's words. He's just reminding Timothy, just put it in God's hands. God has this ultimately in the end. Vengeance is mine. I will repay. But we've got to remember this. Romans 14, so then each one of us will have to give an account of ourselves to God. And so we trust God will right every wrong perfectly.
So number one, we learn from this passage that there are going to be some spiritual opposition that we all face. Number two, we learn that there's going to be a sovereign accounting. We can put it in the Lord's hand. He's the avenger ultimately. Number three, we learn this. Know there will be some steady watchfulness needed. You're going to have to have your head on a spiritual swivel at all times in this life because the enemies are always attacking. Satan, the flesh, the world system, and then anybody else they use to oppose us in different ways. Paul was the consummate teacher in word and example, and he knows how vital it is to be on guard. So you find things like this in the Word. Beware. Do not be deceived. Be on the alert. See to that no one misleads you. Keep your eye on those. Be on guard. All these warnings all around us because God's saying, listen, I want you to make sure to understand you're living in a dangerous world as a Christian.
Peter said these words in 2 Peter 3, verse 17. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard. Why? So that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness. You know, usually you'll see words at the end of a letter where they're saying, you know, Paul is obviously the big one. He's always saying, hey, send my greetings to so-and-so and grace and peace to you and that kind of stuff. Well, it's interesting. John, when he writes his first letter, doesn't end with anything except these words. Listen to this. John 5, verse 21, little children, guard yourself from idols by... He ends with a warning. He ends with something he knows that can trip us all up, and it's getting our focus off the Lord, who's the only true God, into these phony little idols all around us that distract us.
So how can we stay on guard when the snakes are in the coil, ready to strike at any moment? Well, let me close with these three truths that you all, I would say in this room, if you're a believer, you know these things. These are the ABCs. But again, these are the important things we need to do. Number one is this, know the truth of God. If you live in willful ignorance, you're setting yourself up to be a casualty. You're setting yourself up to be a target. Easy prey. Let's pick this guy off. He doesn't even know what he doesn't know. And so the Bible says in Colossians 3.16, let the word of Christ richly dwell within you. So let me ask you a question this morning. How is it richly dwelling with you? Are you reading your scripture regularly? Are you thinking about it? Are you memorizing it? Are you studying it? It's an amazing thing.
Jude put it this way when he was writing against the false teachers. I mean, his whole letter, very brief, is all against the spiritual terrorists that were trying to get into the church. And here's what he says to us. He says, but you, beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith. He's referencing, listen, the way you're going to build yourself up is this most holy faith. It's the faith. It's that body of truth that defines our faith. What is that faith? It's unique in the truth it contains because it gives us all that we need to know about the most essential truths, your purpose for life, your design in life, your God, your Savior, your forgiveness, the fulfillment of your life, your loyalty, your family, your lifestyle, your future. It gives you all these details that are essential for our life. So it's unique in the truth it contains, but it's also unique in the transformation it produces.
I mean, I love 2 Corinthians 5, verse 17. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. We're a new creature in Christ. We're brand new. God's done a radical transformation in our heart. And here's what Colossians 2.10 says. You have been made complete in him. Now think about that. Do you believe that this morning? Do you accept that? Because I know what you're thinking is I think the same thing sometimes. Wait a minute, complete? Man, I feel like I'm a mess sometimes, Lord. I'm not complete. There's a lot of holes in this boat. It doesn't feel like the whole package. And yet what he's trying to say, in our... spiritual, standing before him, we have the whole package that he's given to us. And now what do we do with the rest of our life? We open that package and we let that package flow out of our lives into Christian living.
So we proclaim, or excuse me, we know the truth. Secondly, we live out the truth. Now, this is important. Watch this. Here's what James 1 says. But prove yourselves doers of the word and not merely hearers, now listen to this, who delude themselves. Have you ever been deluded in here? I have. Because I know a lot of things about the Bible. I've studied the Bible almost all my life. And there are times when I'm not living out the Bible and I'm deluding myself. That's what happens. It makes you pray sometimes for the enemy. And we've got to live out the truth in our thinking and our feeling and our speaking and our living. So we know the truth. We live out the truth. And thirdly, here's the big one. You've got to proclaim the truth. Who are you telling about this truth that's in you that's changed your life? Maybe it's in your family. Maybe it's at the gym. Maybe it's at school. What do you proclaim? Well, Titus 2.1 says, proclaim the wisdom of God's truth. Speak the things that are fitting for sound doctrine. So we talk about the things. This is why we encourage one another. This is why we have the one another is because we can counsel one another. We encourage one another. We can pray for one another. I can share from an experience I had from God's word and say, here's what God's word says in your life. Here's how it worked in my life. That's the body life. But the second one's a little bit harder, and this is what Paul's doing with us right now, and that's proclaim the warnings of God's truth.
Titus 1.9, Paul left Titus in Crete, a very difficult area for a church, and he says, I want you to set up the leadership there, and here's what I want you to do. These leaders, and he's got all these qualifications, and he says this, they need to be able to refute those who contradict. Yes. Do you have the ability, if someone's telling a lie about the Bible that they don't know is a lie, to be able to help them see that's not the truth? Because let me tell you, lies are everywhere about Christianity. Everywhere. This is why we see it on every other page, it seems like, in 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus. Jude. Paul called out Alexander. Paul called out Hymenaeus. Paul called out Phagellus, Hermogenes, Philetus. Jesus called out the Pharisees and the scribes. And here's what's interesting to me. God reserves some of the most vivid and stark terms that you could use for people who are misrepresenting God's truth. Listen to the list. Here's the list I've been collecting. He calls them liars, enemies of the cross of Christ, evil workers, dogs, ravenous wolves, savage wolves, unreasoning animals, deceitful workers, men of depraved mind, imposters, evil men, rebellious men, empty talkers, deceivers, stains and blemishes, accursed children, unprincipled men, springs without water, mist driven by a storm, hidden reefs, clouds without water, autumn trees without fruit, wild waves of the sea, wandering stars, deceitful spirits, grumblers, mockers, and antichrists. When I was growing up, my parents used to say, don't call anybody by any names. Well, look what God's calling those who misrepresent the truth. You know why? He's passionate about not being misrepresented because you will know the truth and the truth will what? Set you free. Satan knows that. So we know the truth. We live out the truth. We proclaim the truth.
So listen, stay in the game. Knowing opposition is going to come one way or the other. And if you don't have any opposition in your life, then let me just encourage you to examine your faith a little bit. Maybe you're hiding it. Maybe you're not speaking up when God gives you the opportunity. Maybe you're just not living it out. Maybe you're just blending in with others. Listen, we're not calling anybody to be obnoxious or rude. We're just calling people to live the light. Stay focused on the Lord whose opposition, when opposition comes in whatever form, and don't be reactionary. Listen, here's what God says. Love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you. Overcome evil with good. Bless them and curse not when they curse you. Wow. Wow. And remember, the true avenger is coming and he'll repay. So stay on guard at all times because your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.
Now listen, since everyone in this room and everyone in this life will have to give an account of ourselves to God, are you ready for your accounting? There's two groups of people here today. There are people who are in Christ. They know the Lord Jesus Christ. They've accepted him as Lord and Savior, and it's real. It's genuine. I love the Lord. I want to serve the Lord. I'm not perfect, but I'm growing. Well, the Bible says you're going to face a judgment of rewards. But if you heard today and you haven't yet accepted the Lord as your Savior, your Lord, you're not following him, then you'll be facing a condemnation ceremony unless you agree to the fact that you are a rebel, you are a sinner, you deserve the wages of sin. and you recognize that Jesus Christ is the only Savior who can give by his death and his resurrection, can give you everlasting life and the full forgiveness of sin if you put your faith in him as that Savior.
Colossians 3:14
Romans 12:18
1 Peter 4:8
Matthew 5:11-12
John 15:18
Philippians 1:29
Luke 6:27
2 Peter 3:17
1 John 5:21
Colossians 3:16
Jude 1:20
2 Corinthians 5:17
Colossians 2:10
James 1:22
Titus 2:1
Titus 1:9
1 Corinthians 15:9
1 Corinthians 6:11
Lamentations 3:22-23
Acts 7 (general reference)
Acts 8:1,3
1 Corinthians 16:13-14