The Apostle Paul is continuing his letter here to Timothy, In chapter number two, Paul wants to encourage Timothy and let him know that part of being in the ministry is that he’s going to have to endure hardness.

Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 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. Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully. The husbandman that laboureth must be first partaker of the fruits. Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things. Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel: Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound. Therefore I endure all things for the elect’s sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him: If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us: If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself. Of 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. Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness. And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus; Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some. Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work. Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes. And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.

2 Timothy 2:1-26

Minsistry is hard

Paul wanted to know that the ministry is hard, and if you’ll be honest, you know that the ministry can be hard, there’s a lot of opposition to the ministry.

a lot of times people in the ministry don’t do the things that you would prefer that they would do:
maybe you don’t get supported in the way that you think that you ought
to be supported and different things along those lines.

What it means to be a good soldier

the Apostle Paul likens us to soldiers, and as a soldier, you have to stay on point; you have to continue on you’re calling, you have to continue on the task that you have been given. You have to endure hardness, you have to endure through that hardness you have to continue
working and laboring through the hard stuff.

Not just when it’s easy, Paul wanted Timothy to know that the ministry is hard, but we are not in the ministry for convenience’s sake. We are not in the ministry because it is easy, we are not even in the ministry because of our own calling. We are in the ministry because of what the Lord has called us to do.

No matter what happens to us in the ministry it is encouraging to know that
the word of God won’t be bound.

The Apostle Paul made mention of the fact that the word of God is not bound, it doesn’t matter what we go through it doesn’t matter if it’s fair or if it’s not fair, he said there in 2 Timothy 2:9:

Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound.

2 Timothy 2:9

That’s something that we can learn from the Apostle Paul. Paul did not allow his circumstances to dictate whether he preached the word or whether he didn’t preach the word, he
always looked for openings and opportunities to preach the word.

Even though he was suffering as an evildoer, not that he was an evildoer, he was
being falsely accused of being an evildoer. You see that all through the book of Acts as he is going on his missionary trips.

As he is going through these different areas, remember when he was in a Phillipi he was accused of sedition basically and they cast him into the prison. What did he do while he was in prison? They cast him into the deepest part of the prison, into the dungeon, in the worst part that you could possibly go to. While he was down there, he sang praises unto the Lord.

In doing so, some miraculous happened, the other prisoners were able to witness and see, how
it is that he went through things, just like we are told in 1 Peter 3:15:

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:

1 Peter 3:15

Proper response to suffering

As we go through suffering, the context of 1st Peter chapter 3 is suffering.

as we go through suffering and people see that we take it differently than they normally do, as a Christian we are supposed to go through suffering differently than the rest of the world goes through suffering, we’re supposed to go through suffering differently were supposed to go through the good times differently, we are supposed to be different than the world.

We are a called-out assembly, the Lord says come out from among them and be ye, Holy. That’s what we’re called to do. So when we go through suffering, if we go through it appropriately, because we can go through suffering with joy because Joy is something that comes from within us.

Joy is different than happiness, a lot of times people want to look at things and they want to equate joy and happiness as meaning the same thing, but they don’t. Happiness is based on a happening, it’s based on what is going on in your life, whether you’re happy or not happy depends on your circumstances, but you can have joy regardless of your circumstances.

You can have joy in the midst of your suffering because you can look at it like the Apostle Paul did even though he was suffering, even though he didn’t deserve it, even though the accusation was false, he was being put into places and into situations and circumstances that allowed him to preach the gospel to preach the word of God, and otherwise, he may not have gotten those opportunities with those individuals or even if he did, because they were in a different situation in different circumstances, maybe they would not have been as attentive to the word of God.

Encouragement through hardness

It’s encouraging for us as Christians, to know as we are in the ministry, that even when we go through suffering, the word of God is not bound.

The word of God still goes out, it’s also encouraging to know that if we suffer with the Lord we’re going to reign with him as well. Keeping that in mind is going to help you to stay in the fight.

A lot of people want to give up, they want to throw in the towel, they want to quit because it’s hard, because they are suffering, and somehow they perceive that if they weren’t living for the Lord they wouldn’t be suffering so much which is a fallacy, there’s no evidence that would point to that at all.

But if we keep in mind the fact that we are being promised here, that if we will suffer with him we will also reign him as it says in verse 12:

If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:

2 Timothy 2:12

That’s not denying us our Salvation, that is denying us our opportunity to reign, that’s what is being dealt with in that verse. So if we will suffer with him, if we will go through suffering, if we don’t throw in the towel, if we won’t quit, if we don’t give up and decide to go back to the old life, if will go through the suffering and will stay committed and loyal to the Lord and to his cause, he says that the reward that we will get for that is we will be able to reign with him in his millennial kingdom.

Consequences of refusing to endure hardness

If we refuse to do that, if we quit, if we throw in the towel, if we decide that we’re not going to go to church anymore, we’re not going to witnesses anymore, we’re not going to read our bible anymore, that’s going to hurt your relationship with him, it’s going to kill your fellowship with him, but you still have eternal life.

The bible says that we have eternal life, it’s a current possession, it’s something that if you have placed your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, that you currently have:

These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.

1 John 5:13

Eternal life is something that you already have so it’s not something that you can lose. You’re not going to lose your salvation, but you’ll lose the opportunity to reign with the Lord that’s what’s being dealt with there.

Why it’s important to study the word of God

So knowing are these facts, should encourage us to follow the command that we have here verse number 15 which of course is the only place in the Bible, that you are commanded to study the word of God.

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

That verse gives you the command to study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, in other words, if you don’t study you will be ashamed. We should study the word of God so that we can fulfill our calling and so that we don’t get derailed as Hymenaeus and Philetus did.

Hymenaeus and Philetus were fooled into thinking that the resurrection had already happened, that the resurrection was just talking about the resurrection Lord Jesus Christ that it was just a spiritual resurrection and that there wasn’t a future resurrection to look forward to.

We know that there is a future resurrection to be looking forward to, but they didn’t realize that they didn’t understand that, why? Because they refused to study the word of God and they didn’t know the scriptures.

The only way to protect yourself from false doctrines is the study the word of God. If you refuse to study the word of God regardless of how solid that you may think that you are in your faith
you will be susceptible to being fooled into believing things that just quite simply are not true
you have to study the word of God, that is a command that we are given.

we need to study the word of God because the ministry is hard, we need to study the word of God because that’s the thing that’s going to enable us to endure hardness.

Our hope at Irvington Bible Baptist Church is that this podcast provided some encouragement and has helped you to develop a closer relationship with the LORD Jesus Christ.