THE PASTORAL EPISTLES: GOD'S DIRECTIVES FOR HIS UNDERSHEPHERDS

III.  II Timothy: Church Ministry Amid Hardship

C.  Preserving Biblical Beliefs By The Indwelling Holy Spirit

(2 Timothy 1:13-14 et al.)

 

I.               Introduction

A.    Christ in Matthew 13:24-43 taught that a great spiritual war exists in the discipling of people, and those who minister God's Word risk falling for Satan's lures to turn from Biblical beliefs unto error. (2 Timothy 4:1-5)

B.    Paul in 2 Timothy 1:13-14 provided guidance on sustaining one's Biblical beliefs by means of the indwelling God the Holy Spirit, and we view it and related Scripture passages for our insight and edification (as follows):

II.            Preserving Biblical Beliefs By The Indwelling Holy Spirit, 2 Timothy 1:13-14 et al.

A.    Paul called Timothy to view as the "prototype, standard" (hupotuposis, Arndt & Gingrich, A Grk.-Eng. Lex. of the N. T., 1967, p. 856) of "healthy, sound" (hugiaino, Ibid., p. 839-840) words he had heard from Paul in the faith and love that is in Christ Jesus, 2 Timothy 1:13.  Thus, the words of the Apostles are what we believers are to view as the standard for Biblical truth, and we have accordingly established in other lessons proof of the canonicity of the 66-book canon of the Protestant Bible based on the Biblical apostles' words.

B.    Timothy was then to "guard, protect" (phulasso, Ibid., p. 876) the good thing entrusted (paratheke, Ibid., p. 621) to him, that trust being the sound teaching he had received from Paul and the apostles, and do so by way of the Holy Spirit Who "indwells" (enoikeo, Ibid., p. 266-267) us believers, cf. Romans 8:9b; 2 Timothy 1:14. 

C.    To know HOW to guard the truth through the Holy Spirit, we view other Scripture passages on that practice:

1.      First, the believer must stay in spiritual fellowship with the Holy Spirit to experience His guidance:

                         a.        To fellowship with God the Holy Spirit, we believers in Christ must realize that God is totally in alignment with His Word, the "light," and in Him is no violation of His Word at all, no "darkness," 1 John 1:5, Isaiah 8:19-9:2.  Thus, to fellowship with the Lord, we must "walk in the light," ordering our lives in complete alignment with God's revelation in Scripture, 1 John 1:7. 

                         b.        If a believer fails to obey Scripture to any degree, he is out of fellowship with a holy God and must confess it as sin so the Lord can forgive him and restore him to fellowship with God, 1 John 1:9.

2.      Second, as one fellowships with the Lord, the Holy Spirit provides a variety of ministries in the believer's daily experience that work to keep him aligned with Biblical truth (as follows):

                         a.        The Holy Spirit causes believers to recall Bible passages to guide believers with their truths, Jn. 14:26b.

                         b.        The Holy Spirit teaches the believer truths he needs to learn for his welfare if he does not yet know them (John 14:26a), often using other godly teaching believers to provide him this instruction, 2 Timothy 3:14.

                         c.        The Holy Spirit causes the believer to discern false teachers to keep him from their errors, 1 Jn. 2:18-27.

                         d.        The Holy Spirit illumines Scripture's truth so the believer can understand it, 1 Corinthians 2:13.

                         e.        The Holy Spirit equips the godly to be shielded from needless abuse from ungodly people by causing the godly to  discern spiritual truth where carnal believers and the unsaved cannot do so.  The godly can thus discern the false spirituality of carnal believers and the unsaved around him, equipping the godly not to entrust himself to the ungodly lest he needlessly be abused by them, 1 Cor. 2:14-15 with John 2:24-25.

                          f.         The Holy Spirit causes the godly both to will and to do what God wants, Philippians 2:13.

                         g.        The Holy Spirit may guide a believer by blocking his path in some way like He did in Paul's case in Acts 16:6-10.  God wanted Paul to cross the Aegean Sea from Troas over to Macedonia, so the Holy Spirit blocked Paul's path in every other direction he tried to go except in his heading down to Troas on the coast of the Aegean Sea.  God then gave Paul a vision of crossing over that sea to minister in Macedonia.

                         h.        The Holy Spirit often leads believers in line with precedents: at the First Jerusalem Council in Acts 15, the Apostle Peter relied on his Acts 10:1-48 experience "in the early days" (Acts 15:7 ESV) of the Early Church of seeing God justify and the Holy Spirit indwell uncircumcised Gentiles as the basis for urging the Acts 15 council in its time not to require Gentile believers to be circumcised in order to be saved.

 

Lesson: Timothy was to view apostolic teaching as the standard for authoritative Scripture and to guard his commitment to that teaching by properly relating to and relying on the ministry of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

 

Application: (1) May we view the apostles' teachings as the standard for authoritative Scripture, thus adopting the 66-book canon of Scripture as the authoritative Word of God.  (2) May we fellowship with God the Holy Spirit that we might experience His various edifying ministries that work to preserve our commitment to Biblical truth.