LISTEN
This sermon was preached by Andy Kenyon at the CCM Kingsway site of Christ Church Manchester on Sunday 7th February 2021.
SERIES
This message was part of the ‘SERIES NAME’ series, preached at Christ Church Manchester’s church in Burnage in EARLY/MID/LATE YEAR. The full series included the following sermons:
BIBLE VERSES
This sermon was based on 2 Timothy 3:1-17.
1But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.
6They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over gullible women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, 7always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. 8Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these teachers oppose the truth. They are men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. 9But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.
A Final Charge to Timothy
10You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, 11persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. 12In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
KEY POINTS
Continuing in Truth is Vital
- Hopefully as Christians we are comfortable with the idea that there is a single truth – found in the gospel, which is revealed in Christ and explained in the Bible. We are also familiar with the idea that truth leads to freedom and life, whereas lies lead to death.
- The Bible repeatedly warns against false teachers and those who oppose and distort the gospel. There are also people who teach all sorts of untruths who genuinely believe that they are being faithful to the Bible – they themselves have been deceived – and in doing so they deceive others.
- We have to be on our guard if we are to continue in truth, because there are times when we become more vulnerable to the enemies lies. Truth enables us to counter these lies of the enemy. It’s vital that we are guided by truth, because the alternative is to be guided by feelings.
Continuing in Truth is Both Costly and Rewarding
- Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Notice how it’s not just some people, but everyone.
Have you ever been put on the spot? Perhaps it was about whether Jesus existed, or whether all religions lead to God, or maybe it was on a moral issue. In those moments you know that continuing in truth is costly because we live in a culture that is often hostile to Biblical truths.
You might get shunned, overlooked for a promotion or labelled as ‘intolerant’ or a ‘bigot’. It would be easy to fudge the answer and say what people want to hear instead. - Many have paid with their lives, either for professing that Jesus is Lord, or for standing up for some other biblical truth that stood at odds with the prevailing culture of the time.
- The fullest, most real truth that we can ever know, experience and live for is a person. So ultimately when we talk about continuing in truth we are talking about continuing in Christ.
- The New Testament emphatically assures us that those who are in Christ – those that follow him – can and will endure, and that continuing in truth is ultimately rewarding.
How do We Continue in Truth
- Read and study the bible. When you are familiar with what God has said to us through His word, it’s much easier to spot when something contradicts or opposes it. Read the Bible and see what God’s truth looks like.
- Submit to the Bible. There are bits of the bible that are hard to understand or that we find hard to stomach. There are bits of the bible that clash with our culture, and even bits that clash with our own sensibilities. However, all Scripture is God-breathed. Not just the bits that we like. That’s because ultimately it’s God’s word, not ours
- Be in Community. Away from community you become much more vulnerable because you don’t have others encouraging you. Without community you don’t have people leading you to truth and helping you to continue in truth. Community helps you when truth is costly, and encourages you to pursue the reward of continuing in truth.
- Be careful about what you consume. Be discerning about the stuff you read, watch or listen to. Remember that everything has a message and that message will either subtly or un-subtly be preached to you. Most forms of entertainment that we consume will to one degree or another be preaching the prevailing narrative of our culture to us.
- Allow the Holy Spirit to use the Bible to change you. When our minds are renewed we are changed and we want to continue in truth. Our thinking becomes tuned to a different wavelength and we start to love and live in the truth of God’s word more and more. This helps us to not be led astray or be deceived.
MORE SERMONS
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