Sermon Archives

Our series in 2 Timothy has been all about “guarding the gospel” but how do we do that? Should we hide it and lock it away in a safe place? No! In chapter 4, we discover that we guard the gospel by faithfully and consistently preaching it!

So far we have seen the reasons we need to guard the gospel: persecution from the outside and deception from within. Now, in 2 Timothy 3:10-17 we discover the RESOURCES we need to help us continue.

In 2 Timothy 3:1-9, Paul paints a sobering picture of a group of godless people. More than that, he warns us to expect such people to infiltrate the church! They will pretend to be believers, and exploit the most vulnerable. What should we do about such a terrible threat? Paul provides a surprising answer.

One of the big reasons we need to ‘guard the gospel’ is the threat of false teaching. In 2 Timothy 2:14-16, Paul begins to explain how to handle this threat.

Having been called  to “guard the good deposit” of the gospel (1 Tim 1:14), we now see how important a focus on the future is for that task.

Would you rather… be ashamed of the gospel OR suffer for it? Those are the only two options according to 2 Timothy 1:8-18.

As he writes to Timothy, the Apostle Paul is nearing the end of his life and is about to pass the baton to his young protege. Likewise, we are called to carry the gospel faithfully in our generation. In 2 Timothy 1:1-7 God provides the motivation we need to do this.