• don’t resent/do remember
• seven marks: foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved, malice, envy, hateful

• but…
• seven marks in one sentence: kindness, love for man, save, regeneration, renewal, justified, heirs

• “The Bible’s message, however, is that the gospel is just as necessary for the Christian as for the unbeliever. We are to base the ‘duty’ of discipleship on the gospel, resulting in the practice of a Christ-based acceptance with God and a Spirit-energized approach to the pursuit of holiness. The so-called duty of discipleship then becomes a joy and a delight even though it requires vigorous effort. So learn to ‘preach the gospel to yourself’ every day, and in the joy and strength of knowing your sins are forgiven and sin’s dominion is broken, press on to become holy as He is holy.” (Jerry Bridges)

• reference to incarnation
• not just a divine attribute but a divine person
• an “admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies”
• not just a past event but a continuing experience
• bringing salvation

• training…
• negatively: renunciation of ungodliness and worldly passions
• positively: inward, outward and upward

• waiting
• blessed hope
• affirmation of the deity of Jesus
• grace then glory
• principle of substitution
• purchased, purified, possessed
• resulting passion

• Let yourself be awed continually by the wonder and worth of Jesus.
• Let the reality of grace fuel your passion to please God.
• Let the “anchor of your hope dangle out of heaven.”

♦ public proclamation
♦ sacred trust
♦ grace and peace

♦ reputation
♦ purity
♦ family
♦ character
♦ teaching

• structure of governance
• significance of doctrine
• satisfaction of leaders
• centrality of God

• an ongoing responsibility
• “seasons of violence”
• identification of “last days”
• people/men: within the church
• a nineteen-point description!

• the context for “avoid”
• “keep on making yourself turn away”
• “creepers” who target women
• Jannes and Jambres: seduction and rebellion
• folly exposed
• contrast: “you, however…”
• followed: accompany, conform by conviction
• ministerial duties, personal virtues and experiences of suffering

• “remain” with what you have “learned”
• knowing the “whom” and “how”
• the inspiration of Scripture: God-breathed
• the OT-77% of the Bible and NT (Gal. 1)
• the implementation of Scripture: profitable/sufficient
• teaching, reproof, correction, training…
• the impact of Scripture
• purpose: adequate and enabled

• Recognize the fact of spiritual warfare
• Aim to develop a discernment based on the objective truth of Scripture
• Commit yourself to continuance and saturate yourself in Scripture
• Affirm the inerrancy, sufficiency and practicality of Scripture.

• Remind…charging…
• catastrophic impact of false teaching
• the exercise of diligence
• presentation for inspection and approval
• “cutting straight” the Word…
• avoidance of “empty chatter”
• our firm foundation

• objective of usefulness
• vessels of honor and dishonor
• sanctified…useful…ready…

• flee and pursue
• avoidance of foolish controversies
• correction with a view to repentance
• more than facts…

In answer to the barren Hannah’s prayer, God gives her a son, Samuel. Hannah promised the Lord to give the child back to the Lord “to appear in the Lord’s presence, and to stay there permanently.” When Samuel was about three years old, Hannah presented him to Eli at the Tabernacle in Shiloh where Samuel began his service to the Lord.

God’s unique call to Samuel came deep in the night while he was asleep in the Tabernacle. At first, Samuel did not understand it was God calling him. He mistook the voice of God for the voice of Eli. When Eli instructed Samuel in how to reply to the Lord, Samuel responded to the Lord’s call with the words: “Speak, your servant is listening.”

Through Samuel, God confirmed his prior prophecy to judge the wicked sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas.

Summary statement of Samuel’s growth to maturity, his prophetic standing before all Israel, and the Lord’s regular revelations of his word to Samuel to be delivered to the people.

• date/place: 66-67 from Rome
• author: Paul in his second imprisonment and near the end of his life
• recipient: Timothy the young pastor in Ephesus
• overview: hold on to it (1), teach it (2), abide in it (3) and preach it (4)

• identification
• greeting
• affection
• affirmation

• gift of God
• laying on of hands

• given by God
• not fear
• power, love and self-control

• therefore…
• don’t be ashamed
• saved and called…
• death abolished and life brought…

• Paul’s settled conviction
• supernatural security

• follow “healthy” words
• Spirit-driven stewardship

• Assess your source of security
• Evaluate the stewardship of your gift
• Adjust your perspective on suffering
• Treasure the truth

• godliness: reverence, opportunistic piety
• not what you think…

• If I just had…
• the curse of covetousness

• nourishment and covering
• the key to contentment
• no one and no thing…

²³Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. ²⁴And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, ²⁵correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, ²⁶and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.

3. V11 Command and teach
4. V12 Set Example
5. V13 Devotion to Scripture
6. V14 Rest Assured
7. V16 Consistency

“In former centuries, the period between the Reformation and our fathers’ time, the tendency of the Protestant Church was very largely to let the conception of religion as a body of truths overshadow everything else. And nowadays, amongst a great many people, the temptation is to take the second story for the main one, and to think that if a man loves, and has the glow at his heart of the conscious reception of God’s love, and has longings and yearnings, and Christian hopes and desires, and passes into the sweetnesses of communion with God, in his solitary moments, and plunges deep into the truths of God’s Word, that is godliness. But the true exhortation to us is—Do not stop with putting in the foundations of a correct creed, nor at the second stage of an emotional religion. Both are needful.”

• implied pre-existence
• unfathomable condescension
• acknowledged deity

• presence of angels
• proclamation to peoples
• near and far

• trusted in the world below
• taken into glory above