Be Strong in the Grace of Christ
2 Timothy 1:1; 2 Timothy 2:1-2 · Mike Doyle · Aug 2, 2026
2 Timothy, No. 13
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/82262317124478

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

just to probably put us in perspective. The first lesson was 2 Timothy chapter 1 and we worked through the first two verses, Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God according to the promise of life in Christ Jesus, to Timothy, my beloved son, grace and mercy and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ."

And the last question we had from last week that we didn't cover was, the question is, what does the promise of life in Christ Jesus mean? Now it's your turn to answer. the promise of life in Christ Jesus as an apostle according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus. We could say it this way, with the promise of life in Christ Jesus goes the provision for its proclamation. Hence the apostle is proclaiming, you shall live through Christ. That's what he's doing. is an apostle according to promise. That's what Vincent said. So Paul was the one person whom God revealed that believers would share the resurrected life of Christ Jesus upon belief in his person and work.

So I think we probably don't talk enough about that, that we have an entirely new kind of life hadn't been around before. It is exactly the same life that the resurrected Christ has and there's a promise from God that you'll have that. So when do we get it?

You have it right now. Yeah, we have it right now. Basically, that finishes the first lesson. All right, lesson two. You see I have slides. What do you think? So let's see if I can make this work right. So now we're going to look at chapter two, verses one through five. The verse starts, you therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. So not only do we have the life, but now he says you, who's talking to who here? Paul is talking to Timothy, okay? You all right, Wayne?

I'm going to turn that fan off. You could crack the door if you wanted to. Will it come up through here? I'd rather hear this than that. Yeah, that is annoying, isn't it? There's another way to do it. Did it shut off? Can you hear me in the back row? You okay? A little hard? Okay. Does that work? Are those on? They're not on. Okay. I'll try to talk louder. I know I have a soft voice. It's because I'm old. That's exactly what she says.

You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. So that's verse 3. And questions On your sheet, if you have the sheet, it says, Paul's concerned about Timothy's conduct under pressure. Is he? And why? The word for you, the first word there is su, which is a pronoun in the second person, which means you. It is used to put emphasis here on what he's saying to Timothy. He's really emphasizing a point that's important. And doesn't it seem like Paul has a little anxiety about Timothy's demeanor? What do you think? I would think, yeah. He's a little nervous about it. I mean, Timothy is someone he's called out and appointed Timothy is somebody that he's called out and appointed, but he's a little nervous about Timothy performing the duties that he has a ministry and he has a gift for.

You have to contrast these two guys. Here's Paul, who's a guy who's on fire for the Lord, is the best way to describe it. And there isn't anything he wouldn't do to spread the gospel in any circumstance. And then Timothy's kind of a passive guy. It isn't that he doesn't love the Lord. He isn't saved and isn't knowledgeable and doesn't have a heart. It's just his temperament is that he's quiet. you know so Paul encourages him to be strong in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and so the answer is yeah he is concerned a little bit because the job Timothy has is not to go in a monastery and shut the door and pray what's the job that he has? what is he called to do? He's just like Titus.

They're the two unique guys that have been instructed by Paul to appoint elders, to keep order in the church, and to be outgoing pillars in the church. Well, that takes somebody who's willing to stand up and voice their view. The other guy that's brought up here is Onesiphorus, who is another guy that Timothy is likewise to be strong, because Onesiphorus was strong. He was suffering with Paul. And begins with an emphatic pronoun, you. It focused directly and personally on Timothy.

It's like, let's say, We recognize that Ron has a gift, but he's shy about it. Would it be too much for us to go to Ron and say, hey, Ron, you have this gift. Let's get with it. Is that OK to do that? Yeah, I think it's fine. You know? You know, it's easy to maybe look at that, right? Be strong, be racist and crazy, and take that just as, right, Yeah, and if you go back and read chapter one, which we did, the word therefore refers back to everything he said in chapter one, that Timothy was gifted, that all the things about him makes this a command. This is not, I'm suggesting, Timothy, this is a command. Okay, so let's move on. It's working.

So what do the words be strong can say? So if I encourage one of you to be strong, how would you take it? How would you look at it? Oh, I gotta go to the gym? Or I gotta stand up? Tell me how that goes, because that's an important part in how a believer functions. Where's the strength come from? Because One of the elders came to you and said you got to be strong in the Lord What do you think And oh by the way It's present tense means do it now and be continually doing it So where does the strength come from? What did we talk about a minute ago? Of the kind of life we had what kind of life do we have I? We have the resurrected life of Christ. Is that a strong life? Who animates that life? Who's the animator? Absolutely.

So what is he saying? Go check it out with the Holy Spirit. Like I said, it's an imperative mood, present tense. It means that the strength, that the strength Timothy is to obtain is not a once and for all matter, but rather a continuous day by day issue. So what does that mean? That means that every day of Timothy's life, he's to depend on the Spirit of God to manifest the life of Christ through him. Is that too tough for him? Or you? No, that's the way it is.

The one hard thing for us to learn as growing Christians is dependency. Because our mindset is study, get smart, learn all the stuff, be able to teach it. But there isn't a lot of talk about dependency and where this life comes from and how it's manifested.

Sorry, do you know if that's passive or active voice? It is passive voice. That's what I was thinking, because that sense then is be strengthened, but you have to essentially allow someone else to strengthen you. That's right. And that's such an important point. I was listening to a couple of guys in my earphones over the last week, and they don't ever talk about this. They'll tell you to be strong in the Lord and do all this stuff, but they won't get you to understand.

It's a command to be receiving the action. It's like if I went to Donna and said, I command you to love me, she would say, well, I already do that. I command you to walk as who you are. Oh, I already do that. But dependence is one of those things that you learn.

I'm thinking about Paul's situation. I'm thinking about Timothy. Timothy is no different necessarily than the rest of us by way of receiving these instructions, but he calls him his son. There's obviously a very wonderful relationship that they've developed together.

But how, I guess my question is, how do you be strong in grace? Just as Timothy was asked here by Paul, obviously in his last days, he's saying, be strong in grace, and then he goes on to Myles' point, in Christ. So, what does that mean for us today? How does that work?

That's such a great question, because If you're an elder or a deacon, there come circumstances where you have to say something to somebody that's uncomfortable. You have to encourage them. You don't want to offend them, but you know you're probably going to. I'll tell you a story. I was talking to Miles Stanford one day, and if you've ever read any of his polemic papers, he's like that guy in the White House named Miller. He just goes after you, and he goes after these, which he considers heretics, really hard. So I said to him, I said, you know, I've known you for a long time, and you're really a mild-mannered man. How do you do that? And his answer was this. He said, when I'm ready to do it, he said, I go to my office and I close the door.

And he said, I'm really, I recognize I'm going to hurt the person I'm going to write about, but I have to do it because it's my job. So he writes the polemic, and if you ever read them, you notice, just like Paul, he gives you all the, gee, you're the greatest guy in the world in the beginning, but then he gets to the case. And he doesn't mince any words. And his attempt is to try to change the mind of the author that he's writing. But he said, if someone came in the room and just bumped him, he'd probably start to cry, because he knew he was hurting somebody.

Well, I've experienced that, not to that extent, but I know, like, I have to go to Courtney once in a while. Enough said. Part of a leader's job in the body of Christ is to be able to speak to somebody in terms of their benefit even though it's difficult for you and for them because you know they're not going to take it. They just aren't. So yeah, to answer your question, I think you start out by spending a lot of time with the Lord about that issue and praying about it and say, hey, how am I supposed to do this? I know I probably ought to.

And I don't, because sometimes, you know, when you have to do that, you run the risk of losing a friend. It's interesting, though, that he starts with an endearing term. And then he moves to a strength term. So he starts endearing, and then he moves towards... It's not... I don't know if I want to use the word challenge, but it's a command.

My son, be strong. And here's where your source is. And stay in your source. Stay there. Because that's where your strength is. There's something very winsome and fatherly about that. To address him as son, and then exhort him as a beloved son. It's a lot different than if you just said, okay, you... Yeah, get out there and... Well, those of you who are fathers, you know, I'm sure there are times in your life with your children you knew you had to go and talk to them and it was going to be painful. Yeah, and there's times when we do it wrong. Oh, really? Yeah. What? Yeah, like, just mow the lawn. Instead of saying, dear son, Please mow the lawn in Christ Jesus. I'm being funny, but at the same time... No, I understand. Well, and the next verse we're going to cover is going to start to lay down why it's important that this all be in place. Here's the reason. But that's one of those trials, again, make us conform to the Lord Jesus.

Yeah, I guess, you know, it's really interesting when you see the relationship Timothy has with Paul. And, you know, I can't imagine, Paul had such a great heart, but he also, if you needed to be told, he told you. Now, watch this next part. Verse 2 says, the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

So here's the issue. The issue is you have heard information from me. Where did I get it? Apostle Paul, I got it directly from the Lord. So I'm passing it on to you verbatim. And you know that it's the truth because there's a lot of witnesses around that you've experienced, that we experienced together, and you're entrusting these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. So that's the premise. So you can't water that down. I mean, why do you think there's such a a zeal for clear doctrine. This is why. So what are the things? This is a question that's not on your sheet.

First you must note that verse one and two are addressed to Timothy. The word you is singularly and emphatically directed to Timothy. This is one of his jobs. You, Timothy. Second, you must remember that Timothy was an apostolic representative in a direct sense.

He and Titus, those two guys, they had a unique job in the church that no other man in the Word of God has. You remember the guys that were doing Titus now, and Titus was supposed to go to Crete and appoint elders and establish churches. Nobody else in the Bible except for Timothy has that kind of responsibility.

So I can see why Paul is being stern with him. Timothy was an apostolic representative in a direct sense. We don't have such representatives today except as we teach the word of the apostles. And that came from Chester McCauley. So what he's talking about is serious. So what are the things? The doctrine. The doctrine. And don't you find it interesting that that's always the fight? Doctrine. It's always the fight. Just to explore this sentence a little more, from me is not concerning me, but from me personally. I gave you the information from the Lord to me to you, and I didn't edit it.

And that's the great job of biblical teachers today, teach God's word, not what you think about it, teach what it says. endeavor to be as exact as you can be. And notice that it says that from me in the presence of many witnesses. You were there Timothy when I was teaching a lot of this. And there were a lot of others around. So you know that I'm just not sending you or telling you things that I've just sort of dreamed up.

This is public knowledge within the body of Christ. So the witnesses he could refer to, to those who were present at Timothy's, may be when he was ordained, or when he was baptized. Anyway, it seems like there was a public occasion when a lot of this was presented, and Timothy was there, and he was part of it. Timothy just didn't show up one day and had a name tag that says, I'm an elder.

It doesn't happen that way. You okay with that? So when Paul uses the word commit, who's the guardian of the commitment? You could use the word trust. Go back to chapter 1, verse 12. What's it say? Somebody read it. 2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 12. For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day." So, do you find it interesting when you ask the question, when Paul uses the word to commit, who's the guardian of the commitment? Is it Paul? Who is it? Louder, I can't hear you.

I think it's interesting because the Lord entrusts writes it down. Yeah, he writes it down and he entrusts it back to the Lord. But then he asks Timothy to remain committed to what he has been entrusted and has given back to the Lord. So yeah, okay. Here's the thing. And it goes back to the idea that the purveyor of God's Word is a dependent person. It's not that he's depending on his education or his scholarship or his writings. He's dependent spiritually on the Holy Spirit who's the keeper of the truth.

I and you don't know any truth if He didn't show it to you. You don't know any of it. You read the Bible and it's a bunch of words. You go to a quote-unquote Christian environment that doesn't teach from God's Word, who knows what you're going to believe? You grow up like I did in Catholicism. I mean, the craziness that that place put in my head. I think the first 10 years of my Christian life, I was unlearning a lot of that. I couldn't find it. I would think, oh, what about this? Or what about that? Oh, I've got to see if I can find it in the Word. And it wasn't there. I thought, oh, well, somebody else made it up then. So it's not protected by the Spirit of God in me. So, I would say the answer that the Spirit of Christ is the guardian.

He's the one that will keep you, if you're a teacher, or Timothy, on the right path. I think there's something really interesting in this verse. The word there, entrusted, it kind of has a sense of a deposit entrusted. Kind of like sticking your money in a bank. You entrust the safekeeping of that to another. But the interesting thing about doctrine is that when you deposit it with someone else, you don't lose it.

So there's actually a multiplication factor. Paul passed this on to Timothy. Paul didn't lose it, but Timothy gained it. Now Timothy is responsible for guarding what was entrusted to him by Paul, and then again passing it on to others who would, in turn, guard that deposit entrusted, and so on and so forth. and it's a multiplication factor.

But everybody in that chain is responsible for staying, as it says, to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also. So there's a responsibility to be faithful to exactly what was revealed, not alter or deviate from it, because then it's lost all value, you know.

Yeah, my next question, or two questions from now, is to who are the faithful men, but we're not going to go there yet. The point being this, that God's word is of such character that it doesn't vary. Now, most theologians, you know, like I listen to Ron Merriman quite a bit and he loves to talk about, well, Codas X and all these sources, but the real, the bottom line is that We have to understand about the resurrected life we have in Christ, and we're dwelled by the Holy Spirit. That's where the dependence is, not on Ron Merriman, or not on Kodaks.

And I'm convinced, like Paul was convinced, that if you trust him, he will clearly show you what he means. Because this is not a game of, gee, I hope, see if you can find it out and I'll give you a prize. It's not like that. He wants us to know, and he wants us to be clear. And oh, by the way, it is usually spiritual knowledge, not necessarily earthly knowledge. One of the quotations I found, Paul's idea of the indwelling Holy Spirit is that the normal expected attitude of the believer is one of yieldness to and cooperation with the Spirit, which makes him feel at home in the believer's heart and unrestricted in his work of sanctification. I know how your mind works because mine works the same way. Hey, Lord, just tell me what to do and I'll do it.

No, it doesn't work like that here. So if I go to seminary and I pass the test, does that make me spiritual? Probably not. Probably not. This is how it goes. There's a dependency. There's a growing dependency on and cooperation with the Spirit of God as He's the teacher. He will show you the truth, and then you will be persuaded and you won't be able to be moved off of it. See that? That's what Paul was trying to tell Timothy. At the same time, he's pretty aggressive in terms of this kind of information, this kind of life, and this kind of trust isn't for the faint-hearted. Because as you go down this road, you kind of eliminate the opposition, right? No, it gets more. The opposition is more. All the time. Is that alright, J.D.? So who are these faithful men? Faithfulness is from the word faith?

Well, there's a situation here where Paul had previously, now he's in prison at this moment when he's writing this, right? So he's at the end of his life, he's suffering, he's about to really get into it in the next several verses with some heavy-weighted terminology.

But he starts endearing and he says, you and I Timothy, we walked together. You've heard this sound doctrine being explained to other witnesses, other people, right? So you've seen it in action. And I'm giving you your source. Your source is in grace, in Christ. That's your strength, and I'm entrusting you with this, but you've seen it in action.

And then he moves on to the next verse, which has military terminology and ups the game. But he starts with, Son, endearing, you've been with me, you've seen this, we've walked these paths together, you've heard me, and I'm asking you to carry this torch as a soldier moving forward. No, that's good, and I think this note here that Paul is here contemplating apostolic succession in respect to teaching rather than administration.

How would you define the difference between those two? It's interesting. All you have to do is look at denominations. Who decides your next pastor is going to be? Is it because he's a good teacher within your body? Or because some guy in St. Louis said, this is the next guy you're going to get? I guess that's what I was saying. Who is identifying this? He's telling Timothy to identify the faithful man. That's who he's calling out. You identify him. Based on their teaching... Well, based on... Yeah, but it's him identifying these faithful men. That's what Paul is saying. Entrust it to a faithful man. Who? The one that you identify as a faithful man. Give it to...

Give this message, these things, to those men you've identified. Just like giving the qualifications for an elder. You're identifying those people who have those qualifications. Same thing here. He's giving Timothy the guidance that you find faithful men to keep this teaching that I've taught you, these things, keep it going. Let me put it this way.

I think a church has elders and deacons. The deacon's job is administration. The elder's job is teaching. Teaching. So Timothy, Paul is telling Timothy, you've got the right information and you're a teacher and I'm giving you the responsibility to teach other faithful men. How does he know they're faithful? Because they teach the right thing. It isn't that they went to the right school, it isn't that they are really great administrators or they're high school teachers.

That's not the criteria. The criteria is biblical teaching with dependence on the Holy Spirit. That's it. See that? And you can't find that in very many places. I honestly think that Timothy saw it in action with Paul. He did. So he knew what it looked like. And that's how he was able to identify because he's seen it before him in action. Sorry, I don't mean to over-speak. I'm just saying that not only did he have sound doctrine, he knew the right things. to look for. But he didn't know how it worked in life. And Paul taught him because he walked alongside him. And he's asking him to remember these things as a son.

You'll find the exact same thing in the book of Titus. Same thing. Titus was a faithful brother with the right teaching and the right information. We would say the right doctrine. Now that you have that jewel, look around for faithful men that you can communicate that to, just like I did to you. In reference to today, we are going to recognize somebody who is a faithful Jew. minister of the word. That's how he's telling Timothy, identify those people who are true to the word, who are faithful, don't fall away, have all the qualifications, and keep this teaching going. Give the things that I've given you to those men that you identify.

I wrote down a couple other things. The teaching in verse two is not necessarily a prescription for service in the local church today. First, we must note that verse one and two are addressed to Timothy. The word you is singular and emphatically directed to Timothy. Second, we must remember that Timothy was an apostolic representative in the direct sense. We have no such representatives today except as we teach the words of the apostles. The focus here, I hope you can see it, is on teaching, not anything else.

What is the doctrine? Oops, I think I messed this up. I don't know how I did that. Well, guess what? I don't think the rest of the slides are on here. That's all right. We've only got five minutes left, so I'll fix it by next week. I just recalled in mind, it's not exactly the same wording in the Greek, but the idea is the same.

This is one of the qualifications of an elder that Paul laid down in 1 Timothy 3, right? That he'd be able to teach. And here we have a trustee of the faith who will be able to teach others also. I find this interesting because Paul is nearing the end of his life. forward and saying, you know, entrust these things to others who will carry on this work, really.

And I think of the word faithful, faithful men, it's because this is not the idea of apostolic succession that, you know, Timothy had, you know, got this from Paul and then passed it on and kind of, you know, that whole Catholic idea, right? But this is faithfulness to the Word of God. That there would be men down through the centuries who would be faithful to the written Word of God. And I think that's what a faithfulness relates to. This is not just talking about carrying on, you know, the mantle of the apostles. This is remaining faithful to the written Word of the Holy Spirit.

Well, you know what's cool about all that? Who administrates that? Who does that? Let's see, Ron Merriman, da-da-da-da-da-da-da, down to Miles, right? No. Who does it? It's the Spirit of God who does it. And if you have a job within the church, even as the newest Christian, your job is to recognize who the Spirit has raised up to teach. And if it doesn't fit, you have to say something about it. But He will do that.

We see it happening around here. But I talk to, like we were on vacation with some people that belong to a denomination and pastors are sent to them, you know. Well, I like this guy or I don't like that guy. It has nothing to do with whether you like the guy or not. What's his doctrine? And is he able to communicate it in a way that's understandable? And how do I say this? The understandableness of it relates to one important thing.

All of doctrine is designed to actually reveal the Lord Jesus to us personally. You see that? That's what it's really... And the Spirit's job is to reveal in your heart the person of Christ. So that what happens? Conformity to his envies takes place. and you become more and more like him, which means you understand, you see things, you conduct your life in a manner, you're a lover because you were first loved by him, you read God's word about how this new life and who this person is, and oh yeah, there's a personal face-to-face connection between you the believer and the glorified Lord Jesus, not when you get to heaven, it starts now. Right now. And that's how you know.

So that it would be like someone calling me up on the phone and telling me some story about Donna that was not at all like her. Would I have a tough time disbelieving it? Well sure, I know Donna. Well, it'd be nice, you know, as you grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus, someone comes along and starts telling you about Christ, and you can honestly say, that's not the Christ I know. No, that's not the way He is. Well, I'm going to give you a set of rules. Wait a minute. That isn't Christ. Christ is grace, and grace is different. See? OK. We've got to close. So let's pray.

Father, how we thank you for your word. How we thank you for your spirit that's in us, teaching us and revealing your son to us. And we're thankful that we can continue to grow in the knowledge and the grace of the Lord Jesus. And we pray in his name. Amen.