Episode 241: Don't Be an Argumentative Know It All! | +Quigg Lawrence

Introduction

We are in 2 Timothy chapter two, week three. I don't know what page it is in your Bible. On my Bible, it's twelve sixty-eight. So I hope you find it or just pull up your app, 2 Timothy 2. Just curious, what's a great batting average? Softball, baseball, what's a great batting average? I don't know. Help me out. 300. 300, right? And what and I like what's the best of all time? The season record for Major League Baseball. What do you think it is? 380, 400. That means if if if we said 400, maybe Ty Cobb, I don't know. But if you had the highest batting average of all time, that means if Ty Cobb went to the plate 10 times, he did not get on base how many times? Six. So 40%. Or how about basketball? What's a great what's a great three point For a three point shooter, maybe JJ Reddick, Steph Curry. What's a great average if you're heaving the ball up? 30. 38 to 42%. I think JJ was 42. Steph Curry one year, I think maybe 44. But even those great guys, the guys that are like all world in basketball, from three point land, they miss a lot more than they make it. We could go on and on with averages like axe throwing, dart throwing, what have you. But I guess the point would be that what is the point? Oh, yes. The point. The point. The point.

The Reality of Debates and Arguments

So the point would be, it leads me to a question. How many of you guys have ever gotten in some kind of debate on Facebook or Twitter? Or you joined a thread. I mean, maybe you didn't actually join in the melee, if you will. But maybe you did. And maybe you're like me and you go, hey man, it's not our job to judge The Bible is crystal clear about that. But it does say we're to speak to those in the household of God. Right? We're to bring correction. We're to restore those gently who've gone astray. So maybe some of you like me might have late at night posted a few things to help people come to their senses. Right? How did it go for you? Right. So if you ever made a post about politics or abortion or sexuality, etcetera? I'm just curious. Like out of a 100 times somebody might do that, how many times do you think you actually change somebody's mind? Zero. Zero. I know. I've lost friends. I've defriended people. I want to get into it. I want to I want to contend for the faith. I want to set people right when they get off track because I actually believe when they get off track, they're going to pierce themselves with many griefs. But what I found is social media ain't the way to do it. And an argument is not the way to do it. The Lord in his word says, you who are spiritual, restore people gently with kindness. The scripture says that it's God's kindness that leads to repentance. Now, doesn't mean that you you can just sit back and never, if you see a friend going off the track, never bring that to their attention in love. But I would suggest to you, if you keep batting zero on Instagram or Facebook or whatever media you use, that's probably not that's probably not the best channel. So, we're going to go to second Timothy two. It was written a really long time ago, but I think it's applicable for today because there are a lot of quarrelsome people and sometimes they're us. Now, before we plow into it, I want you to see the last verse because that's kind of the finish line. And sometimes if you know the finish line, the rest of it makes sense. So, I want you to go second Timothy two twenty-four and twenty-five. I want you to see that because without that, it's kinda just seems like a bunch of disjointed stuff. Alright. It says this, and the lord's servant, the lord's servant, not pagans. The Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone. Able to teach. So there's the role to teach. Patiently enduring evil. Correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them, the people that are off the track, the people that are lost, the people have bad theology. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth. And they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will. And so what I want you to focus on just for a second is, while we're about the business of teaching and correcting and speaking the truth in love with gentleness. I want you to see what is the cost if we speak the truth, but not with gentleness. What is verse twenty-four and twenty-five say? What is the condition of the person that we're trying to communicate to the gospel? The truths of the gospel. It says, one, they have not yet come to their senses. It's like they're blind. It's like a drunk fool walking around babbling. That that they're out of their mind. So, they have not come to their senses but even worse than that, look at look at the last last phrase. What does it say? They they're they're in the snare of the devil and they have been captured by the devil to do his will. And so what I want to say is, late at night when you want to zing somebody, not only do you need to remember God's command to his servants to be kind and gentle, but also you need to understand the consequences if you react in your flesh.

Now, this also cannot just be on social media. Some of you don't do social media. Right? First service, a lot of you all don't do social media. But maybe at your Thanksgiving dinner when you have a fight with your drunk uncle who's either alt left or alt right. The consequences are dire. If we if we go in our flesh, and we're gonna dive into the rest of the text now. But but but the finish line is this. If we go in our flesh and just set people straight, the cost for them is that they're still caught in the snare of the evil one. They're caught in the snare. They have not come to their senses. They can't escape. And they're being captured by the devil to do as well. So the costs are great for if we listen to this word or not. Alright. So let's go to verse 14. Second Timothy two fourteen. Okay. It says this, remind them remind them of these things and charge them before God not to quarrel about words which does no good but only ruins ruins the hearers. Okay. So when verse 14 says, remind them of these things. I'm not the smartest guy in the room, but what does that normally say? Remind them of what things? Well, the things he was just talking about. Right? You just look right ahead to where we were reading before this. And he's saying, remind people of what I've just told you. And the main part of there's a lot in chapter two. But the main thing I get from chapter two, the remind them of these things points back to verse eight. It says, remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead. That's the heart of the Christian faith. When I hear people deconstructing, throwing Jesus on the back 40, I always want to ask them, what about the resurrection? Do you no longer believe that Jesus was raised from the dead? And so he's saying, remind them of these things. That Jesus Christ has risen from the dead. That in verse 10, it says, that they may obtain salvation that is in Christ Jesus. Remind them of these things. Okay. So let's get back to verse 14. Remind them of these things, comma, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words. The thing I love about scripture, it's so honest. Nobody writes their family history like this. Right? I love all through the New Testament. It's just a train wreck. People are train wrecks. They're biting each other. They got false teaching. They're immoral. They're doing all these things. And the Lord's like, oh my gosh, people just just walk in my ways. It actually is freedom. And so we're seeing a again, a book of failure and a God who loves people who fail a lot. Remind them of these things. Tell them not to quarrel about words which does no good, but it ruins the hearers. Now, I'll be honest with you. Most times when you look up English words in Greek, it doesn't help that much. Amen. Right? It's like the most boring. Woah, in the Greek. But actually here, the word is cool. It says, does no good. Quarreling does no good, but it only ruins the hearers. The Greek word for ruin is catastrophic. Catastrophe. I think that's a little telling, isn't it? If you quarrel about all these words, all the fine points, all it's going to do is keep people in the snare of the evil one in bondage to him. It's ruining them. It's a catastrophe. Let's go to verse 15. It says, do your best. I love this. Think my mom said, do your best in school. The Lord knows we're not perfect. There's none perfect. There's none righteous. Everybody's going to fail. That's why we have a savior. But it says, your best. As God gives you grace, do your best to do what? Present yourself to God as one approved and tested. Do your best. Walk in the spirit. Walk in the power and the grace that he's given you. It's not a neurotic thing. But he's equipped you. Walk in what he's equipped you in the grace he's given you. Do your best. To be one approved, a worker that does not need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. It's interesting. Especially when I was a young pastor, I used to visit homes back before we communicated by text messages. I used to actually go to homes with real people and have tea and coffee and dessert. And I'd sit there and there was always the family bible. And then in the nineties, it was always a big white family bible that their great great grandmother gave to them. And it had the same amount of dust on it that it had the year before. Nobody ever read it. And so the question is, are we rightly are we ever reading God's word? If not, I'm not going say you're a bad person. I'm saying you're ripping yourself off. And I understand not all scripture is equally exciting to read, but God's word is God's word. It's a light. It's a lamp. Annette and I have made it our habit for, I don't know, thirty-five years to read the one-year Bible. It's not the only method, But we expose ourselves every morning to God's word. And it's like getting fresh air. I need to be recalibrated daily, because I get uncalibrated really quick. And so it says, you don't want to be ashamed before God. When you appear before him, before the judgment seat. You want to want to hear him say, done. And I'm so glad that you treasured my word and that you marinated on it. And that you let it do its work in your life.

Then it goes on to verse 16. It says, avoid irreverent babble. Avoid irreverent babble. I don't know what that is, but I think that's usually what guys do. When guys do guy things. Irreverent babble. So we don't want they don't want us to be quarrelsome because it ruins. It creates a catastrophe in the life of the hearers. But he also says, stop all this irreverent babble. For it will lead people to more and more ungodliness. And their talk will spread like gangrene. I had to look up on on Google what gangrene does. It is sick, y'all. Have you seen it? Some of y'all are go there right now and you're not gonna hear anything else I say in the sermon. It is disgusting. It starts blackening your fingers and your hands or your toes, and they have to cut off and cut off fingers or whole hands or feet. And he says this babble produces something like gangrene. James says it another way. He says, the tongue is an unruly member. No one can tame it. And it's a poison. It's a deadly poison. Irrever Babel coming from our tongue is like a deadly poison. It ruins people.

Then it goes on to verse 18. We always think Christians are nice. Everybody's supposed to be nice. Right? Isn't that the goal? Isn't that in scripture be nice? It's never in there. He calls out two dudes. Again, he's not calling out pagans. He's calling out people that pretend that they're servants of Christ. Right? Let judgment begin with the household of God. Right? We're not to judge those outside, but those inside. Why? Because we love them. And he calls out this dude, Hymenaeus and Philetus. He says, among them are these two guys who have what? They've swerved from the truth. You've driving down the road? You see a squirrel? Now, unless you're a sicko and want to speed up and whack them, most of us, if we can, if there's not another car coming, we'll do what? We'll swerve to avoid an animal. So these guys, what they swerved from was not a squirrel, was not a deer, but they swerved from the truth of God's word. They were starting to believe a heresy called Gnosticism. They denied the the physical resurrection of Jesus, and a whole bunch of other trash. And he names them. He calls it out. He in another book in the Bible, Paul says about Hymenaeus. He says, I've handed him over to Satan. Not because Paul was mean, but because actually loved him. And when you bring godly judgment as in Matthew 18, the whole intent of it is not to say you're a bad person. The whole intent is to bring you back to a healthy relationship with Jesus. And so he calls these dudes out. He says, they've swerved from the truth. I'm getting so sad in my spirit as I say kids that have been brought in our church and they have been discipled well with our youth group, small groups, young life campaigners. They have been discipled well. And then about a nanosecond after they leave home, they swerve from the truth because somebody is really smart with a PhD tells them all the things of God are not true. They swerve from the truth. They're saying that the resurrection has already happened. They're upsetting the faith of some. It goes on and says, the Lord knows who are his and let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.

Let's go to verse 20. I'm going to keep this a little shorter. And it says this. Now in the great house of God. In the great house, they're not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay. Some of these vessels are for what? Honorable use and some for dishonorable. Now, could you find the book of Romans? Put your finger right here and go to Romans real quick. Romans nine. Sword drill. Romans nine twenty-one says the same thing. It says, has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump of clay one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable? Does the potter, does our Lord God who made all things, does he not have the right to make some people for this and some for that? Some for honorable purposes, some for dishonorable. And we go back to our text in in second Timothy. Say much the same thing. In the great house, there are many vessels. Some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. Verse 21. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use. Set apart as holy and useful to the master of the house. Ready for every good work.

Now, is where we have a problem. Because when I read this, I think, do good, be good. Come on, Quigg. Clean yourself up. But that's not at all what it's saying. What it's saying is, be who you already are. The lord Jesus died. He poured his blood out that you could be washed, forgiven. Not only forgiven and get your ticket to heaven but also that you're his son or daughter. He's given you the very holy spirit of God to live inside of you. Right? He came not to condemn you, you might have what came that you might have life. He's given you everything you need for life and godliness. And so he says, walk in the ways in the Lord's strength. Walk in those ways so that you can be useful. Set apart as holy. Useful to the master. Let's go to verse 22. Because time's a waste. It says this. So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace. Flee youthful passions. You know, like Strom Thurman said when asked about pornography. He said, well, I don't know how to define it, but I know it when I see it. I don't know exactly what they mean by youthful passions, but I kind of do. Right? Men, some of us still act like we're 16 years old. Is there anything more pathetic than a 63 year old man who acts like a 16 year old? That just really ain't cute. The Bible calls us to lay aside things. You know, it was it was cute maybe when we were teenagers. I had these youthful passions and acted on em but we're grown men. It's time to act like a grown man and stop putting our hands around full gold. It's time to stop inhaling and bobbing all this craziness and just be who we are. Sons of god. Flee youthful passions. Run, Forrest. Run. Run, Forrest. Run away. Flee, man. Like a big dog is chasing you down the street. Run with all your might. And it says, not only are you to flee youthful passions, but you're to pursue the kingdom things. Righteousness and faith and love and peace along with those who call in the Lord from a pure heart. It goes on in verse 23. Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies. You know that they breed corals. Friends, could it be more clear? We we've got a little software program we're going send to everybody at Church of Holy Spirit. We're going to run it on your laptop and on your phone. And we're just going to see how y'all are doing. So I don't know if you know that, but it's now on your phone. It's now on your laptop. So let me know how it goes and we'll give you a report next week. It's not actually true. But the point would be, the Bible could not be more clear. Here's the Lord speaking to Timothy. Or sorry, Timothy. The Lord through Timothy speaking to the church. But it says, have not to us. It says, have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies. Really? Like, is there any unclarity in that? And again, it's not so you can go, hey, he's a boy scout. Not at all. It's because people are in the snare of the evil one. They're blinded. They're in bondage. And because we are we want to verb be verbal pugilist. Right? It's not going to change their life. It never works to beat up on people. We want to correct, but do it with gentleness in relationship. So it says, nothing to do with these ignorant controversies and know they breed quarrels. It's true. Everybody, if you don't believe the Bible, do you believe that? I do. And it says he's hitting us on the head with a hammer. Look at verse 24. And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome. Is there any unclear in that? And I think when we could hear that as truth and say, Lord, help me to walk in your ways. I don't want to be quarrelsome. One, because nobody likes a quarrelsome person. But two, the greater point is when we're quarrelsome, it never works in bringing somebody to Christ and to his ways. It never works. We're all batting 0%. It goes on in the final verse that we read earlier. Correct opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth. And they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, And after being captured by him to do his will.

Conclusion

Do you remember the story? Here's where we land. Do you remember the story in Mark chapter five? There's a man in the tombs. That's a creepy place to live. I don't know what was up with this dude. Clearly had demons. And he was cutting himself with rocks. And Jesus cast the devil out of him, the demons out of him. And what's recorded next? And the NIV says he when they saw him again, he was dressed and seated and in his right mind. Dressed and seated and in his right mind. So, our call as believers is to to understand, first of all, that it's not our job to argue with non believers or to judge them. It isn't. I like to do it but it's not our job. In fact, we're told not to. But when we deal with those in the household of god, we are to do it with gentleness. We are to teach. We are to correct. He's he's calling out these dudes right here but we remember that when people are caught up in deception, they're in the snare of the evil one and if we just unload on them, they're just gonna put their defenses up and shoot a salvo back at us. And so the Lord's servant is not quarrelsome. We wanna see folks come to freedom. Quarrelsome never equals freedom. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.