“TONING DOWN THE WORD”--Jeremiah 26:2; 2 Timothy 1:12, 13; 2:2

Tone down: diminish, decrease, ease, lessen, reduce, minimize

Vs 12. I suffer on account of my purpose to carry the gospel to the Gentiles

"Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus."

The word form means the sketch, plan, or outline as of a building; and here refers to the plan of salvation, which the apostle had taught Timothy.

God has given to man {the Word of God}, a form of sound words or doctrines; a perfect plan and sketch of the original building; good and well defined outlines of every thing which concerns the present and eternal welfare of man, and His own glory.

There are many that want to downplay or diminish the importance of the words of Scripture, the words that God has given to us.

I.                   WORDS WHICH ARE BEING CHANGED IN OUR

EVERYDAY USAGE.

·         Bible words, words, which are found in our Bibles.

·         Changing the use of and meaning of words like:

1.      Church – As we have been taught = ecclesia, A called

out-group of baptized believers covenanted together to carry out the commission of Christ. A binding agreement

We have cell groups now, no respect for the local visible church, where did the Bible say that the Lord receives His glory?

·         Eph. 3:21 Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

2.       Sin -- A transgression of God’s law.  Deliberate disobedience to the known will of God. Something regarded as being shameful, or wrong

We look at sin now as a sickness, shameless,

·         Divorce, Adultery, Fornication, Homosexuality, etc. Just another way of life.

·         Sad but true, there are some Baptist churches

 that uphold these degraded lifestyles.

·         Jer 6:15 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush:

·         Isa. 59:1,2 Sin separates from God….

·         Isa 5:20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

3. Preach - This word is toned down and changed by substituting the word "share". Nowhere in the Bible are we told to "share" the Gospel. Dictionary meaning of the words "preach" and "share".

·         Preach is a "public crier" or "to proclaim, to preach God’s Word

·         Share "to divide in portions". Are we to "divide" the Gospel in portions". Paul said that he "preached the whole counsel of God"

·         Isaiah 61:1, as it applies to the Lord Jesus Himself, "The Spirit of the LORD God is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound."

·         Jonah 3:1,2-"And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.

·         We are called to preach the Gospel.

·         Matt. 4:17 "From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

·         It does not say, "Jesus began to share." The Scriptural term is "preach the Gospel".

·         1 Cor. 1:23, "But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness."

The reason we are not seeing more people being saved today is that we are toning down the Gospel. We are not saying, "Thus saith the Lord". But we are trying to sneak people into the kingdom.

·         Jer 26:2 Thus saith the LORD; Stand in the court of the LORD'S house, and speak unto all the cities of Judah, which come to worship in the LORD'S house, all the words that I command thee to speak unto them; diminish not a word:

·         Jer 26:4 And thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD; If ye will not hearken to me, to walk in my law, which I have set before you,

·         2 Tim. 4:2 - "Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine." Nothing about sharing!

Vs. 3- For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;

4. Charge - and the word "challenge".   Charge, "to testify earnestly"

Challenge "to call or to summon to a contest, to call or summon to a debate, call to a duel."  Challenge is found nowhere in Scripture. We do find the word "charge" in the Bible.

1 Tim. 5:21. "I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality."

Paul is saying. "I am standing before God. I am standing before Jesus Christ. I am standing before the angels. And I am testifying before these three great ones that there is something you are to do. We, too, are standing before God. We, too, are standing before Jesus Christ, Who died for us. We, too, are standing before the elect angels who are all about us, compare that to saying, "I challenge you to hold fast the form of sound words."

The difference is when I charge you, you have no other option but to do it. We take the teeth out of gospel preaching by not using the very words of Scripture.

2 Tim. 4:1, "I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; preach the word."

Hold fast the form of sound words!