We're still in chapter one, making great progress.
One night to go.
Second Timothy, chapter one, and I'd like to
begin reading in verse twelve.
For this reason I also suffer these things,
nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know
whom I have believed, and am persuaded that
he is able to keep what I have
committed to him until that day.
Hold fast the pattern of sound words which
you have heard from me, in faith and
love which are in Christ Jesus.
That good thing which was committed to you,
keep by the Holy Spirit who dwells in
us.
This you know that all of those in
Asia have turned away from me, among whom
are Phygelus and Hermogenes.
The Lord grant mercy to the household of
Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me, and was
not ashamed of my chains.
But when he arrived in Rome, he sought
me out very diligently, and found me.
The Lord grant to him that he may
find mercy from the Lord in that day,
and you know very well how many ways
he ministered to me at Ephesus.
I think we'll just read into chapter two
a little.
You, therefore, my son, be strong in the
grace that is in Christ Jesus.
And the things you have heard from me
among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men
who will be able to teach others also.
You, therefore, must endure hardship as a good
soldier of Jesus Christ.
No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with
the affairs of this life that he may
please him who enlisted him as a soldier.
And also, if anyone competes in athletics, he's
not crowned unless he competes according to the
rules.
The hard-working farmer must be first to
partake of the cross.
Consider what I say, and may the Lord
give you understanding in all things.
Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of
David, was raised from the dead according to
my gospel, for which I suffered trouble as
an evildoer, even to the point of chains,
but the word of God is not changed.
Therefore, I endure all things for the sake
of the elect, that they also may obtain
the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with
eternal glory.
This is a faithful saying, for if we
died with him we shall also live with
him.
If we endure, we shall also reign with
him.
If we deny him, he also will deny
us.
If we are faithless, he remains faithful, he
cannot deny himself.
Paul says, for this reason I also suffer
these things.
Verse 12 of chapter 1.
For this reason.
For what reason?
In carrying out the ministry that the Lord
had committed to him.
For this reason I suffer these things.
Paul realized that in carrying out an effective
ministry for the Lord Jesus Christ, there would
inevitably be suffering, and he was ready for
it.
There were different degrees of suffering.
Some of God's service suffer more than others.
Some pay the ultimate price, sealing their testimony
with their blood.
When God saved Paul, he not only saved
his soul, he saved his spine as well.
Wouldn't you say?
He was a man of spine.
A man that would rather go to heaven
with a good conscience than stay on earth
with a bad conscience.
He was good martyr material.
I sometimes think that we today would make
very poor fuel for martyr fires.
A person disagrees with me.
He says we would make good fuel for
martyr fires were so dry.
So you'll have to take your choice.
For this reason I suffer these things.
Nevertheless, I am not ashamed.
A few verses above he has said to
Timothy, therefore do not be ashamed of the
testimony of our Lord.
I suffer these things, but I am not
ashamed.
It's a wonderful thing to me how the
Apostle Paul, going through the fires and the
floods, could glorify God in them all, couldn't
he?
He could extract honey from the carcass of
the lion.
He could see the rainbow through his tears.
He was a triumphant man.
He was a real prophet of God, and
we need more men like him today.
The trouble is, the only kind of a
prophet the world likes is a dead prophet,
isn't it?
They like them dead, and then they'll come
and put wreaths upon their graves.
That's what the Lord Jesus said, garnish the
sepulchers of the prophets, and saying as we
had lived in their day that they haven't
changed a bit.
Notice the assurance in the life of the
Apostle Paul.
I know whom I have believed.
His confidence was not in himself.
His confidence was not in the people of
God.
His confidence was in the Lord Jesus himself.
I know whom I have believed, and I'm
persuaded that he's able to keep that which
I've committed unto him against that day.
That may refer to the salvation of his
soul.
It's certainly true in connection with that.
He committed himself to the Lord Jesus for
salvation, and a great contract took place, and
he is persuaded that the Lord is able
to keep him.
It may also mean to the committal of
his life for service for the Lord as
well, and when it may mean both, I
think it's good to take both.
And then this strong exhortation to the younger
man, Timothy, hold fast the pattern of sound
words.
You know, all of these expressions are pregnant
with meaning for us today.
When there's a tendency to allow things to
slide, when there's a tremendous latitudinarianism in the
things of God today, and people have become
soft and flabby on many, many subjects, he
says, you hold fast the pattern of sound
words which you have heard from me.
I think it not only means the great
truths of the Christian faith, but the way
in which they're presented in the Word of
God.
In some circles today, there's kind of a
reluctance to use some of the expressions of
the Bible, you know, a reluctance to speak
about redemption by blood, a reluctance to speak
about being born again, kind of a hesitation
to speak about the inspiration of the Scriptures
by God, better to say the authority of
the Scriptures.
And so, we have a way of toning
down, we, at least people today, have a
way of toning down some of the great
truths of the Word of God.
And I think when Paul expressed that, it
meant not only holding the truth, but holding
the pattern of sound words as well.
You hold them fast in faith and love
which is in Christ Jesus.
Doesn't it thrill your soul to come across
young men and young women who have their
convictions as to the Word of God, and
they stick to their convictions?
I like it.
When I was a young man, Alfred Mace,
with his rabble voice, said to me, El,
when you get divine principles, stick to them.
Never forgot it.
When you get divine principles, stick to them.
He said something else which I will put
in at no extra cost.
He said, he said, no man's gift is
too big for God's principles.
What does that mean?
Well, it may mean that I might think
that small churches and small assemblies are really
too trivial for my type of ministry, and
I've got to go into broader areas where
I can preach to bigger audiences.
He said, no man's gift is too big
for divine principles.
Don't sacrifice for that reason.
Then Paul says, that good thing which was
committed to you, keep by the Holy Spirit
who dwells in us.
In a day of declension, in a day
of turning away, in a day of spiritual
weakness, hold fast Timothy.
Can't you hear the pleading voice of the
apostle Paul as he writes these words to
the young man Timothy?
And I think these next verses are very,
very interesting.
He's really preparing Timothy for what lies ahead
from him.
He says, this you know, that all those
in Asia have turned away from me.
Just think of it.
Among whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes.
What is he saying here?
He's saying, Timothy, in the execution of your
commission from the Lord Jesus, you're very apt
to know desertion and loneliness, because that's what
it speaks about.
There were these men, Phygelus and Hermogenes among
others, and they had been with Paul, and
apparently accompanied with him in happy service for
the Lord, and all of a sudden they
take a powder and off they go.
And I know that many of you have
experienced that.
It's one of the heartaches of Christian service,
isn't it?
To see the fallout along the way.
Many aspire, few attain.
A lot start off well, but so many
fall out by the wayside.
The highway of the Christian life and service
is littered, in that sense, with corpses, and
that's what Paul is speaking about.
It really hurts.
It really hurts when people you've invested your
life in, you poured out your soul for
them, and then they turn away.
But it also means loneliness.
I know the hymn says, No Longer Lonely,
but the fact of life is that oftentimes
in Christian service there is loneliness, in spite
of the fact that the Lord is with
us always.
There's a loneliness of lack of human companionship
that I think Paul experienced it as he
wrote this epistle.
Come on, Timothy, come quickly, come to be
with me.
You are experiencing loneliness?
Well, there's a way you can extract the
honey from the carcass of a lion, exalt
the loneliness as one way in which you
can share the sufferings of Christ, because he
knew what it was to be lonely.
You say, Jesus knew what it was?
Yeah, Jesus knew what it was.
He so surpassed his disciples in zeal for
God that even when they were going up
to Jerusalem, he was out in front, and
they were lagging behind with leaden feet.
We have an expression today, it's lonely at
the top.
The Lord Jesus was certainly at the top
when it came to deal for God, and
accomplishing the will of God during his ministry
down here.
This know that all those in Asia have
turned away from me, among whom are Phygellus
and Hermodotus.
We hear a lot about love today, you
know, and love covers a multitude of sins,
but how did Paul dare to mention people
by name?
Isn't that forbidden nowadays?
You don't mention people by name like Paul
did.
How do you account for that?
Well, I account for it because it is
love for the people of God, and he
felt they had to be warned about this
sort of thing.
So it's not always wrong to single out
people by name, and Paul does it plenty
of times in his epistles, doesn't he?
But it's sad to think of your name
immortalized in this way, isn't it?
Guy King said these men couldn't help their
ugly names, but they could help their ugly
characters, and that's really the way they go
down in the scriptures, isn't it?
As men who had ugly characters.
Well, the next man we read about, he
doesn't have the most beautiful name either, and
I don't think any of you have named
your children Onesiphorus, have you?
But it would be wonderful if your children
exhibited the same lineaments of character that Onesiphorus
did.
What a beautiful description of him.
The Lord grant mercy to the household of
Onesiphorus, he often refreshed me and was not
ashamed of my change.
Here's Paul in prison, and it really is
not the part of wisdom, of human wisdom,
to be associated with him.
That would be guilt by association, wouldn't it?
And it was not helpful exactly to be
found with the Apostle Paul, but Onesiphorus didn't
care, and he went through tremendous pain, tremendous
pain to search out and find the Apostle
Paul.
He couldn't stay content until he had found
him.
When he arrived in Rome, he sought me
out very diligently and found me.
The Lord grant to him that he might
find mercy from the Lord in that day,
and you know very well how many ways
he ministered to me in Ephesus.
And you say, well, I know that none
of my friends are in jail today, none
of my friends are handcuffed today, what does
it have to say to me?
Well, I want to tell you, it speaks
very loudly to me, because sometimes when our
friends are in pain, in sorrow, in sickness,
and when the sign of tragedy is on
the front door of their house, it's very
easy to stay away, isn't it?
And sometimes in our heart of hearts, we
rather fear going into that sort of a
situation.
There's a human reluctance to go into that
sort of a situation.
We feel our legs will turn to India
rubber sometimes if we do.
A good thing for us to remember Onesiphorus.
You say, well, I wouldn't know what to
say if I went to that house that's
wracked by sorrow.
That's good, don't say anything.
Just go.
All you have to do is go with
a warm embrace, huh?
Go with a hearty handshake, or best of
all, go with a tear in your eyes.
You know, sometimes people go and visit in
a situation like that with some glib phrase,
or even some glib verse of scripture.
It really might not be the right thing,
that sometimes it is.
I've known so many hearts to be lifted
by Psalm 30, verse 5.
Weeping may endure for a night, but joy
cometh in the morning.
But honestly, you have to be guided by
the Spirit of God.
It has to be the sword of the
Spirit, which is the Word of God, the
right word spoken at the right time.
Makes me think of a soldier out there
on the front lines, and he's shot down,
and he's lying out there in no man's
land.
And his friend looks out from the potholes
and sees him there lying mortally wounded, and
he starts to prepare to go out after
him, to bring him back on his shoulders.
And the officer says, look, you shouldn't go
out there.
Cost you your life to go out there.
But he went, and he went to his
smitten comrade, and he leaned over.
That dying soldier said, thanks, Jim.
I knew you'd come.
And you know, that's a wonderful thing.
If friends can say to us, thanks a
lot.
I knew you'd come.
If I could just use a personal illustration
that doesn't put me in a very good
light.
When Dr. McCulley died, his wife called me,
I think it must have been about four
o'clock in the morning, and she said,
Bill C.
has gone home to be with the Lord.
It was a terrible shock, really.
I mean, he had had a heart attack.
I didn't know it.
The night before, he had had a heart
attack, and she rushed him to the DuPage
Hospital, and she called her daughter right away
in Seattle to come.
And she said to me, C.
has gone home to be with the Lord.
Well, I really didn't know it.
I said, where are you now, Lois?
And she said, I'm out at O'Hare
Airport waiting for Peg to arrive.
What do you do?
Well, I didn't say I'll be right out,
although I did go right out.
She should have said, well, I'll be right
out.
But anyway, I did get in the car,
and I went out to the airport, and
you can hardly imagine what a morgue-like
airport is at 430 in the morning.
I mean, she was sitting alone in one
of these departure areas.
Her daughter was coming in.
Her daughter didn't know yet that the father
had died, because she had been called while
he was still breathing.
So, I waited with Lois there, and whenever
Peg got off the plane, she knew right
away that C.
had died, that her father had gone.
Anyway, we went to the luggage, and we
got to the car, and they said to
me, they said, are you coming out with
us for the weekend?
My mind was confused right then, and I
said, I thought, well, they'll want to be
alone, didn't they?
The mother and daughter will want to be
alone, and I said, well, I think I'd
better get back to my work.
They sat there all day, alone in the
house, waiting for their son to come from
Oklahoma.
They said to me, Peg said to me
later, it was the longest day in our
lives.
You can imagine how that made me feel.
Instead of saying, thanks Bill, we knew you'd
come.
This really speaks to me loudly when I
read this about Honest Zippers.
He was a great man, wasn't he?
Willing to expose himself to danger.
He had to be there with the apostle,
and the apostle Paul says, you know very
well how many ways he ministered to me
at Ephesus.
I think that's beautiful.
And, you know, one of the thrills of
the Christian life to me is that Honest
Zippers never dreamed in his wildest imagination that
by doing that thing which he considered ordinary
duty, we would be reading about him in
1990.
Isn't that marvelous?
The Christian life is really an exciting life,
isn't it?
A life lived in the center of the
will of God.
How very exciting and thrilling it is.
Paul isn't through with Timothy yet.
He says, you therefore, my son, be strong
in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
This is good.
He's pouring metal into Timothy's character, isn't he?
Not be strong in yourself, not go forth
in arrogance and self-confidence, be strong in
the grace, the strength that is in Christ
Jesus.
Be strong in the Lord and in the
power of his might, and really that's the
only strength that counts.
And then he gives us this well-known
expression of discipleship, the things that you have
heard from me among many witnesses, commit thou
to faithful men who shall be able to
teach others also.
And I believe we're justified in taking this
verse as an exhortation to Christian disciples.
What do we mean by that?
Well, we mean largely what the pattern that
the Lord Jesus followed, how he called twelve
disciples.
He lived with them.
He taught them the great truths of the
of God.
He took them out on on-the-job
training.
He gave them the example of his own
life, and then he sent them forth on
the mission glorious.
That's discipleship.
And I think we all acknowledge that, and
it really has to be the best method,
doesn't it?
Because the Lord Jesus used it.
We acknowledge it, but we don't always practice
it, do we?
I wonder how many of us here, how
many brothers here tonight have some young community
that they're just pouring their lives into?
I wonder how many sisters are following the
biblical expectations to take younger women and teach
them.
You see, the usual emphasis is, when a
person gets saved, um, now just attend the
meeting faithfully, and as you attend the meeting,
you will hear the teaching of the word
of God, and you will go.
And it's true, it's true, they will, and
they should attend the meeting faithfully.
But there's something better, too, in addition to
that, to teach them step by step, and
to take them out on the work.
A couple of years ago now, a young
woman was saved at our assembly, and, um,
I think it was the Lord's Day she
was saved, and Wednesday night, to my amazement,
she walked into the meeting with a head
covering on.
She couldn't believe it.
And I said to Don Robertson, who's here,
I said, what does Charlemar know about a
head covering?
All he said, Sandra is discipling her.
Our elders never had to say a word
about it.
They never had to say a word.
It was all done between Sunday and Wednesday
night.
And you know, dear Charlemar, she thinks it's
like that in every church.
She's never known anything different.
These are some of the benefits, you know,
of one-on-one discipling, uh, as carried
on by the Lord Jesus.
Unfortunately, the word discipling has acquired a bad
connotation, because there are some gurus who have
really exercised dominion over the people of God.
They dominate the life of the discipler.
They make decisions for him, and generally require
a strict legal submission.
The shepherding movement in the United States is
an example of that.
But that doesn't mean that there isn't a
true discipling, a godly discipling, something according to
the word of God.
But there are problems, too.
When we work with young people, we put
ourselves in a very vulnerable position.
You know why?
Because they learn very soon that we have
feet of clay.
They see us warts and all.
You can't hide from the one you're helping.
Your life really is an open book.
And the one you're helping will see you
as you are.
He'll know your weaknesses, because, um, on an
eyeball-to-eyeball basis, there's no place to
hide.
And I think that holds us back sometimes
from entering into this ministry, the fact that
discipling makes you vulnerable.
And as if that isn't bad enough, sometimes
you'll work with people much younger than yourself
than yourself who are better Christians than you
are, who pray more than you pray, who
fast more than you fast, who are more
faithful in reading the word of God and
in witnessing.
So this is pretty humiliating.
Draws you up short, is this whole thing.
But there's the exhortation, anyway, the things that
you've heard from me among many witnesses, the
same commit thou to faithful men who shall
be able to teach others also.
This is the expansion of Christianity through personal
witnessing.
And then Paul uses these three wonderful similes
of Christian service.
You have, of course, the soldier in verses
three and four.
You have the athlete in verse five, and
you have the hard-working farmer in verse
six.
First of all, you have the soldier endure
hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
Out of the throng of young people who
respond to a missionary challenge in Bible school,
Bible colleges, missionary meetings, Bible conferences and camps,
only 12 percent ever apply for training.
Five percent complete their Bible training, three percent
qualify for service, and only one percent return
to the field after their first term.
These are U.S. statistics.
In that connection, I can't help thinking of
one of Amy Carmichael's lovely poems.
From subtle love of softening things, From easy
choices, weakenings, Not thus are spirits fortified, Not
this way went the crucified.
From all that dims thy calvary, O Lamb
of God, deliver me.
From all that dims thy calvary, O Lamb
of God, deliver me.
Somebody has said, Some faint at the sight
of blood.
A young man came to Jesus and said,
I will follow you wherever you go.
But when Jesus showed him a picture of
a cross with some crimson on it, he
who was all eagerness fell into a dead
faint.
He yearned for the goods, but the price
was greater than he was willing to pay.
It's as if he said, but for these
vile guns, I would be a soldier.
Leslie Newbigin said, Christians are meant to be
a task force rather than a study group
or a holy club.
Christians are meant to be a task force
rather than a study group or a holy
club.
That's what Paul is trying to get across
here to Timothy.
You, therefore, must endure hardship as a good
soldier of Jesus Christ.
And then continuing on the theme of the
good soldier, he says, no one engaged in
warfare, etc.
The two emphatic words here, I think, are
entangled and pleased, entangled and pleased, entangled.
You and I know about that.
How many diversions and detours present themselves to
us all the time?
Foods, fashion, fitness, and family.
And how social causes come up and want
to become a prominent thing in our lives.
Abortions, environments, politics, fighting the media that ridicules
religion and undermines traditional values and uses foul
language.
Shouldn't we do something about it?
Child abuse, racism, and police brutality.
There's no end to the list of things
that we could be engaging in.
Paul says, no soldier on active duty entangles
himself.
These things are good.
I'm speaking about them.
There's something better.
Those things never change men's character.
Only the new birth changes men.
And that's why the new birth is central,
and it's God's program for the world and
for his people.
And I feel if I'm going to be
serving with Christ, I want to be doing
what he's doing.
And his will is not really to make
the world a better place to live in,
but to call out from the nation a
people for his name.
Vance Havner said, we drown in mud puddles
of insignificant issues and have no time for
great concerns.
We need to seek first the kingdom of
God and his righteousness and not let what
we eat and wear and all life's lesser
interests take up our time.
So this is a big problem in life,
isn't it?
The whole problem of priority.
What is going to be first in my
life?
Do I have that vision, and am I
going for it with a straight but I
think there are a lot of other lessons
here.
As soldiers, we have to constantly remember that
one battle is not the whole war.
And I think there may be some here,
I don't know, but I think there may
be some here, and you're discouraged because you've
lost the battle.
Is that right?
Things have not, you've gone through a rough
patch, things have not been going well.
Over my desk, back to the shelving, I
have this little poem, and I read it
all the time, and it really has been
a blessing to me.
O changeless sea, thy message in changing spray
is cast.
Within God's plan of progress, it matters not
at last how wide the shores of evil,
how strong the wreaths of sin.
The wave may be defeated, but the tide
is sure to win.
But that may be your circumstance right now.
The wave may be defeated.
And you feel that, you feel defeated, and
disconsolate, and discouraged, and depressed.
Listen, the tide is sure to win.
I like it.
Somebody said to Billy Graham, are you an
optimist or a pessimist?
He said, I'm an optimist.
Why are you an optimist?
He said, I read the last chapter of
Revelation, and God's going to win.
And we are on the winning side.
I mean, I know it.
Muslim countries, you think of the difficulties of
working among those people?
Never mind.
The wave may be defeated, but the tide
is sure to win.
And then in verse 5, don't forget, our
service must be according to the Word of
God.
Otherwise it is fleshly, carnal, and of no
eternal value.
Paul says, if anyone competes in athletics, he's
not crowned unless he competes according to the
rules.
I mentioned the word pleased, but I didn't
elaborate on it.
But I should go back to that.
He may please him who enlisted him as
a soldier.
How do you please him who has enlisted
you as a soldier by not becoming entangled
with the affairs of this life?
What it says, the hard-working farmer must
be first to partake of the crop.
I emphasize here, hard-working.
The poet has said, we're not here to
play, to dream, to drift.
We have hard work to do and loads
to lift.
Shun not the struggle, face it, it's God's
gift.
Say not the days are evil, who's to
blame?
And hold the hands and acquiesce, oh shame.
Stand up, speak out, act bravely in God's
name.
It matters not how deep entrenched the wrong,
how hard the battle goes, the day how
long.
Fight on, fight on, tomorrow comes the song.
The Virgin said, kill yourself with hard work,
then pray yourself alive again.
But I'm serious when I say, really, we
should be working harder for the Lord Jesus
than we would for any earthly enterprise.
I saw a dear brother Ned out there,
I think it was 6.30, he was
out putting dirt along by the flowers there.
I said, you're not following union rules at
all.
He's just glad, apparently, just to pour out
his life day and night for the Lord
Jesus, that it's all going to be rewarded
in that coming day, that he may please
him who has called him.
You know, the Lord Jesus himself is our
supreme example of this, of hard work, the
supreme model and example.
What days of toil were his, what night
of prayer he spent on the side of
the hill.
Three years in the ministry made an old
man of him.
They said to him, you are not yet
50 years old, guessing at his age.
50 years, he was only 30.
You don't catch that in Christian art, do
you?
I hesitate to give you the following statistics,
they kind of discourage me, but here they
are.
John Wesley traveled 250,000 miles on horseback,
averaging 20 miles a day for 40 years.
Makes me wonder if I'm a Christian.
He preached 40,000 sermons, produced hundreds of
books, knew 10 languages.
At 83, he was annoyed that he could
not write more than 15 hours a day
without hurting his eyes, and at 86, he
was ashamed he could not preach more than
twice a day.
He complained in his journal that there was
an increasing tendency to lie in bed until
5 30 in the morning.
And I often think of Darby, John Nelson
Darby, you know, brought up in a luxurious
home, went over to Dublin, Ireland, studied at
Trinity there, studied for law first, and then
became a cleric in the Church of Ireland,
and then God called him out of that
establishment, and he traveled for months and ends
over the Wicklow Mountains of Ireland and saw
hundreds of Roman Catholics come to the Lord
Jesus.
And then he went over to the continent,
he traveled for 26 years without unpacking his
suitcase, and everywhere he went, New Testament assemblies
were founded.
One day he sat in the chief Italian
boarding house, and he cupped his chin in
his hand and sang, Jesus, I my cross
have taken all to leave and follow thee.
And it was true.
Translated the Bible from Greek and Hebrew into
English, and had parts in several other versions
of the Bible, French, German, Italian, I'm not
sure of the exact details.
And when he left, when he left this
earth, he left behind 34 volumes of his
collective writings.
Hard-working farmer, really tremendous.
So you have the soldier, you have the
athlete competing in the game, and you have
the hard-working farmer first to partake of
the crops.
Reward ahead.
But he doesn't get his harvest the day
he plants it, and that means patience too,
doesn't it?
Sometimes we're impatient, we want to see results
right away.
This isn't the way God usually works.
You don't reap the day you sow, or
a few days afterwards.
There's a process involved, and there is in
dealing with souls too.
And Paul said, consider what I say, and
may the Lord give you understanding in all
things.
I think that means, look, I haven't exhausted,
I've given you three similes, now you explore
them.
And you, you get the meat out of
them.
Consider what I say, and you apply it
to your own life in your service for
the Lord Jesus, dear Timothy.
And then he says, and I think it
reads, remember Jesus Christ, of the seed of
David, raised from the dead, according to my
gospel.
Some people think that Paul is starting a
new subject here, maybe a new paragraph, I
don't think so.
I think Paul is just giving the conclusion
of the preceding paragraph, rather than the beginning
of a new one.
He's pressing home his lesson, and he passes
from the figures of speech to the concrete
example of the Lord Jesus.
If you want a role model, may I
introduce you to the Lord Jesus.
He exemplifies all I'm trying to say in
the picture of the soldier, and the athlete,
and the farm laborer.
He can be an example to us.
And then Paul again says, according to my
gospel, for which I suffer trouble as an
evildoer.
I think of the rest of that verse,
even to the point of change, but the
word of God is not changed.
The word of God is not changed.
That's good.
We may be changed and chained in different
ways than Paul was.
We may be obstructed and hindered in ways,
but the word of God is not changed.
I think of the Eastern European countries, and
I think of how the Bible was a
prohibited book in those countries.
But I also think of the underground river
of Bibles and Testaments that was flowing into
those countries all the time.
And sometimes God's servants were languishing in jail,
just like Paul was.
The word of God wasn't found.
Now that's a glorious thing, and that's why
many of us engaged in propagating the word
of God are engaged in a work that
can never fail.
You can't say that of earthly occupations, of
earthly professions, but you can say it of
this one.
Distribute the word of God.
Distribute Bibles, and New Testaments, and gospel portions,
and the word of God in every form,
and you're engaged in a ministry that doesn't
be blessed by God.
He said, my word will not return unto
me void.
It will accomplish that which I have sent
it forth to do.
And just as all the armies of the
world cannot stop the snow from falling to
the ground, or the rain, so all the
armies of the world are powerless to stop
the going forth of God's precious holy word.
What an encouragement for us.
Not only are we on the winning side,
but God has promised to bless his words.
Therefore I endure all things for the sake
of the elect, that they also may obtain
the salvation which is in Christ Jesus unto
eternal glory.
This man knew what he was after.
He was determined to carve his name, not
in marble, but in human lives, and he
was willing to suffer for that.
Am I willing to?
I faint at the sight.
The last two, of course, refer to God
himself.
I suggest that to you.
The first four lines refer to true believers,
and the word of God sees all true
believers as having died with him.
When he died on the cross, we died
on the cross.
When he was buried, we were buried.
When he rose again from the dead, we
rose again in him.
And so it says here, if we died
with him, we shall also live with him.
And then the word of God here sees
all Christians as enduring.
There are degrees of endurance, aren't there?
A lot of people have to endure a
lot more than others.
Most of us ride to heaven in flowery
beds of ease, but others are going through
severe trials, fires and floods.
But all believers are seen here as enduring.
If we endure, we shall also reign with
him.
Once again, there will be degrees of reigning
with him, too.
Rule thou over ten cities, rule thou over
five cities.
But all Christians are seen here as enduring.
But then it says if we deny him,
he also will deny us.
I don't think this is the denial of
Peter, because Peter was a true believer who
had gotten away from the Lord for that
sin.
But this is the denial, I will not
have him to reign over me, that type
of thing.
Denying him as Lord and Savior of the
life.
And Paul says if we deny him, he
also will deny us.
If we are faithful, I think it means
unbelievers, it says he remains faithful, he cannot
deny himself.
A lot of people take those last two
lines as a word of comfort, you know,
that no matter what people do, God is
still a beneficent monarch, and he will overlook
it, and everything will be all right.
I don't think it means that.
I think that refers back to everything that's
gone before, and God is going to be
faithful to his promise, whether to bless or
to punish, whether to bless his own people
or deal differently with those who are faithless
and who deny the Lord Jesus Christ.
Christ himself said, whoever denies me will be
denied before the Father which is in heaven.
So don't take this as a comfort that
the Lord will keep his loving promise to
me, no matter how much I may go
against him.
It really doesn't say that.
He's just as faithful in his threatenings as
he is in his promises.
That's what the passage says to me.
And the will of God will go on
from this point tomorrow night, and certainly we
will not finish the book, but at least
extract some further lessons for Christian life and
service from it.
Shall we pray?
Father, we do thank you for the Lord
Jesus Christ, first of all, who embodies all
the characteristics of the soldier, the athlete, the
hard-working farmer.
We thank you, too, for the way this
was lived out in the life of the
Apostle Paul, that he could say these things
without shame.
He could say them boldly to the young
man Timothy.
Now, Father, we pray that, having told out
the message, that we might make it real
in our own lives.
Deliver us from the grave of satisfaction, Lord,
and help us to press toward the mark
for the prize of the high calling of
God in Christ Jesus.
We ask in his worthy name.
Amen.