Kevin DeYoung | A Good Soldier | 2 Timothy 2:1-13

I think of myself as a younger version of RC Sproles cat if he has won our dog perhaps on a good day Stephen is a good friend and thank you for that kind introduction one of the one of the the great joys of going in speaking different places it's uh it's not it's not necessarily as exciting and glamorous as you might think it's squished up in a plane and being far from home but one of the real joys is to not only get to speak to people like you people in ministry of all different walks and kinds but to be reacquainted with friends as we come from different parts of the country and sometimes different parts of the world that's certainly the case being here with you my task is to preach from second Timothy chapter two verses one through thirteen if you turn there let me ask you a question which set of words better describes a Christian wounded weak broken strugglers or strong courageous steadfast overcomers wounded weak broken strugglers or strong courageous steadfast overcomers which set of words better describes what the Christian is and ought to be hopefully you're not too quick to answer that trick question because if you know your Bibles you should know that all of those words properly defined can find implicit and in most cases explicit warrants in Scripture and yet I imagine that given our personality given the church background we grew up in or oftentimes the family background or church environment were reacting against we may gravitate toward one or the other of those descriptions and there are I find many many people today who would almost exclusively emphasize that first set of characteristics and they would describe the Christian life and the Christian virtues and the Christian motif for ministry as one that is solely to be weak and wounded and broken and struggling all of which can be supported from Scripture and yet by themselves without the rest of scriptures who also fill up what those words mean and don't mean can be lopsided for we are in many passages like this one which I'm about to read exhorted to be in the midst of weakness and suffering strengthened to endure and so we want neither an exaggerated triumphalism nor an emotive failure ISM can you find both of those in the church today for some and exaggerated triumphalism whether that's a personal triumphalism just from glory to glory no place for weakness no place for doubting no place for pain or perhaps triumphalism on a church or a national scale and then on the other hand don't we find some whose Christianity has become little more than a motive failure ISM you're miserable I'm miserable you're not good at anything I'm not good at anything you just fail you're not sanctified you're not holy we're all just wonderfully miserable and that's not quite the tenor of new to New Testament Christianity is it what we see in this passage is that we are to be strengthened but it is a strength that comes not from ourselves but by the grace that is in Christ Jesus follow along as I read from 2nd Timothy chapter 2 youth in my child be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also share and suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus no soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him an athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules it is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops think over what I say for the Lord will give you understanding and everything remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead the offspring of David has preached in my gospel for which I am suffering bound with chains as a criminal but the Word of God is not bound therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory the saying is trustworthy for if we have died with him we will also live with him if we endure we will also reign with him if we deny him he will also deny us if we are faithless he remains faithful for he cannot deny himself the two big ideas in this passage are given to us in verse 1 be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus or you could put it this way be strong God is stronger so be strengthened that's the first paragraph and then the second paragraph is to explain how in fact we are strengthened because the Apostle Paul by the inspiration of the Spirit is kind enough not to simply tell us to be strengthened and to endure but then to give us theological reasons for doing so he doesn't just say it and it happens he wants to know how does this happen reminds me of just a few weeks ago my 13 year old son came up to me he said dad how do I get a six-pack not not six-pack but a six-pack my first thought was well I can I can see why you're asking that question son your mother asked that often you know I get a 6-pack no I said you're 13 what do you need a six-pack for he said why don't I just want one I said don't worry about it yet in fact don't worry about it ever because I want to know and he's doing push doesn't he's doing crunches and he's doing things he wants to know how do you get from here to there wants to be strong how do you get strength we ought to ask that same question as Christians Paul has in his mind you see verse 2 the passing on of this deposit in the passing on of this strength which you've heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men and we could if we had time camp out there and just speak of discipleship from generation to generation and training in your churches among your elders and leaders and women to women but we are going to move on and look at what Paul means by strength what what is this strength that he wants Timothy to have and by extension pastors to have and I think we can by implication look at ministry leaders or anyone here as you walk the Christian walk and as you seek to influence others for Christ what does it look like to be strengthened well hopefully in this first paragraph under this first banner of be strengthened Paul gives three analogies that's a great sermon here because it's just that the three points just fall down from heaven for you three pictures first he says you're to be like a soldier verse three soldiers share in suffering you cannot choose whether or not to suffer you may be able to choose some extent of it but all of us you live long enough you suffer and so you can then choose how to suffer he says don't suffer as a whiny child as a disappointed husband as a leaky love tank has in evangelical who everyone is always picking on me but as a soldier now listen Paul is not calling for some kind of emotionless stoicism you know soldiers some of you may have served in the Armed Forces and I've known them in my family and certainly among friends and churches soldiers get sad soldiers share grief he isn't saying pretend like nothing bad happens and run away from it what he's saying is do not be surprised by it understand that as a soldier there will be hardships remember a pastor telling me one time even before I was in ministry giving me this good advice he said if you're fighting in a war and you're in a foxhole and someone else across the way pops up and begins shooting at you you don't say was it something I said no you understand that you're in a battle and you get hurt and you get shot at and sometimes sadly it's friendly-fire understand to endure share and suffering as a soldier and then he says to please the one who enlisted him verse four this is an encouragement first of all for pastors that your interests not be divided and we have hobbies that's good we have families we need to love them well but we are first of all to please our commanding officer and it's true for pastors and ministry leaders is true for all of us who want to follow Christ with a single-minded devotion now listen this is not the only analogy for the Christian life the only analogy for a relationship with God you could go to Scripture and say our relationship with God is collectively as a as a wife to a husband it's like a child to his father but don't miss this it is also like a soldier with his commanding officer and I dare say that not many of us think of our relationship with God in that way in fact some of us would probably say oh no no don't do that that's a bit cold that's a little bit authoritarian but here it is in the scriptures to please your in your commanding officer several years ago I found this on a church website thankfully I can't remember what church it was from but I found these these points this is just these are all quotes from the website what you will find a casual atmosphere friendly people who will help you find your way around today's music powerful dramas high-impact media presentations message is relevant to your daily life in amazing children's space a Starbucks esque cafe where you can relax recharge and relate in your comfort zone with a coffee in your hand Saturday night extras including more music more food cafe tables in a Wi-Fi zone to soothe your inner geek and you will find that you matter to God whether you're single married single again with or without children no matter where you've been or what you've done we invite you to experience the difference here just by way of comparison here's the seal code loyalty to country team and teammates serve with honor and integrity on and off the battlefield ready to lead ready to follow never quit take responsibility for your actions and the actions of your teammates excel as warriors through discipline and innovation trained for war fight to win defeat our enemies earn your Trident every day and soothe your inner geek now to be fair we can find scriptural support for emphases in both of those descriptions but with the exception of perhaps the notion of earning your Trident every day I submit to you that the seal code has a whole lot more by way of biblical language and imagery then does this very hip Church website which says come everything will be comfortable everything will be easy it will be just like everything you want in your life with a Starbucks in your hand and Wi-Fi and nice music it will be for you just try it please please please I know I know that instinct as a pastor I know that instinct err there's a new couple here look at them they have children somebody get them offering envelopes quick quick quick quick do you want the new members class no skip the new members class you want to be a member you want to get baptized you've been baptized well we do it better here oh come on just go does it doesn't it amaze you when you study Jesus in the Gospels he's constantly trying to get rid of people he's got a crowd he's got thousands of people they want to make him King any of them I'm not the one you want I'm not that sort of King let the dead bury their dead you can't follow me unless you hate your mother or father really endure hardship as a soldier the second analogy the second word picture then is as an athlete says the athlete verse 6 or verse 5 is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules now here he means the rules of the Christian game so-called involves suffering and hardship Romans 8:17 now if we are children then we are heirs heirs of God where's with Christ if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory in first Timothy 4:16 he tells Timothy there watch your life and your doctrine closely why because you might be disqualified for the prize in other words he says there's two great lessons from sports now I know sports can be a great source of idolatry and pain and push people away from Sundays there are all sorts of problems with it in our culture but done rightly Paul sees that there are important lessons Sports reminds us of two important lessons number one there is right and wrong and number two there are winners and losers now even sports today is questioning both of those are there really rights and wrongs and are there really winners and losers I I don't fancy myself a great athlete but I like to stay active I like to run and you know do weekend races and 5ks or work my way up to something longer and I'm not expecting to win I'm tell my wife I'm not turning pro quite yet but I find that as and I've done these four years that now with most races everybody gets a medal now on the rare occasion that I actually placed high enough to win a medal I don't want any of you to get medals I would trade in a shoe box of twenty five participant medals for one medal that I don't like I really did it but you know that's the way you get trophies and ribbons and medals for participating we can understand why and at certain ages that may be helpful for children and but listen sports ought to teach us and Paul is getting at this here that when it comes to living your life talking about an eternal destiny not ever once again first place in fact if you think your first place you may just begin last place if you think you're in last place you may just be the sort of person who's going to get first place jesus said you say are you sure Paul said that well here's what he said in first Corinthians 9 do you not know that in a race all the runners run but only one gets the prize no participation medals for Paul run in such a way as to get the prize everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training they do it to get a crown that will not last but we do it to get a crown that will last forever therefore I do not run like a man aimlessly I do not fight like a man beating the air no I beat my body making my slave so that after I preach to others i myself will not be disqualified for the prize he's a soldier he's an athlete knowing that some in this eternal destiny will win some will lose now we must quickly insert that it's not the same as training to say I'm in the fastest and I've run the farthest and I have proved myself to be the best we he's not saying how you win the prize we know you win the prize through Christ but nevertheless it is true and one of the things that hopefully we reinforced to our children we reinforced to people under our care in school or in ministries is that there's their consequences for not doing things God's Way and one of the things I hope we reinforce is that not everyone does get an A not everyone does get 1st place because in life and especially in eternal life not everyone makes it to heaven he gives a third word picture soldier an athlete and then a farmer the same idea here ministry in particular and Christian life in general requires hard work so if the soldier was to point to endurance in the athletes who work according to the rules for the prize then the image of the farmer is that we ought to be hard-working that we might have the first share of the crops now again you must hear Paul is dealing with images here he's not trying to undermine justification by grace through faith alone by talking about hard work he's simply saying as Jesus himself would say we must strive we make must make an effort my wife and I know about farmers from both sides of our families and the first church that I served in as an associate pastor was in Iowa and there were dozens and dozens of farmers in that church and learned all sorts of things and learned to ask what the price of corn was and how the soybean crop was doing and how the rainfall patterns and asked questions about combines like I knew what I was talking about I've been around farmers and I've seen my share of rude farmers disagreeable farmers sometimes cantankerous farmers I have never met a lazy farmer you know what lazy farmers are called suburban Knights like me you have your lazy farmers don't make it in farming very long all the farmers I have known have been hard-working I remember my first trips going to visit a man in the hospital who was in his mid 80s and his wife was there chagrin why is your husband in the hospital he said he was standing up on his tractor trying to fix something and he fell off not a good idea to do with any age more seriously I'll never forget when I was in maybe middle school and hearing my parents get an urgent phone call from far away that my grandfather had had an accident in a combine and got his leg stuck in a moving combine and pulled himself out somehow survived lost his leg lived the rest of his life with prosthetic metal leg from the knee down and all sorts of fun stories about flying he could be one of those sort of cantankerous hard-working farmers if you ask me to take off this leg one more time I'm gonna hit you over the head with it that sort of thing I've known a lot of farmers all the farmers I've ever known have been hard-working some of us could stand to have a little more farmer in us and so could our churches I'm so thankful for my parents who never entertained the idea that we weren't going to church on Sunday how many people do you have in your churches whether you're the leaders or you're the one in the pews how many people do we find increasingly in our churches it becomes just a thing maybe it works this Sunday what time are the games on who's playing how nice is the weather do the kids have any soccer games I mean my parents were to the Hill I mean we I'm sure we got people the influence of multiple times well you're sick doesn't matter Church Jesus can heal you churches so all the time and I can't tell you how many times I've already had this conversation with my kids as they ask on Saturday night are we going to Sunday school tomorrow or are we going to church are we going to evening church I've had to say just listen I I want to give you several several questions the answer to which will always be yes okay I just want to settle with you you don't need to ask this any more on Saturday night or Sunday morning the answer is yes we go into Sunday school or going to church we're going to evening church hard work how many of us live the Christian life that way how many of us are reinforcing those sort of values in our people and our children I I remember once summer when the first jobs I had and I had to mow the lawn it was one of my middle school teachers said I'm gonna be gone for several weeks and could you mow the lawn I never mowed a lawn before and I was just a weak little kid and this he's kind of had a hilly terrain and I showed my parents later they drove by and here it is and the thing was just undulating it was no straight lines anywhere I said well it was a hilly place mom said I'd done such a bad job that my older brother had to do it and had to fix it and I couldn't accept any money for my teacher for doing it because I had done a poor job probably a good lesson you say well this is works/righteousness well no Oh Paul first Corinthians 15:10 I worked harder than all of them yeah not i but the grace of God that is within me it's works righteousness if Paul means I worked harder than all of them to make my way up to God so that he would love me which of course is not what he means he means as one untimely born as an apostle saved by grace through faith alone I worked hard how many Christians whether your baby boomers Gen X Millennials whatever know the value of hard work you work hard at all sorts of things for your test scores for your school for your instruments for your athletics remember one of my professors in college told me it was a Christian college he told me the worst answers he got were the the pious sounding lazy answers so he'd have on the test give me a paragraph about Agustin identify Agustin he said the answer is that he just couldn't stand it he would just fail were the people who wrote Agustin was a man of God who loved the Lord he studied the Scriptures and worked so so marvelously on behalf of God's people his life is an example of Christ's likeness that inspires me and his writing continues to influence the church to this present day F no you need to say he's born in 3:54 died in 430 was the Bishop of Hippo he wrote the confessions in the City of God he debated Pelagius who's converted in the garden after hearing ambrose priests give me some facts work hard at this now people are at all different points on the journey people have different gifts we understand there's there's room for doubters there's room for failing we know that there's grace for mistakes that's what following Christ entails but there's also hard work as a soldier as a farmer as an athlete be strong it's not just emotive failure ISM to be a Christian sometimes we use that language I'm just sort of a failure and we use it to describe egregious sins you know as if you know grandpa just sort of tousled our hair and said I give silly little rascal what does it say at the end of second Samuel 11 after David's sin with Bathsheba this is saying the Lord looked down and David was a real screw-up it says and the thing David had done displeased the Lord be strengthened Paul says endure suffering and hardship he then finishes off the paragraph and verse 7 think over what I say the Lord will give you understanding and everything and before we leave this paragraph it would be good perhaps sometime later tonight or this weekend with a friend or a family member or even thinking about your church with other ministry leaders what which of these do you need to hear soldier athlete farmer which of these images have you been neglecting in your life or in your church's ministry have you in appropriately listening to biblical images of other sorts of relational descriptors of God and His people neglected these important descriptions think over what I'm saying Paul says the Lord will give you understanding now he moves for the second paragraph and here with him we moved to the second heading so verse 1 says be strengthened and he gives those three examples of what strength looks like in the Christian life but importantly it's not just a message that says get your act together be strong it's strengthened by grace we must always get that together not failure by grace not strength just by the Oh our own dint of personality strengthened by grace that is in Christ Jesus and so in the second paragraph he highlights Christ's work which gives us grace Christ's word and Christ's character all three enable us to be strong to endure to press on so first then we can look at Christ's work in verse 8 remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead he's just told Timothy to be strong to be a soldier to be an athlete to be a hard-working farmer now he gives the most important word of all all right Timothy and once you remember not just those pictures but I want you to remember first of all Jesus Christ Jesus Christ risen from the dead well simply Jesus the teacher of justice and compassion or Jesus the gentle healer or even even Jesus the lover of your soul but Jesus the Conqueror of the grave he goes on the offspring of David that is the one hoped for as preached in my gospel that is the good deposit that I have passed on to you I want you to remember Christ finish work on the cross for sins raised to life three days later remember this is not just wishful thinking this is not just the power of good to come out of evil or light to shine in the midst of darkness I want you to remember historical fact remember what J Gresham machen called the gospel he said its historical fact plus theological interpretation both of those things not just wishful thinking so it's just a story about human potential remember having a debate with another pastor one time about the virgin birth and he was saying well to me the part where it says in the gospel anything everything is all things are possible with God that's more important to my faith than the virgin shall conceive and give birth and I said well if it's really important to your faith that all things are possible with God you might want to consider that this is possible too you see it's not just a a metaphor that we're basing our hope on its history this happened a man named Jesus he really lived and breathed and he died and he rose again that's history he died for our sins according to the scriptures theological interpretation that's the gospel remember Paul says the finished work of Christ and then he moves from Christ's work to Christ's word he says for which I am suffering bound with chains as a criminal but the Word of God is not bound do you see what he's doing you can be strong in the midst of difficulty in the midst of disappointment betrayal hardship suffering why because we believe in our intrinsic power no because we believe in the inherent power of words gospel words he says I may be I may be in Chains I may not be able to go anywhere the Word of God is not bound some of you facing opposition in your church maybe you got a zoning committee won't let you buy a piece of land or build something or maybe you have a local government that's bearing down in some way or maybe you you have been unfairly treated by others and they look at you and they think well those are just the bigots in our community and you think you don't have the opportunities maybe you're not allowed to go on college campuses like you once were and we ought to fight for a religious liberty in all of these gifts nevertheless no matter how many setbacks no matter who opposes you no matter even if you are in Chains Paul says the Word of God is not in Chains the Word of God is not bound think about the imagery of the seed the seed being sown just keep sowing just keep sowing just keep sowing so now what dori said and you know that story of the the sower and the soils and some fell on the rocky path and some fell on the thorns and some fell on the shallow ground and we know this the different hearts but have you ever thought about what a profligate sower what's he doing stones okay thorns that might work beach sand whoo just sewing sewing sewing because the power is in the germinating might of the seed you you can bury a human being you know if you feed underground don't recommend it if they're still alive but you can do that and uh you you you can't claw your way out but you put a little a little teeny seed into that earth and it finds its way out it can grow and be ten stories tall and live for a hundred years such is the germinating power inherent in the seed the word is not bound evangelism does not guarantee results evangelism is to get the word right and to get the word out to speak them to go out buy Bibles and radios and tapes if you have them in CDs and Internet and podcasts and social media and books and magazines and pamphlets and tracts and preachers and by 10 million witnesses that the word would go forth and so he can say in verse 10 I endure everything for the sake of the elect they also may obtain the salvation and that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory do you see here how the sovereignty and of God in salvation is not ad motivator for an evangelism but it is a motivator to keep on pressing on I endure why well if you're if you're if you have a high view of God's sovereignty if you believe that God is the one who chooses if you believe that God's will is prior to any of our willing if you believe that regeneration must precede faith if you believe that with this high view of God then why are you busting your tail out there to share the gospel like God's God is just gonna do what he wants he's already chosen people that is never ever the logic from Paul or any of the apostles it's just the opposite why would I keep pressing on in this backwards nothing town why would I keep sharing the gospel in the 1040 window why would I keep preaching to these upper-middle class people who have everything and don't think that they need Jesus why would I keep doing that because you believe that there are elect and that God has yet people here and that you never know as you lob some hand grenades every Sunday whether from the pulpit or in your Bible study or around the dinner table you never know which one of those is gonna blow and lo and behold someone gets born again and someone gets saved because of the word because God says that the sheep will hear my voice and so you keep pressing on to be a faithful Sunday school teacher and to share the gospel with your classmates and with your suitemates and with your cubicle mates to keep on sharing because you believe in the power of the word that that for every one who has been chosen by God there will be a moment in their life as there has been in yours whether you can remember it or not or it happened when you were four or 40 or 80 a moment when you go from not just reading a verse or hearing a sermon or hearing your friend talk to you about the gospel but all of a sudden without even realizing what's happening you hear the very voice of Jesus speaking to you and he says come and you come he says believe and you believe he says be born again and you are born again just as at the beginning he said let there be light and there was light we press on because of Christ's work because of Christ's word and finally because of Christ's character this brings us to this saying at the end of the passage this trustworthy saying there are five of these trustworthy or faithful sayings and the pastoral epistles this one and you can tell by the way most translations give it a kind of poetic versification that it might have been an early hymn or a confession you notice that the pronoun suddenly switch to we suggesting that it might be a call-and-response it might be an early liturgical element in worship there's an obvious if then parallelism if we have died with him we will also live with him speaking of the death that comes through conversion the death to ourself the death death to our own ideals the the death to our own ideas the death to our own plans and hopes and dreams at times that Christ would reign in our mortal bodies if we have died with him we live with him verse 12 if we endure we reign with him yea this is a major theme of Paul as he writes both of these letters to Timothy and to her suffering there's persecution now anyone who desires to live a godly life in Christ Jesus he says will not may will be persecuted in some way you will be reviled in some way you will be oppressed may not be with chains may not be with scars but in some way you will this is this is a a good way to track your Christian life if everyone hates you something's probably wrong if everyone loves you something's probably wrong because he says if you desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus you will be persecuted so we must endure if we want to reign with him isn't this what we try to teach our children the benefit of delayed gratification not your best life now but your best life later and then he changes gears a bit in the second half of verse 12 if we deny him he will also deny us we're really tracking with the first two if this we like those yes we die we live we endure we reign but we can't neglect this he says if we deny him he will deny us Matthew 10 so everyone acknowledges me before men Jesus says I will also acknowledge before my father who was in heaven but whoever denies me before men I will also deny before my father who is in heaven some do make shipwreck of the faith as an entirely different theological seminar to explain why this does not negate the perseverance of the preservation of the Saints the short explanation is what we find in first John - that some went out from you and they did not remain with you proving that they never really were of you there are people who have covenant connections who are not true Christians just like Paul can say there are some who are children of Abraham they're not really children of Abraham there are some who are of Israel who are not really of Israel there are some who are circumcised were not really circumcised of the heart in the same way there are some on our church rolls who are not really in the heavenly rolls and we have examples here he says the Asians deserted me different than what we think of Asians you can relax but the Asians here deserted him hymenaeus and philetus deserted him Alexander the coppersmith left him and so lines two and three are opposite some endure and some do not those who endure will reign those who deny Christ will be denied this is one of many warning passages in the New Testament which are meant to cause the elect to persevere I say this to preachers in the room and I don't mean it in a cheeky way I mean it with all sincerity if we are preaching not only the meaning of the text but the mode of the text we will from time to time want to scare the hell out of people we will may it never be that someone in your churches could stand before God one day and say no one ever warned me of a judgement to come no one ever warned me if you're the Watchmen on the walls you sounding the trumpet because you know that a judgement is coming that's what these passages are meant to do they are the means by which the elect are caused to endure and then he says in verse 13 if we are faithless he remains faithful and this particular if-then phrase has stumped many commentators and if you want to come to a different conclusion than I do I can understand for the commentators are quite divided there are at least three ways we can interpret verse 13 if we are faithless he remains faithful for he cannot deny himself it could mean even if we are faithless we fail we struggle we wander yet he will be faithful he cannot deny himself his name is upon us and he will save us still even if we have a period of wandering away that's one interpretation a second you could say if we are faithless he remains faithful that is faithful to punish us because he cannot deny himself and his own character and justice is so there it's a word of warning or a third explanation which can in some ways go with either of the first two is to say the faithful there is that God is faithful to his promises and you could argue that even when we make shipwreck of the faith he is nevertheless still faithful so we do not nullify his faithfulness if we prove to be faithless you could find commentators for any of those interpretations I would submit to you the third he is faithful to his promises even if we are faithless and do not remain with him not talking about born-again Christians becoming unjustified but talking about those the seed that grows up and then withers those who have some covenant connections and do not remain why do I say that because the context and the pastoral epistles is about deserters we get to chapter four we'll see the that all sorts of people have left Paul so he has in his his mindset people who were with him who didn't stay with him and then also it makes more sense to me you have these four stanzas that you have stanza one in to our positive statements we die and then we live we endure and then we reign and then statements three and four are negative warning statements if you deny him he'll deny you if your faithless he'll be faithful to his promises but you're not going to remain that makes more sense to go positive positive negative negative instead of positive positive and oops here's the negative warning then we're back to the positive again so I take verse thirteen to be something along the lines of Romans three three and four Paul says what if some were unfaithful he's talking about Israel does their faith less ness nullify the faithfulness of God by no means let God be true though everyone were a liar as it is written that you may be justified in your words and prevail when you are judged so the point he was making there in Romans about Israel forfeiting their inheritance and how that did not make a God a liar I think is the same point here interestingly in my study I found that most of the newer commentaries take the positive view of this verse that it's a promise that even if we're faithless God will overcome that and he will be faithful to save us whereas the older commentaries I read Jameson Fawcett Brown Matthew Henry John Calvin Chrysostom they all took the harder negative view and made the same point that God is not maligned by our unbelief the point however we take verse thirteen remains substantially the same in that this stanza gives us both reasons for encouragement and reason for warning all of which are driving us to the conclusion that we must be strengthened strengthened because of Christ's work strengthened because of his word and then strengthen because of his character his character that is with us insufficient to reward us and to give us victory and his character that will not turn a blind eye to sin and abandonment let me finish then in these last two minutes with four quick points of application number one as we are strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus number one let us count the cost of discipleship let us contrary to some methods have a relatively narrow door to get in not narrower than the Word of God would have it but there's a process to get in and it's easy to get out some churches make it incredibly easy to get in and it's like the Hotel California you can checkout any time you like but you can never leave your there's Baptist churches and Presbyterian churches all across the south with 5,000 members and 500 people on Sunday we need to teach our people the cost of discipleship second apostasy is real I believe in the preservation of the Saints with all my heart I also believe in taking the scripture at face value that there are people who make some kind of profession and they later make shipwreck of the faith no matter how many times they raise their hand or how many sinner's prayers they prayed or how many times they threw the pinecone into the fire at summer camp the question isn't simply how far along you are in the race or even how fast you are moving but are you still running and will you finish see we need those warnings the warnings are what caused the Elector persevere in in those who are not truly born again they hear warnings and anything am never gonna happen in the elect you hear you say oh god keep me faithful keep me in the love of God third endurance is a team sport this confession here in verse 11 12 and 13 notice it's with a we it's something they would have likely said or sung or recited it's not simply me and Jesus what I can do but we together let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near and then finally fourth application is to bring us back full circle we need both halves of verse one we need grace and we need strength we need grace not simply because we're all failures and we need strength not because we're all so strong and mighty but rather we can be strong because of grace and by grace we must be strong the warnings in this passage are real the work is real and the Savior is real to be strong he says and know that God is stronger still let's pray our gracious Heavenly Father give thanks for your innumerable blessings in Christ that we may be seated with him in the heavenly places would you now by your spirit preach to these people a better sermon than the one that I've just preached that for some you might cause us to sit up straight and perhaps be alarmed at how lackadaisical and lazy we've become and for others to give us a confidence and an assurance that may have been waning oh how we need your strength oh how we need your grace oh how we need Christ we pray in his name amen

Channel: The Gospel Coalition

Views: 11,136

Rating: 4.7179489 out of 5

Keywords: the gospel coalition, the gospel, gospel, coalition, pastors, pastor, minister, ministry, Christ, Christian, Christianity, church, churches, spiritual, preacher, preaching, teaching, 2 Timothy

Id: v8oTIoY8UGc

Length: 50min 12sec (3012 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 10 2019