And this word, therefore, in
chapter two, verse one, of 2 Timothy, refers back, of
course, to the first chapter. Really, just about all of it,
where Paul has been exhorting Timothy with regard to two things,
mainly, generally speaking, that define what being strong in grace
is. If you look over chapter one
again and think about it, you'll see that Paul is dealing with
being strong to preach and being strong in what to preach. That
makes it simple and very memorable to preach. He exhorts Timothy
to preach. In verse six of chapter one,
look at this part. Wherefore, I put thee in remembrance. This is, of course, the apostle
Paul, an older man now, teaching Timothy, who was a pastor, a
preacher of the gospel, but much younger. He said, I put you in
remembrance that you stir up the gift of God, which is in
you, by the putting on of my hands. Remember, the putting
on of hands was a sort of a, not only, By the Apostles it
was a transferring often of the gifts of the Spirit Which only
they were able to to transfer to others But also a sort of
a confirmation of that person as a preacher of the gospel And
so he's talking about of course the gift the gift of preaching
the gift of speaking for God verse 7 for God has not given
us the spirit of fear but of power and of love and and of
a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed
of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but be
thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the
power of God." So he's encouraging and exhorting Timothy to preach
in the face of great opposition, to preach. Secondly in that first chapter
he's exhorting him with regard to what to preach in verse 13
Hold fast the form of sound words Which thou hast heard of me in
faith and love which is in Christ Jesus That good thing which was
committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in
us All of the context of chapter 1 tells us that that good thing
is the gospel the privilege, the honor, the responsibility
that is laid upon God's preachers to preach the gospel. Keep that,
guard that, protect that. And notice the words there, which
is in Christ Jesus, because they are also those same words that
are in our text. Be strong in the grace that is
in Christ Jesus, While exhorting Timothy, Paul is very thorough
in acknowledging and stressing the fact that all that we need
in order to be strong in grace, it's not within us to muster
up. The way that we're strong in
grace is not by being strong in the flesh, or strong in wisdom
of the flesh, strong in anything of ourselves. That grace which
is in Christ Jesus is what we preach, and we need the grace
that is in Christ Jesus to be strong. Strong in the grace that
is in Christ Jesus. It's not a spark that we fan
into a flame. It's not something that we muster
up. Being strong in God's grace is
a completely looking away from self and finding everything we
need in Christ. Right there in the text, he stresses
that. To be strong in works rather
than in grace is to fail. To be strong in self-will To
fail Simon Peter was a strong self-willed bold But every time
his flesh Got involved he failed when he was left to his own So-called
faithfulness when he said I'll be faithful to you to the death
whereas others may not be the Lord left him alone for a little
while and he failed and It's to find everything we need
in Christ. To be strong in personality or knowledge alone. Knowledge
puffeth up, Paul said, but love buildeth up. To be strong in
anything else is to fail. We must be strong in grace. The grace of God in Christ Jesus. We must be strong in something
that is not in us by nature. Being strong is to utterly depend
upon the Savior for everything. That's what Paul was saying when
he said, when I'm weak, that's when I'm strong. To not wilt
when afflictions come. How are we gonna manage that?
When bold, strong-willed Simon Peter denied the Lord Jesus Christ
three times to avoid conflict with this world. to not quit
when opposed and maligned and despised? How are we gonna manage
that? When Elijah himself prayed for
death in the face of affliction? To preach the simplicity that
is in Christ Jesus, only, always, ever? How are we gonna manage
that when our hearts are so full of sin that we can't see straight? Here's how. Paul said in 2 Corinthians
12, seven, lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance
of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh,
lest my flesh become puffed up and exalted because God has shown
me some things. That's a tendency of man now.
God blesses you and you say, look at me. God blessed Nebuchadnezzar, and
what did Nebuchadnezzar do? Look at me. But there was given to me, lest
that happen, a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet
me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing
I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And
he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee. That's being
strong in the grace, which is in Christ Jesus. Right there,
listen to what else he said. For my strength, God said, my
strength is made perfect in your weakness. Most gladly, Paul said, therefore,
will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may
rest upon me. I'd rather be weak and be strong
in the Lord than to be strong and the Lord leave me alone. Therefore I take pleasure in
infirmities and reproaches and necessities and persecutions
and distresses for Christ's sake. For when I'm weak, then am I
strong. May God give us grace to learn
that. That's the message of our text right there. Be strong. How? It's in Christ Jesus. And back where we read about
exhorting, about preaching the message, what to preach, the
grace that is in Christ Jesus. And notice that Paul says in
our text, thou therefore my son, be strong in the grace. There's a lot that passes for
grace, but there's only the grace that is in Christ. That's the
grace of God. That's true grace, the grace
that's in Him. What kind of grace is in him?
Free grace. Grace that doesn't take into
account anything about you. In fact, God chooses the worst
to bestow his grace upon that the excellency might be of God
and not of us. Sovereign grace. The grace that
is in Christ Jesus is sovereign. He bestows it upon whom he will.
He will he hardens The grace that is in Christ Jesus
is grace It's superseding grace, it's grace that abounds much
more than even our own sins Because of Christ and what he
did for us The Lord Jesus Christ now The
grace of God is in Christ Jesus. In who? In the Lord Jesus Christ
who does not try, who cannot fail, and who will not lose one
sheep for whom he shed his precious blood, that Christ. And notice
the words, my son, it's always lovely to see this. in the scripture
when Solomon exhorted in the Proverbs, he said, my son, hear
my words, apply thine heart to wisdom, my son. God said, I'll
give you preachers after my own heart. By his grace, he does
that. This gospel, when he says be
strong, therefore in the grace of the gospel that's in Christ
Jesus. Be faithful, persevere to preach,
though you're despised and afflicted for it, and be strong in what
you preach, be of sound words. According to the grace that's
in Christ, This gospel is always preached to sinners by somebody
that loves them. You ever think about that? God
has seen to that. It's always preached to his people
by somebody that loves them. And God's not gonna have it any
other way, and I'm thankful for that. My sisters, my brothers,
my daughters and sons, be strong in the grace that is in Christ
Jesus. That's the message this morning.
Be strong in His grace. Be strong in something that you
don't have in you by nature. Find the Lord Jesus to be all
that you need and never have any confidence in this flesh.
That's how you do that. Find in Him everything. Verse
two, "'And the things that thou hast
heard of me "'among many witnesses, "'the same commit thou to faithful
men "'who shall be able to teach others also.'" Now, there are
four levels to this. Paul said, the things that you
heard of me, there's the apostle Paul. Well, who heard that of
Paul? Timothy. He said, you, Timothy,
commit this saying to faithful men, who shall be able to teach
others also. Four levels to that. And of course,
there's way more than that. Who taught Paul? Well, the Lord
himself, but also the Lord used others to teach him. He used
Ananias to give him a message. And of course, he learned the
gospel from the Lord himself as an apostle, as one born out
of due time. But all of us, in a sense, learn
the gospel from the Lord himself by his spirit that teaches us
when his gospel is preached. But this goes on and on. Paul,
Timothy, faithful men, and others also. This is how the Lord has
his gospel preached to generations. The way you learn the gospel
is by hearing it from one of his preachers. That's what's
clearly taught here, very plain. I've been preaching the gospel
to many of you for 18 years. I thought about that the other
day. How did it get to 18 years? January of 2004, until now, I've
been preaching the gospel to quite a few of you. Is that possible? Let me ask you this, has God
taught you anything in 18 years? Has he taught me anything? I'd
say a few things. He's taught us, we're very slow
to learn. I am. But this is how he does
it. This is how he does it. And notice
the word same in verse two. The same. The same, commit that. The gospel never changes. The
eternal good news of God's son and what he did for sinners never
changes. There's no contemporary gospel.
No such thing. God said, I'll have mercy on
whom I will. That's still what he does. He's
still doing that today. And so I preach with that in
mind, not trying to get you to do something for God, but with
all my heart, praying that God will do something for you. It's still not of him that willeth
nor of him that runneth or striveth, but of God that showeth mercy. The Lord Jesus Christ said, my
sheep hear my voice and I give unto them eternal life and they
shall never perish. That's still who he is. That's
still what he does. He gives eternal life through
the hearing of his voice in the preaching of his gospel. He laid
down his life for his sheep, and they shall never perish,
and we still preach the almighty, successful, victorious champion
of sinners, who saved every sinner that he died to save. That don't
change. These are the hallmarks of the
gospel that we preach. who God is, who Christ is, what
he accomplished on Calvary. He does not try, he cannot fail,
and he will not lose one of his own, not a single one. Now Paul
gives three illustrations of what he's teaching Timothy here
in By God's Grace Us. And we'll look at one of them.
This morning for a little while and then we'll kind of look at
all three of them Lord willing in our next Time together on
this in this book But he gives three illustrations a soldier
is the first one thou therefore verse 3 endure hardness as a
good soldier of Jesus Christ no man that woreth entangleth
himself with the affairs of this life and And he may please him
who has chosen him to be a soldier. Don't miss that word chosen.
Just simple, clear, plain gospel of how God saves a sinner. Who
God is, what he did, who Christ is and what he did. And how God
saves a sinner, that simple, you can't proclaim the simple,
basic truth of that without declaring the sovereignty of God. God's
sovereignty. They say, well, that's, you know,
that's complicated doctrine. No, it's not. It's not. God chooses sinners. He chooses
who he saves. He elects, that's what the word
elect means, to choose. Saves who he wants to save and
he chooses us to be soldiers, and he gives that example here
The first thing that he mentions about being a soldier Seems very
appropriate to me Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier
of Jesus Christ The first thing that Paul tells us about being
a soldier, and remember, this is about the gospel. This is
about preaching the gospel. This is about being witnesses
for Christ. It's about being his servant in this world. The
first thing he tells us about it, it's not easy. It's not easy. Endure hardness, it's hard. That word means to suffer hardships,
troubles, to be afflicted, to face imminent death. In Paul's
day, that was much more true than it is now, but you've got
to realize that we're very privileged and blessed of the Lord in this
country, that there are still consequences for that, that restrain
that evil, but it's not like that everywhere. And we should be thankful for
that. But to suffer hardships, to be a soldier, anytime, any soldier, anywhere,
and this is a simple illustration there, where you could do a lot
of speculating or you could just see what's true about all soldiers,
no matter who they are. It's not easy. You're facing
war, even in peacetime, There is the potential for war. You're
facing imminent death as a soldier. You have to implement complex
strategies and maneuvers in the face of death. It'd be one thing
if you could just hole up in your trench and wait till it's
over, but not a good soldier, just talking about a good soldier,
you might have noticed that word. You've got to do difficult tasks
in the face of death. Hunkering down in your bunker
is one thing, facing death like that, but getting up and doing
what's got to be done in the face of death, that's another
matter. To have so much at stake, a good
soldier, there's so much at stake. Think of David and Goliath. What
was at stake? Whoever loses serves the others
from then on. Who would want to be at the mercy
of the Philistines? They have no mercy. They're godless, godless heathens. And how much
is at stake? David said, is there not a cause?
at the pinnacle of what's at stake in the spiritual battle
that we're talking about is the glory of God. And that's what
David took issue with. He said, this Goliath is defying
the armies of the living God. It wasn't just a personal issue,
it was about the glory of God. And again, a soldier enduring
hardness, you know what that has to do with. You face overwhelming
opposition if necessary. You're outnumbered at times and
you have a monumental task, taking a hill or a town in the face
of overwhelming odds. You've got to be willing to do
that. A soldier obeys orders, whatever they are. Can you imagine
just in some of the things that we know about now, just from
making movies. They haven't made movies about
everything that happened in World War II, but they've made accurate
movies about some of the things that happened, and I wouldn't
have wanted to be there. But if I was, you obey orders. If it's 10 men taking a city
that's held by 200, yes, sir. Or whatever it is. And to do without necessary things. How many stories have you heard,
true stories of soldiers marching without good footwear and through
snow and going days without food? To continually push the boundaries
of physical strength and mental soundness and your hardness like
a good soldier of Jesus Christ. A soldier in the armed forces
of their country do this for love of their country, maybe. A good one does, a good soldier,
there has to be pretty good reason for any soldier to go and fight,
right? You have to at least respect, to some extent, your commanding
officer. And we're talking about a good
soldier. He will have the utmost respect for his commanding officer
and say, yes, sir, whenever an order is given. A good soldier
does love his country. He does respect authority. He
does follow orders. A good one does. But notice who
we are a soldier of. This spiritual warfare and you
see why he's saying be strong By being weak He's strong in
grace I mean because you're gonna have to be strong in grace to
endure the hardness of being a soldier for him but a soldier
of Jesus Christ Who you're fighting for has a lot to do with how
you fight and All of our orders come from Christ,
our captain. And by his grace, we love him. We don't just respect him and
fear him, we love him. We want with all of our hearts
to do what we do. By his grace, we're motivated
by love and by the vital nature of our cause. Paul said, I'm
not ashamed of the gospel. And that word ashamed is often
associated with wilting under trial. I'm not ashamed. I'm bold and ready. Why? Because it's the power of God
and the salvation to everyone that believe it. It's vital.
It's necessary. Again, David said is not their
cause there is in the spiritual sense Here's how a good soldier
of Jesus Christ goes into battle turn with me to first Samuel
chapter 17, please Speaking of David here. Here's
how a good soldier of Jesus Christ is Goes into battle. It's illustrated here in 1st
Samuel 17 verse 45 Then said David to the Philistine
thou comest to me With a sword and with a spear and with a shield
But I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts the God
of the armies of Israel whom thou hast defied. You haven't
defied us, you've defied our God, and I come to you in his
name." That's got to be our attitude in this world now. And he said,
this day will the Lord deliver thee into my hand, and I will
smite thee and take thine head from thee, and I will give the
carcasses of the host of the Philistines this day unto the
fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth. Now
that's how we go to battle too, knowing that victory is ours.
Because of who Christ is, I come to you in his name and therefore
I cannot lose. There will be victory, don't
we know that? God's gonna save everybody that
he died to save in spite of us. But what a privilege that he
lets us suit up and go to battle in this thing, to be part of
it, even though the battle is His, it's not ours. It's not ours. And those sinners
who reject Him and despise Him, they're not defying us, they're
defying God. And so we go forth knowing that
victory God would tell David when he went into battle later
as king, he would say, I will surely give them into thy hand.
He didn't say, therefore, you just go home and I'll defeat
him for you. He said, I will surely give them
into thy hand, therefore go. And David went and fought with
all of his heart, with all of his strength, knowing that the
victory is ours. That's how we fight. And then
he said this, here's the purpose of it all, that all the earth
may know that there's a God in his church. That's what it's about. Everybody
will know that there's a God amongst us, amongst his people. That's not true anywhere else.
That's not true in the false churches of man's free will religion. There's no God in there. And all this assembly shall know.
You know what that word assembly, you know what the word church
means? Assembly. All the church shall know that
the Lord saveth not with sword and spear. No, he gives us swords
and spear. He's given us the sword of his
word. but it's not by our strength, that's what he's saying. We're
gonna fight. He doesn't say, I've given them
to you, therefore go home and watch me do it. No, he does that
at times to show us that he don't need us. But at other times,
he sends us forth with our sword and our shield and our armor
to show that he does use us by his grace. For all of this assembly shall
know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear, for the
battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our heads.
He gives the victory. He gives it. Two thoughts about this in closing.
The cause is and was, number one, the glory of God. David said, is there not a cause?
And then everything he said was out of jealousy for the glory
of God. You've defied the God, the armies
of the living God. That all the earth, the reason
we fight, the reason we want to be strong, I want to be strong,
don't you? I wanna be strong. It's not about
physical strength. It's not about mental strength.
It's about Christ using us. It's about being clay in the
hands of the potter, is it not? That all the earth may know that
there's a God in Israel, in his church, amongst his people, that
they may know who God is. That's why. Do you want that? I'm asking you to answer that
in your heart. Do you want that? Do you want
everyone to know that our God is God indeed? I kind of want
that, don't you? I want everybody to know that
the difference between this church and the false churches of this
religious age is not that we know more than them, That ain't
it. It's not doctrinal issues, although
they certainly do not teach what we do. And that's important. But the difference is simple.
God is with us. The difference is Christ, whose
very name is God with us. God is our God. God speaks to
us. Christ is our all. That's the
difference, a person. and everything else different,
our doctrine and hopefully our behavior even, is because he's
the difference. The cause, secondly, is there
not a cause? What cause? Salvation. The Lord saveth. Isn't that what
David said? All this assembly shall know
that the Lord saveth. Not with sword and spear, but
he saveth. Not with instruments of man's
ability and ingenuity, but by gift, he gives the victory. 1 Corinthians 15, 54. So when this
corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal
shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass
the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O
death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law,
but thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren,
be ye steadfast, be strong, in the grace which is in Christ
Jesus. Be ye steadfast, unmovable, always
abounding in the work of the Lord. For as much as you know
that your labor is not in vain, you know it's not. David knew. He said, I'm gonna take your
head. And all the Philistines We're
gonna give their carcasses to the fowls of the air. For as much as you know that
your labor is not in vain in the Lord. What we do in the flesh
is always vanity and it's failure itself. But our labor in the
Lord is never in vain because he is our strength. this passage
that we just read, which assures us that the victory is won for
us by Christ. That's what that's talking about.
And it mentions in that passage, law, sin, and death. Those are the enemy. That's what
we have victory over, given us by Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ
kept the law for us. what the law could not do and
that it was weak through the flesh, God sent his son in the
likeness of sin and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh.
And one of the ways he condemned sin is by not committing any
of it. His victory over sin is his righteousness,
but also, His victory over our sin is him taking our sins upon
himself and dying in our place. Therefore, sin hath no more dominion
over us. So the law, sin and death, Christ
kept the law as our representative. In this world, he took our sin,
our sins upon him and died in our place. on Calvary under the
wrath of God against our sin. And in dying, he's able to say
to his people, those that liveth and believeth in me shall never
die. In accomplishing all of this
as our righteousness, our redeemer, our substitute and savior, He
handed us the victory over every enemy we have on a silver platter. God's glory and the salvation
of his people, there is a cause. And these are inseparable. How
has God glorified the salvation of his people? And so we fight, we war, and
we're exhorted to be strong with really just one purpose, the
glory of God in Christ, because that includes Him saving us. His glory in Christ Jesus in
the saving of sinners by His gospel. I want to glorify Christ
in every sentence that I utter, and I pray that He'd make it
so. Is that your reason for supporting this ministry, that God would
be glorified? in this place and in the saving
of his people. And in glorifying him through the preaching of the
gospel, by that means he shall save his people from their sins. He said, if I be lifted up, I'll
draw all men unto myself. God give us grace to lift up
Christ crucified and to determine to know nothing else. Thank you.