May it please Almighty God to
bless us together this morning. Let us turn to the Word of God
and may He bless us in our meditation as we turn to the second epistle
of Paul to Timothy, chapter 2, and we'll read verses 3 and 4. The second epistle of Paul to
Timothy, chapter 2, and reading verses 3 and 4. Thou therefore endure hardness
as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that woreth entangleth
himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him who
hath chosen him to be a soldier. We should be very thankful that
we have the Word of God and be very thankful that the Lord in
his goodness has granted the record of those things that the
Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy. Timothy was his son in the faith,
he'd been converted through the apostles' ministry and he was
indeed a preacher himself and Paul wrote two letters to him
the first and second epistles instructing him and cautioning
him and advising him and encouraging him and we should be thankful
that we have such words recorded for us today and recognise the
relevance and the truth of them to us in our lives because although
of course Timothy was a preacher of the gospel yet such words
are relevant to all God's children who are referred to as servants
sometimes we tend to think that servants only refer to those
who preach the gospel of course that's not true the relevance
is that All God's people are servants. They all serve the
Lord. And we should all be concerned
to be found doing the will of Almighty God. And that means,
of course, not pleasing ourselves, but honouring and glorifying
our God in our day-to-day walk on this earth. Well, we should
also be thankful that Paul, as I've often said, was a very honest
man. and he didn't hedge the position he didn't pretend that
it wasn't what it was going to be and therefore he tells Timothy
he says therefore endure hardness and hardness can be translated
afflictions in another place in Titus it is actually translated
as afflictions So we can read that and say, Thou therefore
endure hardness or afflictions as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. And the relevant truth is that
we are all servants, but we are also all soldiers, really. We are all in the army of God. And we are all in the battle. And so we should not think that
somehow we can just hide and disappear and take a station
where there won't be any enduring, there won't be any difficulty.
We should never think that is the path of a Christian because
as we may read in the Isaiah, the Lord tells us very clearly,
ye are my witnesses. So in this world, in which we
live, if we have been called by God, called by His grace,
we are no longer our own, we should never be pleasing ourselves,
we should also always be concerned to be doing the will of God and
in that will to seek that His name may be lifted up and honoured
and glorified through our lives. For the things that we say, the
things that we do, it should all be for the honour and glory
of God. And therefore, as we see the
words of Paul to Timothy, we should recognise how relevant
they are to us today. And we should never think that
they only apply to Timothy. And so, as we commence our reading
in that 13th verse in the first chapter, to hold fast the form
of sound words. Well, all the Word of God are
sound words. And that's a great blessing,
isn't it? We never think as we read the Word of God we're reading
something which is unsound. It is all sound and it is all
true. And therefore we should always
be concerned to take it to heart and to recognize that the Word
of God that we read should speak to each of us. We should not
pass by the Word of God and think, that doesn't apply to me. We
should always recognize that God's Word is written for our
instruction. So he says, hold fast. the form of sound words, which
thou hast heard of me in faith and love, which is in Christ
Jesus. He directs us very quickly to
this great and important blessing, faith and love, which is in Christ
Jesus. What a good thing for us today
to have such words before our eyes every day and to be concerned
therefore that our lives follow such a great and glorious pattern. which we do have, faith and love,
which is in Christ Jesus. And of course we know, I hope
we know, that greater love hath no man than this, speaking about
the Saviour, that he would lay down his life for his people,
for his friends. Well, we should be very thankful
that generally speaking, we're not called upon to physically
lay down our lives although there are still people today who are
called upon to lay down their life and we should not forget
that all the apostles forgetting of course Judas Iscariot who
was not a true apostle all the apostles were called upon to
lay down their life they were all martyred for their faith
and for their testimony in the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we can look through our history,
can't we? In our nation, and especially
those days of the Reformation, when there were many who were
executed because of their faith and love in the Lord Jesus Christ
and to the Lord Jesus Christ and because of His love towards
them. well, these things are true and
these things should enter into our hearts so that we may be
concerned in our lives today to walk worthy of the vocation
wherewith we are called we should recognise that we live in a dark
day a day of antichrist perhaps greater than it's been for many,
many years And therefore we should be concerned that our lives show
forth the praise of our God. That we do not just wander on
aimlessly through this world and hope therefore that we can
somehow hide and people won't realise that we're a Christian
and that we don't have to speak about our faith we don't have
to testify of the great love of the Lord Jesus Christ and
we therefore hide and what we're really doing is we're hiding
the light of the glorious Gospel well it's a very sad situation
because surely we don't want the Lord Jesus to hide His light
from us. And if He has shone into our
hearts and shown us and blessed us with that heavenly light,
we should rejoice in it and praise God for it and always be concerned
that it may be set forth in our lives. And so says the Apostle
then, hold fast the foremost 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. You see, the Holy Spirit of God
gives us that strength. The Apostle Paul tells us when
he wrote to Titus, I can do all things through Christ that strengthens
me. And we may find sometimes that
life is indeed exceedingly difficult. We will always find it is difficult. And if you don't find the Christian
life difficult at all, you need to question whether you possess
the life of God at all. Because the Word of God is very
clear that if we are God's children, We will be called upon to suffer
for His sake. Indeed, as we've read together,
if we suffer, we should also reign with Him. If we deny Him,
He also will deny us. Now, you may say, well, I don't
think I deny the Lord. Well, I hope we don't. But sometimes,
you know, we can deny Him by our actions deny him by our actions
and you may say well just explain what that means well I'll tell
you what it means it's like this if somebody speaks to us perhaps
and questions us about the things of God and may even ask us what
we believe and instead of being honest Because we know that a
true answer might bring persecution, we really duck the issue and
we probably try and change the conversation and avoid answering
such a question that is put to us. And if we analyse that position,
we will find that reality is that we are denying the Lord
Jesus Christ. We are not, therefore, enduring
hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. We're giving in
to the weakness of our flesh. In actual fact, we may describe
it as running away. turning our back upon such a
position as that, where a good soldier faces up to the difficulty. A good soldier doesn't turn around
and avoid the enemy. They face the enemy. And so you
see, you and I today are called upon to do just that. And so the Lord graciously says
through the apostle, if we suffer, if we suffer, we shall also reign
with him. So if you were asked the question
this morning, well, do you want to be found reigning with the
Lord Jesus in heaven when you die? I expect you would all say,
well, yes, I do. I hope you do. And if that is so, then may we
take notice and not therefore be found amongst those who deny
by our actions the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, the Apostle goes
on to tell Timothy of these things put them in remembrance. You see, he wanted Timothy to
tell the Church of God about these things he didn't say to
Timothy, well you needn't worry very much about this you do it,
but you needn't tell anybody about it, no says Paul Timothy,
this is your prerogative this is your privilege to put them
in remembrance of such truths and charging them before the
Lord, that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the
subverting of the hearers. You see these words are very
gracious words and they're words which you and I perhaps have
read, I think perhaps we don't read the epistles to Timothy
as much as we should but they are very instructive and it's
well worth reading them very carefully and very prayerfully
because he goes on giving us the example he tells then us
to study to show thyself approved unto God A workman that needeth
not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. And what that
means is that you and I, and all of us, young people, the
children, it means that we are to study the Bible. We're not just to pick it up
in the morning and rush through a few verses or perhaps rush
through a chapter and think, well, I've done my duty today.
I've got to get on with my life and do that which I want to do. And think somehow you've satisfied
your conscience, you've done what you think is right, and
that's where it ends. Well, says the Word of God. This is what it speaks to us. Show thyself approved unto God. workman that needeth not to be
ashamed rightly dividing the word of God and also then the
previous words of these put them in remembrance that's what he's
been told put them in remembrance of these truths and not to therefore
pass over and think well it's not relevant you know the most
important book that you and I have today, and you should be very,
very thankful that you have a Bible. Because so many people in the
world today still do not have a Bible. And therefore they cannot
read a Bible. And perhaps they never hear the
Bible read. And yet, we are wonderfully blessed
with a Bible, perhaps many copies of the Bible. But it doesn't
matter how many copies of the Bible we have if we don't read
them. And it won't matter how many
copies of the Bible we have if we do not read it and do not
understand it. We want, therefore, to understand
the truth of God. We want God to instruct us. We want God to direct us to the
truth of God. And the Lord does send preachers
to preach the gospel so that we may be helped in our understanding. And as I've said to you sometimes,
you should never be afraid or embarrassed to come and ask a
preacher, well, hold on, I didn't understand what you said today,
can you please tell me what it means? And of course a preacher
may not always know, but at least he should then endeavour to find
out what the truth is. You see, we should never just
pass over something and think, well that's not very needful. I mean, I can't understand it,
and it doesn't matter. We should always be concerned
to understand the things that we read. And it's a blessing,
therefore, if we do understand them. And I can say this, if
there are those things, sometimes we don't understand, and then
they are explained to us. Perhaps the Lord explained it
to us, perhaps people explained it to us, and we understand it.
We should be very thankful that we do then understand what it
means. Because it's like a wonderful
light shining. upon that word, and it therefore
speaks to our hearts. And we go on our way thankful
and rejoicing that now we understand something that we didn't understand
before. So don't be satisfied with reading
something and not understanding it. Sometimes also, you know, it
means a bit of perseverance. in reading the word. And perhaps
it needs us then to perhaps compare one part of the Bible with another
part of the Bible. And as I have said on a number
of occasions, if you read through the Bible, That's a long book to read. It
is a long book to read, but it's very worthwhile reading the Bible
through. You, of course, don't have to
sit down and read it from cover to cover in one sitting. But
nonetheless, read it through carefully, and if you only read
half a chapter a day, and then carry on the next half, the next
day, or carry on. You don't have to have any regular
time. You don't have to say, well,
now it's time to read the word of God. You should be willing
that any time in the day when you have a bit of time to pick
the Bible up and continue reading where you were reading, and you
will find that as you read the Bible, and as you become more
familiar with the Bible, that one part will explain another
part. And therefore things that you
didn't understand, you'll find now this explains it. And what
it really means is this, that you and I are therefore to be
workmen. when you read anything it does
involve work, doesn't it? it does involve your mind concentrating
on the word so it is work you're not just sitting and idling your
time away but it's good therefore if you do work and so the Lord
tells us study to show thyself not a person next door, stated
to show thyself approved unto God, a work that needeth not
to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. You see, that's
often a problem. It was a problem when I was a
youngster. I was ashamed of not knowing
the truth. I didn't understand it. I was
too timid to ask anybody, so therefore I carried on in just
an ignorant way. Well, that's not a good thing,
is it? It's not a good thing. We don't want to be in a position
where because we don't understand, we're ashamed to admit that we
don't understand something. And don't give up. If you ask one person, and perhaps
they're not very willing to help because they're ignorant themselves,
they're not willing to do a bit of research, but ask someone
else. And don't give up until you have a right understanding
of the Word of God. That's, you see, a wonderful
thing. And so here we have these words
here this morning. Thou therefore endure hardness
and afflictions. You see, the pathway of a Christian,
as I said, is not easy. And don't expect, therefore,
to just be able to read the Word of God and come to a wonderful
understanding of it overnight. No, the Word of God is such that,
as again I've said to you very often, it is just like this. You learn a little here and a
little there. And the Word of God tells us
like this. It's line upon line. A line is
not very long, is it? Line upon line. Line upon line. And precept upon precept. think of a precept in the Proverbs
there's lots of precepts there just one at a time don't expect
to read everything just take one and try to understand it
and learn it because all these things will be that which makes
you stronger in the things of God stronger in your faith to
believe you see here we have again in this same chapter if
we believe not Yet hereby it is faithful, he cannot deny himself. And therefore, as you read the
word of God, the Lord will not deny himself. He will revert
himself to you if you are truly desirous to have the word of
God explained to you. So thou therefore endure hardness
as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. A soldier is someone who is called
up to serve the Lord. And all of God's people are called
to serve the Lord. And it's a very wonderful blessing
to be part of God's army. calls to serve the Lord, to be
a soldier, and to be a good soldier, not a bad soldier, a good soldier. And a good soldier is someone
who, well, he obeys what his The person above him, albeit
a sergeant or a major or whatever it is, or a field marshal, it
doesn't matter what degree or what position he is, as a soldier,
a soldier naturally will obey a command given by a superior. And that is an indication of
being a good soldier. So we today are called upon to
be therefore a good soldier. And that means that you and I
are to follow and to graciously obey the word of God. It is quite amazing to read the Word of God the many
wonderful truths it contains not only the Ten Commandments
but so many words of the Lord Jesus Christ good words of instruction
to obey and because we don't think it suits our lifestyle
or because we think it might be a bit costly that people might
ridicule me if I do follow that instruction by God you see we
ignore the great truths of following the Lord so that means surely
that we are not being a good soldier, are we? and yet here
we have a very clear statement Thou therefore endure hardness,
endure affliction endure the opposition that's what we're
called to endure but it doesn't mean to say, well,
that's it, no as a good soldier of Jesus Christ and therefore
we are to be those who obey the Word of God we are to be those
who do the will of God a soldier will obey and do that which is
before him however difficult you can read many stories of
wars many stories of soldiers in wars and perhaps that which
was before them was exceedingly difficult no doubt they thought
however will I be able to gain the victory but you see they
were called upon to do the will of the person who was in charge. And that's just the same as us
today. If we are to be a good soldier,
we are to do the will of our God. Well, we are to consider what
the will of God is for you and me. Now, study God's Word, read
it carefully, and just see what God's will is for all of God's
people. That includes everyone. There's
not an escape route for anybody. There's no escape route. We are all called upon to be
a good soldier. And it's a good soldier of Jesus
Christ. And naturally, people will obey
their leaders. And we are called upon gloriously
to obey and to follow the example of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus
Christ. The Apostle, when he wrote to
the Hebrews, He said, consider Him. You do just that. Consider the
Lord Jesus Christ. Consider His wonderful example. He lived upon this earth. He
lived upon the earth to do His Father's will. He lived therefore
upon the earth to pay the price the redemption prize for all
the Church of God. He loved not his life, he gave his life, the ultimate
sacrifice. As I've said, there were those,
there are those still today who give their lives as a sacrifice
Give their lives to uphold the truth of God. Give their lives
so that they do not deny the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, for
the most part today, you and I are not called upon to give
our life. But we know not whether the times
ahead may be such when you and I may be called to sacrifice
our life for our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, what
would you say? What would you say if you were
put against a wall and somebody said, do you deny Christ or do
you believe in Christ? Because if you believe in Christ,
you're going to be shot. It's a very great test, isn't
it? of the reality of our religion but the truth is you and I shouldn't
have to come to a position like that to test the truth of our
religion we should be concerned to hear
the glorious voice of the Saviour and to honour Him and to obey
Him Those that honour me I will honour,
and those that despise me shall be lightly esteemed. Do we want to be lightly esteemed
by God? We want to be lightly esteemed by
God. I'm sure we don't want to come to stand before that judgment
seat and to be lightly esteemed, to think that on that great day,
we shall be cast into hell forever. Here upon earth, we have not
been a good soldier. Here upon earth, We have not
obeyed the will of our gracious God who has set before us in
his word such a wonderful example. We could not have a greater example
and a greater sacrifice than we have in the example of Almighty
God, the Lord Jesus Christ, in dying for people bad, evil, like
we are. The Lord hasn't come and said,
well, you're not worthy. You're not worth my death. I'm
not going to die for you. My friends, the Lord came to
seek and to save. Those are lost. Those are ruined. Those are indeed dead. Yep, those are spiritually dead. He came to make spiritually alive. To give them the great and wonderful
gift of eternal life. And my friends, if God has opened
our eyes to recognize and to see what we are, lost and ruined
because of that fall of Adam and that sin of Adam has passed
upon all mankind, I think that the Lord Jesus Christ, the ruler
of the universe, should have come down come down, and my friends, specifically
to save, to redeem our souls. It's a very personal thing. Redemption
is a very personal thing. To think that the Lord Jesus
Christ didn't pass us by, which we deserved, But he came to us. He came to us. He looked upon
us and he said, live. What a wonderful, what a wonderful
blessing. Are we then today in response
to such a wonderful blessing, a good soldier, of Jesus Christ. He's the general. He's the one who has called us
to be in his army. And we are those then, who are
to be a good soldier. Well, it's a very big question,
isn't it, for us today. It's a very important question
for us today to know that we are a good soldier of Jesus Christ
because if we are He will not deny us and when we come to that
judgment seat we shall hear those glorious words come in Our blessed
are my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the earth. We won't then hear those words,
depart from me, ye cursed, I never knew you. The position is very clear, isn't
it? and yet so often the devil will
say, well it doesn't matter, you're living a good life anyway
you're living OK my friends, are we doing the will of God?
or are we not? and you're the only one that
can answer that I can't answer it I don't know what's going
on in your heart but you can answer it and my friends do be
honest with yourself don't worry about what other
people think it's between your soul and my soul in God and let's
be very honest in these things are we today numbered amongst
those who are classified as a good soldier? and those who therefore receive
the blessing of God. See, all the things of this life,
all the prosperity of this life, wonderful as they may be, in
one sense are irrelevant in comparison with the value of our never-dying
soul. we cannot put a value on our
soul you cannot value your soul it is so precious because the
condition of your soul dictates where you will spend eternity and so how relevant it is to
have therefore the evidence in your heart that God is your Saviour,
that you are born again in the Spirit of God. The Lord Jesus
Christ has died for you, that you are redeemed with the precious
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that you are one of those
who are studying by the grace of God to show yourself approved
unto God. And as I said, you may say, well
I can't do these things. You can't in and of yourselves,
but you can through the strength of our great and glorious Saviour.
I can, says the Apostle Paul, do all things through Christ
that strengthens me. And the Word of God tells us,
I will go in the strength of the Lord God. I will make mention
of His righteousness, even of His only. Never rely on your strength.
My friends, always rely on the strength of the Saviour. The
Saviour won't cast you off. If you come to the Saviour. I
came to Jesus. Here my Lord says, as I was,
weary and weak and sad. The blessing is then, if God
gives you that grace to come to the Lord Jesus Christ, to
seek unto him, to seek for his blessing and for his favour,
thou therefore Endure hardness. You see, we have it twice. Verse one in the second chapter
and verse three. Thou therefore, verse one, my
son. You speak to Timothy as his natural
son and of course, son of God as well. Be strong in the grace
that is in Christ Jesus. You see, there is our place of
rest. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. The unmerited favor, I think,
the Lord Jesus Christ gives us. It's amazing, isn't it? He gives
us grace. He gives us faith. He gives us eternal life. well the question is this morning
have we received those gifts? have they been given to us? we
don't want them to have passed us by do we? we don't want them
to be given to the person next to us we want to have the evidence
from God that He gives us those gifts which we never worked for
we never earned we never deserved but they were given to us because
of His love of His great love wherewith He loved us that's
the wonder of the Gospel it's free isn't it a tremendous truth Well, if the Lord shows to us
his love, his gifts to such unworthy sinners, you will desire to be
a good soldier. Your desire to be a true follower
of the Lord Jesus Christ, notwithstanding the cost, wherever it might be,
And it may be, in our minds, a very big cost. You may think, hmm, I think that's
a bit too high. Well, just compare that little
cost with the cost of your salvation. Just think, the Savior was willing
to die that you might receive the gift of eternal life so therefore what's the cost
to you and me today? by comparison it's negligible,
isn't it? and so let us just hear these
words hold fast the truth of God Don't cast it away. Don't think today, it has no
relevance to me. May it blessedly and wonderfully
have a real relevance to each one of us, so that we may have
the evidence in our heart that we are enduring hardness, enduring
affliction, and that we are being a good soldier of Jesus Christ.