Well, we turn again to God's
Word and the chapter that we read, 2 Timothy, chapter 2, and
directing you to the words that we find here in verse 3 through
6. 2 Timothy, chapter 2, from verse
3 through 6. Thou therefore endure hardness
as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, no man that warreth entangleth
himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him
who hath chosen him to be a soldier. And if a man also strive for
masteries, yet is he not crowned except he strive lawfully. The
husbandman that laboureth must be first partaker of the fruits. The epistles to Timothy and Titus
are, of course, pastoral epistles. The apostle is instructing these
young men with regards to their work of the ministry of the Word
of God. And what we have in the words
that we've just read really is a figure of that Christian minister. And what he's to be, he's to
be a soldier, he's to be an athlete, and he's to be a husbandman.
Surely there is also here, in many ways, a wider application. The truth certainly applies to
those who would be ministers of the Word of God, but there's
an application to all the people of God, to all believers. back
in the prophecy of Hosea there in chapter 4 and verse 9 we read
there shall be like people like priests what the man of God is
ministering should have its effect upon those who are the hearers
and so there will be a certain likeness and as we come to consider
these words this morning I want us to bear that truth in mind
all of God's people in that sense are soldiers or athletes or husband
men as I was contemplating these verses and the subject matter
of the ministry today I happened to pull down from the shelf a
little volume of Free Grace sermons that I've had a number of years
and just going through it I came across one of the sermons I'd
read it back in September 1995 that's nearly 30 years ago and
I'd obviously been struck by the opening paragraph of the
sermon. I just want to read it this morning,
a description of a true believer. A true believer is mainly distinguished
from other men by this. His chief occupation lies within. His business is carried on principally
in the spiritual world. His interests are peculiarly
wrapped up in eternity. The Scripture has been written
primarily for the instruction and benefit of such persons.
It is therefore full of descriptions of their distinctive exercises,
their various hopes, sorrows, and joys. And although this must
be a riddle to those who have no experience of such exercises,
they become plainer and plainer to him that understandeth them. And as I reread those words,
it's a little volume of free grace sermons by Jonathan Rankin
Anderson, who was a free church minister in Scotland back in
the mid-19th century. As I read those words, I just
felt how apt in the light of the particular figures that the
apostle is using here in the portion that I've read this morning
for our text. He speaks in here of those who
are to be soldiers. And of course the Lord Jesus
Christ himself is the captain of salvation. Isn't that one
of the names that's given to him? There in Hebrews 2.10 he
is the captain of salvation. He's spoken of in Isaiah's prophecy
as a leader and a commander of the people. And when the apostle
writes to Timothy, remember, in the end of the first epistle,
he exhorts to fight the good fight of faith and to lay hold
on eternal life. The believers are very much involved
in dreadful conflicts, a conflict with sin, a conflict with Satan,
a conflict with the world. Paul bids the believer to take unto himself the whole armor
of God, that he might be able to withstand in the evil day,
and having done all to stand. We have that description of the
believer's armor there in Ephesians 6. And again, he reminds us,
Paul, that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they're
mighty through God, to the pulling down of strongholds. The believer
is then very much a soldier and so we have it here in the words
that we've read this morning thou therefore endure hardness
as a good soldier of Jesus Christ no man that wardeth entangleth
himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him who
hath chosen him to be a soldier then also Another figure that
he uses is that of the husbandman that laboureth. In verse 6, the
husbandman that laboureth must be first partaker of the fruits. And we know how the Lord Jesus,
in the course of His ministry, reminds His disciples of the
great harvest field. The harvest truly is plenty,
says Christ, but the labourers are few. Pray ye therefore the
Lord of the harvest to send forth labourers into his harvest field. Oh, there's a work to be done,
there's a sinner to be saved, there's a great number that are
yet to be gathered in and the Lord there is exhorting his disciples
to pray that God would send forth, and the word is a strong one,
to thrust forth, to thrust men into that work of gathering in
the harvest that Christ might truly see of the travail of his
soul. And then the other figure that
he uses here is that of the athletes. And he sees words in particular.
that I really want to center your attention on this morning. The words that we find in the
fifth verse in the second chapter of 2nd Timothy, if a man also
strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned except he strive
lawfully. The Christian athlete, and of
course we know that Paul was a learned man and he
was familiar with the day in which he lived. He was a Roman
citizen. He'd been brought up at the feet
of Gamaliel. educated then in all the truths
of the Jewish religion but he lived in a world that in many
ways was a Roman world of course but also influenced by Greek
philosophy and other things and he was aware doubtless of the
Grecian games and all that would take place on those occasions
the races the wrestling and boxing matches and we see so many times
in his epistles he does allude to these sort of things for example
in the ninth chapter of that first letter to the Corinthians
we find him using a figure from those Grecian or Olympic games
He says in verse 24, Know ye not that they which run in a
race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may
obtain. And every man that striveth for
the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain
a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. He uses the illustration
of the competitions that would be taking place on those occasions
that they may gain the crown. and he applies that to the life
of the Christian. He says, and himself I press
toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And remember the figure that
we have at the beginning of Hebrews 12, how we're encompassed about
with so great a cloud of witnesses. that we're to run with patience
the race that he set before us. So on those occasions as the
various races were taking place while those who had been in previous
competitions would be surrounding those who were still contesting.
A great cloud of witnesses. Paul then is familiar with these
things and this is the figure that we have in the fifth verse
that we're considering this morning. If a man also strive for masteries,
yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully. And that's the real theme that
I want to try to address for a while. Lawful striving with
regards to this Christian athlete. Lawful striving. There were rules that were to
be observed, of course, with regards to all those competitions. What were the rules? What are the rules that govern
the life of the Christian in his strivings, his lawful strivings? We're not to think really that
these laws are to be understood simply in terms of the Ten Commandments. We're told, aren't we, how Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Christ himself has accomplished
all that the law requires with regards to the salvation of his
people. And to simply think of the rules
that are governing the child of God in this figure that's being used, that
those laws are to be understood in terms of those commandments
alone, is wrong. Doesn't he say to Timothy in
the opening chapter of the first epistle, he speaks there of the
law, not being made for a righteous man, but for sinners he says,
for the lawless, for the disobedient, for the ungodly, for sinners.
There is a ministry of the law and it's to bring that sense
of condemnation into the soul of the sinner. Whatsoever things
the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law that every
mouth may be stopped and all the world become guilty before
God by the law is that knowledge of sin. We're not thinking of
rules now and laws in that legal sense because with regards to
all that legality Christ has answered. As we come to consider
the words before us this morning I want to think of two very basic
rules alone with regards to this driving. One negative rule and
one positive rule. There is a negative. There are
sinful strivings that the people of God are to avoid. And we see that, don't we, later
in the chapter. Verse 24, The servant of the
Lord must not strive, it says, but be gentle unto all men, apt
to teach patience. Of course, he's addressing Timothy
with regards to his own ministry. he is to have that aptness to
give instruction, he is to be patient in his ministry but all
the Lord's servants are not to be those who would be striving and notice the context of that
24th verse it says in verse 23 foolish and unlearned questions
avoids knowing that they do gender strifes foolish questions, unlearned
questions, anything that will bring division and strivings,
the sermon of the Lord must not strive. Again, previously, in the 14th
verse of the chapter, He says, "...of these things put them
in remembrance, charging them before the Lord, that they strive
not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the
hearers." There is a certain striving then, says the Apostle,
that is to be avoided. There's a negative law that governs
those who are engaged in this Christian race. And Paul has
a great deal to say about it, because we see it mentioned previously
in the first epistle. Look at what he says there in
chapter 6 at verse 3, following. He says, If any man teach otherwise
and consent not to wholesome words, Even the words of our
Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to
godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions
and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings,
evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and
destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness, from
such withdraw thyself. All there is to be the avoidance
of these things. Not to be engaged in unprofitable
disputations and the like. We go back to the Old Testament
and the language of the prophet Isaiah. There in chapter 29 and
verse 21, he speaks of some who would make a man an offender
for a word. Not strifing over words. which
is unprofitable. Now, of course, we notice the
fact, we are to mark the fact that all the people of God are
to earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered
unto the saints. And the faith that is being spoken
of there, of course, is that great body of doctrinal truth
that is set before us here in the Word of God. We are to know
the truth of the Gospel and we are to be earnest in our contendings
for all that is contained here in the word of God but it's not
enough to be those who are simply concerned with the letter of
that truth and to be ready to be accusing others there is to
be more than that there is to be an experience of that truth
there to be the practice of those great truths of the Word of God.
We sang the words just now in the hymn, didn't we? 719, no big words of ready talkers,
no dry doctrine will suffice. Broken hearts and humble walkers,
these are dear in Jesus' eyes. Always to know what it is to
come before God in that spirit of true contrition, to be those
who feel the burden of our own sins, who make our confessions,
who desire that we might know the sanctifying grace of God
in the Gospel, that we're not just those who are concerned
for the great doctrines of the grace of God, but we want to
know more and more something of the grace that is found in
those doctrines, to have that love of God being shed abroad
in our hearts. We don't want to be like those
who are spoken of here in chapter 3 and verse 5, having the form
of godliness, but denying the power thereof. All we want to
know is the power of these things, the reality of these truths being
brought home to our souls. There is then a striving that
Paul is so careful to speak against, sinful strivings, unprofitable disputings over words all of
which is really to no spiritual profit at all there are often
in God's words those commandments that are negative in form and
it's necessary of course because Nature is a fallen nature. Even when we come to the language
of God in the Ten Commandments, we see there that there's a negativity. Often the commandment is framed
in terms of what we're not to do, what we're forbidden to do. So there is a need for the negative.
I know we live in a day when people want to say we've got
to be positive all the time. Well there's a place for the
positive, but we can only truly understand and appreciate what
that is when we've come to terms with the negativity that addresses
us in our fallen nature. There is then a striving that
is not good, that's sinful. But let us come to those spiritual
strivings that are really being spoken of in the text. If a man
also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned except he strive
lawfully. Spiritual strivings, the positive
aspect. Now, these strivings, of course,
are manifest in various ways. There's to be wrestlings in some
sense, We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against
principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness
of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wrestling matches was very much
a part of those Grecian games. And so the people of God are
to be wrestling, wrestling against Satan and all the influences
of that fallen spirit. and they were to wrestle, wrestle
with God himself in prayer's room if we're those who are the
true Israel of God remember it was in Genesis 32 at Peniel that
Jacob became Israel the prince with God when the angel wrestled
with him and he wrestled with the angel and he would not let
the angel go except he bless him Or there are those sort of
strivings, wrestlings against Satan, wrestling with the Lord
God, praying, pleading with Him. These are some of the positive
rules that govern the life of that person who would be the
Christian athlete. If a man also strives for masteries,
yet is he not crowned except he strives lawfully. What do
we know of that lawful striving? It is spiritual in nature. It
is spiritual striving. And that's what we're to recognize.
Look at the language that we have back in Romans 8. And there
at verse 2, Paul speaks of the Lord of the Spirit of life in
Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Lord of sin and death.
The Lord of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus is what frees
from the law of sin and of death. It is that that is the work of
the Spirit of God and we need that first and foremost. Where
does real religion begin? It can only begin with the Holy
Spirit. It begins, of course, in the
new birth, which were born not of blood, says John there in
the opening chapter of his Gospel, born not of blood, nor of the
will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Verily, verily, says Christ,
except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. That is what is so essential,
that faith. that will be produced as a result
of the operation of God in the soul of a man. That faith that
is the gift of God. Again, the words of the Lord
Jesus, strive, He says, to enter in at the straight gates. What
is that striving that the Lord is speaking of? Well, it's lawful
strife. Striving to enter in, and it's
not something that a man can do of himself, that a man can
produce by his own initiative, his own endeavors in the depths
of his soul by nature he's dead in trespasses and sins. If a
man is striving to enter in, isn't that indication that there's
something going on in the soul of that man? Isn't that one of
the evidences that there's some quickening in his soul? He is
truly now born of the Spirit of God. He could not strive lawfully
to enter in at the straight gates except he knew that gracious
and that sovereign work of the Spirit in the very depths of
his heart. And as the life begins by the
Spirit of God So, it must continue by those gracious workings of
the Spirit. All striving, all lawful striving,
is the work of the Spirit of God. What does Paul say to those
Galatians who had been infiltrated, those churches in
Galatia infiltrated by legal teachers who were seeking to
bring those believers back under the yoke of the Lord of God,
as if there was something that they could do of themselves.
Now sharply Paul speaks to them and addresses them. Are you so
foolish, he says, having begun in the spirit? Are you made perfect
in the flesh? No, he that begins the good work
perfects it. until the day of Jesus Christ.
All the striving, all the lawful striving then comes by that gracious
ministry of God the Holy Spirit. If ye live after the flesh ye
shall die, but if ye through the Spirit do destroy the works
of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the
Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. And it's those who are
the sons of God who are the ones who are true Christian athletes,
engaged in seeking to attain these masteries. They're striving
lawfully. They know their complete and
their utter dependence upon the Holy Spirit. Isn't it the Spirit
who teaches us every branch of saving knowledge? the things
of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God that is in him
here is the the real source then of all spiritual striving it's
the work of God the Holy Spirit and what is the consequence?
well the consequence is that this person knows he has no strength
he has no ability of himself or in himself He is not sufficient of himself
to think anything of himself. Those are the most striking words
of Paul in 2nd Corinthians 3, 5. Not sufficient of ourselves,
he says, to think anything as of ourselves. An inability even
to think one right sound thought. Such is the state of man by nature. He cannot think. And now the
believer is brought to recognize that. He feels it. He needs the Lord God to be continually
instructing him and teaching him. He wants to grow in grace
and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Now
these two things go together. Where there's growth in grace,
there's an increase in the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ, and the learning of a complete and utter dependence upon Christ. We can think of the language
that we have, that lovely passage at the end of Isaiah chapter
14. You're familiar, I'm sure, with
those comforting words. What does Paul say there? Isaiah
say there in chapter 14 at verse 28 and the following verses. Hast thou not known? Hast thou
not heard that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of
the ends of the earth fainteth not, neither is weary? There
is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint. And to them that have no mighty
increase of strength, Even the youth shall faint and be weary,
and the young men shall utterly fall, but they that wait upon
the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings
as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint."
It's all very well for us to read those words, but how hard
it is to enter into those words because it brings us to the end
of self and the recognition of our complete and utter inability
our impotence that we can do nothing of ourselves if we would
be those who are engaged in this competition and desire us of
obtaining that crown that fadeth not away. Oh, if a man strive
for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully. He must be lawful strive. He
must be in accordance with the Word of God, and the ways of
God, and the will of God. Where there is that growth in
grace, as I said, there is an increase in the knowledge the
knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It's a strange
thing, isn't it? The way in which the Christian
grows. How does the Christian grow? It's the complete opposite
of our physical growth. We see the children and we behold
how they seem to grow daily. And you know with little children
sometimes we say, well they seem to have growing spurts. All of
a sudden they've shot up. It's as if they sort of shut
up overnight sometimes. Not long before the baby is a
little toddler, then a child, and then a youth, and before
long a full-grown man, so independent. But growth in grace is the complete
opposite of that. Isn't it a downward growing? A continual increase of our sense
of the need of the grace of God, We have that word in Hosea 14.5,
the promise of God, I will be as a Jew unto Israel. Well, what
is a Jew? Is he not an illustration of
the ministry of the Spirit of God? I will be as a Jew unto
Israel, he shall grow as a lily and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. What's the comparison there?
Well, that lovely flower, the lily, and yet what are the roots?
The roots are like the cedars of Lebanon, those great trees,
and how the roots strike deep into the ground. This is how
the Christian grows. It's a downward growing, growing
increasingly into the Lord, in order that he might gain that
crown, not a a corruptible crown, but an incorruptible crown. For
if the man strive for masteries, he's not crowned except he strived
lawfully. He feels increasingly then his
dependence upon that gracious ministry of the Spirit. And what
is the ministry of the Spirit? He comes, of course, in this
day of grace very much as the Spirit of Christ. Isn't this
the day the dispensation of the Holy Ghost. What is ushered in
this day of Christ? Pentecost. The gift of the exalted
Savior to his church. And when he comes, his ministry
is such a self-effacing ministry. And we have to acknowledge that.
Christ says, doesn't he there, in John's Gospel concerning him
and his coming, those chapters that speak so much of him, chapters
14 and 15 and 16, he doesn't speak of himself, says Christ. He's ministry self-effacing.
He's God, he's God the Holy Ghost. And yet, though he be God, yet
he comes to serve and to serve the Christ of God who is God
the Son who in the fullness of time became the man Christ Jesus
and He was the Spirit of course whom Christ was so dependent
upon throughout His earthly life He lived a life of dependence
He was so anointed with the Spirit of God the Father gave that remarkable
effusion. He receives the Spirit without
measure. He's dependent upon the Spirit. He accomplishes the
work that the Father had given to him. He ascends to heaven.
He sheds abroad the Holy Ghost here on the day of Pentecost
and the Spirit comes and continually makes known Christ
to sinners. That's his ministry. And so here,
you see, in the life of the believer all that the Spirit does is to
the glory of Him who is the Savior. Oh, remember what Paul himself
proved of that truth under the gracious teaching of the Spirit
of God. The words that we have at the
end of that second epistle to Corinth there in chapter 12 he
says at verse 9 the Lord says to him my grace my grace is sufficient
for thee for my strength is made perfect in weakness most gladly
therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power
of Christ may rest upon me therefore I take pleasure in infirmities
in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses,
for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then am I
strong. And Paul, as we know, is that
one who is the typical believer. He's a true type of what it means
to be a Christian believer. He says, as much doesn't he hear
in 1 Timothy And in chapter 1 at verse 16 he's a pattern to them
which should hereafter believe. And he's a pattern to us of what
it means to be those who are engaged in this lawful striving. It's all under the gracious ministry
of the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is how the believer
overcomes. He overcomes all obstacles by
that enabling of the Spirit. When we come to the book of the
Revelation and those letters to the seven churches, the language
there at the end of chapter 3, "...to him that overcometh will
I grant to sit with me in my throne," says Christ, "...even
as I overcame and am set down with my Father." or the promise
of Christ, you see, the Overcomer, is that He will minister to His
people, enabling each of them to overcome, to endure, to persevere,
even to the end. As many as walk according to
this rule, peace be on them and mercy, and upon the Israel of
God. those who walk according to this
rule, this lawful striving, this life of complete and utter dependence
upon Christ as He comes and ministers to us by His Spirit. Where does
it begin? Oh, there's that striving to
enter in at the straight gate, that spiritual striving at the
beginning, and that life of continual striving that life of looking
to God, looking to the Holy Ghost, that He might come to us and
increasingly reveal to us all that the Lord Jesus Christ is,
all that the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished, that all the
glory might be given unto Christ. And so there is the attaining
of that incorruptible crown, Where is it that those in heaven
cast down their crowns? Or do they not cast them down
at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ? O God, grant then that
we might know something of what the Apostle is speaking of here. He says, Consider what I say,
and the Lords give thee understanding in all things. Let the Lord be
pleased. to bless his word to us. Amen.