If you will, open your Bibles
today to 2 Timothy, chapter 2. 2 Timothy, chapter 2, verses 1
through 10. Thou therefore, my son, be strong
in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, 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. Thou therefore endure
hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warth
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 laboreth
must be first partaker of the fruits. Consider what I say and
the Lord give the understanding in all things. Remember that
Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according
to my gospel, wherein I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even
under bonds, but the word of God is not bound. Therefore,
I endure all things for the elect's sakes, that they may also obtain
the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. We're looking at the last of
the Apostle Paul's inspired letters, a letter written from prison
to a young pastor that he calls his dearly beloved son. When
I say a young pastor, Timothy was young in comparison to the
Apostle Paul. But by today's standards, when
Paul wrote this letter to Timothy, he was not a young man. This in itself, I believe, teaches
us that a true believer's relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ never
reaches the point where we are not to grow. No matter how long
you may have been a believer, a child of God, you never come
to the time or the place in this life where you should not grow. The last letter, or the last
words, rather, in the Apostle Peter's second letter, he said
this, grow, but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory now and forever. A believer, true child of God,
you never come to the time, the place when you should not continue
to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. And listen to these words of
the Apostle Paul that he wrote to the church at Corinth. He
said, if any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth
nothing yet, as he ought to know. Let me read that again. If any
man think that he knoweth anything, He knoweth nothing yet, as he
ought to know. You say, well, preacher, what
does that mean? Well, it means this, that the
more we grow, the more we learn about God and the ways of God,
the more we realize how little we really do know. That you and
I, finite creatures that we are, we are learning and growing in
the knowledge of one who is infinite, infinite in every way. And his
ways, the scriptures tell us, are past finding out to perfection. We will have all eternity, thank
God, those of us who know him. You and I, we will have all eternity
to continue to know and to learn more about him. And we will never
come, even through all eternity, we will never come to know all
there is about the Lord God, such a wonderful, gracious, great,
and mighty God that He is. We don't worship some little
God. We don't read about some little
God, some wannabe God in the Word of God. We read about God
who is almighty. who is infinite in power, all
powerful, infinite in knowledge, omniscient. He's everywhere. The heaven of heavens cannot
contain Him. And He's immutable. He's the
same today as He was yesterday and shall be forevermore. We
learn about Him. So when I say The Apostle Paul
is writing to young Timothy. Timothy was not young. He was
probably in his 40s by now. He wouldn't be considered young
by today's standards. He was young in comparison to
Paul. But the point I want to make
is that as long as we are in this world, God's children, we
should grow. That should be our desire, to
grow. And God the Holy Spirit will
teach us and grow us. You know, to grow, you need the
right diet to grow. And the Word of God is the diet
upon which we grow. You need exercise, and we exercise
in seeking after the Lord and serving Him. I know these are
physical things, but we can adjust those to spiritual realities.
grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord. Now many believe
that Timothy was naturally of a fearful disposition. I want
you to look with me in 1 Corinthians chapter 16. Keep your place here
for we will come back. But many of the writers believe
that Timothy was of a natural fearful disposition. One of the reasons is found here
in 1 Corinthians 16, in verse 10, where the apostle Paul is
writing to this church at Corinth, and he would send Timothy to
them. But notice what he says, now,
if Timotheus, that is Timothy, come, see that he may be with
you without fear. Now notice, for he worketh the
work of the Lord as I also do. In other words, Paul is saying
he works just like I work. He preaches just what I preach.
They work together. And Paul knew there were men
in Corinth who were zealous for the law, the old law of Moses,
and they opposed the apostle, and most likely they would oppose
Timothy because he was going to come and preach the same message,
only one gospel, Paul tells the church there, see that he be
with you without fear. Now back in our text, we've looked
at the first chapter, and in the first chapter of 2 Timothy,
Paul reminded him of certain truths which would naturally
help him to overcome fear. He put him in remembrance of
several things. Consider these. He reminded him
of his unfeigned faith. The unfeigned faith that was
in Timothy. And we know that this means that
he was a child of God. And as a child of God, if God
be for us, who can be against us? If he's our father, He's going
to take care of us. There's not a spare that falls
to the ground without your father. Why should we fear? You have that unfeigned faith,
Timothy, that was first in your grandmother and also in your
mother. And then a second thing he reminded Timothy of was the
gift of God, which was in him. Now, the gift of God, remember
the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. When
God begins a work of grace in the heart of one of His elect,
He's not going to go part of the way and then stop that work. If God has begun a good work
in you, as Paul told the people in the church at Philippi, He's
going to finish that work. He's going to complete that work.
If he's called you, if he's called you, you're justified, and yes,
by the grace of God, one day you will be glorified. And then he reminded Timothy
of the testimony of the Lord, that is the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And then he told Timothy about
God's purpose, or reminded him of God's purpose and grace that
was given unto us in Jesus Christ before the world began. In other
words, salvation is not the product of the whim or the will of men. Salvation is the work of God. It was planned in eternity past. It was purchased over 2,000 years
ago at the cross. And the blood of Jesus Christ
accomplishes everything that God intended. The purpose and grace of God
was given unto us in Christ Jesus before the world begun. Now this
morning, as we look at these verses, I want to make a message
around these three statements. The first one is in verse 2,
or verse 1, rather, of chapter 2. Be strong. Be strong. I want to speak to
us about that. Be strong. And then number 2,
in verse 3, endure hardness. Be strong. Endure hardness. And then in verse 7, consider. Consider. So that's my outline. Be strong, endure hardness, consider. First, be strong in the grace
that is in Christ Jesus. Thou therefore, my son, be strong
in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Do you see, this is so
different from the philosophy of this world, from the advice
that this world gives people to be strong. The world tells
men to believe in themselves. The world tells men to look within
and count upon the inward strength that you find in yourself to
face your fears. The world tells people, man up! Keep a stiff upper lip. The philosophy of this world
to deal with fear is so different from the Word of God. The Word
of God is be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Now, child of God, a believer,
we do look within But we do not look to ourselves. We look within,
but we look to Him who lives in us. Remember what Paul said
to the church at Colossae, Christ in you, the hope of glory. And
God, the Holy Spirit, indwells every believer. Be strong in
the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Look within, yes, but don't look
to yourself, look to Christ. Look to God the Holy Spirit who
dwells in you. And when Paul speaks of the grace
that is in Christ Jesus, we recognize that grace, grace is not something
that is separate from Christ. Grace is not just an attribute
or a doctrine. Grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. You look to Christ. For grace,
you look to Him for grace. Be strong in the grace that is
in Christ Jesus. Grace is in Him, and we are to
continually to look to Him for strength. We have no strength
in ourselves. You know what Jacob said about
his son Reuben? It's true of all of us by nature.
We're as weak as water. I don't care who you are. We're
as weak as water when it comes to the things of God. We must
look to Christ. He is our strength. He is our
grace. Be strong, my son. Be strong in the grace that is
in Christ Jesus. When we think about the grace
that is in Christ Jesus that we are to be strong in, we think
about God's everlasting love. That's where it begins, isn't
it? God's everlasting love. God, He doesn't start loving
someone and then stop loving someone. and his love is free. He never looked down, this is
what false religion tells people, that God looked down through
the ages to come and he saw something in this one and he didn't see
something in that one, but he saw something in this one and
going through the men and women who would be born in this world
that he saw something different, something good, or something
that distinguished this person from these persons, so he loved
everyone but chose these, because he chose them based upon what
he foresaw in them. That is a lie straight out of
hell. God's love is uncaused. He loves them that He would love. He chose those whom He would
choose. His love is an everlasting love. There was never anything in me
to cause God to love me, and there's never anything that I
can do that would cause God to stop loving me. His love is uncaused. The grace that is in Christ Jesus,
my friends. Not only his everlasting love,
but his electing grace. He chose whom he would choose,
not for good that he saw in the individuals that he chose. There's nothing good. The scripture
says there's none good, no, not one. He said, well, I beg to
differ. Well, you differ from God if
you do. There's none good. None that understandeth. There's
none that seeketh after God. We're all alike. God's not a
respecter of persons. His love is everlasting. And
His electing grace is amazing, isn't it? He said, well, that
caused people to be proud. Not really. Not really, my friends. There's nothing so humbling as
the truth concerning God's electing grace. Be strong in the grace that is
in Christ Jesus, our Lord. That grace includes not only
His everlasting love, His gracious election, but also His perfect
righteousness, the righteousness of Christ. It was prophesied
that He would come and bring in an everlasting righteousness,
and He did. He did by His obedience. by his obedience unto God, perfect
obedience, absolute obedience, in thought, in words, and in
deeds. He obeyed the Father. He obeyed
God's law. He fulfilled the law of God. And he did that to establish
a righteousness that when it is imputed unto those that believe,
justifies. Justifies. Be strong in the grace
that is in Christ Jesus. You're not going to find any
strength in yourself. Be strong in the Lord. You know, the psalmist David,
he confessed this. You say, well, how did he know
about this? Well, every child of God has known about the promised
one who was coming, the Savior. There's never been but one Savior.
He was foretold and pictured and proclaimed in types and symbols
and shadows in the law and other things that took place in that
old economy. But it was always Christ. And
this is what David said in Psalm 27 in verse 1. He said, the Lord
is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is
the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? And
you notice David didn't say the Lord gives me light, although
he does. He didn't say the Lord gives
me strength, though he does. He said the Lord is my light. The Lord is my strength. Timothy, my son, be strong in
the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Paul had learned about this years
before. You remember in 2 Corinthians
chapter 12 when he tells of an experience which he had. Caught
up to the third heaven. Heard things unspeakable. When he came back from that experience, God
sent a thorn in his flesh. And he prayed and he asked the
Lord three times to remove that thorn. You have a thorn in your
flesh, don't you? We all do. We have something. If you're one of God's children,
there's something. That could be called a thorn
in your flesh. And you've probably prayed and
asked the Lord to remove it, to take it away. But my friends,
God sent that thorn. He may have used Satan like he
did with Paul, but it's not something that God doesn't know about.
It's something that's fallen up or sprung up out of the earth
without God's knowledge. No. If you're one of God's children,
Recognize this. Everything that touches you,
God is aware of. God knows. God's working. What Paul found out was that
the Lord would not remove that thorn in his flesh, but he did
tell him, my grace, my grace is sufficient for you. My grace is sufficient for you. Therefore, Paul said, I take
pleasure in infirmities and reproaches and necessities and persecutions
and distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, weak in myself,
have no power, I'm not looking to myself, no self-reliance in
this matter at all. When I'm weak, then I'm strong. Why? Because of the grace of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Be strong, Timothy, in the grace
that is in Christ Jesus. Now, the second thing, before I go to the second point,
I wanted to mention Paul, when he tells Timothy here, be strong,
show courage, Timothy, in spite of what you see. Here I am, Paul. Think about this. Here I am,
the Apostle Paul. I'm in prison, yes. And maybe
soon I'm going to be executed. But that doesn't mean that God's
purpose has somehow failed, that God's purpose has somehow been
defeated. Remember this, he worketh all
things after the counsel of his own will. And the truth, Timothy,
that you have heard of me, the truths that you have heard of
me, then you commit those things to faithful men. You teach those. This gospel message is going
to continue. The church is going to continue
in this world until Christ comes again. Our Lord told his disciples one
day, upon this rock. What rock? Christ is that rock. Christ is that rock, upon this
rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it. How blinded are men to think
that the Lord built his church upon some weak, feeble, frail
man. No, his church is built upon
himself. The confession that Peter gave,
thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. Down through
the ages, down through the years, the world has brought its forces.
Satan has brought his forces against the church of the Lord
Jesus Christ, but he still has a church in this world, and he
will until he comes again. Sometimes it's larger, sometimes
it's smaller. Sometimes it's persecuted in
one area, one place. Sometimes it's persecuted in
another place. but his church is in this world
and shall continue until he comes again. Now, Timothy secondly,
endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. The word therefore is left out
of some of the manuscripts. In this verse 3, he doesn't repeat
himself and say, therefore, again, as he did in verse 1. And the
thought is, endure hardness, take thy share in suffering hardship
as a true soldier of Jesus Christ. And the thought is of fellowship,
suffering fellowship, or fellowship in suffering. You see, we're
not to view this as a cold military command. Church! Oh no. But we are to view this as the
captain of our salvation speaking unto us, let's take the hill. Let's take the hill. Let's together. There's fellowship. Let's share
in the fellowship. Endure hardness as a good soldier
of Jesus Christ. Partake of the hard treatment
that the gospel receives in this world. Don't shun it. Don't be
afraid of it. Participate. Share in the suffering
of hardship for the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is what a
true soldier is called upon to do. And then you notice Paul
gives three parables or three metaphors taken from a soldier,
an athlete, and a farmer. And all of these teach us about
the work of the ministry. The parable of a soldier in verse
four. No man that warth and tangleth
himself with the affairs of this life. A man may be a soldier. A woman
today may be a soldier. They may be in boot camp. They
may be in training. They may be on leave. They're
still soldiers. But what this verse is speaking
about is a man who is at war. A soldier who is at war. Notice that. No man that warreth
No man that's engaged in the war entangles himself with the
affairs of this life. During the time, and we can think
about this as the soldiers from our country are stationed over
in Iraq and Afghanistan, and they go over there, they're in
war, they're in a theater of warfare. They don't entangle
themselves with the things of this world. Now when they come
back home, that's different. But while they're there on the
battlefield, they do not entangle themselves with the affairs of
this life. And this must be true of pastors,
just like Timothy, to whom Paul is writing this letter. A pastor
is always on duty. He's never on leave. He's always
on duty. He must be a pastor first, and
all other things must be second. All other things must be second.
Now this parable or metaphor is like most of the parables.
You cannot press it too far. Every believer, every child of
God in this world is bound to work and provide for his family. The Christian husband, the Christian
wife should be the most devoted and caring husband, caring wife
that they may possibly be. But even so, even so, they must
be first, first they must be soldiers of Christ. They must be second, whatever
else they are. Nothing comes before this. A
soldier who is at war, he does not entangle himself in the things
of this world. And every pastor, you might say,
well, preacher, why are you preaching that to us? You're the only pastor
here today. I'm preaching to myself as well.
But I know this. This is not a one-man ministry.
I'm preaching to all of us because we may all learn from what Paul
told Timothy. We may all learn from this. And
you may learn, take this to your heart in your life, in your position,
though you're not a pastor, but yet first you are a believer,
a child of God, and your allegiance must be to Christ first before
everyone else, before everything else. Your allegiance must be
to Christ. Every pastor must never forget,
must never forget that all real entanglement in this world is
fatal. I've known some men, you probably
have too, who thought they could pastor dabbling this and dabbling
that in the world. And before long, that was their
main emphasis. They became sidetracked. You
know what a car, a railroad car that sidetracked Sometimes you
can see them, the railroad companies, they don't have any use for those
cars, so they put them on a sidetrack. It just stays over there. There's
something that's been there for years. The train comes. That car doesn't move. It's sidetracked. A preacher must not entangle
himself in the things of this world lest he become sidetracked. Just like one of those cars on
the track that's just sitting there, waiting there. And then
Paul gives a parable of an athlete in verse 5. This was one of Paul's
favorite examples to use. the Olympic Games, the Greek
Olympic Games. There were contests in running,
boxing, wrestling, and Paul refers to all of them in one place or
another. And the participants there, they're
all vying, they're all laboring for a crown. And the crown that
they received was a crown that was made out of leaves. from
a tree. That was what they were crowned
with. The crown that we are running for, my friends, is a glorious
crown. The believer's crown. It's an
incorruptible crown. It's one of eternal life. And
in every sport, you think of the various sports, there are
certain rules. There are certain rules. And
you violate the rules, you're disqualified. You're out. And
the same thing is true in the Christian life, my friends. There
are certain rules of training and we are to run the race, the
race that God has set before us. You don't set the race before
you. The racer doesn't go out there and decide which lane he's
going to run in and make the stripes and maybe he wants to
run over in this lane. No, he's got to obey the rules,
the regulations, right? Or he is disqualified. And we
are to run the race that God has set before us. He set the
race before you, whatever that race is. He set the race before
me. We don't all run the same race,
do we? But we are to run the race set
before us, looking unto Jesus, always looking unto Jesus, the
author and finisher of our faith. And then third, the apostle gives
a parable of a farmer. And a farmer goes out, he, let's
just say, buys a piece of property. And he goes out there and he
opens up the gate and there it is all grown up in weeds and
trees and all. Well, he doesn't just go in there
and start participating or taking of the fruits. There are no fruits. What does he do? He's got to
clear. He's got to plow. He's got to
plant. He's got to cultivate, and then
he partakes of the fruit. And the lesson here, I believe,
for every pastor is patience, patience, patience. Run the race
that is set before thee with patience. We all, by nature,
we want to see everything done yesterday. But God doesn't work
like that, does he? He never gets in a hurry. We
do, but he doesn't. And he's always on time. And his work is always progressing
as he has determined. Well, the third, remember the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in verse eight. Remember that
Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according
to my gospel. You see, the death of Christ,
if he was raised from the dead, that means that he died. He died
according to the scriptures. The scripture says, for Christ
also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that
he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but
quickened by the spirit. And Paul tells Timothy, it's
true, it's true, I'm suffering like an evildoer, verse nine. I'm suffering like someone who
had robbed a bank. I'm in prison, but I'm not suffering
as an evildoer. I'm suffering for the gospel
sake. And notice this, but the word
of God is not bound. And while Paul was a prisoner,
you know, at the end of the letter of Philippians, he speaks about
some of the household of Caesar. Well, wasn't Caesar the ruler?
Yes, he was the ruler. He was the emperor. He had servants
and people in his house, and God evidently saved some of them. Paul was a prisoner, but the
word was not bound. And he said, I endure all things
for the elect's sake. God has his elect in this world. We don't know who they are, and
that shouldn't concern us. We are to go into all the world
and preach the gospel to every creature. You say, well, what
if you preach to someone who's not one of God's elect? We probably
will, probably do. God's the one who calls. He's
the one who makes the difference. The same gospel, the same message
is preached. It's like broadcasting seed.
You just go out there and just spread it out, spread it out.
Preach the gospel to every creature, whosoever believeth and is saved,
but to them that are called Christ, the power of God and the wisdom
of God. Paul said, I endure all things
for the elect. So he knew that God had some
elect in this world. and he wanted to be one laboring
to preach the gospel to them. I pray the Lord would bless this
word to those of us here today. I spoke with a man who told me
he was a missionary the other day and I mentioned some of these
things about God's sovereignty and Christ's effectual atonement,
God's sovereign election, he didn't believe any of it. And I said, why would you go
out preaching? What could encourage you in preaching,
knowing that man is dead in trespasses and sins? What could encourage
you in preaching? I said, this truth, the truth
of the word of God is a great encouragement to those who preach
the gospel, to missionaries, to pastors. Why? Because we know,
we know that God chose a people, that Christ died for those people. And those people are going to
hear the gospel somewhere between the cradle and the grave. God
is going to cross their paths with the gospel, and God's going
to call His people, and they're going to believe, and they're
going to follow Christ. Amen? If you will, let's turn
to number 456, and let's sing the first and the last verse
of this hymn, number 456.