Let’s have another word of prayer.
Lord, we do thank You for that privilege that we’ve had to gather at Thy table. Lord, we thank You so much for the testimony, the reality of Thy victory there. Lord, if anything magnifies the Person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ, it is Thy table, and we bless You for that, Lord.
And Lord, as we come to Your Word now, we come looking off unto You, Lord, that You would, in a very fresh way, touch our hearts in this hour. Lord, we are not here just to learn some bits and nuggets. We’re not here just to hear another message, but we’re here to enter into the fellowship of our Father, of His Son, during this time together as we consider this living Word.
Lord, we thank You that You have made every provision for this time. By faith, we lay hold of it. We put aside the other things that would distract or dissipate us, and we come looking off. And even as that hymn would say, we would say to our hearts, “Lead on, O King eternal.” We desire to see and behold You in the freshness of Your life. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
We know, as we come to the end of the New Testament, that even at that point in time there was a great deterioration going on amongst the brothers and sisters, and there was a great crisis going on. It was also a great day of transition because Paul was getting ready. He knew that his earthly departure was nigh. He was getting ready to receive that crown of righteousness.
And in preparation for this transition, and preparation for this crisis that the saints were going through, Paul poured out his heart to his beloved son Timothy. Paul had this relationship with Timothy in such a way that he could fully open his heart.
I think we all can appreciate ones that, when we just sit down and share, we don’t have to weigh our words. We can just, in a confidence and in a love, open our hearts to these ones, knowing that, as Paul says of Timothy in Philippians, Timothy was of kindred spirit.
And Paul was able to convey these words to Timothy. I believe, as we’ve heard before numerous times, as we look at Paul’s second epistle to Timothy, it’s an epistle that’s very applicable to us in the days that we’re living in. These are days of great crisis.
There are days where there’s great decline within the world. The world is trying to force its way into the church. Tragically, the testimony of believers has become weakened in such a way that much of the world has come in.
And we thank the Lord that He has the same message in every crisis. He had a message to Timothy in that hour, and He has a message to us in this hour. The message that Paul gave to Timothy was, “Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead.”
And this, if we desire to live in these days faithful unto Him, is the simplicity of the message that He has for us today. And would we have ears to hear? Do we get tired? It’s not a profound message in many ways. In one way, it’s the most profound of all.
But do we get tired of hearing people say, “Just remember Jesus Christ. Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead”? Something within us wants more. There’s something within us that wants a little to-do list. “What do You mean, remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead?”
Well, this morning, as we consider some parts from Paul’s second epistle to Timothy, we desire to not only take this thought and consider it, but see how it applies to us within our daily lives as we live and walk in these days. What good is the teaching unless it’s manifest in our lives? What good is our knowledge—and how we need to have a full knowledge of all that the Lord has—unless it gets lived out in our lives? That’s what He desires.
So, with that background, let’s turn this morning to 2 Timothy 2. We’re going to start with verse 1.
We’re going to try something this morning. We’ll have the verses up here that we refer to. Now, the translation on the overhead is the American Standard Version, and I’m reading from the New American Standard. It’s the closest we could get. So, if at times it appears different, from a reference point that’s ASV, and I’m reading from the New American.
2 Timothy 2, starting in verse 1. We’ll read through verse 13.
Thou therefore, my child, be strengthened in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
And the things which thou hast heard from me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.
Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
No soldier on service entangleth himself in the affairs of this life; that he may please Him who enrolled him as a soldier.
And if also a man contend in the games, he is not crowned, except he have contended lawfully.
The husbandman that laboureth must be the first to partake of the fruits.
Consider what I say; for the Lord shall give thee understanding in all things.
Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, of the seed of David, according to my gospel:
Wherein I suffer hardship unto bonds, as a malefactor; but the Word of God is not bound.
Therefore I endure all things for the elect’s sake, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
Faithful is the saying: For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him:
If we endure, we shall also reign with Him: If we shall deny Him, He also will deny us:
If we are faithless, He abideth faithful; for He cannot deny Himself.
Now, as we said, at this point in time within Paul’s life, he was in prison in Rome. We read here of the chains that he was in bondage to. The first time Paul was in prison, it was more or less under house arrest. He was able to rent an apartment and have even people care for him. But this time, he was in the midst of a dark Roman prison, and he was chained to a guard.
It’s tragic that in this time that Paul was going through, many had deserted him. If we look back in the first chapter of 2 Timothy, verse 15, 2 Timothy 1:15, it says, “Many have deserted me.”
Paul testifies later in this same book of how, “But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me.” Do you ever think about how Paul was deserted? Somehow within my heart, I believe it was more than just a physical desertion. It wasn’t that they were just physically drawing back from him, but the very Word that God had entrusted unto Paul was being contested.
The Word and the deposit that God had given to Paul—and as he had entrusted this Word of God to Timothy—this is what ones were falling away from, because they found that Word was too hot to handle within their natural selves. Because of Paul’s faithfulness to what had been entrusted to him, he was in prison.
Paul encourages us all in 2 Timothy 3:12:
Yea, and all that would live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
Do we desire to live godly in Christ Jesus? Well, the Lord says, “That’s the way to go.” But then don’t be surprised at what happens to you, because there has been a deposit. There’s something that’s been entrusted unto you that is being battled over for the ages. We’re in that battle, and we’ll talk a little more about that later.
But as Paul wrote to Timothy, what was Paul’s answer? What was Paul’s encouragement to Timothy in this? “Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead.” Oh, brothers and sisters, how we need to focus and learn and allow this, in a very fresh way, to burn within our hearts.
The very risen Savior—speaking of His victory. Yes, it speaks of His death, but death could not hold Him. He was victorious, and He was seated on high, risen from the dead, leading captivity captive. Praise God for the victory that we have in Him, brothers and sisters. That’s what Paul was encouraging Timothy to remember.
We remember, as we think about our Lord Jesus Christ, how He says He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. As Paul was writing to Timothy in the first chapter, he says, in effect, “Remember Jesus Christ yesterday. What has He given to you? What’s the deposit that’s been entrusted unto you? Remember, He has called you with a holy calling, with purpose.”
He comes into the second chapter, and it’s really an equipping of Timothy and all of us to live in this present age. We want to live in these days. This is the way we remember Jesus Christ: we’re strengthened by His grace.
Paul continues in the third chapter as far as what lies ahead. He says, “Yes, evil days are ahead, but remember Jesus Christ and continue in the things that I have taught you. Continue walking in the way that I have instructed you.”
And even finally in chapter 4, we see that future glory, when Paul makes that wonderful testimony: “I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course.” He’s been faithful, and there’s that crown of righteousness. Oh, how Paul is that one who loves the Lord’s appearing.
Brothers and sisters, as we remember, we never grow tired of remembering Jesus Christ, risen from the dead. As we reflect back—and this is really what the table does for us—it puts us back in focus. We remember His death, but we also remember that that grave is empty. We’re remembering this until His coming again. It’s a focus and a perspective for every day of our life.
And how tragic it is: so often we want to live as part-time Christians. It’s an interesting thought, how really it’s one of the sad tragedies. Oftentimes, I find myself, and we can live as a part-time Christian. The Lord’s not after that.
How would the Lord encourage us today, as we look at some of the examples that Paul writes of, that we would be full-time, wholehearted, absolute unto Him in this hour? Because that’s the way we can stand and go through to the end.
I thank the Lord how He has encouraged us in many similar ways in these last days. When Lance was here, he spoke about standing. How do we stand? We remember Jesus Christ. We’ve heard of baptism. Why are we being baptized? Because we remember Jesus Christ, the great Person and work of Him, and baptism is a testimony of the response to seeing Who He is and what He has done in our life—a testimony to that spiritual reality.
Last week, we were considering first love. How do we remain in first love? Remembering Jesus Christ, keeping Him ever before our eyes, allowing Him to hold us and allowing Him to lead us through into the fullness of what He has.
That first verse there in 2 Timothy 2:1 says:
Thou therefore, my child, be strengthened in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
Now let me ask a question here. As Paul is writing to Timothy, who needed to be strengthened more by the grace that was in Christ Jesus: Paul or Timothy? Paul was a pretty strong guy. He had a lot of natural fortitude. Who needed to be strengthened more by the grace that was in Christ Jesus?
It’s not a more or less; it’s both. It’s equal. Sometimes our natural strength—ones of us with natural strength, and we all have them; we just hide them and cloak them in different ways—there’s a natural strength within all of us, and that can sometimes be the hardest area for the grace of God to work.
We’re so willing to yield the weak area. We have areas that are weak in our life, and we’re so quick to lay hold of the grace of God. But we have some natural abilities, some natural eloquence or natural stamina. Oh, how hard it is for the grace of God to work in those areas.
Paul needed the grace of God. If you look back over at 1 Corinthians 15, 1 Corinthians 15:10 is Paul’s wonderful testimony of this very fact, of the grace of God working in him:
But by the grace of God I am what I am: and His grace which was bestowed upon me was not found vain; but I laboured more abundantly than all they: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
It’s a beautiful verse, how there’s a laboring and there’s a grace. We usually don’t equate those two words. But really, what is the grace of God? As we’ve heard before, the grace of God is a Person. The grace of God is the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ.
One brother defines the grace of God as the life of Christ in action within the believer. The grace of God is that life of the Lord in action within the believer. I love how Titus testifies of how the grace of God appeared to all mankind for salvation. How precious that is.
There’s a grace that we have received, brothers and sisters, and we have the challenge of not taking it in vain. This is what Paul was testifying: it was the grace of God that had sustained him, and he desired for Timothy to be strengthened.
“Timothy, you too need to remember Jesus Christ. And as you remember Him, that life of the Lord, that grace of Christ within you, will strengthen you.” How precious it is, brothers and sisters, when we respond to that grace and allow it to lift us up, allow it to bring us into a place of the victorious life of Christ in whatever situation we find ourselves in.
Now, who is this message for? Is this message just for Timothy? It’s precious as we look at 2 Timothy 2:2. Paul writes that, yes, Timothy, I’m writing it to you, but I’m writing it to you so that you can entrust it to faithful men, and so that those faithful men can also entrust it to others.
It’s one message, one Word—the same message. Sometimes we can think there are different messages. Maybe there’s a message for Paul, maybe for Timothy, maybe for these trustworthy men, and then these others. We need to water it down a little bit. How can the same message for Paul come across as the same message to these others? Brothers and sisters: Jesus Christ. It’s the same message that we present. We bring ones to Christ.
Paul had encouraged Timothy. He says, “I have entrusted these faithful words to you in front of many witnesses.” We look back in chapter 1 and see how Paul had poured forth his heart and was encouraging Timothy to guard that deposit. What you have received—you have received these sound words, you’ve received this teaching—guard it within your heart.
Timothy had received the Word of God, that living Word of God. Paul was encouraging him to receive that Word, to respond unto it, and to release it unto others. Really, brothers and sisters, this is our whole Christian life.
Even last week, we heard about the difference between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. The Sea of Galilee was receiving and pouring out. The Dead Sea was just receiving. How we love to receive, and so much of Christianity today is, “What I get, what I get,” all that we should enjoy.
Praise God, we’re the greatest recipients of the greatest gift in all of eternity, and we should receive every bit of it. But, brothers, we shouldn’t live then as paupers. We shouldn’t just sit and admire this treasure we have. It is then to be released unto others.
We see this all throughout Scripture. This is a beautiful Psalm that even talks about it. Turn back to Psalm 48. If we look at Psalm 48, verse 12:
Walk about Zion, and go round about her;
Number the towers thereof;
Mark ye well her bulwarks;
Consider her palaces:
That ye may tell it to the generation following.
Why are we walking about Zion? Why are we considering all these things? Just so that we gain more knowledge of it? Yes, that’s one aspect, so that we can enjoy the beauty of it. Yes, that’s one aspect. But it doesn’t stop there. It’s so that we can tell it to that next generation.
Oh, how what we’re receiving, what’s being entrusted unto us, what we’re meditating upon, we’re then releasing that to others. It’s the same message, as we’ve said. It’s one Word throughout all.
Brothers and sisters, how is our daily life strengthened in the Lord? It’s receiving everything that we have from God, receiving the grace of God in Christ Jesus, and then responding to that grace and releasing that grace as we behold Christ risen from the dead—our enabling power to enter into all that He has for us.
Now, as we’ve read these verses, in order for us to get a handle on this, Paul uses three illustrations. Some people say metaphors, similes—whatever word we want to use. He speaks of an athlete, he speaks of a soldier, and he speaks of a farmer. But then he comes to the end and he says, “Remember Jesus Christ.”
Now, what is Paul trying to present to us here? Really, as we’re looking at the athlete, we’re looking at the soldier, we’re looking at the farmer, we’re really beholding our Lord Jesus Christ, because these are all aspects of His life within the believer.
It’s like He is within the center, and it’s almost like that prism that you have and the light shines through one way. At one time, we’re soldiers of the Lord. At another time, His life as the athlete is strengthening us. At another time, His life as the farmer is causing us to be those hard-working ones.
These aren’t the only three ways that His life is manifest. We know also we’re bondservants. Even later in this chapter, we’re to be vessels of honor; we’re to be approved workmen. There are many different ways that the Lord’s life is manifest within us.
But Paul, so that we could really be able to get a better grasp of the Lord’s life within us and the calling that He has upon us, uses some earthly examples that are a lot easier for us to get hold of and a lot easier for us to be encouraged by.
But through all of this, the true example—what he’s speaking of—is the life of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because, brothers and sisters, He is the standard. He is the plumb line. He is the One by Whom we measure and to Whom we compare everything.
When I was in high school, I worked on a highway survey party. I’ll show you how old I am: I actually surveyed I-64 out through the West End before there was even an I-64. Not many of you even remember those days.
During my summers working with the highway department, I learned to work the plumb line because that was the way they measured. That was the standard. You know, we’ve got Johnny in here, and I know when he’s up there, he doesn’t just start putting those bricks and stones up there. There’s a plumb line. There’s a measure. There’s a standard.
Brothers and sisters, as we’re talking about being built together within the house of God, there’s one standard of measure, and it’s the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s Who we measure against. That’s how we ask: are we on course? Are we straight? Are we off a little bit? Are we starting to get slanted? We look back at Christ.
Too often, brothers and sisters, one of our great problems is this: what is our standard, or who is our standard? Our standard is other brothers and sisters. We say, “Oh, this brother can do this, therefore I can do that. This brother can go there, therefore I can go there. This sister can wear this, therefore I can wear this. This young person can be involved in this, therefore I can be involved in this.”
It’s the horizontal comparison of the standard. As soon as we fall into that trap of comparing ourselves with one another, we’re already defeated, because Christ is our standard.
Peter fell into this trap right after he was recovered at the end of John 21. The Lord had a conversation with Peter, and He told Peter the way he was going to die. Then He also spoke of how John was going to continue on. Peter said, “But Lord, what about me?”
The Lord says to Peter, “Peter, you don’t worry about what life John’s living. What is that to you? You follow Me.” How we need, when we start comparing and seeing what others are doing and wondering this and that, to have those words register within our heart: “What is that to you? You follow Me.”
He’s the standard. He’s the life that we’re after. We’re not patterning ourselves after one another. Our pattern, our standard, is our Lord Jesus Christ and the light of His life manifest within us.
It’s the same way corporately. It’s tragic at times when we can compare assemblies to assemblies. But if we really look in Revelation 2 and 3, what’s the standard there? What was the Lord looking for in those seven churches? He was looking for His life.
He looked at Ephesus. He was looking for His life manifesting first love. All throughout those ones, He was looking for the manifestation of His life in those assemblies. He didn’t write to Sardis and say, “Sardis, you’ve got a lot of works that aren’t finished yet. Look at Philadelphia. Look how faithful they are. You should be like Philadelphia.” No.
He didn’t tell Laodicea to repent and wake up and be like Philadelphia. No. There was an awakening and a call to repentance to return to Christ. Christ is the standard for us individually, and Christ is the standard for an assembly.
If we look at one assembly and say, “Oh, we need to be like them,” we can learn from one another, yeah. But that other assembly is not our standard. We’re not a standard for anybody. The standard is our Lord Jesus Christ, risen from the dead.
That’s what He’s looking for in Revelation, and that’s what He’s looking for today when the Lord looks upon His people of God. May we be awakened in this hour to be those faithful ones that, as we respond to the grace of God, He could entrust with us even more of a manifestation of His life.
So, as we look at these three examples of the athlete, the soldier, and the farmer, we’re not just looking at those three, but we’re looking at them in the light of the life of our Lord Jesus Christ. Keep that in the back of our minds at all times.
Let’s go ahead and look at the soldier, the very first one there, verses 3 and 4:
Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
No soldier on service entangleth himself in the affairs of this life; that he may please Him who enrolled him as a soldier.
Now, as I was looking at this soldier, there were four points that I came up with. Any of these—you look at any of these—you can go on almost ad infinitum. You can look at the height and the breadth and the depth, because you can have a whole message on being a soldier. You can have a whole message on being an athlete. So we’re just picking out some.
But we’ll see, too, that each one is unique. One thing we’ll notice also is there are similarities between each one, because again, it’s the life of Christ. There are great similarities, but there are some unique things.
Within the soldier, I had four points:
Paul encourages Timothy to suffer hardship. What an encouraging word. If you’re going to encourage someone, how are you going to tell them, “Just go on, Timothy, just like I am. Suffer that hardship”? How can we suffer the hardship? We can’t.
But as we respond to the grace of God and we remember Jesus Christ, there’s a life within us that has already suffered any hardship that we might have to encounter upon this earth. There’s a way He’s gone through, and our Lord never leads us through anything that He hasn’t gone through before and made provision for.
The problem in suffering hardship is that we look at ourselves. We look at our abilities, and we can’t. We might be able to suck it up and make it a little while, but we know in the end we’re not able.
Paul is writing to Timothy on this matter of a soldier, encouraging him to suffer hardship. He’s also calling him to wake up: Timothy, you’re in a battle. Brothers and sisters, we need to be fully aware that when we are born again, we’re born into this battle.
Because we have the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, even though we have done absolutely nothing except believe in Him and receive that life, you’re a marked person and you’re hated. But praise God, there’s a protection and there’s a shield as we remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead.
All throughout the Scriptures, we see this call and warning to believers that when these hardships come upon us, don’t be surprised. As we said earlier in 2 Timothy 3:12, all of those who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus, you’ll be persecuted.
Other writers speak of it too. In James 1:2, when he talks about the testing, he says:
Count it all joy, my brethren, when ye fall into manifold temptations.
Again, what a wonderful word as you’re getting ready to go through some testings and trials. James says, “Consider it all joy.” Oh, that’s the grace of God—considering it all joy.
Peter even writes in 1 Peter 4:12 to warn us, to let us know. He says, “Don’t be surprised by that fiery ordeal.” Brothers and sisters, the days we’re living in are days of battle, and there’s a spirit of endurance in enduring these tough times.
As Paul is encouraging Timothy here, we need to have the life of the Lord within us. This is not a suffering that’s alone. As it says, “Suffer hardship with me.” There’s a suffering that’s together. The Greek word has a compound prefix on that word, speaking of with others.
Thank the Lord, brothers and sisters, as we’re going through this, we’re not suffering alone. We have the Lord’s life, but we have our brothers and sisters to go through things with us.
So often at times, I hear one say, “I’m really having a tough time. I’m having a battle, and I need to kind of withdraw for a little while and get myself strengthened again. Then, when I get myself back on course, I can enter back in.”
Brothers and sisters, when we’re going through those tough times, we need each other more and more. The enemy says, “Get yourself straight.” The Lord says, “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden.” As times get tougher and tougher, we’re going to need each other—the life of the Lord within each other—in a fuller and greater way.
The second matter here on the soldier is that when we’re born again, we’re born into a battle, and we’re all born on active duty. There are no reserves within the house of God. Within the army of God, there are no reserves. We’re all born onto active duty.
Now, some of us might not be active participants, but you’re an active target. You’re a live target out there whether you want to be or not. How we need to have our eyes opened.
But what is the battle over? Is the battle over you? Is the battle over me? The battle, brothers and sisters, is over the life of our Lord Jesus being manifest in us individually and together. That’s the battle.
The battle is the life of Jesus being testified of amongst brothers and sisters in our individual lives and our lives together. The other week, our brother shared on baptism. If we didn’t even know, if we didn’t even have the Scripture, we could tell the significance of baptism just by how much the enemy hates it.
If we just read a history book, we could tell there’s something about baptism that’s valuable. There’s something about baptism that’s more than just getting soaking wet. There’s something of a reality here, because there are ones that died.
Thousands have been martyred over the simple desire to be baptized. There are ones today in different countries: they can accept the Lord, but once they become baptized, it’s a death sentence upon them. There’s a hatred out there over baptism. That should awaken us to the significance of it.
Plus, we have all of the Scriptures speaking of the testimony and the significance of it. Why is baptism so contested? Because it’s the testifying of a spiritual reality. Why is the Word of God so contested? Because it’s expression of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We can tell the things that are important because the enemy is wise. He knows what to contest and what not to contest. Where there’s such a battle in this age over the Word of God, would we be found as Paul was found: “I am imprisoned, but the Word of God is not imprisoned.” Praise God.
We have that Word, and how we need to feed upon it. Because as we feed upon the Word of God, as we allow His life to work within us, this allows us to enter into this third point of the soldier: not being entangled in the things of the world.
We’re not entangled because the soldier—any soldier on active duty—has a wholehearted devotion. There’s an undivided, undistracted, unentangled focus upon what that soldier is there for.
If we’ve ever been in a war, or any kind of battle zone, or any situation, you’re not distracted by whether the Yankees won last night or not. You’re not distracted about what happened to Virginia Tech yesterday. There’s a focus. There’s an emphasis that you know what’s going on.
How we need to be aware that the battle that we’re in is even greater than what we see occurring upon this earth. The Lord, over and over again, tells us, “You can’t serve two masters. You can’t serve God, you can’t serve mammon. You can’t become entangled in the things of this world, in the affairs of this world.”
But let’s just stop a second and look at our lives. What are we entangled in? What is it? This word entangle means it’s almost woven in; it gets a grip. What are we entangled in?
Are we entangled in work? There’s a great demand. The world out there is just like Pharaoh: more and more bricks and less and less straw. There’s a great demand. Are we entangled in education? Are we entangled in our families? Are we entangled on and on and on, somehow distracted from our wholehearted devotion to the Lord?
As we’re given fully unto Him in this battle, our job works out. As we’re given unto Him, our education works out. Our family situations are cared for. It’s seeking first the kingdom of God—His kingship in the midst of a situation.
How does the Lord do this? He trains us. As a soldier goes through basic training, the Lord daily trains us. He teaches us how to walk. It’s that whole process of being a disciple, of learning of Him. Much of it involves the working of the cross, learning to say, “Not what I want, but what You want, Lord.”
It’s learning to be faithful with what He puts in our hands. So often, many of us want to come in and be the general. We want to start out being the general, but we’re never willing to be the second lieutenant.
How the Lord is saying, “You come unto Me and I’ll train you.” I remember when I went through basic training. There was a time in basic training where every night we would go stand guard. You know what we stood guard over for four hours as we rotated? We stood guard over the Dempsey dumpster.
You learned to stay on guard over that dumpster. Why was that? Because a few six or seven months later, I was standing guard over twenty- and thirty-million-dollar airplanes.
They didn’t entrust you to stand guard over the airplanes, or protect your fellow soldiers, until you’d first learned to be faithful in the small and insignificant things. We don’t like to do that. We want the grandeur. We want the glory of being out there in a prominent place.
How does that one finally become a general with all those medals? Because he served as a grunt. He worked his way up. Brothers and sisters, we’re not working to be generals. We’re all fellow soldiers in this.
But the way the Lord trains each one of us is that we’re called to be faithful with the small, the few, and the insignificant.
Why did the Lord choose, when He appeared in the Gospel of Luke—who did He appear to? The small and the few and the insignificant, unnoticed by the world. Elizabeth and Zacharias: faithful. Zacharias was faithful for many years, but then there came that time, because of his faithfulness, the Lord could have him in a place where the angel could appear to him and speak about a son being born.
What was Mary doing when the angel appeared to her? She was just in the kitchen washing dishes, being faithful where she was. The angel said, “O most favoured one.”
What were Simeon and Anna doing in the temple? They were faithful year after year, offering up prayers and fasting, until that one day they beheld the Lord.
Brothers and sisters, this whole concept of being faithful in small things and enduring is so contrary to modern-day society and our modern way of thinking. We all want to be chiefs. Nobody wants to be the Indian. The world tells you, “You’re great.”
How we need to have the Lord train us, that we not be entangled. One of the things that’s so entangled is our mind, that we not have our mind entangled with the things and the fashion of this world, but that we could really allow the Lord to train us in a special way.
Because He has called us, the soldier, as the Lord has called him, desires to please Him Who has called him into service. Brothers and sisters, this is a calling and a pleasing motivated by a heart of love.
It’s so precious how David knew the call of God. In Acts 13:22, it testifies of David being a man after God’s own heart. We know the first part of that verse, but do we know the second part? Because David did the will of God. He was a man after God’s own heart. He went through the training, and he did what God asked him to do.
Thank the Lord that he was willing to go through that. Even our Lord Jesus, when upon this earth, He was not pleasing Himself. He was there to please the Father, constrained by the love of Christ.
Who are we seeking to please? We have this opportunity now, where the Lord is desiring to train us in this hour to be equipped, that when the battle even gets more intense, we would know how to be able to make it through—not somehow, but triumphantly in Him.
There’s a verse, to me, it’s one of the most misused verses in the Scripture. It’s talking about in these days that are ahead: persecutions will come, and you’ll be brought before the judge. You’ll be brought into the tribunal, and you’ll be asked to defend yourself. So don’t be anxious about what to say at that moment. “I’ll tell you what to say.”
We take that as a cop-out and say, “I don’t need to worry about anything. At the moment, whatever comes, the Lord, He’ll provide. I don’t need to worry about the future. Whenever something comes upon me, the Lord will provide.” Oh, no.
What is that verse saying to us? It says, “You know why you will be able to testify and know what to say? It’s because you’ve been diligent. You’ve undergone the discipline. You’ve undergone the training. You have the Word of God within you. You have the life of Christ within you.”
When they bring you before the judges, when they’re persecuting you, you’re not going to have to be anxious about what to say, because at that moment it’s within you, and that will come forth. It’s actually a call to greater diligence, not negligence.
It’s redeeming the time we have to learn of Christ, that at that moment, we as good soldiers could really allow the Lord to train us so that, in that time in battle, what will come forth will be the life of Christ.
As we said, as you look at the soldier and the athlete, there are a lot of things that overlap. The soldier suffers hardship; the athlete suffers hardship; even a farmer suffers hardship. The athlete is on active duty all the time; the farmer is active all the time. They can’t be entangled in the things of the world. They also desire to please the one they’re serving.
Again, there are these overlaps, but there are some unique things too. As we look at this athlete in verse 5:
And if also a man contend in the games, he is not crowned, except he have contended lawfully.
Four things on the athlete:
The athlete competes. Again, he’s an active participant. The other night at prayer meeting, there was a little phrase I used: within the race that the Lord has called us to, within this athletic competition the Lord has called us to, there’s no off-season. We love to take an off-season, but there’s no off-season.
There’s an active participation. If you look back at these Greek games that Paul is referring to—and this gets into the second point, rigorous training—they trained for ten months before they could even start to compete for that year. Then it would start all over again.
There was an active participating in this, just as we’re called to active duty. There’s an active running of the race that is set before us. Paul testifies, as he encourages those in Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 9:25, about one of the characteristics of the athlete: because he’s undergoing this rigorous training, he is exercising self-control in all things.
The one that’s running is exercising self-control in all things. If we look at these athletes, they’re exercising self-control in their diet. They’re exercising self-control in their rest, in the discipline of their practice. Every aspect of their life is under the discipline of the goal and driven by the goal and the prize that they’re after.
If we read the testimonies of some of these Olympic athletes, if we read the testimonies of even some like Tiger Woods or different ones, it puts Christian diligence to shame. Now, they’re displaying a natural diligence.
Brothers and sisters, we’re called in the same way. The diligence we should be showing is motivated not to attain something, but to really enter into what the Lord has already done for us. We’re responding. Our diligence is a response to the love of Christ.
We see the prize that He has. We see that high calling He set before us. We see our Lord’s desire, His heart, for people to express His life. Out of that desire, we respond to so great a salvation. We allow Him to train us and lead us on, and we continue.
The athlete, in this rigorous training, is trained in all aspects. His whole being is brought into training. It’s interesting that they don’t just train their arms; they don’t just train their legs. They train their whole being. The whole physical body goes through the training that they can be in good shape to do whatever they do.
There’s a trap that we can fall into at times. We need to be aware that faithfulness in one area does not offset unfaithfulness in another area.
Faithfulness in one area does not offset unfaithfulness in another area.
So often we say, “Well, I’ve done this, this, and this; therefore I can let this slide.” Now, you know, Paul doesn’t say, “Be an accountant.” You don’t want to fall into that trap of being an accountant, because the accountant counts.
“Well, I’ve done this. I’ve done that. Oh, look, I did this. Look at all I’ve done. Therefore, I’ve got six things in this column. I think I’ll let this one over here slide.” No. There’s a wholehearted devotion that the Lord is calling us to, to respond to Him.
A picture of this in the Old Testament is Samson. Samson was faithful in many areas, but it did not offset his unfaithfulness in those other areas.
Brothers and sisters, we’ve got those other areas in our life. We need to allow, as we remember our Lord Jesus Christ, for the grace of God to be working within us, that the power of God will enable us to overcome those other areas.
Are we saying, “Well, I made it to three meetings this week; therefore, I can let this other meeting slide. I called four brothers and sisters up this week; therefore, this other sister is on my heart, but I don’t need to call her. I’ve done four out of five. That’s pretty good.”
The Lord puts it on our heart. He provides a means and a way for us to do it. He’s calling us to really—He’s training us for this absolute devotion unto Him, wholehearted unto Him.
The athlete is one who competes according to the rules. Now, we can say in the New Testament, “What do You mean, Lord? What do You mean to compete according to the rules?”
Brothers and sisters, we are under a law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. James calls it the royal law of love. There’s a law of life within us that’s directing us and leading us into what is the Lord’s heart. That’s what He’s calling us to do: respond to the life of the Lord Jesus within us.
To me, one of the most beautiful pictures of this is of one who lived even before the law was given. It’s the story of Joseph. Remember the story of Joseph when he was in Potiphar’s house, how Potiphar’s wife kept trying to entice him over and over again? What was Joseph’s response to her?
Joseph said, “How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” Now, how did Joseph know that that was a sin? The Ten Commandments had not been given. How did he know that was a sin?
He knew God’s heart. He knew His Father’s heart. He had allowed the training of the Lord to establish an intimate relationship, and he knew that this was not the right thing to do. There was the knowing within.
Brothers and sisters, we have the anointing. We have the Spirit. We have the life within, that we know when we’re not supposed to do something. We know where we’re being led. We know when we’re going off, but sometimes we suppress that.
We say, “Well, this one time won’t hurt. This won’t matter.” Yes, it will. Don’t think we stand lest we fall. One of the greatest temptations, particularly for those of us who maybe have been with the Lord a few years, is, “I’m mature enough to handle that.”
“I’ve been with the Lord long enough. I can get in this situation. I can handle it.” Oh, pride goes before the fall. Once we ever fall into a trap of thinking, “I can handle it,” we’re already defeated.
But there is a life within us that’s leading us. He wants us to compete according to that royal law of love, that His life is seen through us and amongst us individually and together.
What is motivating this athlete? It’s that prize. There was that prize in view, that crown, the upward call. This is what, if we think back upon our Lord Jesus Christ, He saw that joy set before Him.
Turn over to Hebrews 12. We have this beautiful picture of how our Lord, as He was upon this earth, as He walked upon this earth, as He endured the cross. If we look at Hebrews 12:1-3—again, familiar verses, but think about them in light of what we’re sharing today:
Therefore let us also, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising shame, and hath sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
For consider Him that hath endured such gainsaying of sinners against Himself, that ye wax not weary, fainting in your souls.
What encouragement, brothers and sisters. This is what Timothy is receiving from Paul: “Remember Jesus Christ. Be strengthened by the grace of God which is in Christ Jesus.”
As we see how our Lord has gone before, He saw that prize. Do we see the prize? Do we know why we’re in this race? Do we know what we’re fighting for? As a farmer, do we know what the goal is? Would the Lord clarify it within our hearts?
Would the Lord clarify it? If we haven’t seen, may the Lord awaken it within our hearts. May the Lord refresh it within us. It’s not a thing either. The prize is Christ.
The prize is more and more of our Lord Jesus Christ: being with Him, ruling with Him, entering into all of the joy that there is in Him. So often we can depersonalize the goal. The goal is Christ.
Would that the Lord make it very fresh within us, that we can go on so that we can live not only in this time, but in the days to come, ever in His presence, enjoying all of His goodness and all of His mercy.
Now, the third illustration that Paul uses to Timothy, back over in 2 Timothy 2:6, is the farmer. It talks about how the hard-working farmer ought to be the first to receive his share of the crops.
Four things on the farmer, too:
As we look at the farmer, Paul says he’s hard-working. There’s much work to be done. But how does he enter into this diligence? He remembers Jesus Christ, risen from the dead.
Brothers and sisters, we heard Paul’s testimony: how he didn’t take the grace of God in vain, but he labored. As Paul—we talk about Paul laboring and not receiving the grace of God in vain—what is that laboring? That laboring is responding to the grace of God.
It’s responding to His life, that that life would be made real within us and released to others. We talk about working for the Lord, entering into His labor, co-laboring with Him. We’re simply responding.
Our Christian life is that we respond to His love, we respond to His promptings, we come under what He has for us. There’s a diligence that we enter into, this hard-working farmer.
Oh, how we need this so much in this hour, brothers and sisters, because there’s such a lackadaisical attitude amongst Christianity in general. We do a little bit, we respond a little bit, and we can look like we’re working so hard.
I love the testimony of the life of our Lord, that it says at the end of John, just in those few years He was upon this earth, all the books couldn’t contain it. He was always laboring.
He would go, He would labor, give of Himself, go somewhere for rest, and what would happen? Five thousand would show up to be fed. Did He say, “Sorry, I’m off today. Come back tomorrow”? No, He came into that.
Do we ever experience the refreshing nature of the Lord when we’re serving Him? When we’re tired, when we’re exhausted, when it’s totally inconvenient, and the phone rings, and a brother or sister needs prayer, needs something—do we experience, do we allow, do we take and receive the grace of God that there is, to allow His life to come up and share that life one with another?
Or do we just, in one sense, offer up a Hail Mary prayer and say thank You and go on back to sleep? Would the Lord really help us in that?
There’s one thing that’s totally different about the farmer than the athlete and the soldier. The farmer is totally devoid of glamour and excitement and applause. There’s a routineness, a daily day-in and day-out drudgery, humdrum life that the farmer is characterized by.
Early in the morning, getting up, going out, doing his work, not seeing, in one sense, results, but being faithful every day to go through all the daily routine of life.
It’s interesting how the other week we had Veterans Day for soldiers, and whenever any team wins something, we always have parades and celebrations. Do we have a Farmer’s Day? When’s the last time we had a parade for the farmers?
They’re totally out of sight. We sit here going to have a meal in a little while because some farmer labored and labored and labored. We just sit and enjoy—totally hidden work, not really appreciated.
I even went onto Wikipedia. I typed in “Farmer’s Day” to see if there was such a thing. I couldn’t find one. Some states and cities have them, but there wasn’t a national Farmer’s Day. It’s really kind of indicative of the life they live: totally unappreciated, hidden, but some of the hardest-working people upon the face of the earth.
Are we willing to live like that within the family of God? Are we willing to labor hard and be totally unappreciated? Are we willing to labor and pour our lives out in diligence and nobody even notice? Are we willing to labor and serve and be totally neglected and unappreciated?
When is the farmer noticed? The farmer is noticed when there’s a drought and there are no crops. It’s like we’re noticed when we’re not there.
Would that we have that spirit. It’s greatly lacking. I know in my life it’s greatly lacking in the house of God. When we serve, when we’re doing something, we want to be noticed.
Now, most of us have got a few years in the Lord, so we camouflage that pretty good. But still within us, there’s that yearning: “Oh, I wish they noticed my service. Look at all I did on workday. Look at all I did, all around helping brothers and sisters. No one’s even noticing.”
Maybe we could just—ah, there are little ways. We’re so manipulative. We say, “Well, we bring it up at prayer time. Well, I was praying for these twenty-three people, and they need some help.” We bring more attention to our service than actually the need that we have.
Would the Lord work within us in a way that we could be those diligent, hard-working parts? Oh, how much of our Lord’s life was hidden.
If you ever sit and write down even the so-called red-letter words in the Bible, you don’t fill up a lot of pages. It doesn’t take a lot to fill it up on what is recorded. Even if you look at some of the biographies of men that are written—two and three volumes to cover their life—we’ve got a few chapters out of the Book.
There was that hidden life, that hard-working, diligent life. Because, as the farmer was laboring, the farmer was laboring for others. He was growing crops for others.
Yes, he gets to share in the first fruits of it. Praise God, because he’s worked hard, he gets to share in those fruits. Yes, as we serve one another, we enjoy the blessing of it, but there’s more going out for others.
We see how the Lord is calling us in this hour to really be laboring. He wants laborers raised up, that we could be serving one another, serving His purpose in this time.
Well, brothers and sisters, as we look at these three, we really want the Lord to strengthen us. As Paul wrote this to Timothy to encourage him, may the Lord encourage us.
As we look at these three, to me there were three overall similar characteristics that really came out in this. Whether you’re speaking of the soldier, the athlete, or the farmer, there was a wholehearted devotion to what they were involved in. There was not an undivided heart; there was a wholehearted devotion.
They all, in each of their cases, gave up self and their own self-interest and other interests for the interest of the one that they loved. They also had a reward; there was an end in view. All of these were motivated by love.
We could rephrase those three into the absolutes. In the day and time that we live in, it is a great day of relativity. We don’t even like the word absolutes. We love the relativity of this life: “Ooh, maybe that’s good. Ooh, maybe that’s bad,” and all of this relativity.
But somebody issues or says an absolute, and we shrink back. If we look at these three, we see an absoluteness, and it’s an absoluteness motivated by the love of Christ.
Brothers and sisters, this is what the Lord is calling us to. If we’re going to be able to press through to the end, there’s an absoluteness that’s necessary within our life for the testimony of our Lord’s life to be made manifest.
Within these three there was:
Is there an absolute surrender within our life to our Master? Is there an absolute separation from the things of this world, from the things of the world, unto our Lord?
Separation in the Lord is always from and unto: separated from the world and unto Him. There was an absolute satisfaction in the One they were serving. Is the Lord enough for us? Is there an absolute satisfaction with our Lord Jesus Christ in our lives?
If there’s not, we thank the Lord that it’s still called today. We can come and present ourselves unto Him, that He can settle these issues.
How do these things become real in our life? How do we really enter into them? We thank the Lord that we have verse 7. Paul says in 2 Timothy 2:7:
Consider what I say; for the Lord shall give thee understanding in all things.
There’s a twofold aspect of this. On our side is, “Consider.” Think upon what I say. This is the Word of God. This is what I’ve shared with you. Think upon it. Meditate upon it.
Sometimes we just want the revelation and the understanding to drop out of heaven. But what is he saying? “Consider what I’m saying. Chew upon it.” Well, what are You saying here as a soldier and this whole matter of entanglement? What’s entangled in my life? Lord, show me.
As we consider it, praise God, on His side He says He will give understanding. He’s an absolute. He will—not maybe—He will give understanding. Oh, how they go hand in hand.
In days when we’re confused and we don’t understand a situation, as we come unto Him, He puts it back into perspective. As we allow ourselves to be drawn back to His presence, He puts things in perspective.
I’d like for us to close looking back at Psalm 73. This Psalm, to me, is a beautiful Psalm of one that was wrestling through something. As he’s wrestling through the things of the Lord, he’s seeing certain things with his eyes that he doesn’t understand.
If we look at Psalm 73, we’re going to skip around. We’ll start in verse 2:
But as for me, my feet were almost gone;
My steps had well nigh slipped.
Here’s the psalmist saying, “But as for me, my feet came close to stumbling. My steps had almost slipped.” He was wavering.
Look over then in Psalm 73:12:
Behold, these are the wicked;
And, being always at ease, they increase in riches.
Look at the psalmist in verse 13:
Surely in vain have I cleansed my heart,
And washed my hands in innocency;
For all the day long have I been plagued,
And chastened every morning.
The wicked are prospering, but here I am being chastened. In verse 16 he says:
When I thought how I might know this,
It was too painful for me;
Then this beautiful verse 17—where does he gain understanding?
Until I went into the sanctuary of God,
And considered their latter end.
When I came into the presence of the Lord, when I came into the house of God, then I saw clearly. I saw the call You had upon my life. I saw their end. The Lord gave understanding to him.
The psalmist was able to return and testify in verse 25, as he had kept himself pure:
Whom have I in heaven but Thee?
And there is none upon earth that I desire besides Thee.
What a testimony. “Besides Thee, I desire nothing on the earth.” You could see he was slipping in there. Maybe there had been some desires to pull him this way and that, but as he had allowed the Lord to refocus him, as he had been in the house of God, in the presence of the Lord with brothers and sisters, things became clear.
He said, “I have no desire on earth besides Thee.” Verse 26:
My flesh and my heart faileth:
But God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever.
That’s receiving the grace of God, not in vain. In verse 28:
But it is good for me to draw near unto God:
I have made the Lord the Lord my refuge,
That I may tell of all Thy works.
Here he was—he had gone from being confused and almost slipping. Then, as he had seen the Lord, again he’s not just receiving it for himself, saying, “Aha, I’m refreshed now.” But now there’s a fresh burden within his heart, that he can tell of all Thy works.
Praise God. Paul was sharing with Timothy. Timothy was sharing with faithful men. In the midst of that, these faithful men were sharing with others. Brothers and sisters, the Lord is calling us in this hour not only to be receiving what He says, but sharing it with one another, to encourage one another in the blessed calling that He has upon us.
As it said there in 2 Timothy 1, there’s a calling that we have been called with—a holy calling with purpose. As we respond to that call, the life of our Lord Jesus comes forth in a fresh and living way.
Then, in the same way that Paul testified of in 2 Timothy 4, Paul concludes with the testimony:
I have fought the good fight,
I have finished the course,
I have kept the faith:
There’s the soldier: “I have fought the good fight.” There’s that athlete: “I have finished the course.” There’s the faithful farmer: “I have kept the faith.”
Now what does he know? In the future, there was laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.
Brothers and sisters, as we remember our Lord Jesus Christ and allow the grace of God to be made manifest within us, it will be creating within us a greater yearning and desire for the appearing of the Lord.
Paul was so zealous to see the Lord, for that appearing, to appear before the Judge. Paul was running into the arms of the Judge. Most of us, when we think about the judge, we’re running the other way.
Paul knew the Judge. He knew the heart of the Judge. He knew, when he beheld Him, Who He was, Who he was dealing with, how He dealt with ones. Paul was running into His arms.
Brothers and sisters, if we’re not running into the arms of the righteous Judge, we’ve got a false concept of Who the Judge is. May the Lord enlighten us, that we could see the true righteous Judge as a Judge full of love and mercy, full of grace and truth, yearning that we come unto Him, yearning for His appearing.
May we remember our Lord Jesus Christ. May we be strengthened by Him in this evil day, so that we too can press on to what we have been called for in this hour. Let’s pray.
Lord, we thank You so much that You don’t leave us without Your Word in this hour.
Lord, we again simply say we don’t want to receive the Word of God in vain. We want to allow the Word of God to have free access within our life. We want to allow the Word of God to come in and do that dividing work of soul and spirit.
Allow the Word of God to strengthen us in this hour, that we too, Lord, as Paul, would be those that love Thine appearing in a fuller and greater way. In Jesus’ name. Amen.