Till the beauty of Jesus is seen.
Lord, as we gather together in such a time like this, we can often almost see Thy face in the lives of one another—just that beauty, that countenance of a life that has been sold out to You; a life that has found that carefree place in grace, of all trusting, all believing, and pursuing.
There is nobody here perfect, nobody who does not have snags and problems in their life. We are so thankful that we do not have to worry about the small stuff when our lives are in the hands of Jesus.
Oh, tonight, Lord, as we just study the Word one more time, we ask that You would help us by the Spirit to get a hold, get a handle, get some clarity regarding the walk ahead, as we advance in wisdom and might and in favor with God and man. Oh, teach us Thy ways, we pray, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Let us just take a look at the last verse there in Luke 2, the last verse of Luke 2—the end of the story, or the point, if you want to say, of this wonderful little snapshot that we have been able to look at.
And Jesus kept advancing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.
And Jesus kept advancing in wisdom, in stature, and in favor with God and man. Something has happened. He is moving now. There is some momentum in the direction of the Father’s business.
And then we want to turn to 2 Timothy, in the passage that we sang tonight, just to look at Timothy in the same pursuit.
You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
And the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.
Also, if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules.
The hard-working farmer ought to be the first to receive his share of the crops.
Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.
Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descendant of David, according to my gospel.
We have been looking at Jesus in this Luke 2 story, which I said was a snapshot that Mary gave to Luke as Luke was composing his Gospel. In this snapshot, we see Jesus caught in a moment of transition in His life—perhaps, we could say, from childhood to adolescence; perhaps from adolescence toward maturity.
But we see Him in a snapshot. Something has changed—something in His eyes, something in His heart is manifest, something in the way He is doing things has changed. After this snapshot, there is nothing more said about Jesus until, at thirty years of age, He comes to the waters of baptism.
Of course, as it says, He went home in subjection to His parents. He continued to learn His craft, as all noble men would do, and continued His training, obeying at home and being part of a family, part of a country, and part of a faith. It is wonderful to see that snapshot.
We noticed there in Luke 2 that He was growing naturally by the grace of God, and then He started advancing by the grace of God. He started out just growing up; then something laid hold of Him. We are using this Passover visit to Jerusalem to suggest that something there brought Him to a higher sense of calling to His heavenly Father.
I have made this point to you and said that, you know, may all of you come to such a moment where it just is not sort of grace’s osmosis. Everybody gets saved. Let us face it: you are on welfare for a while. It is all Jesus, none of you. There is nothing you can do. Even your prayers are not righteous, you know. But God answers, God blesses, God keeps, God helps, and God enables you to grow.
At some point in our lives, there comes that transition where you realize, “You know what? He wants me to do this and pursue.”
It is like the woman being loved by King Solomon in the Song of Solomon. She was just spoiled by Solomon’s love. She was on welfare, you know what I mean? Solomon is taking care of her and bringing her bananas every day. What is better than bananas every day, you know?
She is so spoiled that one day she is lying in her bed, and Solomon says, “Woo.” She says, “Oh, I’m in bed. I don’t want to get out. I’m so warm.” Then he goes, “Jiggle, jiggle,” on the door. Well, she comes to the door and opens it, and he is gone.
Now she starts phase two, where she has to prove her love by running after Solomon. Aha! New phase. No longer the spoiled brat; now the pursuer.
This is also our case, right? I got saved at twenty. I was a spoiled brat at twenty. He took care of me. I prayed wrong things; He answered right prayers. I was so lopsided and messed up.
I asked God to help me switch from smoking cigarettes to smoking a pipe. I mean, I was in bad shape, you know? But God answered my prayers. Then, from pipe smoking to no more pipe—it was a long and arduous process for me.
We saw in this process of Jesus, in this transition that took place in His life, that there are three things that are crucial. If we are going to have a change, the same picture applies to us.
First of all, He had a real understanding of His relationship to His heavenly Father. He really knew He and His Father were like this. He had favor with His Father. Until you know that Jesus really loves you, warts and all, you just do not make much progress. You always feel like you are on the outside: “Well, Jesus loves everybody else, but not me.” But one day, when you really realize Jesus loves you, it does something in your life.
The second thing that Jesus obviously manifests at this moment in the temple is that His heart was totally consecrated to His God. In other words, He absolutely surrendered the center of His desire to the Father.
Listen, you are going to be a husband one day, most of you guys. It will be a miracle, most of you will be. And you know what? I really believe that if your heart is really centered in your love for Jesus, you will really love your wife more than you would if your wife was the center of your heart. This thing about Jesus being the center is really crucial—and the same for you sisters as well.
Jesus came to that point where His heart, you could tell, was in love with His Father. His Father even came before Mary and Joseph. That was sort of a transition point that they saw there.
The third crucial factor for advancement is that He was a dialoguer with the Word of God. He was wrestling with the Word, discovering the truth, coming to the Father with things that He saw and saying, “Father, explain these things to Me.” He and the Father had so much dialogue in those days.
The more He saw there in Jerusalem, the more I think He was instigated in His dialogue. Behind all of that—behind the heart, behind the searching of Scripture, behind His relationship to the Father—what could you see when you looked at Jesus? That is what I want to see in you: the beauty of God.
When we look in one another’s face, when you are given to the Lord, there is a certain beauty of countenance—that you have favor with God and with man. Oh, may that be your portion: to really know the favor of God. Other people can see it. Not necessarily that you have to look in the mirror and see it; other people can see it. “This person lives and loves and enjoys God.”
Behind all of that, you just sense God is so pleased with Jesus.
Now, I have come to this portion in 2 Timothy because Timothy was also at a transitional moment when this letter was written. The first letter was an exhortation regarding his ministry. Second Timothy bore a personal final note from Paul before he was martyred.
If you look there in 2 Timothy 4:6, you will see that Paul knows his time has come and that he is soon going to leave this world.
I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.
Paul knows that the end has come, and he wants to write a letter to Timothy to help him in a transition moment. Timothy used to be, can I say, a lieutenant of the Apostle Paul. He had his own ministry and was not always traveling with Paul, but it was one thing when the Apostle Paul was around in the background. Even if you had to write him a letter or call him up on the phone, he was there—and it makes a difference in your life.
But now Paul is disappearing off the scene. It is a time where there is a need for advancement in Timothy’s life. He has got to lay hold in a firmer way of the Lord Jesus Himself.
Every one of us has, to some degree, secondhand Christianity. By that, I simply mean we see our parents’ faith, we see our leaders’ faith, we see perhaps our own brother’s or sister’s faith, and we sort of live off that in a way. It helps us to grow. We are inspired by the examples of saints around us.
But it comes to the place where we have got to become hooked up to God directly. I am not suggesting Timothy was not there; he had already had some transition experiences.
Some Bible scholars surmise that when Paul was stoned in Lystra, which could be Timothy’s hometown, Timothy was standing over that dead body when Paul came back to life. Paul came back to life, and the next day he and Barnabas went to Derbe, the next town. Somewhere on that first missionary journey of the Apostle Paul, Timothy got saved. Praise God.
About three years later, when Paul headed out on the second missionary journey, he got to Derbe, Lystra, and Iconium. He began to hear about some boy with a reputation—this young man named Timothy, who obviously had not only gotten saved but had found the grace of God to begin to study the Word, perhaps even to begin to teach the Word, maybe to work among young people with the Gospel.
If you look at Acts 16, you can see it just in passing. It is wonderful when a young person gains a reputation as somebody who has some spiritual capacity.
Now Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra.
And a disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek.
And he was well spoken of by the brethren who were in Lystra and Iconium.
What does that mean? They could see the grace of God upon him. They could see that he was studying the Scriptures, and they could see the bubblings of some kind of ministry. He was only three years old as a Christian, but everybody in Lystra, Derbe, and Iconium was three years old as a Christian. So he was growing up.
Paul says, “Son, I want you.” Timothy began the wonderful ministry of carrying Paul’s bags. In order to do that, the one slight glitch was that Timothy had to be circumcised—which he willingly did, and he suffered for Christ’s sake, believe me.
Timothy started out as an assistant to Paul and Silas on that second missionary journey, and he obviously continued to advance. There was a transition point. You know, that is circumcision—that is a transition. A lot of things you go through involve a lot of pain, death, and life.
But there was something going on there, and Timothy began to do the Father’s business through Paul and Silas. Now, many years later, Timothy is probably in Ephesus. Paul is about to leave this world, and it is time for Timothy to lift up and advance in his ministry.
Timothy is obviously, most likely, Chinese. I say that because he was a little bit timid. Well, one could wish that everybody were strong and extroverted, or just driven like the Apostle Paul, but let us face it: Timothy was a bit of a shy guy. He was not always the first guy in.
Paul starts ministering to him right at the beginning. If you look in 2 Timothy 1, he has to remind Timothy of the faith of his mother and grandmother, because Timothy is getting worried. Paul is about to go, and Timothy is saying, “What happens when Paul dies? My future looks pretty grim. I do not know.”
For this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.
For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.
Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me, His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God.
Paul later tells Timothy specifically to do the work of an evangelist: to take the Gospel outdoors, into places where there are non-Christians, and speak the word of the Gospel, knowing that he is going to suffer for it.
One thing about shy people—like all Chinese except two that I know—is that they are into self-preservation. Timothy wants to be alive tomorrow morning. Although he does not feel so strong to do a lot of things, one thing he can do is try to stay alive by hiding today.
Paul says, “I caught you, Timothy. You are under the bushel basket. Get that bushel basket off your head. Stir up that gift that you have. Get out there and preach the Gospel.” Timmy says, “Oh, okay. Oh, okay.”
But Paul is still around to get him out from underneath the bushel basket. What happens when Paul passes on? What is Timothy going to do? Hide in the kitchen of the Chinese restaurant? Make a whole bunch of money as an engineer? Go down to the gym every day and work out? What is he going to do?
Paul knows this, and so he gives him this section beginning in 2 Timothy 2. Paul is telling him, “It is time to upgrade.”
Timothy already has some handle on the Word. If you look there in 2 Timothy 3:15-16, part of his knowledge of the Word came because he went to Sunday school faithfully with his mother and grandmother. They did not have Sunday school, you know, but his mother and grandmother were Sunday school: “Okay, Timmy, sit down. We are going to tell you the stories.”
From childhood you have known the sacred Scriptures which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;
so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
Praise God, Paul says, Timothy, you had good training in those Sunday-school stories and all those lessons. I am amazed at kids who grew up in the Richmond Conference, because those teachers have taught them beyond Sunday school—a lot of precious truths and things—as they have grown from five years old, six, twelve, fourteen, or whatever age they stopped listening, I do not know, sixteen. But they learn a lot in those classes. It is amazing.
Timothy learned a lot. But now what is he going to do? Paul tells him in 2 Timothy 2:15:
Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.
It is one thing, as I said, to be an osmotic—not an asthmatic—Bible student. That is to say, you open it, take one look at it, and hope that somehow truth goes right through the membrane, even though you do not dialogue at all.
Paul says, “Timothy, you have got to upgrade your study of the Word of God. You have got to make it your own. You have got to be able to rightly divide the word of truth.” It is not enough to say, “Stephen Kong said.” You have got to be able to say, “The Word of God says,” and be able to prove it. You see what I am saying?
The problem with the rabbis in Jesus’ day is that they spent all their time saying, “Rabbi Akiba said so-and-so, and Rabbi Hillel said this and that.” Jesus said, “Well, what do you say?” They said, “I have got no opinion.” Jesus says, “Verily, verily, I say to you—poobody, you? Those traditions are not worth dirt. What does God say?”
Now, Timothy, it is time for you to upgrade your Bible study a little bit. You can study. It takes some discipline, but you can study.
Paul gives him these four pictures in 2 Timothy 2. The moral of every one of them is verse 1. Chapter 2, verse 1, is the point; then there are four illustrations to underscore this point: how to make the transition, how to begin to lay hold, how to advance in the Father’s business.
You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
Ah, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. That is a good word. I want to explain a little bit more, if you can handle a little deeper understanding here. This word that says “be strong” is actually in the reflexive mode. Does that mess you up?
As a verb, what it means literally is this: “Strengthen yourself in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.”
We sometimes have the idea that grace is a passive thing: “Oh, here is a pool of grace. Let me just jump in there and be strong in that grace.” But Paul is saying, “No, here is the fact, Timothy. We have freely received the grace of God, but when we receive that grace of God, it places a responsibility on us to respond to that grace.”
Strengthen yourself. You have grown up to a point. At the beginning, God is your strength. At a certain point, God is your strength, but you also must strengthen yourself. You must lay hold of the Word of God. It does not just attack you.
Timothy, strengthen yourself in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. How much grace is there in Christ Jesus? More than you and I and Elizabeth Ann could ever use in our lifetimes—a tremendous reservoir of life in Christ Jesus. But now you need to strengthen yourself in it. Do not be passive. Lay hold of it. Lay hold of it.
Here are four illustrations of what that means—four pictures of strengthening oneself in the grace of God. What does it mean to strengthen yourself in the grace of God? Let me put it another way: strengthening yourself in the grace of God is the same thing as taking hold of the life of Christ that is within you—counting on it, trusting in it, listening to it, acting out of its strength.
Keep your finger there in 2 Timothy, and turn to 1 Corinthians 15, where Paul’s testimony of his apostleship talks about this matter of doing things by grace’s enabling.
Paul precedes this by saying he is the least of the apostles. He is not worthy to be an apostle. He persecuted the church. But then he says in 1 Corinthians 15:10:
But by the grace of God I am what I am.
And His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.
It is a very important secret he divulges there. Paul says, “As a Christian, I labored with tremendous strength and enabling, but it was not my strength. It was the life of God,” defined here as the grace of God enabling me to be faithful.
First of all, it is that acceptance of love that enables Paul to serve because he senses the favor of God. But it is also the power of the life of Christ within him that enabled him to serve as an apostle.
Do you know how to lay hold of that life? It is there within you. Those who have received Christ have Christ dwelling within; otherwise, you do not belong to the Lord. But now comes the time where you need to start to trust and rely on that life that is within you, and to be strengthened by that life within.
You cannot look to Paul anymore. You cannot look through this person or that. No, no, no—you have got to find a firsthand living experience of that Christ who lives within, enabling you to serve.
Now come these four pictures of grace enabling, grace strengthening in the Father’s business. Let us look at 2 Timothy 2:2. Example number one: you need to be faithful in passing along the torch of the testimony of Jesus.
There is a dear brother who wrote a number of years ago a book called The Torch of the Testimony, which shows how, down through the centuries, there have been faithful people who carried the torch of the testimony of Jesus from this church period to that church period in history. Even through the Dark Ages, there were faithful ones who passed faithfully the torch of the testimony of Jesus.
The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
With the Olympics in view, you see that the picture here is somewhat like a marathon race. There are four participants in that verse. First, the things you have received from me—that is Paul. “You take, Timothy, the torch that I hand to you. Now take that torch and hand it along to faithful men, who will then be able to pass it on to the next ones.”
There is a link in the testimony of Jesus that is crucial: those who have received the testimony of Jesus are to faithfully pass that torch on.
Here is the problem. Imagine you are Timothy. You have listened to Paul for a number of years. You have written it all down in your little notebook. You have even gotten to the place where, in a difficult situation, you can open up that notebook—which, by the way, is on sale at the bookstore—and give the nubs of the teaching, the Scriptures, and the basic ideas that you have scribbled down.
But Paul is not asking Timothy to pass on a dead letter. “I want you to pass on the testimony of Jesus.” Now, that is a big responsibility.
Of course, Timothy was in an important place of ministry. But you and I have this same responsibility. Ladies and gentlemen, here is what usually happens: the first generation holds the torch of the testimony; the second generation teaches the teaching of the testimony; and it is already one degree dead.
The vital truths that Paul spoke, while his face radiated with the likeness of Christ, can be taught as, “La, la, la, verse, verse, verse, here is this point, here is that point,” and it can just be dead teaching.
Paul does not want that. He does not want a dead, head-heavy church that is able to parrot the things the Apostle Paul said. There is a way through it.
Timothy, take those notes, chew them, dialogue with them, and make them yours. Then you will pass them along. Do not give them last week’s message. Give them a living message that has been digested in your own spiritual system and comes out as a living message.
I have heard things from Lance Lambert. Probably I am sharing some of them tonight. I have heard things from Stephen Kong. Probably I am sharing things like that. But I do not even remember who said this and that. The main point is that I want to process the things I have received and make them living for me in order to share them in a living way.
Timothy, you must do the same thing. The things Paul taught were not just doctrines; they were living truths wrapped in Jesus. Timothy, I am departing this world. Somebody needs to carry that testimony forward in the next generation. We do not need the letter. We do not need teaching. We need the testimony of Jesus.
Dear brothers and sisters, you have received a wealth of teaching from brothers like Lance, perhaps Stephen Kong, and others. If they are just in the notebooks and are not living to you, I am afraid they are useless in passing along the testimony of Jesus.
If you dialogue with them, you will bring them into reality. If you analyze them, you will bring them into rigor mortis.
That is what people always do. Picture Martin Luther: living testimony. “We are saved by grace through Christ.” He said it, and people got saved. Then the Lutherans analyzed it, diced it up, dissected it, and made more Luther than Luther. They had doctrines—the Lutheran doctrines—which were dead morsels, notes. But where is the living Luther echoing in those big, huge Lutheran churches? That is what they need.
We have a responsibility. I do not want to scare you, because I know some of you are thirteen. But some of you who are older, I want to put a little warning up here. You see the red light? Your responsibility to pass on the truth about Jesus is going to come upon you sooner than you think.
It is not all note-taking until you are forty-five, and then you start to share something. As a matter of fact, the Lord wants to recover and revive His church, and it involves young people who have digested something living, not just chronicled something heard.
It is up to you to digest. That is what Paul is telling Timothy: “Timothy, it is up to you to take hold of the things that I have taught you and faithfully pass them on to faithful people.” That is a tall order. Timothy, you have the grace in Christ Jesus to do it.
Do not just be a parrot alone. You can parrot something. You can wear a blue shirt, quote somebody, and sound like them. It is not going to be living unless you have digested it.
Ladies and gentlemen, dialogue with the notes. Dialogue. Keep them alive. Stir yourself up with the truths you have received. Do not let it just die into doctrine. Pass along the testimony. That takes the grace of Jesus Christ and the initiative to expend that kind of energy.
The second illustration is in 2 Timothy 2:3-4: the soldier.
Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.
What Paul is pressing Timothy toward is the mindset of a soldier. What is the mindset of a soldier? It is this: you are in the army, and you must be willing to suffer for what is right.
Usually, our suffering is not half as bad as what we imagined it was going to be. But we need to have a mind to suffer. If you have troops on the battlefield, you cannot have people saying, “Hey, I want to go home to Mommy.” The shells are bursting around you. Get up like a man, run to the next place, and do what I told you to do. That is all the general wants.
You have got to be willing to suffer, especially in the army of the King of kings, in the kingdom of God. You are in service, and it does demand suffering. Set your mind in such a way that you are not surprised when something is called upon for you to do that involves suffering.
Why do we need the grace of God for this? Because it takes strengthening yourself in the grace of God to bear the cross of Christ. This suffering is none other than bearing the cross of Christ. Why? Any suffering goes against our nature. Our nature and our deepest instincts are self-survival and self-preservation.
For the sake of the kingdom of God, you have got to be willing to take the cross on your own comforts and self-consumed protection.
Paul makes the point even more clearly. As a soldier, not only have a mind to suffer, but keep your life simple for the sake of maneuverability.
God calls upon us in the service of His kingdom, whether it is to go to a mission field or to serve on the home front in Canada, the United States, or wherever. He wants us to defer becoming pack rats—to live simply for the sake of maneuverability.
For the sake of serving the Lord, the Lord may want you to go there, and then He may want you to go there. You need to be willing to pack and go, set up, then pack and go and set up. You need to defer accumulating and accumulating and accumulating stuff until, when God tells you to move, you say, “You know, it would take me a year to get out of this.”
That is not the soldier. At the bottom of it, it is not just about simplicity. What does Paul say? The soldier, above all else, loves his general and wants to do what is pleasing to the one who called him into service.
Never forget: you have got a General named Jesus. You are in the army, and you want to do what pleases Him. But you need to strengthen yourself in grace because service in the kingdom is going to involve some suffering and some sacrifice.
While other people are sleeping and goofing off and doing this and that, the Lord is going to ask you to do things that sacrifice time and energy, and perhaps defer your rich treasures on earth for the sake of heavenly treasure.
Now we come to the third one. You can see there is an increased level of responsibility and maturity here. A soldier basically goes in the army and his life is over—everybody is telling him what to do from there on. But now, how about this?
If anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules.
Here is another level of self-discipline. This is exactly the point. Paul is saying you need to increase and advance in the grace of God in such a way that you are living out of self-discipline. By that, I do not mean self-initiated discipline; I mean you are able to be disciplined by the Lord.
These fellows who are racing in the Olympics have discipline. Think of how many days that runner was out there running on the track—nine o’clock at night, when everybody else is watching a ball game; five o’clock in the morning, when the snow is outside. He is running, running day and night. He is in training.
It takes the grace of God to have this kind of self-discipline, to be an athlete. You have got to have a self-discipline born out of two things. Obviously, there is the discipline that increases our endurance. But more importantly, there is our desire for the reward.
You need to run after the reward of the kingdom. There is nothing wrong with that. You serve the Lord because the reward of the kingdom is the Lord—in a co-reigning, fuller understanding, and all that goes along with it. All the things of our Lord become yours as you reign with Him, if you are willing to suffer with Him now.
As an athlete, go through these things by the grace of God. Learn that endurance. Learn that kind of discipline.
But the other thing about it is this: ladies and gentlemen, we have got to play by the rules. There are Christians who are breaking the rules, and they think they are going to gain the crown. It does not work like that. You have got to, as an athlete, play by the rules.
Remember Ben Johnson, that Canadian runner who was so fast? It ended up he was taking steroids. Then Marion Jones, in the United States, finally admitted that she took steroids and lied. She was in jail, serving time, completely in disrepute—medals taken away, disgraced—because she broke the rules.
What a disgrace for Christians to run the race, cut corners, cheat on God, and do things wrong for self-motive and all that. No, no—run the long way around, by the rules, with self-discipline.
This kind of discipline and endurance and capacity can be gained faithfully as we follow the Lord.
The fourth illustration is the hard-working farmer.
The hard-working farmer ought to be the first to receive his share of the crops.
A hard-working farmer needs to lay hold of the grace of God. Why? Because he has got to trust God when all is said and done.
I lived with farmers while I was going to school, because I was a pastor out in the country while I was going to seminary. I was in a farming area, and I tell you, these fellows have a trust in God. They put all their seed in the ground, till it, spend a lot of money on fertilizer and all that kind of stuff, and then they can lose the whole crop one summer.
Like the floods we see in the Midwest—some fellows lost everything. Yet next spring they will be out putting in the seed. These fellows are stubborn and persistent because they believe there will be reward. They believe and trust God that there will be harvest if they do not faint.
They keep on sowing. They are faithful. They are trusting God, very stubborn people. They are stewarding the ground. We in the kingdom are stewarding the ground of the kingdom, planting the seeds and praying that God will have His way here in this particular area where we live.
James talks about the farmer, and what he says about the farmer is that he is patient. Patient. Oh, what a word for us during the silent years: be patient. Just be patient. Believe God has purpose, reward, and fruit to bear. Be purposeful in your persistence and your patience.
I think half of the things I have seen in my lifetime that I believe God started by His own initiative—His testimony in various places—were in the end brought to nothing because people could not be patient.
They pulled out of something just when things were going. They thought that God wanted them to serve and live in a place for one year, two years, and then they moved. It is so hard to explain, but when God begins to do a work, He begins to bring people together in a very sovereign way. He begins to knit people together in a very precious way.
He gets a group of men and women who have character and responsibility, and they can stand there for the Lord’s testimony. Then this fellow gets a promotion and moves to the other coast, another person gets in a fight and moves over there, and the whole thing goes.
We need the grace of a farmer. “Oh, God, we may go through problems. We may go through drought seasons, but we believe what You have started, You are going to finish, and we stay here till You do it.”
This takes the grace of God. So many farmers could sell their property and live without working for the rest of their lives. Their acreage is huge. But they say, “No, I want to work.” The Christian should be the same way: a persistent farmer who believes God will honor faithful service.
Paul gives these four instructions to Timothy. Then, in 2 Timothy 4:7, he testifies that he himself has done what he is asking Timothy to do.
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith;
in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day;
and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.
Paul has done just what he said. He has passed on that testimony that the Lord Jesus gave him firsthand. He has fought the fight. He has run the race. He has been faithful. He has followed the rules.
Are you ready for this race? Are you ready to lay hold, to strengthen yourself in the grace of God, to be responsible, to step up, to lay hold of the Lord?
Let me ask a prior question. Everybody who is here tonight—I guess we should not assume—does everybody here tonight know the Lord? Has He ever laid hold of you?
You cannot lay hold of Him unless He has laid hold of you. Do you know that He has laid hold of you? Do you know that you belong to the Lord Jesus? Have you sensed that capture of your heart and your life? Have you ever responded to that capture by saying, “Yes, Lord, I have been captured. I want to be baptized. I want to step out of the shadows and begin to live as a Christian, out in the open—light of the world, salt of the earth. I am a Christian now”?
Have you ever done that? It is one thing for you to know in your heart that the Lord loves you. It is another thing for you to speak with your mouth of what the Lord has done. Have you ever done that? Maybe tonight is your night to think about that.
For some of you, in the silent and preparatory years, much of what the Lord will be doing by way of His business will be inside in your heart. But are you laying hold of these things, pursuing the Lord Himself? Ah, then your future is good. Then you can become a useful servant of the Lord.
When your time comes, when your moment of transition comes, when the Lord says, “Okay, now out in the open. I want you to serve this way or that,” you are prepared—fruitful in the work of God.
I went to seminary. As I look back on it, I went for three and a half years and got the degree necessary to be a minister. But you know what the problem with seminary is? They believe in instant ministers.
I went into seminary when I had been a Christian two years. I came out as a Christian five and a half years, and now I was leading a congregation of two hundred and fifty people. Is that a joke or what?
They say, “Take Baptist history, take theology 101, take a smattering of Greek, a smattering of Hebrew, take a little bit of church history.” Then they put the halo on my head: “Reverend Dana, come—the know-it-all of the congregation. The buck stops with me. I know everything. If you do not agree, get out.” That is the way it was.
No, no, no. I will tell you how God makes a man of God. He starts now, when you are fifteen years old and you start laying hold of Him. One day, when a moment comes, He has somebody ready.
What would happen if there were a tremendous revival here in the Toronto area of Canada? I mean a true revival, where people came back to repentance, people came back to holiness, and people started touching the truth of God. What would happen in Toronto? Are there people prepared to harness this thing, or does it just go and fall apart?
God is preparing some people. What He is doing here in the United States and elsewhere, He is looking for people ready to do that silent work—laying hold of God, strengthening themselves in the grace of God for what lies ahead.
Sooner than you think, the Lord is going to say, “You. Take that torch—living testimony. Share it. Pass it along. It is for you to do.”
Now I want us to end with a word of prayer. Let us bow our heads together.
I want to ask that question once again. As we are just before the Lord tonight, and the Lord has been very faithful and precious to us, I know, I want to ask that question one more time.
Is there anybody here tonight who has never spoken up for the Lord, stood up by faith, gone forward to be baptized, made that testimony of what you know the Lord Jesus is doing inside real? There is that crossover, a moment of transition. We are in a moment right now where the Lord is doing some business in some lives.
Lord, we want to pray unto You that You will handle every life here, arresting them by Your love until they lay hold of You for Your purposes. We pray for everybody in this room. May nobody be so self-conscious that they could not be Christ-conscious at this very moment when Your presence is with us.
If you are such a person, and you have never stepped out in faith, never been baptized, never stood up for the Lord Jesus, and you know your time is now, while everybody is praying and every eye is closed, I want you to stand up where you are. Is there anybody here tonight? You want to stand in faith, trusting the Lord Jesus? You know the testimony of His love for you. Anybody willing to stand?
May the Lord capture every heart in this room. He knows everyone here. He is not satisfied if you go away eluding capture.
Lord, I pray, do that work. As well, among those who are here, who are so precious to You and have known You for several years, Lord, do that transition work in them, that they may come into a firsthand relationship to the Christ who lives within—through the Word of God, through a heart that is consecrated, through a life that is full of Your favor.
O Lord, prepare us in these hidden years for that which lies ahead. We pray in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.