Suffering for the Sake of the Elect

Providence Baptist Church

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Turn your Bibles this morning to 2 Timothy chapter 2.

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So around 1526 BC, a

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Hebrew boy was born in Egypt to a Levite father and mother.

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And around this same time, out of a fear of the growing number of Hebrews in Egypt, the

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Pharaoh ordered every Hebrew son that was born to be cast into the

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Nile. And fearing for the life of her son, this Levite mother, she hid her son in a basket in the reeds of the river.

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He was found there by the daughter of Pharaoh, and he spent the greater part of the next 40 years in the house and the courts of Pharaoh, living a life of luxury.

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Upon killing an Egyptian, he flees, and he spends the next 40 years of his life living a comfortable life tending the sheep of his father -in -law.

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God then appears to him, and he ends up going back to Egypt to lead the exodus of the

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Hebrew people, his people, out of Egypt. And he spends the final around 40 years of his life in a great deal of suffering.

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We know this biblical narrative of Moses well. We could spend greater detail looking into this story.

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But my question that I really want to think of in relation to the sermon this morning is why did

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Moses leave a life of 40 years of riches, then 40 years of comfortability, in exchange for 40 years of suffering?

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Now we could talk about Moses' hesitancy to go. He was hesitant to go, that it was only by the grace of God that he went.

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But we read in Exodus that even in his frustrations with the children of Israel, he willingly suffered.

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Why? We know this was by God's grace, but what were his motivations for suffering?

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Well, I believe, and I hope we see this morning in Scripture, that they were the same motivations that Paul had 1 ,500 years later that we read about in our text here in 2

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Timothy. That he suffered for the glory of God and for the good of God's people.

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This morning our text is in 2 Timothy 2, beginning in verse 8. If you'd please stand as we reverence the reading of God's holy word.

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2 Timothy 2, starting in verse 8 through verse 10. Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for which

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I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound.

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Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

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Let us pray. Father, we are thankful for your word.

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We're thankful for salvation, Father, for we are unworthy sinners, totally depraved, who deserve your wrath.

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And we know that salvation is only through your grace and through your mercy. Lord, may we make much of Christ this morning.

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May I make much of Christ this morning, my preaching. I pray that you would direct my thoughts and my mind to your word.

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Father, that my words, Lord, would not be confusing this morning. That I would just rely upon scripture.

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That I would not try to be clever or eloquent. Lord, I would just trust in your word, because your word is sufficient.

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So I pray that you would help me this morning. Use me as you see fit, Father. Lord, we just want you to be glorified.

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Pray that you would give those that are here ears to hear this morning. Lord, that we might be a church that makes much of Christ.

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We pray that the sermon this morning would be for your glory and for the good of your church. And we ask all this in Christ's name.

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Amen. Before we dive into our text.

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And I know we've looked at verses 8 and 9 in the past. I am going to quickly go back through those.

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And then we'll settle in at verse 10. But before diving in, I want to remind us of the context of this book.

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I want to remind you that Paul is suffering in prison. He is bound, it says, with chains as a criminal.

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He's been thrown in prison for the preaching of the gospel. He's about to die. This is the last letter that Paul will write.

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He will die in the near future as he's writing this letter.

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And he's writing to Timothy to encourage him to remain faithful and to preach the gospel, even in the face and the midst of suffering.

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Paul mentions his own suffering many times. And he uses his own suffering as an encouragement to Timothy.

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And that may seem odd, especially in our day. But it probably seemed odd in their day as well.

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Because this is not the natural response to suffering. It's to enjoy it, to thank

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God for it, and then to encourage others. Hey, join me in this suffering. That's not the normal response.

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But I believe it is the right response of a believer suffering for the reasons that Paul was suffering.

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And that's what I want to focus on this morning. Why was Paul suffering? Why was he, like Moses, willing to suffer?

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He previously mentioned, and we write it here in our text, that he is suffering for the sake of the gospel.

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And then now in verse 10, he says, I endure everything for the sake of the elect.

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Which one is it? Which one? The answer is, he's suffering for both.

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Because both are linked. And I hope that we see that this morning.

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That both are worthy of suffering for the believer.

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And that both are for the glory of God and the good of His church. And I think we understand

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Paul's suffering for the sake of the gospel. I hope we do anyway. And I hope we understand why it's important that he suffered.

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And we should suffer. We should suffer for its truth. Paul, he suffered for his truth.

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He was suffering for the true gospel to be presented. Paul had fought hard against false gospels.

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We read of this in the book of Galatians, the Judaizers. Paul contended for the faith just as Jude did.

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Jude contended for the faith. We read that in Jude. Verse 3 in Jude.

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Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

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Paul, he was contending for the faith. He did contend for the faith. Paul did not sit by the wayside as these false gospels entered into the church and ran rampant.

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And I understand that we aren't Paul. I understand that. I get that. But we would be wise to follow

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Paul as he followed Christ. And this is one example that I would believe we should follow in.

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To contend for the faith. To stand for its truth, even if it means to suffer.

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To stand against false gospels that run prevalent in our day. We mentioned one such false gospel that he refuted was that of the

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Judaizers. It was a faith plus circumcision. Faith plus works.

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We stand against forms of the same false gospel today. The false gospel of Rome, which is works -based.

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That there are other mediators other than Christ. We reject any gospel that drifts even slightest from the gospel we find in the

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Bible. We think of the false social gospel that says people need retribution and not repentance.

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We battle against these. And in the midst of this, in the midst of this subject, there's an important question we need to look at because I see it mentioned a lot.

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I see it on social media. And the question is, does God need us to defend

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Him? Does the sovereign God of the universe need us to defend Him? Absolutely not.

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This is an unequivocal no. He doesn't. He is the sovereign creator and ruler of the universe.

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If He needed us to defend Him, then He wouldn't be God. God needs no defense.

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But people wrongly use that fact as an argument against speaking out against wickedness and false doctrines.

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Against vocalizing your stance in support of biblical truth. Some will say, well just show love.

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We've heard that. I argue that you can't show love without standing upon and presenting the truth of Scripture.

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Probably the biggest problem is that we don't see this tactic of not standing upon the truth and speaking up for the truth.

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We don't see this in Scripture. We see the opposite. Rather, we see

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Paul and others like Jude boldly defending the truth. And like I said,

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I realize none of us are Paul. But the verse earlier, follow him as he follows Christ. 1

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Corinthians 11 .1 Be imitators of me as I am of Christ. We stand upon the truth.

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We stand for the truth. And we also realize that we are not what keeps the truth afloat.

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We stand for it. And we understand that that is the work of God. But by His grace,

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God uses His people to stand upon His truth. To stand upon the truth of the

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Word and keep pushing forward. And the church has been given the

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God -given task of defending the truth. A lot of issues we see in our day come up when the truth is not defended.

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False gospels are not exposed for their error. The false gospels we mentioned.

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Cultural Christianity that we see in our day. Antinomianism.

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No obedience. Legalism. That obedience equals favor or grace.

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And we will fail in this. We will fail in our suffering for the truth of the gospel.

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But may we follow the example of Paul. And may we not grow weary in standing against the perversion of the

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Word in our day. May we be bold for the truth that is found in Scripture. And may we proclaim that truth and support those who do.

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May we be willing to suffer for its proclamation as well. Not only did

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Paul toil for the true gospel, but he suffered for the proclamation of it. Look at verse 8.

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Remember, Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel.

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Preached. Paul was not arrested because he preached the gospel with his life and used words if necessary.

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Paul knew words were necessary and he preached the gospel with his words and with his life.

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And he proclaimed the truth in every circumstance that he faced. And he suffered for it.

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He suffered for the gospel to go out. He suffered for the gospel to spread. And therefore, in verse 10, it's linking verse 9.

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He was enduring suffering for the proclamation of the gospel, understanding that the gospel could not be bound.

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The Word of God would not be stopped. He might be stopped. He was about to physically be stopped.

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We talked about this a month ago. But the Word of God would go forth.

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What confidence he had in knowing that his enduring for the gospel would not be in vain.

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That the Word of God and the proclamation of the gospel would accomplish exactly what

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God had intended for it to accomplish. He suffered for the sake of the truth of the gospel. And he suffered for its proclamation.

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Do we care about the proclamation of the gospel? Do we have to suffer for these things?

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Do you? Do you support the spreading of the gospel? Are you arm in arm with those taking it to the streets in the world?

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We should want to encourage people to evangelize. We want to encourage those in our church that evangelize.

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And we want to encourage others to join them. We want to encourage other churches to enjoy in evangelizing.

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We don't want a monopoly on the preaching of the gospel in Perryville. We'd love for churches to stand side by side and preach the true gospel.

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Spread the true gospel alongside of us. We pray for other churches to do this. We want the truth to be preached behind their pulpits by biblically qualified men to preach.

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And we settle for nothing less than the truth. We settle for nothing more than the truth.

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We settle for all of the truth. You as a congregation, you have an expectation of Pastor Quatro and myself to stand upon the truth behind the pulpit and to proclaim it behind the pulpit.

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And we should, as a whole, hold one another accountable with love to not sway from the truth.

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We should be, as Paul was, an unashamed laborer for the truth and its going forth.

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And we must also understand that the key thing for Paul and his motivation, it went beyond the proclamation of the gospel.

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What was the chief motivation for the proclamation of the gospel and his defense of the gospel?

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What was his chief motivation? The glory of God. Why should we be so willing to stand upon God's truth and the true gospel?

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Why should we prioritize evangelism even if it costs us everything?

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Because God is glorified in these things. He is glorified in the name of Christ being proclaimed.

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He is glorified in the true gospel that states that between the holiness of God and the depravity of man was a great chasm.

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One that man could not cross. That man's sins created the chasm.

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And man deserves death and eternal punishment for it. Man deserves the wrath of God.

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All those born from Adam deserve His wrath. But God in His mercy sent

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His only Son who lived a perfect life keeping God's law that all of man had failed miserably to keep.

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And then He died on the cross. Where the wrath of God that man deserved was poured out upon that spotless lamb.

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And Christ died for His people. The just dying for the unjust. Where the wrath of God poured out upon Him.

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And He was buried. And on the third day He arose in victory signifying that no other payment was needed.

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And that all those who repent of their sins all those who call upon the name of the

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Lord all those who trust in Christ will be saved from the wrath of God and one day will be with Him.

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They will one day be with Christ who is risen and reigning. This is the

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Gospel that Paul was so willing to suffer for. Because God is glorified in this

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Gospel proclamation. And Christ is worthy of exaltation. The glory and magnification of God they were

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Paul's chief motivation in evangelizing and in suffering. And it should be ours as well.

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When we go out into the streets or when we have Gospel conversations our chief motivation should be for the glory of God.

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But we often say this in evangelizing our primary reason is for the glory of God.

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As well as Christ is worthy of His name being proclaimed even if no one repents.

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Even if no one responds Christ is worthy of His name being proclaimed. But we also go out.

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We also evangelize. We also pass out tracts. We also have Gospel conversations so that sinners might be saved.

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These things are not separate. These things are linked. Here these motivations are linked here in our text.

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We see in verse 10 Therefore, this is linked and not separated.

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He suffered for the Gospel itself. The true Gospel that we have discussed. He suffered for the proclamation of the true

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Gospel. But He suffered for the effectiveness of the true

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Gospel. Now is Paul what made the Gospel effective? No.

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It wasn't good grammar and eloquent speaking from Paul that made it effective.

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This is a work of the Holy Spirit. Paul was a weak man. But God used

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Paul for the Gospel's effectiveness. He used Paul to argue for its truth.

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He used Paul for its proclamation. How does God save sinners? Through the proclamation of the

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Gospel. That's what Paul's saying here. Endure everything for the sake of the elect that they also may obtain salvation via salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

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Paul could endure for the sake of the elect because he knows that their salvation was in the hands of the

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Lord. That if they chain him, the Word of God and the spreading of the

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Gospel would continue. He took great hope in knowing that God works through the spreading of the

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Gospel. That he may suffer, but God might use that to save his people.

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As we mentioned, his suffering was not meaningless. It served to help others.

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It has served to help each of us. All those who have read the letters written by Paul under the inspiration of the

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Holy Spirit have been encouraged. His suffering was not meaningless. Many ways we too help one another.

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We don't often view our suffering for the Gospel as a helping of our brothers and sisters, but we see it found in Scripture.

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And he is encouraging Timothy to join in the suffering for the sake of the elect that they might be saved.

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And I want to quickly unpack part of our text here. It says, therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect.

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Who are the elect? We talk about this. We use this word. This word is used in Scripture.

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It's a term that many are afraid to use. It's a term that many even hate this word.

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A term that many try to explain to mean this or to mean that. But what

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I want us to do this morning is I don't want you to take my word for it. I don't want you to come across and saying, well, this is what he's saying.

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We see this word in Scripture. We can't ignore it. And we must reconcile this word according to God's Word.

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According to Scripture. So what does it mean? Well, it simply means God's elect.

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People that God has chosen to save for Himself. This is a biblical word and used biblically in this context throughout

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Scripture. I'll give you a few verses. You can write these down if you want to go back and look at them.

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But Matthew 22 -24. And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved, but for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short.

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Verse 24, for false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.

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And He will send out His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other.

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Romans 8 -33 Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.

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Romans 11 -7 What then? Israel had failed to obtain what it was seeking.

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The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened. Titus 1 -1 Paul, a servant of God, an apostle of Christ Jesus, for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness.

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1 Peter 1 -1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles.

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To those who are elect exiles. And while I firmly believe we can look at these Scriptures, and we see them, we see the word used, and we see the meaning, but some may look at it and say, well, based on those, that could mean this, or that could mean this.

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You could be tempted to say, well, and I agree with this saying, I'll explain why. Well, it's just another term for saying anyone who is a believer.

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Yes, that is true. There is truth there. Anyone who is a believer. Anyone who has trusted in Christ.

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Anyone who has called upon the name of the Lord. Anyone who has believed upon Christ and trusted in Him, repenting of their sins, is elect.

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But there is a reason for the use of this word elect. And it means what it says.

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When we elect a president, what do we do? We choose that president. To elect someone is to choose someone.

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To be God's elect is to be chosen by God. But you don't have to take my word for it.

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What's great about this is that God explains what He means in His word. He explains exactly what it means.

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Let's look at a few more passages. Write these down if you want to. John 6, verse 44

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No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him and I will raise him up on the last day.

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You cannot come to God unless you are drawn by God. You can't just decide on your own outside of the working of God to come to Christ.

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John 15, verse 16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the

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Father in My name, He may give it to you. Verse 19 of John 15 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own.

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But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

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He did not choose Him. We did not choose Him. He chose us. He chose us out of the world.

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Chose out of the world. Romans 8, 28 -30 And we know that for those who love

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God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to His purpose.

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For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers.

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To those whom He predestined, He also called. And to those whom He called, He also justified.

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And to those whom He justified, He also glorified. We're called according to His purpose.

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Predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. Those whom He predestined.

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Ephesians 1, 4 and 5 Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before Him in love,

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He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of His will.

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We don't need a detailed exegesis there on that. Chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.

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He predestined us for the adoption to Himself as sons through Christ according to the purpose of His will.

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These Scriptures and Scriptures consistent about what this means to be God's elect.

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Ephesians 1, when we read it, it means what it says. Romans 8, it means what it says.

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Romans 9, it means what it says. The verses in John mean what they say. Philippians means what it says when it says,

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He began a good work in His children and He will bring it to completion. It doesn't mean that God looked down through the corridors of time to see who would choose

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Him on their own free will, so He chose them first. There's some big problems here with this.

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It would mean that God learned something. It would mean that He's not all -knowing or He wasn't all -knowing.

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It would mean that He can be changed. And He can be changed and affected by man. If this is true, then

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He is not God. Or at least, He is not the God explained and presented in the Bible.

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I believe in John 3 .16. For God so loved the world that He gave

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His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

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I believe that all who repent will be saved. I believe that all who call upon the name of the

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Lord shall be saved. This is Bible and you better believe it. We believe these things.

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Amen. But I don't believe these things to be contradictory. I believe these things go hand in hand.

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I believe these truths are biblical. And we say amen.

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And that God is showing us the whole of the

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Gospel. And the Bible is plain as we have read and we have looked at in the last two weeks in Sunday school, that we are depraved on our own in our natural state.

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And in our depravity, Romans 3 says none seek God. None will call upon the name of the

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Lord in their natural state because apart from Christ, we're haters of God.

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Ephesians says apart from Christ, we are children of wrath. But God who is rich in mercy has saved us.

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And our heart must be regenerated. We must be born again.

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John 3 .7 Titus 3 .5 He saved us. Not because of our works.

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Not because of works done by us in righteousness. But according to His own mercy.

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By the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit. These truths of God's sovereignty and man's responsibility to repent are not opposed to one another.

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They work perfectly together. And we must see this in Scripture.

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This is God's election. And it is unconditional. Meaning it is unmerited.

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God's people are not saved based upon anything in them. You cannot look at the lost person down the road and say,

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I'm saved because I'm better than you. I'm saved because I'm smarter than you. I'm saved because I was able to see my sin more than you were.

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I'm not saved because God gave me more chances than He did you. Who does that esteem?

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It esteems you. It esteems us. We are not saved because of any worth in us. Any merit in us.

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We are saved wholly upon the grace and mercy of God.

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And it is undeserved. We deserve His wrath, but He has given us mercy. It is unmerited.

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God's people are not saved based on anything in them. Sproul writes, the reformed view of election known as unconditional election, means that God does not foresee an action or condition on our part that induces

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Him to save us. Rather, an election rests on God's sovereign decision to save whoever

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He is pleased to save. There is no cause and condition that made God to save us.

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It is entirely on His will and His choosing, as we read in Ephesians 1 .5. One commentator notes, election was made from God's mere good pleasure.

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Good pleasure excludes every cause out of God upon which election may depend.

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And this is linked to our position on total depravity as we mentioned earlier. Since we justly deserve

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God's wrath, or without hope apart from the saving grace of Jesus Christ, our salvation depends entirely upon the grace of God.

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Scripture, I believe, speaks plainly on this truth. But I do want to say, we should show charity to those who may have disagreements.

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You can be a member of your church and not agree exactly with myself or Pastor Quatro on this matter.

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We extend charity. But I do believe this to be the truth of Scripture.

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I wouldn't preach it. And we shouldn't shy away from that truth. This truth is glorious.

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And Paul saw it on display in his day. And it's glorious that we see it on display in our day.

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That God is calling a people for Himself. He's calling a people for Himself from all times, all nations, all cultures, and all tongues.

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He's calling a people for Himself from Perryville, from Azel, Texas, from Port Arthur, Texas, from El Pachote, from Chiapas, from China.

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He is calling a people for Himself from all languages, tongues, and peoples. We praise

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God for this glorious truth because He's writing His law on their hearts. He's giving them new hearts.

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He's calling them out of the darkness into His marvelous light. The true church of God.

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A bride adorned for her husband. For Christ. And this is worth suffering for.

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Paul knew that. And he encouraged Timothy in that. We should be encouraged in this this morning.

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I want to quickly go back to the reasons we evangelize.

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And the reasons that Paul suffered all that he did. Chiefly, why did he suffer what he did for them?

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We've talked about that this morning. For the glory of God. Because their salvation, the salvation of sinners, the salvation of God's elect brings glory to God.

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He was willing to suffer so that God's purpose of election might be fulfilled through Him.

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Therefore, I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they may also obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

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That they might obtain salvation. His suffering for this fact brings glory to God as well.

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The salvation of sinners brings glory to God. The suffering of Paul brought glory to God. Our suffering for the

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Gospel does the same. His encouragement to the children of God like Timothy and us on this matter.

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His encouragement brings glory to God. No doubt Paul loved those that he ministered to.

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We ought to love the people in Perryville. We ought to love the Christians in Perryville. Even those that aren't here at this church.

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We want to encourage them. We want to love the people of Perryville by going and telling them the truth. That apart from Christ, they will live in eternal damnation in a very real place called hell.

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We tell them this and we tell them of the glorious Gospel of Christ. That if they repent of their sins and trust in Him, they will be saved.

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He encouraged Timothy to love these. To love God's people.

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He loved those who were of the faith as we are supposed to. He writes, and I'm just going to read it really quickly.

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Verses 11 -13 The saying is trustworthy, for if we have died with Him, we will also live with Him.

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If we endure, we will also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He also will deny us.

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If we are faithless, He remains faithful. He was encouraging them in the faith.

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To be constant in the faith. To not apostatize. To not deny

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Him. To not lose faith. But rather, to abide in Him. For He is faithful to fulfill

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His promises. For those who die with Him will live with Him. Those who endure will reign with Him.

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And part of His faithfulness is He will not deny Himself. And He will carry out all

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His promises. And those who deny Him, He will also deny. Have you denied

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Christ? Are you denying Christ? Are you in rebellion to Christ?

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Repent. And run to Him. Turn to Christ. Christians, what do we do based upon what we have read this morning?

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We joyfully suffer for the sake of the elect. For the glory of God.

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Because Christ is worthy. And because we want sinners to be saved. We want

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Perryville to be saved. We want God -sent revival in Perryville.

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That's why we go out and preach for the glory of God. Christ is worthy. And we want to see people call upon the name of the

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Lord. We support missions. Why have we partnered with these churches in Mexico?

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That's not our home. These people don't live near us. They don't speak the same language as us.

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They don't have the same culture that we do. They're so different for us in so many ways. Why do we partner with these churches?

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Why do we take the Gospel down there? Why does Pastor Quatro, Pastor Randall, and Pastor Jonathan go down there and train these pastors?

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Because God is glorified in this. Christ is worthy of this. And we want to see sinners saved in Mexico and all over the world for the glory of God.

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So we do. We partner with churches. We want to see biblical, healthy churches that preach the true

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Gospel. There are churches out there all over the world preaching false Gospels. And if we have the opportunity to come alongside pastors and show them the truth of God's Word, and that church becomes healthy and preaches the true

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Gospel, God is glorified in this. We do this. We oppose false

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Gospels. And when we fail, and when we are weary in our suffering, we take heart.

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For Christ is with us and in us. We take heart in words such as what

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Paul wrote to the Galatian believers. In Galatians 6, 9, and 10. And let us not grow weary of doing good.

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For in due season we will reap if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are in the household of faith.

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May we do this to the glory of our Sovereign God.