Remember Jesus Christ - [2 Timothy 2:8-13]

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

Apostle Paul said, But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her

King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Well, you know, Pastor Mike likes to talk about TED Talks, how a lot of churches have gone to TED Talks.

Have you ever watched a TED Talk, by the way? How many of you have ever watched a TED Talk? Okay, the rest of you can hang your head in shame.

No, it's fine. I wonder who TED is. But anyway, so many churches have done that, and it's because, ultimately, here's the philosophy of ministry.

In other words, this is why they do what they do. Because in their minds, they're thinking, people don't want to come to church and hear the

Bible. They want to hear something that's practical, something they can use in their daily lives.

So why would we give them that? Why would we give them scripture? Why would we do what the

Bible calls us to do? So instead, they give the people kind of self -affirmations or little things to do, little encouragements to help them get through the week.

And so I looked up some mantras. You know what a mantra is? A mantra is something you repeat.

It's kind of like, I don't even want to call it this, so I won't. It's kind of like your catchphrase.

I was going to say your lucky phrase. I don't like to say that, but it's kind of something that just makes you feel good and gets your mind right.

Okay, that's your mantra. So I got some of the top mantras off the internet here. Imagine telling this to yourself to encourage yourself.

You didn't come this far only to come this far. Keep going.

You can do it. You can find an excuse, or you can find a way.

Sounds like something parents should say to their kids, right? How about this one?

Action conquers fear. One year equals 365 possibilities.

There's a challenge. There's something really... Of course, unless it's a leap year, then it's 366, right? How about this one?

Our intentions create our reality. I've heard some preachers say that.

A little more on that one. Believe it or not, this man says, we get exactly what we want in life, and we get exactly what we intend to get.

Is that true? No. The problem, however, is our thoughts are so negative that that's what we bring into our life, negativity.

So deploy this effective mantra for success. Start thinking positive and have the intentions of being great, and before you know it, you will be.

Again, that sounds like some TV preachers. How about this one? Last one.

Know your limitations and defy them. That's kind of the anti -Josie

Wales thing, which is a man's got to know his limitations. This guy goes on to say, he says, one of the most important aspects of success is knowing your limitations.

When you know what you are weak at, you are able to come up with a plan to overcome those weaknesses. Don't shy away from your weaknesses, but instead overcome them that you may struggle or they overcome all that you struggle with.

So if you come to church every week and you're looking for affirmations, I just gave you some. Be warm, be filled.

On the other hand, if you came here to hear about Christ and him crucified, then please open your

Bibles to second Timothy chapter two, second Timothy chapter two. And our theme this morning is going to be the opening words of this section, which is remember

Jesus Christ. And I'm going to suggest to you that instead of a mantra, that this is a good way, a good filter, a good lens through which to view life.

You want to be encouraged when you're discouraged. You want to be even thankful when you're not feeling so thankful.

Remember the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me read second Timothy chapter two verses eight to 13.

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

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

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.

The saying is trustworthy for if we have died with him, we will also live with him.

If we endure, we will also reign with him. If we deny him, he also will deny us.

If we are faithless, he remains faithful for he cannot deny himself.

Now to just kind of set up the context a little bit, this is the last letter that Paul writes and obviously he's in prison and he writes to Timothy who's struggling with various issues of the church at Ephesus.

He's disregarded by many of the opponents he has in the church and there's, there's some real struggles there, but he's trying to encourage

Timothy and he uses in chapter two different examples to do that with.

He talks about soldiers and athletes and farmers and how they have to endure challenges in order to exceed.

Could call them mantras, you know, I won't, but he then tells Timothy in second

Timothy chapter two, verse seven, think over what I say for the Lord will give you understanding and everything.

In other words, pay attention to what I've just said. And use it when you need to, because you're going to need it.

And this morning, when we consider how to remember Jesus Christ, there are five aspects of Christ, his, well, there are five aspects of Christ that I want to look at this morning.

First his person, second, his work, third, his word, fourth, his people, and fifth, his faithfulness.

Person, work, word, people, and faithfulness. First the person of Christ. Remember Jesus Christ.

And again, if the context is encouragement and it is, Paul knows that he is soon to be, well, he's in prison and soon to be put to death and he's no longer going to,

Timothy's no longer going to be able to look to him for guidance. This is kind of like last words of a spiritual father to a spiritual son.

How do I encourage him? How do I get him to run the race that the Lord has set before him?

I think these are very encouraging and vital words for every Christian. I mean, for just for a moment, you love the

Lord Jesus Christ. Imagine what your life, do you ever do this? You ever think, what would my life be apart from Christ?

I do. Why do I do that? You might think, why would you ever do that, Steve? Because I know how pointless, how fruitless, how empty, how vain life is.

I don't even have to read through Ecclesiastes to know this. I've lived it. I know what

I deserved. I know the trajectory of my life. And I think, but God, but God had other plans for me, but God set me on the right path.

But God took me from death and gave me life. So what specifically should bolster

Timothy? What should kind of put some steel in his backbone as it were? What about Jesus is going to propel him forward, keep him steady and focused on his ministry?

What about the person of Jesus should encourage us who believe every single day of our lives?

And there are two things about his person that should encourage us very much. First of all, he's raised from the dead.

Look at verse eight, risen from the dead. Well, what does that mean? What's the significance of that?

It demonstrates that he is truly God. No mere mortal has ever come back from the grave.

It can't be done. I mean, you go, what about Lazarus? Okay, well, he died again. For mortals, that is to say mere human beings, the death rate is 100%.

But as Paul wrote in first Corinthians 15, if Jesus was not raised from the dead, we have bad news.

Because then he did not die for our sins. How do we know that? Because the fact that he was raised shows that he paid for our sins.

We also know that all who believe, all who trust in Christ will be raised from the dead.

Just as he was, because he was a first fruits, Paul wrote in first Corinthians 15, of those who will be raised from the grave.

We also know via Romans that Christ's death propitiated, that is to say, satisfied the wrath of God.

God does not, I almost said he doesn't like sin. He hates sin, right? There's a wrath that's kindled, a settled wrath that's going to be poured out on all who have sinned and are not in Christ.

And the fact that our sins are paid for is a great motivation. As it says in first Corinthians 15, where's the sting of death?

Paul writes that why should we fear death? Because our sins are paid for. When we die, we enter straight into the presence of Christ.

We don't have to fear God. He's waiting for us. He's there to embrace us.

If death has lost its sting for the believer, we have nothing to fear in this life.

So remember Jesus Christ raised from the dead. Secondly, second aspect of his person, he's descended from David.

Verse 8, the offspring of David. I'm going to read from 2 Samuel chapter 7 verses 12 and 13, 2

Samuel 7, 12 and 13. Suitable to what we heard this morning, we heard about how Saul was going to be replaced, right?

For those of you who don't know, the man who replaces him is David. Now listen to, this is

David towards the end of his life. He gets this promise. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, in other words, when you die,

I will raise up your offspring after you who shall come from your body and I will establish his kingdom.

He shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom. Listen, here's the key, forever.

This isn't about Solomon. This is about the Lord Jesus Christ. When you hear forever, well, who can reign forever?

Only Jesus. But also notice, had to be an offspring of David. This is why, as I said,

I think last week, this is why Matthew works mightily to build that lineage from David to Christ.

Why? So that we would understand he's an offspring of David. That means two things.

First of all, he's fully, he's truly human, right? But also he is worthy of the office of king.

He is a descendant of David. Now, Jesus was not always a man, right?

But it's important that we don't say this. Jesus became a man. Why is that important?

Because he didn't change into a man. He wasn't eternally God and then said, you know,

I'm going to become a man. He remains 100 %

God and he takes on a second nature as 100 % man. 100 %

God, 100 % man. Don't try to do the math. He had to be a man in order to be our substitute, our perfect substitute.

Gerhardus Voss said this. His human nature was an altar. His life was an altar from which the incense of perfect consecration, perfect obedience, perfect sacrifice rose ceaselessly day and night.

He submitted to the cross and endured the shame, not merely on our behalf, but first of all, that not one jot or tittle of the divine justice should fall to the ground.

In other words, he drank the full cup of wrath right to the dregs.

He consumed it all, paid the price, lived the perfect life, and then died a complete and thorough satisfaction for sin.

And as I said, he had to be descended from David to be the king of Israel. But he's not just the king of Israel.

He is the king of kings and the lord of lords. So whatever Nero was doing in those days, however he was persecuting the church, whatever any ruler on the earth is doing these days, who's in control?

Jesus Christ is in control. He is sovereign in everything. He is working all things together for our good and for his glory.

When we think of the person of Christ, it ought to stun us that Jesus Christ would leave his throne, temporarily set aside the full exercise of his power as deity, take on a second nature, that of a person, of a human being, and live in his own creation.

So that's our first aspect of Christ, the person of Christ. Secondly, the work of Christ.

And you see it just kind of implied here in verse 8, as preached in my gospel.

As preached in my gospel. What is Paul's gospel? You ever think about that?

What is the difference between Paul's gospel that he mentions here and some other gospel? Is there a difference? And the answer is no.

Listen as I read 1 Corinthians 15 verses 3 and 4. For I delivered to you, in other words the church at Corinth, what

I received, what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scripture, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.

Paul received it. Whom did he receive it from? From Jesus. Jesus himself gave this gospel to Paul.

Some people like to set Paul against Jesus, just as they like to set Paul against James. I mean, scoffers love to try to set the scripture against itself.

Some people say that Paul invented Christianity as we know it. What about that? Is it true or false?

False. Okay. Think about it. In 1 Corinthians 15,

Paul said this, Christ died for our sins. Did Jesus ever say anything like that? Jesus said that he would lay down his life for whom?

For the sheep. That's us. Christ died for our, and then he also, Jesus also said that anyone who did not believe would do what?

Die in their sins. Jesus laid down his life for the sheep.

He paid the price for their sins, just as Paul said. Paul said

Jesus was buried and was raised from the dead. Did Jesus ever say that? Yes.

He said that he would be killed, and on the third day he would raise himself up from the grave. Same gospel.

Paul's gospel is Jesus' gospel. It's Isaiah's gospel. It's the entire

Bible's gospel. Now, how does the work of Christ encourage us?

Again, I think there's no greater encouragement than as we consider our helplessness, the fact that we were dead in our sins and trespasses, the fact that we had no hope apart from Jesus.

This is the greatest encouragement there could be. He not only died for the sins of all who would ever believe, but he also lived so that we might live.

Romans 5 .19 says this. For as by the one man's, that is to say, Adam's disobedience, the many were made sinners, right?

Adam, by falling, plunged us all into sin. Listen. So by the one man's obedience, the many will be made righteous.

Think about your life and this concept that by believing in Jesus Christ, you are made righteous.

Now, do you feel righteous? I just spent the whole, well, most of the week in Atlanta listening to gospel preaching, interacting with men and women who love the

Lord Jesus Christ, singing glorious music all week long. Listening to what

I call, you know, like the Beatles for me. It was a sovereign grace music. I was like, and guess what?

I was not perfectly righteous this week. I know. I know you guys are disappointed. We don't do that, right?

We don't live perfectly. We need that righteousness. I even saw and heard

James Coates, the pastor, Canadian pastor, was jailed for holding church services in Canada.

I wasn't righteous this week. And I guarantee if I talked to James, he wasn't righteous either.

We Christians need to be covered by the righteousness of Christ. And that's the good news.

It's because of his work that we are covered by the righteousness of Christ. So first aspect, the person of Christ.

Second, the work of Christ. Third, the word of Christ. And he says, just after he talks about his gospel, he says this, he says in verse nine, for which

I am suffering. So he's suffering for the cause of the gospel. Bound with chains as a criminal, but the word of God is not bound.

Paul's in prison. He is literally in chains and treated as a criminal.

I could just see him, because I've done this a few times, you know, marching around like this with his feet bound and, you know, just kind of doing that whole thing.

That's the picture he presents to us. That word criminal is like evildoer, malefactor.

This is he's considered a bad guy. Maximum security. Why? Because he dares to defy those in power by preaching the gospel.

What are they trying to do? They're trying to stop the gospel from going forward. That's what

Nero is trying to do. But Paul says the word of God can't be stopped.

They can lock Paul up. They can lock Pastor Coates up. They can lock a lot of people up.

But the gospel cannot be put in chains. Paul exhibits kind of a calm confidence.

Look, I'm facing death. I'm sitting here in chains. I should feel miserable, but I don't.

I have great confidence. Actually, why? Because my life is meaningless. Ultimately, here's what

I care about. The gospel going forward. And that's the idea here. When it says the word of God, it really is.

Its focus really is on the gospel. But if we back up a little bit and we just think about how the

Bible, big picture, has been treated throughout the entire world,

Western world anyway, before the Reformation. If we think about the Roman church, some people were like, you know, you won't call it any other word, but Roman church.

Well, there's a reason for that. Because the other name that's given to it is not worthy of that name.

The Roman church chained the Bible so that nobody could take it, so that nobody could read it for themselves.

And I looked it up the other night, and I was stunned because Roman Catholic apologists, when you Google it, they're all the top hits, right?

And they deny that this is the case. You know why they say they chained it up? Oh, this is funny. So that it wouldn't get stolen because they were very expensive.

Now, is it true that books were very expensive back then? This is before the Gutenberg printing press. So absolutely true. But is that why they chained it up?

When you know that most of the people couldn't read the Bible anyway, is that why they chained it up? No. I mean, can you imagine?

They were really worried about it being stolen because, you know, like you'd see a guy in a street corner, you'd go, hey, buddy, want a

Bible? I'll give it to you cheap. They were afraid that if people read the

Bible, they would understand that the Roman system was false. They would understand that it contradicted the scriptures.

They would understand that salvation was available not via a system of works, but by grace and grace alone through Christ.

So Rome did everything in her power to keep people in bondage to the system, to be comfortable with the idea that you just go in, you know, the priest will do all the hard work, you just go in and do your thing and you're fine.

They claim it was to prevent doctrinal division. I say it was to keep people from the truth.

If we, again, just thinking about history, John Wycliffe translated the Bible into English, and really amazing story, because Rome declares him to be a heretic for his teaching and for the fact that he did what you're not allowed to do, which is translate the

Bible into another language. He did that. He put it in English. So they declare him to be a heretic, and if they'd captured him, they would have burned him at the stake.

Since they didn't, and he actually died a natural death, they dug up his body after he died and burned his body.

We'll show you. What do you think the message there is? You dig up a corpse and you burn it.

Why? I think it's to, you know, just show as a warning to everybody else, don't do what he did, because if we catch you, that's what we're going to do to you.

But Wycliffe's teaching didn't die. Right? After him, other men would come and keep the work going.

Jesus Christ promised to build his church, and not even Rome, as powerful as it was, could stop it.

Rome or any ruler cannot stop the sovereign of the universe. His word, his gospel, will do its ordained work.

Nero persecuted the church. The Roman church sought to silence the word of God, the gospel.

They couldn't stop it. The gospel is not and cannot be in prison, whether it's

Paul, Timothy, Wycliffe, Hus, Luther, or brave Christians today, in areas hostile to the word.

God will see to it that the gospel goes forth. Also note that the word of God, the gospel of God, must be preached.

Even today, there are godless nations, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, China, United States, other places, where they seek to suppress or eliminate gospel preaching.

I wonder sometimes, you know, just on a practical level, if we've thought through what some of these lockdowns mean.

I don't know if you've paid any attention to what's going on in Australia, but they've got ministers of the government actually telling people they may not, listen, speak to their neighbors.

You can't speak to your, it's too dangerous to speak to your neighbors. If we take that seriously, what does that say about the

Great Commission? Go and make disciples, but don't talk to your neighbors. Don't interact with other people, it's too dangerous.

What about when the government decides that church's meeting is too dangerous? Gathering together is to be forsaken.

For how long? Obeying the one another's of the

Bible, love one another, bear one another's burdens, pray with one another, all these kind of things, worship together, all these things have to be preempted by the government.

Why? Out of fear? At the conference

I was at, a story was told about one man, one American who was in Afghanistan and was to be evacuated.

And he said, you know what, these people need the gospel. I'm old, I've lived my life, and if I'm going to die,

I would just as soon die here, giving people the gospel, as going and living some life and comfort and dying in the

United States. The Lord is going to raise up faithful men and women to do the work of gospel ministry.

You can count on that. He will build his church. The word must be preached, the gospel must go forth.

And also notice that the gospel will bring persecution. Truth will always be challenged.

Why is that? I mean, we can go into the philosophical reasons.

There's truth and error. There's a dominion of darkness that is seeking to suppress the truth.

But just listen to the words of Jesus. I'm going to go slightly out of order here in John 15. Remember the word that I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master.

Listen, if they persecuted me, Jesus, they will also persecute you.

Right? Disciples, followers. In verses 18 and 19, just before that, he said this, if the world hates you,

Christians, disciples, followers, know that it has hated me before it hated you.

This whole idea that somehow if we do the right thing, the world is going to change its opinion about Christians.

This is false. They hate the truth. They hate Christ. And yet we expect them to like us.

Jesus said in verse 19, if you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

The world system is under the control of Satan. And you think it's not going to oppose the gospel?

Satan is going to oppose the truth, the furtherance of the kingdom of God by any means at his disposal.

So we've seen the person of Christ, the work of Christ, the word of Christ, and fourth, the people of Christ.

Verse 10. Therefore, I endure everything for the sake of the elect, because the gospel can't be chained, because the gospel will go forth.

He's able to endure everything for the sake of the elect. Henrickson says to endure means more than not to complain, right?

Sometimes we think, well, I've endured it. At least I didn't bellyache. I didn't complain. I didn't whine. I didn't snivel.

That's not what it means. It means going right ahead, believing, testifying, exhorting, even though the load on us becomes very heavy.

That's the idea. No matter how bad it gets, we keep pressing on. And if we think about it this way, in light of the fact that our sins have been paid for by the work of Christ, because of the penalty that he paid, we don't have to fear.

And when fear is removed from the equation, then we are left to face one question.

What's more important than gospel preaching? What's more important than the truth going forward? Is it my life?

My safety? My health? I was talking with a man at the conference, one that you know well.

He goes by the name something like E .D. Burns. We like him here.

And he was saying that his burden, his passion, is to go back to the country where he serves, even though it's difficult.

And there are all sorts of difficulties over there. Why? He goes, because nobody else can do this.

Nobody else knows the language, the culture, and all this. I'm compelled to go there for the cause of Christ and for the elect of God.

Paul says he endures everything. I could go through the list, the beatings, the shipwrecks, running for his life, all these things.

Why? For the sake of the elect. Not for himself, right? He could go retire somewhere.

And notice, it's not for the sake of the saved, for the sake of Christians, but for the sake of the elect.

The ones that God chose. God's chosen are out there. And when

I say out there, I mean they're outside the walls of this church. We gather together to be equipped for the work of ministry, right?

We gather to just focus on worshipping the Lord Jesus Christ, thinking about these things, learning about these things, so that we can then go out and evangelize.

That's the point. That's what Romans 10 is all about when it says this. How then will they call on Him, Christ, in whom they have not believed?

And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?

Somebody has to give them the good news. And preaching the word is God's way,

His ordained means of bringing the elect, those chosen before the foundation of the world, to faith in Christ.

Election in Christ, think about this, election in Christ to be chosen before the foundation of the world, election in Christ is salvation in Christ, but it must take place in time.

Again, look at verse 10. Talking about the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

Now, is it true that every single one of the elect will be saved? Yes. Jesus said so in John 6, 37.

All that the Father gives me will come to me. So what's the difference between being elect and being saved?

Well, elect just means chosen before the foundation of the world, but to be saved means that has to happen in time.

What's the difference between the elect and the non -elect? And the answer is God.

Right? We're no different from anybody else. Our triune

God, His will. Before time existed, before there was anything, the

Father chose some for salvation. And then at the right time, in time,

Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, took on a second nature, that of a man, to redeem those same some.

The Father chose some. Jesus comes to earth to die, to live and to die for those same some, and then in His own time, the

Holy Spirit causes those same some, that same group, to be born again, then guarantees their salvation.

In other words, He preserves them for the day of judgment. None of those who are elect will be lost.

They will all come to faith in Christ. And you say, well, why do we have to worry? Because God has also ordained the means.

He's told us what to do. He's told us how He's going to save people. How did you come to salvation?

Somebody told you the good news of Jesus Christ. Paul knew that his efforts,

Timothy's efforts, and in fact, every Christian's efforts to spread the gospel, are never a waste of time.

Because the elect are out there. They're waiting for the Holy Spirit. They're waiting for the

Word to be preached to them, so the Holy Spirit will act. They don't even know who they are. But they're out there.

Sometimes they're very unlikely people. They're like me. People that you would never expect God to save. I wouldn't expect that.

So, the person of Christ, the work of Christ, the Word of Christ, the people of Christ, and finally, the faithfulness of Christ.

The faithfulness of Christ. You know, it's easy when Christians exhibit

Christ -like lives. Look at verse 11. The saying is trustworthy, for if we have died with him, we will also live with him.

If we endure, we will also reign with him. Firstly, notice that commentators typically agree that this idea that the saying is trustworthy probably means that this was either a common saying or poem or article of faith, or maybe even a first century...

I speak for a living. A first century contemporary Christian hymn. You know, it was on Caleb back in the day.

And it was about martyrdom. Now, that really might strike us as odd, right? Would we come in, you know, and here's

Charlie playing a song about, you know, we're all being slaughtered. I mean, that would be rather unusual.

But we have to... Let's not do that one. We have to understand, though, the time, right?

Back then, this was life. How did the church spread? It spread by the blood of the martyrs.

We preached the gospel. We, the Christians, preached the gospel. They died.

That phrase there, if we have died with him, whether it is literal or figurative, in other words, in a sense, like when we did baptisms.

It's a picture of death to self, right? And then being raised in newness of life with Christ. So whether we have died with him in that sense, or whether we have literally died, we will also live with him.

Now, what does it mean to live with him? Well, that's obvious. We're talking about in heaven. And it's not our sacrifice that qualifies us for heaven.

These outward actions, right? Living for him isn't, you know, it's not a matter of I have sufficient works of my own to kind of show that I am, in fact, a

Christian. It's a spirit -wrought change. We could call it the fruits of the Spirit. It's Christ at work in us.

It's the triune God at work in us. In fact, Paul wrote this in Galatians 2, verse 20.

He said, I have been crucified with Christ. Was he literally crucified with Christ? No. Again, it's this figurative death to self.

And he says, it is no longer I who live. He still lived. He's, again, figurative language.

But Christ who lives in me. And the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the

Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Our faithfulness, Paul would say his faithfulness was what?

Because I understand and now I'm smarter and wiser and I make better choices? No. Because Christ empowers him.

Because Christ is at work in him. The Holy Spirit is at work in him. Any faithfulness that we have, that we exhibit, is due to the work of God in us.

So how do we endure? How do we continue? You know, when we see that not every professing

Christian, not everyone who's a professor is a possessor, as we say, right? Not everybody who says that they're a

Christian actually turns out to be a Christian. Some walk away from the faith, as we say. They drift away.

Well, why is that? As our pastor likes to say, you know, you believe, even young children, you believe.

Great. Keep believing. How do we do that? By remembering Jesus Christ. By counting our blessings.

By recounting again and again all the things that he has done for us. It's that heartfelt gratitude that keeps us tethered to him.

Now there are those who become consumed by the cares of the world, they get drawn by other things, and they walk away.

Maybe they've accepted the standards of the world as being compatible with the word of God. I mean, we see it today.

We see Christians who think that fornication, homosexuality, pornography, adultery, all manner of sins, particularly sexual sins, are somehow not as bad as they were 2 ,000 years ago, or 5 ,000 years ago, or whenever.

And if you stand in awe of the grace of God, stunned that Jesus Christ would die for you, you will endure.

Even thinking about Romans 7 .24, Paul writes, O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?

And then what does he say a few verses later at the beginning of Romans chapter 8? That there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.

Right? Apart from Christ Jesus, we are wretched, condemned sinners.

In Christ, there's no condemnation. Now what about, that's for Christians who exhibit the work of God in their lives.

How about those who don't? If we deny him by our words, by our actions, verse 12, second half of it, he also will deny us.

I mean, if we think about the greatest denial in all of scripture, who was that? I think the greatest denial is probably

Peter, because he goes on and does it three times. Jesus even warns him ahead of time. I mean, I think we all like to have that kind of, you know, verbal warning.

By the way, Steve, you're about to do this. Did it? Really? You know, I'll go chain myself somewhere or something.

Peter knew it, and still denied him three times. And in a sense, this verse here, this portion of it, if we deny him, he will also deny us.

If we are faithless, he remains faithful. Kind of sounds like, you know, if you could,

I'm going to get my southern on here, you might could lose your salvation. Right?

I mean, if you're faithless, you could lose your salvation. Well, is that right? If that means if I don't obey,

I could lose my salvation? Well, if our faithfulness, if our obedience, if our fruit of the

Spirit is a fruit of the Spirit, it's a work of God in us, then where does our faithlessness come from?

Suggests to me, and I think the right understanding of this is, that there's been no God -wrought change in us.

It's easier to be a cultural Christian these days than to be a real, a genuine

Christian. What do I mean by a cultural Christian? It's okay to say that, you know, you follow

Jesus as long as you don't get crazy and actually try to do what he said. Right? Okay, well, that's fine.

You don't actually believe the Bible, do you? When the rubber hits the road, when push comes to shove, all these other cliches,

I even wrote that on my notes, cliches, because I just wanted to say it. When the going gets tough, when the wheat's separated from the chaff, you know, et cetera, et cetera.

What happens? Jesus said this in Matthew 10, verses 32 to 33,

So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my

Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, I will also deny before my

Father who is in heaven. If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands,

I want to say, listen, if you know the Lord Jesus Christ, if you've been saved, there's a joy that attends that.

And there's something about having all your sins forgiven that's really hard to suppress if you really believe that.

There are times in our lives when our hearts are really revealed. The Lord is not fooled, though.

No matter how we act publicly, the Lord is not fooled. In Matthew 7,

Jesus said this, He said, On that day, on that day of judgment, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name?

And I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.

Why? Because Christ was not, is not, ever, in them.

He never was in them. They were professors, they had the words, they did some deeds, but they never believed.

Also notice in verse 13 that Jesus is not like us. We can deny him, we can even lie to ourselves, it's possible for people to lie to themselves about where they stand with Christ, but he cannot deny himself.

Now what would it mean if Jesus were to be able to look at somebody who professed Christ and then just did whatever they wanted to do and had no heart for him and there was no inward work of the

Spirit in them and he just said, you know what, that's okay, I'll let you into heaven anyway because you said the right thing.

You prayed that prayer, you walked that aisle. Jesus said he would spit out the lukewarm out of his mouth.

Over and over we are warned to see that if we're in the faith, all these kind of issues. Because many believe that there are

Christians, we're surrounded by people who think they're Christians. I was talking to a man who ministers in Utah and he said where he is,

I mean Salt Lake, it was interesting to me, I think he said like 90 % of Salt Lake City is no longer

Mormon, which is pretty incredible. But he said in the little valley therein, he said there's 1 % evangelicals.

He goes the only place I can think of that's anything like where we are in Utah is New England.

And I said, yeah, that's pretty much right. We are surrounded by people who think what?

That they're Christians. Why? Because they were baptized as babies? Because they go to church on Christmas and Easter?

But they're not. I mean, I could go through all the verses where many are called, few are chosen.

I read Matthew 7 earlier where few there are that find it. There are lots of verses like that.

People think they're on the narrow gate, but they're actually on the broad road. If Jesus were not true to his own words, that is to say, to judge those who do not love him, who have not been born again, he would deny himself.

And essentially, he would cease to be a being of integrity, which would mean he would cease to be

God, which is impossible. He cannot do it. He will judge faithfully.

Listen, there are a lot of, I mean, whole bookstores and libraries filled with self -help books, self -affirmation books, self -encouragement books.

You can drum up all sorts of mantras to help you get through the day, to help you have the courage to get through a job interview or to approach some girl or to be approached by some guy or whatever the deal is, to think,

I'm good enough, I'm worthy enough, and he's going to like me. Okay? My encouragement to you is remember the

Lord Jesus Christ. We cannot use, talking about the church at large, we cannot use worldly methods and worldly thinking and expect to honor

Christ. We are his. We're bought with a price. Remember the

Lord Jesus Christ, his person, his work, his word, his people, and his faithfulness.

Let's pray. Father, we praise you indeed for the

Lord Jesus Christ. We think of the futility of life apart from him, the emptiness of all these trite phrases that are just temporary devices meant to get us through a momentary difficulty, a momentary setback, to make us feel better about ourselves.

Father, your word is plain. There is nothing good in us. Everything that is good is

Christ wrought in us. Everything that is good is what he has done, not what we have done.

Even as we think about the pictures in Revelation, throwing crowns at his feet.

Why? It's because whatever accolades, whatever things we think we have done have all been because of the work of the triune

God in us. Lord, there are people all around us every single day who need to be preached to, who need to hear the word, who need to hear the gospel, who need to hear how they can be delivered from their sins.

Let us not be restrained by fear of man, fear of illness, fear of even death, because the worst thing that can happen to those who belong to Christ is the best thing that can happen to those who belong to Christ.

Let us live in light of him, his person, his work, all the things that are true about him, we pray in Jesus' name.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston.

You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.