Faithful in "Negative World" - Pt. 2

of Psalm 118, and so if you can get your psalters and open them to 118, in case your version is one with a typo,

I'll read out to you in just a minute what it's supposed to say, so you can write it in there and sing it.

Psalm 118, Psalm 118 part 2, Psalm 118 part 2.

So 118, verse 24 is the one with the error, and if yours does not say, this is the day the

Lord has made, then yours is wrong. So raise your hand if you have one that doesn't say that, okay.

Verse 24, okay, so what it should say at verse 24, the printed error reads like this, this is the error, don't copy this down, this is the error, do not copy this down, this is the error, don't copy this down.

The error reads, all the nations of earth circle, right, so you see that. So anyways, if you see that, verse 24 should say this, here's the thing, write this one down, this is the right way, write this down, oh, comma, this is the day that the

Lord has made, comma, let us rejoice.

So that matches up with the syllables for the meters in that first part, so then you go to the part below it, the continuation, if you have the printed error, the next line, the continuation is going to read, this is the error, don't write this, this is the error, do not write this, this is the error, don't write this.

The error reads as, but in the name of the Lord, I will surely destroy them.

So if you notice that part there, you should replace it with this, this is the right one, write this down,

I'm about to tell you the right one, write this down, and so let us always be glad in the day of the

Lord. So it should read, verse 24 should read, oh, this is the day that the

Lord has made, let us rejoice, and so let us always be glad in the day of the

Lord. Okay, so everybody has a Psalm 118 that reads that way?

Fantastic. Okay, so we're going to be singing

Psalm 118 today, Deacon Schaffer's going to give us the most amazing

Psalm meditation in the history of the church on Psalm 118, and we're going to continue in 2

Timothy chapter 2. All right, any other announcements,

Deacon Schaffer? All right, let's begin with a call to worship.

Please stand for the reading of God's word. Deuteronomy chapter 6, verses 4 through 9.

Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the

Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which

I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise up.

You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.

You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. You may be seated.

Let's pray. Bow your heads. Father, we come before you and we confess our sinfulness, that we have broken your law and are sinners, and we are guilty in Adam.

Father, we know that we are worthy of death, and we ask that you would forgive us, that you would pardon our guilt on the grounds of the righteous sacrifice of the

Lord Jesus Christ. We ask that you would look upon his death as a satisfaction for all of our debts, and we ask that you would look upon us as righteous because of his perfect obedience.

So, Father, we come before you by the mediation of Christ and ask that you would illuminate our minds and sanctify us.

We ask that you would build up the church, you would help us to keep covenant, speak the truth, worship in spirit and truth, and judge in truth with discipline, and that you would cause us to bear the fruits of love.

Father, I pray that you would bless those who listen to search the Scriptures to see if the teachings are so, that they would sit and judge.

Father, we pray that you would give to us godly magistrates and remove the wicked from the rule they have over us.

We pray that you would cause righteousness to reign in the land. Father, we pray for the protection of the weak, that you would cause children yet unborn to be protected by law, that you would bless the little children in our midst.

Thank you that we have little ones with us. We ask that you would teach their souls. Father, we ask that you would help all of us in our various places to see our weaknesses made into strength.

We pray this in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, amen. Alright, please open your

Psalters to 118, part 1. Deacon Schaefer, please come forward. Please stand for the reading of God's word.

Psalm 118, part 1. Oh, thank the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endures.

Let Israel now say that his mercy ever endures. Let Aaron's house now say that his mercy ever endures.

Those that fear the Lord say that his mercy ever endures. In my distress

I called on him, and the Lord answered me, and so he set me in a place large enough for safety. The Lord's on my side,

I'll not fear. What can man do to me? The Lord helps those that do help me.

Those hating me will lose. "'Tis far better to trust the Lord, than to trust in mere men.

It is far better to trust the Lord than to trust in princes. All the nations of Earth circle around me everywhere, but in the name of the

Lord, I will surely destroy them. Yes, the nations of Earth circled around me everywhere, but in the name of the

Lord, I will surely destroy them. They swarm as bees, but they are quenched as the fire and the thorns.

For in the name of the Lord, I will surely destroy them. That I might fall you thrust at me, but the

Lord has helped me. The Lord is my strength and my song and now my salvation. The voice of rejoicing is heard and that of salvation within the tents of the righteous.

The Lord's hand is valiant. So get part two and I'll note it but if you catch differences between what you're reading and what

I'm saying, what I'm saying is the accurate version. Exalted is the

Lord's right hand and it does valiantly. Now it is true I will not die but rather I will live and through my life

I will declare all the works of the Lord. The Lord surely chastened me sore but did not give me death.

Oh that the gates of righteousness would be open to me. Then I will enter into them and I will praise the

Lord. This is the Lord's gate into which the righteous will enter. I'll praise you for you heard me and became my salvation.

The stone that the builders refused is now the cornerstone. This is the doing of the Lord. It's marvelous in our eyes.

Here's where your souls are may be different. Oh this is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and so let us always be glad in the day of the

Lord. I beg you to save me oh Lord and send prosperity. Oh blessed be the one who comes in the name of the

Lord and we have sent you blessing out of the house of the Lord. Truly God is the Lord and he has given light to us.

So bind the sacrifice with cords. Yes to the altar's horns. You are my God and so I will praise

I will give praises unto you. You are my God I'll exalt you. I'll give thanks to the

Lord for he is good for his mercy will endure forever. You may be seated. Psalm 118 will be one of the longer

Psalms that we've looked at. It's the last of the Hallel Psalms.

It's very direct and looking at the expectation of the

Savior and rejoicing in that. And it's notably placed right after 117.

And if you recall from last week 117 is all about how the salvation is for the

Gentiles as well as the Jews. So anything here will be in light of that. The psalm should be read in light of that reality.

So everything displayed in 118 will apply to all of the elect not just Israel.

So it's a beautiful anticipatory Psalm of Christ. I'm gonna give you the the layout of the psalm and I'll repeat it as we go through.

But the first metrical verse which is where you'll find this thesis is giving thanks to the

Lord for he is good. The second is about fear of God versus fear of man. The third is a guarantee that men will fail you.

The fourth is that nothing can stand against the Lord. The fifth is the greatest attack of the wicked is nothing against the

Lord. The sixth is declaring rather than hiding the works of the

Lord. The seventh praising the Lord because of your salvation. Eighth is about Christ the cornerstone.

Nine, God gives light. And ten, God's mercy endures forever.

So I'll repeat those as we go through. So let's look at the first metrical verse. And this is about giving thanks to the

Lord for he is good. Oh thank the Lord for he is good, for his mercy endures. Let Israel now say that his mercy ever endures.

Let Aaron's house now say that his mercy ever endures. Those that fear the Lord say that his mercy ever endures.

So a very short sentence for he is good or piece of a sentence.

And this is the simplest expression of the praise of God for he is good. Infinite goodness is uniquely applied to God.

So who else or what else can you look at and say infinitely they are good.

Nobody and nothing. And like that his mercy endures.

It cannot be withdrawn. So if you're elect you cannot become unelect. And that's a clear contradiction of the false doctrine that one can lose their salvation.

If you say that God's mercy never fails, you cannot also say that your salvation is at risk.

The next few verses emphasize this reality in different ways. So it's

Israel, it's Aaron's house, and those that fear the Lord. So it those are all serving to show that is a comprehensive fact.

God is good, his mercy is permanent. Permanent mercy.

So the second metrical verse will go into how we how we deal with that. The fear of God versus the fear of man.

In my distress I called on him and the Lord answered me. And so he set me in a place large enough for safety.

The Lord's on my side. I'll not fear. What can man do to me? The Lord helps those that do help me.

Those that those hating me will lose. So building from that previous metrical verse, the permanence of God's mercy comes a distress call.

This call, the fact that you make a call, is based on a belief that the

Lord will mercifully answer. And he does. So whenever we find ourselves distressed we desire a powerful ally.

Good lawyer, strong fighter, well -connected network. But the primary ally we should be seeking is

God. He may give you those things if that's what's necessary, but that is where we should look first.

Because he does not fail. And the right attitude is displayed here.

The Lord is on my side. I will not fear. What can man do to me? So what can man do to you?

In fact, though man can do many unpleasurable, horrific things to you, he can cause no lasting, ultimate harm.

God, even if God chooses to let you lose, it is for his glory and your benefit. You win.

But if God chooses to have you win, there is nothing that will stand against God. Because he is infinite in his power.

So these verses, these sections, are building on each other. So the third metrical verse is discussing how men will fail you.

It goes like this, "'Tis far better to trust the Lord than to trust in mere men. "'Tis far better to trust the

Lord than to trust in princes." So I'll keep reading. "'All the nations of earth circle around me everywhere, but in the name of the

Lord I will surely destroy them.'" So if you recall, we were just talking about there are different types of allies you might want to have.

And here God gives us some examples of them. Princes. Generally speaking, some of the most powerful men there are.

And it is still far better to trust in the Lord. So men will fail you. Officers will fail you.

God will never fail you. So that is why our trust is in the Lord. Yet most believers that I've encountered anyways wrestle with this idea.

And it usually goes something like this. Why would God care about me?

What value am I to God? How would God have time for me? So God is infinite in his attributes.

There's no bandwidth bottleneck to be unable to care for every minute detail of your life.

So as you pray, as you seek the Lord, it's not an excuse me may

I please interrupt what you're working on right now to talk to you. That's not a problem for the

Lord. The answer may be no. The answer may be not now. But again, God is not failing to hear you.

He's not failing to answer. And here we see the application of that. Though nations surround you, though the enemies of Christ abound, the

Lord will surely destroy them. Christ has come. The debt has been paid.

We are, as Pastor East has said, the mop -up operation. We win down here.

We are attacking the enemies who are something you should have pay attention to. So God's enemies will be destroyed.

When God's enemies are destroyed, it's not our glory. The destruction of his enemies is for his glory, and that destruction will occur in his name.

So they swarm as bees. That's an idea of what it looks like when the enemies are there.

It's not just one thing after another. It's a lot of things all at once, swarming.

And you can probably see that in how you've seen public figures get attacked.

It's not just one little voice saying something about them. It's many voices swarm and make their attacks.

And it can't stand against the Lord. So the fifth metrical verse, the greatest attack of the wicked is nothing against the

Lord. That I might fall, you thrust at me, but the Lord has helped me.

The Lord is my strength and my song, and now my salvation. The voice of rejoicing is heard, and what of salvation within the tents of the righteous?

The Lord's hand is valiant. So our enemies take shots at us. They trust in themselves or their tools, their methods, but the most well - aimed shot is nothing for the

Lord to stop. We advance in strength because we know that he has saved us to glorify him. We can cheerfully face death trusting his wisdom and purpose, and we can trust in the salvation he has provided.

His mercy endures forever. So the sixth metrical verse is about declaring and not hiding the works of the

Lord. Exalted is the Lord's right hand, and it does valiantly. Now it is true

I will not die, but rather I will live, and through my life I will declare all the works of the Lord. The Lord surely chastened me sore, but did not give me death.

If the Lord chooses to take us through battle, take us like through as in sustain us through a battle where death was a very real possibility, but we live, that is not something we ignore.

It's not something to attribute to our own skill or prowess. There was a purpose there, and that purpose is at least in part that we should acknowledge him.

We were saved spiritually from the worst type of death, and we should proclaim that boldly.

So there's there's the physical aspect of that and the spiritual aspect of that. Anytime you're saved physically through something, that's something to praise the

Lord, but it should also remind us we were saved from the worst death.

God chastises every son whom he receives, that is true, but they remain his sons.

His mercy endures forever. The seventh metrical verse is about praising the

Lord because of your salvation. It's building off the last. Oh that the gates of righteousness would be open to me, then

I will enter into them, and I will praise the Lord. This is the Lord's gate into which righteousness will enter.

I'll praise you, for you heard me and became my salvation. So the response of the elect to salvation ought to be praise, and that's likely the last thing that the non -elect would ever consider doing, but we must not forget this fact.

So we frequently thank God for material blessings, and we should be constantly praising him for his salvation.

Those material blessings that we receive serve to aid us in advancing the fight, which is advancing his fight.

So the eighth metrical verse, and again if you're following along in the Psalter, this is where there will be a difference, reads like this.

The stone that the builders refused is now the cornerstone. This is the doing of the Lord. It's marvelous in our eyes.

This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and so let us always be glad in the day of the

Lord. You'll commonly see this verse put out there as like, rejoice in today, because God made today, and today is great.

And that is all true, but let's read the whole thing. The stone that the builders refused is now the cornerstone.

This is the doing the Lord. It's marvelous in our eyes. That is the day that the Lord has made.

So that's Christ. We see a marvelous truth there. Christ was rejected by the Jews.

He became the cornerstone, and that's the most important event that humans were to be looking forward to, and in large part missed.

So every time you see that verse out there, this is the day that the

Lord has made. Let us rejoice in it. That's an opportunity for speaking about the gospel, not just the goodness of the things that the

Lord has done. So make sure to put that out there. I know I didn't connect that for a long time, and it's pretty common out there.

All right, the ninth metrical verse is God gives light. I beg you to save me,

O blessed be the one who comes in the name of the Lord. We have sent you blessing out of the house of the

Lord. Truly God is the Lord, and he has given light to us. So here it starts as a prayer for prosperity.

So this is not the prosperity gospel. Think about what came before the prayer.

You're praising the Lord for his goodness, for his mercy, destruction of nations, unbelief, destruction of unbelief, and ultimately this is a prayer for prosperity in doing

God's work. It is generally easier to take more ground with a well -funded army than a bootstrapped one.

God may put us through lean times to encourage us to focus, be efficient, learn to use resources well, but even but if he chooses to bless us with prosperity, which is good to pray for, great prosperity, it's not for us to squander, it's for us to attack, to go on the offensive, to use to the praise of his glory.

And part of that, part of what we're praising him is he's giving us light, he's giving us understanding, he's given us a

Savior. Anything he gives us is to be used to attack, to make him known, and to know him.

So the tenth metrical verse, this is the final verse. God's mercy endures forever.

So bind the sacrifice with cords, yes, to the altar's horns. You are my God and so I will give praises unto you.

You are my God, I'll exalt you. I'll give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his mercy will endure forever.

So we we should all follow Christ's example and be a willing sacrifice for the Lord in any and all areas of life.

As humans, we often struggle against our best interest, we struggle against the interest of the Lord. We may need to be bound, so to speak, with the cords to the altar.

We're given to resist, that is what, that is what is being worked out of us. We thank the

Lord for he is good and no matter how hard we fight against it, his mercy will endure forever.

And when he says forever, he means forever. Comments, questions, objections from voting members or those of speaking privileges?

Pastor Reese? Yes. Five, the greatest attack of the wicked is nothing against the

Lord. Six, declare don't hide the works of the

Lord. Seven, praise the Lord because of salvation.

And eight, Christ is the cornerstone. That's great, thank you.

Yes, so this is the day the Lord has made is pointing to the Sabbath. Christ was resurrected, there's a change in the

Sabbath from the seventh day to the first day, and so this this verse and its and its translation and use is showing, is speaking of the

Sabbath, the day the Lord has made. And it's a day to be rejoiced in. Anything else?

All right. Please stand.

Please open your

Bibles now to 2nd Timothy chapter 2. 2nd

Timothy chapter 2, starting at verse 1. You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

You therefore must endure hardship as a soldier of Jesus Christ.

No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.

And also, if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.

The hard -working farmer must be first to partake of the crops. Consider what

I say, and may the Lord give you understanding in all things.

Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel, for which

I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even to the point of chains.

But the word of God is not chained. Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

This is a faithful saying. For if we died with him, we shall also live with him.

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

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

Remind them of these things, charging them before the Lord not to strive about words to no profit, to the ruin of the hearers.

Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness, and their message will spread like cancer.

Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort, who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past, and they overthrow the faith of some.

Nevertheless, the solid foundation of God stands having this seal. The Lord knows those who are his, and let everyone who names the name of the

Lord depart from iniquity. But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor.

Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the master, prepared for every good work.

Flee also youthful lusts, but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the

Lord out of a pure heart, the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.

You may be seated. All right, so this sermon you could refer to as fighting negative world, or I've heard many people refer to this condition of our current culture as trash world, so maybe fighting trash world.

But the idea that there is all sorts of negativity, all sorts of problem, all sorts of opposition that must be fought.

And so we're thinking here about the characteristics of faithful ministry that fights the apostasy in the church and fights the unbelief in the world.

And so here's what that looks like. Now go to page two in the outline, and we look at chapter two, verse one.

We talked about these analogies last time, and if we think about these analogies, it says, you therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

So, beloved, I want to remind you of the importance of being strong in grace, which means being strong in sanctification.

The way you are sanctified is by knowing your Bible well. John 17, 17 says, when

Jesus is praying for his church, this is what he prays, sanctify them by your truth.

Your word is truth. Beloved, this is not an assertion by the

Lord Jesus Christ that there's some way of knowing the Word of God apart from his

Scriptures in this age. We have the complete Scriptures and the Word of God, the whole counsel of God, the mind of Christ, is given to us in the

Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. And these words are the words that sanctify souls.

These are the words that make men holy, that make men clean. It's the healing word.

It's the cleansing word. It's the sanctifying word. It's the word that pressure washes your stony heart so that it's chipped away and cleaned and made flesh more and more, made alive more and more, that the law of God is written on the heart more and more.

As these words, breathed out by God, are taken in, the exclusivity of the

Scriptures, as that form whereby the mind of God is given to us, is offensive to the world and offensive to many who would call themselves

Christians. The papacy hates the idea that the

Word of God is contained merely in the Scriptures. They hate that that is how we come to know the mind of Christ as the alone instrument.

They would say that there's a teaching authority of the church, there's a tradition of the church, and there's the

Scriptures. Eastern Orthodoxy would say that the Scriptures are a part of holy tradition, but not the whole of it.

Many false teachers come and attack the Scriptures and want to add to it, take away from it, or have some authoritative interpreter from outside that controls the way you read it.

But the Scripture interprets the Scripture. The Word of God is the highest authority, and it has come to us.

It's been delivered to us. It is a light given to us in the darkness. And you, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

The way you know Christ is by His Word coming to you. In Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and we have been given

His mind in the Scriptures. Those treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in His mind.

And His mind, you can't force Him to reveal it. You can't even force another man to tell you

His mind, much less God. But we have the mind of Christ in the

Scriptures. And so He has told us His mind, His counsel, His thoughts.

He's revealed them to us and given us these words. And these words are the words that sanctify us.

And we are to be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. We are to be strong in the faith.

You are to know His words. Do not grow weary in the

Scriptures, but recognize how little you truly know. And realize that there are men who have organized helpful things.

Matthew Poole's commentary on the Scriptures. There are many great commentaries on the Scriptures. That help you to understand it.

And so until you have a familiarity with every book of the Bible, beloved, don't kid yourself.

You haven't scratched the surface. And until you know the outlines of those books of the

Bible in your head, don't kid yourself, beloved. You know secular, stupid movies better than you know the

Bible. Until you can outline every book of the Bible in your head from memory, you know your favorite novels better than you know the

Bible. How many works of art, how many pages, how many hours of consumption of content do you have where you know it intimately, backward and forward, can quote it easily, but yet how much of the

Scriptures are laid up in your heart? How many words could you recite in order?

How many arguments could you produce in outline form? How many of the stories, without skipping a major plot beat, could you reference from the

Scriptures? We must be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and the truth is that which sanctifies.

And so you must be strong in the truth. And the things that you've heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

The systematic teaching work of the church to organize teaching and make it available.

How familiar are you with the work of the historical church to organize the doctrine of the

Scriptures and the Westminster standards? These things are important for us to benefit from.

You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.

The connection between public service and warfare, public service in the church and warfare in the state, are one of the reasons why it's possible to connect, for example, the idea that in the first year of marriage a man ought to be spared from the public service of the church, because it's a type of warfare.

But this idea that there's hardship to be endured as a soldier, there is the slow hardship of the grind, and there is the terrifying hardship of conflict that arises.

And there's a need to focus on applying the word of God in every area of life. Verse five, and also if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.

We must strive to win the crown, and we must strive to do it by following the rules that Christ has given.

How do you play the game? In the way that Christ has commanded. If you try something else, you're bringing up a sort of pragmatism.

So the soldier gives to us the example of this endurance in opposition to a fleeing from pain.

We must be willing to undergo suffering for the cause of Christ. The athlete focuses on this idea of competing according to the rules.

We must apply the rules that Christ has given as opposed to pragmatism. And then the hard -working farmer must be first to partake of the crops.

In other words, people who do the work ought to receive the rewards. We need to be concerned for enlightened self -interest and not for a fake altruism or asceticism.

We should rejoice and delight in the fruits of labor that come to us in the providence of God.

Verse seven, consider what I say, and may the Lord give you understanding in all things. Now meditate on this.

Paul is giving an example, and he's giving it to Timothy, and he's saying meditate on these things.

These metaphors that are used, the soldier is like a pastor.

The athlete is like a pastor. The farmer is like a pastor.

These are meant to be things to be meditated upon, to think about how to think about your work.

And every Christian can apply those principles. And these are worthy to meditate on, because remember, the fool is tempted to just work hard enough to avoid pain.

The wise man is motivated to work hard enough to guarantee pain in order to get the reward.

Risk -taking and pain enduring for the reward.

Verse eight, remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel, for which

I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even to the point of chains. But the word of God is not chained.

No matter what we suffer, the word of God is not stopped. No matter what chains are put on us, the word of God is not chained.

No matter what blockages or obstacles are put before you, the word of God demolishes them and accomplishes everything for which it was sent.

It never returns void. It converts every soul that God intends for it to convert, and it hardens every soul that God intends for it to harden.

And we must remember that opposition comes against the servants of the Lord, and people make up all sorts of garbage to attack the servants of the

Lord. They invent evil to claim, and especially you find that those that officers had the gall to discipline do.

We find down the line this idea of Alexander the coppersmith, and it says later on that he charged, he charged

Paul with much wrong. One of the reasons that American pastors do not do church discipline is because nothing inspires a permanent hatred like public denunciation.

Paul has the guts to make enemies that unless the Lord brings them to repentance will be his permanent enemies.

Excommunication and the public naming of false teachers, the public naming of false teachers, that kind of controversy, that kind of confrontation, that kind of calling out is a marker of a masculine, martial spirit, a willingness to war.

Many people accuse Paul falsely, and he suffers as an evildoer when he was a blameless man.

The Lord Jesus Christ, more than blameless, he was sinless, and he had a martial masculine spirit to wage war.

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

He is looking to the harvest. He's looking to the elect being brought in, and he's saying there are rewards of bringing in the elect.

There are rewards in this life, the fellowship of friends who will work to glorify

God and work together to seek to apply the law, and there's the reward that will not be taken away, cannot be taken away.

The rewards that occur on the day of judgment when Christ says, well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your master.

So Paul looks upon these things, and he says, I want to go and do this work for the sake of the elect.

Some of them will join the work, and I will receive rewards for it. He is thinking, I am a soldier.

I am an athlete. I am a farmer. I will endure. I will compete using the rules given by the king, and I will enjoy the harvest.

Those thoughts over and over and over again So then there is the faithful saying.

These little confessions of faith, these tiny collections of sound pattern of words that are given to us, and one of the things that makes me recognize my own laziness and my own ignorance is the fact that I haven't memorized them all.

Paul just gives a few. What dunces are we that he would say, these are faithful words.

This is a faithful saying, organized to be weighty and concise.

I haven't memorized them. This is a faithful saying, for if we died with him, we shall also live with him.

Now, this little phrase, there's a lot of debate about how to interpret these short sayings, and if you read different commentaries about them, it's helpful because it helps you to go through this process of wrestling with what's meant here, and I think it's very clear what's meant here, and I want to explain to you why.

If we died with him, in other words, if we are represented by him, this is a legal union, if he died in our place instead, we shall also live with him.

Okay, this is a limited atonement statement. Why? First of all, it's past tense.

If we died with him, we shall also live with him. So this is past tense.

This is talking about dying with him legally. It's true that by faith we die with him, and at the same time, not everybody who is elect has already come to believe, but those who he represented on the cross that he died for, if we died with him, we shall also live with him.

That's a future thing. This future thing is not talking about saving faith because that life is something that the believers who now believe have now.

It's a future living. So what's being talked about here is this idea of everlasting life and this idea of resurrection unto life.

Those who he paid for will have the everlasting life and the resurrection unto life.

This idea that his death was effective to pay for the sins of his people, that he guaranteed for them what he bought.

He bought life for them. If you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, if you believe that he paid for your sins, you know that he did.

If you believe he is the God -man and he offered his blood as a payment for your debts, then he did, and you shall live with him.

Now the next part, page three. If we endure, we shall also reign with him.

This enduring is something that was purchased by his blood. There are some that make profession who do not believe, but all who believe are those who will endure in the faith.

The perseverance that they have is a thing accomplished by God preserving them.

We persevere in the faith because God preserves us in the faith. So if we endure, we shall also reign with him.

This reigning is something where we go, okay, there's a time when we will go and be with Christ, but there's also during the endurance a reigning that occurs.

You rule yourself and the world gets subdued under your feet and demons are pushed back and bound as the church advances.

The reigning of the church is a thing that occurs now because Christ reigns now.

The king of the church is reigning at the right hand of the father and he is sanctifying his people and causing them to endure as soldiers.

And in bringing them through with endurance, he causes them to overcome the world.

Their faith is what overcomes the world. And he causes them to reign, governing themselves, subduing their enemies, and seeing the earth put under their subjection.

That is the process as the leaven of the gospel leavens the whole world. As the kingdom of Christ shatters empires of men and expands to grow to fill the earth.

Verse 12 part b, if we deny him he also will deny us. I had intended here,

I thought I had copied and pasted in a number of verses, but I guess I did not. There are some verses from Matthew and Mark and Romans talking about how denying

Christ results in him denying you. How is that true? The ultimate way you can deny

Christ is to do it in your heart of hearts, to not believe.

Say he is not the Christ. He is not my Lord. He is not my

Savior. He is not the God -man. Those beliefs are a denial of Christ.

There is no more certain thing that you can know in terms of the gospel than to know that to deny the gospel, to not believe it, is spiritual death.

What you can know also on the other side is positively the fact that if you believe the gospel you have life and so you are not denying

Christ. Now we should be careful here to profess the faith when under threat of suffering or when offered rewards to deny the truth.

We should acknowledge Christ before men. This is a great testing.

And if we deny Christ before men, it is a great evidence that you do not have faith.

If you deny Christ before men, it is a great evidence that you do not have faith.

If you do deny Christ before men, take heed of your soul. You need to go back to the word of truth and consider if you even understand it and if you believe it.

You need to repent before God immediately for treason against Him. And you need to go before men as swiftly as you can so that you can as publicly as possible and fully as possible recant your denial of Christ.

We have the famous example of Cranmer who showed us how to repent well with that.

Do you remember? There's an old man and he was pushed to recant the

Protestant faith, threatened with torture if he did not.

And so in weakness, he signed a rejection of the Protestant faith. But then when he was going to be executed, he also made sure to publicly recant his renunciation of the

Protestant faith and to put his hand into the flame to burn before he died, torturing himself to say, this hand is the hand

I betrayed Christ with and let it therefore first go into the flame. That is a great example of a man who denied

Christ before men but then repented. To deny Christ before men is not an unforgivable sin.

But if you deny Christ before men, beloved, repent as fast and fully as you can.

There are great rewards for acknowledging Christ before men. And there is great reason to have doubt that you believe if you deny

Christ before men. In verse 13, if we are faithless, he remains faithful.

This is a hard saying. It sounds like if you don't believe, he's still going to be faithful to save you.

That's because we live in an indulgent and luxuriant age that wants to take everything and turn it into a reassurance.

Beloved, this is not reassurance. If you are faithless, don't worry.

Jesus will be a faithful judge and he'll send you straight to hell. That's what this is saying.

If you deny Christ, he also will deny you. And if we're faithless, he'll be a faithful judge.

The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. Our God is an awesome

God. And that awesomeness, that terribleness, the horror, like horror movies have nothing.

There is nothing so scary as the holy God who judges men. He sees every sin you've ever committed and knows the heinousness of it.

He knows the worst thoughts you've had, the misplaced wickednesses, the absurd responses, the totally unjust, uncharitable hatreds you've had.

He knows them all. And if we have no faith, we are not connected to Christ.

We do not have Christ's sacrifice in our place instead to look to as something to be reassured by.

Beloved, you must believe the gospel. You must repent of unbelief and believe that Jesus Christ died for your sins because he's a faithful judge.

And those who have been filled with faith and given the knowledge of him are those who are connected to his death as a substitute.

And those who do not believe, if they die in unbelief, he remains faithful and he will judge.

And he will hold them accountable for all their sins. He cannot deny himself. And that has two things. First of all, the

Lord Jesus Christ has too much integrity, too much integrity to judge wrongly.

The Muslim God is a God that says he justly punishes the wicked, but he also mercifully forgives.

But there's no basis in Islam for the forgiveness of sins while maintaining justice.

There's no payment for sins. Christianity is distinct from all other religions in that there is an offering, a payment, a redemption for sin, a payment for the debt.

Christ pays for the sins of his people. And so for those who are in Christ Jesus, for those who believe the gospel, they are united to Jesus Christ so that his righteousness is seen as their righteousness.

He is like a husband united to his wife, one with his people.

That union makes it so that all that's his is theirs. And so he views them as righteous and he cannot deny himself.

He will not judge those who are in their sins wrongly. He will judge them justly and send them to hell.

And he will not deny himself and lie about his own righteousness that covers his saints.

He will not deny himself. He will acknowledge his own righteousness that he's given to them and he will rejoice in his bride.

Seek shelter in Christ. He cannot deny himself.

That faithful saying is a short and weighty saying. For if we died with him, we shall also live with him.

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

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

Verse 14 on page four. Now, Timothy is reminded by Paul to talk about those that he's teaching to teach, those that he's training to train.

Remind them of these things. Remind them of this faithful saying. Charging them before the

Lord not to strive about words to no profit to the ruin of the hearers.

Be diligent to present yourself approved to God. A worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

We have the soldier, the athlete, the farmer, and the craftsman.

These are four analogies that Paul gives for the work of ministry. Now pastors have this special public obligation to do this, but do you know what else?

Each of you as you minister privately, as you carry on the Christian life, you must be soldiers, you must be athletes, you must be farmers, and you must be craftsmen.

You will build whether you want to build or not. The question is what do you build and what do you build with? You will run some race.

Which race will you run? You will plant some seeds and you will reap a harvest. The question is made from what?

And you will fight some fight. Will you fight a fight worth fighting for?

These are things that you must ask yourself. Everyone lives life and goes in a direction and there's a need to focus yourself on these questions.

What will you fight for? What race will you run? What will you plant and harvest?

And what will you build and with what materials? These are things that cannot be avoided.

And so there is who judges the unbelieving world and apostates and the integrity of Christ and His mercy towards those who are in union with Him.

These things are important and central truths that are to be focused on by teachers.

And teachers are to be reminded to focus on those things and to not strive about words in a useless way.

Not strive about words to no profit. When you strive about words to no profit you ruin and bring ruin to your hearers.

You know when you preach the congregation can figure out what you actually care about.

The stuff you repeat, the stuff you emphasize, the things you get excited about, it becomes apparent over time.

If you're a father or mother the things you really care about your kids pick up on it. Your friends get a sense of what do you really care about.

The people who spend time around you and under your authority get what you really care about.

The things you focus on and talk about and get energized about that you focus their efforts and work on.

These things become apparent over time. And the danger of unholy words and useless words is that it makes unholy people and useless people.

The words worth thinking about and worth talking about are the words that have been given to us in the scriptures.

And we are to emphasize that in our own lives and minds and in our interactions with other people.

You want the words of God to be on your lips. Your mouth is the overflow of your heart.

What you talk about shows you and other people what you think about and what you care about.

Beloved let your mouth be filled with words of truth to the building up of those who hear you and let your own focus be on these words of truth that you would also be benefited by them.

There are many things that we can go chase around. There are many conspiracy theories.

There are many interesting ideas. There are many doctrines of demons and inventions of men there are human philosophies of plenty.

Aristotle wrote lots of books and so did Plato. And you can find all sorts of humanistic philosophers from the enlightenment.

The emphasis on those and to displace the words of scripture is to replace useful and holy words with useless and unholy speech.

You must give emphasis to the scriptures and to look to the work of the Holy Spirit to build up the church and the way that saints that have gone before us have wrestled through and argued through these things.

The study of the scriptures and of the work of the church to systematize and organize and advance is worthy.

Beloved there are people the church is our people. If you root your identity someplace else you have chosen the wrong people.

Your history is the history of the saints and your rootedness must be a rootedness in the work of the saints come before.

When you look at the history of the Reformation in Europe you're looking at your own history.

When you look at the history of the Jews before Christ you're looking at your own history.

We must follow our people from Adam to now to know our story and the beginnings of that story that are infallibly and certainly captured are in the scriptures.

We long for stories. We have a glorious story of what

God has done in creating and governing the world and what he has done to save his people time and time again and the great salvation that we have in Christ Jesus.

All the conflicts that the church has gone through all the wrestlings this is our history.

We must be rooted in that and as far as we find ourselves in some nation we must look at ourselves as Americans after we consider ourselves

Christians and we think about America and judge it by God's Word. Any good things in America are a result of the preaching of the gospel and the application of the law of God and any of the things in our own history as a nation that are wicked or bad or useless are a result of the sins of our forebearers and of us and our rejection of truth.

We must put off all unbelief and recognize a connection to the history of the people of God and we must desire to see every nation including our own and it's appropriate to have a special affection and desire for the reformation of your own nation.

We must desire the reformation of our own nation after the

Word of God and so our love for our own people in terms of an ethnos, must be a desire to bring that nation into subjection to Christ.

Teachers do that by arguing for the truth and displacing words that are unprofitable and taking ruined hearers and making them into glorious edifices.

The words of truth edify and take ruins and build them into temples.

Men designed to be a dwelling place of God are shattered temples and the

Word of God rebuilds those temples into glorious dwelling places of the presence of God.

That is the powerful Word of God and what it does. So verse 15, be diligent to present yourself and approve to God a worker who does not need to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth.

When someone comes and presents to you some philosophy, some doctrines, some commandments, some advice, what they're doing is they're saying, hi there,

I'd like to fiddle around with your soul. Would you let me seek to reorganize your soul?

Are you alright with that? Is that okay with you? I'm not asking to get into your life too much.

I just want to reorganize the most intimate reality of your heart. When teachers come, what they want to do is they want to reorder your soul.

Who would you trust to reorder and reorganize your soul? Puritans talk about pastors as physicians of the soul, doctors of the soul.

The ancient way of talking about this is talking about pastors as cures of soul. You heard that phrase before?

Romanists use that to talk about pastors having the power to forgive sins and to let you into heaven.

That's not what that means at all. No, what this means, this idea, this idea of being a cure of souls is being a doctor who heals souls.

And so you use the word of God to go in and heal souls. It's the healing word. It's the cleansing word.

And it's what is used to rebuild. What material do you want somebody to rebuild and reorder your soul with?

Do you want them to do it with hay or wood or stubble? Or do you want them to reorder and rebuild your soul with silver and gold and precious stones?

The word of God is the material that you don't need to be ashamed of.

Beloved, if you have the scriptures you are competent to counsel, you're able to bring the word to other men's souls and to use it to try to heal them.

And when you seek to heal the souls of other men, do not bring garbage to put there.

Bring precious things and build from precious things. The word of God is that which allows you as a workman, working on the souls of men and working to build the temple of God, the church, it allows you to work and not be ashamed.

The call to every pastor and frankly to every Christian is to be diligent in your work and to be careful to not smuggle in garbage material and try to pass it off like it's good.

Being careful to test your own doctrine by the scriptures. That's how you can be a workman who doesn't need to be ashamed, because you can be sure that the work you gave was not shoddy work.

You didn't give them garbage. You gave them good things. You gave them worthy things. Not human philosophies, not idle words, not unholy words.

The words of truth. And the way you can figure out which thing needs to be applied where.

You know the difference between poison and medicine to a large extent is how much. Enough Tylenol will kill a man.

Enough water will kill a man. How much you give of what, in what order.

You can take the law and you can drive a man to despair. You can take the gospel and you can reassure a man in unrepentant sin and send him blithely on his way to hell.

Rightly dividing the word first and foremost looks like understanding the gospel promises and the law and differentiating them.

The commandments to do and the promises of what God has done and who he is. And you rightly divide these things and you use them as a workman who needs not be ashamed.

These are the materials and the right workman does his work using the right material in the right place at the right time.

So that work, that diligent work, rightly dividing the word of truth as a workman who does not need to be ashamed is the call of a

Christian teacher. But we are called on the other hand in verse 16 to shun profane and idle babblings.

This emphasis on profane words, unholy, words aren't just automatically holy.

We like to approach things in this way where we think of like you know whatever I say is fine unless I can show that it's wrong.

No, you waste time and you fill the air. Wise men do not speak because fools fill the space and time with their chittering.

It is necessary to honor things that are holy. It is necessary to replace idleness and chatter with useful words.

And if you allow profane speech and idle speech to fill the time, the result is that souls will be built up more and more to ungodliness.

They will become temples of unholy spirits and the world will be built instead of the church.

The weirdness of critical race theory or neo -nazi garbage or whatever human philosophy that gets thrown around as words of men to take the place of the words of truth should not be tolerated.

There's so much to teach and finding time for it is difficult and finding motivation for it for people to give their attention energy to it.

So often we need to be re -encouraged and hear the same things said again and again that they might have grooves in our thought.

We must meditate on the same things again and again to form grooves of thought that our minds would return rather than filling the space with anxiety and malice and whatever wicked lusts might fill our thoughts.

You habituate yourself to returning to well -established truths and you rest your mind there.

You find anxiety rising and you remember not a hair can fall from my head apart from the will of God.

No birds fall from the sky apart from his will. You feel guilt rising and you go,

I am guilty, I am a sinner, but Jesus Christ paid for me. His blood paid for all of my sins.

You start to worry about I don't know what to do and you start to think well which of the commandments applies to this?

What does God say? What has he commanded me to do here? And you look to the law to instruct you and to be a lamp unto your feet and you return again and again to the

Ten Commandments to meditate on your duties. These things as you meditate on truths they fill the space with what's worthy and you shun useless words and unholy words and their message will spread like cancer.

Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort who have strayed concerning the truth saying that the resurrection is already passed and they overthrow the faith of some.

False words, idle words, profane words are words that spread like cancer.

We're told in Proverbs that when people gossip, those gossipings are like little morsels, sweet morsels that go down.

People find worthless things to say and it takes up the time and it becomes like junk food that people eat and they become accustomed to these little morsels of junk food as opposed to eating healthful meals.

Accustom yourself to eating healthful meals of the healing word and to not fill the time with garbage.

Let's pray. Father we ask that you would help us to shun profane and idle babblings, the types of words that spread like cancer.

Now you would cause us to not allow cancer to fill up the space but to seek healthy growth, work that we shouldn't be ashamed of, harvests that are worth reaping, victories of war and victories of athletics.

We ask that you would cause the word of truth to bless our souls and to build us up.

We ask that you would help us to find other things distasteful and fake and we pray this in Christ's name.

Amen. Comments, questions, objections from the voting members and those with speaking rights.

Great. Part two. Please stand. Exalted is the

Lord's right hand. Psalm 118 part two.

Exalted is the Lord's right hand and it does valiantly. Now it is true

I will not die but rather I will live and through my life I will declare all the works of the

Lord. The Lord surely chastened me sore but did not give me death.

Oh that the gates of righteousness would be opened to me. Then I will enter into them and I will praise the

Lord. This is the Lord's gate into which the righteous will enter. I'll praise you for you heard me and became my salvation.

The stone that the builders refused is now the cornerstone. This is the doing of the

Lord. It's marvelous in our eyes. Oh this is the day that the Lord has made.

Let us rejoice and so let us always be glad in the day of the Lord. I beg you to save me

O Lord and send prosperity. Oh blessed be the one who comes in the name of the

Lord and we have sent you blessing out of the house of the Lord. Truly God is the

Lord and he has given light to us. So bind the sacrifice with cords.

Yes to the altar's horns. You are my God and so I will give praises unto you.

You are my God. I'll exalt you. Oh give thanks to the Lord for he is good for his mercy will endure forever.

Exalted is the Lord's right hand and it does well.

Now it is true. Those of you who will not be participating in the

Lord's Supper. Grace to you and peace in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Please remain standing now for the word of institution.

The word of institution today is from Mark 14. And as they were eating

Jesus took bread blessed and broke it and gave it to them and said take eat this is my body.

Then he took the cup and when he had given thanks he gave it to them and they all drank from it and he said to them this is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for many.

Assuredly I say to you I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when

I drink it new in the kingdom of God. And when they had sung a hymn they went out to the

Mount of Olives. For those of you who have been examined by the council and have examined yourselves to see if you're in the faith can discern the

Lord's body or at peace with others as far as it depends upon you and are not holding on to a cherished sin