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2 Timothy 2:8-13
Turn your Bibles this morning to 2 Timothy 2. As we continue our look through the book of 2 Timothy, I know we take big breaks between each sermon. I hope this morning to kind of refresh you very briefly before we get into the heart of our text.
But as Alex can attest to, I'm not very good with sermon titles. Probably not very good with sermons either. But I'm not very good with sermon titles. And usually Alex, he helps me with my titles sometimes.
I'm not good with it. Well, this morning, if I had a title, I just took this from verse 11. And my title this morning for this sermon would be a trustworthy saying. Verse 11, it says, the saying is trustworthy.
And when I was looking at this part of the verse, thinking about that phrase, the saying is trustworthy, I began to think about sayings that we believe are trustworthy in our day. I thought of many. And we could probably together come together and put together quite a list of sayings that in our culture we believe to be trustworthy.
Any sports fans, if you're not sports fans, I'm sorry. I have another one that's not sports related. But any sports fans, you may have heard this before. And you can substitute any team name. But there are only three things certain in life, death, taxes, and then fill in the blank with a sports team.
If it was in the 1990s, it might be. There are only three things certain in life, death, taxes, and the Chicago Bulls. Or if in college football, this may make some of you groan. But in the last 15 years, there are only three things certain in life, death, taxes, and the Alabama Crimson Tide.
I said they may make you groan, but because of their success. And then I thought about another saying, about being trustworthy. You may have heard this one. Somebody may make a phrase. Somebody may have spoken something that they believe is truth.
And they'll say, you can take it to the bank. You can count on it. You can take these words to the bank. But as I thought through these things, as we think about these things, is there someone really that trustworthy to risk everything based upon their word?
Are the three things really certain? Death, taxes, and the Chicago Bulls? Well, what happened when Michael Jordan retired? With Alabama, what will happen now that Nick Saban is retired? But even before retirement, neither of these men led their teams to perfection.
You couldn't count on them to win every game, to make every shot, to coach, to be at the very best when their team was on the field. So were these men and their teams worthy of our trust being put in them?
No.
As good as they were, they were not perfect and were capable of letting you down. This is the same that could be said and be true of all men and all things of the world. But is there something we can trust?
Is there something we can trust? I hope we would all say, absolutely. For in many of our hands this morning, we have a book that I would hope that you would say and you would affirm this morning with me that from Genesis 1 -1 to Revelation 22 -21, this can be trusted.
You can take its words to the bank. It is certain. And this morning, I want to focus on a particular trustworthy saying from our text, from within the Word of God. If you found 2 Timothy 2, if you'd please stand this morning as we reverence the reading of God's holy word.
I will mainly be spending my time in verses 11 through 13, but I'm going to back up and I want to read from verse 1 to here, just a reminder of the context. 2 Timothy 2, beginning in verse 1. You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses and trust of faithful men, who will be able to teach others also. Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.
An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. It is the hardworking farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.
Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached to 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 might 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 will also deny us. If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.
Let us pray.
Father, we are thankful this morning for your trustworthy word. I pray that this would be what we put our faith in, Lord, above all else, above man, above confessions. Lord, we are thankful for godly men.
We are thankful, Lord, for confessions of faith that are faithful to your scriptures. But may we, Lord, be resolved to believe that truth can only be found in one place, and that it is in your word. Father, this morning, help us to rely upon your word.
Help me to rely upon your word. Help me to preach your truth rightly, Father God, to stand for no other reason but to glorify you. Lord, may you help me this morning. May you send me the great help that I need.
May you help me to preach in the power of your Holy Spirit, and not rely on my own thoughts or words or speaking ability, Father, for they're all great failures, but help me to rely upon your spirit. We thank you for Christ this morning.
We thank you for the gospel. We thank you for what he did on the cross. Help us this morning. I pray that you'd help us to rightly apply this text, and that it be for your glory and for the good of your church.
And we ask this in Christ's name, amen. You may be seated. So in our text, I told you that we were mainly gonna look at verses 11 through 13. We will briefly talk about verses 8 through 13, but I wanna look at a little bit of background from the preceding verses.
And I know that we've looked at these in the past, but I feel like a quick review will help us better understand our text this morning. So we read in verses one through seven. I'm gonna break it up, verses one through seven and verses eight through 13.
In verses one through seven, we see that Timothy is being called to a work, and he is being challenged to embrace suffering. Share in the suffering, Timothy. Paul exhorts him. He's being challenged to do this.
And then in verses eight through 13, Paul is providing Timothy with motivation for the work and the suffering that lies ahead. Motivation for being a suffering soldier, as we see in verse three. Motivation for being a disciplined athlete, as we see in verse five.
And motivation for being a hardworking farmer, as we see in verse six. And as we have looked at in the past of what these things are a picture of in our service to Christ and the furtherance of the gospel.
But Paul is letting Timothy know why he should do these things. Why should you be so willing to suffer? Why should you be so willing to not get entangled with civilian pursuits, to please the one who enlisted you, to compete according to the rule, to be a hard worker?
Why should you do these things? And I wanna remind you that persecution was quickly becoming severe in this day, and that would only increase after Paul was gone. And Paul would not have Timothy to shy away from the gospel in his day.
He encouraged Timothy. He encouraged him to dive in further in the midst of suffering, embrace it and continue in the truth. Paul saw a great need to motivate Timothy here. And he provides him with great motivation.
And it makes me think of that motivation sometimes is needed in our lives as well. I don't think there's one person here that would say they have never needed to be motivated. And that includes in their faith and in their Christian walk.
I think if we're all honest, there are many times we've needed to be motivated. But I think it is important for us to know what it is that we're motivated by. This can tell us a little bit about our faith or our lack thereof.
Because we can be motivated by God honoring things, or we can be motivated by self honoring things. And some may say, well, if the end result is motivation, then it's all the same.
I disagree.
I think there's a big difference between the two. I think there's a big difference between what you're motivated by and the result of what you'll be motivated to do. Whether when it's God honoring or self honoring.
I think there's a big difference between the results of the two. Whether you're motivated by God honoring or self honoring. A big difference between the perseverance of the two. The lasting of the motivation.
For one motivation will endure in the faith and one will deny the faith. One will be self denying, the other will be God denying. And Paul provides Timothy with three sources of motivation that we've covered in the past.
All of them God honoring and self denying. The first one we find in verses eight and nine, we see a picture of the gospel. That Paul is motivating Timothy to suffer for the gospel, to suffer, first of all, for its truth.
That it would not be changed into a false gospel that Timothy would not give in when those seek to change the gospel. That this is a worthy reason to suffer. That the gospel, the true gospel, may be taught and may be believed.
I think this is a worthy reason to suffer in our day as well. Standing upon the truth of the gospel of Christ as we read in Scripture. And not give in to the false gospel such as the prosperity gospel that are being spread all throughout our world.
To suffer for it, be motivated to suffer, but also motivated to suffer for not only its truth, but its proclamation. For its going out. Suffer for the spreading of the gospel going out across the world.
This is a worthy source of motivation because God is honored and the church is strengthened in this. And within this source of motivation, when we look at the gospel, when we think about suffering, we see the fact that our Lord Himself suffered.
That Christ suffered and if our Lord suffered, why should we not? Matthew 10 speaks of this. Peter speaks of this in 1 Peter 2 when referring to servants and masters. That Christ suffered for us, giving us an example that we might follow in His steps.
And Paul was reminding Timothy that this gospel is worth suffering for. He's motivating him with this. Paul motivated Timothy with suffering for the Word. Look at verse number nine. For which I'm suffering, bound with chains as a criminal, but the Word of God is not bound.
Paul motivated Timothy to suffer because the Word would endure. Don't be afraid to be chained or killed because God's Word will continue. He's actually telling me, it doesn't rely on you, Timothy. So go and suffer.
If they kill you, that's okay.
If you die, if you're bound,.
As I am bound, it's okay because the Word will continue. We should be motivated by the fact that the messenger can be killed, but the message will prevail and will continue. And lastly, this is going to tie us into our text this morning.
Verse 10, he says, therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect. I want to take a particular look at this again. Like I said, we've looked at it in a previous sermon, but I think it's going to be helpful for us to understand verses 11 through 13.
There's really two things when we look at verse 10, when it says, therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they may also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
It's really two things that Paul can be meaning here in verse 10, when he's speaking of the endurance of the elect. One, that he endured everything for the sake of the elect, that they may come to faith, or that he endured everything for the elect that they may continue in the faith.
Not that Paul nor the elect hold themselves in the faith, but that Paul was a means that God uses for Christians to endure. And I really think both were and are true of Paul. When you think of what Paul did, you think of the ministry of Paul.
I think when you read his letters, you see both of these things. I think you really could make an argument for either in the text or both in the text. I think we can clearly see that God used Paul as a means to spread the gospel that leads to the salvation of his people.
I think you could also see that God used Paul as a means for the Christian to continue in their faith. I think we see both in the Word of God. I think God uses believers for both today. I think we can strengthen one another in both.
I think we can be a means that God uses by the sharing of the gospel that someone comes to faith. Not our works, but used as a means of God. And also, we can be a means by the grace of God that someone continues in the faith.
We see this throughout Scripture. One that we mention a lot that I'm gonna read again today is Hebrews 3. We'll read that shortly. And as I said, I think both of these are true. Both of these are applicable here.
That Paul endured so that those who would repent and trust in Christ may be saved, and that he endured so they might continue in the faith. But I think if he had, I think it's possible both could be here in this text.
But I think if he had a primary application, after studying through this, I think the latter may be the one he's specifically referring to here. That Paul was enduring for the sake of the elect, when he says this, that they may endure and continue in the faith.
That they may obtain salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. This was a source of motivation for Timothy. And I think that verses 11 and 12 support this, as we will see when we go through them.
And that leads us to our title, that leads us to our main point this morning, this trustworthy saying, that we find in verses 11 through 13. 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 will also deny us. If we are faithless, he remains faithless. For he cannot deny himself. This is a trustworthy saying. Paul says so. What are we to make of that?
That saying, him saying, the saying is trustworthy. Well, we can take it as, we can believe it. You can take this to the bank. You can trust this, that this is certain, even over death and taxes. This doesn't mean that this isn't true of the other things Paul says.
I think we need to understand that. It means that there are sayings out there outside of Scripture that aren't trustworthy. But Paul assures us that this is trustworthy as we know to be true of all Scripture, from front to back.
But he uses this faithful and trustworthy saying that we just read, to support the truth that he had just spoken, that he had just written. It is made trustworthy because of its content. The content of the saying is trustworthy.
The content is true. And this is not the only place that Paul liked to say this quite often, actually, that this saying is true, this saying is trustworthy. 1 Timothy 1 .15, the saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am foremost.
1 Timothy 3 .1, the saying is trustworthy. If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. 1 Timothy 4 .9, the saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. For to this end, we toil and strive because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially those who believe, command and teach these things.
And then lastly, for Paul, Titus 3 .8, the saying is trustworthy and I want you to insist on these things so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people.
John uses a similar phrase in Revelation 22 .6. And he said to me, these words are trustworthy and true. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place.
So what we have here is we have this phrase that's not isolated to just our text. And I do want us to understand once again that this is not negating that other places in Scripture aren't just as trustworthy.
But it's leading us to believe that this is something that was common to be said in the day and that Paul was reminding them of this trustworthy and this true statement that is included in Scripture that is Scripture, that is the Word of God.
So what attention should we give this phrase? Well, we should give it the same attention we give all Scripture. But he uses it here after telling us why he endures and is so willing to do so. While he encourages Timothy to do the same, to suffer willingly for the sake of the elect.
You can do this because the following, he's telling Timothy, suffer. And you can do this because the following promises and warnings of God contained in this trustworthy saying are true. And then he gives both truth and warning revolving around verse 10.
His endurance so that the elect may reach glory, may reach eternal glory. Now I wanna break this up, this trustworthy saying, because I believe it's broken up in Scripture into four if statements. That's how we're gonna take this text.
You could actually put two of these each under two different headings and then two points under each. Each one starts with an action from the believer or unbeliever, a condition followed by a conclusion.
And then each one follows with either Christ's action or a joint action with the believer. So the first two, look at those in verses 11 and 12. First two are positive actions for the true and the faithful.
The last two are negative actions for the false and the faithless. And these four results from four actions concerning those who claim to be in the faith have both promises and some have warnings. And in our context, quickening of the dead.
Verse 11, the saying is trustworthy. If we have died with him, we will also live with him. This is a promise to take comfort in. This is comfort for the Christian. This is comfort for the true believer.
If we have died with him, so we have death. We have death here, which I believe to refer to conversion. I believe to refer to regeneration. I take this to tie back to verse 10 and signify the spiritual death that happens upon regeneration.
Gone from death to life. Paul and others use this language elsewhere to refer to conversion, Ephesians 2, but God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us. Even when we were dead in our trespasses and sins, made us alive together in Christ.
By grace you have been saved. No doubt there is this application here. That if we have died to sin, if we have been saved, if we have crossed from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive and we will live with him, there's no doubt about this is an application here.
A wonderful truth of the gospel that would provide Timothy with great comfort. Even if he were to be killed as Paul was going to be killed, this would provide him comfort. Remember Timothy, as you're suffering for the sake of the leg, if we have died with Christ, we will live with him.
What comfort that is. What a wonderful truth that we have here. This should provide us with a great deal of comfort in our struggles and in our persecutions and our sufferings, that we have been saved from the wrath to come and will one day go to be with him.
This is a great promise. There are those that believe that Paul could be referring to physical death here. And while I believe him to be referring to regeneration, I think in the context of the letter, physical death has its applications as well.
Paul was literally going to die for Christ. He was going to die. Soon after writing and completing this letter, Paul would become a martyr. Timothy might do the same, but he could suffer. He could go to his death because he was in Christ and there was going to be a reward for his suffering one day.
Those who might be martyred, they can take comfort in this for both reasons. That if you have died with him, if you've been regenerated by the working of the Holy Spirit, you've been saved, then you will go to live with him.
If you die a physical death as a martyr, you will have the same promise. If you've been born again, that you will be with him one day. This should comfort us as we suffer for the gospel. It should give us comfort in the next as well.
We have the quickening of the dead and then in verse 12, we have the endurance of the elect. We affirm unapologetically that all those who are born again, all those who are brought into the faith will persevere in that and will continue in that.
We get this from Scripture, Philippians 1 .6, and I'm sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. John 6 .39, and this is the will of him who sent me that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me but raise it up on the last day.
The Bible speaks as this of a genuine sign of genuine conversion. Mark 13 .13, and you will be hated by all for my name's sake, but the one who endures to the end will be saved. John 8 .31, so Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples.
But what we must understand is this endurance. This endurance, if we endure, we will also reign with him. This endurance by the grace of God has a means. There's a means by which God uses for this endurance just as there is a means by which God brings about salvation.
There's a means by which salvation continues. Turn real quick to Romans 8. I want you to see this. Romans 8, we'll begin in verse 30. I'm gonna read verses 30 through 37. Don't worry, we're not gonna go through all of it because we've still got a lot to unpack in 2 Timothy.
I do wanna point something out. Romans 8, beginning in verse 30, and those whom he predestined, he also called, and those whom he called, he also justified, and those whom he justified, he also glorified.
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for all of us, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, for your sake, we are being killed all the day long.
We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Two things. I want to quickly point out about this text. Verse 30, you start with, you could say the golden chain as some refer to it.
But those whom he predestined, he called. Those whom he called, he justified. And those whom he justified, he glorified. What I want to focus on is there in verse 20. Those whom he justified, he also glorified.
We must understand that in line with Scripture, there's something that goes on between justification and glorification. Two things, or a couple of things we want to make note of. We could point to sanctification here.
That sanctification goes on between justification and glorification. That would be rightly so. And we understand that there is a means by which God sanctifies his children. One being his word, John 17, 17.
Sanctify them in truth. Your word is truth. Similarly, there's a persevering that takes place between these. Or a preserving that takes place between these. And God has a similar means for that. Verse 34, he says, who is it to condemn Jesus Christ as the one who died?
More than that, who was raised, who is the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us? He does this through the Holy Spirit at work in our lives. It's one means, one way in which he intercedes from us.
Part of his intercession is ministers of God who endure for the flock, so they may not fail, deny him, or be found faithless. We see Paul as an example of this. But part of that intercession that I want to focus on very briefly is the church playing a role in battling sin with one another.
Hebrews 3, 12 through 14, take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, for we have come to share in Christ if indeed we hold our confidence firm to the end.
How do we know that we have indeed come to share in Christ? If we hold our original confidence firm to the end? How do we make sure that there is not in any of us an evil, unbelieving heart leading us to fall away?
How do we make sure that none of us may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin? And what does it say? By exhorting one another every day as long as it is called today. We play a role in the endurance of the faith in one another.
This is God's design. We cannot, this cannot tangibly be done outside of the context of the local church. Why is the local church so important? Well, one, why is going to church so important? One, we're commanded to in Hebrews, but also all these letters, all these things, we cannot, they were written to local churches and we can't understand many of these things outside of the context of local churches and we play a role in each other's lives.
I can't do this for every Christian in the world. We can't do this for every Christian in the world. We cannot exhort every single Christian in the world to do these things, to take care that none of us have an evil, unbelieving heart leading us to fall away, that none of you may be hardened from the deceitfulness of sin.
We can't do it for the whole, for Christians all over the world. But God hasn't designed it that way. We can, as a local body, exhort one another to continue in the faith. Why is this so important? Because Satan is trying to deceive even the elect.
Luke 22, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you that he might sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.
Matthew 24, then if anyone says to you, look, here is Christ or there he is, do not believe him. For false Christ and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.
Piper calls this time in between justification and glorification, warfare. We are in battle and we are in battle together. We battle for and alongside one another. And a great deal of suffering takes place in the time in between justification and glorification.
That's our context here, suffering. And this scripture reminds us that there is a reward for those who persevere. For those who have died with Christ, they will live with him. Those who endure shall reign with him.
What does that mean to reign with him? He takes it a step beyond here, not only live, but live and reign. What mercy and what grace, wretched sinners who deserve wrath reigning with Christ. What wonderful grace, what encouragement to continue in the faith.
Paul hoped that this would provide Timothy with great hope in the face of suffering for the gospel, but this might spur him on. He's saying, endure Timothy. Don't deny the Lord to avoid suffering. It is my hope that this is true for us.
That this truth might spur us on even in the face of suffering. That we would see the worth of the gospel. That we would see the worth of Christ. That we would see the worth of the church. That we would endure with these motivations.
And understand that we are not alone in this. Christ is for us. We are in this together, as well as with one another, united in him. Timothy wasn't alone. Christ was with him. But he was also united in the faith with other believers.
And one day Timothy would see the reward of his suffering. One day he would go to reign with Christ. If we endure, we will go to be with him. We will reign with him. If, this is, he's talking to Timothy, if Timothy didn't deny Christ.
We can guarantee, if he doesn't deny, if we don't deny, we can guarantee that Christ will be faithful and not deny us. That we will go and reign with him. The letter gives us examples of those who remain faithful.
One was Onesiphorus. You'll remember him in chapter one, Onesiphorus. He was not ashamed of the gospel,.
Or of Paul.
He was earnest in his service. What great promises these are for the believer. Praise God for these promises. After the second promise here, Timothy somewhat shifts just a little bit. And we now have our first warning.
We go from the quickening of the dead, the endurance of the elect. Now we go from positive to negative. This is applicable to the unbeliever, or maybe you could label the false believer. Speaks of denial.
So, the quickening of the dead, the perseverance of the elect, and the apostasy of the pretenders. We have two very serious warnings here that he's reminding Timothy of. If we deny him, he will also deny us.
If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself. These are both very serious warnings for Timothy and us as well. Timothy would have to endure a lot in his life. Paul knew that, and he gives him some encouragement of what awaits if he endures.
But he also warns Timothy of what awaits him if he doesn't endure. Timothy, if you deny Christ in all of this, if you walk away, you will be lost. You will be denied by him. Matthew 10, 33. Whoever denies me before men, I will also deny before my Father who is in heaven.
This warning should be sobering for each of us. This should cause examination in our lives and our hearts. You don't want to hear Christ deny you on judgment day. Many who profess Him will hear His denial because they didn't endure.
They were deceived and never in the faith. Will that be you? Maybe you seemed to start good. You had everyone fooled, even yourself, for a time. You gave a lot of time to the church, but ultimately you were being deceived and deceiving others.
And on judgment day, Jesus will say, I never knew you. To deny Him is the opposite of enduring. It means we haven't died with Him and we haven't endured, so we won't live with Him and we won't reign with Him.
And we will be denied. And that denial from Christ will be because of our faithlessness. If we endure with Him, we will also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He will also deny us. If we are faithless, He remains faithful.
And that denial comes with some certainties. And finally, we come to the promise to the faithless. If we're faithless, if our faith is found to be fraudulent due to our denial, if it turns out you're truly not a Christian, as in 1 John 2 .19, they went out from us, but they went out that it might be plain that they all are not of us.
Not truly a believer, not truly trusting in Christ. If that is you this morning, even if you've confessed by your mouth faith, but you've never trusted in Him, your faith is fraudulent, understand this truth, He will remain faithful.
You say, okay, to who? To us? That's not what the text is saying here. Not that He is not faithful to us, He is, but this text is speaking of His faithfulness to Himself.
Look at it.
If we're faithless, He remains faithful, but then He says, for He cannot deny Himself. This text is speaking of His faithfulness to Himself. He remains faithful to Himself, to His holiness, to His righteousness, to His righteous judgment.
He cannot deny Himself. He will always remain God. We change. Sometimes we deny ourself all the time. We say one thing and do another. We change our minds. He will always remain God, He will not change.
He will keep His word. He will keep the promises. If we have died with Him, we will indeed live with Him. If we endure, we will reign with Him, not because of our greatness, but because of His faithfulness.
Faithfulness, faithful even to the cross, Philippians 2 .8. Being found in human form, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. We were unfaithful. We were disobedient. Speaking of those in verse 13, there are those, when we look at verse 13, there are those who believe He is speaking to believers, of believers, that when we are faithless, He remains faithful.
I don't think that fits the rest of the saying, especially the end of verse 13, but the point is true. We were faithless. We had broken the law of God. Even as Christians, we lack faith, but Christ was and is perfectly faithful, and He came in the form of a man, and He kept God's law perfectly, and He faithfully went to Calvary to endure the wrath of God in the place of His children, and He rose the third day, guaranteeing their justification.
Christ is faithful, and God is faithful, and He will save His children, and all who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. All those who repent and who by His grace endure, He can't deny His faithfulness to His children, and He can't deny His faithfulness to those who deny Him.
If the positives are true, so are the negatives. His word will be kept with them as well if we deny Him. If we are faithless, no doubt about it, He will deny us. Paul is saying to Timothy, if you do this, Timothy, you will be cast off.
You will face punishment for eternally in hell, and God is faultless in this. Our denial and our faithlessness will be the cause of this. This letter gives examples of these. Those who do not continue, those who do not endure, those who prove themselves to be faithless.
Chapter one, we have phagellus and hermogenes. They are contrasted to onysiphorus. There's many in chapter four, most notably Demas, who fell in love with this present world and deserted Paul in the gospel.
Alexander the coppersmith, who did great harm to Paul, and would be repaid by the Lord according to his deeds, because Christ cannot deny Himself. He is the righteous judge, and He will deal righteously.
And he's telling Timothy, don't be like these, Timothy. I'm telling you, myself, don't be like these providence. Don't be like these unbeliever. Run to Christ, repent of your sins, and rest in Him. For it is true, there's a trustworthy saying, 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 will deny us. If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself. I wanna close very quickly with a few applications. The first one is don't miss what's going on here.
Talking about here. Don't miss what's going on with the local church. And by local church, I'm talking about those who hold fast to the gospel. There are many false churches out there today who have denied the gospel, who don't believe the true gospel, who support and push a false gospel.
They are not a true church. Don't miss what's going on here. Don't miss what we are doing here. Don't miss the role that we play in one another's lives. Don't miss the role, you may say, well, you know, I'm not really that important to somebody else's role in the faith as a local church, as a member of this local church, as a believer.
I beg to differ, you are. But also, other people are important in your walk as well. We play a great role and understand that this great role, this key role is played in the endurance of one another. And this was a means set up by God.
We spur one another on in the faith. We endure together as a church. And we battle this war together as we press on towards glory. Be a part of what Christ is doing in the world today. That's local churches.
There's a lot of things you can be a part of in this life. You can be a part of the country club. You can be a part of different chambers of this and that. There's nothing greater than being a part of what Christ is doing.
I encourage you, I encourage myself, be more faithful to the church. More faithful to one another. Understand that this is not just a come, say hello on Sunday, and then we walk away. We see you next Sunday.
It's not how God designed the church. Be a part of this. Second application, heed the warning. One such means of preservation by His grace God uses to keep His flock is warnings such as these. Don't deny Him.
If you do, He will deny you. Don't fall in love with this present world for you'll be denied by God. Rather, keep the faith. Keep the faith. Don't desert. Don't stand against the faith for He is faithful and you will be repaid according to your deeds.
And then lastly, don't miss the context of suffering within our text. That you're suffering for the gospel and the sake of the elect, as Paul says. You're suffering for the church and the sanctification and endurance of those in it.
It's not in vain. What we do here is not in vain. It's not for nothing. It's not worthless. It's not pointless. It serves a purpose. And you can face your suffering head on because God is for you and He has given us His written word.
Read it each day.
Be people of the book. And understand that we can commune with Him. Be constant in prayer. What a wonderful and faithful God we serve. What a faithful Savior we have in Christ.
