Sep. 4, 2016 A Hymn For Endurance by Pastor Josh Sheldon

Denial of Christ in Speech, Conduct, and Confession

About this, I mean, when we're with others and the conversation slips into the kind of talk that ought not even be named among God's people. Do we participate? Do we speak for Him? What do we do? Do we tacitly deny Jesus Christ by our failure to say something in His defense?

Is that not a denial? And in a very real and a very practical way, any unethical conduct, by unethical I mean any conduct against what the scripture would demand of us, any unethical conduct is a denial of Christ, is it not?

It's a failure to confess that Jesus' ways are God-pleasing and that glorifying God is a greater reward than anything we might attain from doing otherwise. Now think of how all-encompassing this is.

Think of your taxes, think of your driving, think of what you think about when you haven't much to think about. In 1 Timothy 5 .8, Paul says that someone who doesn't care for his own family has denied the faith.

He is worse than an unbeliever. I mean, denial or endurance for that matter, those cover a lot of ground. It's the whole of our life. It's everything we do and say because once you're in Christ, once you've fallen victim to His gospel, there's nothing you can do or say that does not somehow reflect your relationship with the Lord who saved you.

As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5, we're ambassadors for Christ. It means every moment we are or we should be speaking for Him. Now all these things could be denials no less than Peter's. And before we line up under Peter for cover though, I wanna consider Peter's situation just very briefly.

Remember, Jesus had just been arrested. They knew He was on trial for His life. They saw the guards with their swords. It'd be like us having a cadre of police with their guns drawn coming at us and arresting me or one of you or something like that.

It'd be a terrifying situation. Peter is there surrounded by a hostile crowd. And it wasn't a friendly question like, oh, I know you, Peter, you're Galilean. Well, you were hanging out with that Jesus guy for a while, weren't you?

How was that? No, it wasn't like that at all. This is while Jesus is on trial for His life. And someone out there is saying, we know He's a servant girl and we can make a lot of hay out of that. But the question was, oh, you're with Him too, aren't you?

Maybe you should be in there next to Him. Maybe your life should be just as much at risk as His. Well, you're one of those Christ followers, aren't you? Now, this was a very intense situation. He was under a pressure that we can hardly imagine and Lord willing, won't have to.

And Lord willing, if we do, we would stand up to it. But before we run to Peter for cover here as denial, in his denial, just ask how much sooner we might have stumbled. He faced death. We usually face only being outcast or being derided.

Part of the act of denial is in not believing that Christ by His Spirit will help you. Now, he didn't have the Spirit yet. The Spirit wasn't given. When the Spirit was given, He stood before the Sanhedrin and with His life at risk, stood for Christ.

When the Spirit was given, He and His friend, the fellow apostle John, they considered themselves to have cause to rejoice. Why? Because they were counted worthy to suffer for the cause of Christ. For us, to whom the Spirit has been given, part of denial is just believing that Christ won't help us when we need it.

When we see the situation moving towards a dilemma, we don't trust Christ to strengthen us. Right then, right there. I mean, He promised that His Spirit will remind us of what He said and tell us what to do ourselves.

And Peter, the great denier, he spoke boldly once he had the Spirit. What do we do? How do we find ourselves able to not deny Christ by omission or commission? I would refer us back to Nehemiah. Of all things.

I love that scene in Nehemiah when he's sad before the king, which is almost a capital offense, if not totally a capital offense, to bring his mood down. You could lose your life for that. Because you've never been sad in my presence.

What is it you want? And so all he had time to do was turn to the king and tell him what he wanted. He didn't have time to say, I need five minutes to pray, excuse me. Right then, right there, that moment, that instant.

And what does the scripture say? It says, so I turned to this man, and as I turned to this man, I didn't say it exactly right. So I prayed to the Lord God of heaven and turned to this man and said, then made his request.

So sometimes all we have time for is, help me, Lord Jesus. Or maybe we don't have time for Lord Jesus, we have time for help me. Or maybe we don't have that nanosecond to get the second word in, all we can do is cry out, help!

And then we have to do or say something. Sometimes denial is simply believing that God won't answer that prayer. That his spirit is really not in you to help you, to strengthen, to guide, to reward you greater than whatever you might lose.

Is it worth noting that Paul doesn't say in this one, that I know you have denied the faith. The if there is, that should this come true, should this come true, this would be the consequence of it. But the ultimate denial might be to deny our denials.

To deny that we've ever denied, to pretend they didn't happen, to not confess them to the Lord, to seek his forgiveness. James 4 .17 says, so whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin, which is to deny Christ.

Sometimes the greatest denial is not to believe that if I do stop and confess my sin, that he is faithful to forgive me my sin and cleanse me from all unrighteousness. Do you believe that? You can't believe that unless you've repented of your sin and placed your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

If you have, do you believe that? Do you believe that Christ will forgive you? Do you believe the spirit is in you to strengthen you? Do you believe if you call out to God within your mind, say, help!

And that's all you have time for. That he, the God of the universe, can and will help you. The fourth and final. If we are faithless, he remains faithful. He cannot deny himself. Faithless returns to the present active verb form, meaning the whole of life, continuously.

He speaks of this action in the here and now. Here, with all the dread we might feel for our failure to endure. Here, with all our guilt over our denials of him by our acts of commission and omission.

Here is this greatest comfort, our only comfort, really. Here it is. If we are faithless, how often are we faithless? How many of us can say, that's for them. I've never been faithless, I've never failed but to perfectly walk in the ways of Christ.

None of us could say that. If you think that, please come see me afterwards. We really need to talk. If we are faithless, he remains faithful for he cannot deny himself. He's not saying if it has been proven that we have been faithless.

He's saying if this were true, here's the result. But this result is not something that happens like living with Christ in this life or in the life to come or reigning with him after enduring it for his sake or being denied because we denied him.

This isn't like that. This is a statement of fact. It's not really a consequence at all. It's saying however we are, whatever we exhibit, whatever we deny, whatever we do in God's name that is right or wrong or somewhere in between which isn't really even possible, no matter what it is, he remains faithful.

He remains true. He cannot deny himself. We spoke of this before. His very nature is to be faithful, to be true to his word, his word of promise, you will live with him. His word of promise, you will reign with him.

His word of warning, he will deny you. Ultimately what this says is just not about us. It's just not about us. Our faithful living doesn't win our salvation. It might prove our salvation, but it doesn't win it.

It's not what gains it. It's not what gained it. Our denials cannot change his faithfulness. Our lack of faithfulness to Christ cannot change his very nature. And this cuts both ways. He's faithful to his word of promise as much as to his word of warning.

So we need to take heed to see that we're living with him, that we are enduring everything for his sake, that we have not and will not deny him, and that we by his power and the indwelling presence of his spirit, that we remain faithful to him.

I ask you, have you died with him? Jesus, the faithful one, said that if you lose your life in him, you will find it. He speaks of salvation, of setting aside all that you have in this world, even your life if need be, and coming to him in full trust in his word.

This is what he means, to die to self and place all your faith in him. He's faithful to his word. And all the promises of the scripture in him are yes and amen. Revelation 1 .5 calls him Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the true witness, the witness who keeps God's word at every point, and not a single of it can fail.

It was read this morning from Isaiah 55, that when God sends his word, it doesn't return to him void, it accomplishes the purpose for which he sent it. Lord willing, many of you have heard that word of salvation.

You've been convicted of your sin, and gone to God in repentance, and sought the forgiveness of Jesus Christ, which he won on the cross. Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, says, that is dying with me.

And if you've died with him, you will live with him, both here in this life and in the life to come. See, what he promises, he will faithfully perform. If you repent of your sins, if you trust him, Jesus Christ says, all who call on the name of the Lord, which is him, so he can say, all who call on my name, all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved.

To those of us who have stumbled, who have faithlessly denied him, who haven't endured for his sake, the same faithful Savior says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

This is the hymn this morning. This is the hymn that calls us to faithful endurance in Christ. This is the hymn that reminds us of his promises and the certainty of his word, that we may carry on in him and after his ways.

This is the hymn that reminds us that God is faithful. And this God can no more fail to keep his word than he could deny his very self, the God who saved us. Amen? Heavenly Father, thank you for the day that you've given us, for this time together in your word.

We pray, Lord, that your word would take root in our hearts, bear much fruit, and just bring us closer into the image of our son, of your son. And Lord, that you would grant us, by your spirit, strength to endure, to remain faithful to Christ in whatever situation you in your goodness and by your providence would have us to be in.

2 Timothy 2:11-13 and the Hymn of Endurance

We pray it all in Jesus' name, amen. Our text this morning will be found in 2 Timothy, chapter two, and verses 11 to 13, which you find in that black pew Bible in front of you on page 995. You know, 2 Timothy might well have been named three Ephesians or third Ephesians because it's a third of three letters written to the church there in Ephesus.

Now, of course, the book we call Ephesians, the letter, the epistle, book, all mean the same thing. The book of Ephesians was a general letter written to the church at large. And 1 Timothy came just a few years later, and it gave Paul's protege instruction on how the church was to conduct itself.

In 2 Timothy, which was written just a couple of years after 1 Timothy, Paul writes to strengthen him, to strengthen Timothy in his work there in Ephesus. And it seems that the opposition against Timothy within the church itself was still very fierce.

And the temptation that Timothy faced, the error that Paul was trying to prevent, was to falter in the face of open hostility. Or worse, not just to falter, but to quit. To run out of steam and simply give up the fight, to not follow the apostle's example in fighting the good fight till the end.

And as well as telling him what he must do and how to do it, he encourages him to continue and does so with a good dose of theology, which we will attend to this morning. Now, as he had in the first letter in 1 Timothy, Paul steers Timothy to the person of the gospel he proclaims.

This is the point. Whatever he's up against, whatever the adversity is, it's pointing him to the person that from the pulpit he had, he is proclaiming to the church before him. And it's there that he is to find his strength.

It's there that he's to find his way of endurance. It's looking to Jesus Christ and him alone. Paul steers him there. And as in 1 Timothy 3, 16 to 18, which we covered last week, which is the hymn about the mystery of godliness.

This we confess that the mystery of godliness, that he was manifested in the flesh. I went through that last week. As he encouraged him there with a hymn, a hymn that was then well-known. Here in 2 Timothy, the rich doctrines and theology that are Timothy's rampart, that are his battle cry, they're encapsulated here in this easy-to-remember hymn in 2 Timothy 2, 11 to 13.

And so how does Timothy endure? How do we endure? Well, by the theology, like what we have in this hymn, what we will go through this morning. And what is it that Timothy needs? This young Timothy, he may not be as young as we often think he was, but whatever his actual age, what is it that he needs at this point in his life in ministering at Ephesus?

It's endurance. He needs endurance. The gospel, you see, has been no easy sailing for him. And in the gospel, we know there are no smooth boulevards. It wasn't meant to be easy. It cost God's son his life to bring the gospel of God's forgiveness to us, and it costs us no less to be party to it.

To be a member of it, to be in the gospel. Not meant to be easy. Our life is a daily bearing of the cross of Jesus Christ, Luke 4, 14, 27. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4, 10 that he is always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, the Lord who assured us that being his disciples would bring tribulations.

In 2 Timothy 3, 12 and 13, Paul writes to Timothy, he writes to us that indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and imposters will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

You see, it's not just Timothy who needs endurance to stay the course. It's not just the ministers, the pastors. It's all of us who need this endurance, and he exhorts us to this, to endurance. It's all of us together.

And as he did in 1 Timothy, the exhortation is encapsulated in this ancient hymn. And I'm gonna begin reading this in chapter two of 2 Timothy, at verse one of that chapter. And then we'll get to the hymn.

But to get the whole context, we'll start at verse one. Paul writes this. 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, entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

Share in the 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 in my gospel, for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal.

But the word of God is not bound. Therefore, I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. The saying is trustworthy.

And here's the hymn. 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.

Now here is Timothy's basis for endurance. Here is our basis for endurance. And here we have, there are two encouragements and one warning, followed by a statement on the nature of the Lord whom we serve.

It's sort of a truth and consequences pattern to this. If this condition, such as dying with Christ, if that be true, if that be met, then it is assured that we will live with him. If that is the truth, the consequence is, we will live with him.

Now these are conditional statements in the formal grammatical sense, what we call first class conditionals. Now that doesn't mean that they're better than second class conditionals, and there's even a third and some think a fourth class conditional.

It doesn't mean the first class is better than any of those. It means that the first part of the statement, the if part of it, is assumed to be true. Now the author could be assuming it to be true as a matter of fact, or as a matter of condition.

He could just say, if this thing be true. Or he could be saying, I know it is true. Amongst you. But it's assumed to be true for the sake of the argument he's making. And that means that the promise attached to this is no carrot being dangled in front of us.

It's not a pinata that gets yanked away when you get close to gaining the prize. See, more than logical consequence, they are the sure and certain word of God, who cannot lie. That if the first part of this be true, the second part is assured.

Are you in need of endurance in your Christian walk? Is the race, is the contest wearing you out? You know, we're not in a sprint. It's a marathon. And then, after we finish that marathon, it's another marathon.

And after we finish that marathon, it's another super marathon. And we just go and go and go. And we complete that course. You know what Jesus says to us? He says, you should say, we are unworthy servants.

We have only done what was our duty to do. And so what must we do then? That's right. Get up, out of bed, put on our shoes, and run another marathon. It's the long haul that we have to have in view in our Christian walk.

Along the way, we face opposition. We face derision. We face even persecution. We may feel like Christian in Pilgrim's Progress, bogged down in the slew of despond. We all need an extra shot of endurance, a sort of a PED, something to help us through.

And that's what this hymn gives us. And it does so by reminding us that God is faithful, that he can no more fail to keep his word than he could deny his very nature. Think of this. God is faithful. He cannot deny himself.

There's so much embedded there that we could speak of. God cannot deny his very nature. He can do nothing that is not consistent with who and what he is. And this is not too hard to get our arms around on this because God is the ultimate simple being.

I don't mean simplistic. Simple, meaning he's nothing other than what he is. And what basis do we have for endurance as we go through this hymn that Paul gave Timothy 2 ,000 years ago? God is faithful.

God is only faithful. God can be nothing but faithful. God in his nature, in his being is faithful. What is impossible for God? Jesus said nothing shall be impossible for God. With God all things shall be possible.

The apostle says there is something impossible for God. It's impossible for God to lie. It's impossible for God to not be faithful. It's impossible for God not to be holy. It's impossible for God not to be who and what he is.

And let this be for us the foundation that we find in our endurance and our ability to carry on the fight. I wanna take this hymn in order. I will just go through these lines one at a time. The first is if we have died with him, meaning Jesus Christ, if we've died with him, we will also live with him.

Now, there's a couple of ways to take the word died. The first is what is most in keeping with the context of this letter, which is actual death. And we say that because Paul here, he's anticipating his execution by Nero's court.

Towards the end of this letter, he writes, I'm already being poured out as a drink offering. He expected to be executed very soon, not to sin and the world. That took place a long time before this. He was about to die.

And so that's one way we could take this. We've died with him. And that would be an encouragement to Timothy because Timothy, if you endure this, even to death, to being executed or murdered, whatever the case is, if it's for Jesus Christ, if you've died with him, if you've died for his purposes in his service, you will live with him.

So endure. Do not fear. What can man do to you? But fear him who can cast both body and soul into hell forever. That's one way to take died, meaning actual, literal death, and that impending. It's possible that Paul has in mind our death to sin and the end of its mastery over us, as in Romans chapter six.

Now, this has much to commend it, especially the similarity of the language compared from Romans six, beginning at verse eight, to what we have here in this hymn in 2 Timothy two and verse 11. I'll read to you from Romans chapter six.

Paul writes, now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. Immediately, we can see that similarity. If we have died with him, we will also live with him, says 2 Timothy chapter two, verse 11.

Romans six, eight. Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. The similarity is clear. We know, I go on from Romans chapter six at verse nine, we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again.

Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died to sin once for all, excuse me, for the death he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

And I think this is most likely Paul's meaning in 2 Timothy for a couple of reasons. And first is the language. Like I said, it sounds so similar. The whole flow of thought is so similar that to conclude they're both arguing for the same idea is very well supported.

But second is the conditional statement itself. You see, this first class conditional statement, it assumes the stated condition to be true. So it's something like seeing that you have died with Christ, and it's that in both cases, because the consequence is set forth in such certain terms.

Seeing that you have died with Christ, I believe this to be true of you, that you personally have in your spirit died with Christ, meaning died to this world, and found yourself in him by God's grace.

Well, then to live with him makes perfect sense as him living in us now by his spirit as promised, for example, in John 14, 23. The Lord Jesus Christ said, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

That's why we speak so often of the indwelling spirit of Christ and his spirit, and he even says in another place in that high priestly prayer of his that the father will come. So the triune God dwelling within, is that not life?

Is that not living with Christ, Christ living in and through us? John 16, 7, if I go, I will send the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, I will send him to you. If in Jesus we have life, if we have by faith died with him, then we have that life now.

We have it now, and we will have it in the age to come. It means both at the same time. It means you live with Christ in the here and now, and we know we will live with him forever in what we call the eschaton, after Jesus Christ calls us home and to himself.

So that's first. If we've died with him, we will also live with him. The second is if we endure, we will also reign with him. The first condition was assumed true. You have died with him, and here's the consequence.

Therefore, we know you live with him, or will live with him, excuse me. But there's a change in the form of the verb here in this second conditional statement. If we endure, we will also reign with him.

Died with him, in the first condition, died with him is in a form denoting a past definitive event, a definite point of time. If we died with him, speaking of your conversion, you can say, many of us can say, actually, on this day, the Lord demolished my strongholds.

My guard dropped. My resistance failed. And I was converted to the Lord Jesus Christ. I died with him. A definitive, certain event. That's the first one. But here, in verse 12, if we endure, is a whole different form.

It's in a form of the verb that refers to a continuous action in the present. So the sense of it is, to gain the benefit of the second half, we shall also reign with him, means that the first half needs to be true.

Now, not to turn this into a lecture in Greek grammar, which I'd be hardly qualified to go very far, but what I just said is true of all these conditionals. If the second half, the second half is fulfilled if the first half is true.

But here in verse 12, the action of endurance, if we endure, that action is a continuous one in this present life. Remember, if we died with him, at a point in time, many of us can say, on this day, I died with him.

This one is continuous, it's constant, it's now. It's yesterday, it's this moment, it's tomorrow. If we endure, we will also reign with him. This is the P, is it not? The P in our acrostic tulip. The doctrine of the perseverance of the saints.

If we endure, we will reign with him. If we endure, much of this letter was meant to excite in Timothy just this, this idea of endurance. Second Timothy 2 .1, you then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

Verse 2 .3, share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus with these added encouragements. 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. So the idea is stay focused on your commander's orders. Do your ministry according to the rules which are in this letter and the rest of scripture.

And know and believe your work will be rewarded. So press on and press on and press on. It's not just to Timothy as pastor or others since him who have filled that role. It's to all of us to endure, to run the race.

It's a super marathon. As I said, it's not a sprint. It's not the 50-yard dash. It's long, hard running. Now using the same word, this original word for endurance, we have a lot of other scriptures. Rejoice in the Lord, Romans 12, 12.

Be patient, and that's our word, endurance. So rejoice in the Lord, have endurance you could say. But be patient in tribulation. Be constant in prayer. First Corinthians 13, seven says, love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

James 1, 12, blessed is the man who remains steadfast. There's our word, endures. Remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him.

Be worth a moment to stay on James just very briefly and point out to you how the apostle there ties together the idea of endurance in Christ and love for him. Blessed is the one who endures or remains steadfast under trial.

And he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to whom? To those who love him. This idea of enduring in the Christian walk, staying true and faithful to Christ is welded together with this idea of loving him.

Now when we endure, that doesn't mean that God looks upon us and says, well now I'm pleased with this one and I will save him or her. That's not the case at all. But it is, you can think of it this way, it is that outward profession that we truly do love Christ.

That he means more to me than the insults or the slanders or the persecutions or the confiscations that could happen in this world because of my faith in him. I love him better than all that. Matthew 24, 13, the Lord Jesus says, but he who endures to the end will be saved.

You see, endurance is for the whole church, it's for all of us. It's the reward which Jesus will bestow on all of us. If we endure, if we remain steadfast, if we hold on to our faith, we will reign with him, we will receive the crown of life, we will be saved.

It's what Paul meant when he wrote, he who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus. It's God who does the work. It's God in that sense who does the persevering but we also, because God is working in us and by the power of God, we need to persevere.

We need to endure. And in every endurance, every time we have victory over whatever came to us and we endured and we stood faithful to Christ in the face of it, we give thanks to God who made us able to endure.

And yet it is us, it's you, it's me, whoever. Who does the enduring by God making us able to endure. That sounds so circular. I like to think of it as a parent, when a child stands up for the first time and walks and so often it's mom or dad who's got the thumbs out there and the child's holding on to the thumbs, those thick little blubbery legs that our infants have and they walk two or three steps and what do we all do?

We applaud, we say how great that is, little Johnny or little Susie walked. You walked and we all clap and it's adorable and I don't make fun of that at all, I think it's a blessed, wonderful time. They walked, they moved their legs, didn't they?

They got from point A to point B, why were they able to walk? Because they're holding on to mom or dad's thumbs and the thumbs are moving them along and if they let go of the thumbs, they're gonna fall on their face and we all know that and yet we applaud them for having walked.

It's sort of like that here. All analogies, all metaphors break down if we press them too far but you see my point. We do the enduring but we're little children with blubbery little legs that don't know how to work yet holding on to our father's thumbs and he moves us along and so we do the enduring because he endured us in a manner of speaking.

If we endure, we will reign with him and I have to tell you this morning, I'm not even gonna touch what it means to reign with Christ. That opens up so much for us. Let's just suffice to say it's the crown of life.