Faithful in "Negative World" - Pt. 1

as frontlets between your eyes. You should write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Heavenly Father, we praise You as the God who is above all gods.

Not that there are other gods, but there are pretended gods. Father, we praise

You that angels bow before You. We praise You that kings bow before You.

We praise You that the highest of the creatures are as nothing compared to You.

That the whole of the creation is as dust in the scales when compared to Your weight of glory.

So Father, we ask that You would glorify Yourself. That You would cause the creation to be a place of display of Your glory.

And that You would cause that to be more and more visible, more and more plain. That You would cause it to be seen subjectively more and more.

We pray that You would bless the righteous angels with their joy of seeing the truth of Your Word and to see the church made more and more manifest.

Father, we ask that You would bless the saints. That You would bless the elect with knowledge of You more and more.

We ask that You would build up the church throughout the world and cause the bride of Christ to be resplendent, to be beautiful in the earth.

And that You would cause the Word to wash away every blemish and wrinkle.

That the church would be a beautiful bride for Christ. We ask that You would build up this local church and that You would bless

Pastor Schwertle and Covenanted Reformed Presbyterian Church in Prosper, Texas.

We ask that You would bless us to move from fraternal relations to a presbytery being formed.

And Father, we ask that You would bless the work to put together a constitution.

And Father, we pray that You would bless us in communications with others.

We pray that You would cause the various disputes and things that would divide people in the

Reformed world to be resolved in truth. Father, I pray that You would bless us as we seek to build up relations with other saints throughout the world.

We pray for the saints in Ogden, that You would cause them to grow in the knowledge of You.

We pray for the saints in Georgetown. Father, we ask that You would bless us as we seek to work through things with other churches, that You would bless those efforts and relations.

Father, I ask that You would help us to not grow weary in doing good, but to endure in it, to overcome evil with good.

Father, we pray that You would bless us to apply Your law more and more, that You would cause the church throughout the world to know

Your law and to do it. We pray that You would cause the wicked to be bound by Your law through social customs and through law order, and that You would cause a restraint of evil.

We pray that You would cause the lamp of Your word to be powerful, to lighten our paths and cause us to walk in the way.

We pray that You would help us to not go to the left or to the right, but to walk in the way that You have commanded. Father, we pray that You would heal all those who are sick.

We ask that You would provide for us all the things that are needful for our duties in this life.

That You give us a competent portion of the good things of this life. And we ask that You would forgive us for our sins, knowing that we have been recipients of many, many gifts from You.

We have also received clear revelation from You, and we have benefited from the ordinances and oracles in the church.

And so, Father, we ask that You would forgive us our debts. That You would forgive us for Christ's sake.

That You would look upon the death of Christ, the blood of Christ as sufficient to pay for all of our debts.

And we ask that You would help us out of joy, out of rejoicing, out of gratitude, out of seeing the greatness of the work of Jesus Christ.

That You would help us to be able to be quick to forgive others as they repent. And we pray that You would help us to organize our lives, our time, the space that we control and the relationships that we manage.

That You'd help us to remove causes of temptation and that You would help us to subdue within us evil desire and cause us to be not slaves to sin, but to be slaves of righteousness.

To be servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we ask that You would do these things because You have the authority and power to grant them.

We ask that You would do these things for the sake of Your own glory and that You would do these things by the mediation of Jesus Christ.

In Christ's name, amen. All right, please open your scriptures now to Exodus 14.

If you can, Shafer, please come forward. Please stand for the reading of God's holy word.

Exodus chapter 14. Now the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to the children of Israel that they turn and camp before Pi -Haharoth between Migdal and the sea opposite Baal -Zephon.

You shall camp before it by the sea for Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, they're bewildered by the land.

The wilderness has closed them in. Then I will harden Pharaoh's heart so that he will pursue them and I will gain honor over Pharaoh and over all his army that the

Egyptians may know that I am the Lord. And they did so. Now it was told the king of Egypt that the people had fled and the heart of Pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people.

And they said, why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us? So he made ready his chariot and took his people with him.

Also, he took 600 choice chariots and all the chariots of Egypt with captains over every one of them.

And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he pursued the children of Israel. And the children of Israel went out with boldness.

So the Egyptians pursued them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen and his army, and overtook them, camping by the sea beside Pi -Haharoth before Baal -Zaphon.

And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted their eyes and behold, the

Egyptians marched after them. So they were very afraid and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord.

Then they said to Moses, because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness?

Why have you dealt with us? Why have you so dealt with us to bring us up out of Egypt? Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt saying, let us alone that we may serve the

Egyptians, for it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness. And Moses said to the people, do not be afraid.

Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will accomplish for you today.

For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever. The Lord will fight for you and you shall hold your peace.

The Lord said to Moses, why do you cry to me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward, but lift up your rod and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it.

And the children of Israel should go on dry ground through the midst of the sea. And I indeed will harden the hearts of the

Egyptians and they shall follow them. So I will gain honor over Pharaoh and over all his army, his chariots and his horsemen.

Then the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I have gained honor for myself over Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen.

And the angel of God, who went before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them. And the pillar of cloud went from before them and stood behind them.

So it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel. Thus it was a cloud and darkness to the one.

And it gave light by night to the other, so that the one did not come near the other all that night.

Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night and made the sea into dry land.

And the waters were divided. So the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea on the dry ground.

And the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. And the Egyptians pursued and went after them into the midst of the sea, all

Pharaoh's horses, his chariots and his horsemen. Now it came to pass in the morning watch that the

Lord looked down upon the army of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and cloud. And he troubled the army of the

Egyptians and he took off their chariot wheels so that they drove them with difficulty. And the Egyptians said, let us flee from the face of Israel for the

Lord fights for them against the Egyptians. Then the Lord said to Moses, stretch out your hand over the sea that the waters may come back upon the

Egyptians on their chariots and on their horsemen. And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea.

And when the morning appeared, the sea returned to its full depth while the Egyptians were fleeing into it.

So the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. Then the waters returned and covered the chariots, the horsemen and all the army of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them.

Not so much as one of them remained. But the children of Israel had walked on dry land in the midst of the sea.

And the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. So the Lord saved

Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians. And Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.

Thus Israel saw the great work which the Lord had done in Egypt. So the people feared the Lord and believed the

Lord and his servant Moses. Psalm one.

And Deacon Rodriguez would normally be reading this, but he's sick. Let's pray for him very briefly together.

Father, we ask that you would heal Deacon Rodriguez, that you would help him to quickly recover and to feel well.

We pray this in Christ's name, amen. Psalm one. Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners and sits not with the scornful men.

But he delights in the Lord's law, meditates on it day and night. He's like a tree planted by streams that brings forth his fruit in season.

His leaf also will not wither. And everything he does prospers. It is not so with the wicked.

They're like chaff blown away by wind. Therefore, when faced in the judgment, the ungodly will fail to stand.

Nor will sinners stand up among the assembly of righteous ones. For the

Lord knows the righteous way, but the wicked way will perish.

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners and sits not with the scornful men.

But he meditates on it day and night.

He's like a tree planted by streams that brings forth his fruit in season.

His leaf also will not wither.

Like chaff, they stand to stale.

Sinners stand, assembly is righteous way.

Your Bibles, excuse me. 2

Timothy chapter two. Really I'll start reading from chapter one, verse 13.

Please remain standing. Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me in faith and love, which are in Christ Jesus.

That good thing which was committed to you, keep by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.

This you know, that all those in Asia have turned away from me, among whom are figilists and homogenies.

The Lord grant mercy to the household of Anesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chain.

But when he arrived in Rome, he sought me out very zealously and found me.

The Lord grant to him that he may find mercy from the Lord in that day. And you know very well how many ways he ministered to me at Ephesus.

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 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.

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

The hardworking 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 also live with him.

If we endure, we shall also reign. If we die with him, 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, for the ruin of the hearers.

For the word of 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. But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife.

And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel, but be gentle to all. Able to teach, patient, and humility correcting those who are in opposition.

If God perhaps will grant them repentance so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.

You may be seated. Now both

First Timothy and Second Timothy are about the work of God and the work of the church to preserve the

Christian religion in the church as a covenanted community against physical and spiritual attack.

So that the individual saints can stand strong as the church together resists apostasy.

That's the heart of both books. And when we see First Timothy, there's persecution that's occurring, and there's already apostasy and opposition that's occurring.

In Second Timothy, the persecution has gotten worse, and so has the apostasy.

And so what we find on page two, we're reminded in the face of opposition that the thing to focus on is verse 13, hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me.

So we have the Apostle Paul, we have the apostolic deposit, and that's to be held onto in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.

So we're supposed to believe Christ, and we're supposed to, in believing Christ, believe his word which comes through his apostles.

When you believe the words of the apostles, you're believing Christ. Some people want to differentiate and separate the apostles from Christ, and that is heresy.

It is absurdity, and it denies the very messages of Christ, and we've looked at that as we've seen the apostolic deposit texts in John.

Also, the love is to be in Christ. It's to be a love that is focused on Christ and his body, the church, and we obey his commandment to love our neighbors and to love our enemies by trying to apply the law of God to all, but to focus on the love of God first and the love of the church and of our houses, the covenanted institutions, with this order of loves that goes out.

That good thing which was committed to you, the good thing that was committed was the pattern of sound words.

It's the scriptures, it's the apostolic deposit, keep by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.

So we're supposed to keep it as in terms of our own faith and believing it, having it stored up in our hearts.

We're also supposed to keep it in terms of our profession and to maintain the profession of the true religion in the midst of opposition and in the midst of apostasy and in the midst of persecution.

So there's a lot of talk about the changes that have occurred in the culture. Some people are saying that we've recently arrived in negative world.

It's a thing that gets used online, this idea of we're in negative world now. Christianity's been opposed.

Well, I'll tell you what, we've been in negative world for a long time. We're in more negative world, sure, but we've been in negative world for a long time.

It has been the case that if you assert the truth of God's word broadly, almost any sphere, whether it's education, whether it's politics, whether it's general life, whether you're talking to people in general, there hasn't been a friendliness to taking the scriptures and talking about them to try to apply them in a realm of life in American culture for a long time.

And so it may be the case that we have a more negative view of Christianity in significant parts of the country now than we did in the past, in previous decades, but it is, we've been in negative world for a long time.

What we are in is an increasing negative world, and the nice thing is that the church is becoming more aware of it and more aggressively

Christian. So I'm thankful for that. And so the idea of holding fast to the word and not being ashamed is one of the key things that's important for the preservation of the reformed faith in the world.

So this willingness to hold fast the pattern of sound words.

Now, confessional standards are a way that we corporately confess the truth in an efficient and orderly way.

And so this idea of holding fast the sound pattern of words is both in terms of the scripture and in terms of as the church matures, we want to hold fast to our confessional standard.

So the word that was committed to Paul, that was committed to Timothy is the scriptures.

Verse 15, this you know, that all those in Asia have turned away from me, among whom are vigilas and hermogenies.

Now, some people try to read this as like everybody, every church in Asia turned away. That's not the case. Ephesus is in Asia.

Timothy is in Ephesus. He's an officer there. That's not the point. The point is, all those who had been with Paul, who apparently were from the

Asian churches, fled from him, and they are in Asia. They were turned back.

There's a sort of this running away from him. So the people who came from the Asian churches with him to Rome have abandoned him.

This you know, that all those in Asia have turned away from me, among whom are vigilas and hermogenies.

The Lord grant mercy to the household of Anesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains.

Now, one of the things that happens during times of persecution and opposition is the officers get attacked and the officers get persecuted because they stand out.

Leaders stand out, and so they get attacked. Anesiphorus gives to you an example of how to deal with officers who are attacked for the sake of the truth of God's word, and it's to not be ashamed of them or of their being attacked.

You have to of course judge what they're being attacked for. You must be careful to not be ashamed of the things that they suffer or the attacks they undergo for the sake of the truth.

And so you look at what's going on and the suffering that's going on, and you look at the causes of those sufferings.

Now, it's also possible, you know, it happens a lot where people go and they throw garbage accusations at people who are telling the truth in order to try to shame them with garbage accusations.

This is particularly common in our time that oftentimes in politics, for example, anybody who's a

Christian who's in a particularly important point, if they're open and vocal about being a

Christian, it's particularly powerful to attack Christians with charges of sexual impropriety.

And so to have charges come out about that, that's a common thing that occurs.

And so you find things that are actually evil being things that come out as charges as a way of trying to discredit.

Now, the problem is there are sometimes true charges. There are oftentimes true charges that are horrifically evil deeds by people who claim to be

Christian. And so you've got this difficult situation there. But you have to be aware of the difficulty both of people attacking plainly for the truth or for coming up with false attacks in order to go after true officers with bogus charges.

And then there's also the reality that some people who are leaders need to be removed, need to undergo punishment, have committed heinous sins.

And so you have to consider all of those things, which means that you have a careful responsibility to seek to stand by officers through the process of dealing with them.

We were told in 1 Timothy this idea of you don't receive charges against an officer, an elder, without two or three witnesses.

And we have that responsibility for everybody. But we also especially need to be careful in terms of the way leaders are dealt with.

So being ashamed of the suffering that officers undergo for the truth is sin.

And we have the approved example, the positive example of Anessa Forrest, who was not ashamed of Paul, was not ashamed of his imprisonment, was not ashamed of his harsh imprisonment, was not ashamed to go to him, was willing to refresh him, was willing to go alongside and help him, and willing to suffer possible risks and harms to himself to help

Paul. Verse 17, but when he,

Anessa Forrest, arrived in Rome, he sought me out very zealously and found me.

So Anessa Forrest gets to Rome, zealously looks for Paul, who's imprisoned, and in that zealous looking for Paul, keeps looking until he finds him.

When he finds him, he brings to him refreshment, he brings to him help, he brings to him things for his care while he's in prison.

Sometimes people will take the verses in the scriptures that are about caring for the saints who are undergoing persecution and are in prison, and they'll try to apply them generally to people in prison.

You don't have a duty to go and refresh everybody in prison. You don't have a duty to go take special care of people who are in prison.

But when Christians, especially public leaders, teachers, undergo persecution, and even go to prison, you have a special duty to care to them in that persecution.

There's a special responsibility in the times of persecution to rally around and protect and care for the saints who are undergoing persecution.

So when Anessa Forrest arrived in Rome, he sought Paul out very zealously and found him.

The Lord grant to him that he may find mercy from the Lord in that day. And you know very well how many ways he ministered to me at Ephesus.

So Romanists like to take this text and say, here's a proof text that you should pray for the dead.

This is the strongest text in the

Bible today. I'm able to support that. Because you could see how, if you come in with that doctrine, how easy it is to isogete it in.

So if you believe already that there's some authoritative teaching that you should pray for the dead, and you see, okay,

Anessa Forrest is being talked about, he's being talked about in past tense. He often refreshed me.

He was not ashamed. When he arrived, he sought me out very zealously.

The Lord grant to him that he may find mercy from the Lord in that day. What day? Must be the day of judgment.

So there we are. Paul's telling us to pray for Anessa Forrest that on the day of judgment, when

Christ returns and resurrects the dead, that he'd find mercy on that day.

And you know, there's this grant mercy to the household of Anessa Forrest, because he must be dead, and so there must be a need to give things to his house to care for his household.

And so you put it all together, and you kind of go, that feels like a plausible reading. Well, the problem is that we are, to find that doctrine of praying for the dead, no place in the scriptures explicitly taught for sure.

And then you look at this, and it's not a necessary reading. It's not a necessary inference. It's not a necessary reading. And so let me present to you a just as plausible, and I would suggest, given the rest of the teaching of scripture, more than plausible, in fact, necessary reading.

Okay, so let's walk through how you read this in response to Rome. You say, the

Lord grant mercy to the house of Anessa Forrest for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chain.

Okay, so there's something happening where Anessa Forrest is having something happen, and his household is having some sort of a loss, and Anessa Forrest used to refresh and used to show that he was not ashamed of Paul's chains.

Okay, so quick thought for you. What if Anessa Forrest was identified as a

Christian as a result of his helping Paul during this time of persecution that we're looking at?

This is, again, before the destruction of Jerusalem. It's after the fire that was caused in Rome that Nero was blamed for, and Nero tried to shift blame to the

Christians. So this is the persecuting time following that. So Anessa Forrest is identified as a Christian, and as a result, imagine for just a minute that he was also put into prison like the apostle

Paul. Would that also make it so that he's no longer able to provide for his household?

It would. Okay, so then we go to verse 17. But when he arrived in Rome, he sought me out very zealously and found me.

Okay, so this is past work. One of the reasons that we should pray for the Lord to grant mercy to the household of Anessa Forrest, he's suffering for righteousness' sake.

He took a risk. The Lord grant to him that he may find mercy from the Lord in that day.

So this could be a prayer for his justification, but I'll tell you what, in what day. Well, one of the things that we find,

Paul's gonna talk about his persecution, and he's gonna talk about having been delivered from lions. And the thing is, if you are being persecuted and you're awaiting some sort of great punishment like execution, the thing you would expect people to be praying for you about is very specifically that you would maintain the faith in the face of this persecution.

And he's using Anessa Forrest in terms of an example of faithful ministry, and we're going to deal with this idea of continuing to maintain the witness in the face of opposition.

So Anessa Forrest, the saints were encouraged to pray, and he prays,

Paul prays, that Anessa Forrest, in other words, would receive mercy on the day of his trial, his tribulation, his suffering, his persecution unto death.

And you know very well how many ways he ministered to me at Ephesus. So this is a reminder again of the good works that were done.

So there's no reason here why you have to read this as prayer for the dead. So next, chapter two, verse one.

In fact, the only reasonable way to read it, frankly, is to read it as Anessa Forrest is in the same sort of situation

Paul is and is praying for strength for him, to receive the 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 hardworking farmer must be first to partake of the crops. Consider what I say, and may the

Lord give you understanding in all things. So there's a call here to Timothy and by implication to us to be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

So to be strong in the grace is to have the sanctification and spiritual gifts that come from Christ Jesus be strong in us.

We're looking for a strength of faith. This would go back to this idea of holding fast to the pattern of sound words.

And so strength in the faith, strength in the grace that comes from Christ, strength in our sanctification, this need to focus on obedience to Christ as a way of being faithful.

You see, there's always temptation to compromise on what God has commanded.

And when there's persecution and when there's social pressure and when there's mockery, there's an even higher temptation and even on the edges to compromise for the sake of having other people think better of you or reduce the pain they're going to bring and to try to reduce some of those things.

You go, is it really necessary on this thing or that thing that I have to hold the line? That seems pretty small, it's a small detail.

Is it really something I have to hold the line on if it's been revealed by the Lord Jesus Christ?

You should not compromise on any proposition of truth or any commandment of the

Lord Jesus Christ for the sake of conveniency. 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.

So now there's the, again, there's the scripture teaching that's given, there's the propositional revelation that comes from the mind of God and then there's the organizing work and the public teaching work of officers in the church and this idea that the public teaching is more formal.

There's an emphasis on being careful to give sound words in the formal and public teaching.

And so the public ministry of the church in terms of confessional statements, pulling together words in an organized way and the public teaching of ministers so that they can be challenged by other people so there's opportunity for public confrontation about error so that other people hear it and are testing it, that is a more sure type of teaching.

It is a type of teaching that is to be looked upon as important to give your attention to. So taking heed of the public teaching, capturing that information, transmitting that information and repeating that cycle is what mature men are called to do.

The whole church is called to do it but there's a special duty for those who are mature and who are going to teach others to take heed of the public teaching, to capture that, to transmit it and to go through a repeating process.

So the things that you've 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 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.

We have three analogies that are used here for the pastoral ministry and being faithful in ministry especially in the face of opposition in this negative world.

You look at these three analogies, there's the soldier, the athlete and the farmer. The soldier, the athlete and the farmer.

And they're each used to demonstrate different points. The soldier is used as one who is an example for enduring hardship.

The soldier is expected obviously to enter into battle Battle is a place where you risk your life, where you go through difficult things, you watch friends suffer and die, you yourself risk suffering and dying and may well.

And you also go through the pains of combat and go through the various small injuries and larger injuries that occur in combat.

As you are in combat, the things that occur, the losses that occur, we are all aware of the fact that many who go into combat, even if they are not physically harmed, they're often put into a place where the traumas of the mind are so intense that it affects their behavior and attitude sometimes for the rest of their lives.

It is a great trial to deal with a life and death struggle with other men.

And because of that greatness of that trial, there's a recognition of the need to endure hardship there.

But the enduring of hardship is not merely the intense moments of combat. It is a common joke to talk about warfare being long, drawn out periods of boredom with punctuated moments of terror.

So the terrors are one thing, but the long slog, the idea of having to march at distance, the idea of having to carry significant gear, the need to deal with difficult overseers, to deal with men who you're around who might not be the most pleasant, the difficulty of continuing through and having to deal with minor injuries that add up over time.

When you're carrying significant amount of gear and you're moving a significant amount of distance, you get lots and lots of minor injuries.

And those pile up and they don't heal because you don't get to stop. You just keep one glorious moment.

If we can just break through the enemy, if we can shatter their teeth and have a cavalry charge through and be done and be victorious, how great that would be.

And the hard thing is to be faithful in the long slog. The glorious cavalry charge.

Is it a moment that you go, yeah, I might die. But the trench warfare, the grinding it out, the long term difficulties, frustrations, dangers, that long slog, that is a part of the endurance that is necessary for soldiers.

And some of us may live to see glorious moments of victorious charges, but they don't end the war.

They might be victorious moments where battles are won, but there are more battles to follow.

We will be here, the saints will be on earth for a long time. And so there's this call to deal with hardship and to endure.

No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life. This idea that there's a focus on the spiritual warfare and on this engaging in this work.

Now, soldiers, you go, okay, well, you're not gonna have another profession, you're gonna focus on this profession of soldiering. The thing about Christianity is,

Christianity's not a nine to five job. The pastorate is not a professional class.

This verse is sometimes used to say, you shouldn't have bifurcational ministry. Men shouldn't have a second job.

Well, the Apostle Paul did tent making in order to pay for things while doing ministry.

It might be ideal to be able to have so much money that you can give some men the ability to stop their other work, but this idea of a minister who is focused purely on church work and doing nothing else is also the kind of thing that makes it so that when you read verse four, this is the kind of basis for Roman Catholicism, trying to say things like ministers ought not to be married.

Ministers ought not to have their own children. And so you go, okay, celibate, no children, no jobs except for working in the church.

That, if we're saying, let's totally avoid the affairs of this life, and we interpret anything except for church work as the affairs of this life, can you see how the celibate ministry becomes the way that you think about it?

But what if one of the great ways of waging war as a minister is to show other saints how to work like a

Christian in making money? What if one of the great ways of waging warfare as a minister is to show other

Christians how to be a good husband and how to be a good father? What if this warfare is taking every area of life captive to the word of God and being faithful in this charge to focus on this warfare and avoid being entangled in the affairs of this life means trying to apply the word of God to every area and having no secluded spaces that are separated off from the word of God?

That would be the historic Protestant way of reading this. And weirdly, in Protestant churches, there have been some groups that have tried to more and more take this and make it into a thing to make it so that ministers have to be full -time and to have no other areas where they can potentially make money.

What that does is it ties ministers in to being a bigger burden to the church, and it also ties in ministers to being captive to and under pressure to please the church as opposed to doing their duty of actually being a good soldier of the

Lord Jesus Christ and focusing on pleasing him. So chapter two, verses three and four gives the analogy of the soldier, and here's the point of the analogy.

Be willing to endure hardship for the sake of your captain and be willing to give your focus to waging war and applying his commandments in every area of life and having no spaces where you keep yourself separated off from the commandments of your captain.

The analogy of the athlete. No one engages in warfare, sorry, verse five, and also if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.

So in other words, if you're an athlete and you're required to follow a certain set of rules to win, if you then, let's consider, for example, some type of race.

If there's a race that has multiple legs, and let's say one of them is running, one of them is cycling, and one of them is swimming.

Let's just make up an event that has those. If you go, well, running's slower than cycling, so I'm just gonna cycle through the running part.

And swimming's slower than cycling, so I'm just gonna cycle around the swimming part. And so you cycle the whole time and you're passed by the runners and you laugh, and you get to the cycling part and the other guys are just getting to their bikes when you're basically finishing the cycling part and you laugh, and then they all get into the water to start swimming just at about the time that you hit the finish line and you go,

I got here first. I am the winner. I cycled faster than you guys cycle ran, swam.

Nobody's going to give you the trophy. They're all going to say, you're disqualified, you're a loser because you lost, because you cheated.

They're gonna say, you didn't follow the rules. Trying to accomplish the goal without following the rules is a great way to be a loser.

That's the point of the analogy. So if we want to run the race so as to win it, if we want to be like athletes who seek hard to develop skill to be able to win following the rules of the race, following the rules of the game, then what we're going to do is we're gonna say,

I want to win the race of glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ with my life.

And so what I'm going to do, as opposed to trying to glorify God, with the arm of the flesh or with inventions of men or with things that are pleasing to humans but not to God, I'm going to carefully try to run the race by using the rules of the game that the

Lord Jesus Christ has given. And that's the regulated principle of life. That's the regulated principle of worship.

That's the regulated principle of government. The regulated principle of doctrine.

We, officers, all Christians, must learn that when we seek to fight, to compete, we must play according to the rules.

The way you get the crown, the way you get the honors of honoring Christ, the rewards for honoring

Christ come for those who actually seek to apply the rules that Christ has given.

And so we want to be careful to do things in ministry using the methods that Christ has given.

That's the point of the analogy of the athlete. The analogy of the farmer. The hardworking farmer must be first to partake of the crops.

The analogy of the farmer is the point that, you know, we see Paul talk about the farmer in 1

Corinthians. He talks about how some plant, some water, and some reap the harvest.

And he says, you know, if you're the one who does the work of planting and watering, it is appropriate to make sure that there is reward there.

The hardworking farmer must be first to partake of the crops.

So the principles of ministry that we get, the minister must focus on obedience to Christ in the warfare in every area of life.

He must endure hardship and not run away. And he must focus on the commandments of Christ in every sphere.

As an athlete, he must apply the rules to seek to win the prize by applying the rules that Christ has given and not inventing his own methods.

And as a farmer, he must receive the rewards of the harvest.

And so the idea here is, sometimes we're tempted to say, this is hard,

I'm gonna give up. Sometimes we're tempted to say, I'm gonna give this area, but not that area.

Sometimes we're tempted to say, I wanna compete, but I'm gonna do it the way that I think is effective or pragmatic, as opposed to the way that Christ has commanded.

And sometimes we're tempted to say, well, you're a minister, you should have done that.

Why do you expect to be rewarded for it? And so the ascetic temptation, the temptation of not honoring, not rewarding those who do ministry work is one of those things that's supposed to be meditated on by officers, so as to avoid a twisting of a view of the

Christian life or Christian officers. Paul finishes these three analogies saying, in verse seven, consider what

I say, and may the Lord give you understanding in all things. He tells him, hey, hold on to the word that I've taught in public, hold on to the sound pattern of words, and consider this.

He just ends that analogy, just consider this. So the soldier, the athlete, and the farmer, the points of those three analogies are things that should be meditated on by officers.

Why? And all saints would benefit from this, but especially those who have any leadership responsibility.

First of all, because it's going to be hard, it's spiritual warfare, and there's going to be temptation to not endure.

We must meditate on the need to endure in the faith.

And we must meditate on the need to, in a sober -minded way, focus on building and continuing to trudge and to focus on winning the war and not being distracted by other stuff, because it's so easy to be distracted by other stuff.

So focusing on winning the war, focusing on the spiritual warfare, enduring the hardship must be focused on.

Also, we're tempted to be wiser than God. The athlete is worthy of meditation, because we're tempted to be wiser than God and to invent our own methods of doing things.

One of the big things that was invented by men in the period that people call positive world, the 80s and 90s to some extent, this idea that mega -churches were successful because you could have a general positivity about Christianity, and then if you just tried to put on a show that was entertaining and that met the felt needs of people and provided services that met the felt needs of people, that you could pragmatically, quickly build a crowd.

And in building that crowd, you would be able to gradually kind of do a bait and switch on I'm giving you this show and I'm giving you this stuff or services you claim to want, and then

I'm going to sprinkle some Jesus in and try to get you to care about Christianity in the midst of that.

That kind of methodology is a desire to invent a way of avoiding the rules that are given to the church for how to do ministry work.

And if instead you focus on the idea that the church is called to teach the doctrine, to lead with right worship, and to have right government, and you focus on that and you focus on building up Christian homes in the way that God has commanded and applying the law of God to the whole of life, then those are how the race is supposed to be run, and that's how you fulfill that duty of the athlete.

The temptation to compromise for the sake of success or ease or pain avoidance is the reason ministers and anyone who wants to lead must meditate on the athlete.

And for the farmer, the reason you must meditate on the farmer is because Jesus Christ underwent the shame and the cursed death of the cross because of the reward, the reward, the way that wise people think is they think

I'm going to risk, I'm going to suffer, I'm going to do things that are unpleasant for the time because it's worth it because of the reward.

The fool must be moved around with being whacked.

Pain is the principal motivator of the fool. Foolish people do the minimum to get by to avoid great pain.

The wise take on pains in order to gain great rewards.

And so you must focus on the idea of the reward in order to be motivated as a wise man to do the work.

So thinking on the need to endure and to have every area under the authority of the captain as a soldier, thinking on the need to apply the rules to advance and to win the race as an athlete, and thinking on the work as a farmer, enjoying the reward, thinking on the reward as that which helps you to be motivated.

Soldier, athlete, farmer, every Christian benefits from meditating on these things, but officers especially must meditate on these things.

Page three, verse eight. Remember that Jesus Christ, 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. Paul is being accused of being an evildoer.

He's being accused of being an evildoer and is in chains because of the fact that he's preaching the gospel, because of the fact that he's preaching

Jesus Christ. Now, here's the thing. We all think of like martyrdom and persecution and we think it's gonna be great.

I'm gonna go out there and I'm gonna preach the gospel and people are gonna say, don't preach the gospel, how dare you,

Jesus is bad. And you're gonna go, no, Jesus is awesome, and here's the gospel again, deal with it. And they go, we're gonna persecute you for the gospel.

And everybody sees you there publicly and you're being persecuted. It's like, this guy's persecuted for the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is bad.

And you go, actually, that's not true, the gospel's awesome and you should believe it.

And you get to say the gospel and then all of a sudden, they pull a rope in your hand and you're like, wow, that was really great. That's not how it goes.

You know how it goes? You preach the gospel and people go, that guy is a liar and a robber and a murderer and an adulterer.

And you go, no, that's not true. Hear the gospel and they go, why should we listen to you? You're a liar and a murderer and an adulterer and a thief.

And you go, those things aren't true. The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ should be heard by all the nations and everyone and they kill you.

That's the kind of thing that happens when you're in the middle of fighting for this thing and they just say, no, what's wrong is that what you're doing is evil.

You're using religion as a coverup for righteousness. These are the kinds of things that normally happen.

The covenanters weren't persecuted explicitly for the sake of Jesus Christ.

They were persecuted because they were rejecting the authority of the king. King Charles II has commanded you to submit to the proper religious worship laid out in the

Book of Common Prayer. How dare you reject the authority of the king? And look at your rebellious spirit. You're not willing to kneel down at the

Lord's Supper? Do you not love Jesus? Do you not think Jesus is worthy of being honored by kneeling down as you come to the

Lord's Supper? Okay, how about this? The idea that Christians get persecuted because you say you're rejecting church authority.

Think about Protestants against Roman Catholicism. You won't accept all the work of the holy saints and of Mary, the mother of God, and you won't accept the holy father, the pope.

You go, no, I won't. I think that the papacy is a contrived human invention, and I honor

Mary as the mother of Christ and the mother of His divinity by His hypostatic union, but not in the sense that His divinity was made by her.

And yet, I honor the saints and the faithful confessors of the faith that came before, and I believe that we should honor them, but their merits are not a part of my basis for my salvation, and I'm not gonna pray to them.

And you go, okay, well, we're gonna kill you because you're rejecting this. The plain, simple,

I'm dying for Jesus, that was the kind of thing that happened to some extent in the first century, in the second century, in the third century, but the saints that die most of the time in places where there's persecution from some sort of a group that kind of pretends to be

Christian or is Christian weakly is a persecution for things that are not right there just about Jesus Christ.

Now, right now, you look at the Sudan, and there's Christians that are being killed just for being Christians by the

Muslims, but even the Muslims who kill them come up with reasons. Oh, this town is holding rebels in it, or supporting rebels.

Are they rebels, or is it a militia that's resisting Muslims that are killing Christians? This is what happens over and over again.

It's the propaganda war. You need to realize that the propaganda war is how

Christianity gets fought. And so when you stand up for Christ, rarely is it this guy is being persecuted because he's a

Christian. They come up with other stuff. So remember that Jesus Christ, at the seat 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.

People can try to shut you down, slow you down, stop you, and you can be chained, you can be stopped, you can be

YouTube banned. This is bad over there, everything's terrible. You gotta go do this, you gotta go fix this,

Luther. We need you to do this. We need you to go fix this problem and to overcome this difficulty and to solve this issue over here, and you need to do this.

And Luther's response was to go, okay, you don't need Luther. The word of God is what does these things.

The word of God is what fixed these things. Martin Luther and Melanchthon sit in the garden drinking beer, and the word of God still goes forth.

That attitude, we must work hard because we're commanded to. We must have the attitude knowing that God does not need you,

God does not need me. He could slay us all right now, and he would make it so that his word still goes forth.

He would build his church. He would cause the truth to advance and to fill the earth.

I am not necessary, you are not necessary. Graveyards are filled with indispensable men.

And so the reality that the glory of God will advance, the glory of God will fill the earth.

The word of God is not chained. And therefore, knowing that the victory is guaranteed, 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.

Paul has the attitude of a soldier enduring. Paul has the attitude of an athlete trying to win the race according to the rules.

Paul has the attitude of a farmer who wants to partake in the benefits of the harvest.

And so he endures for the sake of the elect, for the knowledge of God to fill the earth, for the glory of Christ.

So he goes to the faithful saying and it helps to say here's something to remember in this, another thing to meditate on.

And I'll spend more time on this next time. I don't want to leave you with it. 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. Let's pray.

Father, we ask that you would cause your word to powerfully bring men to conversion in life.

We ask that you would build up your church. Father, we pray that you would mature it.

Father, we ask that you would help us to meditate on a soldier who endures and who seeks to apply the captain's orders to the whole of his life.

We ask that you would help us to meditate upon the athlete who focuses on seeking to win the race according to the rules, that we would not invent our own ways of trying to get to the finish line or to win the game.

Father, we ask that you would help us to meditate on the farmer and the idea of participating in blessing and reward as we labor.

We ask that you'd help us to risk and to suffer loss and cost for the sake of the glorious benefits and the rewards that you give in Christ.

We pray all of this in Christ's name, amen. All right, comments, questions, objections for the voting members as we're speaking rights.

All right, and let's sing

Psalm 2. Please stand.

Why do pagan nations rage on and the people plot in vain? Kings of earth do set themselves up and the rulers counsel take.

Against the Lord they plot together, say against the Messiah, let us break their bands asunder, let us cast their cords from us.

He who sits in heaven will laugh. The Lord will view them with scorn. He will speak to them in wrath and vex them with his displeasure.

Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I'll declare the sure decrees of what the

Lord has said to me. You alone are my son, truly this day

I've begotten you. Ask of me for your inheritance, all the nations

I will give. Even to the ends of the earth, all will be your possession.

You will break them as with iron, like a pot dashed to pieces. Therefore kings be wise and judges of the earth instructed be.

Serve the Lord with holy fear and so rejoice with great trembling. Kiss the son, lest he be angry and you perish from the way.

When his wrath kindles but little, blessed are all who trust in him.

Mm -hmm. Why do pagan nations rage on and the people plot in vain?

Kings of earth do set themselves up and the rulers counsel take.

Against the Lord they plot together, say against the

Messiah. Let us break their bands of sunder.

Let us cast their cords from. He who sits in heaven will ease up.

What the Lord has said, my son truly, this day

I ask of me possession.

Kiss the son, lest he be angry and you perish from the way.

Blessed are all who trust in him. Lord bless you and keep you.

Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.