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It'll be very profitable.
It's all there for my son. He's strong and great for his in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou have heard of me, among many witnesses, the same Smith thou the faithful man who shall be able to teach others also.
Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that wore us entangles himself with the affairs of his life, that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier? And if a man also strives for massage, yet is he not crowned, except to strive lawfully. The husbandman, that labourers must be first partaker of the truth. Consider what I say, and the Lord give the understanding in all things. Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead, according to my gospel.
Maria and I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even under bond, for the word of God is not found. Therefore I endure all things for the elected sake, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. It is a faithful thing, for if we be dead with Him, we shall also live with him. If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him. If we deny Him, he also will deny us. If we believe not. Yet he abideth faithful, He cannot deny himself.
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While these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no prophet.
But to the subverting of the hearers study to show thyself improved unto God, a Workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth, but Johnson and vain babbling. For they will increase unto more ungodliness, and their word will eat as Duffy anchor of whom is Hymenaeus, and Clay leaders, who concerning the truth have heard saying that the resurrection is passed already, and overthrow the faith of scum.
Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth. Sure, having this field, the Lord knoweth them that are his, And let everyone that name it the name of Christ depart from iniquity. But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also wood, and averse, some to honor and some to dishonor. The man therefore perched himself from these who shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good word. Lee also used the lust to follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
But foolish and unlearned questions avoid knowing that they do gender strikes, and the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men have to keep patience and meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves, if God for adventure will give them repentance through the acknowledging as a truth.
And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.
That Paul wrote evidently because in chapter 4.
He says. The time of my departure is at hand, so.
He's giving his last instructions to.
An individual. It's not written to an assembly, it's written to an individual. Timothy.
Evidently a young man, evidently A timid young man.
Nice to see a lot of young people here today and I think it's helpful in this chapter to see the different figures of a Christian that are given me are figures that we know quite well in natural life around.
Mentions in verse 2 The faithful Man, verse 3A Soldier. Verse 5 is a an athlete. Verse 6A Farmer.
Down in verse.
15-A Workman.
In verse 21 or 20 and 21 a vessel.
And in verse.
24 A servant of the Lord. So these are figures we know in natural life and false fairs and verse.
Seven, consider what I say, and the Lord give the understanding. So there are lessons to be learned in these figures that we have that are extremely helpful for the day that we live in.
That's great in our chapter, and we can never overestimate or overvalue great.
About grace, it says in First Corinthians 10/9 You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Every believer here, every believer in the world, knows something of this grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And one thinks of what Peter wrote about it in First Peter 113.
A bird that's a marvel to me.
He says There, therefore gird up the loins of your mind.
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Keep our minds, be sober, and hope to the end.
Or what the great that is to be brought under us at the revelation of Jesus Christ? Don't we know Jesus Christ be strong in the grace which is in Jesus Christ our Lord? Our chapter begins.
Now therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in grace peace.
So go, go to the Corinthians, said, you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ as though he was rich. Yes, for your text he became poor, that he to his property might be rich. Grace brings us into everything that Christ has.
Yeah, And then in the knowledge of our worldview discussion. And then that's great, that people undo us at the revelation of Jesus Christ. I tried to think of it this way, that evidently talking to me about the first time I see.
We're going to see him.
We're going to see his face. We learned Greek all the way through the wilderness.
And we're as we were singing, we don't need to fear the journey's length. But this will had a long time getting through the world. Some of us don't have so long. Some have a very short time. But when we get out of this world, we're going to be in heaven. We know the great by grace, Are you saved through faith?
So I bring this into his family and he's bringing us into that glory. And evidently Peter said the grace that's be brought and blessed, that's a revelation of Jesus Christ.
I guess that's something that Paul couldn't even write about the glory of that great.
Two, it goes along with following verses as well. For by grace are you saved through faith? None of yourself. It's a gift of God. None of works with any man should vote.
For we are.
His workmanship, A masterpiece created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before prepared for for us. I have enjoyed that very much, that what we are is what He has made us. It is God that work is thinking both the will and to do of His good pleasure. And so we are the product, the masterpiece.
Of the hand of God. He's a skilled Workman.
We don't always measure up to what we should, but then nevertheless we're we are what we are, but the grace of God.
Every all the glory to God.
If he's picked this up by his dear sovereign Grace, there's nothing I can boast of, Of what I am in myself, absolutely nothing. And this wonderful brethren to realize that not only are we saved by grace, but every step of the pathway down here is great. I love that verse in the 5th chapter. First Peter Two. It says the God of all Grace.
You need some more grace to go on, brother. Are you finding this tough in life? He's the God of all grace. Go ask him for more grace to go on. He'll give it. He has no limits to his giving and that's the power of going on in a day of ruin. Sometimes I think that Ball may have said maybe this is the way we would have thought he would have said, Timothy. Things are slipping so bad.
First chapter he mentions all in Asia and abandoned him.
Sit down some rules and regulations and make sure that the brethren keep to those rules and regulations.
It won't work. Rather, in our hearts don't work that way. What is it that draws the heart so powerfully is the realization that we stand before a God of all grace that is called listen to his eternal voice. And are we sufficient for these things, Brother? Absolutely not. But we have to prove every step of our pathway down here that he's a giving God. He's a God.
Of all grace. And so Timothy is exhorted to be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus want to mention that when we speak of it that way, we're not speaking about laxity. And sometimes people think that when we speak of God, it's the God of all grace, that we are just passing over what is not right and what is not according to the.
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Standard that God sets up in his scripture in the scripture, but that's not the case because the Lord Jesus in order to be able to show grace to us more love sinners and to go to the cross and every one of those sins I've ever committed were laid on him and he bore the full penalty for it all. Grace is not passing over extreme lightly, and if somebody thinks that's what grace means.
That is not what grace means.
Grace take things seriously. The brother we can't go on except we know him to be the God of all grace, and we're not going to be able to go on in these days. It's a lesson where you constantly have to learn. Does anybody here learned it for good, or are we learning together?
Last epistle.
He concludes it with praise being with you.
It was mentioned that we are grow and great and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. These are the last words of Peter.
And when we turn to the last book of the Revelation, and we see the last word, John.
Concludes with God's grace. So this tells us, beloved, that these.
Agent Apostles who are the foundation of the Assembly.
Would have us to be occupied with the strength of God. It's also mentioned that it is sometimes considered grace might be.
Thought of as carelessness as the sin. Going to read Titus chapter 2 and verse 11.
That shows us why we do not need to fear grace.
Breeze.
Of God, which carries with its salvation for all men, has appeared teaching us and having denied.
Iniquity, ungodliness, having that I've worldly lost, we should live soberly and justly and piously in his best important things. But it doesn't stop there. It sets before us the blessed hope that is the expectation of the Lord Jesus Christ coming at any moment to take us out of this scene.
And it set before us great. The grace of God that has brought salvation to us, sets before us the hope of the Lord Jesus Christ coming to carry us out of this thing, to be with himself forever. And it sets before us a blessing, appearing when he comes to the very scene that cast him out and crucified him to establish the grace of God in this world. And so we have the grace that teaches us how to conduct ourselves and sets before us the hope of the Lord Jesus Christ not only.
In the Rapture, but in his appearing to set up the Kingdom of these worlds.
To be the Kingdom of our God. So grace is the integral, the essential element of Christianity. And because of the natural tendency of our hearts to seek of all, to seek a rule to keep, we are cautioned at the very end of the apostles days to be strong in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And my dream acceptable with reverence and godly fear, Hebrews.
Chapter 12. Grace will enable us to do that. But you know, I was thinking for your when you were reading Titus, that was true. I was having the five opens to that same verse.
Should we not ask ourselves whether we have come into the good of the grace of God? If we are not living godly, the grace of God will teach us that and the danger is of going to 1 extreme or the other. In June we have the warning of people that turn the grace of God into lasciviousness, using the grace of God as an excuse for sin.
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Well, it has helped me quite a bit personally is looking at the Beatitudes in Matthew 5. He finds that the first Beatitudes have to do with righteousness and then the next Beatitudes have to do with mercy and grace. And it is suggested by this fact that there has to be a balance of things. We cannot just stress grace if we do only stress grace.
Then we might come to what is warned again in June, turning the grace of God into lasciviousness. But if we do not balance righteousness with grace?
And only stress. Righteousness has been lead to legality, and it drives people away. There has to be a balance in these things, and the Lord's teaching on the Sermon of the Mount begins with this.
Showing these two things that we should hopefully have in the life of everyone of us righteousness and grace. A balance in these things is what the Lord is looking for.
Also there.
College with the pointing up of the bridge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Law. John. Chapter One. The Law came by Moses.
Of great and fruit came by Jesus Christ, and this is where we see the perfect expression of this grace of God the Lord Jesus coming. And in the coming and grace and truth we have that balance of grace and righteousness of which we have just about about what it is just a month. So praise in him.
He is the He is the pattern. He is the occupation for our parts which enables us to walk. Grace that is perfectly expressed, and I bless it, man.
You have another reference made to great to be established by grace. What establishes the soul is great.
And that's very important for us.
To lay hold of, not with me. That's the legal system that the Jews had. Don't do this. Don't do that. You have to do that. That is not what establishes the soul. Grace will establish the soul.
God, it's very blessing.
Free because of what the Lord Jesus has done. And so that's the basis of which all blessing ever comes to us is through Christ. It's great. And I was thinking of a case in the old system. Maybe it would help us understand the being strong in this and great.
Case of delight with the horem in Israel. Why this is the second kings. I will just refer to it and the lighthouses there, and they get into a predicament.
No water.
And they tried to the prophet and the when the prophet he liked to see this wicked king.
Doesn't have a message from God and he asked for a minstrel. The minstrel distracts him, gets his mind off the present condition, and then the communications can flow and he springs lessons. He brings water that they need, but rather when we live on the day of ruin, we can get our eyes off of the store, we can get taken up with the things around us and.
Become unusual, become not dispensers of what God really wants to give, and the basis upon which thought shall give pleasure, which is great. And so we have to get back to that basis. Sometimes it takes a minstrel to do that. Maybe, but we anyway, we need to get back to the stores. How can God bless in the day of ruin? We don't deserve it, rather.
And we we get our feelings wrapped up sometimes with our bread and or one another or our fault, and we get discouraged and the blessing drives up, as it were.
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Great.
I'm good. So Timothy, that's what we're going to do as he was going to go on and serve after.
Certainly applicable to us.
Great focus is on what God know how wonderful they turn from ourselves. God, the greatness of this Dean brothers know that all our blessings depends on him, not on ourselves anyway, we just simply are receivers of that great.
Thinking of Brother, he'll mentioned that person.
John's Gospel, Chapter One.
Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. I'd like to link that with the new, small, simple statement that we often use in the Gospel and John's epistle. God is light and God is love.
Grace is the manifestation of the truth that God.
And proof is the manifestation of this. Proof that God is like the 2GO hand in hand. You can't separate. If God is going to show grace, he's going to be, won't, will not compromise the standard of righteousness. He cannot deny himself. You have that, but he's going to show it. But he shows it on the groundwork of that standard.
So as you trade the Lord Jesus through this world, especially in John's Gospel, that is beautiful. To see how that sounds, you know, great. Explore, Never compromising the Son of God. Never. He makes that poor woman in the fourth John. She's been living a pretty bad life. But he speaks about the water, the will of living water, and she says, give me this water.
And he said go call my husband and come get it.
That had to be studied, too. The story of her life had to come out into the light. But all the two things that went beautifully together. We need to meditate, poor brother, on the perfection of those two things in the life of the Lord Jesus, and in meditating on them realize that this is our life. In the measure that we enjoy in Him, we are going to be conformed as well to that same image the Lord giveth to know.
These days have been mentioned these last days to know what it means to be strong in the grace that is crazy.
At first, Hebrews 13 was mentioned.
It is good.
The apostle says that the hardship is that embrace and not meet, and correctly it was mentioned that term of means refers to all of the ordinances and sacrifices of which that very official says they do.
Participated in them, had no profit in them, but with grace being the characteristics.
Responsibility of the assembly in this world to administer grace from God. It is necessary, and that is what the conclusion of the Apostle draws at the end of Hebrews, after showing the superiority of Christ and Christianity to all that system that the heart could be established in Greece, and knowing the dependency of the heart to return the law be caused against cancer.
Or falling great, giving up free. Our hearts are just so lean to to desire your role, to desire the law, and you have to be strong integration. You have to have hard sex and it's great of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Other birds are like this opportunity in First Corinthians 15 and verse 10 that speaks of the grace of God.
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By the grace of God.
I am what I am, and is great. Which was bestowed upon me was not vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I but the grace of God, which was with me. Grace is what makes you understand it properly. It makes you a willing servant for God.
I It's interesting in Latin America rather than where Catholicism, Roman Catholicism has prevailed largely that the word grace that is taught in that religious system is not the way, the word the way we know the word grace in description and to explain it, it means in the Catholic system.
A virtue that I possess. And since I have that virtue, God looks at me with favor. That is not the word grace in the Bible, but that's the thought, and I often run into it as I go to Latin American. Like whether you were saying there's a natural tendency of our hearts to return to the principle of law that what we have received, we have received because of some faithfulness of our own.
The principle of love. But I remember meeting up with a lady somewhere in Latin America and she said, oh, you must gain a lot of favor with God by doing what you're doing, right?
Ma'am, I do nothing to gain favor with God. I have favor with God because of what Jesus did on the cross of Calvary. And now he's won my heart. And all my desire is to show my gratitude to that precious Savior that died for me, and I want to work for him. That's great, making this way.
And if you really understand it, it will make you a willing service.
Jesus certainly would suggest, would it not, that if we want to grow in Gray and become more characterized by grace in our life, we have to look to him and go on in communion and fellowship with him. That is what is going to bring about the change here.
We know what the tendency is, and we certainly humbly have to confess that the world is coming in amongst us, and the tendency is that we emphasize and overemphasize subjective ministry that have happened among brethren.
And it has led to a very legal, awful system which even went to stray in a serious way. Dark final the overemphasis on subjective, practical things, he suggested. Lines in the Word of God is always based on objective reality that has to be, first of all established in the soul, clearly used and seen and enjoyed.
Then come.
Practical admonition based upon our standing and position in Christ. So we are expected to conduct ourselves because of what we are, not in order to become something. I think that's Christianity, and we cannot overemphasize the importance of personal communion and fellowship with the Lord Jesus. You know, even in the.
Actor says that they took notice that they had been with Jesus. I think that.
Can't even still today be recognized in the life of the believer. Whether there is a life of communion and fellowship with him that makes all the difference. That's our source. It's not enough, it's in him. The divine order is given in the first chapter of Second Timothy. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, and then what follows for reprove, for correction, for instruction and righteousness.
That the man of God may be perfect, truly furnished unto all good words. There is no proper Christian conduct without being established in Christian doctrine. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine.
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To improve the correct instruction and righteousness, assault the doctrinal is first, and then the practice according to God's purposes, follows from a clear understanding of the doctrine that God has given, that the man of God may be perfect, truly furnished unto all good work.
It is not do and live, it's live and do.
Completely turned around, North gives us life as a for the David over here. Quoting from.
Defeating 2.
He works in IT and then he gives us something to do. Good work to follow that.
Live and do. And in our chapter here, the very next verse two, he goes right down to what we have been hearing of what you were saying to us, Dan. What is committed to us?
The things which thou hast heard of Maine, the oldest doctrine, and all this truth. Then he wants to provide a way for that to go on, and he has to come right on down to this day. So I think it'd be nice to look at this and see the change.
In which the truth of God has been preserved through the year we call 2000 from Paul's days. It's very simple in this second verse.
The things which God heard of me.
That's Paul. It's Paul Doctor. What was committed to him?
The same Smith Zou. Now you come if you're next in the line.
And then who's going to be after Timothy?
Faithful men, That's all said about It's not a history of brethren. It's the word carried down through faithful men goes right back from the beginning.
The God of all grace.
And then we're way down the cane. Aren't faithful men. We'd like to think about it.
I was thinking a very clear when somebody was talking over here and thinking about do and live and witness, he said. Contrasted to it many times I've heard him say it in your Christian testimony. It's not so much what you do that counts.
It's not so much what you say that counts, it's what you are. It gets right down to the roof, Christian, the hope of God.
The official will be avenged after the apostles tribes behavior of the Gentiles.
Says those who believe.
But you have not so learned the truth as it is in Jesus.
The priest is in him going about doing good in the midst of evil after goodness in his heart healing all those oppressive demons. The truth, as we see it demonstrated in the Lord of the Lord Jesus Christ, is the grace that he brought from the Father's power. And I put it this way here, watch.
We see in Jesus all that man should be to God, and we see in Jesus all God is command. That's the truth as it is in Jesus.
Notice it's not a gifted man, it's a faithful man.
The tendency is that we look to individuals that are capable and gifted, but faithfulness is keeping that which is entrusted faithfully.
It's demonstrated in the Old Testament when the remnant returns.
Some captivity.
The vessels that were entrusted to them were weighed out to them, and when they came to Jerusalem it was again way out, and checked to see that they had nothing, lost nothing of it, and I understand that sort of chapter. Brown has made the statement. I never heard him say it, that he had one exercise and that was that he wanted to test on the troops in the purity in which he had received it.
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That was the exercise of a faithful man. Now, Brenda, let me ask you, have we always faithfully continued in practicing the things that were recovered 170 some years ago? Is there not the danger for us that we might water down things, change things, adjust them to the conditions that we find in the Christian profession or perhaps even among ourselves?
Faithfulness is characteristic or characterized by maintaining what has been entrusted and not giving it up, buying the truth and not to sell it. You know, I hope we have that exercise and ask the Lord for help.
Because without His help we cannot keep anything. We cannot get anything without His help, the help of His Spirit, but we cannot either keep it without divine help. The Lord is able to do that.
Both passed the form of sound word which our circle of me chapter one in faith and love Christ Jesus, that good thing which was committed unto thee heat by the Holy Ghost that dwelleth in US.
Several verses in the 20th of act I'll read, as Paul was giving to me, how I kept back to nothing that was profitable under you, but it showed you, and it taught you publicly and from house to house further down. And now, brethren, I commend you to God.
Which is able to build you up and give you an A Harrison among all members were sanctified.
I am covenant. No man's silver or gold or apparel. Yeah, you yourselves know these hands minister my necessity for them that was with them. I have showed you all things how they're so laboring. You ought to support the week and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus. How he said it is more blessed to heal than we see. He was a faithful man, and it gives us a little word for the seasoned elders.
What is becoming and should be becoming to us today?
God, and I think that's important. It's like was mentioned before. It's not called in, say Timothy, Timothy, Timothy. You look for some gifted preachers or some people that understand the truth real well, no, I didn't say that. Faithful men. And this is the way the truth is maintained as it's been mentioned already down through the centuries. And here you have 4 generations in this verse too.
I think it's important to see that men establish their organizational structures to propagate the truth like.
Sometimes.
Seminaries, And I think we realize that Harvard and Yale, those old institutions of learning, were established to teach the word of God. And now if you go there, you find that rank infidelity is taught.
Those institutions that man makes are not the way the truth is mentioned. The way it is maintained is from by word of mouth to faithful men. And that's something that really searches us. Do I walk in the truth that I know? Because if I'm not walking on it, in it, I really don't have it, brother. It's only in the measure that I walk in it.
That I have it.
And can pass it on to others as well.
But that doesn't really matter. And so I I felt it was so pertinent that I appended it to the back of my Bible, and I'll read it. Shut your eyes to that which attracts nature, and unflinchingly carry out what you know to be the revealed mind of God.
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Unflinchingly carry out what you know to be.
The revealed mind of God Do not join parties or allow party feelings to develop.
Didn't do that.
So however sorry we can be for him in a sympathetic, human way.
He was not faithful as he lost his life. How about Josiah, the king that rose up to the prime of the time in Israel of being God's people?
That.
He objected.
You might say to God using Pharaoh instead of him.
And he lost his length. Literally. You and I interfere in God's plans.
For the world, we're going to lose our testimony as a Christian.
That, I hope, are appropriate. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, Be thus minded, and if at anything you be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Now this verse. Nevertheless, where do we have already attained? Let us walk by the same rule. Let us mind the same thing nevertheless.
Where to we have already attained? Let us walk by the same rule.
Let us mind the same thing.
Brown mentioned.
He was a long time in this assembly and he spent. His name has been mentioned and.
It was this.
We are never wiser than Scripture. Amen. Never wiser than Scripture. God says that. That's it.
She was Speaking of Josiah.
Remarkable comment that God makes about him.
Never was there a king like him before him, and never was there a king like him after him, remarkable from God himself. And yet he failed an example to every one of us. Don't let us never get a high thoughts of ourselves. We'll fall.
A brother that labored amongst us years ago and is now with the Lord.
And preaching the gospel on one occasion made the comment along this line, he says. My mother never had to take me up on her lap and say, son, you must learn to lie because it'll stand you in good in the world. She didn't have to teach me that. Well, I have kind of translated that a little bit into this chapter and in this way.
God does not have to tell me to be hard on my brethren.
That comes out naturally, but he does give a place for hardness.
Be there for conduct.
Hardness. As a good soldier of Jesus Christ, when we engage the enemy, we don't give any quarter. There is a place for hardness, but not with our dear brother. We are to labor in love, admonishing one another and seeking to be of help. But the hardness comes in the engagement of the enemy when we're in the trenches, no quarters to be given.
An example of verse four. No man that wore it entangled himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him with chosen him to be a soldier. I got saved in April of 44, the same month I got became a man 21 years old and.
Shortly after, a brother who was among brethren.
And it helped to me quite a bit in my early days.
Asked me who I was going to vote for.
As in the election of.
November that year.
Franklin Roosevelt was running for the fourth term, and I said I'm, I'm voting for Franklin D Roosevelt.
He only commented. He says some of the older brethren consider it unwise for Christians to engage in the politics, even to cast a vote. Well, here's one question that will be casting a vote from Roosevelt. Then shortly after that, in my reading, I read this verse. No man that wore it entangled himself in the affairs of this life.
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That he may please him who has chosen him to be a soldier well.
That was all I needed, a word from God himself to show me that as a Pilgrim and a stranger, I I had no place.
To determine the affairs of this life and.
A Pilgrim I had no right to vote. A stranger I didn't know how to vote.
So for since 1944, when I became a man, I have never voted. Thankfully, God knows what he's doing and he's running the affairs of this life in politics, not me.
You agree that enduring partners is not so much the question of showing to be hard, but to suffer. A soldier has to sacrifice the many of the comforts that we enjoy in everyday life, like you refer to being in the trenches. And so we have to expect in our Christian life.
That we don't always have an easy time, a brother 1-2 years ago said. To me, don't be surprised if you're in the front line if you're shot at.
And do a hardship or hardness. As a good soldier we have to expect that even the Lord Jesus says in this world we will have tribulation. But be of good cheer. I've overcome the world. So the Christian life, the young people, is not always easy.
And we need.
Men that are willing to endure and to suffer, girls, women, for the Lord Jesus.
And how important that we have to please him who has chosen us to be a soldier.
And we have to please him and not men. And in seeking to please him we might well come under fire.
But never mind. He doesn't leave us alone in these circumstances. He's at our side and helps us all along.
I say you said it's not always easy. It's hardly ever easy. The Christian life.
It's it's we're living in a culture where people want to please themselves and to make life easy. Every commodity, every comfort is offered to us.
And there's nothing morally wrong with the comforts. But, brethren, it seems that it takes away our power to be indulging in a lot of comforts. Paul is telling Timothy here, If you're going to be a soldier of Jesus Christ, you're going to have to know what it means to suffer. The Lord Jesus said, if anyone come after me, let him deny himself.
Take up His cross. Follow me. Have I denied myself something today for Jesus?
That's the character of a soldier. Not just do it to deny himself, but because he follows a Christ that is rejected. And it's not easy, brethren, The Christian life is not easy, and it seems to me that is a lesson that is hard for Americans to learn because we want everything easy. And I have to confess, brethren, for myself I have been affected by the culture through which I'm passing more than it is good.
They have to confess, brethren, and it takes away our power. You remember when the Lord Jesus met that father whose boy was demon possessed and the disciples found themselves powerless to cast out that demon?
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And they asked the Lord why? And the Lord said, this kind comes not out but by prayer and fasting. Sometimes I say we like to put a little E before the A In fasting we do more of that rather than we do fast.
And we thank God for good food we enjoy. But, brethren, when we give ourselves to so much of that, it really takes away our power. We need to be resolved to suffer as a soldier for Jesus Christ.
I would say we find him as a young man.
Before whom they laid their their clothes, you know, and I would assume, that the Apostle Paul had a fairly good position in the in the the army at that time of, if you can call it that, and perhaps had an entourage that gave him certain comforts in that army. And we know that in the arm and the armies and so forth of the day.
There are certain ranks. If you go up through and perhaps each ranks you go up through, you get a few more perks, you know, and and it's a little more comfortable than the one who is fighting in the trench. But the Apostle Paul, when he was saved, he became a different kind of a soldier. And now what do we see of him? If we turn to the 11Th chapter Second Corinthians, we find out what he did endure and what kind of a soldier was that, was he? And so nobody could say fall, fall. You know, you really don't know what you're talking about.
That you have. It's so easy, said I have learned to be abound and I've learned to be a face. And so when we read up his accounts in Second Corinthians Chapter 11, we know that the cost of false scares himself not at all he he endured hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Not the kind of soldier he was before. When he went to take to take the Christians and to bring them and cast them into prison. He perhaps had it very easy. He stood by. Like I say he stood by and let them cast their coats at his feet while they threw stones at the at the Stevens.
And So what a change there was in that man when he became a soldier of Jesus Christ.
Commenter 2 after the affairs of this life.
Politics has certainly been mentioned and it's a major factor in this country particularly.
But the seed of the Kingdom that was sown among thorns was choked out by the cares of this lake.
The man who was invited to the feast had bought a piece of ground and begged to be excused, and so forth. There are many issues that appeal very strongly to the human heart, but we are not to involve ourselves in these. Our mission is to announce the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and to deliver souls from this present evil world.
We are ambassadors for Christ. Our citizenship is in heaven from which we look.
For the Savior to change these bodies of humiliation and the bodies of glory like His own. So there are many, many issues that so appeal to nature and to the human heart legitimate causes. But these are not those things with which we are involving ourselves in order to please Him who has enlisted us to be a servant or a soldier in his warfare down here.
Deceitfulness of riches is in death passage and in Mark there is something added. I don't remember it accurately, but the thought is the desire for many things. Isn't that what is characteristic of our society? You know, we have to have this, we have to have that and all these kind of things. And when did ever ordinary working people?
Were able to have what we have in this part of the world. So these are dangerous things that we become so occupied in reaching out for those things including comforts. As the Bob said, one of the ways how the light is hit is under the couch, right that speaks of these very things, things that you mentioned comfort. So that these comforts mean so much to us that we're useless.
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For the interest of God in this world.
Question of priorities in this verse 4, isn't it? It's to understand who is first. It is extremely important that a soldier learn that when his commander speaks, that is unquestionably first. Nothing can be put in there. You might have other occupations, but when it comes to.
What my commander says it is implicit.
Obedience, immediate obedience. And I think that's so important because.
We live in a society that is humanistic or man centered and so much revolves about around what I like, what I want.
And we have to get some points straight here that I is not the commander any longer in the Christian life. It is somebody else. And we got to know that with clarity. We have to know it, that there's somebody who commands.
Go back to Luke's Gospel Chapter 9, something that is been a help to my own soul.
And searching, I must say.
Luke Chapter 9.
Towards the end.
Verse 57 And it came to pass, that as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes.
And birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head. To follow Jesus, brethren, is not going to be easy.
And he said unto another, Follow me.
But he said.
Lord, notice these next words Supper.
Me first. That's the play of the culture that we live in. Me first to go and bury my father. Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead, but go thou, and preach the Kingdom of God. 61 And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee, but let notice the next two words. Me first. Can I say, brethren, That's the plague of our culture.
Let me first.
Go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house, Jesus said unto him. No man, having put his hand to the plough and looking back, is fit for the Kingdom of God.
Lord, help us to get that priority right. We really can't be a good soldier until we get me first out of the way and make Christ first.
The Lord deals with his impatience, I think is beautifully brought out in the ninth chapter of Acts. There was a certain disciple named Ananias and him, the Lord said in the vision Ananias, He said, behold, I'm here, arise and go into the straight St. which is called straight, and inquire in the House of Judas. And he's seen a vision, a man named Ananias coming to him. Now. It's this dialogue that I think is absolutely beautiful.
And this is the way the Lord wants us to feel towards him. But notice the outcome then Ananias answered. Lord, I have heard by many of this man how much evil he has done to thy Saints at Jerusalem. And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call in thy name. In essence, Ananias was saying, I can't do that. Why should I have to go?
But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way now I believe that in.
The life that you and I have and our communion with the Lord. There may be things that He says to us. And do we have the liberty of being able to say to the Lord, Lord, I don't understand or this is difficult. The Lord listens to that. But remember, the Lord did say to him, go thy way, but I believe it's important that we understand.
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That it's not like into the valley of death rode the 600, you know, and that kind of thing. God wants us to be able to talk to him, but let's remember that if he says go thy way, go your way.
The secret and our worst is the little word entangler.
If the things of this light entangle us, that's the secret of it.
When things in this life become bigger than they should be, we're entangled by them and it's a snare to us being good soldiers of Jesus Christ, and so the Lord said.
Your Father, your Heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of these things. So why should we threaten entangle ourselves with the affairs of this life when we have a consciousness in our souls that are calling those we have need of these things?
So I don't need to be overly occupied with the affairs of these of this life. There are those demands upon us, but we mustn't become entangled with.
We can thank the Lord for our comfortable bed, can't we? But.
Our these comforts hindering us from doing his bidding.
What did he have a comfortable bed to be thankful for?
Kids are also really to enjoy and we can be thankful for these things. It would be good for some of us to travel. Sometimes in South America or in Africa we would become more thankful and not to be so discontented. We can enjoy these things and appreciate these things, but do not give them too great of a place of importance.
Hebrews chapter 12 tells us to lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily.
Be set up. Let it run with patience the race that have set before it. So those weights are those things that entangle us and drag us down and prevent us from walking and running freely in the race. And if if we keep a hold on to those things, they become sins.
76 in the bag.
No more.
Than.
All day.
Oh wow. Let's go play.
I'm drawing.
My daughter.
My heart is sore. My heart is all my ground.
With it and it's better. I can't all along.