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Lord, Thou hast drawn us after Thee. Now let us run and never tire. Thy present shall our comfort be thyself, our hope our soul desires. 166.
Yesterday we were reading in Second Timothy chapter 2.
How far would you think we got, Brother Bob?
Second Timothy, chapter 2, verse 6.
The husbandmen that Laboureth must be first partaker of the fruits.
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.
Wherein I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even unto bonds, but the word of God is not bound.
Therefore, I endure all things for the elect's sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
It is a faithful saying, 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.
00:05:01
Of 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 approved unto God, a Workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
But shun profane and vain babblings, for they will increase unto more ungodliness.
And their word will eat as doth a canker, of whom is Hymenaeus and Phivitus.
Who, concerning the truth, have erred saying that the resurrection is passed already?
And overthrow the faith of some. Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure. Having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his, and that everyone that nameeth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.
But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth, and some to honor, and some to dishonour. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour sanctified, and meet for the master's use.
And prepared unto every good work.
Also youthful, lush, but 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 strife and the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men apartment to teach, patient in meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves.
If God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.
Remind ourselves that we have only this morning's reading and that which is scheduled for this afternoon.
There is much in this chapter that would be a prophet to us, and well, I wouldn't in any way want to shorten the discussion on a particular verse. We might bear that in mind.
Yesterday.
We were encouraged in a faithful way to hold fast the as we had in the Second Thessalonians, the tradition by which we've been taught, whether by word or whether by our epistle.
And So what I'm going to say may seem to fly in the face of that, and I trust it doesn't.
But in the first chapter of our epistle.
Verse 16 It says the Lord give mercy unto the House of Vanessa. Forest refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain. But when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently and found me.
Lord, grant unto him, that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day. And how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus thou knowest very well.
My question is.
Did Onessa Forrest, after he had done all this in regard to the Apostle Paul, did he turn away from him as well?
I I don't know why that if he didn't, the apostle would say the Lord grant first of all to to him to his house, he might find mercy, and then the Lord might grant that he would find mercy of the Lord in that day.
Because this is that day, the day of manifestation of all things.
And I just mentioned this because.
I know of those who have defended Paul's doctrine, even at a cost to themselves.
And yet later today.
Umm, they're saying something different, and their associations are a denial of what we have in in Paul's doctrine.
And so I I only mention that as we take up these exhortations that we have in the second chapter to realize that none of us are immune.
00:10:08
Will not be preserved unless we take these exhortations to heart.
In chapter 4, Ernesto Forest is mentioned in verse 19.
Second Timothy chapter 4 verse 19 salute Prisca and Aquila and the household of Vanessa forest, and so I wondered whether or not Sephora went to be with the Lord and his household continued.
In the truth, there were not all it says here in verse 15 where you read first Timothy chapter one, verse 15. Thou knowest that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me, of whom are collegiates and homogeneous. The Lord give mercy unto the House of Vanessa for us. He's an exception. Perhaps there was uh, really, uh, Paul points out that uh, there were were some that were faithful not all forsook him. And I wonder if uh, perhaps.
We're not told whether, uh, he went to be with the Lord or not, but that there was, uh, some faithfulness seen in his life. And then at the end of this epistle, the apostle Paul speaks of his household as being faithful and perhaps walking in the same faithfulness as the Father did I just suggest this.
Just made, but at the same time IA 100% agree with what was said previously as to the moral importance of recognizing that any of us are. None of us are immune.
From what is before us of having embraced truth, enjoyed it, lived in it, and then later on turning away from it. And I will give as a scripture example of that truth, that point.
King Solomon, when he first became king, it says specifically of him, he loved the Lord.
But at the end of his reign, it also says of Solomon that the strange wives, he didn't follow his own advice, he didn't follow the truth that he preached to others.
As that we have in the Proverbs specifically, and the instruction there not to be taken up with the strange woman. And yet it says at the end of Solomon's life, that he his heart.
Was taken away by his love for the strange women of the other countries and his the end of his reign was sadly unpleasing to God. And so I think it's the point made is very important that we can embrace truth of God and live in it maybe for years and that.
At some point in life, we're not immune.
From that which would draw us away from it and bring sorrow upon ourselves, our family, and our brethren.
You get a similar thought I would suggest in the Old Testament.
And I've often thought of him in connection with.
Jonathan.
There's no record that Jonathan ever displeased David in any way.
And yet Jonathan was not willing to share that rejection with David, and as a result, he lost his life on Mount Gilboa.
What kind of a crowd was David surrounded with in The Cave of a Dullum?
Some very faithful men, but also some impetuous men, some who had to be rebuked at times and had to be restrained, some who were ready to stone him at one point in his life when things went the wrong way and Ziklag was burned to the ground and their wives and children taken captive.
But they were faithful to David and so I suggest the possibility as Robert has brought out that maybe Onessa Force and as Dawn has said too, maybe there was some failure in his life along the lines of real faithfulness. But Paul appreciated his love and his kindness and everything that he had done. And it does seem that his family continued to go on well for the Lord, which is a very thank worthy thing.
00:15:10
Interaction with Jonathan, that he had a son and his son is mentioned in connection with David Mephibosheth and uh, but it says that he was lame on both of his feet in chapter nine of Second Samuel. And perhaps a little picture of the fact that Jonathan did not walk with David in rejection. He did not identify with David in his rejection, and as a result, there was an effect upon the sun's life.
And so his Son was not able physically to walk and to follow David. But a little picture of how necessary it is for us as fathers and grandfathers to walk in a path of separation to the Lord, and to acknowledge the Lord Jesus in our lives practically, and associate with Him in his reproach.
Otherwise, our own children or our own grandchildren may not go on to follow the Lord.
Solemn responsibility that we have.
The spirit of the apostle Paul as he sought the blessing of the Lord's people, he had he had instructed Timothy here to be strong in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it's obvious that the apostle Paul himself was strong in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ because as he as he comments on on osiferous. He doesn't necessarily tell us the whole history of onociferous but.
You can sense the grace and the love that is in his heart for him, and he places on oceiferous in the best light possible. If there was failure in odosiferous life, the apostle Paul makes no attempt to make to emphasize that, but he makes the attempt to put osiferous in the in the the most.
Favorable life that he can. And that's a, that's a, umm, a proof of the grace that the apostle Paul had had in his heart. And that's a wonderful thing for us too. And isn't it? To learn and to be established in that same grace so that we can always put our brethren in the most favorable light possible.
Their husbands meant that laborers must be first.
A taker of the fruits.
And then consider what I say, and the Lord gives the understanding in all things.
I was thinking a lot about what is meant by this by this verse here and I was looking at.
Edge when Paul got saved.
And ever saw actually he was still sour when he got saved, it says here in verse in Chapter 9 of.
Ads and when he had received meat, he was strengthened, then was sauce.
Certain days with with disciples which were at Damascus, and straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues that he is the Son of God.
Did the Apostle?
Far go through this right away.
That he when he was say that he was right away able, He was right away able to preach.
And does it have any connection with that?
It's helpful to see the new translation.
I'll read it. It says the husbandman must labor before partaking of the fruits.
Of course we know that to be the case.
Brother Doug, you are a husband, man or a farmer. Can you tell us about this verse?
Well, as in the natural, so in the spiritual and, and, uh, we, we understand that very easily. I don't think it's complicated.
00:20:10
It struck there to encourage us to labor and wait for the fruits we labor in hope, brethren, we and carrying on the with Paul's doctrine, there are many challenges. It's harder to go on for the Lord in a day of ruin.
Then when everything is smooth and there's a bright testimony. And so, uh, it takes more faith to walk with God in the day of run, but individually it's possible. And we, we need to be in be a here encouraging ourselves to continue on. Uh, there's a lot of, there's a lot of background history represented in this room of people that have struggled through, uh, problems and things that have come in, in the assemblies.
And it's wonderful to have survivors and to those that carry on with Paul's doctrine.
I think, uh, I was thinking of the in the story of or in the book of Acts, it's often been suggested that the shipwreck of Saul is a prophetic outline of the end times and that in that, in, in that shipwreck, it says that they cast the wheat in the sea to save the testimony, the ship.
I think that's a picture of casting out he, the heavenly calling of the church.
And that's what the, uh, covenant theology that is becoming more embraced by Christians today does in essence. And so it's a challenge to carry on with the heavenly calling and our relationship with Christ as a church.
How long does it take after you to produce, uh, a crop of corn?
Well, four months or five months isn't very long, but it's a picture of uh, uh.
Of the pathway of the Christian.
And are there in those four or five months?
This, and we see it as it's recorded in Daniel. It says of him at the end of his life he shall be cut off and have nothing.
And if we looked at the life of the Lord Jesus on the day of the crucifixion, we might have said this man produced no fruit in the earth.
His life was a failure. He didn't get anything out of the whole life that he lived.
But on the day of the resurrection and beyond, we look at his life and we see it's the most fruitful life that has ever or ever will be in the history. And yet he labored his whole life really in faith for God. And you might have looked at it and said that life wasn't very fruitful because there's, as it says in Daniel, he shall be cut off and have nothing.
And that's the way it appeared and that's the way it was. And so he was a faithful laborer. He was a faithful husbandman. But he, too, waited for the crop.
And the crop is the greatest crop that there will ever be in the history of man. And so we're given the same We sow in faith, and God's perfect time for a harvest comes, and we can count on there being the harvest, but our job is to be laborers for him and let him take care of when the fruit comes.
Apparent results. Should we? I think that's why in our chapter, brethren, he goes on to say in verse 8, Remember.
And Mr. Driver leaves out to that Remember Jesus Christ of the seed of David.
Raised from the dead. According to my gospel, God's answer is not in this life.
God's answer is on the other side in resurrection. And as you said, Don, it didn't appear that there was much results in this life. He died. It looked like it was complete failure. And here is the apostle Paul now he's come to the end of his life in this epistle, and it doesn't appear like there's much results, all those in Asia where he'd labored so hard.
00:25:09
It turned away from him. Things looked pretty bleak.
But he says, remember Jesus Christ of the seed of David raised from the dead according to my gospel. And I think it is such a beautiful thing. There's not, uh, results in this life. We need not to get discouraged. We need to go on. There will be a harvest in the future. Like to mention to me, it's a beautiful example.
Of it in John chapter 4 the Lord Jesus is in Samaria and notice what he says there.
In verse 35, Say not ye, there are yet four months, and then cometh harvest. Behold, I say unto you, lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, for they are wide already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal, that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.
And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another Reaper. I sent you to reap that where on ye bestowed no labor, other men labored, and ye are entered into their laborers. And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying which testified of the woman. That which testified he told me all that ever I did.
But now go over to the book of the Acts in chapter 8 and you find another instrument of the Lord Philip. This is not Philip the Apostle, it's Philip the call later in the book, the Evangelist.
And it says in verse 5, Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, Samaria, and preach Christ unto them. And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spoke, hearing and seeing the miracles which they did, which he did.
And verse 12 and when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the Kingdom of God in the name of.
Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.
There's an example of the Lord Jesus sowed the seed in Samaria, and then later on here's Philip reaping the harvest that the Lord Jesus had sowed. So sometimes there are those who sow the seed and don't see too much results. It may be for another instrument of the Lord to come and do the reaping. The point is whatever the Lord gives us to do, not to be discouraged.
I would like.
I would like to make a application of this scripture in John four that I think fits very good with our subject matter.
Excuse me while they are, I would like to finish this thought and then I wanna hear your thoughts too. Uh, I was already gonna read this before Bob mentioned this scripture in John and uh, so we're, I think we're on the same channel here this.
In John 4 where he said the Lord Jesus has saved not ye, there are yet four months and then cometh harvest and then he refers to the white wheat that is ready to harvest. Wheat that is white is is passed ripe, it's sun bleached and it's so it's in it needs to be done quickly. There are four months between the wheat harvest and the fall harvest.
And I believe what the Lord Jesus was teaching here was the Jews were looking for what the fall harvest was a picture of. That was the harvest of earth, the blessing of the Kingdom on earth. The Lord Jesus was saying right now is another harvest upon us. It's the heavenly harvest which wheat is a picture of. And there are four mints between them. And so it links up with.
00:30:02
Paul's doctrine, which is heavenly truth, that is the harvest of wheat that is pictured throughout the whole Bible, and it's the tendency of Christianity Today to only think of blessing here on earth, when in reality Paul's doctrine gives us heavenly truth. The wheat harvest is a picture of that, and that comes first.
In the in the feast of Jehovah that are in the Old Testament and so the Lord Jesus here is saying don't miss out on the harvest. That's right now that is he's he was thinking of having a people in heaven with him afterward. We know there's gonna be a earthly time of blessing on earth and so that applies to us today, brethren.
There is a tremendous movement in the Christian testimony to go back to what are the light that the translators of the King James Bible only knew. They only knew the truth that linked up with Israel and didn't distinguish between the heavenly calling and the earthly. And so we can be thankful that 190 or 80 years ago that truth was revived.
Of the heavenly calling of the Church, the coming of the Lord, and so on.
These are the truths that I believe are impressed on us in this chapter and so we need to cling to these these things that are especially precious and have been revealed to us as those gathered to the Lords name, along with many other Christians that have accepted them too. But the danger is to give that up.
I was just gonna say that in Ecclesiastes.
It tells us there.
To sow the seed.
End.
Sew it in the morning.
And sew it in the evening.
Because you don't know what's going to prosper.
Either this or that or they both be like good. So we don't know what the results of sowing the seed will be, but it's our privilege to sow the seed. And I never forgot what somebody said one time they said.
You can count the number of seeds.
In an app, but you cannot count the number of apples in a seed.
So let's not get discouraged. Let's.
I'd like to draw attention to just two very plain statements of Scripture that have encouraged me. In this connection, Wally referred to Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes 11, verse one.
Cast thy bread upon the waters.
For thou shalt find it. That's a very positive statement.
God doesn't leave us in a hope so condition. When we have his word, we have something that's.
Guaranteed the guaranteed results. His word never goes forth in vain, so it says, Thou shalt find it. Very plain statement.
And the other verses in First Corinthians. And again this is this passage was alluded to just in the last few minutes. First Corinthians chapter 3.
And verse 6.
Paul says I have planted a Polish water but God gave the increase. We recognize what God did through Apollos and Paul, but verse 7 applies to us.
Verse seven says so that neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase.
Extract from that this plain statement God gives.
The increase?
It's guaranteed.
00:35:00
Hmm.
Going back to the question our brother Eckert was asking.
I would suggest, and we don't need to dwell on it, but I would suggest that when the apostle Paul was saved, as her brother has pointed out, he was still Saul, that the Lord did give him very quickly.
A sense of the mission that he was to have, how that he was to be the apostle to the Gentiles and the special one to whom the truth of the assembly was committed. And he did receive, as we know, those revelations.
From a risen Christ in glory, not given to anyone else, but given to Paul.
And he was given the responsibility to preach that precious truth.
And I believe in that connection. That's why he says in verse seven of our chapter.
And that connects with what our brethren have been bringing out. Consider what I say.
And the Lord give the understanding in all things.
Do I want to have an understanding of the Word of God? I have to have Paul's doctrine clear in my soul and in my mind. I've never yet in my life met someone who could understand the Word of God, who rejected Paul's ministry because it's the key to everything. And so if I want to understand the purposes of God, they're found in Paul's ministry, and it links together all the purposes of God from a past eternity to a coming eternity.
It's all found there.
But as Dear Paul found out, it was not popular.
And at the end of his life, as has already been pointed out, he could have been an extremely discouraged man. He could have said Timothy.
It's not working.
We have to try something else. We have to do something different. Look at what happened.
I remember quite a few years ago now.
I had a contact with a man who was a little younger than I in Buffalo, NY and he asked me to have lunch with him. He was a dear Christian.
And I remember distinctly, he looked at me, he said, Bill, you've traveled a fair bit. You've been around the world. You've had a lot of experience in Christian things.
I want to start a church.
I want you to tell me what works.
What works?
Well, I said, brother, I want to show you what worked for the Apostle Paul.
And I don't think, although we parted amicably, I don't think he really cared for the answer I gave him. I said, brother, let's look at what the Apostle Paul had to experience at the end of a faithful life of preaching the whole truth he could say without hesitation in Acts 20. I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
What did he have to say at the end of his life? Just what Brother Bob brought out all day, which are in Asia. He turned away from me.
Now I thank God that all Paul's laborers weren't in Asia.
But the point is, where some of the brightest testimonies had been, there was a total giving up of Paul's teaching. Not Christianity, but Paul's teaching. They said, Paul, this is not for us.
I don't have any right to say what works, do I?
What I have to say is, and this is what is being brought out in this epistle.
And Paul says this to Timothy. You be faithful to the Lord, you consider what I say.
And the Lord will give the understanding in all things, but remember the reward for faithfulness.
For the Lord Jesus was in resurrection the reward for faithfulness for Paul.
Well, be it the judgment seat of Christ, he didn't see it down here. And by implication, the reward for the faithful Christian will not necessarily be down here. Yes, we may get encouragement from time to time. We thank God for that. But.
The reward is in the coming day, and Paul proceeds to detail that as he goes on in this chapter, that it's going to be a pathway of suffering. It's going to be a pathway of difficulty. It's going to be a pathway where you may not see the tangent rewards for what you do for the Lord, but the Lord will give us reward in the coming day if we're faithful to Him.
00:40:13
For results does he? He does hold us responsible for faithfulness, but he does not hold us responsible for results because as our brethren have already quoted in First Corinthians.
Chapter 3 God giveth the increase. And so he goes over here in verses 8 and nine really in connection with the two examples of faithfulness unto death. Really he, Paul hadn't suffered, uh, to death. But he mentions the Lord Jesus as one of the examples of one who was faithful to his God and father in all that he was given to do. And he could say truthfully, he could say, I do always those things that please my Father and heaven itself could open up and say, this is my beloved son.
In whom I am well pleased. He was faithful unto death, but then the Apostle Paul was faithful as well.
Wherein I suffer trouble. It says verse nine. And then he also says verse 10. I endure all things for the elect's sake. And so there was an endurance, faithfulness on the part of the apostle Paul.
So we have those two great examples even in this chapter, and perhaps we might even say Timothy, an example of faithfulness. And so God delights and he always rewards faith and faithfulness.
Were not accountable for results. We are accountable for faithfulness.
Very very important really is to understanding this passage and fruit bearing verse 8 to read it again. Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel.
Going back to the Old Testament, God looked for fruit from his earthly people, Israel.
In Isaiah chapter 5, he says of his planting.
And he had planted Israel and the earth as a seed from which he was seeking fruit.
And he has to say what more could be done in my vineyard and he could find no fruit.
The truth of that is that in Adam there is no fruit for God.
None.
There's not a child of Adam who has been able to produce or be himself fruit for God's glory, and Israel with all its benefits and all the labor of God as a husbandman for that earthly people could not produce a fruit that was pleasing in his sight, and consequently when the Lord Jesus came here to earth.
As a husbandman seeking fruit for God, there was not going to be any, even though he labored as the seed of David in Israel for fruit.
And it had to be said, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die. Speaking of himself, it abideth alone. He would have been the only fruit for God in the history of man as a seed of David, as a earthly man. But there's no fruit for God in Adam's race, in Adam, all die. And so here the key in verse eight is raised. He went through death.
And then?
Was raised from the dead, and that's the secret of all fruit for God's glory.
There would be no harvest for God if there had not been death, the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, and there would be no fruit for God if there was no resurrection.
In Adam I'll die, in Christ all shall be made alive, and now God can have a harvest.
He can have fruit.
And we've heard something about people today who seek fruit for God and have corrupted, destroyed the whole truth of God in trying to produce a fruit. I'll use the name through things like covenant theology as an example, because it's an attempt again to go back and produce something for God in Adam's race, and it always connects itself.
00:45:04
With the 1St man and prosperity, the prosperity gospel and all the rest of it, is man trying to use Christianity as a means of encouraging fellow man to be fruitful and have a happy life.
But it doesn't work. God, you might say, did it for 4000 years without producing any fruit as a perfect husband, man. And so, as he says, Paul says to Timmy, think of what I say. Think of the message of the gospel. What is that message?
To believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and enter into a totally new creation on associated with that eternal life. And then there's blessing. Doug spoke of the harvest, and the first true harvest is in Christianity for God. But then he's going to go back with his earthly people and he's going to produce a second harvest from them.
But on the same principle as the first harvest, and that's through death. And so when God deals with an earthly people again, he's going to have to start with them as dead.
And you have it prophetically and is equal detailed to us. And the basis on point which there will be an earthly harvest in the coming day is the same basis in which there's a heavenly harvest taking place now, and that is through death and resurrection. And so as it says in first Corinthians 15 and Adam all die in Christ, all shall be made alive. And so, as he says in this little paragraph, even connected with ourselves.
Uh, he says I suffer all things, I can suffer even to death because the truth is the harvest is coming in the resurrection of life. And so death isn't going to stop the harvest. It's in life that it comes. And so as he identifies in verse 11, if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him. And so really these verses are all taking up that very, very basic fundamental point, brethren.
And that's the truth of fruit for God and a harvest for God, that even God himself operates on that principle. And so should we. If we're going to be fellow laborers with Him in his work to produce a harvest, then it's going to be on that one basic principle.
Hmm.
Waste any time after his calling, he went right to work.
Drink rice in the synagogue. We don't know how long he was there and the mascot with his brethren and what the conversation had been. No doubt he acted as a husband man.
And the the result was persecution.
So we shouldn't waste any time, even today, to preach the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Three, you have the three laborers there. I suppose we have seen that.
Before the uh, the one who ministers Christ, uh, the gold, the silver, precious stones.
That's the ministry of the, of the Lord that will, uh, bear fruit, uh.
At the judgment seat of Christ, that which will abide in our ministry, that has his approval. Umm, this is what the apostle coveted, and so should we. But then there is the other workmen, uh, that is given to us there in, uh, verse 15. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved yet so as by fire.
00:50:04
That's a saved soul, but a lost life. His work is burned up because it has not been according to the the rules as we have in our chapter. He had departed from the instructions. We find Lot is an example of that. A saved soul, but nothing in his life that really bore fruit for eternity.
And then the third person is the one who defiles the temple of God. Verse 17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy, For the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
That's an unsaved person bringing into, uh, Christendom defiling evil doctrine. Uh, he's destroyed himself and his doctrine is umm.
This is a very serious thing. It's, uh, bringing in usually, uh, error as to the person and work of Christ. So we have man's responsibility in this chapter very, uh, clearly, uh, brought before us.
One verses 8:00 and 9:00 as possibly, uh, an example of our versus 11:00 and 12:00.
Uh, the words that Paul wrote to the Corinthians, Second Corinthians 1.
Verses 8:00 and 9:00. For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life, But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God, which raises the dead.
Who delivered us from so great a death, and thus deliver whom we trust will yet deliver us.
So would you say, Doug, that the pathway of the believer here is to be in the current of God's thoughts and to be looking after Christ's interest down here? And in that pathway we can be assured of all the power of God behind us. But it may mean suffering. It may even mean giving up one's life. And many dear believers are doing that in the world today.
We shouldn't seek persecution. Sad to say, there have been believers in the past who have done that and those who seek persecution. Sometimes it only ministers to self. But we have the assurance that if we do follow Christ in a faithful way, we will suffer persecution in one way or another. But the great thing for the believer today is to be in the current of God's thoughts.
To be where he would have us to be and to be looking after Christ interests and the interests of his own. And that's what Paul says in verse 10. I endure all things for the elects sakes.
Why? That they may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
That goes far beyond their merely being saved from coming judgment. Paul's gospel, Paul's ministry took the believer right up to heaven, gave him truth which separates him from this world.
And gives him a place connected with a risen Christ in glory. Paul says, I really want to preach that truth. And that's what you and I have to do. And that is what we should have before us and.
If we do so, there will doubtless be suffering, but the glory is ahead.
Mentioned in scriptures and not always in connection with the salvation of our souls.
And so here he's really referring to the salvation of their testimony, their public testimony, and the salvation perhaps even of their individual lives. And as our brothers mentioned, it's possible to have a safe soul and a lost life.
So Paul also mentions in Philippians the, uh, salvation of the assembly and he speaks in uh, chapter 2 of Philippians in verse 12, that uh, because of his, his absence, he was imprisoned. And he says, uh, wherefore my beloved, as he have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
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So it's the salvation of the assembly in that aspect because the enemy was seeking to destroy the assembly.
And he's still seeking to the destroy the assembly. And so the Spirit of God gives us encouragement here in connection with suffering. And uh, in verse 12, it says if we suffer, we shall also reign with him. If we deny him, he also will deny us. And so there is a faithfulness required and there's going to be suffering if we desire to be faithful to the name of the Lord Jesus.
And his desire is that he would give us a full reward, more than we could ever expect or desire, as it were. You know, there's a brother out east and he has a little expression that he uses.
And I take it as encouragement. Often times, he says. When you do work for the Lord, you're working for maximum wage.
When you work for this world at McDonald's or some place, they're going to pay you minimum wage.
But when you work for the Lord, He will pay you maximum wage.
You don't know how much that is, but you can be certain that he will pay maximum wage. And so that's what he's referring to. The apostle. He says if we deny him, if we shirk our responsibility and we don't identify with him in the time of his rejection and take our share of suffering and reproach for the name of Christ, he won't be able to give us as much of A reward as he would have liked to have given us.
He wanted to pay us maximum wage, but we didn't enter the work as it were. We just desired not to do that work. And so he will also deny us, He'll deny us that reward. So isn't it lovely? What a privilege it is, brethren.
To identify ourselves with the Lord Jesus is he worthy of identifying with he pleased his Father in every aspect of his life in all of his service in a day a terrible day at the end of the day of the Jewish testimony in this world that was accepted of God, raised up of God and then the times of the Gentiles had taken had begun in Daniels day we know.
But now we have the privilege, at the end of the day of grace in the Laodicean character of the church that we see all around us, to take up with the name of Christ.
And he's going to pay maximum wage at the end of it all.
I could just make one more comment on that, which I think you would agree with, brother Robert.
It's often been misunderstood that last phrase of verse 12. If we deny and him as in italics, he also will deny us. It's not the only time that Paul uses a phrase which in its ultimate interpretation, refers to an unbeliever.
He does the same thing in Philippians chapter 3 where he talks about those whose end is destruction.
Why does he write that to an assembly of believers?
Because there was a danger of their getting carried away with self-interest instead of Christ interest. Why does he talk about denying when he's writing to a faithful brother like Timothy?
Yes, there are, sad to say, those who are in the great House of Christendom who are not even true believers.
And ultimately, although they may masquerade as Christians, they really deny him. And in the coming day, they will be denied.
But there's a warning for us, which I think our brother Robert has placed a good construction on, because can I effectively in my Christian life?
Deny the one who loved me.
The one who gave everything for me.
By my actions, I can live a worldly life so that I am scarcely distinguishable from the world around. And as our brothers pointed out, He won't deny us in the sense of denying our salvation or denying that we are His.
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But what alofts at the judgment seat of Christ, if that's the way I have lived my life?
What an awful loss to have to see another getting a real reward for faithfulness and the Lord happened to say I'm sorry, but you could have had much more. So I believe that is the import for our souls.
While realizing that the ultimate meaning of it really applies to an unbeliever who is really, as we often say, a nominal or a professing Christian with no reality inside.
I'd also like to say in connection with it and what I believe is the great force of this paragraph, and that is he's spoken about death and resurrection in verse 10, and so he says this is the faithful word.
We have died with him, we shall live with him, and if.
I refuse, practically speaking, to live my life on the other side of death in resurrection life with Christ. I am denying the place which He is in and which He has brought me into. Hmm. And that's what's particularly in, I believe the Spirit of God is wanting us to get a hold of. And that is, I might say, well, I don't know. I don't deny him.
That He's the Savior and that He's the only one that can be saved through Him by trusting in His precious blood. If I live seeking fruit for God without recognizing that He has died as to this world and that I am dead with Him, and now He is raised from the dead and I stand before God in Him in resurrection life.
If, if you will, what the apostle Paul in accepting this truth, said, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live yet not I, but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh. I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. That is the truth of not denying Him, but taking my place that He has brought me into.
And even if I don't walk faithfully in the truth of resurrection, in my place and resurrection, he can't deny himself, he will remain faithful. But we in principle, without going all the way to false profession, can in truth deny our heavenly calling in resurrection by the way we live.
And in such the Lord was seeking those who would.
Take His place with him, as he has it now with respect to this world, so that when his day of glory comes, he might identify them with himself in that glory for having lived now in that same place that he he has with respect to this world.
Temple of that on Pentecost, when he was very bold for Christ, he had denied the Lord because he didn't understand what was going on at the cross. But once he got a hold of the truth that the Lord Jesus was alive and had power.
He was very bold for the Lord afterward because he knew his right relationship with the Lord in resurrection.
Because in this matter of suffering to death, because I now live in a life that death can take, not take from me.
That's what's so important. Paul could suffer to death, but what death? The death of the natural man, because he now had life and resurrection. He had eternal life that the fruit of that could not be taken from him. And to him, the life he now had was far more important than the life that he wants that only had, which was the natural life he'd been born with. He now had a better life.
He had a life that no matter what man did, the worst he could do was usher him into the full enjoyment of his new position. And so he could say, for me to depart with Christ is far better because he had something he already was living in, the enjoyment of, something that nothing in this life could take from him, including death. And so he could consciously, even joyfully if necessary, face death itself.
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Because of his position with Christ in resurrection life.
I have found it helpful to my own soul.
To think about this word deny, it's not a word that we commonly use in our own language. We think when we hear the word deny, we think of Peter, how he denied the Lord, and so on.
The word literally means to say no.
Is there anything?
That the Lord Jesus.
As revealed to me in His word, in His life.
To which I have said no.
That's the bottom line.
That's what it comes to. If we deny him, He presents to us a truth that we're not willing to walk in something that he a responsibility that we're not willing to fulfill.
Then he has to say no to us that they reward.
Deny means to say no.
And we get ourselves in those positions because of our lack of faith.
And that's why I find verse 13 so encouraging. Brother, if we believe not, that's our lack of faith. What then? Does that change our God?
Not in the least. Yet he abideth faithful, He cannot deny himself. God is God, he is immutable, he is faithful, he cannot deny himself. And so, brethren, it leads us to realize there is only one we can fully trust.
You know, sometimes when we are unfaithful and it happens, brother.
The enemy comes to, Arian says OK, you messed up.
You can't trust the Lord now.
Well then, who can you trust?
That's the enemy that's speaking. That's who you can trust.
He still is faithful.
And I love to think of Peter. He knew the Lord and when.
He meets in John 21.
They're out fishing all night and catch nothing, and there's the Lord on the seashore.
And he gives them the direction to cast the net on the right side of the ship.
And they do it, and the Nets are filled.
And John says it is the Lord.
What does Peter do?
He dives in and swims to shore so he can be first to be with the Lord.
I I I find that so beautiful, the confidence.
Hey, Peter, you made a mess of things. Aren't you scared to go and face the Lord? Not in the least. He was gonna be the first to go. Oh, brother. And to me it's a bulwark. Verse 13. If we believe. Not yet. He abideth faithful. He cannot deny himself.
Wonderful thing about it is when he's faithful too.
In other words, we might say, well, no, if I the Lord, he's he's always faithful. He always does it right, even though I fail and I do it wrong and and so on. And we only look at it sort of abstractly as to the fact that he's a faithful person in his character. But I'd like to refer back to what we had maybe in the first reading in verse nine of chapter one, chapter one, verse 9 tells us something. He's faithful to He saved us.
He called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. He's faithful to fulfill every single word and every single thought in that verse with respect to us. Even if we are unfaithful, He cannot deny Himself. He purposed our blessing before this world began, and He called us with a faithful calling.
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In Christ Jesus and He will fulfill it. He is faithful to His promises and they they turn us back to Himself, even if we have failed to be cast more humbly perhaps upon Himself and what He has said He would do.
Well, in verse 14, it's possible to occupy ourselves with that, with that which doesn't.
Profit us at all?
Charging them, it says before the Lord, that they strive not about words to no prophet, but to the subverting of the hearers.
And then the next verse tells us what we are to do.
Paul does not go into detail about what all these words to no profit are. I rather think that in his day it had to do with a lot of questions and arguments about Judaism and things that of course have been the bane of the church all down through the ages. But it can be a number of different things which.
Are argued about perhaps really not to any profit.
There are important fundamentals, important things that God has given us in His Word that we need to be occupied with.
And we need to remember that, don't we? Let me use an example.
I remember quite some years ago now having a discussion with a young woman who had been raised a 7th Day Adventist.
And she wanted to have a lot of discussion about things like keeping the Sabbath, and she knew her Bible pretty well too. And she wanted to talk about various interpretations of prophecy and so on. And.
We had a little bit of a discussion.
After a while, I said to her, you know.
These things are not really the root of the problem that you and I need to be talking about. And I started, I won't go into detail, but I started asking her a few questions about what 7th Day Adventists believed as to the person and work of Christ. She was intelligent and with some reluctance she admitted that those things that I put my finger on were true, that that is what 7th Day Adventism taught.
And we're not here particularly to throw stones at any group. I just mentioned that as part of a story. I said to her, those are the things that you and I need to talk about. Those are the crux of the issue that you need to get into the Word of God about. Because these other things are only peripheral issues. And we could argue all over the map about some of these peripheral things and never get a straight answer.
I don't fully for myself believe that God doesn't give us these answers, but Paul wants us to be having a proper foundation in that which is important, not to be taken up with peripheral things which men love to argue about and love to get into discussions about, but rather to as we get in verse 15.
To study, to show ourselves approved unto God.
And what's the result? Rightly dividing the word of truth? Or, as another translation reads that is a little more accurate, cutting in a straight line the word of truth. We can only do that if we have the foundations properly in place, can't we?
14 It's interesting in this chapter, and even in quite a few places in First Timothy, does Paul warn against getting into these striving about words. Notice verse 16. But shun profane and vain babblings, for they will increase into more ungodliness, and their word will eat as doth a canker, of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus.
And later in the chapter here, verse 23, but foolish and unlearned questions avoid knowing that they do gender stripes. So again and again he encourages Timothy to avoid those kind of things. And I think that is wise. You get into some of those questions that are really not basic like you say Bill and.
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It, it really helps nothing in your overall, uh, growth in, in Christianity, It's so important to avoid that.
Verse 15 as well, that's very encouraging, he says. Study or strive diligently to show thyself approved unto God.
And I think it's helpful to us to recognize that there is that which is God can approve and there is that which he does not approve of. And what we need is to study the truth of God and to know the word of God to be a Workman. That's another example of one that is laboring in the House of God during in the day of declension that, uh, he works as a Workman and he sweats, he laborers for the Lord and, uh.
But he's doing it in a way that is will meet with the approval of God himself. It's, uh, interesting how he uses it in several different places, uh, in Scripture. I'll just mention one here in, uh, Hebrews chapter 12, it says in verse 28.
Hebrews chapter 12 verse 28 Wherefore we receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably.
And with reverence and godly fear, not only that which is consistent with what God approves of, as we know in His Word, but the character of the Spirit in which we labor. And so it's with reverence and godly fear. Doesn't wonderful to just be able to do a little something for the Lord and to walk practically in the path of faith and to have a sense.
Of the approval of the Lord in that walk we hear of peer pressure and often times those that want to please somebody else. You may even want to please your brethren, but it's the truth of God revealed in the word of God that.
Tells us how to walk in such a way that we can meet with the approval of God himself.
In connection with rightly dividing the word of truth, just an observation that I have observed down in Brazil where the Lord is blessing the, the preaching of the gospel on many souls are getting interested in being gathered the Lord's name and going on to understand the New Testament truth. It's interesting that, uh, one of the things that is being very helpful is.
The study of the dispensational order in the Word of God and an outline of what God did from the beginning down through the ages and getting teaching, that is distinguishes between the Old Testament and the New and so forth. And this is very basic truth that gives a groundwork for people to understand their Bibles and in particular Brother Lamar.
Has gone around and, uh, he has a series of meetings on the, on the dispensations of the old of the Bible and it's, it's been proving very helpful to a lot of new believers.
Older ones too, but, uh, I, I've been struck by how that God is using, uh, the teaching there to rightly divide the word of truth and, uh, souls see more clearly than the differences and, uh, there's growth.
Yes, it says in chapter three of our book here and verse 16.
All scripture is given by inspiration of God.
And is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. So all scripture is profitable, but all scripture is not written to us. It's all written for us. But if you go back to First Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 32, you find.
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3 distinct groups that.
The Apostle Paul mentions.
Says, Give none offense, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the Church of God.
Jesus was God's earthly people in the Old Testament. Gentiles simply means the nations of the earth outside of that circle of blessing that God had for Israel. And then God has from both Jews and Gentiles.
Called out a people for his name that is known as the Church. The assembly called out ones. And so when we read Scripture, we should distinguish to whom is He speaking here. We read it and we profit from reading it all. But we need to distinguish what is written to us and what was written to the Jewish people.
We don't apply directly the Law of Moses because it was never given to the Gentiles.
It was given to the Jewish people and so in the Old Testament.
You have for example.
In Psalm 152 Says to praise the Lord with all instruments of music.
Why don't you do that?
We are not Israel and you go to the New Testament when it relates to the church and you find only two instruments that I remember that are mentioned to praise the Lord. One is the heart and the other are the lips. Those are the instruments that it mentions in connection with the church.
So there is if there are instruments, and I don't say that they're wrong in themselves, but it's not the characteristic of.
The prayers that we give to God now in this time. So we need to learn to be workmen, to rightly divide the word of truth. Somebody made the comment the other day, I forget if it was here, but that in Judaism, I think it was you, Bill, that mentioned that in Judaism they had immense temples. They had a temple that's Solomon built. What a beautiful building.
And people put that name on a physical building today.
That is not the temple of God in this time, we are the temple.
Of the living God we need to learn to rightly divide the word of truth.
That's what uh, quite a few mentions have been made of covenant theology. And covenant theology basically does not distinguish between Israel and the church. It varies a lot from one group to another. And so it's hard to make overall statements as to it, But I have heard statements made that the church was in the Old Testament and that.
The church in the New Testament has replaced Israel so that there is no God, has no future for the nation of Israel any longer. Those are things because they believe that there's one people of God at all times. No, there is a distinction made. Scripture itself makes that distinction. And we are to rightly divide the word of truth as to what is written to us. It's all written for us again, I say.
But not all written to us, so we need to distinguish.
Perhaps Romans Chapter 11 and just get that distinction. I think it would be helpful in Romans Chapter 11 and verse 25 and he's Speaking of the Gentiles here.
The distinction between the Gentiles and the Jew, what God has done in the past with the Jews and what he's going to do in the future.
Romans 11, verse 25. For I would not, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits. So God had taken up in an interval of time with the church.
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And with the Gentiles that blindness in part is happened to Israel until the fullness or the completeness of the Gentiles, the time of the Gentiles become in.
And so all Israel shall be saved, as it is written, there shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. And so in the future God will take up with Israel.
And the testimony will not be centered in the Gentile world.
But will be centered again in Jerusalem. God is going to have his way with Israel and the sovereignty of God. There's going to be an abundance of fruit, as has already been mentioned. But we need to make this distinction.
It wasn't revealed in the Old Testament that God was going to have a church. It wasn't revealed that there was going to be.
A great blessing brought out to into the, in the Gentile world. There were little hints at it, but, uh, it was really a part of the apostles doctrine to really bring out the fullness of that truth. And so he calls it the mystery.
And so the mist, the blindness, is only in part. There are Jews getting saved today.
They were brought into the light, their eyes are open, but the nation as a whole is blind towards the purposes of God. They will be brought to life again, as it mentions in Ezekiel.
And the Jewish people and the Jews that are saved today are part of the church, aren't they? Correct.
303.
Nsnoise.
Nsnoise.
Chapter 43.
Adverse.
25 Just a phrase out of the middle of the verse.
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Isaiah chapter 43.
Verse 25 Read the whole verse and then focus on the middle phrase. I even I am. He is of lot of thought. Thy transgressions.
For my own sake.
And we'll put and and will not remember thy sins put me and remembrance.
4.
9 own sake.