Address—C. Hendricks
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General Meetings, Des Moines, IA, May 1983, Addressed by Charles Hendricks.
26 M 226.
And art thou gracious master, gone for us? A mansion to prepare. Shall we behold thee on thy throne and sit forever with me there? Then let the world approve or blame. We'll triumph in thy glorious name, 226.
And Art of the Great Show.
Lonely.
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Hey, Cortana.
Bring it on.
Timothy was one of a kindred spirit with the apostle.
Let's just read.
Some verses in this first chapter and as the Lord directs us.
We'll just commit that to him.
Timothy one verse, one Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God.
According to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus.
To Timothy, my dearly beloved son.
My dearly beloved Son.
Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father in Christ Jesus our Lord.
I thank God whom I serve for my forefathers with pure conscience.
That without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day.
Greatly desiring to see thee being mindful of thy tears.
That I may be filled with joy, oh, the presence of Timothy.
With Paul would have filled his heart with joy.
I believe Paul had two imprisonments.
This was his second imprisonment.
He wasn't free. Now he was in a dungeon.
He was in the most untoward circumstances, hard for us in this modern day to imagine.
The conditions under which the Apostle Paul.
Lived.
When he penned these words.
Hard for us to imagine.
And he remembers Timothy's tears.
Being mindful of thy tears.
And I would have filled him with joy, though he wrote this epistle, his last letter.
His last word before the Lord took him home to his beloved Son.
In the faith.
It's an epistle.
Which is the last recorded word from the Apostle Paul to us.
To all those who are Timothy's, if you will, to those who have a desire as Timothy did.
To go on in the truth and for the Lord, I believe there's so much instruction.
For us and so much to encourage our hearts, and that's why.
I thought it would be well in this last address of the conference, to bring something which would encourage us to go on the little while that remains. And then he goes on to say in verse 5, when I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, that genuine faith that was in Timothy, which dwelt first in my grandmother Lois, and thy mother, Unisi.
And I am persuaded that in the also.
I think so many young people here.
What a privilege you've had if you've been raised in a Christian family with a godly father and mother.
And maybe a godly grandmother or Timothy.
He had a godly mother, one that feared the Lord, and a godly grandmother, and that faith which was theirs was in Timothy as well. How precious this each of us who was a father or a mother.
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We can feel, and we know what the Apostle John meant when he said I have no greater joy than to see my children walking in the truth.
Everything else dims to nothingness when we consider the importance of those who have been given to us, who have been lent to us, of the Lord going on in the truth.
How precious this.
While it was so in Timothy's case.
But Timothy was he was a timid man. A young man.
And he was living in days. Just think of what it meant to Timothy. He accompanied the apostle Paul, that giant in the scriptures, the greatest of all the apostles. Though he says he was the least of the apostles, but he was.
He was the one to whom Christ committed the wonderful truths of the Church, some of which we've been enjoying today in our readings.
The writings of the Apostle Paul.
Think of what it meant to Timothy to be faced with the the awfulness of losing Paul.
Here he was in prison, he tells us in the last chapter. The time of my departure is at hand.
I have fought the good fight. I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is light up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me, and not to me only, but to all those who love His appearance.
Just think of what that meant to Timothy.
He wouldn't have the apostle to lean upon anymore. He wouldn't have the apostle to whom he could go with questions.
And with problems.
But he would. He would be missing. He would be gone.
Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God which is in thee by the putting out of my hands. There was no question about it. The gift communicated to Timothy was extraordinary. I don't believe there's another instance of it in the entire New Testament. It was communicated to Timothy by the laying on of the hands of the apostle. This is not the normal way of communicating gift, the normal way we have it in Ephesians 4.
The Lord when he ascended up on high, he gave gifts unto men, and he gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers.
For the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.
Christ, the ascended head of the Church give gifts, but here in this particular case.
There was a special prophecy uttered in connection with Timothy and he received a gift through the laying on of the apostles hands.
If you turn back to the 4th chapter of the First Epistle to Timothy.
He says in verse 12.
Let no man despise thy youth. You see, Timothy was in danger as.
Young man of being intimidated, of being discredited.
He was timid, he was not naturally forward, and the apostle felt that. I believe he was one of very delicate sensibilities.
And he says, Let no man despise thy youth, but be thou an example.
The way a young man conducts himself down here.
Commends the testimony which he is called upon to bear, and it must be consistent with his years.
With his years. And so he says, be thou an example of the believers in Word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity, till I come give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. And now here's the verse I wanted. Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. Now here we have an added truth that there was a prophetic utterance in connection with.
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Timothy.
By one of the prophets probably. We don't know, we're not told. But there was a prophetic utterance that Timothy was to be the recipient of a gift from the Lord, and there was great danger that that gift which had been communicated to him. Through the laying out of the apostle Paul's hands with, accompanied by with the laying out of the hands of the presbytery, the elders there expressed fellowship with the communication of that gift.
Through the Apostle Paul, it wasn't communicated through them, they simply expressed fellowship with it.
And I believe it was absolutely necessary that this was done and established because of Timothy fewness of years. He was a young man and his meek and rather timid character. And so he's told, don't neglect the gift which which is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, the prophecies which went before on thee. Paul says in the first chapter, first Timothy, that is, he was marked out as a special vessel.
To receive a gift from the Ascended Head. But it was through the laying on of the Apostle Pauls hands, and accompanied by the fellowship of the elders there. And so all knew that Timothy was marked out and called of the Lord for a special service in the early church. He is 1 whom we refer to as an Apostolic Delegate. But he was in danger going back to the Second Epistle. He was in danger of neglecting that gift.
He was in danger of letting it droop. We heard something in some of our earlier readings that everyone of us has a gift.
Well, here was number question about Timothy's gift. He had it through the laying on of Paul's hands. The elders expressed fellowship with it at the same time, and so there was clear evidence that he had received something from the Lord to be used in dependence upon him. But his natural character was one which could easily have been.
One which would have discouraged him, especially in view of the Apostle Paul's departure. And so he says again in Second Timothy 1/6.
I put the in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God which is in thee by the laying on of my hands. Stir it up, Timothy. Don't let it droop. And we would encourage everyone of you, young brothers especially and sisters.
To stir up the gift of God which is in you by the laying on of it's not in you, by the laying on of Paul's hands, but it's in you, because Christ has given you a gift, but here with Timothy he could add by the laying on of my hands.
And then that verse that our brother spoke on, and I don't intend on speaking on it long, but just to touch on it again. Verse 7. For God has not given us the spirit of fear. Don't be intimidated, Timothy. Don't be afraid. We're not living in days of great power, you know, thinking about those early days of the book of Acts. It says with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.
And it says that there was such power in those days, and multitudes both of men and women, were turned to the right ways of the Lord and of the rest. Durst no man join himself to them, for the fear of God had passed upon them. Well, it must be wonderful to be to be connected with the testimony, when that's what characterizes the day in which we're living days of power.
But second Timothy days are not those days.
Two Timothy days are days of reproach.
Rejection.
The testimony that we are called upon to be true to is not popular. It's not wanted even by the mass of those that call themselves Christians. It isn't just the opposition of the world that we have in Second Timothy. It's the opposition of those who are many times truly the Lord's. You know, that's the hardest thing to bear when one is seeking to go on for the truth and for the Lord, and then He meets with opposition.
From those who are real Christians.
Well.
The Apostle Paul says to Timothy, stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting out of my hands. For God has not given us the Spirit of fear.
But if power, and of love, and of a sound mind, isn't it a marvelous thing He says at the end of verse 8 Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel, according to the power of God, the power of God. We said a moment ago, it wasn't a day of power, and yet there is power. We have the Spirit of power. We have enough power.
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By the Spirit of God, to always walk in obedience to the Word of God, always.
And I've been so encouraged in reading this epistle, the Epistle of Jude 2,2Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied. (Jude 2) where the days are so dark and the evil is so heavy and gross, and the departure is, you might say, almost complete. What's the use? What's the use of going on? No one wants the truth and no one cares about it anymore.
Why don't we just go our own way and pursue an individual path? Is it worth it all?
Yes, it is.
If no one else will go with us, and that'll never be the case, that'll never be the case. We have held out to us in this epistle that there'll always be those we can always follow. Righteousness they love, peace with them that call on the Lord. Out of a pure heart there'll always be others, even though it will be a few and feeble testimony. And believe me, brethren, as one goes around and visits.
The little gatherings.
There are some very feeble expressions to the truth.
But it isn't numbers. It isn't numbers.
You know, if we wanted to compromise the truth of God, we could gain numbers. But all what a loss that would be. What a loss that would be.
Just to be content with the word of God and with going on with the Lord in the truth and leaving the results with him, Timothy he says God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, but of power and the power that's always brought before us in the New Testament.
Is the power of God in resurrection?
That you might know Ephesians one, What is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward, who believe according to his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in heaven? Far above all principality and authority, and power in every name named not only in this world, but also in that which is to come, and gave him to be head over all things to the church which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth All in all, what power?
The power of God that has set a man in the glory, a man above all, created intelligences.
Above all the powers of darkness, above all the rulers of this world, above all intelligences, there's a man up there, and that man was once down here. He that ascended is the same also that descended. How low did he go? He went down to the very bottom.
Where the bars closed upon him forever, it says he went down into the depths, that he might bring us into the heights, into the heights.
And so Paul says to Timothy, God has given us the spirit of power and then of love.
You know we're living in days when the love of many shall wax cold, because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
We're living in days when everyone is doing what is right in his own eyes.
We're living in days when all seek their own things and not the things of Jesus Christ.
Those are the days in which we're living.
Her living in days of individuality. Each one is going on as an individual, and if you go to visit someone nowadays, sometimes you'll be met with it's none of your business.
Why are you making that your affair?
You're really, genuinely concerned about someone's mistake that he or she might be making. You may get a rebuke.
Are we to give up?
Are we to let the spirit of the day, the spirit of coldness, the spirit of indifference to the claims of Christ, the spirit of Laodicea?
Are we to let that to get into our spirits?
God has given us the spirit of love, the Spirit of love, and all that we might have love for all the Saints.
For everyone who is dear and precious to Christ, no matter how feeble he or she may be.
And how much instruction he or she may need.
But not to set ourselves above any but to love the mall, because Christ loves them with an everlasting love.
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The spirit of love and then a sound mind, he says to Timothy. He's given us the spirit of a sound mind. Isn't it important that we know where we are and what we're about? Where are we living? We're not living in the early days of Acts. We're not living in the.
100 to 150 years ago, when the Spirit of God was exercising multitudes to come out of the systems of men, to be gathered to the precious name of Christ, and to be entering into the precious recovery of the truth.
There was pleasing to the spirit of God to recover in the last century, but we're living at the end.
We're living at the very moment when the Lord is going to come, and I think it's so sad that these last few moments of our sojourn here, there are so many.
That are getting discouraged and saying what's the use.
What's the use?
And they turn aside just before the shout.
The spirit of a sound mind to know where we are, to be able to evaluate all that's going out there, going on out there in Christendom. As we hear about the various movements, the new things that are happening and they're seeing so attractive to us young people, they seem so attractive. There's activity and there's the working of the spirit of God. Apparently so. And there seems to be such blessing and souls are getting converted. And we can thank the Lord for every soul that is converted to Christ and praise Him and rejoice.
But the gospel goes forth.
But all we need is sound mind. We need a mind governed by the word of God, our brother said to us.
About Brother Darby, that he had a mind for the universe, but he bowed to this book like a fool would to God. We all did that.
To this man will I look to him that is of a humble and a contrite spirit, and that trembleth at my word.
Would to God we all bowed to this book.
So that it was everything and absolute authority to us, you know, that's what will keep us, that's what will keep us.
Is the Word of God and submission to Christ as the head. The Spirit of God will never, never, never lead us, contrary to the Book, to the Word of God.
And so we have the spirit of power. Power in these last days, not in the sense of outward display and grandeur of things, but power to go on in the truth and the love that is so needed, so needed in these days when the love of many is waxing cold. And then the sound mind to know where we are and to judge everything according to the light of the word of God, to bring everything to the test of Scripture I hear.
Things going on out there in Christendom. I've talked to people. I've talked to them at work.
And they tell me about some of the wonderful things that have happened in some of their meetings healings that they've seen and and that I talked to them about their doctrine and their teaching and I found that find that it's defective. Well, I can't explain and I don't think we have to, we don't have to explain all the apparent effects of the work that's going on in Christendom. But all we have to do is test it by the word of God and makes it so simple, test their teaching do they bring.
The truth of Scripture.
Well, to go on in these last days requires identification with a testimony that is very unpopular. When we were passing out tracks, Brother Vin and I in West Virginia, we stopped at a minister's house. I believe he was a saved man and we spent about an hour with him.
And spoke to him about Christ. And we had some nice fellowship, but there were things that we couldn't agree with, and we got into those things. And when we sat before him, Paul's doctrine.
The truth of Paul woman's place according to Scripture, and the order according to the.
Scriptures that should exist in the assembly. I remember he looked at me.
And he said, you know, I want to tell you something, what you believe is very, very unpopular nowadays.
Yes, we said. We know that.
And there are very few, he said, that would agree with you and what you're telling me. And we said, yes, we know that. But the important thing, young brother and young sister, when you get to glory, what's going to count is how true we've been.
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To his mind, as revealed in his work.
That's what's going to meet with his commendation. His commendation, he says in verse 8. Be not thou therefore ashamed.
Are we ashamed of the testimony of our Lord? There's a testimony that we're called upon to bear in these last days, our Lord, Nor of me His prisoner. Is Paul still in prison? Well, I believe he is. I believe his doctrine is very little known and understood and acted upon in that which calls itself Christian.
He says to Timothy. Timothy, I'm not going to be with you much longer, be not ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner.
Is Paul's doctrine in prison today as he was personally then? Yes, I believe so. I believe that very few know anything about it, as very few Christians wanted anything to do with Paul in those days. You say? Why do you say that? Verse 15.
Thou knowest that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me, and was be turned away from me, of whom our jealous and homogeneous. And in the last chapter he says in verse 10. For Dimas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica. Now those who are in Asia, that's where he labored, That's where he spent his time.
That's where he was persecuted. That's where he.
Suffered for the name of Christ and demas. He was a fellow servant, a fellow laborer, one that labored with the apostle Paul, one that served with him in the gospel, one that heard his ministry, who sat under it, who had the privilege of hearing the highest truths that have ever been expounded to the Year of Man. And we read at the end his last epistle.
That Dimas had forsaken him.
And all in Asia had forsaken him, and so to be identified with Paul.
In this day was not at all the popular thing.
It required great energy.
And to be identified with a rejected testimony, to be identified with the truth of God.
That the mass of Christendom will not have.
To be ashamed of that oh, what a sorrow that will be in that coming day. And so he says, Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel, according to the power of God, And then to strengthen his faith, he says, Who has saved us, and called us within holy calling? And I've noticed both in this epistle and in Jude.
In Jude, I believe it's the only time recorded in the New Testament that our faith is called Your Most.
Holy Faith. And it's the darkest epistle there is. And yet He brings before the Saints there that our faith is our most holy faith, surely living in days of decline and departure, where everyone is doing what is right in his own eyes. Surely this is not the time to be insisting upon absolute conformance to and complicity with the word of God. Surely we can lower the standard today. This is a day of departure and decline.
It's in those epistles, 2 Timothy and Jude, where he says Our Calling is a holy calling.
The truth, the standard of truth, the standard by which we are going to be.
Judged if you will.
Is the word of God, Paul could say to the Ephesian elders. I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
He was a faithful man.
He calls Our Calling here and holy calling as Jude speaks of it, as our most holy faith. Most holy faith. No, this is not the time when we can ever plead lowering the standard of holiness and truth.
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This is a time when the Remnant, those who are seeking to be true to the Lord, will adhere to it.
Like a fool.
I hope you understand the expression.
Who had saved us and called us within holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace. According to his own purpose and grace he goes back to the eternal purpose of God. And He brings Timothy into the light of the fact that God had set His heart upon you. Timothy God had set his heart upon us before the world ever began His own purpose and grace.
Which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now right now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death and hath brought life and incorruptibility. It should read to light through the gospel. Just think of it. If it wasn't for the gospel, we wouldn't know about the life for the soul and incorruptibility for the body. That's all been brought to light by the gospel, but God had us in his thoughts from all eternity.
To bring us into blessing and all the evil that's come in, he says to Timothy. Don't be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord. Stir up the gift of God which is in you. By the laying on of my hands, God hasn't given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love, and of a sound mind.
And then he says in verse 12, for the which 'cause I also suffer these things. Nevertheless I am not ashamed.
For I know whom I have believed. He doesn't say I know what I've believed.
What a difference that makes, he says. I know whom I have believed. He believed in a person. Christ had become the all absorbing object of his heart. It wasn't his teachings. It wasn't a system of truth. It wasn't a lot of doctrine, all precious and all needed by our souls to go on and to be fed and instructed in the right ways of the Lord. But here he says, I know who I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep.
That which I have committed unto him against that day he had committed his all to the Lord, to the Lord Jesus, whose he was and whom he served, He says. I'm not ashamed, Timothy, don't you be ashamed.
Throw in your lot with those despised few, those despised few who are going on in the truth.
Hold fast the form of sound words. Which words thou hast heard of me, that he had heard words from the apostle Paul? He was to have the form of sound words and outline, so that he knew the truth of God, as the apostle had given it to him.
You know, it's a nice exercise when you pick up a book.
To say in your mind I'm talking about a book of Scripture, say the Epistle to the Philippians.
We should know this book so well would to God that I could say I do. But we ought to so that whenever we take up a book, an epistle or whatever, we we haven't outlined in our minds of what that book contains and what its major thrust of truth is.
Have an outline of sound words which thou hast heard of Maine in faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus.
That good thing, that good deposit which was committed unto thee, keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us. He hasn't given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. And now he tells Timothy to keep the good deposit entrusted by the power of the Holy Ghost.
Who dwells within us?
It doesn't matter whether we're at the end of the dispensation as we are or at the beginning. The Spirit of God is not lost any of His power.
A sound mind would not look for the Spirit of God to be manifesting the power that He manifested in the early days when there were miracles and signs and powers and wonders. We don't look for that today, because instead we have something far more precious and better, and that's the word of God.
Everyone of us, I'm sure, would say Amen to this statement. If you had to choose between the word of God and miracles and powers and signs and wonders, you'd take the word of God, the word of God.
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This is his message to us. Those were all introductory and supportive of the new thing which God was establishing the Christian testimony. But now that it's been established, now that he's committed to us his precious book.
The Word of God, he holds us to it.
He holds us to it.
In every assembly.
Every assembly ought to have a reading meeting.
A meeting where the word of God is proclaimed.
Where the word of God is studied and pondered and as we've heard in these meetings.
How good that there's an exercise in the gospel, too. Well, he says, that good thing which was committed unto thee, keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us This thou knowest that all they which are in Asia, be turned away from me, of whom are FAI jealous and homogeneous. They had turned away from the apostle, turned away from the greatest voice for God this world has ever seen, outside of the Lord Jesus.
And.
He was about to leave. Now. Just think of the tremendous impact that would have when Timothy finally learned.
Paul has gone home to be with Christ.
And he was alone. No, he wasn't alone. No, I don't mean that. We're never left alone. Our brother reminded us of that in these meetings. The Lord is with us.
And if thou goest not with us, carry us not up hence.
The Lord has promised His presence with us to support us, to sustain us, and to encourage us.
And I know, I remember once in my travels out east, I I was going to bypass a very small meeting.
And I changed my plans and went there instead.
And I was so thankful that I did.
When I was there, it didn't seem as though there was much interest either, and I was.
Getting a little discouraged and just before I left.
Brother said to me.
You don't know what an encouragement.
Your coming has been. Well, that meant that really made it worthwhile, didn't it?
That made it worthwhile.
What a mistake it would have been to have missed them and not been there was only a few days.
But just think of justice, those few going on week after week after week after week.
There's a lot of us together here.
And what a joy it is. Many of us come from small meetings, and we know what it is.
We know how easy it is to become discouraged.
And Paul was seeking to encourage his beloved son in the faith, Timothy.
Timothy, don't be discouraged. Stir up the gift of God which is in thee.
That good thing committed unto thee, keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in US.
You know, Timothy, that all in Asia turned away from me.
Then he mentions a case that filled his heart with joy. He says in verse 16 the Lord give mercy under the House of Onusiferous, For he OFT refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain. But when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently, and found me The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day. And in how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus, thou knowest very well.
We have a very difficult time imagining how realizing how hard and what trouble onospheres went through to find the Apostle Paul in that dungeon.
He identified himself with a rejected apostle.
And it's our privilege. I say it It's our privilege, in the few moments remaining in this dispensation, to be identified with the despised and hated and rejected testimony.
It's our privilege.
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Very soon it may be air. This hour ends. We'll trade this scene for the glory, but it's our privilege now.
To spend of a little time and energy and strength, whatever it is the Lord is entrusted to us.
To put it in.
That Bank of heaven, if I can put it that way, to spend the little we have here, that will count for eternity.
And everything we spend on ourselves.
Everything we spend on ourselves.
Is going to end when this scene ends, but what we send on ahead.
Will remain.
And then he goes on to say, thou Therefore, my son, I want to touch on a few more verses.
He says be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. How can we possibly continue in a time of such departure and weakness? Discouragement, how can we possibly go on?
It's only in the sense of grace that he's picked up a poor Wretch like me.
And made me his child.
Made me his.
To think, brethren, that he can take the likes of us, not angels. Now he could have called angels to do the work of the ministry. He could have called angels to serve in the gospel.
And to proclaim the wondrous message of salvation. But he's taken us who were once slaves of Satan.
And he's delivered us from the power of darkness.
And translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love.
He's taken us from the darkness under which we were all in ******* to Satan.
And he's made us his.
And now he equips us to everyone of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
And he sends us out, he says. Now you go out.
Empowered by me.
With the same message of the gospel that has met your soul and brought it out of darkness into my marvelous light. He doesn't send angels to do that task. He could.
But he sends us.
Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, the sense that we owe everything to grace.
He saved us according to His own purpose and grace, not according to our works. We could serve Him for 1000 years if we had that long to live, and our salvation wouldn't be one bit different. The basis for it wouldn't be one bit different. We wouldn't be any more secure at the end of that time than we were the moment we believed, because it depends altogether and entirely upon the work of another, the work of Christ.
Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, the sense of grace that has taken a Wretch like me.
And made him a child of the king.
Be strong, he says to Timothy in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. Never been a day when faithful men are more needed than today. It's a day of great unfaithfulness. It's a day of great departure, a day of giving up of the truth.
A day of living for self self gratification.
You have your life before you. What are you going to do with it?
What have I done with mine? What am I doing with mine?
Every moment you spend in this precious book. Every moment you spend on your knees.
Every moment you spend talking to some soul of Christ.
Counts.
Faithful men.
Not, as we said before, not gifted men, though we all have it.
But faithfulness? How needed.
And then thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. It's not going to be an easy path.
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There are those today that are preaching an altogether false gospel. Believe on Christ, they say, and everything will be rosy. Your business will prosper. Your health will get better.
Things will go well in your family relationships and you'll have friends and this and that and.
It's not at all what the Lord Jesus taught.
No, we're taught to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
Self denial. No man that warth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life. A good soldier has learned to take orders from his captain.
And from no one else. And he doesn't get involved with the affairs of the world around. And that's the picture he presents here.
That he may please him who have chosen him to be a soldier.
Is our desire to please that one.
And then he goes on to say, No man. If a man also strives for masteries, yet is he not crowned except he strives lawfully.
Remember talking to this man I referred to a while back?
And.
It was amazing.
How?
He didn't realize. He did not realize that he's going to be held by what's in the book.
And he took liberties. And how often do we do that? Not Speaking of others so much, but my own heart.
We have no right to reason upon the word of God. God has spoken, and we must bow to it.
And I believe a brother that used to reside in this very meeting used to tell you over and over again.
Again, we're never wiser than Scripture.
Never wiser than Scripture.
So if we're going to strive for the masteries, if we're going to run in a race, we won't be crowned except we strive lawfully.
Is it according to the Scriptures? And then there's a universal principle in verse 6, and I'm going to read it a little differently. The husbandman must labor before partaking of the fruits. You know that's true about laboring in the Word. Being diligent in Scripture, you must labor, you must read, you must ponder, you must prey upon.
This book in order to partake of the fruits of it.
The husband must labor before partaking of the fruits.
And then he says consider what I say.
We have very little time for that today.
Meditate, Paul says to Timothy in the first epistle. Meditate upon these things. Give thyself.
Holy unto them, that thy profiting may appear to all.
I believe the Saints in this land are tested in a way that is not true of the Saints in other parts of the world where they don't have the opportunity to have the things, the worldly things and goods that we can have so easily. I believe we're really tested and.
It's a severe test. It's so easily easy to acquire things here and to set our heart upon objects here. And I can't help but feel I don't say this is true in every case, but I believe the Lord is speaking to us in many ways to show us by things that He's bringing in, that this is not our home, this is not our resting place. Our portion is above.
And if we're getting too occupied with things here.
He will bring things in to draw out our hearts to himself. There where he is. Well, I just want to turn over to the last chapter and read a few verses before closing.
I'm going to read verse 10 of chapter 3.
Thou is fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity or love, patience, persecutions, afflictions which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra. What persecutions I endured, But out of them all the Lord delivered me. Isn't it instructive that the last thing Paul wrote, he refers to the persecutions that he encountered on his first missionary journey, that is.
If you make a decision, young brother or sister, to go on for the Lord and to stand for him, and you take a stand at work or at school or at home, wherever it may be, the enemy will hurl at you everything that he can to turn you aside. At the very beginning. That's what he did to the Apostle Paul, these persecutions and afflictions which he endured at Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra, where when he first went out.
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On his first journey.
And the enemy will seek to turn us aside and to discourage us.
Right away. But he persevered in the path. And then he says, yeah, all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. That's what's held out to us. Not a rosy path, not a rosy path, not an easy path, but to endure hardness and not to be ashamed of the testimony of the Lord, nor of Paul, his prisoner.
Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
Things are going to get worse. And you know, that's an encouragement. As we look around and we see things are getting worse, that's exactly what the scripture said would happen. Isn't that a cheer to realize we're living in the last moments of our sojourn here? What he said would happen is happening, and for us to look around hoping things will get better is to go contrary to what scripture says, Evil men and seducers shall wax.
Worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
And what deception is going on out there today? Let's not be deceived.
Let's not be deceived.
But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned, and hast been assured of knowing of whom thou hast learned them. The resource is to continue in the things of God, and that from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. So he commits Timothy to the word of God. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction, and righteousness.
That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
Now just two more verses, and then I close the second. In the last chapter, verse two, he says to Timothy, Preach the Word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but will heap unto themselves teachers having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables those days.
Are upon us. We're living in those days. And So what does he say? Slacken your insistence on the truth, he says. Preach the word. Be instant in season, out of season. They used to tell me at work passing out some tracks and then they say, well, keep that for Sunday, keep that for when we all go to church. This doesn't belong during this during the days of the week. This is out of season, he says to Timothy. Be instant in season, out of season. It's never the wrong time, never the wrong time to bring the word of God to bear upon a conscience.
Whether it's Monday or Tuesday or any other day of the week, be instant in season, out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine, for the time will come, and it has come when they will not endure sound doctrine. May God give us, and as we think of the give us grace to hold fast to these principles.
Read this epistle, especially young people, the instruction that it gives us. I didn't touch upon the second, the last half of the second chapter, where he likens the churches to a great house, vessels to honor and to dishonor, but.
Time doesn't permit to cover all these things. I trust that the Lord has enabled us to just.
Get a feeling.
For the day in which.
This epistle is cast for which it's cast and the instruction that is given to us in these last days to be identified with a rejected, despised testimony until we hear the shout and he calls us home.
If you don't mind, I would like to re sing 226.
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226.
And are to the.
Great.