Yesterday, Today and Forever.. He Is Faithful.

 

 

 

^"11 It is a trustworthy statement:

For if we died with Him, we will also live with Him;

¹² If we endure, we will also reign with Him;

If we deny Him, He also will deny us;

¹³ If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself."

II Timothy 2:11-13

 

Good Morning Beloved,

 

Welcome to worship this Lord's Day!
We're so glad you're here today.

 

I believe that we as Christians in this day and age, should be crying out, "Where is the Lord, the God of Peter?" "Where is the Lord, the God of John?" I am certain that the same Lord that was with the first disciples is with His people today.

We must not permit ourselves to slip into the error of so many who after they have received life in the Beloved Son live as though they have this grace and need not share it. The Apostle Paul clearly believed that he was responsible to spread the Gospel in order to ensure that "those who are chosen, so that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory."

Here is a truth we must never forget—ultimately, all we possess is "in Christ Jesus." That phrase "in Christ Jesus" is neglected by too many of our fellow believers; we must not permit ourselves to become so neglectful.

Unfortunately, in many, if not most, churches today, there has been a peculiar reversal of roles between the pastor and the evangelist. I believe this has deprived the church of the biblical ministry of a pastor and has resulted in a terribly impoverished, unlearned, under equipped, in many cases unequipped, the people of God. The work of evangelism has been exalted over that of pastoral teaching in many churches throughout America. 

Let us bow our heads.

Heavenly Father,

Father, thank You for this Word for us today. Thank You for always granting us the clarity we need to understand the truth. Help us Lord, to understand that to do less than give everything to Christ is to not be a true follower of Him.  Help us to understand the preeminence of the Lord, the power of His Word, the purpose of the work, the promise of the reward, we will sacrificially give our all. Father, remind us to be faithful. Remind those of us who teach be consistent, to endure, to sacrifice, to serve, because these are the motives to which we are called.

Lord, reveal those to us, whose hearts You have prepared to receive the truth, that we might point them to Christ, our only hope for salvation. May it all be for Christ's sake and Your glory.

In Christ's name

Amen 

Today's Message: Yesterday, Today and Forever.. He Is Faithful.

I believe that the Apostle Paul enjoyed singing. In Colossians chapter 3, he wrote " Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God."

 

And, in Ephesians 5:17-21 he said "So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ."

 

In fact, I would boldly go so far as to say,  Paul loved to sing. I didn't say he could carry a tune, there are many people, including myself, who love to sing, that can't carry a tune in a bucket. 

Open your Bibles with me to Second Timothy chapter 2, today we will be looking at verses 11 through 13 of this marvelous epistle.  I believe that every Christian who has at times has doubted his own salvation should memorize and meditate on this incredibly comforting verse. Paul begins verse 11 with the introductory formula, "It is a trustworthy statement:" Or "pistós ho lógos^" It has frequently been noted that this attestation, unique to the Pastoral Epistles focuses special attention on the series of conditional clauses that follow in verses 11 through 13. Conditional clauses are made up of two major sub-clauses, an "if clause" and a "conclusion clause." These two sub-clauses are technically termed the "protasis," and the "apodosis" respectively.

 

I would encourage you to follow along with me as I read to you from our text to set it in our minds.

II Timothy 2:11-13. 

"It is a trustworthy statement:

For if we died with Him, we will also live with Him;

If we endure, we will also reign with Him;
If we deny Him, He also will deny us;

If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself."

 

Only those Christians who demonstrate an enduring, persistent faithfulness to the Lord in this life will receive special reward in the next. Carnal believers who live selfishly, denying Christ’s Lordship over their lives, will be denied special commendation when their Christian experience is evaluated by the Lord. It does not hold the view of a perfect, sinless life, which of course, is impossible for us. Rather it refers to a life of consistent faithfulness.

 

This portion of the Word, undoubtedly indicates Paul's doctrinal position. There are many Christian folk today, that have difficulty walking in synchrony with their talk. The Apostle Paul didn’t have that problem. When jailed in Philippi, Paul's response together with Silas, was to put into practice what he had been teaching in his letters. 

 

In Acts 16:25, Luke records that following a severe beating, being pinioned in stocks and incarcerated the missionaries serenaded the residents of the jail with hymns. 

Listen as I read to you that account by Luke, "But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them;" 

 

Today, the ancient hymnody is not so well known, however, very limited insight into the hymns that the Apostles sung is provided through reviewing Paul’s writings. On several occasions Paul cites portions of what appear to have been hymns that would have been sung. As a footnote, these citations appear to have been sufficiently common that he assumes that readers will instantly recognize the song.  

Allow me to share one illustration found in Colossians 1:15-20, in which Paul cites a hymn, in writing about the Son of God. "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven."

 

We get another glimpse in Romans 11, "For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor? Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to him again?"

 

In I Timothy 3:16 

"He who was revealed in the flesh,
Was vindicated in the Spirit,

Seen by angels,
Proclaimed among the nations,
Believed on in the world,
Taken up in glory."

 

Though these verses are easily recognized, many believers would not connect them to a hymn. However, it is quite likely that these verses were indeed sung during services among the early congregations. Because there is such a strong association of melody and worship, then it should not be surprising that what is sung becomes so vital to worship that honors the One Whom we worship. In Heaven, the redeemed of God will praise the Lamb and God on His throne with songs. I don’t know the melody of these songs of praise at this time, however, I do know the praise itself. We who are redeemed are destined to sing a new song in which we praise the Son of God!

 

And I saw something like a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who had been victorious over the beast and his image and the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, holding harps of God. And they *sang the song of Moses, the bond-servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying,

"Great and marvelous are Your works,
O Lord God, the Almighty;
Righteous and true are Your ways,
King of the nations!“Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name?
For You alone are holy;

For all the nations will come and worship before You,  

For Your righteous acts have been revealed."

Revelation 15:2-4

 

There are none of us who have heard these hymns at this point. We are not privy the melodies and in at least two of the instances, we aren’t even able to learn the hymns because we are not part of those groups. Yet, through faith we know that we shall hear these songs of praise. Knowing this, we understand that melody and theology must unite if we are to worship God properly. Beloved, we cannot divorce music from worship. Though we may worship in the presence of Jesus Christ, we know that ever and always song will be employed in our corporate worship. Similarly, we know that song can be an adjunct to our individual worship. This concept is interwoven throughout the Word of God.

 

In verse 11 Paul, after he says this "is a trustworthy statement," Paul says this, "if we died with Him, we also will live with Him." So if this is true then that is true. So the if clause of it is this: if we have died with him. Paul assumes that is true for the sake of argument based on the grammar that he uses here. So it is a fact, Timothy, that you have died with Christ. 

 

From the moment someone becomes a Christian, they trust in Chris, they are what Paul calls in Romans chapter 6, baptized into Christ. The term baptism does not mean water baptism everywhere the word is used in the Bible. Baptism simply means identification. In some contexts it is talking about water baptism but Paul, in Romans 6, is not talking about water baptism, he’s talking about our identification into Christ. When He died, because you are in Him, who else died? You did. When He was buried, you were buried with Him. When He rose from the dead, you also rose from the dead? When He ascended, and by the way, where is Jesus Christ is currently, He is "in the heavenly places," according to Ephesians 1:20-21, "far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come." That’s where Jesus is.   

 

So when you trusted in Christ, there is a positional reality that has happened to you; you have been identified into Christ’s death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. I would encourage you to jot down Romans 6,  and later, read Paul’s entire treatment of that subject. There are, of course, a number of other verses that speak about our identification into Christ, I'll just give you a few of them, Colossians 2:20; Colossians 3:3; Galatians 2:20.  

 

In all of these verses, they are describing something that has already happened to us. You run into a lot of Christians and they say something like "You know, I’m really trying to die to myself." The fact of the matter is, that if you understand the reality of this truth accurately and biblically, then you understand, that you have already died to yourself, because you have been identified into Christ Jesus. 

 

It is because of this transaction that has already happened and it happened to us at the point of faith, water baptism is just outward symbol of that reality; that’s all it does. The power isn't in the baptism, it's in Jesus Christ! However, because this transaction has already been executed for the Christian, Paul says in II Timothy 2:11, there in the second part of that first statement, "For if we died with Him we will also live with Him." 

 

When we walk by faith and appropriate God’s resources moment by moment, we then have the ability to tell our sin nature "No!" It is always surprising to me, just how many believers today, seem not to realize that our old sin nature is still inside of us, even though we’re Christians. That sin nature doesn’t just disappear; the sin nature will finally disappear after you are out of this body at glorification. But the sin nature is still there but for the first time in my life, because of my baptism into Christ I have the ability to tell my sin nature no. And, most of the time, I am victorious over it, however, just like the rest of you, there are times, I fall short. 

 

Paul tells us in Romans 7:14-25, " For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.  But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.  But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.

 I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good.  For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin."

What’s he saying here? Paul is saying that "When I try to live by the law, I fall short!" And, just because you are a believer, if you attempt to go it alone and make it about your right or wrong actions you will fail in your self-righteous attempts. We cannot do it without Christ, we need Jesus!

In verse 12 Paul writes, "If we endure, we will also reign with Him; If we deny Him, He also will deny us;"

Paul here makes his first purpose statement to Timothy, here’s a "trustworthy statement," number 1, "If we died with Him we will also live with Him." So far so good.

Then he moves to a second purpose statement and that’s in the first part of verse 12; this one is positive also; no word of negativity, at least not yet. Notice the first part of verse 12, here is the second if-then clause. "If we endure with Him, we will also reign with Him." Now let’s focus on the "if" part. "If we endure with Him," what does that mean exactly? It means we go through the Christian life without yielding to the temptation of retrogressing. It doesn’t mean that we live a perfect sinless spotless life; that is an impossibility. 

However, what is possible is not that we become sinless but we sin less. In other words, generally there’s this upward trajectory in our lives. This is what Paul wants for Timothy. Timothy needed to hear this because he was thinking of giving up on everything. Giving up on Christ, giving up on the ministry because of difficulty, and obviously, it’s possible for the believer to do this or else there would be no point in making this purpose statement, would there?  

I'd like you to notice the second part of this; "if we endure" with Him, notice the second part of the purpose statement, "If we endure, we will also reign with Him." Timothy, if you endure, then here is the part of the statement that’s the "then" clause, you, "we will reign with Him." Now people look at that word "reign" and they say well that means Timothy is going to get salvation. But that cannot be the proper understanding of this because if Paul were to teach that we endure with Him to gain salvation in the first place he would have contradicted everything he taught elsewhere, because Paul has been very clear, in passages like Ephesians 2:8-9, that we receive salvation by what? By grace along through faith alone in Christ alone. 

Paul saying here in verse 12 when he says, "if we endure with Him we will reign with Him." He is not talking about salvation, rather he is talking about the reward.  Following the rapture of the church the church will be brought up into heaven with Jesus Christ while the tribulation period is taking place on the earth, and as the church is brought up into the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ the church experiences something called the judgment seat of rewards. Who is involved in this judgment? Every believer is involved.

In II Corinthians 5:10 Paul says, "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad." Everybody that has placed their trust in Christ from the day of Pentecost to the Rapture is part of the body of Christ, the bride of Christ. After the rapture of the church as we are brought into heaven we stand before the Lord at this judgment, called the Bema Seat Judgment. Judgment for what? 

It is not to judge sin, that’s already happened; not to determine our salvation, we wouldn’t be with Christ in heaven, would we, if there was some doubt about our salvation. But rather it is to give or to not give rewards. It is a judgment that is non-punitive in nature, in the sense that we are not punished for sin because as we celebrated here this morning with communion, our sins debt has already been paid for and punished by Jesus Christ, Jesus absorbing that punishment in our place. Rather, this is a reward where believers will be honored or not honored, rewarded or not rewarded, based upon their lives in Christ subsequent to salvation.

This Bema Seat Judgment is completely different than all of the judgments mentioned in the Bible. We don't have the time go to deep into that today however,, you can study that on your own. At this judgment as has been discussed in prior sermons, five crowns will either be given.. or not given. The incorruptible crown for the believer that gains mastery over the old man. The crown of rejoicing for the soul winner. The crown of life for the believer that endures trials. The crown of glory for the believer that faithfully shepherds God’s people. The crown of righteousness for the believer that longs for His appearing. These are all potential crowns that are either given or not given to various Christians.  

Similarly to an athletic contest, Paul says, when certain people are rewarded with medals for a strong performance. It’s also kind of like a stewardship, where we are not owners but managers of the various things that God gives us to manage on His behalf in His absence. And it’s kind of analogized to a building, Christ is the foundation and we are building set upon this foundation of Christ, we either build it with good or bad materials. The fire will reveal the quality of the material; those things that are done with carnal motives in Christ, carnal means, those things will be put through the fire, tested, and they will incinerate. However, those things that we do for Christ out of pure motives, under His power, those are the gold, silver and costly stones which survive the refiner’s fire. And whatever remains after the fire finishes its incinerating work is part of our reward. We are not put through a fire however, our works are  This is all explained in I Corinthians 3:10-15.

Paul tells us in Roman 14:12, "So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God.”] We’re judged based on our stewardship, of the three things God gives us in Christ: time, talent and treasure. How were those things managed? We are judged, based on our motivation; why do we do what we do? We are judged also based upon our reliance upon divine enablement. Am I going out there in Christ and trying to do works in the flesh? That is a branch that is thrown into the fire, in John chapter 15.   

Enduring believers, in other words, that don’t lapse backward, not only will be fully rewarded at the Bema Seat Judgment of Christ but they will reign alongside Christ, having authority delegated to them by Christ in its fullness at the Millennial Kingdom.

The Christian that does not endure... just simply does not, and does not receive a full reward at the Bema Seat Judgment. And the reigning that he could have done is limited. They’re still in the kingdom, I’m sure everybody will be glad to be there, however,the authority that could have been exercised never reaches its potential. Why? Because they did not endure with Jesus Christ in this life.  

The third statement, is negative; the first two are sort of positive, this one is negative. This one is more of a warning and this is the one that’s hotly debated and I would say this, it’s probably the most misunderstood verse in the entire book, perhaps the entire Bible. Paul writes, “If we deny Him, He,” here comes the “then” part of it, then “He also will deny us.”

Now what does it mean here in the first part of this statement, "If we deny Him?" That is what Timothy was considering. Timothy does not like the fact that Nero is now on the throne and he is executing Christians. He is upset that his mentor, Paul, has been thrown in jail. He does not like the fact that he’s timid and sickly to begin with. And so, he is just thinking of not enduring. I know many Christians that think, "I’ve got my fire insurance paid up, that’s all that matters… right? I don’t really need to be as outspoken in the ministry anymore because after all, people that are outspoken get into trouble." That's what Timothy was feeling, he is contemplating not fully enduring as he could.

Beloved, denial of Christ manifests itself. It consists in denying Him, denying faith in Him. It can take on the form of forsaking or repudiating the Christian faith and its truths, particularly the truth concerning Jesus, and in doing so one personally denies Christ and the Father. The denial can also manifest itself in the moral realm. Some may profess to know God but their deeds deny Him. I am saddened to say, I have noticed a significant increase of professing Christians, whose deeds deny Christ.

Before you know it, you are there with your family around the table at Christmas dinner, both believers and unbelievers, extended family. And somebody just starts badmouthing Jesus Christ at the table… I can’t believe those Christians, what a bunch of terrorists, what a bunch of hypocrites, what kind of mythology is this Christian thing anyway? The opportunity for you to speak up for Christ is right there and you just let it go by. That would be one example of denying Christ. 

In verse 13 Paul writes "If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself." 

Wow, what a trustworthy statement, Paul is teaching young Timothy to endure. If we died with Him, we will live with Him. If we endure, we’re going to reign. But.. if we deny Him, He will deny us, rewards and privileges. At the end of the day, if we are unfaithful, He remains faithful.

 

In Closing...

 

We seem to be living amongst a generation that believes: Once saved always saved, so it doesn’t matter what I do. How do I know? Because I hear this from the believers all the time. "If I am saved, I'm good.  My eternal life is set, the rest doesn’t matter, I can do what I want." 

 

The Judgement Seat of Christ, could similarly, be compared to a graduation ceremony. Though all the students graduated, some will be overwhelmed with joy, because they received a diploma with honors. They made the National Honor Society and received a full scholarship for their hard work. While others may be over come with disappointment and remorse. They begin to realize it could've been different, if they would have only tried a little more and worked a little harder. Yet, some, they are thankful just to have graduated and are grateful for what they did achieve.

 

The choices we are making now right count. And, although the decisions that you’re changing now, whether good or bad, may not alter your salvation because your salvation, never depended upon you to begin with.  I pray that God will help all of us to better understand these truths and lead us to live balanced lives in Jesus Christ.

May it be so...

 

And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;

the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;

The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.

Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen

 

 

 

 

Copyright © 2019-2021 All Rights Reserved