well i'm excited to return to the series that we have been in next week uh exodus and mark but this morning i thought since it's a um beginning of a new year and we have a wonderful moment here as we see the installation and hear promises made and a profession of faith to turn to the book of 2nd Timothy chapter 2 2nd Timothy chapter 2 and consider the perspective that we ought to have going forward in the Lord's service and in this ministry that he has blessed us with 2nd Timothy chapter 2 is our text today that is found on page 1268 in your pew bible if you're looking for that This is the word of the Lord. You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses and trust of faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. It is the hardworking farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for which I am suffering. Bound with chains is a criminal, but the word of God is not bound. Therefore, I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they may obtain salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. The saying is trustworthy, for if we have 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. Remind them of these things and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good but only ruins the hearers do your best to present yourself to god as one approved a worker who has no need to be ashamed rightly handling the word of truth but avoid irreverent babble for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness and their talk will spread like gangrene among them are hymenaeus and philetus who have swerved from the truth saying that the resurrection has already happened they are upsetting the faith of some but god's firm foundation stands having the seal the lord knows those who are his and let everyone who names the name of the lord depart from iniquity now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay some for honorable use some for dishonorable therefore if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable he will be a vessel for honorable use set apart as holy useful to the master of the house ready for every good work so flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness faith love and peace among those who call on the lord from a pure heart have nothing to do with foolish ignorant controversies you know that they breed quarrels and the servant of the Lord must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone able to teach patient patiently enduring evil correcting his opponents with gentleness God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth that they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will may the Lord bless the hearing of his word we have two very special events before us this morning that are happening we have julia standing up and professing your faith we have elders and deacons being installed i don't know if you have ever seen these two things put together in worship but i want you to think about we're going to do that this morning i want you to think about the moment that god has given us here this morning to encourage us in his work among us his work among us the reality is in the midst of all that's happening in the world right now all of the distraction all of the turmoil all of the pain all of the hardship all of the suffering all the violence i mean we could just keep going for a while of all the things that are going on we really do uh time struggle with if the lord is really working what is the lord doing it's easy to lose sight of the fact that he is building his church he is working and there is real power being put on display his almighty power with which works looking at this this morning and what we're about to witness and hear should have some kind of effect and in light of what we just read from second timothy chapter 2 some kind of effect and drive in all of us to want to see and honor the design and purpose for which God gave gospel ministry. The reality is that one of the greatest faults in the modern church, one of the greatest faults today of the church is that we have forgotten the goal and the purpose of ministry? Why are we doing what we do? R.L. Dabney in his fantastic work on preaching says that in Jesus' day, there was just like ours, that there was nothing but political turmoil and unrest. The question everywhere was being asked, and think of our situation, how they as God's people could ever be under the authority of a pagan empire? and we struggle with what's happening in the United States. Dabney says, the Lord hardly addressed the issue. Try to find it in the Scriptures. He hardly addressed it. Instead, the Lord was fixed on the eternal errand that the Father had given him. Fixed on it to save. I was reading another piece on Machen, And this article said that Machen grasped the basic Pauline point that the primary area of combat for the church is the church itself. Writing in the midst of a Roman empire, Paul has almost nothing to say about the empire. Instead, he focuses on the doctrine and the discipline of the church. There was something much different, a heavenly task they were focused on. Why is that so important? Well, we forget what we're doing. We forget what is at stake. And this passage is helping us this morning, especially as we install new office bearers. And it's meant to encourage us in the calling. It's meant to encourage you, brothers, in your calling to be focused, to be intentional, and to give yourselves to the ministry and the heavenly errand as God has defined it. And that is really the point this morning. So important for those ordained to these offices of pastor, elder, and deacon to give themselves in full devotion to the Lord in their offices and in their work among you. I recognize that you cannot compare the church to a business, and I've always been bothered when people do it, so I'm going to do it. But most of you have businesses. Some of you have businesses. You're in positions of leadership and authority. You know that what is crucial to the success is the quality of the people that work for you. You know that. A boss knows that an unqualified or an untrustworthy man who is in charge of daily operations, the whole thing will soon go into the tank. Even the Boy Scouts have a pledge. Did you know that? On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and obey the Scout law to help people at all times, to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight. Boy Scouts. Society understands this. Society gets this. What we're dealing with are eternal matters, spiritual matters, Matters that have to do with where people are going. Matters that have to do with eternity. And I believe that you find the drive of everything that Paul is after this morning to motivate you to this end, to think about this, this end is something that he says in verse 21, that if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel of honor sanctified. And here it is. And this little phrase I've captured for the title, Useful to the master. Useful to your master. That stands out to me. Serviceable. Beneficial. Useful to the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't you want to be useful to Christ instead of unuseful? Well, to begin to impress upon us how important this is, Paul lays out to Timothy and he lays out here an explanation of what we're up against, how great the struggle is. That's really the first point. What are we really facing? Because nobody, today it's generally not taken very seriously as to what we are really facing. And if the focus is the church and the target and the problems being the church in the church itself, what are we facing? In verse 3, he says something that helps us to get an indicator as to the great challenge that we face stepping into these offices and being a part of the church of Jesus Christ where he says, share in the suffering as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Other translations read this way. You must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. That was the heart of what Timothy struggled with. There's a reason he was known as Timid Timothy. It means here that you have to suffer hardship with. I heard a long time ago, one pastor say, and roughly translating it, you must be willing to take your share of rough treatment. Your share, your portion. What in the world is he talking about? You're going to get beat up. Oh, come on, this is not very encouraging, you know, to start the install guys and tell them they're going to get beat up. We don't think of serving that way, of course, do we? We have no idea in the West, and in our kind of circumstances at times, in light of the physical persecutions that have gone on across the world and in other countries, we've not really faced that here. And so these sort of callings, I think, we hear to engage in warfare, to engage in sufferings, and we think, well, that's a little bit distant from us. We really haven't faced that. That can't really be talking to us the way that it should. We think suffering here primarily in physical terms. I mean, we see on the news Muslims blowing up people for their ideas. And we see the things going on, but we're realizing that's coming closer, isn't it? It's happening right down the street now. Hardship, Paul says, hardship. People facing hardship in this, facing trial, taking their share of rough treatment. What is he speaking about? Well, he's actually addressing here the challenge of just being willing to stand for what you know is right. Hardship results from people speaking. Hardship results from people speaking out. Hardship results from people saying and speaking what is right and what is wrong and telling people that there is sin and that there is a way that they can escape the consequences and the wrath of God. We've struggled with this. We've struggled with this. We've sort of created an environment to be shielded and we want to be left alone. We want to have our homes and our children and nothing should ever, ever, ever be a threat to the kind of American happiness and Christian American happiness that we have come to enjoy and yet we're running up against something here that greatly challenges us as to what ministry really is the lord's always said it in the world you will have tribulation through much tribulation you all enter the kingdom of heaven you've got to endure the hardship he says as he starts out and that presupposes that and that assumes that if i'm going to be a faithful elder if i'm going to be a faithful deacon if i'm going to be a faithful pastor i have got to be willing to engage this if you're going to be a faithful christian in your callings you're you are going to have to engage this and who you are which presupposes then that you could take a passive stance in it and a passive role what you have dispersed through chapter two if you read it Did you notice that the sense that you get when you read chapter two of 2 Timothy is nothing but conflict, conflict, conflict, conflict, and Paul was helping Timothy understand the nature of the conflict. If you were to work through this chapter, you would really, as Paul often does, put it in two major categories. You have doctrinal conflict, you'll notice here, conflict for the truth, and then you have moral conflict in the way that people live doctrine and life you'll notice these categories work their their way out here in this section and paul is using himself as an example here he says listen i'm suffering for the truth for my message i'm suffering for morally calling people to repentance and to turn to the lord jesus christ i've engaged it in verse 9 he says remember jesus christ risen from the dead the offspring of david is preached in my gospel for which i'm suffering bound in chains as a criminal i'm locked up i've had real chains put on me for this for the message of jesus for the doctrine that i confess and that i teach i am i'm chained up as an evildoer I am known as an evildoer what in the world brought that on it was engagement in advancing God's truth even when people hated it the sad picture if you were to go through this this entire little letter here to Timothy and you were to go through it you'll notice that at the very end of it he describes his own situation where that had landed him in a situation of being abandoned his fellow labor demas had forsaken him he doesn't even have a coat to put on he's asking for someone to bring him a coat for the winter he has no books to read and this person he names alexander the coppersmith did me all sorts of harm in the ministry for he has noticed greatly resisted our words and he says at first offense no one even stood with me but the lord did i was alone in this no clothes in the dead of winter no books as a pastor and everyone had turned against me i was alone you'll notice in verse 11 he describes a huge doctrinal controversy that had probably broke out in the church in ephesus he says but avoid irreverent babel for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness and their talk will spread like gangrene you know what gangrene is i don't need to describe that do i it's awful and among them he likens false ideas and false doctrines to gangrene and then he and then he posters them when i used to play basketball if you got slam dunked on you were postered paul posters them in the scripture hymenaeus and philetus are of this sort who've swerved from the truth saying the resurrections already happened they're upsetting the faith of some their message is spreading like gangrene it's really graphic here i have seen more doctrinal controversies than i care to in my short time in the ministry one after another over the worship of god i mean where do we almost every major doctrine that you find in Scripture has been hit, and there's been a controversy over, and they just keep running their cycles over and over and over and over. Things, terms that we have settled on in the church, redefined. Entire new systems pushed on us. Verse 3, engage the warfare. Engage it. What's the second struggle? You have the doctrinal struggle then you have the you have notice here a warfare in calling people over moral issues to repentance he says that chapter two we're aiming to lead people to repentance so that anyone verse 19 who names the name of christ let everyone who names the name of the lord depart from iniquity think of how great the problems are here chapter three look at look at the beginning of chapter three. But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty, for people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good treacherous reckless swollen with conceit lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of god having the appearance of godliness but denying its power are we not living that how do you confront that i mean i'm reminded of john the baptist who um remember what john said to herod herod had unlawfully taken herodias herod's brother's wife they had divorced herod moved in and married her the law of god spoke directly against that the law of god condemned that condemned that divorce it condemned that remarriage john could have avoided it he could have said nothing he would have kept the peace right outwardly it wouldn't have stirred the pot it wouldn't have bothered anyone except one the Lord John took his share of rough treatment his head ended up on a platter discouraging isn't it it's closer to home than we realize how many loved ones do we have what about children where what I've just described the realities are going on where I could read an article this last week where we have an entire generation growing up in front of us and the author said we're living in a time of what is known as sexual atheism where this generation will come to church they'll say it's good to be in church it's good to prayer but God shouldn't really touch the sexual life he has no real say over that they can do what they want sexual atheism how much frustration and conflict have you had? How much frustration and conflict have you had in the church? How many people have gotten bitter to the whole thing? And then you have the devil coming and upsetting the faith of some through false ideas. Constantly pitching false ideas. Pitching, pitching, pitching. And people running with them. And you see what happens. You know what happens. I've seen this. I've seen all the fighting. I've seen all the disillusionment. People get disillusioned. They're tired of the fight. They throw up their arms. They're tired of the warfare. they check out, they're done. And behind the scenes, the devil still works. Overthrowing, overthrowing. Discouraging, discouraging. Running like a dirty dog through your beautiful living room. And I say, there's massive pressure to just say, what's this all worth? I know a lot of pastors, as soon as they get older, I've often thought to myself, and I've already sort of seen this trend in me, where did the fire go? they've disengaged i fear that's going to happen with me my father was a basketball coach in the early years and in the early years he was a successful basketball coach he was demanding he was principled he um in the right way was strict full of energy and toward the end of his 20 some years of coaching i i was a gym rat i was in the gym and I was shooting and I'd watch I'd listen to his coaching I'd listen to him he you know and that he was a great role model but toward the end of his entire career when he was done he had checked out I could not believe what he let go I could not believe what he let go and what players could pull you just get so tired of the warfare you get so tired of the the challenges the cost of disengagement. Carl Truman wrote an article recently and he said, churches and institutions and organizations do not go bad by coups of liberals. They go bad because otherwise Orthodox people sit on their hands. They've stopped fighting. Many churches have done a decent job of maintaining an Orthodox confession of faith on paper, but practice has undone them. The easy evangelical acceptance of, and he gives an example here, no-fault divorce and other unbiblical criteria for the dissolution of marriages as well as, anecdotally, frequent failure to hold adulterers, spousal abusers, and the like to account has left her compromised with regard to maintaining the idea that marriage should be for life and between one man and one woman. Is there forgiveness? Sure, but we're so used now to this. Think of what's happened. We've tolerated it. So he goes on. Marriage was not redefined in 2015. It was redefined the moment that Christians decided to accept the legitimacy of no-fault divorce and thus turned marriage into a temporary contract of convenience rather than a lifetime covenant to be broken only under the most extreme conditions. Every time an unrepentant, this is just an example, every time an unrepentant adulterer takes communion, every time, and I emphasize unrepentant, every time an elder body lacks the courage to stand up to those who violated the marriage covenant, They give the witness to the church's redefinition and thus rejection of the Bible's teaching on marriage. This is what's led us here. We're not standing for much anymore. Who can fight this? Come on. And now Paul begins to encourage you. If you feel the frustration of this, if in any way I could spend a lot of time on this, you feel the frustration of all this, Paul now encourages big time. How did he begin this chapter? You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Oh, isn't that wonderful? Isn't that just a great verse? You be strengthened in grace. This present tense means that this is an opportunity and responsibility that you've got to keep on being strengthened in grace. what's interesting here is what he connects it with i want you to be strong in the grace which is in christ jesus grace is grace is something freely given by god you don't determine grace you're not deserving of grace and the apostle said god's constantly giving it to you and there's not a limit to that my grace is always sufficient be strong in it that's the first thing he's encouraging them with this morning you brothers be strong in the grace of the lord jesus christ you're given all sorts of grace through this you're given all sorts of help through the discouragement this is why paul said to timothy god has not given you a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind therefore don't be ashamed of the testimony of our lord not of me as prisoner but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel you imagine if paul were standing right here he would look at you brothers and say share in the sufferings for the gospel. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, listen to this, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. Be strong in grace, first thing. Second thing, remember who you're serving verse um verse four is great whole thing's great no soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him you know that about a soldier he uses all sorts of common analogies to help common things of life to help. I'll never forget the story of Pat Tillman. Remember him? 25 years old. Set aside millions to play for the Arizona Cardinals, the NFL. Set that aside. And remember what happened? All the fortune, all the charter jets, all the Sunday glory. And to live the comfortable, lavish, glaring life. And he joins the army. And why did he do it? He says, I want to serve my country. Where's Pat Tillman today? Dead. Dead. He died for the United States. He died for your freedom. He believed in what he was doing. Paul says, think about it. You know soldiers are committed to their cause if they're a good soldier. If they're a good soldier, they're committed to their cause. And then it's as if he says, who are you working for? The risen Christ. What a motivation. Be strong in grace and consider who you're serving. He gives a few more here. An athlete's not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. It's the hardworking farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. Think over what I say. I was a runner. Running's terrible. I was never fast enough for short sprints, so I did that awful race called the 800. It's two laps. It was a horrid race. I mean, training for that thing, you had to have strategy. You couldn't just bolt the whole way. You got two laps to go, and yet it was terrible. But I was actually decent at it, and we ended up in North Carolina in the Nationals in eighth grade. Fastest time in the country. And got blown to bits on UNC's track because I had given up. It was embarrassing. Smoked everyone in California, flew back there. I stopped fighting. I did not want it. My dad even tried to get out. I don't know how old he was at that point. Ended up in the trash can puking, trying to help me run, and I couldn't do it. Paul says, it's hard work. You've got to stay the course. To be a runner, you've got to compete. You've got to give yourself. You've got to train. He says the same thing about farmers. You know farmers. Farming is up and down, isn't it? and it's going to be a lot of hard work and then comes the harvest and they get to enjoy that harvest what he's saying here is what he's encouraging you with here is to say you're serving the risen king you can't check out you have to give yourselves to this and he encourages you by saying these are not earthly things just we're doing you're holding the sword of the spirit in your hand and and paul notice paul says it there in in verse 9 i'm suffering as an evildoer but this was the source of my strength through the whole thing i'm bound with chains as a criminal but the word of god is not bound i love that you've got a sword in your hand you've got a spiritual sword in your hand and no one can chain it not one person in this world can chain that. Not one person can bind that. And that's greatly encouraging because that means you have a limitless supply of grace. It's sufficient for you. You're serving the king of kings and lord of lords who reign supreme. And you have the weapon of the word, the sword of the spirit in your hands that no one can stop. But in light of that, he gives you one more powerful motivation this morning to continue in this calling who are you laboring for why does this pursuit matter look at verse 19 in the midst of everything you're seeing going on in the world in the midst of all the hardship you're seeing going on in the world the lord is going to shine something for you today put a spotlight on something for you today that he doesn't want any of you to forget verse 19 but god's firm foundation stands bearing this seal the lord knows those who are his that is that's the most encouraging verse in the midst of all the turmoil that is the most helpful verse in the midst of all the term it's not kind of a crescendo here it's a strange combination the lord has an unchangeable seal he knows those who are his Notice this. I'm convinced Paul's playing off of something that you know well out of the Old Testament. He is citing one of the worst conflicts in Israel's history. Do you know what it was? It was the rebellion of Korah. Remember in number 16, Korah led a rebellion against God aimed at Moses and Aaron. And listen, 250 of Israel's leaders, all the strong men lined up behind Korah. And in a moment, the devil had brought the whole camp into disarray. That's how big the spiritual warfare was in the disarray. In fact, it says that all the congregation of Israel had gathered against Moses. The whole operation out in the wilderness, after all that we've studied, almost went down in flames. The devil had spread a net. Moses, we read in number 16, weeps. And look at what he says. Listen to what he says. He spoke to Korah and all his company saying, In the morning, the Lord will show you who is his. and who is holy, and he will bring him near to him. The one whom he chooses, he will bring near to him. And then Moses said, depart now from the tents of these wicked men. Get away. Put it together. The solid foundation of God stands having the seal. The Lord knows those who are his, therefore everyone who names the name of Christ should depart from iniquity. So notice that. See how encouraging. In the midst of all the frustrations, The Lord is setting people right in front of you who are his. And here, notice how the encouragement is. He is saying to us this morning, I'm working. I'm saving. I'm saving all my people. Through the ministry of the church, I'm doing this. Through the ministry of the gospel, the church is the pillar and the ground of the truth. And your labors are winning all the more of my people. This is why I've set you apart to it. You're going to get my people. and they're coming. They will come. Not one will be lost. Therefore, my brothers whom I love and long for and my joy and crown. Remember what Paul said in Philippians? My joy and my crown stand firm in the Lord. And then he mentions those who are written in the book of life. You're my crown, says Paul. When I'm in glory one day and I'm looking around, when I look at all these people that the Lord used through the ministry of the gospel, through this ministry that He gave us the privilege to serve in, that are saved in glory, holding the palm branches, that's my crown in glory. You, He says. Everyone look at verse 22 this morning. So I want you to pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Right in front of you, there are those the Lord is setting apart who are calling on the Lord out of a pure heart. Paul links calling together on the Lord with what? A profession of faith in Romans 10. So, verse 10, you're going through all this hardship because Paul says, I'm bearing all things for the sake of the elect that they may obtain and inherit salvation. And that drives us. In other words, it's the love that he has for his church, it's his people, shown in the fact that he has purchased the church with his blood, the blood of his son, that you brothers have the privilege to work for the master and bring his ministry of reconciliation to his sheep. And having that kind of ministry from the Holy Spirit, we don't lose heart in this. We can't lose heart in this because it's God's ministry to save his elect. It's amazing here how concerned if you were to go through this chapter, he is to say, stay focused. There's so much distraction. People are dividing out and fighting for all the wrong things at times. People get caught up in stupid disputes over words. They're really, in the whole scheme of things, when they look back over the whole course of their life, they will realize they've been involved in something that never did anything beneficial for people's souls. We don't want to do that. We're helping people, real people, to repentance. And the Lord wants you to know, I know who are mine. You shouldn't be discouraged. They're all coming in. And that doesn't give anyone the sort of, if anyone thinks, well, the Lord has his elect and therefore I can go do that, it doesn't let you off the hook at all. He says here, knowing that that's true, let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity. That's how people are showing that they're his. And we're leading people to repentance knowing God has the power at the end of this to bring repentance in people's lives who have been taken captive by the devil to do his will. Remember Jesus Christ from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel for which I'm suffering, bound with chains as a criminal, but the word of God is not changed. Therefore, I endure everything for the sake of the elect that they may obtain salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. The saying is trustworthy, for if we have died with him, we will also live with him. If we endure, we will also reign with him. if we deny him he will deny us if we are faithless he remains faithful he can't deny himself he's raised he has a church until he comes again to bring an end to sin engage the good warfare be willing to take your share of suffering knowing that the solid foundation of god stands having the seal the lord knows those who are his may we then today as we serve and all of us together supporting this ministry serve being useful servants to the master let's thank him this morning heavenly father it's a calling that is way beyond us we confess that who's sufficient for these things it is by your power and your grace that this ministry goes on and so we come to you asking that we'd be strong in that grace and that we'd give ourselves for your people elders and deacons and me as the pastor and pastor donovan that we'd give ourselves in sincerity and in love and fight for them and that we would have priorities right fighting for what's most important and remembering this gospel ministry where people are forgiven their sins are let go and they are forever made right with god and granted salvation. What a glorious ministry of reconciliation you've given. And if there were any convicted by the words today, you have placed this before us to bring about repentance. We all sin in many ways. We've all broken your law in many ways. And you freely say, whoever comes to you, you will in no wise cast out. Thank you for hearing us this morning and now bless this installation and profession. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.