Divine Dependence

So we're going to start on lesson eight this morning. And we'll be doing four. We probably won't get through the whole lesson, but we'll be doing the first couple of verses and probably looking back at I already did that. Looking back at a couple of verses that tie into what we're doing this morning. So, first of all, it doesn't seem like all the apps on your phone have all updated this week. It seems like every one that I turn to, it's updating. All right, 2 Timothy 2. So today, verses 11 through 15, and like I said, we'll jump back for a second. 11 is, it is a trustworthy statement, or a faithful saying, you can say it that way. 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.

Remind them of these things and solemnly charge them, in the presence of God, not to wrangle about words, which is useless and leads to the ruin of the hearers. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth or rightly dividing the word of truth.

So it's pretty cool verses that we have. So the first question is pretty simple. What does it mean a trustworthy statement? What does that mean? Does it mean that lots of people are reiterating it so it must be trustworthy? The Greek word is faithful in the saying.

It has to do with the thought of the word. Saying in English usually refers to a proverbial expression or statement. the word to which reference is made here is in the previous verse which speaks of eternal glories for those who are saved which stimulate the endurance of suffering in the gospel so the next question is well let's go back and take a look at what it says so what do verses 9 and 10 say? somebody read them so I know you're awake Verses 9 and 10. Do it out loud. For which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal.

But God's word is not chained. Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. Okay, so what's the faithful saying? The faithful saying is that Paul has suffered hardships and imprisonment as a criminal, but the Word of God is not imprisoned. That's a great saying. The Word of God cannot be imprisoned. and for this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen who also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory.

So what Paul is saying, you know, hey Timothy, the things that I'm sharing with you are to reinforce the teaching and connects to all the verses I'm gonna tell you. One of the coolest things he said, which has had an impression on me, that, Timothy, you have heard the words that I have taught to others, the sound words, and I've taught them to you, and they haven't been edited, and I want you to teach them to faithful men. I think that that process has gone on for 2,000 years. Now there have been a lot of people who have tried to edit what the words are, and we'll talk about that in the main service, but the idea of God's word being exactly from God, and they are faithful words, and they are designed to encourage, to build up, to And in this case, if you died with him, we will also live with him.

So the question is, did you die? Or do you have to wait until the door opens and over you go? What's he talking about? Did we die with Christ? And where does the word say that? Verse, third question. First, so the first part of that question, did we die with Christ? I see some heads going up and down. Anybody doing one of these? Or, I don't know.

Yeah, how important that is for you as a believer to know that you died with him. Because what does that mean to you? Tell me subjectively, knowing in your mind and by faith that you died with him, what does that do for you? Separates me from my Adamic life. So I've been separated from my old life, my old Adamic life. And then placed into him. But just the dying part, let's just get the dying part first.

Don't you find it interesting that, oh by the way, just for you to know, the word for if here is since, it's the particle of fulfilled condition, so you can read, you should have since you died with him, since that's true. Would you say, I'll put it in a formal question, how many Christians do you think understand just that part of the gospel, that we died with Christ? Ten percent? Fifty? Most of them? None of them? What do you think?

Because here's the problem. If you don't know that you died with Christ and it isn't part of, your theology is totally different. than what the Word of God is, because everything is based on that. Everything that you study from Romans 6 on is based on the fact that you died with Christ. If that's not part of your theology, then you're still doing what? You're still operating as though you didn't die with Christ.

I think there's still salvation without knowing all this, but it's just no growth happens. No growth? Or limited growth happens if you're still trying to think that now that I'm a Christian I'm just a polished up Adam or things like that. You're just not going to have the growth that Paul presents in his epistles without that knowledge.

And you're going to continue to try and fix up the old man? Well, yeah. I mean, what are you left with if you don't know that you died with Christ? Who you think you are has to be improved. And so you have to go to work to improve your conduct. Yeah, I think this is a situation I find a lot in conversations, especially with younger folks and newer believers. This is an aspirational thing. It's like, I have to die. I need to die. I've got to get to the point where My old, endemic man, or my sin nature is not in control of my life.

And so it becomes aspirational instead of reckoning on the position of what is. And like you said, this word, if, is... is position, and it's a done deal, it's reality, but so many want to carry their cross daily, and they find that they can't, and so they're like, I still need to keep on dying to the sin nature, as opposed to reckoning on the fact that that is reality and it's already happened and true. I think, you know, going to it, how did I miss all this stuff beforehand?

Galatians 2.20, I've been crucified with Christ, or I was looking at Colossians 3.3.4, you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. You have died. Yeah, you know, I think I was...

And in some ways I've been so blessed by God, by the men that have been in my life. But I think I was a Christian less than a month. And the guy that led me to the Lord, I was having lunch with him, but we had a little Bible study in his office that day.

And he whips out his Bible and he says, here, read this Romans 6, first few verses. So I read it. He said, read it out loud. So I read it out loud. He said, what does that say? I said, looks like I might have died. He said, yeah, you did. And boom, from that day on, I thought, oh my goodness, I'm going to have to find out what that's about.

And that's just one side of the coin, right? It is just one side. Because it isn't long after that that you think, well, if I'm dead, who's doing all this dancing, all this sinning? If I'm really dead, who is it? So the dead is first, the life is second, but it happens instantaneously, both of them. It isn't something that we did, it's something that was done to us. When I often ask, do you remember dying? Yeah, no. And that's position, right? That's where you start to get into the position condition situation. Yeah, how did it feel to be on that cross? Yeah, that's right. Did it hurt? Oh, it hurts. You have to learn about it.

So really what Paul's doing is he's summing up Romans 6, 1 through 10. That's really what he's doing. And so, and he speaks of the believer's identification with Christ and his death and resurrection when he died on the cross and was raised from the dead.

So, I think around here, sometimes we don't, how do I say this, we don't take into account the fullness of what that means. Because, oh, you can say, well, I read it, and I believe it, and I know it's a position. But it should be working out in how I live. And I wonder, just talking as a person, I wonder why it isn't.

And then I talk to people about it and they say, well, your faith isn't strong enough or it gives you something to do with. And that's where you begin to realize that unless the Spirit of God does the teaching, you don't hang on to it. You're holding it, but he's got to persuade you. And that's the one thing the Spirit of God is, is a persuader. And this is the kind of thing he persuades you about.

The question, it is a trustworthy statement. It means Pay attention to this reality. This is not an assumption. This is not an aspiration. This is reality. So pay attention here. Because I'm about to tell you to endure. And most Christians are like, oh, I endure. I can do it. I can grit it out. I can work through it. Before endurance comes this trustworthy statement.

And remember, Paul is in chains. I mean, he's hearing the clanking of the chains, and he's dealing with the reality of human imprisonment as a criminal, treated as such, and he's saying, this is a trustworthy thing. You died. And then he moves on to the endurance side of it. Yeah. I mean, there's the...

Your dad had a great saying, he said, the problem with being a young man is that you're clear-eyed and unafraid. He says you've got to get a little blurred vision and be a little fearful before this really makes sense to you, which makes you dependent.

So in the second part of that, the phrase, we shall also live with him. When? When do you get to live with him? Go to Romans, back to Romans 6, 8 through 11. He says, now if you have, or since you have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him.

And here's the issue. that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again. Death no longer is master over him. For the death that he died, he died unto sin once for all. But the life that he lives, he lives to God. Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

How many times have we been, well, we just finished three years ago and through Romans. And here's this Romans 6, 8 through 11, is the whole doctrine of identification. And as a believer, what 8 through 11, it brings in your faith. Consider yourself as having died to him, died to sin. and that you're living your life in Christ Jesus.

Now, Romans 6 is basic first grade Christian doctrine. Every Christian should know Romans 6 almost by heart. Because Romans is the first book of Christianity, right? Axism, the Gospels aren't, Romans is. And so as you start through Romans and get through at least the first eight chapters, what are you learning? You're learning Christianity 101, the basic stuff that every Christian should be settled down on. But as J.D.' 's talking about, he's got young men coming to talk to him, and they're back in the first grade trying to figure this out.

Donna? Also included in that, isn't there a time factor for the Spirit to work that into you? I mean, you have the head, even once you ascend to it mentally, that's the truth. Yeah, and what does the time factor do? I think what the Spirit of God does is He brings you into situations. Once you read this, understand it, and you say, okay, I believe this, and you maybe falsely think that, well, now that I believe it, I got it wired. Well, He puts you in a situation pretty soon so that this doctrine of faith is tested. And you find yourself in a position of, do you believe the circumstances you find yourself in, which is you had, maybe you were tempted and you fell and you didn't, you know, and you reckoned and it didn't work and, you know, is God serious about telling us this or isn't he? Well, you're right. He works through his word and the circumstances to settle you down on this truth. this truth. That's the first big one. There's, well, there's probably the second. The first one is the security that I am saved no matter what. But this is the second one and the most important one because off of this comes the rest of the twelve epistles.

And what's interesting is that this whole trustworthy statement, this is all settled. Ah, that's cool. And believers are not settled here. And Paul's saying, be settled here. This is something that you can put in the bank, so to speak, and it's already a known teaching. He says this throughout his There's trustworthy statements. Settle your heart on these things. Get your foundation. And that's something that I think often times is not the case. a lot of teaching would have you unsettled. Yeah. So that you are performing and you need to show me that you have done these things. Where he's saying, no, this is a known fact. Yeah. Settle your heart here on this thing. I want to go back on one thing, just on what you say about your life and settled, you know, when do you get this life, that settled fact?

I think it's even more clear going back to the Colossians 3, 3, for you have died and your life is hidden. The have died is Aristotles, past, done. Absolutely. The life and your life is hidden with Christ and God is in the perfect tense. A past completed action with continuing results. That tells me, I mean, it's right now. It's a past action that's continuing. So my life is hidden with Christ and God right now. We get that life right now. And everything that happened before that is reliable so that the life is reliable, right?

Well, yeah, with Romans 6.11, wrecking yourself dead unto sin and alive unto God. Same thing. Death to sin, alive unto God. Right. Well, I also think that's not a hallmark. It's not like, oh, I got it. It happened once, but isn't that an everyday moment?

I think it is, because I think what you have here is you have the fact, but you also have the fact that I'll be living with him day by day and even into eternity, you know. And the living day by day, boy, you talk, I mean, that's more difficult to learn than just the, it's easy to learn I died and have been buried and resurrected. It's another thing to learn that the Spirit of God is the one who's going to live this life through me, and my job is to depend on Him to do it.

Oh, Paul's in a Roman prison cell. Yeah. When he stands. So, you know, that's why the epistles are in the order they're in and the growth that they're in. And like with Colossians, you know, which we're studying on the main service, it's incredible the information that's there. And it really is just, takes the top of your head off. It's so gracious. You can almost say, like, what's your prison cell? This is a trustworthy statement. Sure. You know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I've been kind of thinking about this all, about the new creation. Sure.

The old creation ended with man and the breath of life in him. But the new creation starts with a whole new life. It didn't start with a man, it starts with a life, and it's Christ's life. You know what else is cool about it? It's here, but it's not visible. When Jesus did the first creation, it was visible. But now there's a new creation that he's ahead of, and where is it? It's inside of every one of the believers. There's no empirical evidence that it's actually been in existence for over 2,000 years. But it has, and we're in it. It's a new, it's all new. I want to talk about that later. And that's John 17. Yeah. Yeah. So, I just, you know, sometimes I think of these things and I, the Holy Spirit is the one doing it and living through me. How do we do that? You know, I mean, in Shula, I'm a practical engineer. It's like, okay, I'll be a rag doll and you just work through me. How do you do that?

I think it's the relationship. To me, it's a relationship. As you have that relationship, it all goes down. It's just our relationship with Him to know who we are. And that's the Holy Spirit working through you. It's just getting that unity of John 17 and the intimacy that we have with Him. That's how you do it. And it's just through, you know, His Word and the Holy Spirit gently working through you to get that relationship. And you know, maybe it's just because of the books I've read lately. Donna's reading it now. Lewis Barry Chaffer's He That Is Spiritual.

I recommend it to anybody. And there's a part of that. Our job is to yield. Well, and so my mind says, well, if I yield, I'm the cause, and then he'll do it. No. I'm going to understand what he's doing so clearly by faith that I'm, without argument or effort, let him do what he wants to do. which is to manifest the life of the Lord Jesus through me.

I love this, John 14, the vine and the branches. The vine's over here, I'm the branch and the fruit's out here. And it says, you abide in me, which means my focus needs to be always on the vine. You know what I keep doing? Peeking. I'm looking to see how the fruit's going. And what does it do? It takes my focus off of abiding. Abiding, wow, every day, every minute, every day. Well, you can't do that, so there you are, you're dependent.

Well, Paul is saying that because I know this is true, I'll settle my heart on it, and that will produce the endurance needed for the elect in this case. So, he's settling his heart and coming to terms with the reality of what God has told him. He's encouraging Timothy to do the same thing. Encouraging us to do the same thing But it is that reckoning of settling on the truth that produces the endurance needed for the Christian.

Yeah, and it is visible And it's an aroma, right? Yeah, I Would I would say you want to willpower it out. Yeah, I do That's that's no question. That's the problem with man is that he wants to hear what the Lord said and then reproduce it with his own willpower.

Paul's saying, no, this is trustworthy. Settle your heart on the truth that you died. I'm the one, Christ is the one that's doing the living through you in this matter. Settle with that. Do you believe it? And that's the situation, I think. It's a whole new operating system, isn't it? Yeah. Don't miss us out. Yeah. That's right. It is a different operating system altogether. I would probably add something to that.

Those of you who raised a family, if you did it right and you love your kids, your kids know you loved them. You don't have to tell them every day, every hour or calling them up. They know you love them. And so when you say to them, hey, look out for this.

They look at you and they pay attention because you've got a history with them and they have a history with you. This reckoning is because I have a history with the God of the universe and he has done what he said he was going to do and I trusted him a little more, a little more every time. Because the fallback position is, trust me, I can get through this. And I think, especially young men, that's so hard for them.

I mean, they've been taught since their feet hit the ground, you've got to survive on your own. And then you come along and they become Christians. And then you say, oh, yeah, the Christian life is total dependence on somebody else. Well, Mom and Dad, you've been pretty good parents, but my whole life isn't dependent on you. I've got to go out there and see. Maybe they haven't been. They haven't been. And you have to learn what good is. Yeah, and evil. You've got to learn it all. Like one of Courtney's favorite sayings is, slay the dragons. What if you wake up one day and say, wait a minute, I don't have to do that. I don't have to do that.

I need to walk with the Lord and He'll take care of the dragons. And so if it succeeds or it doesn't, I'm walking with him. That's what Paul, sitting in a jail cell, you would think, who is this guy? He's in a hole in the ground, and when they take him out, they're going to put him to death, and he's writing stuff like this?

Another thing, a trustworthy statement is not AI. It's IA, I am. You know, Mike, you say the analogy of being kids with parents, good parents, and you tell them and they do things. I don't know about you, but my, Nick, they didn't do everything I said. And I think I have something in my office, which is a towel that says some of these statements. The scary statement is, hey, mom, look at this.

Doing something usually ended up pretty bad. But that's our growth, though. Our growth is, I'll do it on my own. Or, I'm not going to listen to you. I got this. But that's how we grow. And after a while, you realize this isn't a great path. But the analogy is good. As we grow, we get more dependent on, yeah, okay, we trust you. You know what John's favorite saying to us was? What did we learn? I would say, wait a minute, I already know.

Well, you talk about kids, too, and like, if you're raised in a Christian home, you know, you go to church, you know the Lord, that whole thing, but you know, at some point in your life, He has to become real to you, personally. Well, at some point in life, you discover, I've got this nasty old thing in me called the sin nature, and it wants me to sin. And it's got me in a chokehold. Is there any freedom from that? And if you've been taught, The truth, yeah, there is freedom. Yeah, there is. God has made provision. He took care of that.

But you don't know you have a sin nature that's really powerful until you reach a point somewhere in your life where you really wanted to do good and you didn't do it. You know? You just couldn't do it. Hallelujah, right? That's what you and I would say. Get out of my house.

I think your son John's comment back to you in many instances is really pretty important because I think it relates here in the sense that doctrine is really low bearing here. You didn't learn. then you're not going to be able to lean on that truth. So doctrine precedes. You have to know what to trust. What did we learn? Well, that's the doctrine here, and that's what Paul is trying to communicate to Timothy in this situation. What's doctrine designed to do? What's the ultimate end of doctrine? is to reveal a person to us.

And the person is the Son of God. Wow! But you can learn it and not be settled on it. Oh, absolutely. Or what the hungry heart this morning is. You know, all doctrine, all doctrine. We know it line by line, verse by verse, but you don't know Him personally. That's right. And yes, you need doctrine for the foundation. There it is, whatever that says up there. The facts. Somebody will learn that, you know, the facts on the tracks and whatever. You need to know the truth first, but then the relationship is the key to growth. And you know, if you don't have that relationship, what's cool is you could say about knowing Christ, just like Paul said about these doctrines, it's a trustworthy statement that that I may behold Him in the power of His resurrection, in the fellowship of His suffering, be conformed to His death, that for any reason I may be able to know the Lord, the Son of God.

It's coming. That's what He's after. You might be a slow learner, but He isn't. He's not a slow teacher. He's moving us along as fast as we can go. I guess my train's moving slow. Well, join the crowd, you know. You have to get in line behind me when you start talking about slowness. My favorite saying is, God works at glacial speed. My buddy Strahan used to say, if he doesn't hurry up, it isn't going to matter. All right, question five is from verse 12.

If we endure, we will also reign with him. If we deny him, he will also deny us. So again, we're back to a first class conditional. If, since we endure, or suffer since we suffer, and this isn't leg pain. We will also reign with him since, or if we deny him, he will also deny us.

So this presents a pretty interesting problem. The Greek word for endure or suffer is hupomone, hupomeno. What's that mean? Obviously he didn't look it up. To endure, to persevere. Here, to persevere in and under trials and hold to one's faith in Christ. The word suffer is hupomeno, to endure, to preserve under all kinds of trials by faith. So that's what that word means. And the other interesting thing here is that in front of the Greek word suffer is the word soon. It refers to the present life as well as the life to come. So, is it true?

I think we don't have a problem with the fact that since we suffer, every believer suffers. And by suffering, We've just spent ten minutes talking about what the suffering really is like, and the fact that there's this constant issue with sin going on, which we positionally have victory over, but not every day, every minute. And it's inside the ones in your head, the real deadly ones, like pride and envy and that kind of thing, those are the real deadly ones. that you suffer with those, you know? But then it says we're going to reign with him if we suffer with him. Does that mean that if we don't suffer, we don't reign? Yes-ish? That's a good answer, yes-ish. Well, I mean, this whole remain under I mean, this is active. So, stay planted where you are. Stay close to the doctrine in the person.

The doctrine is teaching you about when you're suffering, you're going to suffer. I think Miles calls it, Miles Sanford calls it, tribulation school. So, you're remaining under this suffering in order to produce the life of Christ in you. And that's the dependence that we've been talking about. And it's critical.

You can't, you cannot grow as a believer without tribulation. Yeah. And the Greek-y geek part of it is it's present, or perfect, excuse me, I think. No, present. We keep suffering and active. So, we're going to suffer. Yeah, we are. I mean, all the time, every day, not only internally, but the world around you.

And if you are serious about walking with the Lord, and you fail, you're going to suffer because of that. I think that's kind of encouraging, actually, because it says that we're going to reign with him, period. But how we get there is the suffering part. Yeah, it's really cool because he's suiting us out for being kings.

Well, it answers the question, why is this happening to me? And I think a lot of us get really frustrated with, why is this happening to me? Yeah, it is. But this is part of that answer. I keep telling you, is this the best way to advertise for Christianity? You will suffer. You know, that's a guarantee. You will suffer. Come on board. Come on board here. You will suffer. But, you know, the results are that we will reign with Him. And the growth requires this. But, you know, as a sales pitch, it's not the best sales pitch. No. The sales pitch is salvation. Yeah.

You know, the Lord Jesus, in Hebrews, it says that He learned obedience through the things that He suffered. Well, if he learned obedience through this thing, how do you think I'm going to learn it? Same way. Same way. I mean, if you think about the Lord Jesus, the incarnate Christ, he never answered to anybody. He's the creator of the universe. Yet he became a man, he never had to obey anybody. But he had to learn to suffer and to obey what?

No matter what the circumstances were. Well, if he's going to go through that school, so are you, and so am I. And to obey, to what? To believe him. To buy into this faithful saying, no matter what he says, I buy it. Because he's proven to me his veracity. When he says it, it's so. I don't care what my mind is saying or somebody else is saying or what he said, it's good enough. Paul is saying trust him. Yeah. Simple as that. Oops, we're over. The singer's got to go, so let's pray. Father, we thank you again for your word. Thank you for a great discussion today. We thank you for the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and we pray in his name. Amen.