God Remains Faithful

Alright, well, Mike gave me a really tough section of scripture. Maybe. Seemingly. Someone go ahead and start out with 2 Timothy 2, 11-13 and just read that through for us. If you don't mind.

"It is a trustworthy statement. For if we die with Him, we shall also live with Him. If we endure, We shall 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."

What do you think about that? I think a lot of believers would read that and just take pause. It's kind of heavy in a sense. But I'll quote from Macaulay first, and then we'll get into some questions for you and some thoughts. But Macaulay says, these words comprise a short doctrinal readout. They may have been taken from an early hymn, for they have the rhythm of poetry. The saying comes in two parts, positive and negative.

All four statements are first-class conditional statements, and that means this means if. The if statement is assumed to be true and could be translated since. So let's go back and kind of look at that. Since, it is a trustworthy statement for since we died. first-class conditional we also live with him and then verse 12 since we endure we will also reign with him since first I'm sorry this is not the first yes it is since we deny him we also he will also deny us since we are faithless he remains faithful or he cannot deny himself that's a that's a different shape of scripture There's four clauses and there's two pairs.

The first pair is about life. See the life portion of that? If we die with Him, we will also live with Him. If we die with Him, we will live with Him. The second pair is about reward and response. We endure and reign. We deny and are denied. And then verse 13 stands over all four of the final words. We're going to look at that. And you have to watch the pronouns here, too. In the first three clauses, we are the subject. Do you see yourself in that? We died, we endure, and then we deny. That's what Paul is saying. We died, we endure, we deny.

And in the last clause, the entire subject changes. He remains. So it's not about you, it becomes about Him. So Paul's going to end this whole, it's a poetic hymn, he's going to end that whole hymn with God, not with us, not with you. And that's not an accident.

But first question number six, is denial of Him mean loss of salvation or does it refer to rewards and blessings? And before you answer that question, when you read, He also will deny us. What's the first thing that goes through your mind? I'm in trouble. We're in trouble. Is that what you said? Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, when you read through this, It could feel pretty heavy right away. You deny him, he will deny us. Imagine teaching that to a teenager, much less a grown man, woman. When we read it, we already struggle there too, but think about a younger person trying to read through this. What goes through your mind?

That word, that Greek word means to deny, disown, refuse, repudiate. It actually means to say no claim to or refuse to acknowledge a relationship. And it's that same word that's used of Peter when he denied the Lord Jesus at Courtyard. Was Peter saved when he denied the Lord at that point? What do we say? I'm going to read some commentary to get us moving.

So, Vincent, from Mike's notes, commenting on the words, he also will deny us, will not acknowledge us as his own. Now, the word disowned and will not acknowledge that phrase is important to Vincent. And that's the way he differentiates these two words, not disowned. He just will not acknowledge.

So what do you do with that? Question six. It's a tough one. Just denial. One of the definitions is to not to accept, to reject, or to refuse something offered. And it's in the middle voice, which you're involved in it. It's not an active voice, but you're involved in the process. And I don't think it has anything to do with salvation.

It has to do with... spiritual growth or fellowship. Let me offer an idea. The Lord, in his word, for the growing believer, has principles by which we are to grow spiritually. And one of them, the most important one, is to just believe God when he tells us something.

But if we don't, we deny what he's telling us. And so, we really cut ourselves off from the grace that God is offering, because we don't believe in it. I don't think it has to do with necessarily, like what we're going to end up in, you know, like the beam of judgment. It isn't the fact that in the kingdom of God that I'm going to be in the broom closet and somebody else is going to be out front. It's not like that. But I do think when it comes to understanding all the blessings that God has given us in Christ, though we deny them, If you don't believe them, you won't enter into them. There's a price to pay, and the price is that if you don't believe, you don't partake. I agree, Mike. I think that this is a situation of family, right? So, this isn't a relationship issue. This becomes a fellowship issue.

You think about the difference between throwing a person out of a family completely and having nothing to say about them when the family gathers. So, the difference is, we're not throwing you out, we're just not on speaking terms. Could that have to do with spiritual growth? One that is denying him isn't going to grow spiritually. I agree, yeah, I think that's right, Wayne. I think when This denial has to do with the fellowship between you as a believer and the Father. And He's not denying you family. He's denying speaking to you. You're not on speaking terms right now.

You know, I think it's also kind of, yeah, I go to the fellowship aspect of it, that if If we step out of fellowship, we sin, we're out, and we're not, you know, I think the Father will let us do that. Do you want to go off on your own? Go off on your own.

And the fellowship, and it's to draw us back. Ultimately, it draws back. So to me, it's the fellowship and growth. If we turn our back and we are not living as we should in Christ, and we're not dependent upon Him, He may let us go that way, and for our growth, ultimately. So I think it's still the fellowship that we turn our back on the enemy, or we go away. He's going to let us go for a certain distance that way.

And like I said, I feel like this is a little bit heavy, because a lot of believers look at this and think salvation. I was talking to Les about this last night, and this is a conditional situation. It's not your position in Christ. And the reason that is true is because of verse 13. And what does verse 13 say? If we're faithless, He remains faithful. And He cannot deny Himself. So, verse 13 governs verse 12. The first set of verses that we looked at this morning, they're talking about life, and that is salvation, and I think it's tied to a completed death. That happened for the believer. The second pair is about reigning in reward, and ultimately about fellowship with the Lord. Some of the commentary says, you know, it costs the crown, it doesn't cost the sonship. What do you think about that? I don't agree. You don't agree? No. Then tell us why. Because if you take a young believer who is ignorant of We use that term, the growth truths.

And then he's presented with them. He's not going to just get really excited and buy every bit of it and understand that his personal crucifixion, burial and resurrection, that he belongs and that he has a new life. He still thinks that Christianity is Christ coming and doing something to him, but he's still the same person. So he rejects, at least for the time being, his identification with Christ. So what happens? He doesn't get to live in it, walk in it, but that doesn't mean that the Spirit of God gives up. And so as time goes on, as the Spirit works, the denial turns into cooperation, belief And so therefore, it's really interesting when you start with the premise that if I don't get to heaven, it's God's fault, not mine, because he promised.

He promised to conform us to the image of his son. If I don't get conformed to the image of his son, it's his fault, not mine. And so I'm going to talk later about the fact that we are to be presented to the Godhead in full glory, statements of fact. Well, I'm probably not ready for that today, but maybe add another thing. The whole premise of I am responsible But the whole premise of conforming us to the image of Christ, which is what you could say in service, because we're talking about service not salvation, who we are and where we are and what rewards we have are all based on what the Lord Jesus did, not what we did. Let me ask you a question back, because I think those are really good thoughts.

If we don't acknowledge what the Lord told us by believing it, Paul is working through some really difficult concepts with Timothy here. He's saying, if you're not going to acknowledge me by faith in these matters of fellowship, I won't acknowledge you.

Is it the Lord doing the speaking or is it Paul doing the speaking? Well, in the last portion it says he. And so, as I'm looking at this, especially in verse, as we look down through verse 19, he says that a few verses later, the firm foundation of God stands having this seal. The Lord knows those who are His.

So He's not like wobbling on this fact whatsoever. He knows who are His. He will just not acknowledge a lack of trust in what He has said to be true about you. And I'm glad He won't. I think we all should be glad, to be honest, because He's perfectly righteous and sovereign. in that character, he can't acknowledge a lack of faith with regards to your fellowship with him.

Yeah. You know, I think, I think this goes back to when you said whether we lose crowns or anything like that. I don't think we, if his love is not based on our performance, you know, the Romans ain't, there's absolutely nothing that we can do to sever us from his love. He's a hundred percent. loving us, wanting us to fellowship. On his side, it's 100%. This is saying, and I think you're right, it's a conditional statement. And I go back to the song I always quote, on my worst day, I'm a child of God. On the best day, I'm a child of God.

It doesn't matter. And I think the denial here is just on our part. We step away from the fellowship. And he'll let us go as far as to let us learn that that's not the right path and that we're in the right condition. But, you know, he can, and it's, as you said, summarized in verse 13, you know, he's faithful regardless. We're all over the board. And thankfully, it's not predicated on anything we do. It's all predicated on what he does and who he is.

And so, you know, I think this is just explaining that if we walk away, he's still going to be faithful. And He may let us walk away. He's given us a will that allows us to walk away with fellowship, not salvation, but fellowship. He allows us to do that. But ultimately it comes down to He's faithful, which it is. He loves us with an eternal love. And our purposes are greater than ours. He lets us do that so we realize we're not walking with Him. We're not being conformed by what we're doing by denying Him.

It's like child training. Well, I have to qualify that. I think your training today is a lot different, but yeah. Here's another thought I have is that in line with the old man, new man, the old man is the one that will deny him. The new man won't. So the old man denies him. What does he do? He turns around and denies the old man. Why? Well, he crucified him. He's dead. That's the first part of the verse that we looked at.

I'm looking at 1 Corinthians 3.15 because this has the same tone about how a man's work burns up. So I'm going to read that. He will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. That's the same doctrine here.

So there's a loss of work, and I don't want to qualify that word work, because that's the new man not having the opportunity to live because the old man is choosing to be monster. So we're focused on ourselves, we're doing our thing, we're denying our walk of faith, and he will, and what this verse is saying, he does not acknowledge that. So it's a loss of work, not a loss of the workmen, not you. You're not lost, but you're forfeiting, walking by faith, and he does not acknowledge that, in the old man.

Does that seem to track? So, from Mike, your notes that you sent, I'm going to read this portion because I think it's pretty critical. It says, Notice then that the denial spoken of is not potential, but real in Paul's mind. Not potential, but real. This happens. It happens in the believer's life. And in Luke 22, 6 and verse...

So Peter denies the Lord and We understand that he was a real believer. He was a genuine believer. The Lord's response of denying us must be understood within the context of the chapter. The subject under discussion is that of service. That word is jurors, my discussion of service, which would point to denial of reward and blessing, not salvation. And I think Peter is a case study in this situation.

We know that story. a genuine believer during that whole evening, but yet he was not acknowledged because of his choice to not trust in what the Lord had said was true. He didn't believe it in that moment, but he wasn't denied his salvation, but he was not acknowledged in that situation. Well, the other part of that story is that the Lord went out of His way to restore him, But he had a period of time that there wasn't that comfort, that fellowship with the Lord until he restored him. Well, we'd like to pick on Peter, but what about you?

I'm still waiting. Confession time. What's interesting is that we can get really tied up in these verses and see a lot about how we're going to, you know, God's going to deny us and, you know, things are going to be burned up if we look in the first Corinthians chapter there. But grace is really primary in this because of verse 13. He's faithful to Courtney's point. And I think that this This makes the person secure, but the loss that we have without walking with him is real. And I think that that's where Paul is.

What did he say? And you know, when you analyze it, you're thankful that he is that way. Because he refuses, he refuses to deal with the old man who has been crucified. He refuses to do that. And why is that? Well, I mean, if you die before I do, we're not going to be talking much. Look at verse 13 again. And remember, this word if is first class. So since we are faithless, he remains faithful and he cannot deny himself.

Where are you? Where have you been placed? So he can't deny who you are in him. But he can absolutely not acknowledge who you are in your old man, in your condition. I think that's a hard lesson to learn as you grow as a believer that if you're operating out of the old man, the Lord will not deal with you. He won't respond. Yes, I know.

I always think about Peter, when we're talking about denial. You know, here he's, you know, obviously you've been with him, walking with him, all this, and then, the night before he's crucified, he denies him three times. And I always go back to when you were saying the Luke 22, this, you know, immediately while he was speaking at Rooster Crow, this is after his third denial. It's only in the Luke 1. It says, and the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord and told him that four rooster crows today have been my 93 times. And he went out and wept bitterly. That was the beginning of the restoration. But that look wasn't a condemnation. I just realized that wasn't condemning him. It was like, Peter, do you understand now?

And do you trust me? Do you believe me? And it was a look of love, not of condemnation in any way, shape, or form, which For us, you know, I always take that as, you know, he's the same with us. You know, we do stupid things, and we do, and we deny, or we, you know, not deny, but we don't live like we, you know, we're living the life of Christ. And I think of that same thing. He looks at us, and like, what are you thinking? What are you doing? You know, and it's a look of love, not of condemnation. Again, it's always out of love.

And that's the, like I said, this is the only one that has that, where he looked at him. Remember, he's being beaten, he's being missed, it's the night before his crucifixion. But in the midst of that, he turns and looks at Peter, with a look of love. And that's the thing, when we deny, he doesn't look at us with condemnation. He looks at it, he's gonna look at it the same way. What do you think, why are you doing this? And he can't acknowledge it. That's what that word, means.

And so question number seven, rolling right into what you're saying there, Courtney, does the word faithless mean the act of believing? Does the word faithless mean the act of believing? believing in salvation or just in believing in general? Because faith is believing, you know? So are you trying to distinguish what this, you know, he's faithful, which means he's true to his word, he'll never change, you know, in that sense. But believing is, you know, do we, If we are faithless, we don't believe.

I think it's similar, but it's not based on salvation. I think we should agree with that. For sure. Look at Romans 3. Look over there, for those of you that can. This is a similar argument from Paul. He's in a different situation. Um, sort of. I mean, he's still under... He's still under the same thinking pattern here, but... What does that... What does that say?

Romans 3.3. What then?

Question. If some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God. Will it? May it never be. Emphatically, concluded. So your faithfulness, your trust, will falter. But what will never falter is God's faithfulness to you. May it never be, Paul says. Man, we all fail to trust the Lord. But What is being said here emphatically, may it never be, God's faithfulness is not on your level. So Paul's not describing an unbeliever here. He's describing us on our worst day. Well, it depends on whether we're looking at Him or ourselves. When self comes in there, then that's when the trust and faithfulness leaves us.

This is not the act of believing, but to not being faithful to what God has said is true about you. but his faithfulness remains. Do you agree with that? So when you're having a bad day and your faith is wavering, God's not going to acknowledge it. But he does remain faithful to you. Is that A comfort? Is that something that restores you or scares you? I think these are meant to comfort.

And again, Paul is near ending his life. He knows his life is coming to an end and he is relying on God's faithfulness and he's saying, God's not going to acknowledge our worst days because we didn't trust Him through those things. He's saying He remains faithful. And may it never be. They're unbelievable. Not nullify the faithfulness of God.

Romans 3.3. God never changes. in his attitude towards who you are in him. And he's not going to change his plan for conforming you to the image of his son. But we get in the way, and Paul's talking about that here. I think that goes into question eight. Question eight. If we are unfaithful, does God change his mind about us? If that's the case, we're all in trouble. We're in big trouble.

Yeah, and that word, that verse has to do with how God remains, how He abides, He stays put. He continues unchanged in His perspective of you. John 15 talks about that. Abide in Me, and He's doing the work towards you. And He asks you to do the same. Abide in Me. So, if God can't deny Himself, what does that mean? It means you can trust Him. Well, He's promised not to deny you. Yeah. Again, I go back to the question, is that a comfort or is that scary?

Because I think if I were just to read this offhand, I would be a little concerned about, well, I could lose my salvation, God could deny me, but here is a promise of comfort. in the sense that God doesn't do that because he can't deny himself and he is faithful.

He's true to his own nature. And this is what Vincent says, true to his own nature, righteous character and requirements according to which he cannot accept his faithful one who has proved untrue to him. To do this would be to deny himself. God can't act against His character towards you. So, I guess another question would be, why can't He deny us? I think the short answer is because he can't deny himself.

He went through the process of reconciling us back to himself and all that goes with that. He did it. And really the only requirement he has of us is that we believe him. And whether we believe him or not, it doesn't change what he's done. It's there. It's offered. My responsibility is to believe Him. I enter into all of the fullness of what He has done by an act that I don't get credit for. He gives me everything. When I believe, when I exercise faith in a person, I'm exercising faith in what they are and what they have done. I don't get any credit for that.

It's them. And the Lord has magnified that way that He has done. He's reconciled the whole world to Himself. Okay, that's the kicker, right? That's the important piece there is He can't deny you because of who you are now as a believer. He can't deny where He has placed you. And therefore He can't deny Himself. So, you died with Him. you were raised with him, and you were placed in union with him. And so to deny you at that point, as a believer, he'd have to deny himself. I guess going from the simplest form, can the father deny the son? No. If he can't deny the son, where are we? Simple.

The veracity that God has puts the world outside of Christ in the place of condemnation, because he's not going to change about them either. He loved them. He gave his son for them, and if they would believe in him, he would save them. But if they don't believe, he's not going to change his mind. The plan's in place.

In Ephesians 5.30 it says that we are members of his body. And he did not deny his own body? And that's what Paul is emphatically saying, may it never be. He doesn't disown his own body. And I think this is a picture that Paul is painting about the difference between position and condition, and it's in just one verse.

Our faithlessness, it's ongoing. It's often true. We find ourselves in that situation. But the second half is our position, and it never changes. He cannot deny himself. That's security. These are security verses. Thank you, Lord. Yeah, thank the Lord. Well, we'll get to verse 14 next time, but let's pray.

Father, how we thank you for the security that we have being in your body, to have been crucified and raised and have been identified with these truths of who we are in Christ. We're just so thankful that you will never deny us who we are in Christ. And I pray that we would just recognize our own walking in the sin nature and knowing that that is not acknowledged by you. You acknowledge us trusting you and it's come to that. And so we just pray that we would recognize those things. It's your name we pray. Amen.