2 Timothy 2:8-13 Hope for the Mission

Intro

Have you ever been in a situation where you lost all hope?

We don’t really realize how important hope is until we don’t have any.

When things look like a lost cause, its easy to give up, quit, walk away.

In fact, hope is so essential that without it, we usually give up before we get started.

If you’re a Razorback fan, like me, you are well familiar with hopelessness.

We have had some real lows. That Reggie Fish punt in the SEC championship game.

The Ryan Mallet interception against Alabama.

The fumble last year against Auburn.

Listen there is something broken about being a Razorback fan.

I don’t care how up for the game you are, the moment something bad happens its immediate weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth.

Its all over. We are going to lose.

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If we aren’t careful, we can start to fall in that same mindset when we look at the world around us.

It doesn’t look like things are going very good.

Its like we live in the time of the Judges. Everyone does what is right in their own eyes because no one is worshiping King Jesus.

And when we lose hope, the temptation is to hide. Give up. Go home. And leave the world to wallow in their sins.

We can’t change anything right? What can we do?

Timothy struggled with hope. Could he do it? Was it worth it? Would anything he did make a difference anyway?

Could he really take the torch from Paul and finish the mission?

Many of us are asking that same question ourselves today. Can we do anything? Is it all hopeless? Is our culture already too far gone?

God's faithfulness gives us hope to endure suffering for the gospel and finish the mission.

The church has to stop looking at our circumstances.

We have to stop living our life based on what we see.

The righteous shall live by faith. And faith is the conviction of things hoped for, the assurance of things unseen.

When things are as dark as they are, when the Word of God and Christ are so hated by our culture, the temptation is to give up.

And if our hope was in our circumstances then we should give up. But its not. Its in the faithfulness of God.

In 2 Timothy 2:8-13, Paul gives us a three point vision of God’s faithfulness that can give us hope for the Great Commission.

And by holding on to that hope, like Timothy, we can endure, share in suffering for the gospel, and finish the mission.

Let’s start with point number 1...

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I. God is Faithful to the Gospel

2 Timothy 2:8-9 Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal.

Let me remind you where we’ve been.

All the way back in chapter 1 verse 8, Paul told Timothy, Don’t be ashamed! Share in suffering for the gospel.

Guard the faith and pass it on.

And when you hear, Share in suffering for the gospel, you might be tempted to only think about persecution.

But what Paul has in mind is much broader than that. It includes persecution but it also includes all the hardship, pain, work, everything it takes to carry out the Great Commission and disciple all nations.

So when you hear Share in suffering for the gospel, think in your mind, finish the mission.

Do whatever it takes to make disciples and pass on the faith that was handed down once for all to the saints (Jude 3).

Then right before our passage, Paul gave us three pictures, three metaphors of what it looks like to suffer for the gospel.

Finishing the mission looks like a soldier leaving everything behind to please his officer.

An athlete who runs the race with endurance to win the prize.

And a farmer who with faith and patience sows, waters, and reaps the crop.

And the common thread between these three pictures is a persevering, single-minded, whole-hearted devotion to the task in front of them.

And that is the kind of life and devotion God calls us to, to serve the purposes of His Kingdom.

And that’s why Paul says, Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel.

Now instead of telling Timothy what he needs to do, Paul is telling him what can keep him doing it.

What can make him persevere and endure suffering for the gospel even when it looks like just taking one more step is just too far to go.

On the one hand, he’s telling Timothy Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead.

A servant is not greater than his master.

If Jesus himself suffered to save the world, it stands to reason his servants will need to suffer too.

So its like Paul is saying Timothy, endure suffering because Jesus endured suffering. You’re not alone, walk in his footsteps. Follow the Lord.

God vindicated him. He was resurrected and exalted to the right hand of the Father. All of his suffering washed away our sins. God made the cross count.

And just like he did with Jesus, God will vindicate you. All your pain, all your suffering, all your trials, all of it will be worth it in the end. God shows us so in Christ.

But Paul also has something in his mind that is so much bigger than that.

Paul says, as preached in my gospel. What that tells us is that verse 8 is a summary statement of Paul’s gospel message.

First you have Jesus Christ. Our great God and Savior.

Jesus’ name literally means Yahweh saves. Yaweh is God’s name in the Old Testament and in the OT, its translated as LORD in all caps to show that God is the One True Lord, Master, Sovereign of all things.

That no one is like Him and He alone is God.

And Christ is a proper title. It means Anointed One. The One chosen by God to save his people.

So when we talk about Jesus Christ, that is a holy Name. A saving Name. A glorious Name.

The Name Jesus Christ proclaims to us God’s amazing grace to save sinners.

Gospel

The Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, took on human flesh and became a man.

He was born of a virgin and lived a perfect, sinless life. Where we sinned and disobeyed God’s Law, Jesus obeyed, and he obeyed perfectly.

You see because of our sin, we deserved God’s wrath and judgment. We sinned against an infinite holy God and God’s justice demanded that we pay the wages for our sin, which is death.

Outside of Christ, all of us are condemned. We are dead in our trespasses and sins, and nothing we could ever do could earn God’s forgiveness.

But God, in His love and grace, sent His Son to do what we never could.

Jesus lived the righteous life we failed to live, and he went to the cross to die the death we deserved to die.

He suffered and died as a man to pay for the sins of every man, woman, and child that would believe in him.

And through faith in him and faith alone, God washes us in his blood and forgives all of our sins.

He gives us eternal life and where we were once his enemies destined to suffer the eternal wrath of God in Hell, God adopted us as sons and daughters. As his beloved children.

Instead of wrath, he gives us love all because Jesus offered his life as a sacrifice on our behalf.

On the cross, as Jesus hung naked, beaten, marred beyond recognition, God poured out the wrath he had against us on Him.

And when Jesus died, he didn’t die for any sin of his own because there was no sin of his own to died for. He died for us. He died for our sin.

All the things that make us feel guilt, shame, unclean. Everything we regret or wish we could have back.

Every unholy offense against a perfectly holy God was taken from us and laid on him.

God removed our sin as far from us as the east is from the west, and gave us grace in Christ.

And three days later Jesus rose again, victorious over sin, Satan, and death so that we could be saved from condemnation and our slavery to sin and be reconciled to God.

In Jesus, Yahweh really does save.

And if you put your faith in him, God will save you.

You’re not too dirty. Not too unclean. Not to far gone. You are not beyond the grace of God in Jesus Christ.

That’s why Jesus died and rose again. To save sinners just like you, and just like me.

God gives grace, forgiveness, love, and mercy to people who would never deserve it. And that’s why Jesus is the Christ.

Prophet-Priest-King

Christ is not just a fancy title. A word we say. It means something.

Reformed theology is helpful in this. The Reformers taught that Christ held three offices.

So when we think about Christ, think of that like the overarching office of who Christ is. It’s like his main job title. The Christ is the Anointed One of God.

But in that office of Anointed One, there are three offices that describe all that Christ is for us. Think of these like his job description of what he does as the Christ.

The Christ biblically, is the Anointed Prophet, Priest, and King, who serves as a mediator between God and his people.

Jesus is the Anointed Prophet of God who proclaims to us the good news that in Him God saves sinners.

He is the Anointed High Priest who offered the spotless lamb, his own life, to pay for our sins.

And He is the Anointed King of kings. The One who delivers his people, upholds the Law and blesses everyone in his Kingdom with life, joy, blessing, and peace.

That is what we mean when we call Jesus the Christ.

There is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all (1 Tim. 2:5-6).

We are proclaiming, and testifying, and celebrating that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world. The Son of the living God.

And then Paul continues summarizing his gospel by marveling at how Christ is the promised Savior King who takes away the sins of the world and brings life to this world of death.

Paul says Jesus Christ was risen from the dead, the offspring of David.

This echoes Romans 1:1-6 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.

Remember, Timothy was with Paul when he wrote Romans, so he knows what Paul is saying.

First and foremost, Jesus being risen from the dead and the offspring of David points to the incarnation of Christ.

Paul said Jesus was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead.

He is truly and fully God and truly and fully man. Our Savior is God himself. God’s grace is so great that he himself took on human flesh to die as a man to save us from our sins.

But that’s not all. Paul says he was promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures.

Christ was God’s promised plan to save sinners. We see this idea multiple times in Scripture.

In Acts 2, the great sermon that birthed the church, Peter said this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. 24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it (Acts 2:23-24).

Peter actually goes further than that. In 1 Peter 1:20 He said Jesus was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you.

And even in our passage, describing Jesus as the offspring of David points to God’s promise in the Davidic Covenant, that God would raise up a Son of David to sit on the throne forever and ever. And in his Kingdom he would give rest and deliverance to his people from all enemies (2 Samuel 7).

Now why do I tell you all of that? Why do I point to the promises of God to make you see how they are all fulfilled in Christ?

Its because I want you to see that God is faithful to the gospel. He is faithful to his plan to save sinners.

He promised Christ before the foundation of the world.

And even after we first sinned, at that very moment, God in his gracious plan of salvation promised Christ.

He told the serpent I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel Genesis 3:15.

When we were at our lowest, God said, my promise still stands.

Here’s the point. Paul is telling Timothy Remember Jesus Christ. Timothy, Remember the gospel. Jesus is God’s plan of salvation.

He is the good news every man, woman, and child desperately needs.

He was faithful to bring Christ despite all our sin and rebellion, and today he is still faithful to bring Christ and the good news of his salvation to every tribe, tongue, and nation.

We can have hope to endure suffering for the gospel because God is faithful to the gospel. He has been since before the foundation of the world.

He’s still faithful to the gospel today.

We can have hope to finish the mission and endure every kind of suffering because the gospel is God’s promised plan of salvation to everyone who believes in Jesus Christ.

Our hope, the thing that keeps us going in the mission when everything looks like its working against us is the faithfulness of God.

First, his faithfulness to the gospel, and second his faithfulness to His elect.

II. God is Faithful to His Elect

2 Timothy 2:9-10 For which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound! Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

Paul points to his suffering. And he uses a clever play on words to describe his hope in the midst of suffering.

He is bound with chains as a criminal. He’s locked up. He knows he’s about to die.

All of his missionary journeys, church planting, and letter ministry is about to come to an end.

And he says, I’m bound for the gospel, but the Word of God is not bound!

Paul knows this gospel is not going to stop just because he’s gone. It doesn’t rise and fall on him. Like we saw just a moment ago, the advance of the gospel relies on God and his faithfulness to save sinners in Jesus Christ.

The Word of God, the gospel, the good news of salvation can never be bound. Stopped. Halted. Defeated or overcome. It is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (Ro 1:16).

That hope, that conviction, that promise is why Paul says Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect.

And I’ll tell you, Paul endured everything.

He endured imprisonments, beatings. He was stoned. Three times he was ship wrecked spending a night and a day adrift at sea. Everywhere he went danger followed him.

Not only that, but he toiled and labored. He spent himself with sleepless nights, hunger, thirst, cold and exposure. You name it, Paul endured it.

And apart from all that he said there is also the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches (2 Co 11:23–28).

Why? Because Paul knew the Word of God was not bound. Don’t miss the Therefore.

The reason Paul endured everything was because he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Word of God was not bound and that God would save his elect.

That not a single person God had predestined to save would be lost. God is faithful to keep his Word, and if God predestined anyone before the foundation of the world to be saved in Christ, he was going to do it.

I love this because it answers one of the most common problems of God’s predestination and election of all those that would be saved, and the need for mission. The need for evangelism.

You’ve heard it before. If God predestines everyone that is going to be saved. Why do we need to share the gospel? Won’t they be saved no matter what if God has determined it to happen? Is God not faithful to his elect?

Yes and Amen!

But notice what Paul says. He endured everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

Election does not stop evangelism or the need to suffer for the gospel. It is the means by which God saves his people.

Romans 10:14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?

The doctrine of election did not keep Paul from sharing the gospel. In fact, the opposite, it gave Paul the confidence and hope to share the gospel and endure everything for the sake of the elect.

Paul knew, if they are elect, God will save them. He saw this in his own life and ministry.

When Paul got to Corinth he had been chased out of town after town after town. But in Corinth, people started to believe.

And one night God gave Paul a vision and said, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, 10 for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.” Ac 18:9–10.

What did Paul do? Oh Ok God! So you’ve elected them. Awesome! I can go somewhere else. After all, if you promised to save them you will.

No he stayed and preached. Because he knew his suffering for the gospel was the means by which God would call his people out of darkness and into eternal life.

I think most people see evangelism as a coin toss. A 50/50 chance. You share the gospel, they might believe they might not.

And really, we’re reformed so its worse than that.

Everybody is dead in their trespasses and sins. They are blind to the things of God. So its not 50/50. Its not even 10%. Its 0. Its impossible.

And if its impossible, or at least highly unlikely, then why do it. Why suffer and labor for the gospel?

Because What is impossible with man is possible with God Lk 18:27.

The doctrine of election actually gives us hope for evangelism, because God will save his elect. Its been predestined before the foundation of the world.

All who are appointed to believe will believe.

Look what Jesus himself said.

John 6:37-40; 44 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day...No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.

Notice what Jesus said. Everyone the Father predestined will come to Christ. And whoever comes to Christ, Jesus will never cast out.

And more than that, Jesus will never lose a single one the Father gives him, but promises to raise them up on the last day. To bring them into his Kingdom and the fullness of eternal life.

When we really believe God is faithful to his elect. That God will save his people because he’s promised to. How do you think that shifts the way we think about evangelism and suffering for the gospel.

I’ll tell you one thing. God’s faithfulness to his elect, means that every time you share the gospel, its effective.

No matter how much you stumble and bumble through telling someone the good news of Jesus Christ and God’s grace in him, Jesus will not lose a single one that is his.

You can’t mess it up. You might be sowing, or watering, or reaping the Word of God, but one way or another, if they are elect God will save them.

The Word of God is not bound.

We don’t know who the elect are. But that’s not our job. God is the one who saves. Our job is to herald. Proclaim. Tell everyone we can about the good news of Christ.

Its not our programs, our eloquence, or wisdom that saves anyone.

It is simply God’s power in Christ through the preaching of the Word that saves sinners.

And let me encourage you, God’s power is strong enough to overcome your weak and feeble words.

This is why, like Paul, we can endure everything. Our hope is that all of our work, all of our labor, all of our suffering, won’t just vanish into the air.

Because God is faithful to his elect everything we endure is laying another brick in the road on the way to God’s Kingdom and eternal glory.

God has many in Northwest Arkansas who are his people, and the Word of God is not bound.

Will we be afraid and will we be silent?

Or will we believe with faith in the faithfulness of God to his elect?

God's faithfulness gives us hope to endure suffering for the gospel and finish the mission.

Our hope is in the faithfulness of God to his Gospel, the faithfulness of God to his elect, and number 3, the faithfulness of God to his promises.

III. God is Faithful to His Promises

2 Timothy 2:11-13 The saying is trustworthy, for:

If we have 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.

There are five trustworthy sayings in the pastoral epistles.

These are truth statements. Words to live by.

And in this trustworthy saying, Paul gives a poem or a hymn. This could’ve been original to Paul or an early Christian confession to encourage the saints.

And the reason why Paul is bringing this up now is because Timothy needs endurance.

Paul just talked about how he endures everything for the sake of the elect, and he’s been encouraging Timothy this whole letter to not be ashamed but share in suffering. To endure. Persevere. Keep going.

And after reminding him of the Gospel and God’s faithfulness to his elect Paul encourages Timothy with a well known Christian saying that reminds Timothy of the promises of God for Christians that endure.

And we are going to look at the particulars of each of these promises, but you will miss out on what Paul is saying, how Paul is encouraging, if we don’t step back and see what this trustworthy saying says as a whole.

So let’s work through each line, each promise, but then come back and look at it all together.

Died-Live

The first part of the trustworthy saying is If we have died with him, we will also live with him.

This is a direct reference to what Paul wrote in Romans 6:8. Let me read it for you in context.

Romans 6:5-11 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. [There it is. Paul continues.] 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

So this first promise talks about our union with Christ.

Through faith, we are united to Christ in his death. We died with Christ on the cross. We are also united to Christ in his resurrection. Now because of him, we have eternal life.

So Romans 6 gives us the broader context for what this promise is actually saying.

First, we are saved from the condemnation of sin. The wages of sin is death. Jesus died our death in our place for our sins.

Through faith we live. No longer under condemnation and death. We are absolutely, 100% forgiven, and now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

But thats not the only way we live with him. We are also freed from our bondage to sin. Paul says We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

So if we have died with him, we will have eternal life. But also, if we have died with him, we will live a holy life

We are dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Remember this is a trustworthy saying. Words to live by. Words for encouragement in the Christian life.

And the first promise is the promise of the gospel. God has forgiven our sins. And he has freed us from death and sin and we live in Him and for Him.

Endure-Reign

The second part of the trustworthy saying is if we endure, we will also reign with him.

The NT tells us the things we are called to endure for Christ.

Hatred from the world.

Suffering, Tribulation, a hard life.

Temptation.

Suffering for righteousness sake.

The call of the Christian life is a call for perseverance.

Jesus himself said the one who endures to the end will be saved (Matthew 24:13).

It is the mark of true, genuine faith. We are not saved by our perseverance. We persevere because we are saved.

And the promise for endurance is reigning with Christ.

Now that’s a hard concept. What does it mean that we will reign with Christ?

Its an idea that comes up again and again in the NT and Peter even says we are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession.

And the fact that this is in a trustworthy saying, words to live by to encourage Christians tells us we should know what the promise is. Reigning with Christ should be something we look forward to. What is it?

I think the key is in Daniel 7.

Daniel 7 is a prophecy about the Ascension of Christ. After Jesus died and rose again he ascended to heaven and sat at the right hand of the Father until all his enemies would be made a footstool under his feet.

And the promise is, Jesus’ Kingdom would be an everlasting Kingdom, and eternal kingdom that will never be destroyed.

And Jesus’ Kingdom is in contrast with the kingdoms of the world. Daniel prophecies about Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. All Kingdoms that ruled the world. But Jesus’ Kingdom conquers them all.

Then in Daniel 7:27 it says this.

Daniel 7:27 “And the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High; his kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.’”

Its the same idea, we will reign with Christ.

Here’s what I think it means. When we talk about the Babylonians ruling the world. Rome ruling the world. That doesn’t mean every peasant in Rome was king. But they were part of the Kingdom. So in a sense every citizen of those kingdoms reigned over the world as a part of that kingdom.

So this promise is that if we endure, we will enjoy the blessing of God’s eternal kingdom. We will reign with Christ with all of the blessings, life, joy, and peace that comes with the Kingdom of God.

Endurance and reigning, just like death and life, are contrasts.

So the idea is we will struggle here. It will take perseverance. But there, in the fullness of God’s Kingdom. There will be no struggle. There will be no pain. We will reign with Christ and enjoy all the blessings of his Kingdom.

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away (Re 21:4).

That’s why Paul is giving Timothy this trustworthy saying. Remember the promise. Persevere. Share in suffering.

Deny-Deny

Then Paul comes to the third part of the saying. If we deny him, he also will deny us.

This part of the saying came directly from Jesus. In Matthew 10:32-33 he said “So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.”

If the first line of the saying was the promise of eternal life, and the second a call for endurance, the third line is a warning against apostasy.

Of denying the faith. Walking away from Jesus.

And that brings us to the fourth line.

Faithless-Faithful

If we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself.

Now I will tell you, commentators and theologians are split on what this verse means.

It could mean, that if we are faithless, if we commit apostasy and reject Christ, that Jesus will remain faithful to his promise to deny us on the day of judgment because he cannot deny himself.

God never lies.

But remember, this doesn’t mean someone that commits apostasy loses their salvation. We can’t lose what God has freely given by his grace.

If someone commits apostasy, all it does is show that they were never really saved to begin with.

The other option, is that even if we are faithless and weak, Jesus will still be faithful to us.

He will forgive us for all of our failures and sustain us to the end.

So which is it?

Its hard to say because both are true. On the one hand, this could be encouraging endurance with a dire warning against denying Christ and committing apostasy.

There is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved. And if we walk away from Christ there is no savior out there who can forgive our sins.

So hear me clearly. Endure to the end. Don’t give up. Don’t walk away from Christ. He is the only one who can save us from our sins.

But I think this saying is actually not a warning of judgment, but a promise of God persevering us and keeping us to the end.

We see this most clearly in the life of Peter. You remember, Peter denied Christ three times. But what did Jesus do?

Three times he asked, Peter do you love me? And he forgave Peter, restored him, and he was the one that first proclaimed the gospel that gave birth to the church.

So here’s what I think is happening. The trustworthy saying goes like this.

Through faith in Christ, God promises to save us and forgive all our sins.

If we endure, God promises to raise us up and bring us into his eternal kingdom.

But if we deny Christ, if we walk away from him, it will reveal that we never really believed in Jesus to begin with and on the day of judgment Jesus will deny us, no matter how many times we cry out Lord, Lord.

Now if you’re anything like me that makes you wonder. We can look ahead at our life and wonder, Can I make it?

Can I make it if my spouse gets cancer?

If my son or daughter leaves the faith?

If I lose everything I have or suffer like Job?

Could I suffer like brothers and sisters in the Middle East? Could I be thrown in prison like Paul knowing I’m going to die?

Will I deny Christ and walk away?

Remember, Timothy needs encouragement to endure. And here’s the promise, even though we are weak and faithless, Christ will never leave us. He will never forsake us. We are his, and he cannot deny himself.

We don’t keep our salvation by holding on to Christ. We keep our salvation by Christ holding onto us.

What comfort! What grace! What hope!

With these promises: 1. That God will forgive all our sins and give us eternal life, 2. That God will bring us into the eternal glory of his Kingdom, and 3. That he will keep us until the end no matter how weak or faithless we might be, all of us can endure and finish the mission.

Because God cannot deny himself. And if he has promised us, he will do it. The saying is trustworthy.

Paul believed it, and that gave Paul the hope to endure. He said so at the end of this letter.

In 2 Timothy 4:18 he wrote The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

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Conclusion

God's faithfulness gives us hope to endure suffering for the gospel and finish the mission.

Our hope is not in ourselves. Our wisdom. Our works. Or Our strength.

It is in God’s faithfulness, and God’s faithfulness alone.

When everything looks darkest, when everything around us is a train wreck, like it is right now. When it looks like all things are falling apart the temptation is to give up. Shrink back. Throw up our hands and say what can we do?

But we don’t live by what we see. We live by faith.

And the Word of God is not bound!

God is faithful to the gospel, to the elect, and to his promises.

It might not look like it, but we have a sure hope in the faithfulness of God to finish the mission.

We can, by God’s power, endure everything for the sake of the elect, and by God’s power, one day at the name of Jesus every knee [will] bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:10-11).

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Let’s Pray

Scripture Reading

Psalm 117 Praise the Lord, all nations!

Extol him, all peoples!

2  For great is his steadfast love toward us,

and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.

Praise the Lord!