Serving the Lord requires spiritual strength, endurance, and a commitment to God's truth, as exemplified by the Apostle Paul's letter to Timothy. The sermon highlights seven metaphors—son, soldier, athlete, farmer, workman, vessel, and servant—to illustrate the qualities and responsibilities of a faithful follower. It emphasizes the need to strengthen oneself in God's grace, endure hardship without entanglement in worldly affairs, and strive lawfully for the prize. The message concludes by urging believers to be diligent students of God's Word, sanctify themselves for His use, and serve others with gentleness and patience, all while anticipating a future reward.
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I'd like you to turn in your Bibles, if you would, to Second Timothy in chapter two. Second Timothy chapter two. We always need to be reminded if we're reading someone else's correspondence. And when one man, who is a famous missionary that has served the Lord for thirty odd years, writes to a companion and fellow laborer and a servant of God, who had been working and living and traveling with him for fifteen years, it would be very definitely a personal piece of correspondence. This letter has been preserved for you and me. And even though it's his last word, he foretells in chapter four of his own coming execution and suffering, martyrdom, and he has such a composure of spirit, but yet it is still a personal piece of correspondence between two friends, fellow workers, intimate friends.
And yet with this it's most remarkable that he used such forceful, striking language. And it suggests to us that as we look over Timothy's shoulder and read this letter, that the Apostle is seeking to stir up a rather placid, easy, temperate, a man that maybe suffers a little bit of physical weakness, but a great deal of temerity of spirit and soul. And he is seeking to charge, Timothy, exhort him and bring him with a real exercise of heart to have confidence in the gifts and the endowments and the blessings that God has given to him. And so he reaches out by way of correspondence to touch the spirit of this young man.
is a letter to Timothy regarding serving the Lord. It also suggests to you and me an application. It's the profile of a servant of God. And as you and I take a look at this little section of the epistle and keep in mind what Paul was saying to Timothy primarily, and then allow us to sift through into our own heart and remind ourselves that there's a message for you and me, an application for us. and it tells us what God is looking for in the disposition and the life of those it would serve the Lord. Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that wareth and tangleeth himself with the affairs of this life. That he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. And if a man also strive for mastery, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully. The husbandman that labours must be first partaker of the fruit. Consider what I say, and the Lord give the understanding in all things.
Remember that Jesus Christ, the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel, wherein I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even unto bonds. But the word of God is not bound. Therefore I endure all things, for the elective sake, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. It is a faithful saying, For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him. If we suffer, we shall also reign with him. If we deny him, he also will deny us. If we believe not, yet he abides faithful, he cannot deny us.
Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers, study to show thyself approved unto God a workman. that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth, but shunned profane and vain babbling, for they will increase unto moral ungodliness, and their word will eat as just a canker, of whom is Hymenaeus and Phyletus, who, concerning the truth, have erred, saying that the resurrection has passed already, and overthrow the faith of some. Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure.
Having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his, and not everyone that nameeth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth, and some to honor and some to dishonor. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, meet for the master's use. prepared unto every good work. Flee also useful lusts, but follow righteousness, faith, love, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
But foolish and unlearned questions of void, knowing that they do gender strife. And the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves. If God, per eventual, will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will." We'd like to talk just about the earlier verses, but draw to your attention that there are seven metaphors in this chapter. A metaphor is a word that usually has a designation in everybody's mind, but it's transferred to something else and by implication it's tied to that.
For example, the first one is my son. Notice in verse one, that's the first of seven metaphors. Now, my son usually means a physical child born out of marriage relationship. But we know that that is not true concerning this one Paul. So this is a metaphor. He is taking a word and applying it to Timothy. And by this implicit tie, we need to understand certain things about this word. There are seven of these. The first is, my son. Then in verse three, a good soldier. And verse five, an athlete. So that's exactly what the phrase, a man that strives for the masteries.
He is an athlete. And in verse six, a farmer. And then he says, Consider what I say. And the Lord gives the understanding in all things. Then we drop our eye down to verse fifteen, and here it is a workman. And this workman is a student. It's not a laboring man. He is a scholarly individual, a student. And in verse twenty-one, he is a vessel, an earthen utensil, cleaned and prepared and ready for use. And then in verse twenty-four, the servant of the Lord, the bond slave, one who is ready to do his bidding. Each of these has their own expression and their own lesson.
Notice, if you would, thou, therefore, my son. He is speaking to him as a spiritual child. And the first thing that we have to remind ourselves, or at least inquire of ourselves, have you ever been born of God? Do you know what it is to be a child of God? Have you ever had the operation of the Holy Spirit in your heart that has so brought you under conviction of your sin and brought you into a relationship with yourself and honesty that you saw yourself in such deep need of spiritual life, a new birth? God brings about that wonderful work.
God and His profound grace and love has sought to awaken many persons in this pavilion and maybe outside as well. And I just am so thankful that way back in nineteen forty-one, God brought me under a conviction of sin and quickened me and gave me faith to perceive that Jesus Christ was the one that died bearing the guilt of my sin. And such a blessed thing to be free from the load of guilt of sin before God. My Son, spiritually born of God. Now you can determine that very easily because in John's letter, In First John chapter two, he begins a series of seven statements, and he says that if you practice righteousness, you have been born of God.
If you refuse to practice sin, you have been born of God. If you love God's children, you have been born of God. If you believe that Jesus is the Messiah, you have been born of God. If you have victory over this world, you have been born of God. That's a good way of asking yourself, does the world and worldly influence tie me up and involve me in things that are wrong? Am I going on in things that are out of harmony with God's holy character and practicing sin? Is it difficult for me to enjoy fellowship and companionship with others of God's people? These are very simple questions, but something that you should be asking yourself if you have been born of God.
Now notice what I'm asking you. if you have been born of God. Now, I know some of you have raised your hand and made a confession of something and feel a little bit better at the occasion, but is there life within? You see, he's very careful about this word, son. And one mark of a child of God is that you bear the life of the parent. That's why he uses tecton here. And he says, my dear son. spiritually born one, in whom there is the life of God. That's the mark of a child. My son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
This exhortation, be strong, is in the middle voice, and he is literally saying, it doesn't make good English and we can't translate it, but in the language in which he wrote this, he says, Make it your practice to strengthen yourself. Endow yourself inwardly with a certain kind of vitality. Now this is a challenge for those of you who have been born of God. It's a wonderful thing to know your sins forgiven. It's a delightful thing to be able to pinpoint some era in your life when God quickened you and gave you life and you confessed Christ and came to realize your soul was saved. But now you must strengthen yourself.
To Timothy he is saying, the times are very perilous, Timothy. You are presently, according to chapter three, in the last days. Messiah has come and brought in the period of the last days. There is a lot of negative sins listed in chapter three. Things are in a dreadful condition in the world around you and in professing Christendom. many have left me, and I stand kind of lonely and isolated now, and I'm looking for you to keep the faith, preserve the gospel truth and its integrity. And that means you're going to have to strengthen yourself. The mark of a son is that he bears the nature of his father, and that also he grows stronger with passing time.
So the family that has a physical child born into their family, And the child never seems to grow stronger and never begins to develop. And you go to the books and see what should be happening at this era and you don't see it. It's a real heartbreak. It's a burden of soul. And families, mothers and daddies are challenged to express extra love to that very needy eternal being. But God is looking for you to mature and to strengthen yourself and begin to grow. And that shall only come about proportionate to the degree to which we feed on the milk of God's word and purpose to eat meat, to advance.
You must strengthen yourself in the grace that God saves you. More and more deeply aware that this was a work that he wrote, one of those great works that he did by his power, when he said to you, and you had spiritual life. When he commanded life to shine into your darkness and illuminated you to see the glory of God in the very face of our blessed Lord Jesus. That was the beginning, beloved of God. And he would say to you and me now, as one of the profiles of a true servant, you must strengthen yourself in this grace. you must deeply root yourself that this was His work wrought by Him for His honor and glory to enable you to mature and to grow, and then, of course, to receive instruction from the parents.
Every son must mature. Everyone that's inherited the nature of the Father and begins to grow must receive instruction. And what a lovely spot to receive it in. To hear the ministry of God's Word and to think of it as being directed toward you, my son. That's the first metaphor. Then if you would, bow therefore in verse three, endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Literally, he says, take your part in hardship. Take your part in hardship.
We don't like the military figure so much, but a good soldier does endure hardness. The figure appears in the book of Ephesians in chapter six, where we are to stand against the wiles of the devil and put on the whole, the entire panoply of God, everything that is armored and provided for us. But again, you and I must put it on. And you and I are challenged in these days of neglect, self-indulgence, of carelessness, of disregard for the criteria that God establishes, God, I believe, would touch some of our hearts. Not all, I realize, but some of our hearts.
And reach out and say, My sons, strengthen yourself. Those of you born of God fortify yourself in the knowledge of God's grace, and then take your part in the hardship. During the war, there takes three men behind the scenes for every man at the front, and every man takes his part in the hardship. For some, it's working extra hours at home to provide wherewithal for the army. For others that are into the service and part of the military, it means that they will have to do paperwork, and their hardship is separation from loved ones. There are every one of us in the service of God, in His army, who want to take this position you must take your own part, and you each have your portion.
And there's no way for me or any other servant of God or any elder to be able to clearly perceive what it is that you have been called upon. And that's what makes it so personalized. Take your part as a good soldier. But in order to do this, I will not entangle myself with the preoccupation of business of this life. It's a very simple expression, familiar terms, the affairs of this life. Literally, involve or inweave myself with business preoccupation. Now that's very difficult for the businessman.
Extremely difficult for the single alone mother who has to work and provide for her family. It's a tremendous burden. So something must happen up here in the mind, deep in the soul, to determine if you're not going to be caught in this. The only time that word is used is in chapter two and verse twenty of second Peter. If, if you have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and the Savior, Jesus Christ, and are again entangled therein and overcome, the latter end is worse than then with the beginning. tied up and weave, involved, ground into it.
Somehow there must be something that occurs in your young mind. You can't get so involved in school that you forget the Lord. You cannot become so involved in your young, happy, delightful little family that you forget the Lord. You have your part in hardship. You have your niche in the difficulty of the progress of the gospel. Don't think that the Lord has overlooked you. You may not have a speaking gift. Yours may be a serving gift. You may feel yourself to be lesser in the body of Christ. Maybe you're just newly saved and don't know just where you fit in. But take your part in the hardship.
With the discipline of a soldier. Now how does a soldier receive his reward? Not at the front, but later. And every one of these three... metaphors, the soldier, the athlete, and the farmer, he gets something later. He receives recognition later. And this is what we're holding out to ourselves, and I think this is what Paul is trying to say to Timothy. Timothy, there isn't going to be a lot of encouragement for you today. Things are very bad. Take your part in the hardship. Be willing to do what is necessary, how God calls you.
Make every effort not to be so tied up with the business routines of this life that you entangle your soul or spirit. And remember, he seeks to please him who have chosen him to be a soldier. God has called you to enter into his army. We have to put on the armor. We have to commit ourselves. We have to strengthen ourselves. But for each of you to do, there is reward. I have no way of knowing how treasured and how blessed it shall be to stand before our blessed Lord and look into those tender, compassionate eyes and hear, well done, thou good and faithful servant.
How blessed and exciting and satisfying! To have all of that that is waste and dross and wood and hay and stubble set aside, and every man shall have praise of God. What an exciting anticipation. You know that, I'm sure that you have seen possibly even on television, young Americans, standing tall and square to hear the anthem of their nation with a gold medal around their chest. They have labored and disciplined and worked for that. Some of you have known and recognized what it was to receive the snapping salute of a military senior and receive tens on your left breath, a recognition for what you have done for your nation.
But it comes after the battle. It comes after the conflict. It comes later. And that's the concept that must grip your soul. You and I, who have put our faith in Jesus Christ, must crucify the world. We must crucify the lusts of the world and the pleasures of this life. And crucify does not mean put to death. Crucifixion is judicial condemnation. It's a mental awareness. And the only way that you as a businessman can be freed from the affairs of this life and still be doing them is that we make a mental judicial sentence against the affairs of this life.
and we not become involved and entangled, they are perfunctorally carried out with zeal because God has called us and we remain in our calling. But nonetheless, we do it knowing that this is just temporary. What I shall suffer and what I shall take part in the advance of my position and my posture for the Lord and my stand for spiritual things, I await to see from him the one who called me. We seek to plead him. May God exercise our hearts to be good soldiers. But is this that isn't enough? Paul, thinking of Timothy and knowing many of the attributes and qualities, I can see him pause for a minute and kind of bemusedly smile.
And he can remember that the two of them traveled together and had quite a ministry in and around concurrence. And he was aware of their familiarity with the athletic game. And he said, If any man is going to be a real master of the athletics, a real athlete, he must enter into the competition. He must enter the competition. If any man will strive for the mastery, you've seen them on the television, running, jumping, leaping, riding, shooting, a variety of things that they as athletes have disciplined themselves. And now he says to Timothy, Timothy, remember what that was like when you saw the game.
But those men entered the competition. They had a race to run. And the race was set before them. Yours is not a hundred-yard dayish. Yours is an obstacle race. A long, arduous race that is carefully set before you. Hebrews twelve and two. The race that is set before you God has set the pattern. God has put the blocks there. God has put the impairments and the difficulties and the struggles there. And you have studied and you have worked. And now you are striving for the mastery. Don't run around them.
You don't get crowned that way. That's not according to the laws. If you're going to contend for the prize that God gives, Timothy, you take the races it's set before you. It was a lot easier. for pilgrims to look up the hill of difficulty and take one of the side pathways. But he drank deeply at the foot of the hill and struck up the hill of difficulty with boldness and vigor. There was impairments, there was difficulties, there was fear above, sinuousness, threat. But he gained and achieved God's goal. You have a race set before you, and yours is different from mine. You have physical difficulties. You have emotional, financial, economical, spiritual.
That's the race that's set before you. And if you're going to strive for the mastery, Timothy, he is never crowned unless he strives lawfully. He abides by the rule. But when did he get the reward? Later, after the competition's over, The good soldier is called to wholeheartedness. The athlete is called to do it according to the rules. The husbandman labors. He is first partaker of the fruit. The word labor means to work to the point of fatigue. And if you've worked in Vitation Bible school, you've known a little bit of that, haven't you?
And if you work in Sunday school and you try to visit the children and the family, and then care for your own loved ones, you realize that it is wearing on your physical body. And the farmer knows what it is. I do not. I've never lived on a farm. But some of you I know have, and you know the picture. It's hard work to be a farmer. Hard physical work. But he participates in the fruit after the harvest. And this is what's held out for you and me. And then if you would notice, in verse seven, Consider what I say. And the Lord gives the understanding in all things.
The good soldier with wholeheartedness. The athlete according to the rules. The farmer labors. But it's all toward a reward that is later. Put in your mind or fasten your mind upon what I say. That's what he's saying in verse seven. Consider what I say. Put your mind upon what I have said, Timothy. Now this must mean something for that young man. He knows that he is not threatening him. He knows that there's a bond of love, but he is also advising him that there needs to be a definite commitment, a rehearsal, a binding of these things and a consideration of them.
Put these things in your mind, and the Lord will give you insight and comprehension. That's the meaning of the word. that he says here just simply in our English Bible, understand him. We have a leader to please, a reward to win, and a result to participate in. And that's what God holds before us. And it's always with a look to the future. First you're a child of God. Have you been born of God? Then strengthen yourself. Take your position and be confident and bold. to be willing to take your part in hardship.
And you know what that is in your life, don't you? The little discipline, the little difficulty, the experiences, the demand, the personal hurts or offenses, whatever it is when we're young, I have such a difficulty to bear a testimony for the Lord. Our friends, they raise an eyebrow, they make some snide remark, and it's very cutting. That's your part in the hardship. It was a very incidental thing, but I can remember getting up quite early in the morning when an evangelist was at our local assembly in New Jersey. I would go to the prayer meeting and I would pass some of the businessmen that knew me and my family rather well, and they would always ask me as I was running up through the field to get my pass by them, they would say, what are you doing up at this hour?
I didn't want to tell them. I knew that I should be at that prayer meeting. I knew that the men were going to be there and I needed to be there. And I knew that I had to get there and leave right away because I had to catch the bus to go to school. But I was so tied up with myself. It got so that I used to take a different way so I wouldn't see those people every morning that week. Because I was ashamed to say I was going to prayer meetings. But somehow they found out. Can you imagine that? I can't imagine how. And what a crushing experience about Wednesday or Thursday. Oh, you're on your way to prayer, a clock, and they would laugh. I don't know how they ever found out. And so I tried a different route, so I wouldn't run into it.
I found another neighbor that knew what was going on up at the church. It's a sad thing to be so weak and vulnerable to criticism, to be so self-occupied. So I will understand that you feel that way. But take your part in the hardships. Whatever God is calling you to do, be willing to strive within God's standards to attain that reward. Put these things in your mind, and then the Lord will give you the answers. He'll help you to comprehend. It is a supernatural instruction, because there is no one stereotype pattern.
You can't just say, this is what we do, and everybody does it. because your life is slightly different, your person, your temperament, your role, your gift, your function, your age, your knowledge. But he pulls us all together in these first three and says there is a reward later. Grow and mature and work toward it. And it can only come apart or come about rather, excuse me, as in verse fifteen, I apply myself as a student of the Word of God. Carefully reading. A workman. That means you're going to buy a dictionary and you're going to spend a little money to get a concordance. And if you don't have a literal translation, you're using a paraphrase or an expanded version, then you will also get a good solid literal translation and set aside some night, once every week, maybe about an hour, an hour and a half, and block out that time and determine you're going to study.
And look at the words. and pray, and take out your paper and write, and your soul will be fed. Commit yourself to it. Study. To be a student of the Word of God, rightly dividing the Word of Truth. And the student will avoid those that strive about words to the subverting of hearers. He will shun for famed babblings and useless empty conversations. Your life will be a little bit more meaningful. And in the language of Ephesians chapter four in verse twenty five, you'll begin to have communication that is edifying. You'll have something to say to your close friends. Your brother or sister will be struck by what's happening in your life.
Possibly your parent or your spouse will find an enlargement about you because you are growing. But it's a workman. It's a student. Then you're going to separate yourself in verse twenty one. Sanctify yourself to be prepared for whatever the Lord calls you to do. Every home has pots and pans. Every home has regular dishes, sometimes plastics, sometimes a little bit more decorative, but something you use all the time. And then you have special vessels. special, extra nice ones. When the company comes, you pull those out of the corner cupboard or you have to wash them off sometimes. They're so seldom used. But you have those little special things.
But they are specifically for a special occasion. And that's what you can do. Set apart. Set apart something. false teaching and false implications, misguided ideas, sanctifying yourself from that voluntarily, being prepared, knowing that God wants to use you. And be sensitive and tender of heart, saying, Yes, Lord, I am ready. I'll be prepared for every good work. Meet for the master's use. The vessels that are cleaned, where there's been confession, where there's been contrition, where there has been exercise of soul, where you are disciplining yourself in the first four and looking to the future in the last three you are concerned about today.
A student, a vessel that's clean, and then you become a servant. And notice a charming picture of a servant that is a rebuke and a correction to many of us who have been called by God. I read a portion like this, and it reminds me that I wrote these verses out as a boy of about fifteen or sixteen years old. And I still have the yellow page written in faded pencil now. And this is at the top. The servant of the Lord must, and then notice, not strive, not contentious, not creating a swirling or an agitation, but be gentle unto all men.
Ask to teach. patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of truth. The article isn't there. It's not any specific truth, but it's the whole canon of truth. And that they may recover themselves. Notice it's not the servant that recovers them. That they might recover themselves out of the snare, having been taken captive by him to do his own will. Satan has a tremendous power, but he is looking for servants like men and women, who are gentle and meek as they teach others.
Not striving, not creating friction, but seeking to touch the lives of others for God. And when it's been preceded, the spiritual life, willingness to endure hardness, the self-discipline, looking for that future reward, the exercise of heart to work and do for God and God's people, carefully studying the Word of God, willing to separate yourself from things that others might be able to do, that you become a vessel neat for the master's use. And then he can take you up as a servant. Mothers, how lovely that you might be used to touch your children.
Father, what a blessed thing if he might use you to touch your own family or your wife. If we as individuals might be able to speak to the close of friends and they might be delivering themselves because you had the life and the preparation of soul to serve the Lord. Seven metaphors, but one purpose. use what you have to be a blessing and available to the service of God. Shall we pray? Our loving Father, once again we ask thee that thou would tender the evil one as he would seek to steal the seed.
He would seek thee that the cares of this life would not choke it out and our desire for pleasures, but that thou would graciously allow it to find roots deep in the heart of good ground hearers. O God, our Father, we know that this is thy word, and it's a message of this time for our hearts. We pray that it might receive it as it is in truth, the word of God, which will effectually work in us that believe. Speak to our hearts, strengthen us during this time together, graciously allow us the exercises of soul to give careful consideration, and then we look to thee to make it understandable and applicable in our lives that we might implement it and be servant of the living God as we wait for thy Son from heaven.