God has not given believers a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind, especially needed in days of spiritual declension. The sermon highlights that this divine power, exemplified by God's ability to do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask, is available to believers. It emphasizes the crucial need for the spirit of love, both among Christians and towards the world, mirroring Christ's sacrificial love, and contrasts this with a prevailing spirit of condemnation. Furthermore, the sermon illustrates the spirit of a sound mind by referencing the deliverance of the demon-possessed man in Mark 5, asserting that true soundness of mind comes from sitting at Jesus' feet. These three gifts—power, love, and a sound mind—equip believers to boldly share the testimony of the Lord without shame and to participate in the afflictions of the gospel.
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Greetings, radio friends, in the ever-precious name of the Lord Jesus. We turn once again to the precious Word of God, and in the second epistle of Timothy, continue our study and meditation. I would like to read, beginning at verse seven, going down through verse eight, the Spirit of God writing through the Apostle Paul, saying to Timothy, his son in the faith, so God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God.
We have in these verses the challenge of the Spirit of God to the believer in the last days of Christianity. We had noted the timely message given to Timothy from Paul in relation to his own responsibility in the days of weakness and declension that had set in already in the days of the early church. But what shall we say of the present day when declension spiritually and morally is all around us. And when the truth of God has fallen in the streets of the cities and in the highways and the lanes of the country, when very few stand up for the word of God in this present evil day.
The Spirit of God writes to the believer, And I address my message to all my fellow believers. to remind each one of us that God writes in these words, He hath not given us the spirit of fear or the spirit of cowardice. These are not days in the spiritual history of the church where the believers should manifest cowardice. They are days when courage is needed and when faithfulness is required. And we are reminded by the Spirit of God that wherever cowardice may exist, it does not come from the living God.
But then from the positive aspect of this verse, the seventh verse of our chapter, there is a threefold message as to the Spirit that God has given the believer. First he has given us the Spirit of power. Second, he has given to us the spirit of love. And third, he has given to us the spirit of a sound mind. Or perhaps even translated it could be, the spirit of wise discretion. How needful it is for us to analyze that which God is given to the believer in the gift of salvation, never to make him a coward, but ever to make him strong and courageous.
in relation to the divine truth. The spirit of power, O my fellow believer, can I enlarge upon these words to remind your heart as well as mine own? The power of God is available for the children of God. The beloved apostle wrote to the Ephesians in that wonderful third chapter of that epistle saying, and let me read those words as he writes in the closing words of the third chapter, verse twenty, Now unto him that is able to do, exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, and according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages.
world or ages without end. Amen. Oh, beloved, who can measure the limitless, the exhaustless, the illimitable power of the living God, and the power of the spirit of God dwelling in the believer? Oh, my fellow Christian, God gives to you and me the spirit of power in relation to the spirit of weakness and the days of declension and darkness. that we now live in in relation to the testimony of our Lord Jesus Christ. I am not minimizing the fact, but rather would I enlarge upon the fact that in the present days they are days of spiritual weakness at large, and there is need for the Christian to stand upon the truth of God, as well as stand up for the truth of God.
For none in our own power, not by might, nor by spirit, nor by power, not by power, nor by might, but by my spirit, saith the Lord, as recorded in Zechariah chapter four and verse six. God helped us to realize, to prove the power of the spirit of God. And then there's the spirit of love, not only the spirit of power, but the spirit of love. Oh, how greatly this is needed. And may I say very, very frankly, This is needed amongst the Christians. The spirit of love. How shameful that amongst the people of God there is a great lack of this spirit of affection.
Hereby shall all men know that ye are my disciples, said the Lord Jesus, when ye have love one for another. My beloved brother and sister, I may not always be able to agree with all my fellow believers, but that does not minimize nor decrease my responsibility to love them. The spirit of love, we need the spirit of love not only toward one another as believers, we need the spirit of love to the world at large, to the Christ's rejecter, to the Christless men and women, to those that are in the degradation of sin.
To those who perhaps may even blaspheme the name of Christ, despise the name of God, and even mend their way in that path that is the broad road of destruction that leads to eternal darkness. Love indeed. We need to love as Christ loved. Oh, what love was his. and what love He has manifested. Here in His love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. And as we look around upon the world today, as we look upon not only the world in its character outside of Christ, but as we look upon the deplorable conditions in the divine testimony of the Christian profession, we need the Spirit of love.
I do find this. I find the spirit of condemnation prevailing more than love. God forbid. Oh, my brother, my sister in Christ, let you and I get low at the feet of our Savior, and let us cry as one has written so fittingly. And so needfully do we have this need, and that is, Lord, crucified, give me a heart like thine. Teach me to love. the dying souls around. Oh, gift to me, Calvary love, pure Calvary love, that I might win the loss to thee.
How we need it. My brother and my sister, God as he writes through his servant Paul, reminds you and me we should have the spirit of love. But coupled with these two facts, the spirit of power and the spirit of love, Paul goes on to say, God has also given us the spirit of a sound mind. You know, I'm glad I'm a Christian. Sometimes people unsaved, unappreciated of the Christian testimony, they often tell us that the Christian is certainly a crazy kind of a fella. Well, I'd rather be crazy in that way than be the way he may be without Christ.
When I read that God has given to us the Spirit of a sound mind. May I remind you of an incident in the light of the Lord Jesus. You may read of it in chapter five of the Gospel according to Mark. There was a demoniac possessed man. He was filled with the spirit of demons. So many were the demons that possessed this poor chap that their name was called Legion, meaning there were many. How many demons? I don't know. but in the Roman language of that prevailing day, a legion in the Roman army was six thousand men. So I don't know whether there were six thousand demons in the poor fella, but there's one sure thing.
He had more demons in him that men could tame, and no man could tame him. And until Jesus came along and cast out the demons, the man was in a terrible state. One of the facts we read about his condition when Jesus met him and delivered him was this. When the people came to see the man out of whom the demons were cast, they found him clothed and sitting at the feet of Jesus in his right mind. I want to tell you who's in the right mind, the person who knows what it is to sit at the feet of Jesus. Others may call them cracked and crazy and many other adjectives that they often use.
But my friend, may I tell you that the man and the woman who has faced the issues of sin and death and eternity and come to Christ, that one is not crazy, but is in his and her right mind. I wonder if you are. I say that lovingly. Oh, my radio friend, You're not in your right mind before God until you come to Christ. And if you still are out of Christ, you're in the opposite direction. But speaking to the hearts of God's children again, we have been given the spirit of a right mind.
The spirit of a sound or a healthy mind. Often translated, wise discretion. God help us to use that. Now take these threefold characteristics. power, love, sound mind, put them to use, stir them up, says Paul. And thus in verse eight, be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner. And I want to tell you, my beloved Christian, God has given us this threefold situation, this threefold condition, the spirit of power, the spirit of love, the spirit of a sound mind.
in order that we shall never be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord. The testimony of our Lord, my beloved Christian, may I remind you as well as my known heart, we represent the Lord upon the earth. We represent the Lord of glory. We represent the God of heaven. We represent the highest court of the universe. We represent the living God. Far greater in character Our greater in privilege and responsibility, as well as in blessed honor, is the privilege of representing the glories of heaven and the living God.
My Christian friend, God is no other people but you and me to represent him upon the earth. Be not ashamed, then, of the testimony of the Lord, nor of the Apostle Paul, the teacher of these truths. But be willing to be willing to be a partaker of whatever cost is involved for the glory of the gospel. Shall we pray our time has run out? Father, in the precious name of the Lord Jesus, bless thy holy word, to the salvation of sinners, and especially to the stirring of saints, for Jesus' sake and his glory. Amen.