Not Being Ashamed of Christ, Part 1 B

So Paul says, look Timothy, I know it's not easy and I know you're cooling off a little and I know you've got a lot of problems and I know it isn't easy to anticipate persecution that could result in the end of your life, but know this, the first safeguard against being ashamed of Christ is to renew your gift. It's the discipline of ministry. So welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson. The 17th-century preacher John Welsh lived much of his life under threat from the King of Scotland, who had exiled Welsh for resisting the king's attempt to control the church and its doctrine. Welsh was near death when he heard the king's ban had been lifted, so he got up, went to church, preached a sermon, and then returned to his bed.

Two hours later, Welsh died, ending a life that was totally committed to the Word of God and not ashamed of the gospel. Now, you might not live under threat from the government, but perhaps you face ridicule. You're mocked for what you believe. How do you stand firm for biblical truth and the gospel of Christ? Well, John MacArthur is going to answer that question as he continues his current study on Grace to You, titled Unashamed.

With today's lesson, here's John. And deny the Lord, if our life was on the line. Maybe we wouldn't go that far, but there are times and places when the shame comes out. And so, the seriousness of this is pointed out not only by Peter's shame and the need to restore him to make him useful, but by the fact that this is characteristic of the unredeemed, not the redeemed. And we're acting like them if we show shame for the one who loved us.

But there's even another thought, and this one has been a part of my own thinking for many years. Look at Hebrews, that wonderful epistle. In chapter 2 and verse 11, one of the most, I think, motivating, striking statements of our Lord. Hebrews, chapter 2, verse 10, It was fitting for him that is Christ, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings. For both he who sanctifies, that's Christ, and those who are sanctified, that's us, are all from one Father, that's God. And if Christ is from God, and we're from God, for which reason Christ is not ashamed to call them...what?...brothers. To call them...what?...brothers. And then he quotes out of Psalm 22, I will proclaim thy name to my brethren.

Listen to this. Jesus Christ in that messianic Psalm 22 was not ashamed to call us His brothers. May I suggest to you, does it even need to be suggested that He has every reason to be ashamed of us? Do you think there is anything positive that comes to Christ by His association with us? Does He profit by that? Or does that tend to drag His name down?

Well, the answer is yes on both counts. There are times when we live and speak and act to bring honor to His name. There are times when we live and speak and act to bring shame to His name, right? But the thing that overwhelms me is in spite of our sin and failure, He is not ashamed to call us brothers. How in the world could we ever be ashamed to call Him brother who is without sin?

Look at chapter 11, and here that same idea goes a step further. In chapter 11, that great chapter on those who live the life of faith to the glory of God, in the discussion of verse 16, it says, But as it is, they desire a better country, that is a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God.

All those saints who live by faith, who willingly put their life on the line because they wanted a better place, who lived in the light of heaven, not in the light of earth. Those for whom He says He has prepared a special city, all those who put their life on the line because they lived by faith in what was to come, He says, God is not ashamed to be called their God. God is not ashamed to be called my God. He's not ashamed to be called your God. He's not ashamed to be called the God of anyone who is willing to live their life for His glory, who belongs to Him.

And beloved, let me tell you, He suffers a lot by being identified with us, doesn't He? Scandal after scandal after scandal through the history of the church, dragging the name of God incessantly into the mud, and yet God in His sweet mercy and grace is not ashamed to be called the God of those that bear His name? And if God is not ashamed to be called our God and if Christ is not ashamed to call us brother, then how can we possibly be ashamed to name the name of God and name the name of Jesus Christ? And so it is a serious thing to be ashamed.

It renders you useless in service as it did in Peter's case. It makes you behave like an unregenerate person and furthermore, it perverts to the extent that the one who is not ashamed of you, though you are shameful, you're ashamed of though He is without flaw. No place for being ashamed. And that's why it's so important for Timothy because underlying all effective service is this courage, this boldness. If there's shame there, you're not going to be effective.

But how do you do that? How do you live a life that's not ashamed? Well, He gives us here, I think, eight aspects, eight features that are implied down through verse 18. All we're going to do today is look at the first one because I wanted to spend the time introducing the idea.

But let's look at the first one. How do you get the focus of your life right so that you can live a bold, courageous, confrontive, unashamed life? The first thing, He says to Timothy, is to refresh or renew your gift.

Refresh or renew your gift. What does He mean by that? Now, listen carefully to what I say right now. It means get a grip on what you're supposed to do. That'll help.

That'll help. In other words, if I know that I am here for the purpose of proclaiming the name of Christ, then being ashamed of that violates my very reason for existence. That's how basic it is. That's how it strikes at the very root of my being. Because, you see, as a spiritual entity, I have been given a gift from God for ministry. If I don't use that in the exaltation and proclamation of the name of Christ, then I have literally ceased to function at the very basis of my spiritual purpose.

Notice that in verse 6. And for this reason, He says, I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of My hands. In other words, He says, Timothy, renew your commitment, refresh your commitment to use the gift of God that's in you. You have been designed by God for a certain function, for a proclamation and an instruction and a leadership within the body of Christ. You must do that or you cease to function at the very point of your being spiritually.

You are in this world, given a gift from God to do a ministry. If you don't do that, then you're here for no reason. You have ceased to mean anything. You might as well leave.

That's the idea. Renew your commitment. Now look at the specifics of verse 6. For this reason, I remind you.

What reason? The reason of verse 5, that I know your sincere faith and I know you have great spiritual roots from Lois and Eunice, and I know that in you dwells that which is genuine spiritual life. That's what verse 5 is really intending to say. In other words, because I know you're a true believer, because I know your spiritual roots and heritage, because I know you're genuine, I therefore know you have a gift of God and you need to use it.

You have a gift of God and you need to use it. And that can be said of every believer. Every believer in Jesus Christ has received a spiritual gift. He divides to every man severally as he will, 1 Corinthians 12, 11 says. Every believer possesses a gift.

Romans 12, 3 says, each man has received a gift in line with the measure of faith and the amount of grace that God wants to dispense. And whatever your gift is, get on with using it. Be about using it.

That's what you're for. Notice that verb, kindle afresh. I remind you to kindle afresh. Why is he reminding Timothy? Well, I think Timothy was on the cooling side. I think he was waning a little bit.

I think he was sort of on the backside, downhill slope, if you will. And Paul uses here a present infinitive indicating continuous action, but nonetheless, it is a call to continually kindle afresh. It's like Paul's own words in 1 Corinthians 15, I think it's verse 31, I die daily. Every day of my life I get up and bury Paul and let Christ live. I don't worry about Paul, I just let Christ live and then everything's okay. I don't try to protect myself.

I don't try to comfort myself. I bury myself and I let Christ live. And that's what he's asking Timothy to do. He's saying, Timothy, I'm reminding you to get that fire going again and keep it alive, keep it blazing. It's the positive side of the negative statement in 1 Thessalonians 5, 19, which says, quench not the Spirit.

Don't put the fire out, fan it, fan it. And as I say, I believe that Timothy needed to do this. Something wasn't just right in his life. Now notice the little phrase, the gift of God, charisma, grace gift. Carus is grace, charisma is the grace gift. You don't earn it, you can't gain it, you can't seek it.

There's no way you can get it on your own. There's nothing you can do to deserve the gift. God gives every believer the gift that the Holy Spirit sovereignly wants to give. That's what it says, 1 Corinthians 12.

I just quoted it. He divides to every man severally as He wills. You cannot seek a gift of any kind. Now there were given gifts, according to Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12, gifts for the functioning of believers in the body of Christ for the building of that body. Romans 12 lists some of the categories of giftedness. 1 Corinthians 12 lists some categories of giftedness.

They're not quite the same, which leads me to believe that there's a little latitude there. They're sort of general ideas of areas in which the Spirit gifts people in preaching and teaching and helping and administrating and believing or faith and which I think is tantamount to giving in many cases. Categories of gifts that can come in all kinds of shapes and sizes and forms. And what you have is general categories of gifts in which the Spirit enables believers to function. You have a category of teaching. You could have a thousand teachers, they would all teach distinct from each other. You have preaching and there are a myriad of preachers and each of them approaches their preaching a little bit different than others.

You have people in leadership and styles vary and ministries vary as much as the people vary. So you have there some categories of gifts. It's very much, I believe, like a palette and God has basic colors and those are those categories of gifts.

And I'm not talking about the sign gifts, which I believe passed away at the apostolic era, tongues, interpretation, healing and miracles or casting out of demons, but the remaining gifts that are for the edification of the ongoing church, they're like colors on a palette and God takes His brush and takes a little of this and a little of that and a little of this and paints you just the color He wants you to be. You're a combination of the categories of giftedness to make you unique. That's why Peter can say, as each man has received the gift.

Everybody receives the gift for them. It isn't gifts, it's the gift. But that gift for you is a combination of categories blended together to make you unique.

In fact, let me go a step further. I think your gift, frankly, is inseparable from your function or your ministry. The only way your gift can be known is in the context of the ministry to which God calls you. If we read 1 Corinthians 12 properly, when we receive the Holy Spirit at salvation, when we are baptized with the Spirit, placed into the body of Christ, it is at that time that the Spirit gives us the gifts. So all of us from salvation on possess divine enablement to serve the Lord. In Timothy's case, preaching, teaching, leading, doing the work of an evangelist, all combine to be His gift. Now if Timothy received his gift as normal, according to 1 Corinthians 12, he would have received it at his conversion. The Spirit of God would have planted in him the enabling to do that.

But it never came to full fruition. It was always latent until he stepped into his ministry, until he stepped into his calling. And so notice verse 6, kindle afresh, the gift of God. It came from God which is where?

Where is it? It's in you. It is an internal grace operation. It's something that is energized by the power of God like nothing else you do.

Okay? Marvelous thought. When I use my gift, I am more enabled by the power of God to do that than anything else I do. In fact, the other things I do may not be enabled by the Spirit of God in a particular way at all. And so he says, you have the gift from God in you. Then he adds this phrase, through the laying on of my hands. Does that mean that God gave him the gift through those laying on of the apostles' hands?

It may well be. It may well have been that in a sense, Timothy was extraordinary. He was still in the apostolic transition area and maybe he hadn't received his gift at salvation. On the other hand, maybe he had received that gift and it was latent until officially the hands of the apostle were laid on him, until the hands of the presbytery in his own church were laid on him, as 1 Timothy 4.14 says, until word came from God directly through a prophet, as 1 Timothy 1.18 says, and in that extraordinary event, his gift may have been given or it may have been latent there and it just burst into full flower at that moment.

We really don't know which is the case. But the point here is to kindle it afresh. The reason he mentions the laying on of hands is to affirm that Paul knows he has the gift. Just as in mentioning in chapter 4 verse 14 of the first letter to Timothy, the presbytery, to affirm that he was part of a larger group and accountable to that group for fulfilling the commission that the laying on of hands implied. Just as in chapter 1.18 of 1 Timothy, saying the word came from God was an accountability which Timothy had to live up to knowing that this gift came from God Himself. So here he was receiving a gift from God verbalized through a prophecy, having the church lay hands on him, confirming his commission and becoming an apostolic delegate linked to the apostle Paul himself by the laying on of his hands and that's a tremendous responsibility to fulfill. You're obligated to God. You're obligated to your church. You're obligated to me to use that gift.

That's what he's saying. And in that sense, perhaps Timothy's giftedness was extraordinary. But anyone's spiritual gift puts upon them the demand to use it.

Boy, this is so basic, so basic. And if you don't do what you've been gifted to do, then you don't do what you're here to do. You might as well not be around. You're denying the very essence of your spiritual function. And yet the churches are full of people who just don't see that.

They think Christianity is a spectator sport and they've done their duty if they show up and listen, sing a few songs. Paul is saying to Timothy, look, I put my hands on you as the affirmation of your giftedness and call to the ministry. I put my hands on you and launched you as an apostolic legate, as it were, an emissary, an ambassador of Christ. And you've got to do it. Now that's where your boldness starts. It starts with a recognition that you're here to do a ministry.

That's where it starts. If you're going to be encouraged and enthusiastic and courageous and bold, it starts when you know that you're here to name the name of Christ, to exalt Christ, to use your gift to serve His name. And so you never are ashamed of Christ. Your very reason to be is to serve Christ, whatever your gift is. You may say, I only have the gift of helps. I don't have the gift of preaching.

Fine. Then the world ought to know you're here to help the cause of Christ. You say, well, I just have the gift of giving. Well, the world ought to know you're here to give to the cause of Christ. In other words, whatever it is that you are doing, whatever enablement the Spirit of God has placed within you, you are doing it for the extension of the kingdom of Christ and the glory of His name and the glory of His church.

And if you're not, then you're denying your very reason to be. Now I know some of you are going to say, well, I don't even know what my gift is. And let me tell you this, I'm not sure I can define mine very well. I know what I do, that's all. So if you ask me what I do, I'll tell you what I do. And I know that my gift is a combination of things that come out in what I do in my ministry, but it can't be divorced from my ministry. So what you want to do, my dear friend, is minister. Go at it.

And it doesn't matter that you've got some airtight box in which you can define your gift. All that matters is that you're ministering in the energy of the Spirit of God, seeing what He does with you when you offer your life on the line in service to Him. You say, well, how do you know you're even going to get in the right ministry? I think He'll lead you by your desires.

I think commensurate with your gift is your desire, your desire. I remember when somebody said to me early in my ministry, I counseled them on two...I had two appointments in counseling and at the end of the second appointment this man said to me, I want to tell you something that may help you in your future ministry. I said, what's that? He said, you don't have the gift of counseling. I said, you just help me a lot. And you want to know something? I said to him, I said, I'll tell you something else I don't have, and that's the desire to counsel.

I have absolutely no desire to do that, so I'm sure glad I'm not stuck with a gift that I don't want to use. But you want to know something? I want to preach. You wind me up in the morning and I preach. That's the way I function. That's me. That's the truest thing there is about me in terms of spiritual dimension.

That's my gift. And so when I...rather than sitting around in a corner trying to figure out what my gift is, I just say, oh God, fulfill my heart's desire. And that's the thing that moves me in the right direction. Now if you're walking with the Spirit and your life is the way it ought to be, what do you want to do? Some of you are saying, I want to be where you are. I want to preach.

You have to find your own place. I'm not going to deny your gift, just don't crowd me. But you need to...you need to check your desires and check your heart and find out what your impulses are and what direction the Spirit of God is prompting you and then get busy using that gift. You see, that's where your boldness comes from. Your boldness comes from the fact that this is what God made you to do. This is what God designed you to do.

You've got to be doing this. This is your reason for existence. Boy, what a tremendous thing that is to know and to know that God has me here to do this so I can't be ashamed to do it because I don't have any other reason to be.

I'm not trying to protect myself in another area because there is no other area. If I don't do this, then I don't do anything that could be even close to this in importance. So Paul says, look Timothy, I know it's not easy and I know you're cooling off a little and I know you've got a lot of problems and I know it isn't easy to anticipate persecution that could result in the end of your life. But know this, the first safeguard against being ashamed of Christ is to renew your gift. It's the discipline of ministry.

That's what it is. It is the discipline of ministry, doing what the Spirit of God called and gifted you to do. Don't let the fire go low. Never, ever, ever lose the focus that you are here to do what God designed you to do, nothing more and nothing less. So courage rises out of a sense of giftedness. I don't have any fear because I'm equipped to do this.

I'm not ashamed because this is what I'm designed to do. This is what the Spirit has enabled me to do. And just to introduce His second point, I won't go into it. He first of all says, renew your gift and secondly look at verse 7. He says, consider your resources.

Consider the resources you have to do it. God didn't give a spirit of timidity. If you're timid, God didn't give you that. What God gives, here are His resources, power, love and discipline. If you need discipline, He'll give it. If you need love in which every ministry must operate, He'll give it. If you need power, He'll give it. You have the resources. So first of all, if you want to avoid being ashamed of Christ, then take a good look at your gift and renew it. And secondly, take a good look at your resources and use them. You're listening to John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary.

Today's lesson is part of his current series titled Unashamed. John, you made the point today that every Christian should know what his or her spiritual gift is. And this is a question we get a lot.

I'm sure you get it a lot, too. If someone has yet to identify his giftedness, what is the best way to find out? Is there some sort of biblical exam or a spiritual aptitude test? Well, that's a very good question, and it sometimes gets a very complicated answer.

Let me put it as simply as I can, kind of summing up what the Bible says. Paul says that each one has a gift. Okay, so we have a gift. I have a gift. You have a gift. Now, there are categories of giftedness in the New Testament.

They're all different kinds of categories. But I don't think we necessarily can define any of our gifts by one single category. The Lord mix and mingles gifts as He wills in the life of every believer. If you ask me, what's my gift?

I might say, well, teaching, preaching. You might not know, but a gift that I feel very strongly is the gift of giving, knowledge or wisdom. So I'm sort of a combination of that, those multiple categories of giftedness. So that's the uniqueness of every believer. You may have a gift that's more apparent than others, but I think it's oversimplifying to go through some kind of test and say, this is your one gift.

It's too narrow. I think we're like spiritual snowflakes. None of us are alike. The Lord has taken all the, let's say, if the gifts were colors on a palette and He's put His pen in multiple colors and painted our giftedness. So the answer to the question ultimately is this, what do you do that fulfills you and that blesses other people? They're the ones that should give you the feedback. If you keep saying, I have the gift of teaching, I have the gift of teaching, and everybody listening to you says, no, you don't, there's probably some wisdom in that.

So what is it you love to do and what is it that people respond to when you do it? That's the category in which the Lord has designed your gifts. That's helpful. Thank you, John.

And friend, if you have other questions about spiritual gifts, if you want to know exactly what Scripture says about them, we have a variety of free resources at our website, gty.org. These things will help you. Contact us today. Our web address, again, gty.org. And at our website, you'll find thousands of free Bible study tools, including blog articles by John and the staff, daily devotionals, and John's entire sermon archive. That's more than 3,500 sermons free to download in MP3N transcript format. So if you're looking for further study on the spiritual gifts or virtually any passage of Scripture, you're sure to find study tools that meet your needs, again, at our website, gty.org. And when you get in touch, be sure to let us know how this broadcast is encouraging you, helping strengthen you in your battle with sin, or equipping you to tell others about the gospel, or if you've come to faith in Christ after hearing John's teaching, we want to hear about it. Your feedback is more important than you may know. Make sure to include this station's call letters when you email us at letters at gty.org, or send us a letter to Grace To You, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson, thanking you for making this broadcast part of your day, and be back tomorrow for another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace To You.