Not Being Ashamed of Christ, Part 3

Paul says, I minister unashamedly.

I suffer unashamedly because I trust my security. Nothing can take me out of the hand of God. Nothing can pull me out of the love of Christ.

I know that. Welcome to Grace To You with John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson. Novels, TV shows, and movies often focus on heroes who all by themselves overcome seemingly impossible challenges, and through sheer determination, they find a way to win. But as courageous as that might sound, when it comes to the Christian life, God does not want you to go it alone. If you're going to honor Christ and stay true to your biblical convictions, especially in an increasingly hostile world, you're going to need help. John MacArthur is going to show you the type of people you should surround yourself with today on Grace To You as he continues his current study titled Unashamed. It's an in-depth look at 2 Timothy and the essential characteristics of a life committed to Christ.

With today's lesson, here's John. Let's open our Bibles to our study of 2 Timothy verses 6 through 8 in chapter 1. I would remind you that at the writing of this, the Apostle Paul is facing death. But before he exits this world, having fulfilled faithfully that which God commissioned him to do, he writes this letter to his beloved Son in the faith to encourage Timothy to carry on. Timothy, as we have been learning, was a bit on the timid or meek side, tended to be easily intimidated by those who were opposing him, whether in the church or outside the church, and perhaps was in a time at the very writing of this epistle when he desperately needed to be strengthened and called to courage. So it is important for Paul, as he is ready to give his life for Christ, to call on Timothy to carry on the work. The strength of Timothy's testimony could be that which impacted so many, many, many other people, positively or negatively. And so here in verses 6 to 18, three times there is mentioned the idea of not being ashamed of Christ, once in verse 8, once in verse 12, and once in verse 16.

And that's the theme here. Timothy, you cannot be ashamed of Christ. If you're going to be effective, you have to be bold. You have to be courageous. You have to take your stand.

And then you will influence others and then you will advance the Kingdom. I was reading this week about the Boxer Rebellion years ago in China and the rebels captured one of the mission stations and they sealed off every exit to the mission station except one gate which they left open. They took a cross and they put the cross down in the dirt in the center of that gate and they said to all of the missionaries and all of the students that were there, for it was some kind of a mission school, that they were to walk out that gate and if they would trample the cross under their feet, they would go free. And the record states that the first seven students trampled the cross under their feet and were allowed to go free. The eighth student was a young girl who came to the cross, knelt down, prayed for strength, stood up, walked around the cross, right into the firing squad. Ninety-two of the remaining students, which was all that were left, did the same thing and walked to their death rather than deny Christ and trample His cross.

The strength infused into the ninety-two from the strength of the one girl. What a tremendous lesson that is in the possibility of the impact of a courageous life. And as you and I live courageously for the cause of Christ, as we live unashamedly for the cause of Christ, we have a tremendous impact and that's what Paul wants Timothy to have. He's calling for a level of commitment that says, I really don't care what the world has to say.

I know what I'm mandated to be and do and that's what I'll be and that's what I'll do. I will boldly stand for Christ. It wasn't easy for Timothy because there was internal pressure in the church at Ephesus where Timothy was laboring. The church had gone corrupt, it had bad leaders and it was full of sin. Not only that, there was persecution coming on the outside because Nero had blamed the Christians for burning Rome and that persecution had ended up in Paul being incarcerated and Timothy knew because of his association to Paul that he was also vulnerable. And so Paul writes to strengthen this young man in his mid-thirties and strengthen him in the faith so that he can carry on the work. Now we've already learned that the first four elements that Paul talks about to strengthen him are very, very important. The first thing he says in verse 6 is to renew your gift. And for this reason, I remind you, the reason being because of your true faith that you're a genuine believer, I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. Every true Christian has a gift. Paul says, Timothy, you have a spiritual gift.

You have a capacity energized by the Holy Spirit to preach, teach, lead, evangelize. You can't let that fall into disuse. Fan the flame. Don't let it die. Kindle it afresh.

Renew your gift. And I've been saying to you that courage initially in ministry rises out of a sense of giftedness. I can be bold and unashamed and courageous when I know that I'm doing what God has gifted me to do. Now if I was trying to do something that I had no aptitude or skill to do, I might well be embarrassed to do it. But why would I be embarrassed to do that which God has designed, gifted me to do? Courage then rises initially out of a sense of giftedness that I have been enabled by the Holy Spirit, infused with a spiritual gift for the purpose of ministry in the name of Christ and for the advancement of His kingdom. And if I know that I'm divinely prepared and enabled to serve Christ and to proclaim His name and to represent Him and to build His body, then I have to do what I was designed to do. And frankly, if I don't do that, I have violated the very reason for my existence. Not to use my spiritual gift as to place myself in a mode where I might as well be dead as far as usefulness to the church or the kingdom. If I am not doing what God designed me to do, if I'm trying to preserve my life so I say, I don't want to do that, I might lose my life, and then I do with my life something that God never designed for me to do, I might as well lose my life. Better that you should do what you're designed to do and lose your life than save your life by not doing what you were designed to do.

What gain is there in that? So the sense of giftedness is where He starts with Timothy. You've been given a gift. That gift has been affirmed to you by prophecy, by the laying on of my hands, by the laying on of the hands of the elders of your own church.

You know what it is. You know what you're to do. Now get on with it and do it with great courage because God has designed you to be able to do it.

Secondly, consider your resources. If you're timid, He says in verse 7, God has not given us a spirit of timidity. If you are rather ashamed or if you are weak or if you are a bit intimidated, if you are cowardly, you didn't get it from God. What God has given you, already you have it, is power, love, and discipline.

Power? Because Jesus said, you will receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you. Acts 1, 8, every believer has the Spirit, every believer has power. Not only that, Romans 5, 5 says, the love of God is shed abroad in your hearts.

You have that love. Furthermore, the fruit of the Spirit is self-control or discipline. Galatians 5, 23, you have power, you have love, you have discipline. You have the power to minister effectively. You have the love of God and the love of men that draws you into ministry. And you have the ability in the Holy Spirit to construct your life, order your life, prioritize your life to get the maximum effect.

Those are your divine resources. So Timothy, renew your gift, that is, take a good hard look at what you've been designed to do and consider the resources God has given you in which to do that. Thirdly, and this is very important, accept your suffering, verse 8, therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me as prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel. Anticipate it. Expect it. If you buy into the health, wealth, prosperity lie, if you buy into what really is a satanic message that Jesus wants you only happy, only content, only fully well-healed, prosperous, healthy, no problems, cashing in on every possible goodie that you could ever imagine, if you buy into that theology, then you start to suffer. Something's going to go wrong at the very core of your life because it'll be totally contrary to what you expected from God.

But you need to anticipate suffering. You need to anticipate opposition. You need to anticipate that the truth of God thrown into the midst of an ungodly world is going to get a negative reaction. Opposition is inevitable.

It goes with ministry. Loyalty to the gospel means conflict with Christ's rejecters. Learn to expect it. In fact, I've learned to expect it as a confirmation that I'm doing the right thing.

That's part of it. Fourthly, we saw, remember your God, verse 8. He speaks of the power of God and then defines that power of God as demonstrated in its greatness in salvation, the saving work who has saved us, the great power to do that, save us from hell and death and sin and Satan, and has called us into a holy calling that has not only saved us but made us holy who were unholy. And He did it all, and this is the thing you want to underline, not according to our works but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity. Now let me give you the perspective. Way back literally from before eternal times, the Greek says, God purposed in His own mind by grace to save us in Christ and make us holy and He did the whole thing beginning to end, not according to our...what?

Works. Now get the picture. He did it all without us.

That's the idea. He did it all without us. And then He revealed it in verse 10.

He now has revealed it by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, that is His appearing in resurrection. He did the whole saving work by His own plan through His own Son. He saved us. He made us holy. He gave us life. And He planned it all and did it all without us. And what Paul is saying is remember your God, the God who saved you without your help will also be able to preserve you without your help so you don't have to orchestrate your life for its own protection. You understand that? Boy, that's a tremendous truth.

I don't have to spend my time trying to design a comfortable life because I'm responsible to protect myself. Remember your God, he says. And you remember in 1 Peter 4.19, therefore let those also who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful Creator. Give yourself to God. You remember in the fiery furnace the friends of Daniel said, you can throw us in the fiery furnace, but our God will deliver us. Daniel 3, 15 to 17, the Apostle Paul writing to the Philippians said, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Remember your God.

If you approach ministry that way, you approach it in a way that's going to give you courage. You renew your gift. You consider your resources. You accept suffering as inevitable. And you remember the God who from eternity past planned the plan of redemption, brought it to appearing in Jesus Christ, saved you, made you holy, gave you life. That same God is your God. So remember the power of God.

Now let's look at the last four. Number five in our list, realize your duty...realize your duty. Paul then transitions in verse 11 in this rather personal section here to a look at his own life and ministry for which...referring back to the gospel...the gospel for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher for this reason I also suffer these things.

Now we'll stop at that point. Paul says, because of the gospel, I...that's in the emphatic position in the Greek...I myself was appointed by God, ettethen, literally given a divine commission. Paul on the Damascus road was commissioned by God. He was chosen as a vessel unto God. Ananias got the word from the Lord and passed it on to Paul in Acts 9. He was chosen as a vessel by God to serve in preaching the gospel. He says in Acts 20, I do not consider my life dear to myself. I only want to finish the work the Lord has given me, namely preaching the gospel.

I'm not into self-preservation, I'm into duty...I'm into duty. I have been called and commissioned. Just like the apostles, Jesus had said to them, go into all the world and make disciples. So to Paul, Jesus on the Damascus road said, you're a chosen vessel, go and preach my name.

And this he spoke concerning the things that Paul would suffer in that preaching. In Colossians 1 23 he said, I was made a minister. I didn't choose it, I was made a minister. In 1 Corinthians 9 he said, don't commend me, I didn't choose to do this. If I do it, I do it because God compelled me. Woe is unto me if I don't do it. So don't honor me, pray for me.

I didn't choose to do it and I'm in great trouble if I don't do it right. I have this tremendous fear, he says in 1 Corinthians 9 27, that I might be a castaway, useless to God because of some sin. I'm in duty to serve Him with my whole heart. So Paul had a great sense of duty.

Now what specifically was his duty? Well, he was appointed a preacher, that talks about function. That means a proclaimer, a herald, one who announces publicly a message. Secondly, an apostle, that speaks of his authority. As an apostle he was chosen directly by Jesus Christ and he had a divine commission. So I am a divinely commissioned and sent preacher. Thirdly, a teacher speaks of his content. Preacher is function, apostle is authority, and teacher is content. To teach, that is to disseminate the truth of God.

That's how he sees himself. You ask Paul to identify himself, he says, I have been sent as an apostle under authority to communicate the truth of God through proclamation. That's his calling.

That's my duty, he says. And for this reason, verse 12, for this reason I also suffer. For what reason, Paul?

For doing my duty. I suffer because I preach. I suffer because I preach truth. I suffer because I claim to be the representative of God who preaches truth. That's why I suffer. I bear in my body, Galatians 6, the marks of Christ. In other words, they're whipping me because I'm so identified with Christ, they would rather whip Christ but He's not around so they whip me instead.

I suffer all these things, he says, for the sake of the gospel. That's the reason I suffer imprisonment. That's the reason I have been shipwrecked. That's the reason I have been stoned. That's the reason I have been beaten with whips and beaten with rods and all that chronicle of things he gives in 2 Corinthians chapter 11.

That's the reason I'm in jail right now. I'm in a dungeon, a stinking smelly hole in the ground. I'm here, I'm suffering because of my duty, my commission. And he loved it though, it brought him great pain.

It's a bittersweet thing. Spurgeon really put his finger on it beautifully when he wrote, "'A man shall carry a bucket of water on his head and be very tired with the burden. But that same man, when he dives into the sea, shall have a thousand buckets on his head without perceiving their weight because he is in the element and the element entirely surrounds him. The duties of holiness are very irksome to men who are not in the element of holiness. But when once those men are cast into the element of grace, then they bear ten times more and feel no weight but are refreshed thereby with joy unspeakable.'"

That's a beautiful thought. Ministry and duty can be a tremendous burden if you're not in the element of holiness. But once you get in the very element of ministry and duty and holiness and grace and you begin to function as a way of life, then no single duty is a burden at all. It is a joy unspeakable.

Someone said to me yesterday, "'How do you do it? How do you keep sustaining sermon after sermon, two sermons a week and writing and how do you do that week after week, year after year? That seems to me to be an overwhelming duty.'" I didn't know how to answer that because to me it is not a burden. I don't sense it as a burden. People say, well that's like writing two major term papers every week and then having them scrutinized by six thousand people on Sunday morning and another two or three thousand Sunday night and thousands all over the world on tape.

How do you do that? Isn't that a burden? That has never been a burden to me. That is a joy to me because I am in the element of doing what God has designed for me to do and it bears no weight upon me. What is the burden to me is my sin and my weakness, not my duty. You know duty can be the greatest joy or the deepest pain and I'll tell you how. You do it and it provides the greatest joy.

You don't do it and it provides the deepest pain. Duty undone is a killer. There are men whose lives are a shattered pot, as it were, or vase simply because of duty undone. They've disintegrated.

They've come to pieces. There is no evil that can bring such great retribution to the mind of man as the evil of a duty undone. There is no joy that is greater than a duty fulfilled. And I pray that God will give us the grace to do our duty.

Paul says, look, I suffer these things because I was appointed to do this, very much like the gift point in verse 6. We have a duty. We are bound to do this.

There's not a decision to be made. We are compelled to do it. So that's a very important thing. Understand your duty. Number six, and we get into a beautiful truth here, trust your security, verse 12.

Trust your security. Look at this. But I am not ashamed even though I suffer. Why? For I know. I know.

Now stop there for a minute. I know as Oida has the idea of knowing something because you have perceived it with your senses and come to the conclusion that it's true. Literally, I know by personal experience and observation the one whom I have trusted. And he's kind of summing up his testimony here. Others may be ashamed. I'm not ashamed. Others may want to deny Christ. I won't. Others may want to be cowards. I won't.

Others may defect. I won't. Why? For I know. In other words, I personally have come to grasp something.

What is it? Whom I have believed. And whom had he believed? The Lord. He says, I know firsthand and personally the Lord. I can't bail out.

Too much intimacy. My faith is a fully settled faith in the one I have personally experienced. Literally, in whom I have believed is a perfect tense verb which means in the past he did it with continuing results. I continue to believe in the one I have already believed in.

My faith is in the Lord. This could refer to God revealed in Christ. It can refer to the Savior Christ Jesus mentioned in verse 10.

I really think it's just general for specific reasons. It refers to both the Lord, the Lord God and the Lord Christ. Please notice it's not in what I have believed, it's in whom I have believed. The thing that sustained him in suffering was not his theology, it was his God. Do you understand the difference? The thing that sustained him in trials was not doctrine but fellowship.

Basic. So he says, I know whom I have believed and because I know him...follow the verse...I am convinced...beautiful word, wonderful thought...I am persuaded, I am utterly confident that he is able...dunatas...powerful enough...powerful enough to guard...that's a military term, it literally means to guard...to guard what I have entrusted...that's one word...paratheke, the deposit...the deposit. Now let me give you the big picture. Paul says, I minister unashamedly, I suffer unashamedly because I trust my security. Nothing can take me out of the hand of God. Nothing can pull me out of the love of Christ.

I know that. I know by personal experience...remember this is the end of his life...I have been through years and years of trials and years and years of tests and years and years of struggles. I have seen the power of God again and again and again. I have seen Him heal. I have seen Him save. I have seen Him do providentially things that had no other explanation than the invasion of God.

I have seen it all. I have walked with Him. I have seen the living Christ three times in personal experience He had. He had ascended to the third heaven, seen things too wonderful to speak. He knew God. He knew Him intimately, personally by experience and observation. And knowing Him in that way, I am absolutely convinced that He will guard my deposit.

And what was the deposit? His life...His life...His soul, His ministry, His time, His eternity, everything He was. I don't have any fear because I trust my security. Boy, what a way to live. I just give my life to God and go on about my business.

That's the confidence that you have to have. I made a deposit with God. What did you deposit? Paul. I deposited Paul.

I said, here God, here's Paul, heaven. I no longer count Him dear to my life or to myself. I'm not interested in preservation. I'm interested in duty. He's Yours. Take care of it.

When you want Him to go, He goes. So His confidence didn't come from a creed. It didn't come from a theology. It didn't come from an association. It didn't come from a denomination.

It didn't come from an ordination. It didn't come from anything other than a personal, intimate, first-hand relationship with the living God whom He so implicitly trusted that He simply gave Him His life and went on about His business. In fact, I personally believe that He wished the Lord would hurry up His death timetable. I think He kind of fell in His heart that He was sort of overstaying in this world. He was ready to be offered. He says that in chapter 4. So He says, I trust My security.

He'll be able to keep me. Now notice this marvelous truth. The end of verse 12. Until that day. What day? What day is that day? Look at verse 18. The Lord grant to Him to find mercy from the Lord on that day. What day is that day? Chapter 4, verse 8. In the future, there is laid up for Me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to Me on what? That day.

And not to Me, but also to all who have loved His appearing. All believers. All believers are going to have a day when they receive the crown of righteousness. On that day. What day is that? That's the day when the Lord comes to reward His church. We're thankful for our radio partners. The thought of being able to reach people right where they are through this broadcast is really amazing and unique to recent generations.

Spurgeon didn't have this opportunity. And we don't take it for granted either, do we? No, it's a partnership.

It is necessarily a partnership. We can produce a program, but we have to have a partner on a radio station to put it on the air. So I do want to tell all of you who listen to this radio station where you're hearing me now, if you are a regular listener, take time to express your appreciation to the folks at the radio station. They need to know that you want to keep hearing programs like Grace To You. Write them, call them, let them know what Grace To You means to you, your family, your friends, your church. That'll continue to help you and it'll certainly continue to sustain us on the radio, which is so vital to our mission.

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That's right, friend. Do thank the team at this radio station for airing Bible teaching programs like Grace To You. And if you're benefitting from this broadcast, please let us know when you contact us today. You can write to us at Grace To You, Box 4000, Panorama City, California 91412, or you can send an email to letters at gty.org. If Grace To You has encouraged you or someone you know has turned to Christ in faith from these daily radio broadcasts, we'd love to hear your story.

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That address again, gty.org. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson, with a question. Have you wanted to tell someone about Christ, but you lost your nerve and kept silent? Find out how to overcome these fears tomorrow as John continues his study, Unashamed. It's another half hour of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time, on Grace To You.