It was at the home of Abinadab that the Ark of the Lord was returned after the Philistines
had it.
It was kept there for a number of years until the time that David felt that it was right
to bring the Ark of the Lord to the city of Jerusalem.
A great celebration was planned for that occasion.
A new cart was made upon which to transport the Ark to the city, howbeit that God had
said in His Word that there were certain men who were to carry it on their shoulders.
Nonetheless, a new cart was made to carry the Ark to a new location.
When the day came, the two sons of Abinadab, Uzzah and Ahio, no relation to the state,
escorted the Ark toward its new location.
As they arrived at the threshing floor of a man by the name of Obed Edom, who was a
Gittite, the oxen seemed to stumble, the cart jilted, and it appeared as though the Ark
of the Lord was going to fall to the ground.
Uzzah, feeling some responsibility to get the Ark there safely because it had been kept
in his father's house, and undoubtedly out of a sincere desire to serve the Lord, reached
up with his hands to hold the Ark onto the cart.
And the Word of God says, And the anger of the Lord burned against Uzzah, and God struck
him down there for his irreverence, and he died.
Uzzah was sincere in what he did in serving God.
He was afraid the Ark was going to be damaged.
He wanted to prevent that.
All he did was to reach out with his hand to prevent the Ark from falling, and God killed
him just like that.
That seems like a strange event, doesn't it?
It seems as though that is a different God than the God of the New Testament.
Perhaps that is because we don't have a very balanced view of God.
It is possible to serve the Lord and even be sincere about it, and yet to serve Him
in such a way that He is not pleased.
Understanding what it means to serve God in an acceptable way to Him is vitally important
for all of us.
That is the theme of 2 Timothy chapters 1 and 2, serving acceptably.
Chapters 3 and 4 deal with serving expectantly.
We will get to those chapters later.
But today our text begins with the second chapter of 2 Timothy.
In chapter 1 in our study we observe that there are certain essentials, seven of them
in number, suggested as preconditions for serving the Lord acceptably.
They are a genuine faith, verse 5, a clear conscience, verse 3, a fervent zeal, verse
6, a bold spirit, verse 7, a willing identification with the gospel and with those who suffer
for it, verses 8 through 11, a confident expectation in Christ's power to eternally keep us,
verse 12.
And finally, a true loyalty, verses 13 through 18, a loyalty to the Word of God and to the
servant of God, especially to the one who is under attack, in this case the Apostle
Paul.
That brings us to chapter 2.
We must not be fooled into thinking that serving God is something that can be shoddily done
or carelessly, half-heartedly attempted.
Serving God calls for the very best that you have and that you are.
It calls for hardship, discipline, single-mindedness, faithfulness.
But for all of the cost it's worth it.
John has said that serving the Lord costs, but not serving the Lord costs even more.
He was right.
For the one who serves the Lord in an acceptable way, there is eternal glory promised and reigning
with Christ.
You and I are not left, thank God, to serving the Lord in our own strength.
For our own strength quickly fails the test.
That is why the Apostle begins where he does in verse 1 in the second chapter.
You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
And the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, these entrust
to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
Remember hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life so that he
may please the one who has enlisted him as a soldier.
And also if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes
according to the rules.
The hardworking farmer ought to be the first to receive his share of the crops.
Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.
Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descendant of David according to my gospel,
for which I suffer hardship, even to imprisonment as a criminal.
But the word of God is not imprisoned.
For this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, that they also
may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory.
It is a trustworthy statement, for if we died with him, we shall also live with him.
If we endure, we shall also reign with him.
If we deny him, he also will deny us.
If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.
Our Heavenly Father, we would today consider what the Apostle has written by the inspiration
of the Spirit.
We have the promise here in this text that you will give us understanding in everything.
And so we claim that promise, and we ask that you would teach our hearts and bring us to
the place of complete obedience in our lives, so that we may indeed serve you acceptably.
Amen.
Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
The grace in Christ Jesus certainly includes the power and the gifts of the Holy Spirit
who is imparted to us.
We are not expected to serve the Lord in our own feeble strength, but we have available
to us through the Holy Spirit the very grace of Jesus Christ, so that we may by that grace
and by that strength serve God acceptably.
Now in chapter 2 there are seven illustrations or pictures that show us what it means to
serve God acceptably.
These paint helpful images on the canvas of our minds, giving a clearer understanding
of what's involved in serving God in a way that he finds pleasing and acceptable.
Be strong through the grace of Christ, says the Word of God, because serving God acceptably
means being a steward, a soldier, an athlete, a farmer, a laborer, a vessel, and a slave.
That is an outline for our study today and next Lord's Day, the Lord willing.
Be strong in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, because serving him means in the first place
being a steward, verse 2.
A steward was one in that day responsible for the affairs of another.
Those who were wealthy employed such people as administrators of their estates.
The most important qualification without a doubt of a steward was that a man be found
what?
Faithful, right, 2 Corinthians 4, 2.
To be found faithful to Jesus Christ he had to be trustworthy and reliable of a proven
character.
That was entrusted to such people as this, such proven individuals who could be trusted.
Abraham selected Eliezer as his steward.
To this, the oldest of his servants, Abraham even committed the responsibility of finding
his son Isaac a wife.
Imagine that.
Abraham was sold as a slave into Egypt, but eventually became the steward of Potiphar
because of his trustworthy character.
You see a steward was a most responsible and honorable position.
The fact that the Bible suggests that God has called us to be stewards means that God
has called us to a responsible, trustworthy position.
To the Apostle Paul in our text, God had entrusted the Gospel of Christ.
Paul then had given that truth of the Gospel to Timothy.
Back in chapter 1 verse 13 he says to this young man, retain the standard of sound words
which you have heard from me.
Then in verse 14 he says, guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us the treasure
which has been entrusted to you.
So you see the process.
God had given to the Apostle Paul the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, that treasure.
Paul in turn had passed it on to Timothy.
Now Paul writes to Timothy and he suggests to him that he too is a steward.
He says, now you pass that on to others who are competent, who are trustworthy, who are
proven so that they in turn can pass it on to yet others who can do the same thing.
This is a key verse in the New Testament on discipleship.
It is what is called the ministry of multiplication.
It is God's way of propagating the Gospel of Christ to each new generation in the world.
We must see ourselves as stewards of what God has given to us.
To whom are you passing on the truth that has been committed to you?
For wherever you are today in your spiritual walk and understanding, someone has entrusted
to you spiritual truth, a pastor, a Sunday school teacher, a discipler, a friend, a co-worker.
Spiritual truth has been entrusted to your care.
Now the Word of God says to each of us, pass it on to others and encourage them to do the
same to pass it on to yet others.
Who will do the same and pass it on to yet others?
You see that is the work of a steward.
We are told, yes, to guard the Gospel, chapter 1 verse 14, but our guarding the Gospel is
not to be like the bank guard who is sure that the money is kept safe in the vault and
stands there to protect it, to keep it from being taken.
The guarding we are to do is more like the employee of the water department who is to
guard the water system.
That doesn't mean that he keeps it dammed up in the reservoir.
It means that as that water passes through his care, he guards to make sure that the
water has not been contaminated in some way, that it's still pure and fit to drink.
So you and I are to guard the Gospel in the sense that as it passes through our lives
to other people, we guard it from impurities.
But the point is that it's passed on, you see.
We're stewards of it.
You and I are stewards of all that God has given us.
We are stewards not only of the Gospel and spiritual truth, we are stewards of the spiritual
gifts God has given us.
We are stewards of our financial and other kinds of resources.
We are stewards of our reputation.
We are stewards of our families.
Folks, if we are going to serve God acceptably, we have to see ourselves as stewards, those
that God has called as responsible and trustworthy.
We are to oversee what God has given to us and pass it on to others and use it wisely
so that one day when we stand before our Lord and give account, He may say to us, well done
thou good and faithful steward.
So we must see ourselves as stewards and serve God in the grace of Christ.
We must also see ourselves as soldiers, verses 3 and 4.
A good soldier suffers hardship.
It's not easy to be a soldier.
He faces the hardship not only of the elements but the enemy of course.
For a soldier is in a fight for his life.
Our battlefield is in the spiritual realm.
The Bible calls it the heavenlies.
And I recognize that the battle overflows into the world around us, into our circumstances.
But look, never forget that the battle is not with flesh and blood.
The heart of the battle is not with people, with tangible things.
The heart of the battle, folks, is in the spiritual realm.
Remember that.
It's in the realm where Satan is.
It's the invisible but very real realm of the Spirit.
That is our battlefield.
Satan is our adversary.
He uses all of his weapons against us.
Those would include direct demonic attack.
They would also include the deceitfulness of our own indwelling sin, which he uses to
blind us and deceive us.
His weapons include the various lusts of the world system, which John describes in the
second chapter of his first epistle.
Every day that you wake up, you are on a battlefield.
You are a soldier.
You must see yourself that way.
A good soldier above all must be disciplined.
He must be alert to danger while he is on duty.
Now, of a soldier in our national army, we can say that there are times he is not on
duty.
There are times even when he is on leave.
But that is not true of the Christian soldier.
We are always on duty.
There is not a moment of our hours when we are not on duty and responsible to fight as
soldiers of Jesus Christ.
We must be on the alert.
Now, the specific warning in the text is found in verse 4, where he warns us about entangling
ourselves in the affairs of everyday life.
That last phrase is a very interesting one.
It comes from a Greek word that says in the English, pragmatics.
Perhaps the greatest danger to the Christian soldier is the pragmatics of everyday living,
the routines that we go through.
You see, we get so caught up in our busy schedules, our social calendars, our financial pressures,
our personal problems, our people conflicts, goal pursuits, demands of circumstances, etc.,
etc.
We get so caught up in these pragmatics of everyday life that we forget that we are primarily
soldiers of Jesus Christ and we have an enemy to fight on the battlefield.
We get entangled in these things and we lose our priorities.
A soldier must seek to please his commander.
A soldier does not have to please the public.
He does not have to please his other soldiers with whom he works.
The one he has to please is his commander, and so it is with us.
Jesus Christ is the one who has enlisted us into his army.
We are to focus upon what he says to us and beware of the entanglements of everyday life.
Now we have to face them.
We have to live through them.
That's part of living.
We have all these pressures and circumstances, etc., etc. ad nauseum.
We all do.
But the point is, folks, don't get entangled in these things so that you focus on them
and lose sight of what God has called you to be, a soldier for Jesus Christ.
If you and I are going to serve God acceptably, we have to see ourselves in that role.
We have been enlisted by Christ to fight for his cause in the world, and we must serve
him with the singleness of mind and of purpose.
That is a soldier's.
If we would serve Jesus Christ acceptably, we must see ourselves as stewards and as soldiers,
thirdly as athletes, in verse 5.
Now there are some of us who would like to think of ourselves as athletes.
There are others of us that shy away from the word.
The point is not whether you're an athlete in this world in a physical sense.
The point is this, you are an athlete as far as God is concerned.
God calls you an athlete in his word.
And the real heart of this verse, verse 5, is that there is a prize to be won at the
end of the race.
I have never met an athlete who's in it just for the pain.
An athlete is in there to win the game, to receive the trophy or the ribbon, or to have
his name listed 640th in the results on the marathon.
At least his name is there, you see.
An athlete is not in it just for the pain.
He's in there for what he's going to receive from it, albeit even small.
God has given us an incentive as athletes.
He says there is a reward at the finish line.
But don't you think for a moment that it's unspiritual to think that way.
God himself tells us about it.
It is right for us to think about rewards and about serving God and having that incentive
to receive the reward from the Lord.
The reward here is a crown.
The word is stefanos, which refers to the wreath, usually of green, that was given to
those Greek Roman athletes.
Sometimes it was a wreath of gold leaf.
The point is that it's that kind of a crown, a stefanos, a wreath.
God is going to give to us.
God has a reward system of some kind.
And some day He's going to give rewards to His athletes.
Now to win, an athlete has to keep the rules.
That's what the verse says.
An athlete doesn't get the prize unless he competes according to the rules.
I was watching my nephew play in Little League a couple of weeks ago.
There was one of his team members on third base who decided to try to steal home.
A noble venture, however unsuccessful.
As he got between third base and home, someone threw the ball to the catcher and the catcher
was standing right there in the baseline to get him.
And this little guy had it figured out.
He ran about 15 yards around the catcher and got over to home base.
He got there, alright, but it didn't count.
Because you see the rule is you have to stay in the baselines.
There are not rewards unless we obey the rules of the game.
What are the rules of the game as far as we're concerned?
Let me suggest to you just four of them.
Unless we obey these rules, folks, we will not be rewarded as God's athletes.
The first rule is a clean lifestyle, separated from worldliness and impurity.
I understand as much as you do the pressures in the ungodly and filthy society around us.
We all face the same temptations in our world and our culture.
But I want you to know something.
Jesus Christ has called us to be athletes.
We have to see ourselves as athletes.
And unless we obey this rule in the game, there's no prize at the end of the race.
This rule is that we separate ourselves from ungodliness, that we keep our lifestyles clean
and pure and godly.
God has called us to holiness.
Now I recognize that we all sin.
God has given us a wonderful remedy for that.
It's called confession.
Confession in the claiming of His forgiveness for our sins.
It's called self-judgment in 1 Corinthians 11, where we judge ourselves and confess our
sins to God.
Then we go on in the race.
So the point here I'm trying to make is not that we must be sinless, but it's that the
bent of our lives must be toward purity, toward being clean people in our lifestyle and then
dealing with our sins as God tells us to.
Secondly, another rule, we must have a heart of agape love.
A heart that constrains us even to sacrificial acts of kindness toward others.
I want to tell you, unless we obey that rule, there is no prize at the end of the race.
Unless we are constrained by the love of Christ to serve others at our own expense and cost,
we have become disqualified.
A third rule, humility of heart.
God will not reward the arrogant, those who work for themselves and boast of themselves.
We must be those who obey the rule of humility.
We must be those who are willing to be a servant and who will say, whatever needs to be done,
I will do it.
I don't care if I get applause for it.
I don't care if I'm recognized.
I just want to serve the Lord.
Boy, when we keep in the baselines of that rule, God moves us right on to the finish
and we receive the reward.
Then a fourth rule I'd like to suggest is that we must keep proclaiming the truth of
the gospel.
We are not called to proclaim man-created doctrines or our own personal ideas or opinions
about things in the world, social issues, etc., etc.
One of the rules that we must realize as a part of our race is that we keep in the truth
of God's word.
That becomes the focus of our proclamation, our sharing with other people.
Those are the rules.
Many of us are devoted to athletics.
I want to ask you a question.
Is your devotion to serving Jesus Christ as great as your devotion to athletics?
Are you as faithful in serving the Lord Jesus Christ and being in worship with His people
as you are being at the ball game or in the bowling team that you're a part of?
Are you as concerned about serving the Lord as you are seeing that ball game this afternoon
on television?
If we are more devoted as earthly athletes and spectators of athletics, then we are devoted
as Christian athletes who are disciplined in the rules of our race, then we will never
receive the reward of the crown at the finish line.
May God give us the same kind of devotion and discipline in our race as Christian athletes
as we would have in our earthly athletics.
See yourself today as an athlete with God-given rules to be kept in a disciplined lifestyle.
Finally I would urge you this morning to see yourself as a farmer.
If we would serve Jesus Christ acceptably, we must see ourselves as farmers.
The emphasis in verse 6 grammatically is on hard working.
The contrast is to the lazy farmer.
He says the hard working farmer.
That's the kind of a farmer we're to be.
I tell you farmers work hard.
There's no one that works harder than a farmer who toils in the soil.
Let us never think that our service for Jesus Christ is going to be any easier than farming.
Serving Jesus Christ is hard work.
I mean that's the bottom line folks.
There are no easy roles in serving Christ.
We are all farmers.
Whether we're teaching a Sunday school class or witnessing to a co-worker, cleaning up after
a social, welcoming newcomers into the church, working with teenagers, counseling troubled
people, serving as a flocks leader, discipling a new convert, passing out of track, whatever
we do, whatever we do in serving the Lord, it's going to be hard work.
We have to realize that.
It's not going to be easy.
God didn't say it would be easy.
He just said that if we work hard, it will be worth it.
Because as in a couple of the other pictures, the farmer who works hard eventually sees
the produce of his efforts.
If you would serve Jesus Christ acceptably, you must see yourself as a farmer who is called
to work hard, work hard in your service for the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now Paul concludes or continues rather with two examples and two encouragements in verses
seven through thirteen.
When it comes to serving the Lord, there is no greater example than the servant, capital
S of the Lord, Jesus Christ.
So he says remember Jesus Christ.
You want to talk about one who is disciplined?
You want to talk about one who is devoted?
You want to talk about one who is determined and faithful?
You want to talk about one who gave himself even to death for our sins?
Remember Jesus Christ.
You want to remember that it's worth it to serve the Lord God?
Remember Jesus Christ who is now exalted to his Father's right hand and seated on a throne
of eternal glory.
You want an example of working hard?
Of serving Christ, being devoted and disciplined, suffering?
Think of the Apostle Paul, the second example, who suffered hardship even as one who had
committed a crime though he was innocent.
Paul wasn't down in the mouth about it.
He wasn't depressed and discouraged.
Even his friends had left him.
Paul was rejoicing because as he says in the last part of verse nine, the word of God is
not imprisoned.
And that brings us to the first of the two encouragements.
The first encouragement I see in this text is this, that opposition and suffering do
not hinder the purposes of God or the word of God.
I don't care how much opposition you face in your serving Jesus Christ or how much suffering
you may have to go through.
Someday some of you may lay down your lives and pour out your blood on a mission field
somewhere as a martyr.
Whatever the cost is in serving Jesus Christ, whatever your personal opposition is, whatever
suffering you face, remember the word of God is not limited by that.
And though you may pay the supreme price even as Paul was about to, the word of God will
go right on and God's purposes will be accomplished, the salvation of His people.
The second encouragement I see is this, and I've already alluded to it, it is that glory
and reward await those who serve Christ faithfully.
He mentions the eternal glory that comes with our salvation in verse 10, verses 11, 12,
and 13 record what was probably an early hymn of the church.
But the point is this, that if we serve the Lord faithfully, we will reign with Him.
We will be rewarded with eternal glory with Christ if we serve Him acceptably.
And I don't want you to go away from here this morning confusing two very different
issues.
One is the reward that I've talked about for service and the other is the gift of salvation.
The gift of salvation, my friend, is available to you today, to all of us.
For the Lord Jesus Christ offered up His life, shed His precious blood for sins.
He was raised from the dead gloriously and He is alive today and able to save everyone
who will come to Him.
That is a gift.
It has nothing to do with our works.
For by grace you've been saved, not of works.
If you have never trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, I call upon you today to trust
Him, to receive Him into your heart, to believe that He died for your sins.
Make Him the Lord of your life.
But there's a second issue that I've been speaking to primarily and that is our service.
That there is a reward for those who serve the Lord, not just sincerely.
Notice that.
Uzzah was sincere, but he was careless and in a moment lost his life because he was careless.
God had said, don't touch these holy things, but he touched it and he died.
To serve Christ acceptably means being a disciple and discipling others, passing on what God's
given us.
It means being wholeheartedly devoted to Jesus Christ, just like a soldier.
It means being disciplined like an athlete to avoid disqualification in the race, in
a moment of carelessness and thoughtlessness.
It means being diligent and working hard like a farmer.
When we serve Jesus Christ acceptably, God counts us as a successful person.
A child who is going to receive a reward at His hands.
There's nothing that God delights to do more than to reward His faithful servants.
That is the greatest joy of God's heart and God wants every one of us to be successful
in our serving Christ.
That's how we do it.
That's why we're talking about this.
I believe that's why, in part at least, 2 Timothy chapter 2 was written.
To see ourselves as God sees us and serve Him acceptably.
Let's bow together.
Would you sing with me?
I have decided to follow Jesus.
No turning back.
Do you mean that my friend?
Even if no one else will do it?
No one else in your family?
No one else in your office?
No one else in your small church?
Even if you're the only one, will you serve the Lord the way we've talked about this morning?
Though no one join me, still I will follow.
No turning back.
I can guarantee you that if you mean that, if you're serious about serving the Lord
in the way that pleases Him, Satan is going to fight.
All of his weapons are going to be focused on you, but my friend, be strong in the grace
that is in Christ Jesus.
And though all the world be against you, recognize that it's behind you.
The cross of Christ is before you.
And don't turn back.
The world behind me.
The cross before me.
The world behind me.
The cross before me.
The world behind me.
The cross before me.
No turning back.
Lord, I pray that we may serve you acceptably as faithful stewards, as devoted soldiers,
disciplined athletes, hardworking and diligent farmers.
So that one day we may hear your words to us at the judgment seat.
Well done, good and faithful stewards.
Amen.