Sonship, Christ’s Central Mission

This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “II Timothy” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, April 24, 1988.

Sermon transcript

Our reflection upon Second Timothy continues. We will be reading once more this morning from the fourteenth verse to the end of the chapter. All 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 shun profane and vain babblings, for they will increase unto more ungodliness, and their word will eat as death a canker, of whom Hymenaeus and Philetus whom concerning the truth have heard, saying that the resurrection is past already, and overthrow the faith of some.

Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth firm, having this seal. The Lord knoweth them that are his, and let every one that nameth 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 and useful for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.

Flee also youthful lusts that follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart, but foolish and unlearned questions of all, 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 neatness instructing those that oppose themselves if God, peradventure, 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.

Pray with me briefly now. O Lord, there are servants of your word today in the world, and the number abounds and increases. But Lord, we ask that you will give to your church servants of the word in truth, that your people those whom you love would be fed, that they would be led aright, that they would be taught faithfully, and that not to stray. Father, for the sake of your people, do grant the request we make this day, and may it please you, Lord, may it please you to strengthen those who already speak, that they may speak with Christ in view, and with your glory in view as well.

May nothing obscure you and your Son in the proclamation of your truth. We pray it in Christ’s name. Amen. What is beneath the surface of all that Paul says to Timothy? What is it that is beneath the surface for all that Paul has to say to this pastor? Well, interestingly enough, It is something that concerns us all very directly. It is the matter of sonship. It is the matter of sonship. Yes, it’s true. Timothy is a son. But so also are you?

What do we know about sons? What do we know about the children of God? Can we determine a pattern as we survey Scripture on this matter? How do sons become sons? How do children become children? Do they become children because they do what we say? Or are they children to begin with? and does their obedience follow upon flow out of their identity? Why, of course. They are children by birth. They are children by creation, if you will. They have an identity as such So they are not becoming children, they are not becoming sons because they do what we say. Rather, they are children who are then obeying, who are behaving in keeping hopefully with their identity.

What you are precedes what you do. Now, that which we can observe generally is true with regard to the specifics of the gospel and the specifics that pertain to the history of salvation, in order that grace may be grace, and you might understand the full character of that grace.

For are you made sons, are you made children by the things that you do? Or have you been made sons, have you been made children by a special work of God? Have you been created and so identified as sons and children of the Lord? What you are then by virtue of God’s grace, what you are by virtue of His working, precedes any workings by you, any doings by you, any obedience that you may render. so that your identity is not based upon what you do, it’s based upon what God has done for you.

Now that’s gospel. That’s gospel. Now we expect obedience from our children. We expect it from them because they are our children. That obedience, then, is not insignificant, nor is it unimportant to us, much less to them. The fact that we are children by the creative work of God, indeed, that foundation there playing for us to see. Our obedience, our behavior then flowing out of that. Our identity and our obedience being then the specific aspects of our sonship.

But there’s another aspect. As we survey scripture, as we think about life in relationship to what we know to be true out of scripture, as we look at the general fabric of life itself, the whole question of sonship The whole matter of us being children of God is tied up with that issue of promise. Promise of inheritance. And once more, what is it that is essential to that promise of inheritance or that promise of reward?

Is it so much what we do or what we are? Well, in the first instance, it is a matter of who we are. In the biblical times, the firstborn was the one who was entitled to the lion’s share of the inheritance. But what had he done in order to deserve that? He was merely born first, not by any doings of his own, not because he willed it, but because he was so designated, you see.

This matter of sonship This matter of us being children of God then involves promise of inheritance, the prospect of reward, and that, too, a measure of grace, so that the promise is heard at the outset, and the promise of reward is conferred when we begin our lives as sons of God, as children of God. If you were to look, then, at the history of the children of Israel, what would you find? They were called the Son of God. Exodus, chapter 4. God calls Israel, My Son, My firstborn. Hosea, chapter 11, verse 1. Out of Egypt I have called My Son, referring to Israel as a nation. That identity for Israel as son of God conferred upon Israel by God’s grace, not based upon what she had done.

The promise of inheritance, the promise of reward, granted her of grace at the outset as part of that constitution of her sonship. You may well think of Jesus Christ himself. Let’s take, for instance, his position as servant of God with a specific ministry to perform before he has done anything. He has his sonship underscored and reaffirmed. He comes up out of the waters of baptism.

He comes up out of the Jordan, and there, at the Jordan, he hears those words out of heaven, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. his sonship, then the foundation of his mission, his task. Reward promised to him, and in light of that promise, he endures every test and proves himself to be son all the more. Into the wilderness he is driven, and there he undergoes those three temptations. And in each of those temptations, he is tried with regard to that identity which is his as son and the promise of inheritance that is his. Will he sacrifice that? Will he abandon that? For the sake of something much more immediate, something much more instantly gratifying to him.

Well then, the pattern of sonship that we find in Israel and the pattern we find in Christ, and we have said that that pattern is the foundation for what we find in Paul’s dealings with Timothy. Timothy, in fact, is called my son. Paul speaks of Timothy as his son. Paul loves Timothy. And that love precedes even any obedience that Timothy may render.

There is the promise of reward, specifically as it comes to Timothy. in his calling as a minister, as a pastor, as an evangelist in the early church. His identity as son, the promise of an inheritance, a reward in keeping with that ministry that is his, these things come to him at the outset of his labors as a son.

As we run back over the territory that we have covered so far, we realize that after there was this declaration of Sonship to Israel and the granting of that promise of reward, her Sonship was proved and she was found to be washing. Likewise with Christ, His Sonship spoken of, underscored but then his sonship proved, and he demonstrates that he is the son indeed.

The reward of the inheritance is his. Timothy will be tried also, as every servant and every son will be tried. So he finds himself in a first-century congregation there at Ephesus and undergoing the severest of trials. The test is with regard to his sonship. Yes, a sonship to Paul, who is his spiritual father in the faith, but even more than that, his sonship to God. That is in the balance. For he in this distress and in this predicament must prove himself to be the son, with all of the implements provided him for his sonship, all of the tools that have been granted to him in order that his sonship may be vindicated in the course and through the duress of life. So Paul himself, a son, is sorely tested in a Roman jail, and now Timothy is sorely tested in Ephesus because of the difficulties and the offenses and the problems that have arisen. Paul says to him, suffer hardship with me.

I didn’t think sonship would be like this. I didn’t imagine that being a child of God would be like this. But the question arises, for Israel, for Christ himself, for Paul in a Roman prison, for Timothy in the Ephesian church, how will I survive? How will my sonship be confirmed through this distress which I experience? Surely I am called upon to obey, but I have already understood that I am a sinner. I am given over, it seems, to wickedness. I don’t have the strength within myself to hold out. What hope is there for me?

Of course, we remind ourselves of God’s grace. We remind ourselves of his power present within us. But we need to remind ourselves of something more. We need to remind ourselves again and again of the significance of that promise, that promise of the inheritance given to sons at the outset of their journey.

It is specifically that which is being countermanded and denied at Ephesus. The resurrection is already past, so say some. Now, you take stock of your spiritual well-being. You take stock of your spiritual temperament and temperature. Ask yourself, how often do I remind myself of the promise of the reward? How often do I remind myself of the promise of the inheritance? How much has that become the foundation of my life? Do you lack strength? Is there a lack of power in you to resist temptation? Do you find yourself continually caving in? Are you wandering from the truth? Is there a lack of zeal, a lack of enthusiasm? Well, just how excited about heaven are you? If you are not excited about heaven, then you’re going to have a very difficult time living properly for the Lord. If the inheritance does not interest you. If you could care less. If you haven’t thought about it since last December. If then.

People get upset with the pastoral disciples. They look through them, they say we have no exposition of the cross of Christ here. Well, there’s a reason for that, because Paul does not want Timothy concentrating so much upon the sufferings of Christ. He wants him concentrating upon the glories of the inheritance. Because when we get into difficulty, our help is not found in looking at our sufferings and analyzing them endlessly, and getting ourselves more and more depressed.

If anybody had a reason to be depressed, it was Paul. But what did Paul remember? I am a son. Now he didn’t think about that because it promised him great things in this world. It was so important to him because it promised him great things in the world to come. Now Paul starts with that promise of inheritance, and his whole theology, if we can use that word, his whole doctrine of the Christian life is built upon it. Take it away, there’s nothing. Absolutely nothing. You might as well go be a Buddhist. Unfortunately, there are a lot of Buddhists in the Christian church today. They don’t know it.

You come to that conclusion, then, of 2 Timothy 2, verses 22 through 26. And you’re asking yourself, are these just disassociate disassociated postulates and axioms for the moral life, wise words to live by in the first century in Ephesus, or wise words to live by in the twentieth century in Pittsburgh. Everything that Paul says to Timothy is undergirded by the reality of sonship and the promise of an inheritance. Why should you flee youthful lusts?

Because you are son of God. That’s why. Not because it makes good sense. Not because there will be a better social equilibrium in our society. Not because you can avoid social diseases, but because you are a son of God. That’s why. And so it goes. Sonship, promise of inheritance. Becoming the motivating factor for all of the moral life. All of our behavior. all of our actions. To the degree that you see that inheritance meaning more and more to you, to that degree, you will see your sonship confirmed and all the assurances of it. Oh, the inheritance.

Can anything be compared? with what is promised and we as sons and children of God how are we to live in light of that which is given to us you have the living Christ as your guarantee that the inheritance is sure Let us pray. Our Father, remind us so that we will remind ourselves that we are sons that we are the children of God, and that we are heirs, heirs of glory, heirs of the kingdom, heirs with Christ, yes, heirs of God. Lord, may it be plain to us that if this truth is removed from our lives, truly nothing of Christian value remains. So continue and more, build us up in this certainty. We are sons, children of God, who are living for our Father in Heaven, who has granted us an inheritance in the regions of light, and we shall dwell with Him there.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.