About this sermon
Writing from prison, Paul tells Timothy to be strong in grace, to entrust the gospel to faithful men, and to endure hardship like a soldier, athlete, and farmer. He is bound in chains, but the word of God is not bound. Throughout Acts the word grows and the church multiplies, even under persecution. God’s grace in the risen Christ cannot be stopped, for it was impossible for death to hold him. If believers are faithless, he remains faithful, and his purpose calls his people to life and service.
Sermon transcript
is from 2 Timothy 2, 2 Timothy 2. And in particular, our sermon will be from chapter 2, verse 9, and its final phrase. By reading 2 Timothy 2, you then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also, share in suffering, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the cross. Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.
Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound, therefore I endure. everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. The saying is trustworthy, for if we have died with him, we will also live with him. If we endure, we will 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.
Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words which does no good, but only ruins the ear. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth, but avoid irreverent babble. For it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some. But God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal.
The Lord knows we are His, and Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity. Now, in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, He will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work. So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies. You know that they breed quarrels. and the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will. Unstoppable grace. Unstoppable grace. Of course, we talk about the five points of Calvinism, right? Irresistible grace is one of them. You have tulip, right? Total depravity. Untraditional election. Limited atonement. Irresistible grace. Perseverance of the saints. But irresistible grace, yes?
God, in a wonderful way, brings His Word and Spirit. The Spirit working by and with the Word, and awakens our heart. That’s effectual calling. He enlightens our minds. He renews our wills. So that we just voluntarily accept the Lord. That’s where our minions come from.
They’re dear brothers and sisters in the Lord. who go by virtue of their experience instead of the explanation of it in the Bible. They say, I chose the Lord, it made sense to me and I believed, I mean, so I guess we choose the Lord. Well, it’s sort of a naive way of looking at things. But experientially, that’s the way people experience it.
We love him, of course, because he first loved us from all eternity, he loved us. And he said, his only begotten son that died for us, we had nothing to do with that. And in time, when we didn’t care about him, we couldn’t choose to believe, we didn’t choose to believe, we wouldn’t choose to believe, nevertheless, he saw us. And he found us. And he laid a hold on us. And he drew us to himself.
By the gospel, he wooed us. that we would love Him? And who can help it? You know, when the Spirit of God opens your heart and you begin to see Jesus for who He is, don’t you love Him? Aren’t you thankful for all He’s done? Isn’t He a wonderful Savior? And on the Lord’s Day, to rest in that, we have a wonderful Savior. Just to rest in that is a wonderful thing. You know, Psalm 23 is so wonderful.
I never get tired of it. I went to the hospital one time. I was standing over a person in the bed, they were dying, and I started reading, and they looked up, and they were angry with me. And they said, this isn’t my funeral. Do something else. I got a million of them.
What a life. Once you become a pastor, you find out something very soon. You can’t do anything right. It’s sort of like marriage, right? And that’s good, too. The Lord gives us our most faithful, loving critics in marriage. Also people who go get books for you when you forget. But you see, that set me back quite a bit. And read something else. This is not my funeral. I love Psalm 23. People don’t just read it over me while I’m dying. The Lord is my shepherd. I don’t lack anything. I have everything that I need.
And he makes me to lie down in green pastures. A satisfied sheep does not lay down. But a sheep in green pastures that eats to its full, they get so full that they can’t stand up. At least, that’s what my sheep do. And they just lay down there. Now, that doesn’t mean they’re done. They lay down, and they eat whatever’s around them. You know, I say, you know, sheep believe everything in moderation, even moderation.
But I’m not talking just about irresistible grace, but it’s a very big part of this unstoppable grace. And that unstoppable grace is a grace that is inseparably bound up with the preaching of the Word of God. And here in 2 Timothy, the apostle Paul is writing in a situation where he, being in chains, is not widely able to proclaim the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. We find the same or similar situation in Philippians. And there he rejoices in others’ preaching of the gospel. He’s not able, in that case, to preach. And yet, Philippians is one of the most joyful books in the Bible. Several times, he instructs us there to rejoice. And in the fourth chapter, he says, rejoice again, I say. Rejoice. He can’t contain it.
But when he’s talking about his own imprisonment in Philippians 1.12, he says, I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. That’s an amazing statement for an apostle to write from prison.
In all human institutions, the leaders, the governors, the promoters, the people who are the movers and the shakers and the identifiers of the direction for a movement, the one who set the pace, you lose all of those and everything dies out. You know, it just all fizzles out.
This was the advice that one gave when, after the, The death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and the apostles were a recipe. So don’t worry, you know, Jesus is dead. We had people like this before. False Christs, they died, the movement died out. But if this is of the Lord, you’ll be found opposing God.
There is something unstoppable about the progress of the determination of God to save his people. Pharaoh pursued the Israelites into the Red Sea. What was he going to do? There’s a blindness to evil and to the opposition of the Gospel that’s phenomenal. You know, you read the Gospel of John. And they decide, oh, man, he’s just raised this guy from the dead. He opened the eyes of a blind man. That was bad enough. Now he’s raised Lazarus from the dead. We’re never going to be able to stop him. What do we do with Jesus? Ah, they said, we’ll kill him. Somebody has the power over life and death. You raise a man dead for three days, and you’re going to kill him?
What is this kind of thinking? It is the perversity of the evil that belongs to the blindness of sin. Sin doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t have to be rational. There’s such opposition to Christ and to the kingdom. And we look at that sometimes and we say, where do we fit in all this? Nothing can overcome that. And then a leader falls. And we feel exposed. Now what? Everything’s shut up.
Especially if it’s a minister of the word, a faithful preacher. We live in a world where there are very few faithful preachers, where there are very few exemplars of steadiness, faithfulness in the word of God. These men who stand each week and feed their flocks, saying the truth, not caring what the world thinks, They are few and far between. And when they fall, they are oaks in the forest that have been felled.
And for me, I feel a keenness when it happens. Like we’re lined up in the battle against the evil one. It’s such a struggle. And then a compatriot falls. Of course, the older you get, more and more fall. And all my professors almost are gone. All the people that taught me the gospel as a child growing up in the church, they’re all gone. My pastor, when I was a young man, I called him on the phone. Pastor Adlai, what should I do about this? One time I called him and I asked him, how do I know when I go to a new church? How do I know when it’s time to leave?
And he said, well, he said, out of all the church, and they used to joke that Bob Ebel had served in every church in the OPC, and he inflicted himself on Westfield twice. I said, how do I know? And he said, well, he said, of all the times that I went on to a new church, I was only right twice. And he said, neither one of them was Westfield.
And that’s where I’m from. So he was my pastor by mistake. It’s not very Calvinistic. But then you know the luck of the Calvinist. He doesn’t have it. We don’t believe him. Such opposition, and one of them called. But now you see, I’ve got no one to call. Now they call me. That’s a very strange turn of events in just a very few years. How soon they go. And Paul is in prison.
And he says, I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard And do all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ, and most the brothers, having become confident in the Lord in my imprisonment, as much more bold to speak the word without fear.
Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from goodwill. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of rivalry, not sincerely, but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.”
Two things, for Paul, make the Gospel go on. He’s in prison, and he’s in proximity to the Imperial Guard, and they’ve all heard the Gospel, and people are getting converted, left and right. The Gospel’s spread at the heart of the Roman Empire at its pinnacle. And other people are preaching the gospel. He’s in prison.
He can’t carry the gospel. Others who have heard it from him, they’re not always well-intentioned. They don’t always agree in everything with Paul. And they’re not doing it to extend his ministry. It’s a rivalry. That is, it’s distinguished from the Apostle Paul and his work. And yet, because they are preaching Christ, then this is an extension of the word of God. And in that, the apostle rejoices.
Now in 2 Timothy 2.9, which is our text, at the end of that verse, seeming as if it were maybe an aside or an exclamation, but the word of God is not bound It is at least those two things to which Paul is referring. He says, remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead, the offspring of David is preached in my gospel for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal, but the word of God is not bound, but it’s not an aside. And much of what follows proceeds from it to give some explanation, some exclaiming of how the word of God is not bound, as far as the Apostle understands it, and that very much beyond just the matter of the fact that even though he’s in prison, people who guard him, people they have contact with, people they have contact with, will come into contact with the Gospel, or that others bold by the fact that he’s in prison who will preach the gospel. Beyond that, he looks to a verity which roots the gospel and the fact that the word of God will not be bound. And that is that enduring everything He endures everything for the sake of the elect, that they may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
Both ends of the story, you see, being understood. Having been called by his gospel, that’s the middle, it is clear then that the ends are already determined. If you look all the way in eternity past, They’re God’s electing love. They were chosen in Christ from before the foundation of the world. And those who are the objects of God’s love are those for whom Christ died. And they will not be lost in time.
He calls them by his word, working by his word, the spirit working by and with the word in their hearts. He gives them new life. They rise to faith out of that new life. and they are joined to Jesus Christ in their effectual calling that unites them to him. And they become those who are justified in God’s sight, adopted as children of God, sanctified by that spirit of life, and now they belong to him.
And that’s all determined by the fact that the living Savior is deceptively bound up with all of that. In verse 11, he says, the saying is trustworthy. If we’ve died with him, we will also live with him. If we deny him, he will also deny us. But he’s already preceded by saying, if we endure, we will reign with him. And if we’re faithful, that’s good. But if we’re faithless, what then?
He never denies himself. The Lord knows who are his. He calls them to himself. That’s the foundation. People may even invest themselves in all kinds of falsehoods and arguments, squabbles that mean nothing, but there is a foundation that cannot be shaken. The Lord knows that everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity. God is determined. He’s elect. He knows them. He loves them. He calls them. And he causes them to persevere. He causes them to leave iniquity. God takes care of his people. They’re his.
And in that sense, you see, he is saying the word of God is not bound. That suggests, then, that we look at this phrase, but the word of God is not bound, as something that is rather large in its understanding. It’s embracing something more than just saying, well, the Bible doesn’t fail, where the Bible is adequate. That’s what we think of as the word written. It’s speaking, rather, about not only, not just simply the word as written, but the word as used, the word as it might be thought to be bound, because Paul is bound.
Now what would do that? That would be his preaching. And of course, we remember that when he writes in Romans 10, that he reminds us faith comes by hearing, and hearing by what? Well, he’s talked about they’re not going to believe unless they have preaching. They’re not going to have preaching unless someone has said. So then when they hear those who are sent as they preach the message of the gospel and the Spirit is supplied, they will believe. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.
He says, what does he mean by Word of God there? Very similar to what he means here. The preaching of the Word of God, as it is attended by the Holy Spirit, to accomplish the purposes of the administrative rule of the Lord Jesus Christ from the right hand of God. The Word of God, then, is a very active idea. It contains the purposes and the ministry of the Savior from the right hand of God, sending that living Word to beget life, his church from the dead, to join them to him in his resurrection, and to carry out his great calling in the world, to be the body of Christ. He is the head, but he communicates life from glory, and how does he do it?
Well, you see it in something expressed in 2 Corinthians 4.6, the process of the Word being preached, the Spirit of God attending that Word, that connection to the Savior that goes all the way back to the beginning when we realize that how was it that all things came into being? Well, John says in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God. How did the world begin to be? God spoke and it was.
Or as it says elsewhere in the New Testament, he called the world into being. And that’s exactly what happens in the gospel. God sends forth his word and he calls the church into being. Paul writes to those in the church and says, you’re called to be saints. It’s a very powerful expression. But there in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 6, for God, who said, let light shine out of darkness, has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
How does that happen? Well, he who called the world into being by saying, let there be light, now has spoken into his church. Paul compares it in Romans chapter 4, And verse 7, in this way, he speaks of the blessing to Abraham. And let’s see here. That’s not the right verse.
417, as it is written, I have made you the father of many nations in the presence of the God in whom he believed. And who was that God? Who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. Nothing was, and God spoke to it as if it was. and gave it existence.
Let there be light. And there was light. Basically, God said, light! And light showed. And now, God calls you. And what happens? He’s shown in our hearts to give the light of knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus. He says, Bob. He says, Sue. He says, Eileen. He says, sure. Come to me. And the answer is, yes, Lord, I come to you. Where did that faith come from? He calls us from death to life. You were dead in your trespass.
That’s the power of the Word of God that’s being spoken of here. You see it in the way it’s spoken of in Acts 6, 7. There’s a number of places in Acts where things happen and then things start all over again and move along. And the transition phrase is not as you move from one episode to the other and they live happily ever after. But it has to do with the Word of God. You see it in Acts 6-7.
These they set before the apostles and prayed, and the word of God continued to increase. I like another translation. The word of the Lord grew. The number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. What does that mean? The word of God was preached. The Spirit attended it. People were converted.
They were saved by the Gospel of a light shown in them. They were called from darkness to light. They were called from a situation in which they did not believe in the Messiah to the situation in which they surrendered to the Messiah or joined and gathered into the Church.
And you have that repeated in one form or another in 1224 1928, and then as the book of Acts closes, in a way that some think of as enigmatic. I don’t think it is. It’s just precisely what it is, a beginning, not an ending. But in chapter 12, verse 24, you see that you have Barnabas and Saul returning from Jerusalem, they completed their service, they’re bringing with them Mark, and then they’re going to set off on a journey. What happens?
The Word of God increased and multiplied. The Word of God grew, and it grew over and over again. These were after days. When at first the church is persecuted, it has to scatter throughout the Middle East. And then Saul and his persecution travels about. And then he’s marvelously saved, brought into the church, and then they’re sent out for a great missionary work. And then you have Chapter 19, verse 20. Chapter 19, verse 20. So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily. This is Paul in Ephesus.
And he was opposed by the exorcists and those who worshiped Artemis of the Ephesians. They’re going to ruin our trade and a heavy persecution arose. But also there were many who believed. And they burned the magic books. And the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail.
All the ancient gods and goddesses of the ancient world were overcome by the gospel. Nobody worships at the temple of Artemis in Ephesus anymore. The pagan world fell before the gospel. It’s not a popular conception of history today, but it’s the truth. The pagan world was destroyed by the gospel.
Now, it doesn’t mean secularism hasn’t arisen. It doesn’t mean that Islam isn’t present and these new threats But there are no more people worshipping Jupiter and all these other people and the laws of their land are governed accordingly. Rulers don’t stand up in Rome and say, we can’t govern the world without the worship of the gods. That was true then, but it’s not true now.
What happened? Jesus Christ prevailed. They murdered thousands upon thousands of people. Nero. lit the road with Christians crucified and set on fire as torches. Did he stop the church? He didn’t stop the church. They can make us illegal. They can put us in prison. They may kill some of us. Paul’s in prison, and he writes, the word of God is not bound.
We need to realize that. Your pastor has fallen. He has been stricken with a stroke. He’s suffering. We need to pray for his recovery. We need to look forward to the day when he’ll stand in the pulpit. He spoke very clearly this afternoon. I could understand everything he said. That’s what it takes to preach, you know. He can single-handedly preach if he has to, because his left one won’t work. Well, he can preach with his right one.
And he can preach with the mouth that God’s given him and the mind that seems to be perfectly well-attached. But even if that were not the case, the word of God is not bound. This church has suffered a trial, but the word of God that is here for you He will supply and continue. And you are the products of that word of God.
And it will increase and prevail. The Savior who sends it by his command from the right hand of God will see it do its work in you and through you. And there will be others, if Dan cannot, who will stand in the pulpit. There’s already one man who was scheduled to come and to assist and to work with Dan. The word of God did not suffer a stroke. The word of God has not been stricken.
The unfortunate thing is that a sermon like this is necessary and helpful because the evil one does funny things to us, to our thinking, to our minds. And people take up odd arguments, funny quarrels, when they feel afraid or disoriented. Old unhappinesses may arise and cause trouble. Immediately, this is what Paul is talking about to Timothy.
The word of God is not bound. And he’s saying that to Timothy so that he’ll pay attention to it, put it to work in those congregations where he’s been left to follow up Paul’s ministry, to proclaim the word of God faithfully, And he’s being urged to apply it with clarity. That’s why you get chapter 3, in the end of chapter 3, all scriptures breathed out by God and promptable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent. equipped for every good work, so that Timothy can know, you are not ill-equipped.
The Spirit of God, by the Word of God you possess, you can take and you can apply and you can deal with these things, but watch out. I’m bound, the Word of God is not bound, but that doesn’t mean there still won’t be troublemakers who take advantage of the situation.
That’s just the nature of life. And I’m sorry, that’s just the nature of life in the church. The elders have to be ready for that. And you as a congregation have to be ready for that. And you can stop it dead in its tracks, in your own heart, in your own mind, in your loved ones around you. Dear souls, let’s not let this thing bring division or unhappiness or lack of activity or doubt or fear or laziness to the church. See the work that needs to go on. There’s Darla. She’s got to go out to Uganda. See the work of them.
There are still those being received into the church. The grace of God continues among us, directed by the gospel. This is that powerful word, the word from heaven that calls us, that sends us forth. And it is not bound. It shall not be bound. And so Timothy was told, if you possess that, the spirit of God works through you and you preach that. The word of God is designed for that preaching. I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is judged of the living and the dead by his appearing in his kingdom, preach the word, be ready in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching. And you will have those no matter what the Lord will send.
And while Dan is down, others will stand with him to hold his arms up, to encourage him to get up, And they will fill that place, not to replace him, but to support him until such time as he’s able to return himself. But grace makes it inevitable, that flows from the throne.
It is the power of God’s unstoppable and inevitable purpose. It was impossible, the scripture says, that death should hold him. So he arises to bring the word to us, and to make that word call us to life, to sanctification, to service, to fulfill the purposes for which he called us. Those good works which are determined from before the foundation of the world, and we’ve been created in Christ Jesus to do those things. That’s the word of God, it’s unstoppable. But the gospel, the word of God is not bound. God’s grace is not only irresistible in the heart of the believer, its purposes are inevitable. In the church of Jesus Christ, we sang it, it will never perish.
You shall achieve God’s purpose for you. He’s loved you from all eternity. Christ died for you. He called you by the gospel. He will make you holy. And at last, you will stand incorruptible in glory. And I want you to hear this with all the seriousness that I can say it. Nothing can stop that now. The Word of God is not bad. Grace is unstoppable. And it has a real purpose and content. Let there be no mistake about it.
An oak can swallow it. Unlike trees, oaks cannot get up again. I am looking for God to hear and answer. I am hoping against hope that in the state of affairs of men, hope will rise again. And Jesus is in the resurrection business, isn’t he? Haven’t we staked our lives on it?
Then don’t let that cause any dissembling, any foreign spirit, any sense of discouragement, effect. But you know, nothing is automatic. I want to close with that thought. Nothing is automatic. Whereas Calvin says, God doesn’t deal with us as stocks and blocks.
He calls you to know Him, to love Him, to suffer in Him, that you might know Him all the better. And therefore, sanctification is a process, it’s a painful process. We suffer now for a little while, and then and inestimable weight of glory, but it is suffering, nevertheless, and it is a matter of casting ourselves upon it.
There’s real content to be learned. He wants your heart. He wants your mind. He wants you to take up and say, yes, all right, if the church is to be one, if the church is to be united, if the church is going to be bound together in love in answer to this challenge, that we may know and realize this unshakable truth. The word of God is not bound. His grace is unstoppable.
What do we do? Well, you take up. And you join in what God is doing, and you don’t be the grumblers, the doubters, those who are discouraged. And what does the scripture say? Don’t allow your arms to hang down. Strengthen those weak knees. Stand up and get busy in the household of faith. The pastor’s down, he’s not out. But it’s time for you to step up.
What can you do now? to be of particular use to one another and to the work of Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Zewickly? Who haven’t you invited? What thing haven’t you done that you thought, wouldn’t it be nice if the church did it? What do the elders need? What does Pam need?
Yes, it’s going to take time to find that out, but as things are known, as things need to be done, The Lord will supply the strength. The Word of God is not bound. What He calls forward, what He calls forth, then you give yourself to. It’s not automatic. But it’s not of your own strength, your own wisdom. It is of the Lord’s doing. And it’s wonderful in our eyes. Give yourselves to it. Sacrifice.
It’s not automatic. Jesus said to the disciples, they’re going to kill you. And you’re all going to be scattered. And then they’re going to kill you. Very encouraging, I’m sure. What did he ask them to do? Take up your cross, deny yourself, and follow me. Can I ask less of you if I am his servant? An oak is fallen. The minister of the word is down. Is the word of God bound? He’s still calling to you. What you have been taught, take up and do it now with greater zeal than ever before.
And that will take sacrifice, take up your cross, your offering of yourself. Jesus didn’t say, take up my cross. He said that the disciples take up your cross, your difficult obedience, the opportunities that are afforded to you. And you give yourself in a selfless way, not for your comfort, not for your well-being, what needs to be done, regardless of the cause.
That’s what it takes. And let Dan come back to a pulpit with a fuller congregation, with a larger set of duties on his plate, that he may rise to the challenge and do well, which he will, if he’s able. And he’ll have help, as you’ve already called, sacrifice. It’s not automatic. It’s Jesus’ work. It’s the word from heaven. Nothing can stop it now. It’s not an automatic sacrifice. Let us pray. Lord, help us. Have mercy on us. Let us take up the labors. Let us help one another.
Let us love with a love that doesn’t come from our affinity our sameness, but rather our commitment to you and to dying to self and to seeing your crossword pressed through as what is clearly taught in your word becomes the desire of our hearts. Help us to sacrifice to the end that that which you love, we love, and as you gave yourself for it, the church, for us, your people, may we so give ourselves for and to one another. For your sake and for your namesake that we pray, in Jesus’ name, amen.
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