Amen. Remain standing for the reading of Holy Scripture, beginning with our Old Testament lesson, bringing forth things old and things new from the treasure house of God. We will read Numbers 23, verses 18 to 24. This is the oracle that Balaam spoke concerning the children of Israel. Then he took up his oracle and said, Rise up, Balak, and hear. Listen to me, son of Zippor. God is not a man that he should lie, nor a son of man that he should repent. Has he said it? Will he not do? Or has he spoken? And will he not make it good? Behold, I have received a command to bless. He has blessed, and I cannot reverse it. He has not observed iniquity in Jacob, nor has he seen wickedness in Israel. The Lord his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them. God brings them out of Egypt. He has strength like a wild ox. There is no sorcery against Jacob nor any divination against Israel. It now must be said of Jacob and of Israel, oh, what God has done. Look, a people rises like a lioness and lifts itself up like a lion. It shall not lie down until it devours the prey and drinks the blood of the slain. This is the word of our God. We'll turn now to our New Testament lesson and sermon text from 2 Timothy. Chapter two. For those who have not been with us in prior weeks, we are taking five weeks to look at each time the Holy Spirit led the Apostle Paul to use the phrase, this is a faithful saying. Tonight, we look at the fourth of those five instances found in Second Timothy, chapter two. We will read beginning in verse eight. Through check through verse 13. These are the words of God. Remember that Jesus Christ at the seat of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel, for which I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even to the point of chains. But the word of God is not chained. Therefore, I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. This is a faithful saying. 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. He cannot deny himself. Thus ends the reading of God's inspired, inerrant, infallible words. Amen. You may be seated. I'd like to speak to the covenant children for a moment. For those of you who know your first catechism, the question is, can God do all things? Does anyone know the answer? Can God do all things? Yes. Yes, he can do all his holy will. Know your catechisms well. But notice in the answer to that question, can God do all things, it actually is pretty specific. Yes, God can do all his holy will. There's a qualifier there. It leaves the door open a bit. To answer the question, are there things that God cannot do? What if I told you this evening that there are things that God cannot do? You say, that doesn't sound very right. That doesn't sound very biblical, speaking of things that God cannot do. But I wanna argue to you that there are things that fall outside God's holy will. He can do all His holy will, but if something falls outside of His holy will, then that is something that, by definition, God does not do. Indeed, we could say cannot do. And just on the front end, I wanna assure you that in speaking of things that God cannot do, it is not a liability, but an asset. Indeed, it is a perfection of God. For example, Your God cannot lie. Amen, hallelujah. A God of truth who cannot lie. God cannot sin. He is utterly impeccable. He is not capable of sin. He is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. Your God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he himself tempt anyone. We know that Jesus, according to his deity, could not be tempted. According to his humanity, could be tempted, yet without sin. Your God cannot change. Again, these are not liabilities. These are perfections. The Bible itself uses this language. God cannot change. Well, among those other negative perfections of God, we can add another, and it's found in our text in verse 13. God cannot deny himself. God cannot deny himself. If he could, In congregation, he would not be God. It is owing to the Godness of God that he cannot deny himself. And this truth is really the foundation of four if-then statements in verses 11 through 12, which if you take it all together form what Paul refers to as a kind of heading, faithful saying. Pistos halagos, literally, the faithful word. The faithful word. This, again, is the fourth of five faithful sayings of the Apostle Paul. Five spirit-wrought reminders to speak, to hear, and to heed faithful words. And in context, Paul drops this faithful saying as the ground of his courageous gospel witness. even in the face of suffering and persecution. We read it before, but verse 8, he's speaking to his son in the faith, Timothy. Remember that Jesus Christ, at the seat of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel. You know, it's the gospel of God, it's the gospel of Jesus Christ. Well, here, Paul makes it personal. My gospel. for which I suffer trouble as an evildoer, though he had done nothing wrong, even to the point of chains, but the word of God is not chained. The word of God is not bound. The word of God goes forth, where Paul, even in chains, sitting in prison, is able to pin some of the most amazing letters in all of human history, indeed, inspired epistles from prison. Word of God is not bound. And then he says in verse 10, therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect that they also may obtain salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. And in speaking of his courageous gospel witness to the point of suffering, he then in verse 11 says, this is a faithful saying. And he goes on to say that faithful saying, if we died We live, we endure, we reign. We deny, He will also deny. If we are faithless, He remains faithful. And it's all rooted and grounded in that bedrock theological statement, He cannot deny Himself. This evening, I want us to consider this passage with two questions. Again, when you're not sure how to approach a text, you can interrogate it, you can ask questions of it, and then look for answers in the Bible. First question, why should you be willing to endure suffering for the gospel? Why should you be willing to endure suffering for the gospel? What are the reasons that we can do that? And then second, how can you know that those reasons are true? Why? To endure suffering, and then how can we know that those reasons are true? And throughout, I want us to keep coming back to that basic truth. Yes, God can do all his holy will, but in saying that, we also say he cannot deny himself. Let's begin with that first question. Why should you be willing to endure suffering for the gospel? Our brother prayed just a few moments ago for Christians suffering in Muslim countries, in the Middle East, in Eritrea, in China, and elsewhere. Suffering for the gospel is real, and so this is actually a really good question. Why should you be willing to endure suffering? No one naturally enjoys suffering. It's hard even when you have a good cause. No one sets out to suffer ordinarily. So why? Why do we do this? Why? And the answer is found in the reasons of Paul's faithful saying. If you look at this passage, verses 11 to 13, it's possibly an early Christian creed, or even an early Christian hymn that might have been sung. It opens with the word for, providing reasons. Again, reasons for courageous gospel witness, even to the point of suffering, a series of four if-then statements. The first and second are positive, the third is negative, the fourth could go either way, though no less true. Let's look at this faithful saying together as reasons why we should be willing to suffer. First, positively. If we died with him, we shall also live with him. Now what does this mean? How can we die with Christ? How can that be true of us even now? Well it could speak of the believer's union with Jesus in his death. That by faith you are crucified with Christ, buried with him in baptism, dead to sin because Jesus died for sin. We died with Him when we were pardoned from the guilt of sin and set free from the dominion of sin. And that is very true, it's absolutely true. We are dead to sin by faith union with Jesus in his crucifixion. But in context, in context, it more likely speaks to the believer's suffering for the sake of Christ. Again, it's true, you're united to Christ in his death, but there's also a sense in which we can say that we have died with Christ when we suffer for Christ. For instance, Paul in 2 Corinthians 4 verses 8 through 11 says this, we are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed. We are perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Struck down, but not destroyed. Always caring about in the body the dying of the dead. the Lord Jesus. When Paul suffers, he says, it is as if I am carrying the dying of the Lord Jesus in my own flesh. Died with Christ. And yet, be encouraged, Paul is saying, if we suffer, If we thus died with him, we shall also live with him. Not only raised spiritually in the inner man, dead to sin, alive to righteousness, but one day we will be raised bodily from the dead at the last day. Raised up in glory, and this again fits what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4. Always caring about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. What a compelling reason to be willing to suffer for the sake of the gospel. What a good reason to fight against sin, to mortify the flesh. You're dead to sin, you're alive to God. A reason to endure suffering, though you die, though you suffer to the point of martyrdom, yet you shall live, you shall live with Christ in heaven forever and ever. That's the first reason you should be willing to suffer. If you died, you shall live with Christ. Second, positively, if we endure, we shall also reign with Him. This is similar to the first if-then statement, but instead of an emphasis on resurrection from the dead, here Paul talks about rule. Congregation, do you realize that Christians will participate in the eternal rule of Christ? Even though we are servants of the Most High, yet the Bible says we will reign with Him. That's what Jesus told the church in Thyatira in Revelation 2. He who overcomes. He literally who conquers. It's the Greek word Nike embedded in that verb. He who overcomes and keeps my works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations. He, speaking of Christ, shall rule them with a rod of iron. They shall be dashed to pieces like the potter's vessel, as I also receive from my Father And I will give him the morning star. What is Jesus saying? He's saying that in Psalm 2, the Messiah is the one who is the Lord's anointed, who's going to rule over the kingdoms of the earth. And when he speaks to the church in Thyatira, he says, God will give to you the power of the nations. that the promise, the messianic promise of Psalm 2 will be applied to the church, and I'm going to give you the morning star, which is a symbol of rule, and of power, and of dominion, as the sun rules the day, and the moon and stars rule the night, even so you shall rule over the nations. You think about Christians who received this message in the early church, who were suffering under Nero, and later under Domitian, and being told if you have but a pinch of incense to the emperor, you can have your card punched, so to speak, and you can buy and you can sell. But realize what Paul is saying is if you refuse to bow the knee to Caesar at that point, and instead you say Jesus is Lord in a way that Caesar is not. That though you suffer, and though you die, and though you seal your witness in blood, though you die the death of a dog, though you are crucified like your Lord, though you are set on fire in the gardens of Nero, yet you shall reign with Christ. Though you die as a slave in this life, yet Jesus tells us, I will give you the morning star, and you will rule even over your oppressors. Irrigation, do you not know that the saints will judge the world? Do you not know that we shall judge angels? This is our destiny in Christ, though we suffer to be kings and queens under the high king, Jesus. Again, what a good reason to be willing to suffer for the gospel. A crown of life awaits. And again, this only works if we have an other worldly hope. It's true. I heard an interview recently where an unbeliever, an influencer, a guru of sorts, who has a large podcast platform was saying, if you put into practice the teachings of Jesus, it works. You'll have a more optimal life. All things being equal, you will progress and it will work psychologically, sociologically, vocationally. You'll live a better life in terms of this world. And yet, this passage presupposes that this world is not all there is. That this life is not all there is. Yes, the Bible has promised for this life, but also for that which is to come, and that's really the emphasis of this passage. The emphasis of this passage is on, if you live faithfully for Christ Jesus, you may very well have many miseries in this life, and obstacles, and struggles, and trials, and suffering, and sacrifice, but realize, if you died with him, you will live with him. If you endure, you shall reign with him. A crown of life awaits. Our sights need to be set on heaven. and not just on this earth. Our sights need to be set on the age to come and not just on the now. Third, there is a negative reason to suffer for the gospel, and that is negatively, if we deny him, he will also deny us. And this reflects Jesus' double-edged teaching in Matthew 10, which we actually quoted part of this morning as Lawrence was received into membership. Our Lord says this, therefore, whoever confesses me before men, him I will also confess before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, him I will also deny before my Father who is in heaven. It's a remarkable statement of our Savior that at the last day, when we stand before God, to think that Jesus would look on us and say, this one belongs to me. I know him. And we talk a lot and we should talk a lot about the importance of knowing Christ. But sometimes you also need to remember the beauty of Christ knowing us. that when we stand before God, Jesus will acknowledge us and say, I know this one. They belong to me. They confessed me before men, and now I confess this one to you, Holy Father. And of course, there's also a dark side of the moon. There's a flip side to this, that there are those, for instance, false teachers, who did many things in the name of Christ. They had a form of godliness, but denied the power thereof. Of them, Jesus will say, depart from me, I never knew you. These are the hypocrites. These are the charlatans. These are the ones who who claim certain things to further their own ambitions. But their hearts are far from the Lord and congregation. This is a sobering reality. The first two reasons are quite positive. You die, you live. If you if you endure, you reign. Well, here, Jesus says, that if we deny, he will deny us. It's sobering. It's solemn. It's dead serious, but it's also motivating. It's also inspiring. It should also encourage us in our walk with God. It is a good reason to be willing to endure suffering for the gospel unto the end all the way home. This reason underscores the importance of finishing well. Some of you began your Christian life with a stumble, a skip, a jump, and then a fall flat on your face. You know what it's like to make mistakes. And whatever mistakes you've made, realize the importance, not just of how you began the race or how you are currently running the race, but are you going to finish the race? Are you gonna break the tape with joy, with expectation, with eagerness to see Jesus? Will there be an abundant entry into the kingdom of our God and of his Christ? You need to finish well. I speak to those who are seasoned saints, who have walked with God for many decades, and I encourage you, finish strong, finish well. Do not grow lax, do not go into cruise control, but rather, as you see Jordan's stormy banks approaching, finish stronger, run harder, look to Jesus. Confess Him all the way to the end. Now this raises the pastoral question. What happens if I deny Christ? This passage I find frightening. If we deny Him, He will deny us. Well, what happens if I deny Christ? Well, on the one hand, I'd say this is a good reason not to deny Him, to encourage you to confess Him, but To take the question for its own sake, I must say it depends on how you respond. There are two men in the Bible, there's others, but I'll mention two who both denied our Lord, Judas and Peter. They both denied Christ, both wept. But there was a remarkable, cataclysmic difference between Judas and Peter. because only Peter was repentant, and only Peter was restored. Judas gave a full and final denial, a definitive denial of Christ, and his tears were one of utter despair and unbelief. Peter, on the other hand, though there was an initial denial, indeed, not just once, not just twice, three times denial of Jesus. Even so, there was an ultimate loyalty to Christ. Peter denied Jesus three times, but later, with a three-fold restoration, he was brought back upon his repentance. And you have to think about Peter. The psychology of this apostle, if you remember, when he was in the courtyard, there was, Luke tells us, a look from Christ. Whereas he had denied Jesus three times in the cock crew, their eyes met and Jesus looked at him. And yet in the years to come, what was initially a haunting look, A look that you could never get over for this repentant man on the other side of hard repentance and tears of sadness and regret that gave way to tears of joy at being forgiven and reconciled and restored. This look that would have haunted him surely became a look that drove him. that inspired him, that the love of his Savior, who even in his point of failure, Peter's failure, Jesus looked on him with love. That look of love surely carried Peter the rest of his days and inspired him. I never want to deny my Savior again. He loved me. He gave himself for me. Even when I denied him, he looked on me in love. Even when I denied him three times, Beside the fire, well, beside another fire on the beach, he comes and says, Peter, if you love me, feed my sheep. He showed Peter grace as it was with Jonah. The word of the Lord came to Peter a second time. That's grace. He didn't deserve that. We don't deserve that. What do we have that we did not receive? What happened to Peter? Well, as we have it from church tradition, he went on to be martyred under the persecutions of Nero, and he was privileged to be part of the harvest of the first fruits church. He confessed Christ. He was crucified for Christ, and now he is crowned with Christ. Another example from church history is a man named Thomas Cranmer, and you may know in the English Reformation, who helped develop the Book of Common Prayer. What you might not know about Thomas Cranmer is that under the change of regimes, he was under administration in which he was favored as a Protestant reformer, and later, he was not, and he was called to recant his Protestant convictions. And do you know what Thomas Cranmer did? Did he stand boldly? He failed. He actually recanted and said, I reject it all. I reject it all. And he took a quill in hand and he wrote his recantation of his Protestant convictions. And later his conscience smote him. It struck him as it did Peter. And he said, I can't do this. I can't deny my Lord. He had denied him. He said, I can't do this. And so God led him to repentance, and he said, no, I can't do it. These are my beliefs, and I'm willing to die for them. And so they took him out to burn him alive at the stake, and he said, wait, before I go into the fire, this hand that signed the recantation, I wanna put it right into the flames and burn it off. After he had done that, he went into the fire and sealed his witness with his own life. I want to encourage those of you who may feel that you have failed your Lord. that there is a path forward. It's the path of repentance, it's the path of reconciliation, it's the path of restoration. There may be consequences from your failure that you never outlive in this life, but God gives more grace. And whether it's Thomas, Cranmer, or Peter, Jesus leads you to repentance so that you can ultimately confess Jesus as Lord all the way to the end. There's a fourth reason. to be willing to suffer for the gospel's sake. And it's somewhat, from our perspective, ambiguous. Is it positive, is it negative? The last if-then statement, if we are faithless, he remains faithful. It's often taken as a comfort, and it is for those who believe. In context, it's perhaps more sobering. I think Matthew Poole catches the balance of this passage. He says, God will show himself faithful, either to his promises made to them that believe or to his threatenings denounced against those that believe not. God's covenant faithfulness is a two edged sword. Is that a promise or a threat? Well, the answer is yes. It depends on whether you trust Christ in faith or you reject him in unbelief. Either way, God remains faithful, unswerving to the terms of his covenants. And that's a good reason. to endure suffering for Jesus Christ, because God remains faithful, because He first loved us. So whether positively or negatively, These four if-then statements are fantastic, over-the-top reasons to be willing to endure suffering for the gospel. Now, as I lay those things out for you, this faithful saying, you might reasonably wonder, how do I know I will live? with Christ. How do I know I will reign with Christ? How do I know there is a final judgment? How do I know God will keep his word? And that brings us to a second and final question. Not just why should I be willing to suffer for the gospel, but how do I know these reasons are true? How do I know these four if-then statements will assuredly come to pass? Especially that last one, that God will be faithful. And again, this is a good question. It's a good question because if you're a Christian, that means you are staking your life on these reasons. You are all in. Everything you have is on this point. And the key for this entire passage is found at the very end of the faithful saying. He cannot deny himself. He cannot deny himself. Not a liability, but an asset, a divine perfection. In addition to lying, sinning, being tempted, or changing, Paul tells us that God cannot deny himself. If he could, he would no longer be God. It is owing to the godness of God That he cannot deny himself. And this truth about God. is the foundation of everything that precedes it. Positively, rest assured that you will live and you will reign because God cannot deny himself. If he were to give you a promise and then take it away, he would effectively deny himself and make himself no longer God, and that is impossible. Categorically impossible. He cannot deny Himself. Negatively, be convinced that if you deny Him, He will also deny you. If you are faithless, He remains faithful because He cannot deny Himself. This morning we said that The only guarantee that Noah needed and that you need to trust and obey God is the covenant, God's covenant faithfulness. And that is true, but I want us to go deeper tonight. I want us to go deeper than Genesis 6. I want us to look at 2 Timothy 2. In 2 Timothy 2, we realize that God's covenant faithfulness, however precious that is, and it is, his chesed, his loyal love, His mercy multiplied to the nth degree, intensified by an antecedent love. All of that is true, but it is rooted and grounded in his divine nature. The reason why the covenant is such a guarantee is because the God who makes covenant is utterly divine and cannot deny himself. This is just what he is like. This is just who he is and what he is. He cannot do it and therefore he will not do it. Every promise will make good. Not one word will fall to the ground. His track record is utterly perfect and it will be forever and ever. On this firm foundation, I exhort you to endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. It's not only worth it, Jesus is worthy, but it is a rock solid guarantee as certain as God's own devotion to his own glory. And that's what this is all about. It takes us all the way back to the eternal counsels of God, the covenant of redemption, where the Father compacted with the Son with reference to the Spirit to redeem a people. And He did it for the sake of His own glory, that the Father might send the Son to glorify Him, and that the Son on the cross would lay down His life for the glory of the Father, and that the Father through the Son would send the Spirit for His own glory. God can no more deny His Word than He can deny Himself. Indeed, He cannot. And that is an encouraging truth.