Let me read verse 8. 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 attain 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. Let's again look to our Lord. Again, Father, we are thankful we can come to you and be assured by your very promises that you will hear us. We thank you, Lord, that you are the prayer-hearing God, and even more than that, you are the prayer-answering God. And so we bless you even for the answers of prayer that we have been so wonderfully blessed with, so many of us, for decades of time. And, O Lord, we have often come here on Sundays believing that You will dwell in our midst, and we believe You have heard and answered our prayer, and You have been here. And we do desire again to see You, to understand more of who You are, and to live in light of that truth and reality. So come and pray by Your Spirit and teach us and guide us and lead us. And we pray these things in Christ's name. Amen. Let me just say that sooner or later, I think we all know this, we will have to face death head on. And you will note that people who have to face death always haven't done it all that well. For example, that famous philosopher, Voltaire, He was famous for his rejection and repudiation of the Christian faith. And he said that Christianity is the most ridiculous, the most absurd, bloody religion that ever affected this world. But when Voltaire came to die, he said this, I am abandoned by God and by men. And I would give half of what I am worth if you will give me six months of life. What a contrast when you think of the stories of Christian believers and how they have faced death. For example, a missionary by the name of Alexander or Alan Gardner, he was brought to South America to do missionary work and he and a few of his missionary friends were starving because of some persecution stranded on an island and he was faced with death and hunger. He was the last one to die. And they found him under a boat with his scribbled note. My care is all cast upon God, and I am waiting his time in his good pleasure to dispose of me as he sees fit. Whether I live or die, it be in him I commend my body and soul to his care and keeping. The man died, not shaking his fist at God like Voltaire, but submitting sweetly to God. It was John Wesley who said, my people die well. They live well and they die well. If you want to see a man who faced death in a very wonderful way and died well, it was the Apostle Paul. It was his desire to magnify Christ in his death. He says that in Philippians chapter 3, for me to die is gain. And in this epistle, 2 Timothy, he talks again about his death. But the letter is not morbid or depressing. In fact, it breathes with hope and a vibrant faith. You could also say this about 2 Timothy. It's sort of like Pilgrim's Progress. It has the smell of the prison. The Apostle Paul tells us that he's in prison. He's going to face execution. He is the Lord's prisoner. This is his second imprisonment in Rome. It's not like some of those other imprisonments where he had free course of a home. He had some level of comfort and freedom. No, this prison, in all likelihood, is underground. You could even go over to Rome and find some ruins there of prisons that date back to these days. They have about 30 feet in diameter. They are dug downward and they can hold about 30 or 35 prisoners at once. Think of that. No sanitation. Damp, dark, crowded with 30 bitter, angry criminals who are about to be executed. And we shouldn't forget this too about the Apostle Paul. He's probably here in his mid-sixties. He used to think that was old, but not anymore. But he's probably an old, sixty-plus year old man, because remember, he's been through an awful lot. His body's scarred from head to toe. He realizes that his apostolic labors have come to an end. And it's hard to read 2 Timothy without feeling sadness for the Apostle Paul. Not a great way to die. And then it's not all that hard to feel sorry for Timothy. Timothy owed so much to Paul. Paul called him his beloved son. Timothy was like a father, a spiritual father. He was a spiritual mentor. And the very reason why Paul writes this letter is not to engender sympathy, but to encourage Timothy to stay the course, to not cave in under the pressure to fight the good fight of faith. He could say to himself, doesn't he, in his same letter, I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith, and Timothy, I want you to do the same. He also wants Timothy to carry on the labors of pastoral ministry. He wants Timothy to be his spiritual successor. Timothy's proven to be a faithful man. I have none like Timothy. The Apostle Paul is going to lay out the whole nine yards. There are over 50 imperatives, commandments given to Timothy by Paul, different commandments with respect to his pastoral responsibilities and duties, but also how to guard his own heart and live a holy life. But if you had to put all of those commandments and imperatives in a kind of category of importance, I think that 2 Timothy 2 verse 8 would certainly be right on the top of the list. Notice what he says here, 2 Timothy 2 verse 8, he speaks of remembering, and here's how I want us to organize this particular verse, the clear duty of remembering. Secondly, the main focus of remembering and then the basic reason for remembering. So let's consider this duty to remembrance given by Paul to Timothy under these three heads, the clear duty of remembering. One of the greatest gifts that God has given to us is the memory. You don't often think of that, do you? Have you thanked God for your memory? It's been called the librarian of the soul. Think of what it's like to lose your memory. You probably know people who've lost their memory. My mother lost her memory. She couldn't remember my father. I'd hold up a picture, who's this mum? She didn't know who it was. What would happen if you lost your memory? Suddenly it just disappeared. You didn't even know your name. You didn't know whether you were a father or a mother. You didn't know the names of your children. You didn't know your best friend. You couldn't remember how to drive a car. You couldn't even remember how to sign your name. Memories are important when it comes to knowing who we are and how to function in life. not only on a private level, but you could also argue on a national level. We've all been shaped to some degree by the country or the history of any particular country, whether it's Canada or the U.S. You've been shaped, this country's been shaped, so you have you by your revolution, by those pilgrims who came over, by the civil rights movement, by 9-11. And it would be a tragedy if we forgot all that. But even more so, in a more profound way, as Christians, we are shaped by the Gospel. And our identity is shaped also by redemptive history. And it's clear from redemptive history that God's always wanted His people to remember. He's always wanted them to remember Him and what He's done for them. You think of those commandments. Think of the fourth commandment. Remember the Sabbath day. What's really the Sabbath day about? It's about God. It's about remembering God. Remember me? The first time God articulates that commandment in Exodus 20. Remember me, the Creator? I made this world in six days and I rested on the seventh. When that commandment is replayed or given another repeat there in Deuteronomy chapter 5, it's different than The way it's stated in Exodus chapter 20 is a different rationale for remembering. It's not remember I made you, it's remember I saved you. Remember I delivered you out of Egypt. But again, you're going back to remembering God, remembering your Creator, remembering your Redeemer. I really believe that's the reason why the devil and the world make such an aggressive attack upon the Lord's day. He doesn't want us to remember God. He'd rather us remember everything else but God. The Sabbath day was instituted so you would make good use of your memory. It was Voltaire who said, if you want to kill Christianity, kill the Sabbath. And this, do not forget me, Emphasis comes through in other rituals, other ordinances under the Old Testament. You could even argue the whitest circumcision was to remind God's people who they were, that they were separated unto holiness. The Feast of the Passover, the Feast of the Tabernacle were again forget-me-not ordinances or feasts. And when you turn to the New Testament, that duty to remember only intensifies its strength under the Gospel. As New Covenant believers, we are to actively, regularly use our memory cells every time we come to the Lord's table. Remember me. He's given us the Lord's Day to remember Him, remember His resurrection. God's always wanted His people to remember. And Paul understands that, doesn't he? Notice what he says here. He picks up that word, remember, and it's put into the form of an imperative. You know what that is, children. We've said this many times over. What's an imperative? It's a commandment. He's trying to stress the urgency and the necessity and the obligation here. Remember. It's put in the form of a command. Remember Jesus Christ. How could you forget Christ? I have a good mind? I would score 100% on any theological test or exam? Presumably anything on Christology? Well, this isn't an intellectual thing, is it? When Paul says, remember Jesus Christ, he's not thinking that Timothy is in danger of becoming a theological illiterate. No, no, this forgetting or this remembering is experiential. It even has an affectionate element to it, an emotional element to it. It's not just a mind thing. This kind of remembering requires faith. I think that's why the Puritan, at least one of them said, faith has a good memory. Faith has a good memory. And our faith can so easily be Short-circuited unbelief can rear its ugly head in the midst of our trials and pressures and the cares of life. Remember those disciples in the boat in the midst of that storm. And after the storm, what did Jesus say to them? Where's your faith? Where did it disappear? And we can forget Jesus, can't we? We can forget our need of him. We can lose our faith grip upon him. There's always the danger that we'll forget Jesus. So this commandment never loses its relevance, does it? As long as we are who we are, as long as the devil is the devil, as long as sin is sin, as long as the world is the world, we'll always need to keep in mind this commandment. Remember Jesus Christ. That's the clear duty. But secondly, the main focus of this matter of remembering. No sooner does the Apostle Paul fire off the imperative, remember, and he brings Jesus Christ into focus. And we live in an age, don't we, in a world that, at least here today in America, where people have lost sight of the gospel. They've lost sight of that basic message of salvation. Jesus Christ is some vague, unreal person, almost like a Santa Claus. People don't know who He is. They don't know He died on the cross, a substitutionary death. They don't even know that He rose from the grave. A lot of people think He's nothing more than a religious teacher, a miracle worker, a prophet. So we have to tell them who He is. And one of the first things that we should tell people about Christ, this is what Paul is telling his spiritual son Timothy. Jesus Christ died, but He didn't stay in that grave. Remember, Jesus Christ was raised. from the dead. That's what distinguishes Christ from every other prophet. That's what distinguishes Christ from every other religious leader. One of the many things, but certainly one of the biggest things. You can't say that about Mohammed. You can't say that about Moses, Abraham. They died and they never spoke again. Jesus rose from the dead and continued to speak into the lives of his disciple friends. When Paul opened up that great doctrine of the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15, the emphasis in that passage seems to be, not exclusively, but almost exclusively, all of those appearances seem to focus on the apostle. It doesn't mention the women who saw him. He appeared to Cephas. He appeared to Jane. and then all the apostles, and then He appeared to me. I was the last one born out of due time. It's interesting, when Paul gives his conversion story at least six or so times in the book of Acts and also in epistles, he almost always, always mentions seeing or talking about the resurrection. I saw the risen Christ. I saw Him. I heard His voice. He had that stamped on his memory cell. He never forgot the risen Christ. That really is why here in 2 Timothy he can look death in the face without fear, without trembling, without quivering. And when Paul picks up these two words, Jesus Christ, he almost always, almost always tells us about Christ. He can't just stop there full period. And notice what he does here. He's the risen Christ. Timothy, you need to understand, remember that he went into that grave dead, but he came out of that grave alive, eternally forever alive. But don't forget, Timothy, this risen Christ, look what he says, is the offspring or the seed, the Greek word is sperma, spermatos, he's the seed of David. Paul had a full grasp, didn't he, of the Old Testament Bible and the Messianic promises, and he knew that the Messiah had to be, it was required that he be a descendant of David. Those two things went together. The promise of the Messiah and the seed of David lineage. It also points to the fact that this Messiah would be a king. David was the greatest of Israel's kings, but there would come a greater king with a greater kingdom, a king who would reign forever. And there are many titles, don't we, that we have of Jesus, even messianic titles. Perhaps the most significant one was this, the son of David. Remember blind Bartimaeus? He understood. He connected the dots. He knew that this was the Messiah. Oh, Son of David, have mercy upon me. The first time we open up our New Testament Bibles, Matthew 1, verse 1, we're introduced to Christ, the Son of David. The Son of David, Jesus Christ, the King who conquered our greatest enemies. That's what kings did. Kings went to war. Kings conquered and Jesus conquered our greatest enemies. Sin. We are no longer under the dominion of sin. He conquered the devil. Remember how Paul describes Christ's victory there in Colossians chapter 2. He disarmed principalities and powers triumphing over them. It's the fulfillment of Genesis 3 verse 15. He will bruise the heel. of the seat of the woman, but the seat of the woman will bruise the head of the serpent. Remember Jesus Christ. Don't forget Him, Timothy. One more thing he tells Timothy here to remember about this Christ who rose and this Christ who reigns is this is the Christ we preach. This is the Christ according to the gospel. This is the good news Christ. You can hear people talk about Christ, and you can hear people even preach today about Christ, but sometimes you have to ask the question, what Christ are they worshipping? What Christ are they preaching? Are they preaching a Christ who died a substitutionary death? Are they preaching a Christ who conquered the grave? And you notice when he goes on to tell Timothy in chapter 4 of this same epistle, he says, Timothy, you preach the word. in season and out of season, you have to convince, rebuke, exhort. I remember John MacArthur saying three of the four imperatives there are negative, not positive. Convince, rebuke, exhort. With all longsuffering, Timothy, Never stop preaching the gospel of Christ, the risen Christ, and the reigning Christ. The clear duty of remembering, the main focus of remembering, but thirdly, finally, the reason for remembering. Why remember a risen reigning Christ. Well, you could give a hundred plus reasons, right? I have a book on my bookshelf. It's titled, 50 Reasons Why Christ Rose. 50 reasons. I was going to take that book and just kind of photocopy it over the 50 reasons, but I said that might be a little too much. But certainly the big reason is this, to give hope. to give hope. You preach that Christ to sinners, that's the only hope they have, right? That's the only Christ who can save them. It has to be that Christ. There's no other Christ who can save them. It has to be a Christ who rose. It has to be a Christ who reigns. That's the only hope any sinner has. But to preach this Christ gives hope not only to the unbeliever, but it gives hope to the believer in several different ways, but certainly it gives hope in light of our mortality. We're going to die. I read somewhere a person by the name of Derek Prime. He's got a good book on old age. When I was up in Brazil, my father-in-law, he was reading it. He's an 80-year-old guy, this guy called Derrick Prime or Derrick Prince. I think it's Derrick Prime. But he gives all the different reasons or he gives exhortations and counsels to people who are in those later years of life. But he does say in one of those chapters that as people get older, hope diminishes. Hope diminishes. And it's because many of our hopes are wrapped around this world. When you're 80 or 85, maybe a little younger than that, when you look in the mirror, you don't have a hope you're going to get younger. When you sit in a wheelchair facing a debilitating disease in your later years of life, you don't have the hope that you'll get stronger and healthier. And then when you look at death, facing that reality, you realize you can't stop it. You can't stop the decay, no matter how much plastic surgery or gymnasium workouts, you can't stop death. How can you face it then? Without hope, the hope of the resurrection, you can't. You don't talk about it, that's certainly one way, but you really haven't faced it, have you? But the Christian has hope. The Christian has hope because of a risen Christ. We have hope of a new body, of a resurrection. We have hope that we will be with Christ and be like Christ, not just in soul, but in body. But there's another hope for the child of God. I really think that's the emphasis here in 2 Timothy. It's the hope in hard times. If you sensitize yourself to 2 Timothy, read chapter 1 right back to chapter 4, and you could say there's a lot of potential showstoppers here for Timothy. It doesn't look all that great, frankly. Timothy's just been handed this huge task responsibility by this dear friend of his, Paul. He has an extensive amount of pastoral, church-related responsibilities and obligations. I mean, what did I say? Fifty-plus imperatives. And remember, Timothy's not that strong of a guy. He seems to be of a more emotional, fragile state. Paul addresses his timidity, his fearfulness. He had some weakness in terms of his physical constitution. That's why Paul says, Timothy, take a little wine for your stomach's sake. The guy probably had some stomach problems or gastric issues. Maybe it was a result of his fear and his anxiety. That could upset your stomach. It would have been very easy for Timothy to look at all the things that he's supposed to do. He's got to fill in the shoes of Paul, all the responsibilities and the tasks with regard to the churches. And then Paul tells him, Timothy, not too far down the horizon, Timothy, it's going to get pretty bad. He says in 2 Timothy 4, verse 3, look what he says, For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into the mist. That doesn't sound too encouraging. You still want to sign up, Timothy? There's going to be people, Timothy, you're going to see an epidemic of an itching ear syndrome. And they're not going to endure sound. They're not going to want to hear the gospel you preach, Timothy. They're going to hip up for themselves, teachers according to their own passions. Don't be surprised, Timothy, if they start hankering after something more exciting, something easier, a new fad, a new form of entertainment. Again, Timothy, Paul's not going to be there. When you have a problem, Timothy, you can't pick up the telephone and say, Paul, can you give me some help on this? Can you give me some counsel? The poor guy is on his own. Pressures, stresses, difficulties galore. Well, what do you tell someone like that? Remember Jesus Christ. Remember Jesus Christ, the risen Christ, the reigning Christ. And Paul says to Timothy, remember this too, those who endure will also reign with Him. Stay the course, Timothy. Stay faithful, Timothy. Fight the fight. Keep your eyes, keep your heart focused on the risen Christ, the reigning King. He won at Calvary. And the empty tomb says He was victorious. God approved. God approved everything His Son did. It was an accomplished, victorious accomplishment. It all went according to plan. And every promise that God gave was fulfilled by Christ by dying on that cross. And every promise He's given in terms of your future, that's going to be fulfilled, Timothy. Don't worry, Timothy. Don't fret. Don't get scared. Don't run away. Stay the course. Persevere. Persevere. I finish the race. I finish the race. I finish my course. Timothy, follow me. Follow me. You have a lot of enemies to face. A lot of pressure, Timothy. A lot of discouragement, Timothy. People are going to disappoint you, Timothy. A lot of friends are going to desert you, Timothy. A lot of storms to weather, Timothy. And there'll be times you're going to wonder How can I go on? Do I even have the strength to face another day? Timothy, don't forget the Christ who can strengthen you. You'll always have Him. You'll always have Him. He'll never, ever, ever leave you. He's the living, risen Christ who loves to answer prayer. who loves to give grace to poor, needy sinners. He's only one little cry away. Help. Help. You go to Him, Timothy. You depend upon Him. He's there. He will always, always Be there. We heard in the Sunday school hour that He's our friend. He's our friend. He's always going to be true friend. Christian, I'm sure at times you feel overwhelmed. Right? Some of you mothers feel overwhelmed. Some of you young people feel overwhelmed, maybe with school and with the pressures of this world. We can feel overwhelmed with trials and with difficulties. Pressures in our marriages. Pressures at work. How are you going to maintain a good conscience? How are you going to guard your heart? How are you going to stay the course? Well, you have a risen Christ. You have a risen Christ. A reigning Christ. Remember, He went to the cross for your sins. He rose from the dead so you could rise to live a life of holiness. He really does give you hope for every day, hope for hard times, hope when things feel so hopeless. You always have reason to hope if you're a Christian. You always have reason to hope no matter how bad life gets, no matter how difficult life becomes. And you can think of this, there's a glorious hope. I think it's true to say that the Greeks, when they talked about history, they had circles. That's how they understood history, would simply go round and round in a circle. But that's not how the Bible understands history or how God teaches us about history. History has a starting point and an end point. We're moving in a direction of an end point. A final day. A final day. A judgment day. A day called a day of wrath, but also called a day of resurrection. It's the final day that will usher us, his people, into an eternity of perfect happiness, peace and joy. That's the hope we have. The hope of a new heavens and a new earth. That's the hope we have. And only the Christian has that hope. If you're not a Christian, do you see what you're missing? Do you see what you're missing? Only the child of God can have that hope. And if you don't have that hope, if you don't live in light of that hope, then my friend, I would simply say to you, you go to the one who can give you hope. It's Christ Jesus. He invites you. His arms are open. He's got a smile on His face. And He says, come to Me. And I will give you rest. He went to the cross. He came out of a tomb. to save sinners like you, if you believe on Him, the risen Christ, you will have hope, the hope of life to come, the hope of the resurrection, hope in the midst of tough and difficult times. Don't forget the risen Christ. Let us pray. Father in heaven, again, we thank you for the hope that we have. Help us, Lord, to think more, meditate more upon that glorious hope, the hope, that blessed hope. And we pray, Lord, as we face everyday life and the struggles and difficulties of everyday life, that we would seek to make good use of our memories and not forget the risen Christ, the seed of David. And we pray this in His name. Amen.