Now both First Timothy and Second Timothy are about the work of God and the work of the church to preserve the Christian religion in the church as a covenanted community against physical and spiritual attack so that the individual saints can stand strong as the church together resists apostasy. That's the heart of both books. And when we see 1 Timothy, there's persecution that's occurring, and there's already apostasy and opposition that's occurring. In 2 Timothy, the persecution has gotten worse, and so has the apostasy. And so what we find on page two, We're reminded in the face of opposition that the thing to focus on is, verse 13, hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me. So we have the Apostle Paul, we have the apostolic deposit, and it has to be held onto in faith and love, which are in Christ Jesus. So we're supposed to believe Christ, and we're supposed to, in believing Christ, believe his word, which comes through his apostles. When you believe the words of the apostles, you're believing Christ. Some people want to differentiate and separate the apostles from Christ, and that is heresy. It is absurdity. It denies the very messages of Christ. We've looked at that. We've seen the apostolic deposit texts in John. Also, the love is to be in Christ. It's to be a love that is focused on Christ and His body, the Church, and we obey His commandment to love our neighbors and to love our enemies by trying to apply the law of God to all. But the focus on the love of God first and the love of the Church and of our houses, the covenanted institutions, with this order of loves that goes out. That good thing which was committed to you, the good thing that was committed was the pattern of sound words. It's the scriptures, it's the apostolic deposit, keep by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. So we're supposed to keep it in terms of our own faith and believing it, having it stored up in our hearts. We're also supposed to keep it in terms of our profession and to maintain the profession of the true religion in the midst of opposition and in the midst of apostasy and in the midst of persecution. So there's a lot of talk about the changes that have occurred in the culture. Some people are saying that we've recently arrived in negative world. It's a thing that gets used online, this idea of we're in negative world now, where Christianity has been opposed. Well, I'll tell you what. We've been in negative world for a long time. We're in more negative world, sure. We've been in negative world for a long time. It has been the case that if you assert the truth of God's Word broadly, almost any sphere, whether it's education, whether it's politics, whether it's general life, whether you're talking to people in general, there hasn't been a friendliness to taking the scriptures and talking about them to try to apply them in a realm of life in American culture for a long time. And so it may be the case that We have a more negative view of Christianity in significant parts of the country now than we did in the past, in previous decades. But it is, we've been in a negative world for a long time. What we are in is an increasing negative world and the nice thing is that the church is becoming more aware of it and more aggressively Christian. So I'm thankful for that. And so the idea of holding fast to the word and not being ashamed is one of the key things that's important for the preservation of the Reformed faith in the world. So this willingness to hold fast the pattern of sound words. Now, confessional standards are a way that we corporately confess the truth in an efficient and orderly way. And so this idea of holding fast the sound pattern of words is both in terms of the scripture and in terms of as the church matures, we want to hold fast to our confessional standard. So the word that was committed to Paul, that was committed to Timothy, is the scriptures. Verse 15. This you know, that all those in Asia have turned away from me, among whom are Fidulus and Hermogenes. Now, some people try to read this as like everybody, every church in Asia turned away. That's not the case. Ephesus is in Asia. Timothy is in Ephesus. He's an officer there. That's not the point. The point is, all those who had been with Paul, who apparently were from the Asian churches, fled from him and they're in Asia, they were turned back, there's sort of this running away from him. So the people who came from the Asian churches with him to Rome have abandoned him. This you know, that all those in Asia have turned away from me, among whom are figilists and hermogenies. The Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains. One of the things that happens during times of persecution and opposition is the officers get attacked and the officers get persecuted because they stand out. Leaders stand out and so they get attacked. Vanessa Forrest gives to you an example of how to deal with officers who are attacked for the sake of the truth of God's word. And it's to not be ashamed of them or of their being attacked. You have to, of course, judge what they're being attacked for. You must be careful to not be ashamed of the things that they suffer or the attacks they undergo for the sake of the truth. And so you look at what's going on and the suffering that's going on, and you look at the causes of those sufferings. Now, it's also possible, you know, It happens a lot where people go and they throw garbage accusations at people who are telling the truth in order to try to shame them with garbage accusations. This is particularly common in our time that oftentimes in politics, for example, anybody who's a Christian who's in a particularly important point, if they're open and vocal about being a Christian, it's particularly powerful to attack Christians with charges of sexual impropriety. And so to have charges come out about that, that's a common thing that occurs. So you find things that are actually evil being things that come out as charges as a way of trying to discredit. Now the problem is there are sometimes true charges. There are oftentimes true charges. They're horrifically evil deeds by people who claim to be Christians. So you've got this difficult situation there. But you have to be aware of the difficulty, both of people attacking plainly for the truth or coming up with false attacks in order to go after true officers with bogus charges. And then there's also the reality that some people who are leaders need to be removed, need to undergo punishment, have committed heinous sins. And so you have to consider all of those things, which means that you have a careful responsibility to seek to stand by officers through the process of dealing with them. We were told in First Timothy this idea of you don't receive charges against an officer, an elder, without two or three witnesses. And we have that responsibility for everybody. But we also, especially, need to be careful in terms of the way leaders are dealt with. So being ashamed of the suffering that officers undergo for the truth is sin. And we have the approved example, the positive example of Anesophorus, who was not ashamed of Paul, was not ashamed of his imprisonment, was not ashamed of his harsh imprisonment, was not ashamed to go to him, was willing to refresh him, was willing to go alongside and help him, and willing to suffer possible risks and harms to himself to help Paul. verse 17. But when he, Anesiphorus, arrived in Rome, he sought me out very zealously and found me. So Anesiphorus gets to Rome, zealously looks for Paul who is imprisoned, and in that zealous looking for Paul, keeps looking until he finds him. When he finds him, he brings to him refreshment, he brings to him help, he brings to him things for his care while he's in prison. Sometimes people will take the verses in the scriptures that are about caring for the saints who are undergoing persecution or in prison, and they'll try to apply them generally to people in prison. You don't have a duty to go and refresh everybody in prison. You don't have a duty to go take special care of people who are in prison. But when Christians, especially public leaders, teachers, undergo persecution, and even go to prison, you have a special duty to care to them in that persecution. There's a special responsibility in the times of persecution to rally around and protect and care for the saints who are undergoing persecution. So when Anesiphorus arrived in Rome, he sought Paul out very zealously and found him. The Lord grant to him that he may find mercy from the Lord in that day. And you know very well how many ways he ministered to me at Ephesus." So Romanists like to take this text and say, here's a proof text that you should pray for the dead. This is the strongest text in the Bible to support that, because you could see how if you come in with that doctrine, how easy it is to isogete it in. So if you believe already that there's some authoritative teaching that you should pray for the dead, and you see, okay, Anesiphorus is being talked about. He's being talked about in past tense. He often refreshed me. He was not ashamed. When he arrived, he sought me out very zealously. the Lord grant to him that he may find mercy from the Lord in that day." What day? It must be the Day of Judgment. So there we are. Paul is telling us to pray for Anesiphorus that on the Day of Judgment, when Christ returns and resurrects the dead, that he'd find mercy on that day. And you know, there's this grant mercy to the household of Anesiphorus, because he must be dead. And so there must be a need to give things to his house to care for his household. And so you put it all together, and you kind of go, that feels like a plausible reading. Well, the problem is that we are, to find that doctrine of praying for the dead, no place in the scriptures explicitly taught for sure. And then you look at this, and it's not a necessary reading. It's not a necessary inference. It's not a necessary reading. And so let me present to you a just as plausible, and I would suggest, given the rest of the teaching of scripture, more than plausible, in fact, necessary reading. So let's walk through how you read this in response to Rome. You say, the Lord grant mercy to the house of Onesiphorus. for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chain." So there's something happening where Anesiphorus is having something happen and his household is having some sort of a loss and Anesiphorus used to refresh and used to show that he was not ashamed of Paul's chains. So a quick thought for you. What if Anesiphorus was identified as a Christian as a result of his helping Paul during this time of persecution that we're looking at. This is, again, before the destruction of Jerusalem. It's after the fire that was caused in Rome that Nero was blamed for. And Nero tried to shift blame to the Christians. So this is the persecuting time following that. So Onesiphorus is identified as a Christian. And as a result, imagine for just a minute that he was also put into prison like the apostle Paul. Would that also make it so that he's no longer able to provide for his household? It would. Okay. So then we go to verse 17, but when he arrived in Rome, he sought me out very zealously and found me. Okay. So this is past work. One of the reasons that we should pray for the Lord to grant mercy to the household of Vanessa for us. He's suffering for righteousness sake. It took a risk. The Lord grant to him that he may find mercy from the Lord in that day. So this could be a prayer for his justification, but I'll tell you what, in what day. Well, one of the things that we find, Paul's gonna talk about his persecution, and he's gonna talk about having been delivered from lions. And the thing is, if you are being persecuted, and you're awaiting some sort of great punishment, like execution, The thing you would expect people to be praying for you about is very specifically that you would maintain the faith in the face of this persecution. And he's using Anesophorus in terms of an example of faithful ministry. And we're going to deal with this idea of continuing to maintain the witness in the face of opposition. So Anesophorus, we've The saints were encouraged to pray, and he prays, Paul prays, that Anesiphorus, in other words, would receive mercy on the day of his trial, his tribulation, his suffering, his persecution to death. And you know very well how many ways he ministered to me at Ephesus. So this is a reminder again of the good works that were done. So there's no reason here why you have to read this as prayer for the dead. So next, chapter two, verse one. In fact, the only reasonable way to read it, frankly, is to read it as Anesiphorus is in the same sort of situation Paul is, and praying for strength for him, is to receive mercy to be able to uphold his profession in the day of judgment, the day of judgment temporally, the day when he's going to suffer his persecution in the form of potentially even dying. Chapter 2, verse 1. You, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses. Commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. You, therefore, must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. And also, if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. The hardworking farmer must be first to partake of the crops. Consider what I say, and may the Lord give you understanding in all things. So there's a call here to Timothy And by implication to us, to be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. So to be strong in the grace is to have the sanctification and spiritual gifts that come from Christ Jesus be strong in us. We're looking for a strength of faith. This would go back to this idea of holding fast to the pattern of sound words. And so strength in the faith, strength in the grace that comes from Christ, strength in our sanctification, this need to focus on obedience to Christ as a way of being faithful. You see, there's always temptation to compromise on what God has commanded. And when there's persecution, and when there's social pressure, and when there's mockery, there's an even higher temptation, and even on the edges, to compromise for the sake of having other people think better of you or reduce the pain they're going to bring and to try to reduce some of those things. You go, is it really necessary on this thing or that thing that I have to hold the line? That seems pretty small. It's a small detail. Is it really something I have to hold the line on? If it's been revealed by the Lord Jesus Christ, you should not compromise. on any proposition of truth or any commandment of the Lord Jesus Christ for the sake of convenience. You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also." So now there's the, again, there's the scripture teaching that's given. There's the propositional revelation that comes from the mind of God. And then there's the organizing work and the public teaching work of officers in the church. And this idea that the public teaching is more formal And there's an emphasis on being careful to give sound words in the formal and public teaching. And so the public ministry of the church, in terms of confessional statements, pulling together words in an organized way, and the public teaching of ministers, so they can be challenged by other people, so there's opportunity for public confrontation about error, so that other people hear it and are testing it. That is a more sure type of teaching. It is a type of teaching that is to be looked upon as important to give your attention to. So taking heed of the public teaching, capturing that information, transmitting that information, and repeating that cycle is what mature men are called to do. The whole church is called to do it. But there's a special duty for those who are mature and who are going to teach others. to take heed of the public teaching, to capture that, to transmit it, and to go through a repeating process. So the things that you've heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. You, therefore, must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. We have three analogies that are used here for the pastoral ministry and being faithful in ministry, especially in the face of opposition in this negative world. You look at these three analogies, there's the soldier, the athlete, and the farmer. The soldier, the athlete, and the farmer. And they're each used to demonstrate different points. The soldier is used as one who is an example for enduring hardship. The soldier is expected, obviously, to enter into battle, right? Battle is a place where you risk your life, where you go through difficult things, you watch friends suffer and die, you yourself risk suffering and dying, and may well. And you also go through the pains of combat, and go through the various small injuries and larger injuries that occur in combat. As you are in combat, the things that occur, the losses that occur, we are all aware of the fact that many who go into combat, even if they are not physically harmed, They're often put into a place where the traumas of the mind are so intense that it affects their behavior and attitude sometimes for the rest of their lives. It is a great trial to deal with a life-and-death struggle with other men. And because of that greatness of that trial, there's a recognition of the need to endure hardship there. But the enduring of hardship is not merely the intense moments of combat. It is a common joke to talk about warfare being long, drawn-out periods of boredom with punctuated moments of terror. So the terrors are one thing, but the long slog, the idea of having to march at distance, the idea of having to carry significant gear, the need to deal with Difficult overseers to deal with men who you're around or might not be the most pleasant the difficulty of Continuing through and having to deal with minor injuries that add up over time when you're carrying Significant amount of gear and you're moving a significant amount of distance you get lots and lots of minor injuries and those pile up and they don't heal because you don't get to stop you just keep going and you enter into a the condition of combat, having had to deal with the long boredom, the long slog, all of those difficulties. And so this idea that there's an enduring through difficult, boring, painful process and punctuated moments of terror. These are the types of things that soldiers must endure. And so when you think about the analogy of the soldier, We are often tempted as men to think about if we can have one glorious moment, if we can just break through the enemy, if we can shatter their teeth and have a cavalry charge through and be done and be victorious, how great that would be. And the hard thing is to be faithful in the long slog, the glorious cavalry charge. is a moment that you go, yeah, I might die. But the trench warfare, the grinding it out, the long-term difficulties, frustrations, dangers, that long slog, that is a part of the endurance that is necessary for soldiers. And some of us may live to see glorious moments of victorious charges. But they don't end the war. They might be victorious moments where battles are won. But there are more battles to follow. We will be here. The saints will be on Earth for a long time. And so there's this call to deal with hardship and to endure. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life. This idea that there's a focus on the spiritual warfare and on this engaging in this work Now soldiers, you go, OK, well, you're not going to have another profession. You're going to focus on this profession of soldiering. The thing about Christianity is Christianity is not a 9 to 5 job. The pastorate is not a professional class. This verse is sometimes used to say you shouldn't have bifurcational ministry. Men shouldn't have a second job. Well, the Apostle Paul did tent making in order to pay for things while doing ministry. It might be ideal to be able to have so much money that you can give some men the ability to stop their other work. But this idea of a minister who is focused purely on church work and doing nothing else is also the kind of thing that makes it so that when you read verse four, this is the kind of basis for Roman Catholicism, trying to say things like ministers ought not to be married. Ministers ought not to have their own children. So you go, okay, celibate, no children, no jobs except for working in the church. If we're saying, let's totally avoid the affairs of this life, and we interpret anything except for church work as the affairs of this life, can you see how the celibate ministry becomes the way that you think about it? But what if one of the great ways of waging war as a minister is to show other saints how to work like a Christian in making money? What if one of the great ways of waging warfare as a minister is to show other Christians how to be a good husband and how to be a good father? What if this warfare is taking every area of life captive to the Word of God and being faithful in this charge to focus on this warfare and avoid being entangled in the affairs of this life means trying to apply the Word of God to every area and having no secluded spaces that are separated off from the Word of God? That would be the historic Protestant way of reading this. And weirdly, in Protestant churches, there have been some groups that have tried to more and more take this and make it into a thing to make it so that ministers have to be full time and to have no other areas where they can potentially make money. What that does is it ties ministers in to being a bigger burden to the church, and it also ties in ministers to being captive to and under pressure to please the church. As opposed to doing their duty of actually being a good soldier of the Lord Jesus Christ and focusing on pleasing Him. So chapter 2 verses 3 and 4 gives the analogy of the soldier and here's the point of the analogy. Be willing to endure hardship for the sake of your captain and be willing to give your focus to waging war and applying his commandments in every area of life and having no spaces where you keep yourself separated off from the commandments of your captain. Analogy of the athlete. No one engages in warfare, sorry, verse five, and also if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. So, in other words, if you're an athlete, and you're required to follow a certain set of rules to win, if you then, let's consider, for example, some type of a race. If there's a race that has multiple legs, and let's say one of them is running, one of them is cycling, and one of them is swimming. Let's just make up an event that has those. If you go, well, running is slower than cycling, so I'm just going to cycle through the running part. And swimming is slower than cycling, so I'm just going to cycle around the swimming part. And so you cycle the whole time and you're passed by the runners and you laugh. Then you get to the cycling part and the other guys are just getting to their bikes when you're basically finishing the cycling part and you laugh. And then they all get into the water to start swimming just at about the time that you hit the finish line and you go, I got here first. I am the winner. I cycled faster than you guys cycle ram swam." Nobody's going to give you the trophy. They're all going to say, you're disqualified, you're a loser because you lost, because you cheated. They're going to say, you didn't follow the rules. Trying to accomplish the goal without following the rules is a great way to be a loser. That's the point of the analogy. So if we want to run the race so as to win it, if we want to be like athletes who seek hard to develop skill to be able to win following the rules of the race, following the rules of the game. And what we're going to do is we're going to say, I want to win the race of glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ with my life. And so what I'm going to do, as opposed to trying to glorify God with the arm of the flesh, or with inventions of men, or with things that are pleasing to humans but not to God, I'm going to carefully try to run the race by using the rules of the game that the Lord Jesus Christ has given. And that's the regulated principle of life. That's the regulated principle of worship. That's the regulated principle of government. The regulated principle of doctrine. We officers, all Christians, must learn that when we seek to fight, to compete, we must play according to the rules. The way you get the crown, the way you get the honors of honoring Christ, the rewards for honoring Christ come for those who actually seek to apply the rules that Christ has given. And so we want to be careful to do things in ministry using the methods that Christ has given. That's the point of the analogy of the athlete. The analogy of the farmer. The hardworking farmer must be first to partake of the crops. The analogy of the farmer is the point that, you know, we see Paul talk about the farmer in 1 Corinthians. He talks about how some plant some water and some reap the harvest. And he says, you know, if you're the one who does the work of planting and watering, it is appropriate to make sure that there is reward there. The hardworking farmer must be first to partake of the crops. So the principles of ministry that we get, the minister must focus on obedience to Christ in the warfare, in every area of life, he must endure hardship and not run away, and he must focus on the commandments of Christ in every sphere. As an athlete, he must apply the rules to seek to win the prize by applying the rules that Christ has given and not inventing his own methods. And as a farmer, he must receive the rewards of the harvest. And so the idea here is sometimes we're tempted to say, this is hard. I'm going to give up. Sometimes we're tempted to say, I'm going to give this area, but not that area. Sometimes we're tempted to say, I want to compete, but I'm going to do it the way that I think is effective or pragmatic, as opposed to the way that Christ has commanded. And sometimes we're tempted to say, well, you're a minister. You should have done that. Why do you expect to be rewarded for it? And so the ascetic temptation, the temptation of not honoring, not rewarding those who do ministry work is one of those things that's supposed to be meditated on by officers so as to avoid a twisting of a view of the Christian life or Christian officers. Paul finishes these three analogies saying, in verse seven, consider what I say and may the Lord give you understanding in all things. He tells him, hey, hold on to the word that I've taught in public, hold on to the sound pattern of words, and consider this. He just ends that analogy, just consider this. So the soldier, the athlete, and the farmer, the points of those three analogies are things that should be meditated on by officers. Why? All saints would benefit from this, but especially those who have any leadership responsibility. First of all, because it's going to be hard, it's spiritual warfare, and there's going to be temptation to not endure. We must meditate on the need to endure in the faith. And we must meditate on the need to, in a sober-minded way, focus on building and continuing to trudge and to focus on winning the war and not being distracted by other stuff. Because it's so easy to be distracted by other stuff. So focusing on winning the war, focusing on the spiritual warfare, Enduring the hardship must be focused on. Also, we're tempted to be wiser than God. The athlete is worthy of meditation because we're tempted to be wiser than God and to invent our own methods of doing things. One of the big things that was invented by men in the period that people call positive world, the 80s and 90s to some extent. This idea that mega churches were successful because you could have a general positivity about Christianity, and then if you just tried to put on a show that was entertaining and that met the felt needs of people and provided services that met the felt needs of people, that you could pragmatically quickly build a crowd. And in building that crowd, you would be able to gradually kind of do a bait and switch on, I'm giving you this show, and I'm giving you this stuff or services you claim to want, and then I'm going to sprinkle some Jesus in and try to get you to care about Christianity in the midst of that. That kind of methodology is a desire to invent a way of avoiding the rules that are given to the church for how to do ministry work. And if instead you focus on the idea that the church is called to teach the doctrine, to lead with right worship, and to have right government, and you focus on that, and you focus on building up Christian homes in the way that God has commanded, and applying the law of God to the whole of life, then those are how the race is supposed to be run And that's how you fulfill that duty of the athlete. The temptation to compromise for the sake of success or ease or pain avoidance is the reason ministers and anyone who wants to lead must meditate on the athlete. And for the farmer, the reason you must meditate on the farmer is because Jesus Christ underwent the shame and the cursed death of the cross because of the reward The reward. The way that wise people think is they think I'm going to risk, I'm going to suffer, I'm going to do things that are unpleasant for the time because it's worth it because of the reward. The fool must be moved around with being whacked. Pain is the principal motivator of the fool. Foolish people do the minimum to get by to avoid great pain. The wise take on pains in order to gain great rewards. And so you must focus on the idea of the reward in order to be motivated as a wise man to do the work. So thinking on the need to endure and to have every area under the authority of the captain as a soldier, thinking on the need to apply the rules to advance and to win the race as an athlete, and thinking on the work as a farmer enjoying the reward, thinking on the reward as that which helps you to be motivated. Soldier, athlete, farmer, every Christian benefits from meditating on these things. But officers especially must meditate on these things. Page 3, verse 8. Remember that Jesus Christ, the seed 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. Paul is being accused of being an evildoer. He's being accused of being an evildoer and is in chains because of the fact that he's preaching the gospel because of the fact that he's preaching Jesus Christ. Now, here's the thing. We all think of like martyrdom and persecution and we think it's going to be great. I'm gonna go out there, I'm gonna preach the gospel, and people are gonna say, don't preach the gospel, how dare you, Jesus is bad. And you're gonna go, no, Jesus is awesome, and here's the gospel again, deal with it. And they go, we're gonna persecute you for the gospel. And everybody sees you there publicly, and you're being persecuted. It's like, this guy's persecuted for the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is bad. And you go, Actually, that's not true. The gospel is awesome, and you should believe it, and you get to say the gospel, and then all of a sudden they pull the rope in your hand, and you're like, wow, that was really great. That's not how it goes. You know how it goes? You preach the gospel, and people go, that guy is a liar and a robber and a murderer and an adulterer. And you go, no, that's not true. Hear the gospel. And they go, why should we listen to you? You're a liar and a murderer and an adulterer and a thief. And you go, those things aren't true. The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ should be heard by all the nations and everyone. And they kill you. That's the kind of thing that happens when you're in the middle of fighting for this thing. And they just say, no, what's wrong is that what you're doing is evil. You're using religion as a cover up for righteousness. These are the kinds of things that normally happen. The covenanters weren't persecuted explicitly for the sake of Jesus Christ. They were persecuted because they were rejecting the authority of the king. King Charles II has commanded you to submit to the proper religious worship laid out in the Book of Common Prayer. How dare you reject the authority of the king? And look at your rebellious spirit. You're not willing to kneel down at the Lord's Supper? Do you not love Jesus? Do you not think Jesus is worthy of being honored by kneeling down as you come to the Lord's Supper? Okay? How about this? The idea that Christians get persecuted because you say you're rejecting church authority. Think about Protestants against Roman Catholicism. You won't accept all the work of the holy saints and of Mary, the mother of God, and you won't accept the Holy Father, the Pope. And you go, no, I won't. I think that the papacy is a contrived human invention. And I honor Mary as the mother of Christ and the mother of His divinity. by his hypostatic union, but not in the sense that his divinity was made by her, and yet I honor the saints and the faithful confessors of the faith that came before, and I believe that we should honor them, but their merits are not a part of my basis for my salvation, and I'm not gonna pray to them. And you go, okay, well, we're gonna kill you, because you're rejecting this, right? The plain, simple, I'm dying for Jesus, That was the kind of thing that happened to some extent in the first century, and the second century, and the third century. But the saints that die most of the time in places where there's persecution from some sort of a group that kind of pretends to be Christian, or is Christian weakly, is a persecution for things that are not right there just about Jesus Christ. Now, right now, You look at the Sudan, and there's Christians that are being killed just for being Christians by the Muslims. But even the Muslims who kill them come up with reasons. Oh, this town is holding rebels in it, or supporting rebels. It's like, are they rebels? Or is it a militia that's resisting Muslims that are killing Christians? This is what happens over and over again. It's the propaganda war. You need to realize that the propaganda war is how Christianity gets fought. And so when you stand up for Christ, rarely is it, this guy is being persecuted because he's a Christian. They come up with other stuff. So 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. People can try to shut you down, slow you down, stop you, and you can be chained, you can be stopped, you can be YouTube banned. The Word of God is not YouTube banned. The Word of God is not chained. The Word of God cannot be stopped. Human beings have no ability to stop the advance of the Word of God. They can chain the Apostle Paul, they can chain saints, they can punish you, they can do whatever, and the Word of God goes forth. If you've spent any time around me at all, you've heard me tell you the story about Martin Luther and how everybody came to him and said, Luther, everything's going bad, things are happening, this is happening, this is bad over there, everything's terrible. You gotta go do this, you gotta go fix this, Luther. We need you to go fix this problem and to overcome this difficulty and to solve this issue over here. And you need to do this. And Luther's response was to go, okay, you don't need Luther. The word of God is what does these things. The word of God is what fixed these things. Martin Luther and Melanchthon sit in the garden drinking beer and the Word of God still goes forth. That attitude, we must work hard because we're commanded to. We must have the attitude knowing that God does not need you. God does not need me. He could slay us all right now and He would make it so that His Word still goes forth. He would build His church He would cause the truth to advance and to fill the earth. I am not necessary. You are not necessary. Graveyards are filled with indispensable men. And so the reality that the glory of God will advance, the glory of God will fill the earth. The word of God is not chained. And therefore, knowing that the victory is guaranteed, 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. Paul has the attitude of a soldier enduring. Paul has the attitude of an athlete trying to win the race according to the rules. Paul has the attitude of a farmer who wants to partake in the benefits of the harvest. And so he endures for the sake of the elect, for the knowledge of God to fill the earth, for the glory of Christ. So he goes to the faithful saying that helps to say, here's something to remember in this, another thing to meditate on. And I'll spend more time on this next time. But I want to leave you with it. 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.