2 Timothy 2:11-13: A Trustworthy Saying

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 30 Oct. 2011,

By Captain Michael Ramsay

¹¹ Here is a trustworthy saying:

If we died with him,
   we will also live with him;
¹² if we endure,
   we will also reign with him.
If we disown him,
   he will also disown us;
¹³ if we are faithless,
   he will remain faithful,
   for he cannot disown himself.

Our passage opens up with, “Here is a trustworthy saying.” In preparing for our time today, I kept my ears open and actively looked for some contemporary trustworthy sayings. Here is what I came up with:

q       I ran across a ‘True Fortune Cookie.’

o       Instead of ‘Lucky Numbers’ on the back it read, ‘You will NOT win the lottery today’

o       On the front it read, ‘Look both ways before you cross the street; run like the wind after you cross your mother.’

q       I heard these next two on a Regina radio station,

o       A homeless man asks, ‘do you have any change?’ Response: ‘Why yes I do, thanks for asking’

o       As a tea-totaling Salvationist, I appreciated this next saying from the radio:  ‘Alcohol never made anyone’s problems disappear – but neither did milk’

A while ago I picked up this book in Saskatoon: I Did It His Way – A collection of B.C. Religious comic strips by Johnny Hart.[1] In the B.C. comic strip you often have people consulting Wiley’s Dictionary for trustworthy sayings. Here are some of Wiley’s definitions:

Today’s pericope opens up with, “Here is a trustworthy saying.” It then breaks into three verses that we will address today.

Vs. 11: If we died with him, we will also live with him [Christ];

Vs. 12: if we endure, we will also reign with him. [But] If we disown him, he will also disown us;

Vs. 13: if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself.

These verses are quite likely taken from an early Christian hymn[2] and it is indeed a trustworthy saying and I’m sure you’ll agree quite interesting as we get into the various parts of it a little bit here.

Verse 11: If we died with him, we will also live with him.

Theologian Donald Guthrie tells us,“The tense of the verb translated we died with him (synapothnēskō) indicates that a past event is in view.”^[3] Ralph Earle adds,

‘If we died with him’ is in the aorist tense, indicating a crisis (EGT, 4:163). Paul spells this out in Romans 6:3-6. It is only as we die with Christ, by identification with him in his death, that we can have spiritual life in him. ‘We will also live with him’ does not refer to our future resurrection, but to our present life in Christ. The parallel is Romans 6:8, 11. Right here and now we are to count ourselves ‘dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.’ The Pauline formula is ‘You have to die to live’.[4]

Romans 6:5-7:  

⁵ If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. ⁶ For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with that we should no longer be slaves to sin— ⁷ because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

Romans 6:11-14:  ¹

¹¹ In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. ¹² Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. ¹³ Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. ¹⁴ For sin shall not be your master…

Paul in Romans 6 underscores what he is teaching us in 2 Timothy today: we have a choice. We have a simple choice: we can either choose to sin which leads to death or we can die to sin choosing instead holiness, which leads to life (cf. TSA docs. 6,10,11). There is no middle ground. Moses said on Mount Sinai before his death, Deuteronomy 30:19-20, “This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, …” Paul, in this letter to Timothy and the church in Ephesus says, “If we died with him, we will also live with him” (2 Timothy 2:11) for, as we pointed out, with Paul, you have to die to sin to live with Christ. And when you have died to sin and instead live that holy life, what a wonderful life - even as it is full of suffering (cf. 2 Timothy 1-2) – what a wonderful life that life will be. Even as it is full of suffering…

Verse 12:  If we endure, we will also reign with him. [But] If we disown him, he will also disown us

As we pointed out last week (2 Timothy 1:12: Learn To Suffer)[5], the Christian life will come with suffering but we must learn to suffer properly, praising the Lord. Paul says that we are to rejoice and even boast in our suffering (Romans 5:3,4 cf. Philippians 2:17; 1 Peter 4:6, 4:13). 1 Thessalonians 5:18 records that we are even to give thanks in all circumstances (cf. Philippians 4:11) and Paul in Philippians 4:4 says, ‘Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice.’ Trouble will come but “if we endure, we will also reign with him” (2 Timothy 2:11).

This is good news but there is another side to that coin and that side is contained in the second part of this very verse in 2 Timothy, “If we disown him, he will also disown us” (2 Timothy 2:11). This is apostasy and we all understand what is apostasy, right? In The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, Walter Bauder writes, of apostasy [5a] :

1 Timothy 4:1 describes "falling away from the faith" in the last days in terms of falling into false, heretical beliefs. …people who have come to believe, who have received the gospel "with joy" (Luke 8:13). But under the pressure of persecution and tribulation arising because of the faith, they break off the relationship with God into which they have entered. According to Hebrews 3:12, apostasy consists in an unbelieving and self-willed movement away from God (in contrast to Hebrews 3:14), which must be prevented at all costs. aphistēmi thus connotes in the passages just mentioned the serious situation of becoming separated from the living God after a previous turning towards him, by falling away from the faith. It is a movement of unbelief and sin… (cf. the par. to Luke 8:13 in Matthew 13:21; Mark 4:17; . . .).

Apostasy is a complete turning away from God after one was apparently with Him and after one was certainly with a community of believers. Apostasy is referred to many times in the Bible (cf. for ex. Hebrews 2:1-3; 3:12-14; 4:1,11; 10:23; 13:9; Colossians 1:22,23; 2:6-8; 2 Timothy 1:13; 1 John 2:4-6)[6] and in short what it means for the apostate is, in the words of Jesus, that if one is ashamed of Jesus, then the “Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory” (Mark 8:38; Luke 9:26; cf. also Psalms 31:1-3; 71:1-2; 143:1).

In other words still, if we play on Christ’s team which will ultimately be awarded the Eternal Cup, if we play on Christ’s team for a while, but then demand a trade before the final game is played then yes, Christ has won the victory and yes, his team will experience that victory but no, if we have refused to play on that team then we will not experience that victory with him when that trophy is handed out. I think of Marion Hossa, in hockey. One season he played for the Pittsburg Penguins. They lost in the Stanley Cup final to the Detroit Red Wings. For the next year, he requested a trade to the Detroit Red Wings and that year the Red Wings and Hossa lost in the finals to his former teammates on the Pittsburg Penguins. If he had stayed with the Penguins he would have won the cup that year. Instead he was on the losing team two years running. Now Hossa did eventually win the cup the next year with yet another team (Chicago). But - If we do not continue to play for Christ’s team we will not experience the joy of celebrating that ultimate victory with Him that he has already won.

To reiterate what we said about the first verse of this trustworthy saying we are looking at today, quoting Moses in Deuteronomy, “This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, …” This brings us to our third point.

Verse 13: if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself.

This seems to contradict what we and Paul just said, doesn’t it? The previous verse in this trustworthy saying says, “If we disown him, he will also disown us;” but this very next verse says, “if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself.” So, how does this work? If we disown him – now one can only disown what one previously owned – if, once we own our relationship to him, we then disown him, he will disown us. Like one of The Salvation Army’s most controversial doctrines, Doctrine 9 states: Continuance in a state of salvation depends upon continued obedient faith in Christ. If we disown him then he will disown us but if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself. So how does this work? How is it that he will disown us if we disown him but if we are faithless, he cannot disown himself so he will remain faithful? This seems to be a neat little paradox.

I see it thusly: A major theme of this letter to Timothy is an encouragement to join Paul in suffering for the gospel so that we can all enjoy the blessings of life with Christ both now and forever: Let it be so![7] The first verse of this hymn that we are looking at today– “If we died with him, we will also live with him” – is an encouragement to be holy, not to sin anymore; we are now dead to sin so we can be alive in Christ. The second verse, “if we disown him, he will also disown us,” tells us quite clearly that if we reject this offer to be alive in Christ – even after having grown up in the church – if we reject this offer of eternal life, then he will accept our rejection and we will not experience that eternal life. This is serious news that can cause some people to panic, and worry, and wonder if they can easily and simply lose their salvation. We have all heard stories about people growing up in particularly legalistic traditions who panic over every mistake they make as if in making a mistake they somehow lose their right to be called children of God. That fear is a terrible place to be in. The final line of our saying here is to lay that fear to rest. Paul is saying yes, if we deny Christ, he will deny us (2 Timothy 2:12; cf. TSA doc. 9) but he is also letting us know that we cannot accidentally trip up and lose our salvation. One sinful mistake on our part will not negate the holiness of God and the salvation that He has already provided for us. Prominent theologian James D.G. Dunn, referring to the apparent differences in these two verses, puts it this way: “The point is presumably that the two lines serve different purposes: the first to warn the casual and to stiffen the resolve of the frightened, the second to comfort the broken and to give renewed hope to the despairing.”[8]

So this is important then for us as Christians, as believers, as followers of the Truth and as of followers of the one true God. We can have comfort, like Paul tells us in Verse 13 that even if we mess up God is still faithful; so don’t worry about it because it is only if, Verse 12, we completely disown Christ that he will disown us; so then we should be encouraged for as we endure all that the enemy and this world throws at us for our faith in Christ, as we endure all that we suffer for the Kingdom and for our faith in Christ, as we suffer with Christ then we will most certainly reign with him not only forever at some future time but also for now because, Verse 11, if we have died to sin, if we died with him, then we will most certainly live and reign with him both for now and for evermore.

Let us pray.

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[1] Johnny Hart, I Did It His Way – A collection of B.C. Religious comic strips by Johnny Hart. (Ed. Ariel Faulkner; Nashville: Thomas Nelson: 2009)

[2] Most commentators agree but cf. R.C.H Lenski, Interpretation of 2 Timothy, (Interpretation of Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, Philemon: Minneapolis, Minn.: Augsburg Publishing House, 1964), 792.

^[3] Donald Guthrie, Pastoral Epistles: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1990 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 14), S. 162

[4] Ralph Earle, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:2 Timothy/Exposition of 2 Timothy/V. Suffering and Glory (2:8-13), Book Version: 4.0.2

[5] Captain Michael Ramsay, 2 Timothy 1:12: Learn To Suffer. Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army 23 October 2011. Available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2011/10/2-timothy-112-learn-to-suffer.html
[5a] Walter Bauder, The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology,1:607-608. I. Howard Marshall, piptō, to fall (Romans 11:11, 22; 1 Corinthians 10:12; Hebrews 4:11); parapiptō, to fall away, transgress (Hebrews 6:6), pararrheō, to drift away (Hebrews 2:1); and skandalizō/skandalon, to stumble, offend (John 6:61; 16:1) are also expressions connected to the concept of apostasy (Kept by the Power of God, 217, note 4).

[6] See Hebrews 2:1-3; 3:12-14; 4:1,11; 10:23; 13:9; Colossians 1:22,23; 2:6-8; 2 Timothy 1:13; 1 John 2:4-6; Re. the possibility of apostasy, see John 15:1-6; Acts 8:12-24; Romans 6:12-18; 8:12-17; Galatians 5:1-4; 6:7-9; 1 Corinthians 9:25-10:12; 1 Timothy 1:18-20; 5:8; 2 Timothy 2:16-18; Hebrews 3:6,11-14; 4:9,11; 6:4-8; 10:26-31; 2 Peter 1:8-11; 2:20-22; For general verses on falling away: Romans 16:17; Galatians 1:6-9; Colossians 1:22,23; 2:7,8; 1 Thessalonians 5:14; 2 Thessalonians 2:15; 3:6,14,15; 1 Timothy 1:3-6; 4:1,6,7; 6:20,21; 2 Timothy 1:13; 4:1-5; Titus 1:13,14; 2:1; 3:9-11; Hebrews 2:1; 3:14; 10:23; 13:9; James 5:19,20; 1 John 2:4-6; 2 John 9-11; 2 Thessalonians 2:8; 1 Timothy 6:10; Matthew 15:9,13; 1 John 2:19.
[7] Walter W. Wessel and George W. Knight III, “2 Timothy Introduction” in NIV Study Bible (ed. Kenneth Barker; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002), 1882

[8] James D.G. Dunn, The 1st and 2nd Letter to Timothy and the Letter to Titus, (NIB XI: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 2000), 844.

2 Timothy 1:12: Learn To Suffer

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 23 Oct. 2011

By Captain Michael Ramsay

2 Timothy 1:12: That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.

Today’s message (sermon/homily/preach) on 2 Timothy 1:12 is entitled ‘Learn to Suffer’. ‘Learn to Suffer’ is motto of a Scottish Clan. Anyone know which clan? Clan Duncan: John Duncan, I did a little bit of research into your clan in preparing for today.

The Clan motto is ‘Learn to Suffer.’ Did you know that 2 of the early kings of Scotland were Duncans: One was Duncan I and do you know who was the other? Duncan II. Duncan I obtained the throne through murder and Duncan II lost it the same way. The Duncans would learn to suffer. The Duncans historically weren’t so good at choosing the winning side in important battles. They supported the victorious Robert the Bruce in his wars and received benefits from that. But later they supported Charles I, who was defeated, murdered and his country conquered by Cromwell’s Puritans. In supporting the losing side in this war, the Duncans would learn to suffer. They later supported Bonnie Prince Charlie in the Jacobite revolt and then they really learned to suffer, suffering all the consequences that come from launching an unsuccessful revolution. Most of the Duncan lands were even taken from their family. They indeed learned to suffer. And as Romans 5:3,4 says, I am sure it helped build their character.

Today we are looking at 2 Timothy 1:12: “That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.”

We are going to pull out a few things from this verse:

q       Paul, as he writes this letter is suffering in jail for the Gospel of Christ, wants us to learn to suffer properly;

q       He is not ashamed of the gospel or his suffering because he knows Christ; nor should we be ashamed as we know Christ;

q       Christ is able to take care of, to guard everything Paul and we entrust to him.

1) Christ is able to take care of, to guard everything Paul and we entrust to him.

Paul has given up his whole life to follow Jesus. Much of his life as a Christian, Paul actually spends in jail for the gospel of Christ. He learns to suffer. We said last week that Paul would die in prison but even still and especially because of this then he trusts God and Christ with everything because Christ is able to guard whatever we give over to him to guard. When I think of that sentiment of Christ as a guard, I am reminded of a parable Jesus told. Last Halloween, I preached on the parable of the Haunted House.[1] Luke 11:24-26: “When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first.” The house is haunted by more demons than it was in the first place (Cf. TSA doc. 9).

But, Luke 11, Verses 21-22, “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe. But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armour in which the man trusted and divides up the spoils (Luke 11:21-22; cf. Matthew 12:29, Mark 3:27)”

Jesus is the strongest strongman. He is absolutely able to guard what we have entrusted to him. Jesus is stronger than anyone else and he is the only one who can guard what we have entrusted to him – even our very lives for now and forever.[2] Everyone and everything else can be over-powered by evil, others, and/or ourselves but Christ is able to guard whatever we have entrusted to him for that day.

2) Paul is not ashamed of the gospel or his suffering because he knows Christ; we should not be ashamed for we know Christ.

In Romans 1:16, Paul uses this same phrase declaring that he is ‘not ashamed of the gospel’.[3] It is likely that there is a connection with what Paul is saying here to Jesus’ claims that if one is ashamed of Jesus, then the “Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory (Mark 8:38; Luke 9:26; cf. also Psalms 31:1-3; 71:1-2; 143:1).” Paul, in 2 Timothy 1:8, says that we should not be ashamed to suffer for the gospel. We must learn to suffer for the gospel. The word ‘gospel’ is a rendering of the Greek word euangelion, which means ‘good news’ or ‘good message’ (cf. Isaiah 40:9, 52:7). “The gospel is not merely the initial proclamation of Christ which wins converts, but is the whole Christian message”[4] (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:6, 23). And For Paul, “the gospel was the sovereign message, from none other than God, concerning Jesus the Messiah, God’s unique Son…[It is] news that Jesus had become the spearhead of God’s ‘age to come;’ news that, within this new age, the principalities and powers…and sin and death themselves had been defeated and were now summoned to allegiance.”[5] This is exciting. This is something that we should not be ashamed of; rather we should yell this from the rooftops. Even as we must suffer for the gospel, we must not be ashamed of the gospel. Point 2, Paul is not ashamed of the gospel or his suffering for it because he knows Christ; we should not be ashamed of the gospel for we know Christ. This brings us to our main point for today, point 3.

3) Paul as he writes this letter is suffering in jail for the Gospel of Christ and as our suffering will come, he wants us to learn to suffer properly.

2 Timothy 1:8: “So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner. Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God.” Clan Duncan says ‘learn to suffer’.

The Apostle Paul says ‘join me in suffering’.

Paul is not only warning Timothy and the Ephesians here about the imprisonment, persecution, and suffering that he is experiencing but he is also encouraging Timothy to suffer and ultimately he is encouraging us all to join him in suffering for the gospel.[6]

Not only are we to endure our suffering but also Paul says elsewhere that we are to rejoice and even boast in our suffering (Romans 5:3,4 cf. Philippians 2:17; 1 Peter 4:6, 4:13). 1 Thessalonians 5:18 states that we are even to give thanks in all circumstances (cf. Philippians 4:11) and Paul in Philippians 4:4 says, ‘Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice.’

So this is important: we aren’t supposed to lick our wounds when we suffer for doing the Lord’s work but we are to rejoice.

Paul, in Romans 5:3,4 says that we should rejoice in our suffering because - if indeed our suffering is for the gospel of which Paul is not ashamed (2 Timothy 1:8, Romans 1:16) then our suffering will produce perseverance and you know what perseverance is good for right? It gives us the ability to get through more suffering and difficult times and you know why God gives us that ability to get through more suffering and difficult times, because we’ve got more difficult times to get through still. So as we rejoice in our perseverance through suffering; we can rejoice because in this we will be ready for the even more difficult times that are still to come.[7] We must rejoice in the Lord as we learn to suffer for Him.

I have shared some of our story here before about the suffering we saw and experienced for the gospel when we were serving in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and other places and times that I will not go into again today. Even here, in Swift Current suffering may not be so obvious but when you serve the Lord, suffering is waiting for you; so, like the Duncans’ motto says ‘learn to suffer’ and like the Apostle Paul says, 2 Timothy 1:11,12a “… of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. That is why I am suffering as I am...” So, 2 Timothy 1:8, “join with me in suffering[8] for the gospel, by the power of God.”

I have a lesson from history for us to remember today about suffering for the gospel:[9]

In the 1800s, the Hawaiian Islands suffered a severe leprosy epidemic, which was dealt with largely by isolating lepers on the island of Molokai. They were simply dumped there and left to fend for themselves. The crews of the boats carrying them there were afraid to land, so they simply came in close and forced the lepers to jump overboard and scramble through the surf as best they could. Ashore, they found no law and no organized society, simply desperate persons waiting for death. A Belgian missionary priest, Joseph Van Veuster (Damien of the Fathers of the Sacred Heart), …came to Hawaii in 1863, and in 1873 was sent at his own request to Molokai to work among the lepers.

We all know what leprosy is, right? It is a terrible disease, whereby you lose feeling in parts of your body, penultimately you can even lose body parts and ultimately you die. Apologist and Philosopher, Ravi Zacharias, tells us this story about the Missionary Priest, Damien: [10]

One morning before he was to lead their daily worship [for the lepers], he poured some boiling water into a cup when it swirled out and fell on his bare foot. It took him a moment to realize that he had not felt any sensation. Gripped by the sudden fear of what this could mean, he poured more water on the same spot. No feeling whatsoever. Damien immediately knew what had happened. He walked tearfully to deliver his sermon, and no one at first noticed the difference in his opening line. You see, he normally greeted them, “My fellow believers.” But this morning he began with, “My fellow lepers.”

Darren Provine tells us what God did through Damien:[11]

[Damien] He was fully aware, in the words of the prophet Isaiah, that it would be His Father’s will to crush Him. Still, he came. He organized burial details and funeral services, so that death might have some dignity. He taught the people how to grow crops and feed themselves better. He organized a choir, and got persons to sing who had not sung in years. He gave them medical attention. (Government doctors had been making regular visits, but they were afraid of contagion, and would not come close to the patients. They inspected their sores from a distance and then left medicines on a table and fled. Damien personally washed and anointed and bandaged their sores.) There was already a small chapel on the island. It proved too small [with what the Lord was doing through Damien], and with the aid of patients he built a larger one, which soon overflowed every Sunday. Damien …continued to work there until his death on 15 April 1889.

Ravi concludes his thoughts about Damien, thusly; he says:

Think of the cost! It is one thing to minister and pour your life into others when distance remains between the minister and the receiver. It is quite another when sacrifice closes that distance in painful relief. In the greatest condescension imaginable, Jesus came into this world knowing what obedience to the Father would cost Him.

Jesus, Himself, was the suffering Saviour. He died via state execution, on the cross, for us. Jesus suffered and died for us. Peter, Paul, and the other apostles, tradition has it all suffered and, save John -who actually lived through an attempt to boil him alive- tradition has it that they all accepted their martyr’s crown. Paul -in this letter to Timothy and to the church there in Ephesus- encourages us all to this same resolve. Paul was not sad in his suffering for this gospel, this good news, this good message that Jesus defeated death and sin between the cross and the empty tomb so that we can all live holy lives wholly dedicated to him is glorious news indeed (TSA doc. 10). ^[12]  Even if we fall asleep before Christ returns we don’t have to worry as long as we faithfully serve the Lord, “For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him need not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Whatever we have to suffer on this earth and many, like the Apostle Paul in Rome and like the Missionary Priest Damien in Hawaii, like many, have suffered much; whatever suffering we must bear pales in comparison to the joy that will be experienced by us, the joy experienced by those whose lives we touch when they experience God’s salvation and the joy felt by God Himself, as He rejoices over every sinner saved. In our suffering, let us rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice. For that is why I am suffering as I am. And I am not ashamed because I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.

Let us pray. 

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[1] Captain Michael Ramsay,  Luke 11:14-28 (Matthew 12:25-29, Mark 3:23-30): The Parable of the Haunted House. Presented to the Swift Current Corps 31 October 2010. Available on-line:  http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2010/10/luke-1114-28-matthew-1225-29-parable-of.html

[2] Cf. James D.G. Dunn, The 1st and 2nd Letter to Timothy and the Letter to Titus, (NIB XI: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 2000), 837.

[3] W.E Vines, “I am not ashamed”, in Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Word Vol. IV. (Nashville, Tennessee: Royal Publishers Inc., 1939), p. 292.

[4] James D.G. Dunn, Romans 1-8 (WBC 38A: Word Books: Dallas, Texas, 1988), p. 47; cf. Donald Guthrie,: Pastoral Epistles: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1990 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 14), S. 145

[5] N.T. Wright, The Letter to the Romans (NIB 10: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1995), p. 427.

[6] Captain Michael Ramsay, Romans 5:3,4: Hope and an Angel on the Downtown Eastside. Presented to Nipawin and Tisdale Corps on April 20, 2008 and Swift Current Corps on August 09, 2009. Available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/04/romans-534-hope-and-angel-on-downtown.html

[7] Cf. RCH Lenski, St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, p. 338.

[8] Ralph Earle, The Expositor's Bible Commentary,  Pradis CD-ROM:2 Timothy/Exposition of 2 Timothy/III. Suffering for the Gospel (1:8-18)/A. Plea to Timothy (1:8), Book Version: 4.0.2: "Join with me in suffering"—all one word, synkakopatheson (only here and in 2:3). It is compounded of patheo, "suffer"; kakos, "bad"; and syn, "together." So it means "bear evil treatment along with," "take one's share of ill-treatment" (A-S).

[9] Darren Provine, Damien, Priest, Missionary, and Martyr 15 April 1889, (Rowan University: Cited 20 October 2011) Available on-line: http://elvis10.rowan.edu/~kilroy/jek/04/15.html

[10] Ravi Zacharias, The Price of Sacrifice, Monday, August 14, 2000: http://www.rzim.org/resources/read/asliceofinfinity/todaysslice.aspx?aid=9131

[11] Darren Provine, Damien, Priest, Missionary, and Martyr 15 April 1889, (Rowan University: Cited 20 October 2011) Available on-line: http://elvis10.rowan.edu/~kilroy/jek/04/15.html

^[12] cf. Donald Guthrie, Pastoral Epistles: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1990 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 14), S. 146: God has called us to a holy life because he himself is holy. His activities partake of his own character. The same idea is found in 1 Thessalonians 4:7 where the call to holiness is set over against uncleanness.

2 Timothy 1:3: Let Us Pray

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 09 Oct. 2011

By Captain Michael Ramsay

2 Timothy 1:3: “I thank God, whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers.” I have a story here that Harvey put in my in-box about thanking God… or talking to Him anyway.

A golfer, now in his golden years, had a lifelong ambition to play one hole at the famous Pebble Beach in California, the same way the pros do it: The pros drive the ball out over the water straight onto the green that is on a spit of land that juts out off the coast. It was something he had tried hundreds of times without success. His ball always fell short, into the ocean. Because of this he never used a new ball on this particular hole. He always chose an old one with a cut or a nick in it.

      This one time when he came to Pebble Beach to try again and he arrived at that particular hole, he teed up an old, cut up ball and said a silent prayer. As he was about to strike the ball a loud voice from the heavens says, “Wait! Replace that old ball with a brand new ball.”

      The old golfer did but he still had some misgivings. He still lacked faith a little bit that he would ever see his ball again despite the fact that the Lord seemed to be implying that he was going to finally achieve his life-long ambition of avoiding this water trap, just like the pros. Hesitantly, the old golfer stepped up to the tee one more time, this time with a brand new ball and as he did, he heard the voice again from above: “Wait. Step back. Take a practice swing.” He did.

      The voice boomed again, “Take another practice swing.” He did. Then, after a moment of silence, the Lord finally said, “put the old ball back on the tee.”

2 Timothy 1:3: “I thank God, whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers.” Here the golfer can thank God that He spared him his new golf ball.

We are going to be looking at the book of 2 Timothy in our lead up to the Advent Season this year. Assuming Pauline authorship,[1] Paul probably wrote this letters while he was in prison in Rome under Emperor Nero in the mid-60s CE. Now, this imprisonment was different than other imprisonments that Paul had suffered. Previously Paul was under house arrest – an electronic monitoring type of situation, albeit before electronics of course - where Paul had a fair bit of leniency in his imprisonment. Now, however, he is in a dungeon. Tradition has it that this is Paul’s final imprisonment as well. He will only leave the dungeon for the grave. Paul will die via capital punishment here in Rome and he is now in prison awaiting that conclusion.[2] The conditions in the dungeon were probably not as bad as those for the people today trapped in Guantanamo Bay – I doubt that the Romans were actively torturing him like today’s paramount superpower is doing down in Cuba - but Paul’s experience may not be entirely dissimilar and probably even worse than prisons in this country. It certainly is not the house arrest that Paul had experienced earlier.[3] This is a new style of imprisonment for Paul and this is what life is like for Paul as he is writing this letter to his friends and church family.

In his letter, one can see that Paul is obviously lonely. He misses his church family (2 Timothy 1:4). (Does anyone remember where this church is located that is receiving the letter? Ephesus.) He is remembering in this letter his church family in Ephesus,[4] especially Timothy and Timothy’s mother, Eunice; and Timothy’s grandmother, Lois (2 Timothy 1:5). Paul wants to see them again. He misses them. And we here in this congregation today understand a little bit of what it means to be missing people, who are serving God elsewhere, don’t we? Dusty and Laurie and their children have gone off to Training College in Winnipeg to serve God, the Kingdom, and the Army; leaving behind family, church family, jobs, and friends. Jessica and Alyssia have gone off to the big city. Jessica is going to University, and she, as well as friends and church family, is leaving behind her younger sisters with whom she is very close. Julie Arnold has gone out from us preparing for her own missionary journey to Indonesia. (Hopefully she isn’t offered her martyr’s crown like Paul was! I have confidence she wouldn’t decline it.) As a congregation, between Dusty and Laurie, Jessica and Alyssia, and Julie, many of us also have that same longing today that 2000 years ago this church in Ephesus, Timothy, his mother, and his grandmother would have for Paul as Paul is away from them serving the Lord. Paul, as he expresses his loneliness in this letter, is in all likelihood having feelings not entirely dissimilar to the feelings experienced by those who have left us to proclaim the Gospel (cf. Romans 1:11; 1 Thessalonians 3:6 and Philippians 1:8). We are separated from those we love and with whom we have together served the Lord.

The youth here have recently just written letters of encouragement to those who have gone out from us. Julie sends us regular updates as she prepares to share the Good News in Indonesia. Paul, the apostle, is reaching out in this letter to his friends and church family and look: what is one of the first things that he tells them? He says, “I thank God, whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers” (2 Timothy 1:3).

Paul says that he thanks God day and night as he constantly remembers them. The Authorized Version reads, “without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day.” Without ceasing (Greek: adialeipton) Paul remembers his Christian brothers and sisters in his prayers (cf. Romans 1:9-10; Philippians 1:3; Colossians 1:31; Thessalonians 1:2; 3:6). While this sentiment is prevalent in the New Testament, The Greek word used here, adialeiptos (unceasingly), is a powerful word and is found elsewhere in Paul’s writings only in Romans 9:2 (cf. Romans 1:9-10; Philippians 1:3; Colossians 1:31; Thessalonians 1:2; 3:6).[5] Paul in this letter is saying that whenever – day or night - the Lord brings Timothy, Eunice and Lois to his mind, Paul prays for them.[6]

Paul knows the power of prayer. Paul in another letter to this same church in Ephesus states about prayer that after we have put on the full amour of God that we are to – Ephesians 6:18-  “…pray in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.”

Prayer is a powerful thing and even when Paul is imprisoned, he still has access to this power of prayer and he is not afraid to use it. 2 Timothy 1:7: “for God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love, and of self-discipline.” 2 Timothy 1:3: “I thank God, whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers.”

This is important for us to remember. We need to constantly remember our Christian brothers and sisters in prayer. We have, of course, those like Dusty and Laurie and Julie Arnold whom the Lord has called away to serve him elsewhere. We should continue to uphold them in prayer. We should also pray for all the saints, as Ephesians 6:18 records.

We all know what the Bible means when we read the word ‘saint’ in the New Testament, right? In the New Testament a saint is NOT a dead person through whom God does miracles. ‘Saint’, when we read the term in the New Testament just means, ‘Christian’.[7] The word literally means ‘holy’ or ‘holy one’ and as the word ‘Christian’ is only used a handful of times, ‘saint’ was what Christians were commonly called in the first century (cf. TSA doc. 10).[8] When we read the word ‘saint’ in the New Testament, in our mind we should probably hear the word, ‘Christian’. We should pray for all the Christians and we should, like Paul, pray for people without ceasing day and night, whenever the Lord brings them to our thoughts (cf. for ex. Acts 9, Romans 15, 1 Corinthians 16, Philippians 4:21-22, Colossians 1).

When Susan and I were urban missionaries in Canada’s poorest postal code, on Vancouver’s downtown eastside (DTES), with The Salvation Army’s 614 Corps, they began a War Room there. The War Room was our prayer room. We had a room in a slum hotel that looked out on that infamous corner of Main and Hastings Street in the DTES of Vancouver. There were people praying in that room overlooking that intersection, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for more than a year anyway. We would each sign up for 3-hour shifts of prayer in the War Room. I often took the 5am – 8am shift. At first a 3-hour prayer shift seemed like a long time but by the end of each shift one inevitably wondered how the time passed so quickly. It was a wonderful time and place to commune with God. Some would take one prayer shift in the War Room a week, others one shift a day, others sometimes more. Twenty-four hours a day, morning and evening, day and night, someone would be praying in that War Room in that slum hotel on Vancouver’s DTES and wow what a blessing that was. 2 Timothy 1:3: “I thank God, whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers.”

Like we said before, prayer is a powerful tool and even when Paul is imprisoned, he still has access to this power of prayer and he is not afraid to use it. 2 Timothy 1:7: “for God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love, and of self-discipline.” The Apostle Paul when he was in a dungeon awaiting execution, with a clear conscience, day and night would remember the saints in prayer. Paul, while he was in the dungeon, he was praying for the saints, the Christians, the other believers. Paul, while he was in jail awaiting execution, was praying for all those on the outside that the Lord was bringing to his mind.

This is important. We need to uphold each other in prayer. There are many things that need prayer. It is good to pray that in our own lives, that we follow the will of God and it is also important to pray for others. We mentioned those who have gone out from us here into the mission field, God will use our prayers to use them to do His will. Another member of the congregation here shared her testimony this week. As we pray for her, God will use our prayers to use her to do His will. We have members of our corps who have been sick and or on leave; as we pray for them, God will use our prayers to use them to do His will. Prayer is a powerful tool and the church that prays together stays together. Prayer is a powerful tool and we should not be afraid to use it. Richard and any others who can gather every week in the meeting room before church pray for the saints and the community. Ray comes into my office all the time to say prayers, as he also visits other people here and around town praying with them and for them. Prayer is a powerful tool and we should not be afraid to use it.

We have all heard of, if we have not experienced ourselves, the power of prayer for salvation in people’s lives. How many people have we led in a prayer of confession of faith after family has been praying for them for years? We know the story of St. Augustine, of course; this was his story. His mother, St. Monica, prayed for him for many years before he came to the Lord and then the Lord used him to influence the church even unto this very day. Prayer is a powerful tool and we are to use it to uphold our Christian brothers and sisters day and night as the Lord brings them to our minds. This is important. We need to pray for each other.

Susan shared with us earlier, that General Linda Bond, the international leader of The Salvation Army has called us all to pray as an Army. She has asked us to pray Thursday mornings for half an hour from 5am – 8am. Susan, recognizing that mornings are not necessarily the best time for each of us, has created a 24-hr prayer sign up sheet for Thursdays. The shifts are only ½ hour long, not the 3-hour shifts we had in Vancouver but you can string together more than one shift if you would like to pray longer. It is our goal that everyone here in our congregation, would sign up for at least one 30-minute shift every Thursday. You are welcome to pray here when the building is open or you are welcome to pray in your home or you are welcome to pray wherever the Lord leads you to pray. I have left the sheets on the altar. I encourage us each to sign up for at least one ½ hour shift for each Thursday from now until Christmas. Let us here, as a church family, like Paul, let us, 2 Timothy 1:3, thank God, whom we serve, as our forefathers did, with a clear conscience, as night and day we constantly remember each other in our prayers.

Let us pray.

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[1] But cf. James D.G. Dunn, The 1st and 2nd Letter to Timothy and the Letter to Titus, (NIB XI: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 2000), 776-781 on authorship and date.

[2] R.C.H Lenski, Interpretation of 1 Timothy, (Interpretation of Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, Philemon: Minneapolis, Minn.: Augsburg Publishing House, 1964),474.

[3] Walter W. Wessel and George W. Knight III, Introduction to 2 Timothy in NIV Study Bible (ed. Kenneth Barker; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002),1882

[4] James D.G. Dunn, The 1st and 2nd Letter to Timothy and the Letter to Titus, (NIB XI: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 2000), 781.

[5] Donald, Guthrie: Pastoral Epistles: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1990 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 14), S. 140

[6] W.E. Vine. ‘That without Ceasing’. In Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Word. (Nashville, Tennessee: Royal Publishers Inc., 1939),; cf. Expositors

[7] Cf. The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, ‘40: Hagios’ (Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson Publishing, 1995), p.1.

[8] John D.W. Watts. 'Holy.' In Holman Bible Dictionary, general editor Trent C. Butler. Nashville, Tennesee: Holman Bible Publishers, 1991), 660. Cf. G.B. Stevens in Hastings’ Bible Dictionary. Cited W.E. Vine. 'Holiness, Holy, Holily.' In Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Word. (Nashville, Tennessee: Royal Publishers Inc., 1939), 557.Cf. Paul Minear, Interpretation 37 no 1 Ja 1983, p. 22: In his death and resurrection, Jesus' holiness or sanctification became the measure and standard of all holiness, whether of places, times, things, or persons. (Key passages which reflect this are John 10:36; 17:17-19; I Cor. 1:2; 6:11; Heb. 2:11; 10:10; 12:14-24; 13:12-14.)"

Deuteronomy 8: The Next Generation Thanks The Lord.

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army
Thanksgiving Sunday, 09 October 2011
By Captain Michael Ramsay

Today in Deuteronomy we are dealing with Exodus: the Next Generation; the children of the children of Israel whom God delivered out of Egypt. In our text today, we are getting close to the point where they have the opportunity to cross into the Promised Land. We read last week how their parents’ generation about 40 years before came passed this same spot in the wilderness and beyond. They were on the precipice of the Promised Land where they could eat, be satisfied and be saved from their desert wanderings but they rejected God’s salvation and so they spent the next 40 years wandering around the wilderness. These were the parents of this generation before us today in Deuteronomy 8 today. They rejected God’s promise and so died outside of God’s promise (Deuteronomy 2:19-46, Numbers 14, Hebrews 4). They have now passed on. Their leader, Moses, himself, has only has a few months left to live. And most of this book of Deuteronomy is a collection of his last words to the Hebrews before he perishes along with the rest of this generation (and his children’s generation; Moses was 80 when he began the exodus from Egypt.) outside of the Promised Land.[1] This book is thus very important.

Chapter 8 reminds us of an important three-part truth that is important for us on this Thanksgiving Sunday. God, through Moses, in his speech here reminds the Israelites that:

1)      Deuteronomy 8:3 – Because He loves you, God hungered you causing you to rely on Him but

2)      Deuteronomy 8:10-11 – You are now about to enter a time of abundance; so give thanks to the Lord because

3)      Deuteronomy 8:19-20 – forgetting the Lord will result in your destruction

1) Because He loves you, God hungered you causing you to rely on Him

Moses is reminding and underscoring for the people of Israel that in the desert, Deuteronomy 8:3: “[God] He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD” (cf. Matthew 4:4, Luke 4:4).

We remember what Moses is talking about here, right? God loves the Hebrews but the people of Israel had grown proud. They were selfish. They weren’t thankful. They were focusing not on serving the Lord, instead they were concentrating on themselves and their own ability (Deuteronomy 2:19-46, Deuteronomy 9:7-29, Numbers 14, Hebrews 4). We remember that shortly after the Hebrews left Egypt, they already began complaining and on more than one occasion they wanted to turn their back on God and turn back to Egypt. It got so bad that they even began to glorify, in their own minds, the slavery under which they suffered. As we read last week in Numbers 14, when they arrive at the land that God had promised to give them, instead of simply following God into this land, they are fearful and reject Him and Moses and Aaron and they even threaten to kill them, choose new leaders and head back to Egypt (Numbers 14:4,10).[2] God intervenes and so the disobedient Israelites decide that they will go into the Promised Land after all but –as disobedient as they are- they decide to do this without God. They try and obtain their salvation on their own. And it is a result of that generation’s rejection of God that they all perish outside of His promise.

The good news here is that even though this generation rejects God’s promise and as a result of their faithlessness dies in the wilderness, God still keeps His promise of salvation for the children of these children of Israel and for the whole world (John 3:16-18). God still provides salvation penultimately for the next generation of Hebrews and ultimately for the whole world through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (cf. Genesis 12:1-3, 15:1-7; 2 Samuel 7).

We have a very interesting situation before us in our text today though. This next generation that God, through Moses, is speaking to in our text today. They have been wandering around the desert. They have grown up in the wilderness where food is scarce; water is scarce. They are nomadic. They do not have all of the luxuries of a settled people. They can’t just run down to the 7/11 in the middle of the night and pick up drink boxes for their kids lunches in the morning. The Hebrews are wandering around the desert following God through His angel in a pillar of cloud by day and a tongue of fire by night. When the wheels break off their carts, they can’t call the Automobile Association to come and help them. They are nomadic: they have no shop buildings, no convenience stores, nothing; they have nothing but God.[3]

God was testing them and God was teaching them, Hebrews 8:3, “that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.” As this next generation of Hebrews followed God around the desert, He provided for them. Even their clothes - it says in verse 4 - did not wear out and their feet did not swell during this time following God around the desert. God provided for them in the desert. When they had nothing, God provided for them Deuteronomy 8:15,16:

He led you through the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you.

 Even though one generation of the Israelites were faithless, that did not nullify the faithfulness of God (Romans 3:3,4). God provided this desert experience for them and their children as a means to their salvation. God, through Moses here, is reminding the people not to forget this: in the desert, God and God alone provided for them, preparing them to receive this Promised Land.   This brings us to point 2.

2) You are now about to enter a time of abundance so give thanks to the Lord.

Israel, the next generation here should definitely give thanks to the Lord. It is God who is providing for them in the desert when they have nothing and they are thankful. It is God also who will provide for them in Canaan when they have something. They need to remember this. In their abundance, they need to remember to celebrate their thanksgiving to God. God, through Moses, says that in the Promised Land, Deuteronomy 8:10-14:

When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

This is important. This is all too common. Last week, as well as looking at Numbers 14, we examined Judges 4. The book of Judges again and again repeats a similar refrain to Judges 2:10-11, “After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD…” The very next generation after God delivers his people into the salvation of the Promised Land, instead of thanking God for all that He is providing, they reject Him but even then God is still gracious enough to hand them over to their enemies so that they will return to Him. But alas when things start going well for them again they again forget that all that abundance comes from the Lord and they reject Him again.

Deuteronomy 8:12-14: ‘…when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God…’

Canada was founded upon the Word of God. O Canada is a hymn that can be found in many Canadian hymnals complete with a second verse offering praise to the Lord. After the horrors of the 18 Century’s Atheist (or Deist) Revolutions,[4] Sir Samuel Leonard Tilley insisted that Canada be founded on the Word of God. Our motto, A Mari usque ad Mare, is based on Psalm 72 and it declares that God shall have dominion in this land from sea to sea.  In 1879, Canada officially legislated a day of Thanksgiving to the Lord and in a generation previous to our current one, on Thursday, January 31, 1957, the Canadian Parliament specifically proclaimed: “A Day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed.” Our forefathers and mothers have given thanks to our Lord in this country for what He has done and for what He has provided.

We need to continue to do so but I fear that now, like with the Israelites when they settled in the Promised Land, another generation is growing up who neither knows the Lord nor what He has done in Canada. God has allowed Canada to become one of the most prosperous countries in the history of the earth but, instead of thanking Him for this, we seem to have forgotten this and we seem to have forgotten Him.

God’s Name and the Gideon Bibles are quickly being removed from our schools. The Lord’s Prayer that was spoken in the schools in my memory, even in secular British Columbia, is no more. I was teaching in the schools when we were instructed to remove all reference to Christ and even all reference to Christmas. We needed to refer to the Christmas time as a winter festival or something like that. Even in our time in Saskatchewan in recent years, I have responded to people who have publicly called for Jesus’ name to be deleted from Remembrance Day ceremonies[5] and when Susan was conducting a service in the Tisdale hospital a few years ago, they handed her all their Bibles and said, ‘we don’t need these anymore.’

Deuteronomy 8:12-14: ‘…when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God…’

3) Forgetting the Lord will result in destruction

Deuteronomy 8:19-20: “If you ever forget the LORD your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. Like the nations the LORD destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the LORD your God.”

Israel was no more immune to destruction and being removed from the Promised Land than were the people’s God had there before them (Cf. Amos 3:2).[6] There is a very important passage in Genesis to which the author of Deuteronomy is referring: it is the covenant ceremony whereby God ratifies His covenant with Abraham that

a)      all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him (Genesis 12:1-3); and that

b)     Israel will (for a time anyway) occupy this Promised Land (Genesis 15:17-21)

Genesis 15:13-16 records one reason why the land promised to Abraham’s descendants by God is not given to Abraham in his lifetime. This is because God is extending four hundred years of mercy to the current inhabitants of the land. As the Amorites don’t shape up in this 400-year grace period that God is giving them then God will take this land away from them and give it to the descendants of Abraham. Our text today, like so many others in the Old Testament, is telling us that as the Israelites are unfaithful they too will be removed from the Promised Land (Leviticus 26; 2 Chronicles 36:20-21; Jeremiah 25:11-12, 29:10; Amos 3:1-2; cf. Lamentations 4; Ezekiel 21,22; Joel 1-2:10; cf. also Romans 6:23).[7] And as they were unfaithful, they were removed. Judah fell in 586 BCE. Israel fell in 721 BCE. The Israelite Kingdom never rose again.[8]

1)      Deuteronomy 8:3 – God hungered Israel causing them to rely on Him but

2)      Deuteronomy 8:10-11 – when they entered a time of abundance they forgot to give thanks to the Lord, indeed they forgot Him altogether and

3)      Deuteronomy 8:19-20 – that resulted in their destruction

This is sad but there is some good news. On this Thanksgiving Day today in Canada we can still give thanks and experience God’s blessing. In Canada there is still time to return to our Lord. As long as we exist as a nation there is still the opportunity for our nation to return to God. We, as Christians should do our best to help build God’s Kingdom here as it is in heaven. As long as we exist as a nation it is not too late, we can still return to the Lord and one good way to start doing this is to obey Canadian law and give thanks today to God Almighty for His bountiful provision (cf. TSA doc. 10).

We know that as far as Israel is concerned, their Messiah has come already. Jesus was their Messiah. Jesus was born, died, and rose from the grave. We know that there is even more good news than that too. We know that Jesus will come back and he will reign forever not only as King of the Jews but also as King of the whole world (cf. TSA doc. 6). We know that Jesus Christ is the Messiah of not only Israel but also Jesus Christ is the Messiah and the saviour of the whole world (John 3:16-18; cf. Revelation 21). There is no other saviour. We know that Jesus died and rose again fulfilling God’s promises to humanity and we know too that Jesus is coming back. This is certainly something for which we can all give thanks today: Jesus is coming back and he is coming back soon and when he does what a day of rejoicing that will be.

Let us pray.

http://www.sheepspeak.com/

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[1] Earl S. Kalland and Kenneth L. Baker, Note on Deuteronomy 1:1 in NIV Study Bible (ed. Kenneth Barker; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002), 244.

[2] Captain Michael Ramsay, Salvation, Take it or Leave it! Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 02 October 2011. Available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2011/09/judges-4-numbers-14-salvation-take-it.html

[3] Cf. J.A. Thompson,: Deuteronomy: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1974 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 5), S. 151

[4] Cf. Robespierre, Benjamin Franklin’s journals and Thomas Jefferson’s Bible that strips the Word of God of the miraculous among other evidence of the horrors of the Franco-American Revolutions, the reign of terror and ensuing wars.

[5] Cf. Captain Michael Ramsay, Not an Atheistic Society in Tisdale Recorder (November, 2011). Available on-line: http://www.sheepspeak.com./Not%20an%20atheistic%20society.htm

[6] Cf. Ronald E. Clements, The Book of Deuteronomy, (NIB II: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 1998), 355.

[7] Other reasons for their removal from the land include their contempt for Him, and their disrespect for the land (Leviticus 25:1-23), and the poor, the widow, the immigrant (Cf. Exodus 23:6,11, Leviticus 19:10,15, 23:22, 27:8, Deuteronomy 15:7, 15:11, 24:12-15, 1 Samuel 2:8, Psalms. 22:26, 34:6, 35:10, 82:3, Isaiah. 61:1, Ezekiel 16:49, 18:12, 22:29, Amos 2:7, 4:1, 5:11-12, 8:4-6, Zechariah 7:10.); and their disregard for His very important covenant (Cf. Genesis 12-17; Deuteronomy 4-26, 31; Leviticus 25:1-23; Jeremiah 52:4-27; Amos 3-4; Lamentations 4; Ezekiel 21,22; Joel 1-2:10). The people are removed from the land, just like the Lord told them they would be if they disregarded His covenant and they are removed for the period of time that God told them that they would be removed for disregarding His covenant (2 Chronicles 36:21; Jeremiah 25:11-12, 29:10). God told them that they would earn the loss their territorial inheritance if they continued to sin but they continued so they earned the wages of their sin (cf. Romans 6:23). They did. This was a traumatic time and it caused a lot of people to lose their faith and even their identity – the whole concept of the ‘missing tribes of Israel’ relates to the deportations starting with Assyria and some of these deportees’ descendants never did come back home. Cf. Donald E. Gowan, Amos. (NIB VII: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 1996), 347, 383.

[8] Cf. Thomas E. McComiskey, The Expositor's Bible Commentary,  Pradis CD-ROM:Amos/Introduction to Amos/Theological Values of Amos/The doctrine of election in Amos, Book Version: 4.0.2; cf. also Willy Schottroff, “To Perceive, To Know,” in Theological Lexicon of the Old Testament, Volume 3 eds. Ernst Jenni and Claus Westermann (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, 1997),516.