“Hold Fast to Your Faith”

II Timothy 1:8-13

8) Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God;

9) Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

10) But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel:

11) Whereunto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles.

12) For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.

13) Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.

Introduction:

A

ny time we don’t obey God, we are saying that we don’t believe Him. We already know that being creatures of the flesh, we are tied to our five senses. Therefore, if we can’t taste, smell, feel, hear, or see something, to us, it does not exist; it is not done.

It is a greater blessing than we will probably ever comprehend that because of Jesus, we are not limited by our five senses. The only thing necessary for our success is that we do what the Word says for us to do.

Main Thought

The Lord knows that it is difficult for Man to continue to believe Him when “things” don’t go “right.” This is why He admonishes us to “hold fast.” You see, He knows better than we what is necessary for us to make it to where He knows we can go. However, all too often, in a difficult situation, all that we see is the final result, as opposed to the journey of getting there. When it comes to us and our relationship with the Lord, or blessing lies in getting to the end, not necessarily in the end, itself.

As opposed to our seeing a problem and being moved to “fix it,” ourselves, the Lord’s point is that we learn to let the situations work for us by being still and allowing Him to take us through the experience. It is through this that our faith is tried and that we grow and develop. If we were shielded by God from all that is uncomfortable, we would fail to grow and develop, much as the butterfly would die if aided from his cocoon.

We have no evidence to support our feelings about and treatment of God. Even the example just given shows that all that the Lord does, He does that we might be strong. We can ignore the evidence and hold fast to our own conclusion, or we can be honest and admit that our problem is “us”—how we think, what we choose to believe, and by virtue of the fact of who we are—that we are selfish.

Those of us who will, must accept that our only victory will come through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Commonly called the Gospel, it is the only true “trinity,” for only these three things allow us to be transformed from what we are born into what the Lord requires.

There has never been an instant or time when the Lord has needed us to protect what belongs to Him. Considering how long He has been doing what He does, it is unlikely that there ever will be a time. So, since we belong to Him, there will never be a time that we should find ourselves attempting to take care of anything concerning ourselves. Without a doubt, many are “stopped in their tracks” from being saved because of forgetting that the person who existed before salvation no longer exists.

We all now how it feels when through no fault of our own, someone sets an expectation upon us over which we have no control. We need to put ourselves in “God’s shoes,” so to speak, and examine the false expectation that we set for Him. What is that expectation? That He should allow nothing adverse or unpleasant to come to us. That is Who He is and what He does—He “tests” His people that they might see where they really are in Him. If we were allowed to “stop” the test, we would not grow, nor would we reach anyone else with our testimony, and therefore, would be of no use to Him.

With all of our church-going and the “work” that we do for the church, we can give others false examples of what it means to actually “serve” the Lord. You see, we go to church, worship and thank Him, and get emotional. But, when we leave church and the emotional “high” wears off, what that is “lasting” have we really learned?

As long as we remain “tied up” in ourselves, we will never accept our blessing for what it is. Since “we (our flesh) can never be satisfied, we will look at what we have, then just as quickly, turn around and look at what we don’t have.

Because our flesh is consistent, specifically, consistently wrong, we have no choice but to allow it to die the death that it deserves. Every day, through every experience, we will keep it buried by “hold(ing) fast to (our) faith.” All that we need, we have been given—the assurance that the Lord has set up nothing that we might fail. The only thing left for us to do? Believe it!