Strengthened by Grace

February 11, 2024 Pastor Chris Oswald

Thesis Christians are strengthened to endure hardship not by minimizing difficulty or by viewing grace as mere forgiveness, but by mental discipline that remembers the cosmic, reigning Christ who secured unlimited grace at infinite cost and now rules with all authority.

Series

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Type

Expository

Tone

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Method

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What's in this sermon

The shape of the argument

27 units across exposition, application, illustration, theological claim, and conclusion. The pastor's argument is built from these moving parts.

Pastoral correction · unit #17

"Applies the mental discipline principle to specific Christian scenarios: quitting sin, entering difficult conversations, obeying in contested areas. The inner quitter will speak in each scenario; the believer must have counter-speech prepared—making cognitive preparation the practical means of grace."

Doctrinal loci· 11 surfaced

Sanctification · 15 Soteriology · 9 Christology · 7 Ecclesiology · 7 Eschatology · 4 Ethics / Moral Theology · 3 Anthropology · 1 Bibliology · 1 Hamartiology · 1 Providence / Sovereignty · 1 Spiritual Warfare · 1

Bible citations· 24

Illustrations· 1

personal story · unit #16 — Provides personal testimony illustrating the inner quitter phenomenon—the pastor's own experience of cognitive difference between walking (normal cognition) and running (quitter monopolizing thought) demonstrates the mental battle required for endurance.

Theological claims· 6

Understanding what grace actually is—God's riches at Christ's expense—is essential to being strengthened by it. unit #2
The common Christian error of equating grace with forgiveness prevents believers from understanding how grace can strengthen them, because an eraser cannot empower—grace must be more than forensic pardon to function as the apostle commands. unit #3
Each of the three vocations promises not merely suffering but ultimate glory proportionate to the endured hardship—the soldier receives a parade, the athlete a podium, the farmer a feast. unit #12
The method of being strengthened by grace is mental discipline—specifically, learning to quiet the inner quitter who resides not in the body but in the mind, making cognitive control the essential skill for endurance. unit #15
The most important and categorically superior mental discipline for accessing grace's strengthening power is to remember Jesus Christ—this single cognitive act is the 'sufficing source of abounding strength' for enduring all temptations and dangers. unit #20
The picture of Christ that Paul prescribes for strengthening believers facing suffering is not the gentle and lowly Jesus but the cosmic Christ—risen from the dead, seated at the Father's right hand, ruling over all principalities and powers until all enemies are subdued. unit #21

Quotations· 8

"grace, G R A C E stands for God's riches at Christ's expense" — John Stott (unit #2)

"the Expulsive Power of a New Affection" — Thomas Chalmers (unit #4)

"There are clear indications of the fact that it is not a mere passive quality, but also an active force, a power, something that labors" — Louis Berkhof (unit #5)

"No soldier comes to the war surrounded by luxuries unless you're in the air Force. No soldier comes to the war surrounded by luxuries, nor goes into action from a comfortable bedroom, but from the makeshift and narrow tent where every kind of hardness and severity and unpleasantness is to be found" — Tertullian (unit #9)

"The Christian should not expect an easy time. If he is loyal to the gospel, he is sure to experience opposition and ridicule. He must share in suffering with his comrades in arms" — John Stott (unit #9)

"The farmer lives a strenuous and a life of strain and prosaic toil... unlike the soldier and the athlete, the farmer's life is totally devoid of excitement, remote from all glamour of peril and of applause" — John Stott (unit #11)

"amid all the surrounding temptations, all the encompassing dangers, Paul bids Timothy to bear in mind, as the sufficing source of abounding strength, the great central doctrine, or rather let us say, the great central fact of his preaching, of his faith and of his life" — B.B. Warfield (unit #20)

"Paul bids Timothy, in the midst of all the besetting perplexities and dangers which encompassed him, to strengthen his heart by bearing constantly in remembrance not Jesus Christ's simplicitor, but Jesus Christ, conceived specifically as the Lord of the universe, who was dead, but now lives again and abides forever in the power of an endless life. As the royal seat of David ascended in triumph to his eternal throne" — B.B. Warfield (unit #22)

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0 · Establishes the controlling metaphor for the sermon—the self-contained breathing apparatus—to frame the disconnect between external circumstances and internal spiritual resources

It feels like almost every week when I come before you with a message, I have gone through at least one rabbit hole of obscure or esoteric ideas. And this week it wasn't so obscure or esoteric, it's just kind of weird. And that was self contained breathing apparatuses. This was my rabbit hole for this week. Self contained breathing apparatuses. So you've probably seen these in firefighting movies. This whole glass face shield that is connected to an oxygen tank on the back of a first responder. And they're encouraged to put these on before they even go into the building. And they train with these because they want to get used to trick. They want to get used to. They want the brain to get used to this idea that though they are in a smoky room, they are not breathing smoky air. That's a kind of a trick. The use of the thing isn't that hard. You put it on and breathe, which we should do naturally, of course, but the brain using the eyes and saying, you're in a smoky room, therefore you are breathing smoky air. And it takes this training process to learn how to bridge that gap in your own mind and understand, yes, I am in a smoky place, but I am breathing completely different air. Now, in the Christian life, we know that this is a thing. We know this from a verse like 2nd Corinthians 4, passage like in 2 Corinthians 4, where Paul says, though outwardly we are wasting away, inwardly we were being renewed day by day. There are a number of these passages that indicate that a person's circumstances isn't necessarily the same as the air they breathe, the spiritual air they breathe. And it really is just a process of learning to understand that that's a thing. And it takes some time. It takes some time to realize that God has provided for us even, even in the smokiest of circumstances, fresh, eternal air. And you can say that and you can know that, but you just gotta keep doing it until you realize, oh, this, this self contained breathing apparatus is really a thing. God really will strengthen me, he really will establish me, he really will give me the grace I need to endure whatever circumstance.

1 · Introduces the primary text and its central command—the imperative to be strengthened by grace—which will govern the entire sermon's argument

And that's what we see in our text today. Paul tells Timothy in verse one of chapter two, to be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

2 · Establishes the foundational definition of grace that will govern the entire exposition—grace is not merely forgiveness but God's riches secured at Christ's expense, a definition that opens grace beyond erasure to include empowerment

Now, one key, I think, to being strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus is to know what grace actually is. John Stott, I believe it was once said that grace, G R A C E stands for God's riches at Christ's expense. God's riches at Christ's expense. This is why Stott's a big deal and I'm not. That's brilliant. That's. So it's faithful. It's true. It's simple. Great. God's riches at Christ's expense.

3 · Identifies and refutes a common theological error—equating grace with forgiveness—that prevents believers from accessing grace's strengthening power

Now, this is a very helpful way of thinking about it because I believe that one of the common Christian misconceptions that keeps you from understanding the mask you have is I believe that a lot of Christians tend to equate grace with forgiveness. That those are two. Those are the same thing. That we tend to think of grace as an eraser that removes our guilt and establishes us before God as if we had never sinned. We tend to make grace and forgiveness synonymous. And then you would be like, well, how do I. How am I strengthened by grace if what grace is, is really just something that removes my sin? But the Bible actually teaches that those two things are not synonymous. Grace and forgiveness are not synonymous, but that we are saved, we are forgiven by grace, but not. Those aren't the same things. Okay, so I want to. I just want to take a moment because I believe that when you read this and Paul says, be strengthened by grace, if you don't really know what grace is or your understanding of grace is fairly limited, kind of be like, well, I don't know what kind of mask this is. I don't know what kind of breathing apparatus this is. How am I supposed to be perpetually strengthened by forgiveness? It seems like maybe there should be more to it. And there is.

4 · Provides a systematic theological exposition of grace's nature through three paradoxical qualities: expensive yet extensive (infinite cost producing infinite supply), undeserved prerogative (a birthright secured by Another), and expulsive-propulsive (displacing old affections while driving forward new obedience)

So let me just walk you through just a really quick kind of theological outline of the nature of grace. And a lot of it has this sense of almost tension or dichotomy. The first thing I communicate to you this morning about the nature of grace is that it is expensive, yet it is extensive. It is expensive, yet it is extensive. Let us make sure that we never believe that grace came to us cheaply. Grace is secured by the most precious resource in all of reality, namely the blood of Christ. Okay, so let's make sure we understand that grace isn't cheap. It costs a whole bunch. It costs the very death of Jesus Christ. Grace is expensive, but counterintuitively, it is also extensive. Typically when things are expensive, there's less, right? Typically when something is very precious, there's less of it, and that's what drives its preciousness. But let's make sure we understand on the one hand that grace is super expensive. All of God's riches at Christ's expense, and that expense was his own death. But it is also extensive. It isn't a small amount. Think of it this way. It is as if each drop of Christ's blood has secured its own ocean of grace. There's plenty of grace, even though it is extremely expensive. The next thing to think about, just as we're working through our brief theology of grace, another way to think about this is that it's an undeserved prerogative. It's an undeserved prerogative. The word prerogative means an exclusive privilege or right exercised by a person or group of people holding a particular office or hereditary rank. If you had a ticket to the super bowl, it is your right to go to the Super Bowl. If you have a VIP pass that lets you go on the field, it is your right to go onto the field. It is your prerogative. Grace is a right. Isn't that crazy? Grace is your prerogative if you're in Christ. And yet it is an undeserved prerogative. You didn't earn it the way that you talk about something like this, because it's kind of a complicated idea. It's like, well, how could something be a right, but I didn't earn it? Well, there's one category where this is true, and we use the term birthright to describe it. What is a birthright? Well, you were born into a certain family and have certain rights because of something that happened outside of your control. You didn't choose it, but it is yours. You didn't choose it, but it is your right. And so one of the things that we're starting to build here as we discuss this is Paul's telling Timothy, be strengthened by grace. And one of the things we want. We want to know is that grace has, is. It's unlimited. There's as much of it as we need. And because of our place in Christ, if you've placed your faith in Christ, it is your right by birth in Christ to call out for this unlimited grace. But I think, most importantly, as we think about grace, we need to understand that it is both expulsive and propulsive. Now, now, I want to be clear. I'm using weird words because I don't want you to be lulled into thinking you understand something that you may not. So I'm essentially choosing weird words to force you to think weirdly and hopefully more deeply. It is grace is both expulsive and propulsive. What do we mean by that? Well, perhaps you've heard the trick question if you had access to all the latest machinery in a sophisticated science lab, what would be the most effective way to get all the air out of a glass beaker? You had unlimited equipment, unlimited budget, and you had to get air out of a glass beaker. And it turns out that some of that's a bit of a red herring. The answer is that you just fill the beaker full of water, you fill the beaker full of something that is not air, and now all the air is out of the beaker. Well, that's what the word expulsion means. It means that it's replacing something else. There was an old Scottish theologian named Thomas Chalmers who's famous for preaching a sermon called the Expulsive Power of a New Affection, the expulsive power of a New Infection. What does he mean? Well, here's what he was doing. Here's what he was thinking about. It's like it is the human's natural preference for we have a human natural love for comfort. We have a human natural love for the things of this world. How do we get rid of that so that we can honor Christ and Chalmers answer is, we don't hook up a sophisticated lab and do all this stuff. We just fill our hearts with something else. And what is it that we fill our hearts with? We fill our hearts with the grace of God. The grace of God pushes out all of these other things.

5 · Connects the theological exposition of grace to the forthcoming exposition of the three vocations, establishing that only an empowering view of grace can make sense of the suffering-oriented Christian life Paul describes

This is important because we're going to go to the next section of the text here in a second, and we're going to see that the Christian life is described as three things. A soldier, an athlete, and a farmer. And as we'll see in a moment, all of those vocations require a fair amount of suffering on the front end. And it's like, well, how do I engage in the hardships of Christianity when my natural preference is to love comfort? Well, if your view of grace is simply that of a racer that gets you back to where you were before, then you don't need. Then your view of the Christian life is probably like the Christian life is me doing what I want and God forgiving me when I fail. But if your view of grace is. It's energetic, it's not just an eraser, it's a power. It pushes things out, it propels me forward. Then your sense of the Christian life is more in conformity with what Paul's talking about here, with the idea of the farmer and the athlete and the soldier. So grace is expulsive. It pushes out our old affections. But it's also propulsive. It moves us forward. Louis Berkhof in his Systematic Theology, goes through this entire kind of section on just all of the different ways that we can understand grace. And one of the things he says about grace is that it is a power. It is not simply an eraser. It's got an engine like quality to it. It doesn't simply get you back to where you were before you sinned. It moves you through life to obey God. And he says it this way. There are clear indications of the fact that it is not a mere passive quality, but also an active force, a power, something that labors.

6 · Provides biblical proof for the propulsive nature of grace by expositing Paul's testimony in 1 Corinthians 15:10, where grace is explicitly credited as the power behind strenuous labor, not merely the remover of past sin

And what would be a good text to show that? Well, in First Corinthians 15:10, Paul says this. By the grace of God, I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is within me. So let me just paraphrase that for you. By the grace of God, I am what I am. And one of the things I am is a hard worker. But it's not me who was doing the work. It's God's grace that was doing the work. See, this picture of grace isn't simply that it removes sin, but that actually drives you into positive action, into godly action.

7 · Exposes the unifying logic of the three vocations in verses 3-6: each commoditizes suffering as their primary competitive advantage, revealing that the normative Christian life requires enduring hardship as the pathway to glory, not the exception to it

Okay, now this is all important, as I said before, because the next section of our text describes a life that is not a life of ease. Look at verse three, Sharon's suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. It is the hard working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. So we have three occupations, and what do they all have in common? They essentially all invest in discomfort for the sake of future glory. They commoditize suffering. They sort of like, what's your business's primary asset? My ability to endure hardship. That would be the answer of the soldier, of the athlete and of the farmer. What's your primary sort of competitive advantage? As they say in business plans, my competitive advantage is I can endure suffering. And that's what these have in common. They're all pointing to what Jesus says in Matthew 16. If anyone wants to be my disciple, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.

8 · Breaks from exposition into direct shepherding, addressing cultural pressures toward easy Christianity and the temptation to use winsomeness as avoidance

Now, I have absolutely no idea how a megachurch, which essentially does one thing, convince you that the Christian life is easy. I have no Idea, except when it comes to giving. I have no idea how they handle farmer, athlete, soldier. It seems to me that you look at these professions and would have to say all of these professions indicate one thing to me about the Christian life. It's going to be hard. It's going to be hard. And now you can maybe begin to see why. I started with the self contained breathing apparatus. What kind of confidence do you have to have in your equipment in order to walk into the smoky room? Right. In order to walk into the hardship, you would have had to train so often with this self contained breathing apparatus that you know, you know that I can walk into this smoky room and this oxygen from somewhere else is what I'll really be breathing. It will keep me alive. Now, friends, we may or may not, depending on your particular opinion of things, be looking down the barrel of a more hostile culture to Christianity. If we would say that the Christianity has always been hard, we might say that in certain cultural conditions it gets much harder. And there can be this quiet intimidation that causes you to sort of embrace winsomeness for the sake of the gospel, which is really avoiding offending others so that you don't have to go into the smoky room. And the truth is, is that we're going to have to go. You might go in last, but you'll go too. And we need to have some confidence that the Lord of grace is there and he will strengthen us with his grace when we go into this particular hardship.

9 · Expounds the first vocation—the soldier—focusing on verse 4's prohibition against civilian entanglements

I don't want to spend a lot of time, you know, there's a lot of good stuff at the end of this passage. I want to make sure I get to. But let me just walk through soldier, athlete, farmer, and just communicate a few things. When we think of the soldier, one of the things we can think about is suffering as second nature. Suffering as second nature. You see that in verse four, Sharon's suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. Now, when we say suffering as a second nature, what do we mean? Well, that saying, that phrase is essentially someone who has sort of taken to a new environment. They're so familiar with it that they just kind of know how to do that without thinking about it. They've gotten quite used to it. That's what a soldier is when it comes to suffering. A soldier just assumes that suffering is part of the job. A soldier just gets used to suffering and just continues to do what he's supposed to do. When the text says no soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. I think in part what it means is that no soldier in the midst of suffering looks over into the civilian world and says, why can't I do that? A soldier simply says, this is who I am and it's my job to please he who enlisted me. You know, way, way, way, way back when Tertullian wrote an address to martyrs because the culture was heating up, persecution was looking more and more imminent. Tertullian says this. No soldier comes to the war surrounded by luxuries unless you're in the air Force. No soldier comes to the war surrounded by luxuries, nor goes into action from a comfortable bedroom, but from the makeshift and narrow tent where every kind of hardness and severity and unpleasantness is to be found. John Stott comments. The Christian should not expect an easy time. If he is loyal to the gospel, he is sure to experience opposition and ridicule. He must share in suffering with his comrades in arms.

10 · Expounds the second vocation—the athlete—focusing on verse 5's insistence on competing according to the rules

So one of the things that we see from these examples, the soldiers, is just a sort of second nature to suffering. This is just part of the deal. I'm not going to be looking over at the civilian wishing my life was different. This is part of what it means to be a soldier is to suffer. And now we get to the idea of athlete, and we can add to the second nature of suffering. We can add sort of the rejection of shortcuts. The rejection of shortcuts. Look at verse five. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. So we already have soldier and now we have athlete. And another aspect of the Christian life emerges, and that is, namely a rejection of shortcuts. Say, well, why is that a rejection of shortcuts? Well, almost certainly the athlete that Paul was referring to here was a runner. And he's like, well, how do runners cheat? I mean, this was before doping, right? Maybe they like ejected tiger blood or something, I don't know. But I'm assuming that that's not the view of cheating in play here. How does a runner cheat? Well, there are these great articles online that you could look up for this. One of the titles for one of these articles was nine of the most brazen marathon cheats of all time. How do you cheat in a marathon? Shocking, shocking, audacious attempts at cheating in these marathons, often involving public transit, by the way. I mean, this takes some guts. They're running along the course, they See a bus, they get on the bus, they. They take the bus through a number of sections of the course, get out and keep running and. Yeah, there you go. Almost all of the cheating involved in this particular sport involves skipping over the hard stuff, right?

11 · Expounds the third vocation—the farmer—emphasizing the distinctly unglamorous, unwitnessed nature of agricultural labor

So in addition to saying we're soldiers, we take suffering as second nature. It's just a part of the deal. We're athletes and we don't skip the whole hard parts because we're running to win the prize. Now we turn from the athlete to the farmer. What should we add here? We have another role, another picture. What, what, what come. What emerges? Well, one of the things, I think there's probably a lot of things I'm not talking about here, but one of the things that emerges, that is unique to the farmer as compared to the soldier and the athlete, is obscurity. Obscurity. John Stott writes this. The farmer lives a strenuous and a life of strain and prosaic toil. And he says, unlike the soldier and the athlete, the farmer's life is totally devoid of excitement, remote from all glamour of peril and of applause. So you might say the soldier embraces suffering. This is just part of the deal. The athlete doesn't take shortcuts and the farmer understands that a lot of his work looks totally lame and uninteresting and small and irrelevant, and no one's there to cheer him on, so on and so forth. So that's also part of the Christian life. A very significant amount of our integrity is tested in situations which no one's watching or in situations in which no one is eager to give credit. A lot of small things day after day after day.

12 · Supplies the missing half of the three-vocation exposition: each vocation not only commoditizes suffering but also promises corresponding glory—parade for the soldier, podium for the athlete, feast for the farmer

So now we have perhaps a clear view both of grace and of the Christian life. The one thing I want to add real quick before we move on to the next section of the text is, yeah, they're all three suffering. They're all three also seeking and receiving glory. When the soldier wins, he gets a parade. When the athlete wins, he gets a podium. And when the farmer wins, he gets a feast. Don't miss the obvious glory. That is the outcome of all this hardship and suffering. And we'll refer to that again in a moment.

13 · Explicitly signals the structural shift from 'what and why' to 'how'—the sermon has established that grace strengthens and that the Christian life requires such strengthening, and now turns to the method of accessing that strengthening

Now, Paul's done two things so far. He has told us that we need to be strengthened in grace. And he's told us why we need to be strengthened in grace. Our work, our Christian life, is full of hardship. And we need to know we need to be strengthened in grace. But what he hasn't done yet, as best as I could See is he hasn't told us how to be strengthened in grace. And I think that's what we're going to see in the next section.

14 · Reads the text that will govern the remainder of the sermon—verses 7-10, which contain the imperatives 'think' and 'remember' that unlock the method of being strengthened by grace

Look at verses 7 through 10. Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. Remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my Gospel, for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound. Therefore, I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may attain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

15 · Establishes the central mechanism for accessing grace's strengthening power: mental discipline

All right. This is so important. Please, if you've drifted, get yourself back. All right? So important. This will really be helpful to you, I promise. How? We're asking a real simple question. How do we put the mask on? How do we strengthen ourselves with grace? We're told that it's possible. We're told to do it. We're told that it's necessary. Okay, how do we do it? All right, I'm going to tell you how. A huge part of being strengthened by grace involves mental discipline. Mental discipline. I want you to look back at verse 7 and verse 8. Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. Remember Jesus Christ. Remember Jesus Christ. Now, if you know the Bible, you know that remember is a constant. It's even going to be a part of the table. How is it that mental discipline provides the strengthening of grace? Because what is really called for in any kind of endurance, whether it's Christian endurance or just endurance. Endurance is to quiet the inner quitter. How does one endure? They must always quiet the inner quitter. What separates an endurance athlete from a regular person? Genetics in that particular sport plays a small role, though not negligible. But the small role is any sport I know of. What really separates an endurance athlete from a regular person is that the endurance athlete has learned to quiet the inner quitter. And where does the inner quitter live? Well, it. It feels like he lives in my knees, but he doesn't. He lives in my mind.

16 · Provides personal testimony illustrating the inner quitter phenomenon—the pastor's own experience of cognitive difference between walking (normal cognition) and running (quitter monopolizing thought) demonstrates the mental battle required for endurance

I have seen this in my whole life. When I take a walk, I think like a normal person. I look at the scenery, I consider what's been going on with my day or what's going to go on throughout the rest of the week and so forth. I think like a normal person when I take a walk. But when I go for a run, I only have one thought. Why are you doing this? Suddenly I stop thinking like a normal person, and all I've got is a quitter in my brain with A megaphone. And I will be honest with you, I do not. I have not learned how to turn him off, and I don't think I will learn how because as I've said, he has got other people on his team now, my knees and my back and so on and so forth.

17 · Applies the mental discipline principle to specific Christian scenarios: quitting sin, entering difficult conversations, obeying in contested areas

But what is involved in endurance. What is involved in endurance is getting your mind right. Getting your mind right. And if you were to just read through the New Testament this week and you were to examine all the calls for perseverance, all the calls for endurance, what you would see time and time again is a call by the faithful spiritual leader who's encouraging them to endure, to get their mind right, quiet their inner quitter. So the words in verse seven and verse eight, think on these things. And verse eight, remember Jesus Christ. Those are not incidental words. This is the way that we endure. We discipline our mind. We take every thought captive and make it obey Christ. And if you can't do that, that's where endurance breaks down because you'll start talking yourself out of enduring. I'll just be super specific. You're trying to quit a sin. Well, the inner quitter, who doesn't want to quit the sin, but wants to quit the trying to quit the sin. The inner quitter will appear. What are you going to do? You're afraid to enter into a difficult conversation. You're afraid to be obedient in some area. Well, the inner quitter is going to speak. What do you have to say? How do you control this thing? Friends, we. We have to get our minds right if we're going to walk. Right Now, there are probably more than three. But I'm going to give you three things that I see Paul thinking about in this passage.

18 · Expounds the first mental discipline strategy from verse 10: thinking of those who depend on your endurance

I'm going to start with. I don't think any of them are unimportant, but I'm going to start with the least important, and the first one will be this. Think of those who depend on your endurance when you're tempted to quit, when you're tempted to take the easy way out, when you're tempted to get on the bus and avoid a big chunk of the race. I want you to think of those who depend on your endurance. Look at verse 10. Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. One of the ways we quiet our inner quitter is to just think. Who depends on me finishing well? Who depends on me not giving up? Who depends on me being faithful and doing good? Who depends on me. Remember how this letter, Second Timothy began? We just looked at this particular verse last week, actually. It begins in part, well, substantially with Paul saying in verse three of chapter one, I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers, night and day. We tend to think, because now, you know, I hope you know, Paul's in prison when he's writing this, awaiting execution. We tend to think, how amazing of Paul to think of other people while he's in prison. How amazing of Paul to remember and pray for Timothy. Here's the question. Is it possible that that's actually a survival strategy? Is it possible that there's actually even self interest in that for Paul's sake? And that is, here I am enduring. I could say one little word, recanto in the Latin, I recant and I'm free. Maybe we go back through and notice in the prison epistles the warmth which is unique in the prison epistles, the letters that Paul wrote to people while he was in prison. And we see the relational warmth and we see him remembering these folks and we think, well, that's so nice of him. Well, he had many other things to worry about. I don't know, guys. I actually think this is him grasping hold of the rope and saying, in moments where I would be tempted to recant, in moments where I would be tempted to quit, I will quiet the inner quitter by reminding myself of those who I am enduring for. And I believe that that is a exceptional strategy for helping us with our mental discipline in the times of hardship.

19 · Expounds the second mental discipline strategy from verse 10: anticipating eternal glory

One more that I think is a minor before we get to the major, and that is, in addition to thinking of those who are depending on our endurance, we think of the eternal glory gained by our earthly endurance. That's still in verse 10. Read it again. Therefore, I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. Think of these illustrations I've already referenced this, that Paul's thinking of. They all provide an ultimate outcome of glory. A soldier is working for ultimate victory. The athlete is running to receive a crown. The farmer is working toward a great harvest. So in addition to thinking of those who depend on your endurance, think of the glory that will be given to you on the day of your completion of the race. Paul is used to thinking about this. We see Paul consistently in his letters being extraordinarily eternally minded. It's like, how do I discipline my inner quitter when I. I want to give up you have to teach your mind to not think so much about what's going on now as to what will happen in the future if you endure. In chapter four of this book, Paul says, I have fought the good fight. I've finished the race. I've kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but, but also to all who have loved his appearing. And so far we have these two lines of thinking. You're wanting to give up, you're wanting to quit, you're wanting to sell out, you're wanting to avoid the hardship. What do you think about? Number one, people depend on me. Number two, eternal glory is coming. And we see that those two thoughts, they're in the same verse. We see that those two ways of thinking actually work really well together. Heaven will be a place of corporate victory where all of the soldiers who shared in suffering join King Jesus in triumphal procession. Heaven will be a kind of collective finish line where all who ran the race congratulate each other even as they praise the one who ordered their steps. Heaven will be a kind of communal feast where all the farmers sit down at the table and enjoy the production of God. And so one way you'd want to think about and quiet the inner quitters just to think of these things. And if you think about these things, by the way, Philippians 4, 8, 9, if you think about these things, what does the Bible say? The God of peace will be with you. See, we're getting into, how are we strengthened by grace? How do we bring God into the cell room with us? How do we put on the mask? It's like, think on these things. Use your mind to access the riches of God.

20 · Establishes the supremacy of the third mental discipline strategy: remembering Jesus Christ

Now, I've said that those are minor. They're not minor because they're unimportant, but because the one thing that I'm going to talk about next is so big. And that's found in verse eight. Remember Jesus Christ. Remember Jesus Christ. What else are we doing with our mind? We're thinking about those who benefit from our endurance. We're thinking about the glory that awaits us. Most importantly, what you must do with your mind. To access the grace of God is to remember Jesus Christ. Remember Jesus Christ. B.B. warfield writes, amid all the surrounding temptations, all the encompassing dangers, Paul bids Timothy to bear in mind, as the sufficing source of abounding strength, the great central doctrine, or rather let us say, the great central fact. Of his preaching, of his faith and of his life. He enunciates this great fact in these words found in verse 8. Jesus Christ. Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead the seed of David.

21 · Argues that the specific Christology Paul commends—'raised from the dead, seed of David'—is not gentle Jesus but cosmic Christ reigning in triumph

This phrase, raised from the dead the seed of David. Listen, please, we're almost done. Is meant to draw Timothy's mind to a very specific reality of Jesus Christ. When he says, remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead the seed of David, he's meant to draw a very specific picture of Jesus to mind. Now, give me a little. Give me a little slack here because I don't mean to be overly negative and in one direction, but I do want to say this. Many pastors and Christians continually try to comfort chronically anxious Christians with a gentle and lowly Jesus. But we have in the Bible the picture of Christ used by Paul to strengthen those about to suffer. And it is not. It is not the gentle and lowly Jesus. It is the cosmic Christ. It is the Christ seated at the right hand of the Father, ruling over all principalities and powers, who will rule until his enemies are made his footstool, which we know which Christ, which picture of Christ is brought to the comfort of the saints when they're about to suffer? And it is the Christ who sits at the right hand of the Father, ruling over all things.

22 · Extends the Christological argument via Warfield's exposition: the strengthening Christ is 'Lord of the universe' who reigns in endless power, not merely the compassionate rabbi

Again from Warfield, Paul bids Timothy, in the midst of all the besetting perplexities and dangers which encompassed him, to strengthen his heart by bearing constantly in remembrance not Jesus Christ's simplicitor, but Jesus Christ, conceived specifically as the Lord of the universe, who was dead, but now lives again and abides forever in the power of an endless life. As the royal seat of David ascended in triumph to his eternal throne. In verse nine, Paul says that he is in chains, but the Word of God is not bound. Why is the Word of God not bound? The Word of God is not restricted in any way because Jesus Christ, the living Word, reigns at the right hand of the Father with everything at his footstool. And we can say, if we know church history, that this thought, this cosmic Christ, has dominated the hearts and minds of countless men and women who have endured all the way to the end. And it has always been intended to be our primary source of strength.

23 · Brings the cosmic Christ vision into the Great Commission, arguing that the authority claim in Matthew 28:18 is the provision Jesus gave his disciples for suffering

When Jesus gave his marching orders to the disciples to face the gunfire of every principality in power and bring his gospel into the world, he gave them one view of himself in particular. To hold on to all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, go into the nations share in suffering as A soldier win the race, run the race to win the prize. Sow in tears and reap in joy. All as you remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead. The seed of David. Of all the things we could use our minds to consider, the one thing which seems most potent to keep us in persevering shape. To think of Jesus Christ reigning as he is even now, in triumph. They tried to kill him. They tried to wipe him away. And all they did was fulfill the very purposes of God to put Jesus Christ on the throne of the universe.

24 · Transitions from exposition to communion, linking the strengthening power accessed through remembering Christ to the physical act of remembering him in the Lord's Supper

We have access to that incredible strength. Because he endured the punishment for our sin on the cross. And we end every service by celebrating his great gift to us, represented by this bread and this wine.

25 · Closes the sermon by reading the institution of the Lord's Supper and explicitly connecting it to the sermon's thesis—it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, and that grace is now tangibly present in the elements

And I'm going to read to you from Mark 14:22, 24, where it says, as they were eating, He, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it, broke it and gave it to them and said, take, this is my body. And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them and they all drank of it. And he said to them, this is the blood of my covenant which is poured out. For many it is good, as the book of Hebrews says, it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace. And you have grace that you can touch and taste and see before you this morning. So come and celebrate this, Lord Jesus, who, though he is very high, became very low so that you might reign with him forever.

26 · Closes in prayer, petitioning for the very grace the sermon proclaimed—that God would fill hearts with faith, courage from seeing Christ, and strength by grace as the congregation approaches the table

Let me pray. Oh, great God, fill our hearts with faith as we come before your table. Give us the courage that can only come from seeing Christ. Fill our hearts with strength, Lord. Strengthen our hearts with grace. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Where this fits

Recent preaching context

The three sermons immediately preceding this one in the preaching schedule.

Feb 6, 2024

How to Make Friends

Making friends in adulthood requires abandoning the passive "finding friends" mindset of childhood and instead developing an intentional, habitual system of sowing friendliness — combined with prayer and patient endurance through inevitable rejection and false starts — trusting that God will eventually produce genuine friendship through faithful effort.

Feb 8, 2024

Get More of Your "Entertainment Calories" From Friendship

Christians should reclaim their leisure time for friendship by replacing passive, solitary consumption with participatory, creative recreation that involves other people.

Feb 9, 2024

When Friends Become Enemies

When a friend becomes an enemy, the believer must resist the temptation to fight back and instead trust the Lord to vindicate, recognizing that God uses even betrayal to teach us that He alone is perfectly faithful.

February 11 · This sermon

Strengthened by Grace

Christians are strengthened to endure hardship not by minimizing difficulty or by viewing grace as mere forgiveness, but by mental discipline that remembers the cosmic, reigning Christ who secured unlimited grace at infinite cost and now rules with all authority.

Take it further

Discuss · apply · pray

Small groups

6 discussion questions

Chris spoke about three vocations—the soldier, the athlete, and the farmer—and what each endures to gain a reward. What is Paul's point in d…

Daily readings

5-day reading plan

This week we learn how grace strengthens us—not merely as forensic pardon, but as God's active power accessed through mental discipline centered on the risen Christ who rules all things.

Prayer

Remembering Christ for Strength

Father, we come before you in awe of your gracious character—your riches poured out at Christ's expense, given freely to us who deserve noth…

Family table

The Inner Quitter

This prompt invites your family to name the voice of discouragement or resistance that shows up when obedience feels hard. The goal is to he…

Couples

Remembering Christ When Quitting Calls

When you heard about the 'inner quitter' and mental discipline, what specific struggle came to mind—a place where you've felt tempted to giv…

Memorize

2 Timothy 2:8

This single command encapsulates the sermon's central thesis: remembering the cosmic Christ—risen, ascended, and ruling—is the supreme mental discipline that strengthens believers to endure suffering and resist temptation. Every other application in the sermon flows from this cognitive act of gospel remembrance.

Small-group discussion

6 questions for your group this week

Chris spoke about three vocations—the soldier, the athlete, and the farmer—and what each endures to gain a reward. What is Paul's point in drawing these three pictures together in 2 Timothy 2:3-6, and how does each vocation help us understand what Christian endurance actually looks like?

2 Timothy 2:3-6

→ Which of these three resonates most with where you find yourself spiritually right now, and why?
The sermon presented a critical diagnosis: many of us mistake grace for forgiveness alone—an eraser that removes guilt but cannot empower us to endure. How does this confusion leave us spiritually weak when we face temptation, fear, or difficulty?
According to the sermon, the method of being strengthened by grace is not willpower or emotional fervor but mental discipline—learning to quiet 'the inner quitter' through prepared counter-speech rooted in truth. What does this actually look like in a moment when you're tempted to compromise, back down, or give up?

2 Corinthians 10:5

→ What specific lies does the inner quitter whisper to you most often, and what theological truth could you prepare ahead of time to answer back?
The sermon claims that remembering Jesus Christ—not the gentle and lowly Jesus, but the cosmic Christ risen from the dead and seated at God's right hand ruling over all powers—is the 'sufficing source of abounding strength.' Why is this particular picture of Christ essential for enduring the specific struggles you're facing?

Psalm 110:1
Paul tells Timothy to 'remember Jesus Christ' (2 Timothy 2:8) as the antidote to discouragement and fear. How does regularly calling to mind who Christ is and what He has accomplished reshape your ability to endure hardship this week—not as escapism, but as access to real power?

2 Timothy 2:8

→ What would it look like to practice this kind of remembrance—this mental discipline—in your daily rhythms?
The sermon promises that each vocation—soldier, athlete, farmer—receives not merely survival but ultimate glory: a parade, a podium, a feast. How does grasping this promise of proportionate reward reshape why we endure, and how does it free us from enduring merely for its own sake?

2 Timothy 4:7-8

Draft · pending review

Daily readings · Monday–Friday

5-day reading plan

This week we learn how grace strengthens us—not merely as forensic pardon, but as God's active power accessed through mental discipline centered on the risen Christ who rules all things.

Monday 1 Corinthians 15:10

Paul's declaration—'By the grace of God I am what I am'—reveals grace as the operative force behind his apostolic work, not a past pardon alone. When we grasp that grace is God's present, empowering abundance flowing through Christ's redemption, we begin to understand how it can strengthen us for the specific hardships we face today. This is the foundation: grace is not an eraser, but an engine.

Tuesday Hebrews 13:9

The Hebrew writer warns against being carried away by strange teachings, then anchors believers to grace that strengthens the heart—not the conscience alone. This corrects the misunderstanding that grace's only work is to remove guilt; grace actively fortifies us from within for the glad pursuit of obedience. Our hearts are stabilized not by legal frameworks, but by the truth that God's riches are ours in Christ, working in us to will and to do.

Wednesday 2 Corinthians 4:16

Paul writes that though our outer self wastes away, our inner self is renewed day by day because we fix our eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen and eternal. This frames our present struggle as temporary investment: the soldier will receive a parade, the athlete a podium, the farmer a feast—each vindication matching their particular labor. We endure not for nothing, but for a glory proportionate to what we have borne, and this future certainty reshapes how we view present pain.

Thursday 2 Corinthians 10:5

Taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ demands that we identify and arrest the voice of the inner quitter—the one that whispers fear, reluctance, and despair in moments of temptation and hardship. This is not mere positive thinking; it is deliberate theological counter-speech, replacing the quitter's narrative with the truth of God's character and Christ's sufficiency. Mental discipline is where grace meets the actual texture of our struggle, transforming the battlefield of the mind into a place of victory.

Friday Psalm 110:1

When we remember Jesus Christ—not the gentle teacher alone, but the risen Lord at the Father's right hand with all enemies under His feet—we access the sufficing source of abounding strength for endurance. This is the prescribed mental discipline that changes everything: fixing our gaze on the cosmic Christ transforms our perception of our own smallness, our enemies' threats, and our ability to persevere. In remembering His rule, we remember our safety, and grace flows into the deep places where we doubted.

Draft · pending review

Pray together this week

Remembering Christ for Strength

Father, we come before you in awe of your gracious character—your riches poured out at Christ's expense, given freely to us who deserve nothing but judgment. We confess that we often misunderstand grace as merely the erasure of our sin, never grasping its power to strengthen us. We find ourselves listening to the inner quitter who whispers defeat in moments of temptation, fear, and reluctance to obey. We grow weary in the race set before us, and our minds grow slack when the call to endurance seems too costly.

Yet the gospel humbles us with the reality that Christ has accomplished everything we cannot. He has risen from the dead and been seated at the Father's right hand, ruling over all principalities and powers until all enemies are subdued (Psalm 110:1). His cosmic victory is the foundation of our strength, not our own resolve or willpower. In the gospel we have a Savior whose reign is absolute, whose glory is immeasurable, and whose power flows to us in our weakness.

We ask you to discipline our minds with the truth of Christ's exaltation. When the inner quitter speaks in our temptation and fear, teach us to speak back with the counter-speech of theology—to remember Jesus Christ, risen and reigning (2 Timothy 2:8). Grant us the grace to quiet the voices of doubt and despair by fixing our gaze on the cosmic Christ who rules all things. As soldiers enduring hardship, as athletes contending by the rules, as farmers laboring for the harvest, strengthen us by the renewing of our minds as we behold his glory.

May we, together, learn to access the sufficing source of abounding strength through mental discipline rooted in the gospel. We commit ourselves to the glad pursuit of remembering Jesus Christ in every trial, knowing that grace strengthens those who think on him. To you alone be glory and dominion forever.

Draft · pending review

Sunday-evening family table

The Inner Quitter

For the parent

This prompt invites your family to name the voice of discouragement or resistance that shows up when obedience feels hard. The goal is to help kids recognize that this inner voice is real, that everyone has it, and that we can prepare truthful things to say back to it.

Pastor Chris talked about 'the inner quitter'—that voice inside us that says 'This is too hard, I can't do this, I'm going to quit.' Can you think of a time when you heard that voice? What was happening, and what did you do?

Works for ages 7+—younger children may need a concrete example to start (like 'when learning to ride a bike' or 'when a friend was mean'), but the idea of an inner voice of doubt is accessible and universal.

Draft · pending review

Couples · three questions over coffee

Remembering Christ When Quitting Calls

When you heard about the 'inner quitter' and mental discipline, what specific struggle came to mind—a place where you've felt tempted to give up on obedience, endurance, or faith?
How do we as a couple typically respond when one of us is tempted to quit—do we remind each other of Christ's cosmic reign, or do we tend to commiserate in discouragement rather than strengthen one another with gospel truth?
What is one area of shared obedience (in our marriage, our witness, our faithfulness) where we could pray for each other this week to remember Jesus risen and ruling, so that grace might strengthen us both?

Draft · pending review

Memory verse this week

2 Timothy 2:8

Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, offspring of David, as preached in the gospel.

Why this verse: This single command encapsulates the sermon's central thesis: remembering the cosmic Christ—risen, ascended, and ruling—is the supreme mental discipline that strengthens believers to endure suffering and resist temptation. Every other application in the sermon flows from this cognitive act of gospel remembrance.

Draft · pending review

Where this was preached

About the church

Providence Community Church

Lenexa, KS
Sundays · 10:00 AM
About us · What we believe

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# Providence Community Church

A church preaching expository sermons through the books of the Bible.

## Sermons
- [How to Make Friends (2024-02-06)](/ProvidenceLenexa/sermons/2024/02/how-to-make-friends)
- [Get More of Your "Entertainment Calories" From Friendship (2024-02-08)](/ProvidenceLenexa/sermons/2024/02/get-more-of-your-entertainment-calories-from-friendship)
- [When Friends Become Enemies (2024-02-09)](/ProvidenceLenexa/sermons/2024/02/when-friends-become-enemies)
- [Strengthened by Grace (2024-02-11)](/ProvidenceLenexa/sermons/2024/02/strengthened-by-grace)

## About
- [About the church](/about)
- [Plan a visit](/visit)

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