INTRODUCTION
What we are to do 1-7 (dedicated, hardworking, obedient)
Why we are to do it. 8-13
How we are to do it 14-26.
The diamond cannot be polished without friction, nor the man perfected without trials- Chinese proverb.
SERMON
REMEMBER
JESUS!
1. Verse 8
2. OUR FOCUS READ 2 CORINTHIANS 4:16-18
THE GOSPEL WILL PREVAIL!
1. Verse 9
THE SALVATION OF GOD’S ELECT.
Verse 10
A. It requires great effort. 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 READ!
1. Endure- to remain under patiently.
2. Salvation for the elect.
Verses 11-13 explain the glorious salvation.
B. It requires us to die with Him in order to live Verse 11- die with Him to Live
a. Romans 6. Passage speaks of being buried with Christ at baptism.
b. GAL 3:27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
c. GAL 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
d. When James Calvert went out as a missionary to the cannibals of the Fiji Islands, the captain of the ship sought to turn him back. "You will lose your life and the lives of those with you if you go among such savages," he cried. Calvert only replied, "We died before we came here." David Augsburger, Sticking My Neck Out, 1979, p. 154.
e. Men will wrangle for religion; write for it; fight for it; die for it; anything but live for it. –C.C. Colton
f. READ LUKE 21:16-19
C. It requires us to Endure in order to Reign, verse 12
1. Deny Him and be Denied
a. MAT 10:33 "But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.
b. READ 2 TIMOTHY 1:8-12
D. When we are faithless, He is faithful Verse 13-
a. Peter was an example of this in Matthew 26:33-75. He denied Jesus, but God did not dump him there.
b. Peter had the opportunity to repent.
c. This is one sense that God is faithful when we are faithless.
d. The other is the fact that if we are faithless, then God is faithful because He will deliver on His promises of wrath also. He cannot let the one who is not faithful unto death in His presence.
e. REV 2:10 ’Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.
f. REV 2:11 ’He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.’
g. Don’t give me the once saved always saved bit! OVERCOMERS ARE THE ONES WHO WILL GET TO HEAVEN. You can’t live like the devil and expect to go to heaven just because you went to church when you were a little kid or because your parents are Christian! YOU MUST ENDURE!
CONCLUSION
The proprietor of a dry cleaning and dyeing business hung this quaint sign in his window: "We dye to live, we live to dye; the more we dye, the more we live; and the more we live, the more we dye." For the child of God, it is also true that the more he dies, the more he lives!
