Listeners are invited to ponder their own relationships and the depths of divine companionship as we explore Paul’s reliance on Christ amid persecution. Discover how Paul’s experiences of abandonment transform into an unshakeable faith bolstered by the knowledge that Christ stands within him, granting not only strength but the courage to fulfill his mission. This episode is a poignant reminder of the inner workings of faith, empowering each listener to find solace in Christ’s promise to never forsake us, no matter the earthly trials we face.
Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Thursday, February 20th. Today’s podcast looks at the life of the Apostle Paul. His example shows us that the faithful presence of the Lord will sustain us even when others fail us.
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The passage of Scripture I want us to deal with deals with the Apostle Paul in the season of time when he feels and has felt very deserted by his friends. So, in this passage of Scripture, I want you to think about yourself and think about your friendships and how you relate. Think about the people that you think are your friends, or maybe you’d have to think, as all of us do at times, people that you thought were your friends, but they weren’t. People who move from being dedicated to disappointing you and finally deserting you. And you may feel a little pain this morning. You may feel a little hurt as you go back and recall some of the people who’ve been in your life that you really thought were true, genuine friends. And how they just walked off and deserted you. And they never said why. They just disappeared. We’ve all had that. And I think any pastor will tell you, There have been those in his life, and I can think in my own life, fellows that I’ve genuinely loved, given of myself to them, helped them in any way I possibly could, gave them time and gave them things that I thought would be of help to them, walk away and totally disappoint you because, not because you needed something, but because you believed in them and because you really and truly, sincerely wanted to be a friend. So, what you may recall in the midst of this message is a little bit of pain yourself. So, what I want to talk about here is, is to think about the Apostle Paul. How do we deal with this? And what can we expect? So, if you’ll turn to second Timothy. Well, let me say first of all, the Apostle Paul, here’s writing to Timothy. And what I want us to see here is this, that there are times in our life when our friends will fail us. Now, the apostle Paul is in prison and he’s facing the Roman jury. And he knows that more than likely they’re going to execute him. So, he’s facing death and he knows he’s facing death. And he’s recalling, as he thinks back over his first trial, no one was there to support him and to help him. And now he comes again to a second trial and the only person there is Luke. Here’s what Paul said. He said in this fourth chapter and the sixteenth verse, At my first defense no one supported me, but all deserted me. May it not be counted against them. Then He says, here’s the way you respond and here’s the most comforting thing. He says, But the Lord stood with me, strengthened me, so that through me the proclamation might be fully accomplished, and that all the Gentiles might hear, and I was rescued out of the lion’s mouth. The Lord will rescue me now, this time, from every evil deed, and will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom. To Him be the glory forever and ever.” Now, what is he saying? He said the Lord stood with him. What does that mean? Well, it simply means this. that though all of his friends had deserted him, he knew that the Lord God Himself, Jesus Christ whom he loved, was standing with him. Now, as he looked around, he didn’t have any evidence. But when he looked with the eyes of faith, He says, the Lord stood with me. Now, here’s what I want you to remember. It doesn’t make any difference who disappoints you, who deserts you. You have the Lord standing with you if you’re a follower of Jesus Christ. If you have trusted Him as your Savior, He is your shepherd, He’s your friend. He says, I will never leave you nor forsake you. And so, it’s interesting the emphasis that Paul in his theology. Listen, do you know the emphasis of Paul’s theology, the heart of it is wrapped up in two words, in Christ. That is the key to everything Paul told. Because he was simply saying this, that Jesus Christ lives within the believer. And I want you to turn to two or three passages here. And let’s turn to Colossians chapter one for a moment. And I want to give you a few passages here because this is very important to remember. Because you see, you say, well, I don’t see any of my friends. But you still have one. And he’s living on the inside of you. Colossians, the first chapter. He says, verse twenty-seven, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles. What’s that? Which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ in you. And because He’s in you, you know that He’s always standing with you. In the fourteenth chapter of John, for example, one thing that Jesus really worked at making an emphasis on, the fourteenth chapter, He was getting ready to leave them. He says, I’m not going to leave His orphans. In other words, the fact that He was about to leave them, they could have said, well, not understanding fully what was happening, you’re deserting us at this critical time. Listen to what He said. He said, I’ll ask the Father and He will give you another Helper that He may be with you forever. That is the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it doesn’t see Him or know Him. But you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you. When you trusted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ came to live on the inside of you in the presence and the person of the Holy Spirit. Every single believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit who is there to live out of us and to live through us the very life of Christ. So that no matter who’s around you and who’s absent, what’s going on, you have Christ living within you. The Bible says He sits at the Father’s right hand. And what is He doing? He is supervising. He is acting as the sovereign ruler of the universe. You have within you Almighty God. Listen, people may persecute you, whatever it may be, they can never remove Jesus from you. You may even weaken in some confession. He’s still there. You have within you, listen, the eternal rock. You have within you the gift of eternal life. You have the eternal Son of God living with you. And no matter who you are and who deserts you, He is still there. You are never alone. He said, I’ll never leave you nor forsake you. And so, somebody may persecute you, try you, say all kind of manner of evil things against you. Your friends may walk away. He’ll never walk away. He’s there. And that’s the point that he’s making here when he says that the Lord stood with me. And I want you to look, if you will, in Psalm fifty-seven for a moment, because this is a word of encouragement. Oftentimes when people get into difficult situations, they say, well, I don’t know what I’m going to do. This is why the Word of God’s so absolutely important. I don’t know anybody who can live without it. A lot of people I know try to live without it, but it’s not working. Psalm fifty-seven, Be gracious to me, O God, be gracious to me, for my soul takes refuge in You. In the shadow of Your wings I will take refuge until destruction, or this destruction passes by, whatever’s going on. I will cry to God most high, to God who accomplishes all things for me. He will send from heaven and save me. He reproaches him who tramples upon me. God will send forth His lovingkindness and His truth. My soul is among lions, but what? He’s there. He’s there to help us in any given situation in life. So, how did Paul deal with desertion? He said, the Lord stood with me. The second thing he said was this, and He strengthened me. Look at that verse. He says, the Lord stood with me and He strengthened me. He stood with me and He strengthened me. Why? Watch this. So that he would be able to accomplish what God called him to do. Now, here he is, he’s preached all these years, laid his life down, persecution after persecution after persecution. In fact, if you’ll read the book of Acts, here’s what you’ll find. Everywhere Paul went, the Judaizers who hated him were there waiting for him, or they got there soon thereafter. He lived under persecution and assault and attempts on his life over and over and over again. Did he quit? No. Was he afraid? No. Did he lay down his life and just say, I quit, I’m sick and tired of all this? No. To the last day, even before a Roman tribunal, he was still proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. And he said, the Lord strengthened him so that through me the proclamation might be fully accomplished. fulfilling the will of God for my life, and that all the Gentiles might hear.” And he says, I was rescued from it. Now, I want you to turn to Philippians. Now, everybody knows Philippians 4.13. I want you to turn to Philippians 2.13. Look at this for a moment. Speaking of how God does work in our life in these things, we say He stands with us and He strengthens us. Listen to this. This idea, I don’t know what in the world to do, doesn’t even fit who we are. We’re followers of Jesus Christ, sons and daughters of the living God. Listen to what He says in Philippians chapter two, the thirteenth verse. You ready? For it is God who is at work in you. both to will and to work for His good pleasure. Paul knew that standing before that Roman tribunal and knowing that his life was going to end very shortly, more than likely, what was he saying? He was saying, God, he knew that God was in him, working His will in his life even through the last day of his life. And so, his friends were gone. Nobody was there to support him. And here he was facing the end of his life. He could have just had a big pity party and said, well, you know, I’ve just given my life for those folks and now they’ve deserted me. I don’t know what I’m going to do. That wasn’t the Apostle Paul. It should never be us. We should be strong in the Lord, knowing that it is Christ who lives on the inside of you. In other words, He is our shield. He is our life. He is everything within us that has value. He’s the eternal life within us. When a person dies without Christ, separated from Him for all eternity, dies with Christ forever with the heavenly Father. He says, He strengthened me. He enabled me. And the word He uses for strength here is the same word He uses for power at Pentecost when He says, You shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you. That power is dynamic power. It’s supernatural power. Not natural power what man can do, but it’s the kind of power that empowers you and me to face any and every circumstance of life with confidence and assurance that He’s standing by us, He’ll see us through it no matter what. You know, just wanting to lie down and die doesn’t fit who we are. What fits who we are is remembering who we are and why we’re here. And Paul said that the proclamation might be complete. And that is of all the people. And remember what he said also in Philippians, the earlier part in that first chapter. Then when he got through testifying to the Roman soldiers who had him in chains, what happened? He said, the whole Praetorian Guard has heard the gospel. They’ve all heard about me. They all know what’s going on. It wasn’t about him. He was bearing witness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. There’s no pity partying going on in the life of this man. Why? Because he knew what his purpose was. And listen, this is why I keep hammering away week after week after week after week after week. That is that you understand your relationship to Christ. He’s everything we need. He’s all that we will ever need. And He will always be there to always strengthen us, to enable us, and to empower us. That is, you have supernatural strength on the inside of you if you will claim it. And if you will live by it, and if you will anticipate it and expect it, and if you will live out your life in a fashion that your life, listen, that your life is fruitful and productive. He stands beside us. He stands within us to enable us, to strengthen us, and to give us the courage. It took courage and boldness for the apostle Paul to preach the gospel to a Roman council who was going to condemn him to death and execute him. But he did it. And that’s why he could say what he said. So, he says it’s God who is at work in us, both to will and to work. That is, God not only wills it, but He also gives us the strength to carry out what He wills. Look in First Peter chapter five for a moment. All the way over toward the back. First Peter chapter five. And look, if you will, at this tenth verse. He’s been speaking here to people who are under persecution and scattered all over the place. And he comes to this fifth chapter in the tenth verse. Here’s what he says. He says, after you have suffered for a while, a little while, the God of all grace who called you to His eternal glory in Christ will Himself Perfect, that is, absolutely mature us. Confirm us, assure us. Strengthen us and establish you. That’s who you are. That’s who you have. You have the Lord Jesus Christ working in your life. Now, He says three things the Lord did. He said, first of all, He said, He stood with me and He strengthened me. And He says, I’m confident of His deliverance. Now, notice how He says that because they did kill Him. He says, what happened before that He didn’t die, but now He says, And that all the Gentiles might hear, and I was rescued of the lion’s mouth.” That is, they didn’t kill Him on that first time. The Lord will now rescue me from every evil deed and will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom, to Him be the glory forever. Now watch this. He says He will stand with us, stand by us. He will strengthen us and He will deliver us. Now watch this carefully. He delivers us from something. Sometimes He delivers us in it. He allows us to go through difficulty and hardship and pain in life. And what, He sustains us and He takes us through it. And sometimes He decides to take us home. But you can’t lose either way. He delivers us from it down here. He delivers us through it down here, and we’ve all had both of those. And one of these days, there’s going to be an eternal deliverance. Why? Because you trusted Jesus as your Savior, your name’s written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, you’re an eternal son or daughter of the living God, and nobody can change it. Because it’s an eternal decision that God has made about your life. Now, I want you to, I want to give you one other passage of Scripture to turn to. And I want you to turn, if you will, to Isaiah forty-three. Well, what happened to Paul? Sure enough, wasn’t very long after that, Nero had him executed. And four years later, Nero committed suicide. You know, when I hear about these people boasting of what they’re going to do and this, that, and the other, I just want to sit back and think, oh Jesus, if they only knew what was coming. You cannot violate the principles of God. You cannot harm the people of God without God’s judgment falling upon you. It’s going to happen. And people say, well, I know so and so and so, but you know what? Life’s not over. And their time may not have come. I want you to listen to this wonderful passage of Scripture in the forty-third chapter of Isaiah. But now thus says the Lord your Creator, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel. And many things that He said to them, of course, He means for us all. So listen. Do not fear, for I have redeemed you. I’ve called you by name, you’re Mine. Now listen carefully. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, not run through it. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched. Nor will the flame burn you, for I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. And then he talks about Egypt and so forth. And he says, since you are precious in my sight, since you’re honored, and I love you. The next time you get to going through some deep situation, you just remember what He says. Waters won’t overflow you. Fire not going to burn you. In fact, it’s not even going to scorch you. Why? Because He is your life and your guardian. He is the one who stands with us no matter what. Husbands and wives desert each other. Children desert their parents. Friend deserts each other. One person will never desert you. No matter what, no matter how painful, no matter how difficult, He’ll always be there. Father, how grateful we are that Jesus said to that group of disciples, you’re my friends. I’m sure they didn’t quite fully understand all that meant. But now on this side of all that, we know what it meant. And I pray the Holy Spirit will sink this message into the heart of every single person who hears it. to examine their own friendship qualities, and to examine the friends about them. I pray the Holy Spirit will so work in the hearts of those who are unsaved, who do not know Jesus as their friend, that they too would want Him. Then they’ll know what real, true friendship is all about. And this we pray in His name. Amen.
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Thank you for listening to part two of When Others Fail Us. If you’d like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
