THOSE OF WHOM GOD IS NOT ASHAMED
G. C. McKay
Hebrews 11: 13–16; 2 Timothy 1: 7, 8
I was thinking, dear brethren, of the character of the persons of whom God is not ashamed.
That expression comes into the earlier part of Hebrews where Jesus is not ashamed to call us His brethren (Hebrews 2: 11), the Sanctifier and the sanctified being all of one, a wonderful effect and result of the work of Christ. But here the persons, I think, qualify practically in their pathway to be regarded in that way; “wherefore”, it says, “God is not ashamed of them”.
A wonderful line of faith is depicted in this chapter. Our brother has been speaking of the way that the young people might be affected by us, and this section reminds us of that, the line of faith, which also comes into 2 Timothy. It continues not only because there is the side of the work of God, although that is essential, but also because things are passed on and imparted. Those of whom God is not ashamed would seem to allude especially to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, those that went out and were strangers and
sojourners. Abraham “sojourned as a stranger in the land of promise as a foreign country, having dwelt in tents with Isaac and Jacob” (Hebrews 11: 9)—the father, and the son, and the grandson. A grandfather living in a tent, a sojourner, and the son likewise, and the grandson the same—together, living in tents, living a life of faith, a most, remarkable position. They had given up the place that they had left, given it up entirely. They did not go back. They did not even seem to think of going back—“if they had called to mind that from whence they went out, they had had opportunity to have returned”. They were seeking a better, a heavenly.
So Abraham went out from Ur of the Chaldeans. They left the cities of men; they left the world; they went out. Abraham went out to the land that Jehovah would show him, a long journey, and the narrative says, “into the land of Canaan they came”. There was the land of promise that he could look at and walk through, what God was promising him, and he was in it as a stranger; he did not own it at all. When he wanted a cave to bury his wife, he had to buy the field. He was in Canaan but it was not his; in promise it was, but in literality he was just a stranger and a sojourner. He knew that God’s promise would be true and that that land would belong to his seed, but as for himself he lived in tents in that land. He did not build any cities there, but just lived there as a stranger and sojourner. He said that to the sons of Heth when he was buying the field of Ephron, “I am a stranger and a sojourner” (Genesis 23: 4), but the sons of Heth could say he was a prince of God; God was not ashamed of him. He had only a small company but yet God was not ashamed of them. He sets out the path of faith for us, that we just give up everything here. We do not own a thing here; that is really what it is.
He dwelt in the land of promise as a stranger. Why? What had come into his soul as he sojourned in the land as he traversed it? Something better came into his affections. That is what it says here, “And if they had called to mind that from whence they went out, they had had opportunity to have returned; but now they seek a better, that is, a heavenly”, a heavenly inheritance. Abraham will have a heavenly inheritance.
So with ourselves, we are not to have anything here. Everything is in faith, everything is in promise. It will be ours, but it will be a heavenly and it will be a better portion. God is not ashamed of such persons. This is the kind of persons they are; they confess they are strangers and sojourners on the earth, they show clearly that they seek their country. They make no claims, they do not take up an expanding position here, because they have something better.
God is not ashamed of persons like that, these pilgrims and sojourners, to be called their God.
He says that to Abraham at one point. He made a covenant “to be a God to thee”, Genesis 17: 7. And “he has prepared for them a city”—Wonderful divine thoughts!
So what a position the path of faith is, to own nothing, absolutely nothing, here, and have everything in faith. The Spirit is the Earnest of the inheritance. He brings into our affections what will be ours. The heavenly inheritance is ours, a better one than anything this earth could ever afford, better than the earthly families will have, even as enjoying things in the millennium. Our portion is far, far greater, for it is heavenly and blessed. God has prepared a city for persons of whom He is not ashamed.
Well, the question might arise as to whether we might be ashamed. I read in Timothy because of that. The Lord Jesus speaks in two of the gospels of persons being ashamed; “whosoever shall be ashamed of me”, He says, “and of my words”, Mark 8: 38. That is a testing thing because we tend to waver and become ashamed, the pathway being so different from the world if we confess that we are strangers and sojourners. “Those that confess such things”; not only living a life that shows that your outlook is just a tent, a short sojourn here, but actually confessing and saying clearly that you are not looking for anything here. Well, we are going to leave it shortly in any case, whether we have little or much here, but that is not the point at all; it is a matter of what is heavenly.
So I thought the question would arise as to whether we are prepared to confess to these things and speak about what our hope really is; to give an account of the hope that is within us.
There is not only what is borne testimony to in our lives but what is also borne testimony to by our words. So with Timothy, this wonderful line of faith, comes down from his grandmother and his mother to himself, and he has to be exhorted not to be ashamed—“Be not therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner; but suffer evil along with the glad tidings”. What an exhortation that is! That is the Christian prospect down here—to suffer. The prospect on high is glory and blessedness and we have the earnest of that in our hearts. Suffering is the order of the day in 2 Timothy, “suffer evil along with the glad tidings”. Cast in your lot with the people of God, certainly, in the way they are suffering reproach, as Moses did of old indeed, but also “suffering evil along with the glad tidings”. Is it going to be a position of weakness? Outwardly, yes, reproach and scoffing, but inwardly there is going to be power because it is “according to the power of God”.
Well, Paul in the same section speaks about
himself not being ashamed, “I am not ashamed”, he says, and “I suffer”. That is a test, as we have been reminded recently, to be able to say something that you are in the good of; we say so much that we feel we are just reaching out to ourselves, but Paul tells Timothy to suffer, and then he says, “I suffer”. There is a great deal of moral power in that; there is actually very little moral power in exhorting someone to do something you are not doing yourself, but moral power lies in doing the thing yourself. “For which cause also”, he says in verse 12, “I suffer these things; but I am not ashamed”. What force that has when someone can say they are doing this; they are in the path; so you follow in the path. “I know whom I have believed”.
Then the section does not finish without Onesiphorus, who was not ashamed of Paul’s chain.
Scripture, you see, gives us examples. It gives us exhortations which have moral authority because of those that speak, and then sets out examples. You will find an example somewhere in someone. Someone is setting out the truth. I always think that is an encouraging thing, even in these days of such smallness and weakness and frailty. Someone is setting out the very truth, I need help in. I am weak, and someone is setting it out specially.
Onesiphorus is doing that—“he has often refreshed me, and has not been ashamed of my chain; but being in Rome sought me out very diligently, and found me”, (2 Timothy 1: 16, 17). So that we can find examples; our exercise would be to be examples, but in any case examples are there, that we should not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of the glad tidings. There are the two sides, for persons that are on such a line are persons of whom God is not ashamed; He is willing to be known as their God and He has prepared a city for them.
Well, what a position the Christian’s position is, an astonishing position really; to be just a suffering pilgrim here with no claims at all, and yet to own everything, to have a wonderful heavenly inheritance, the earnest of it in his heart, and the testimony of it too on his lips.
Well, may we be helped just to fill that out a little more, for His name’s sake.
Word in meeting for ministry, Glasgow
11 December 1990