2 Timothy 1, we've been going through
2 Timothy for our Bible study on Sunday mornings. And we're
currently in chapter 3, 2 Timothy 3. But something grabbed my attention
here in chapter 1 for our message tonight. And I'm glad it did
because I love these particular verses so much. I love these
so much. These are some of my favorite
verses to preach from. There are some verses in the
scripture, you know what I mean, you got Romans 8, you got Isaiah
53, Ephesians 1, Ephesians 2, there's some portions of scripture
that are just so clear on the truth of God's salvation. preach themselves. You just have
to read it. That's all you have to do. So clear on the truth of what
God's purpose was and what God's will was and what God's work
was, and it feels special to me when I get to be in one of
those places. This is one of those places.
For me, tonight, this is a special moment. The moment that I knew
this was it. I've just felt special. I've been in a special place
ever since that moment. Verses seven to 11 will be our
text. Let's begin reading in verse
one, though, and we'll read down to it. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
by the will of God, according to the promise of life which
is in Christ Jesus. To Timothy, my dearly beloved
son, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father in Christ
Jesus our Lord. I thank God whom I serve from
my forefathers with pure conscience. that without ceasing I have remembrance
of thee in my prayers night and day, greatly desiring to see
thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy. When I call to remembrance the
unfamed faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother
Lois, and in thy mother Eunice, and I am persuaded that in thee
also. Wherefore I put thee in remembrance
that thou stir up the gift of God which is in thee by the putting
on of my hands. For God hath not given us the
spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Now let's look at verses eight
to 11 for a minute and then we'll come back to verse seven. Verse
eight says, be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our
Lord. That is our message. The testimony
of our Lord. That's what we're preaching.
That's what we're preaching. We are preaching a person. We are preaching Christ. We are preaching the record that
God the Father has given concerning his son. That's what we're doing.
Jesus Christ our Lord. Verse eight says, 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. He said, you be partaker of the
afflictions of the gospel. Don't be ashamed of the gospel.
And he went on to say, this is the gospel. All right, this is
the truth concerning God's purpose and God's will and God's work. This is who he is. This is what
he did. This is who he did it for. Verse
nine says, Who hath saved us? See why I like being here? Who hath saved us? I love this
declaration. This really is one of my favorites.
Such a good portion of scripture. Who hath saved us? Who? God. God Almighty, Emmanuel. Hath. Already has. Not can. You know, now he can
save you. No. Not will. Hath. Half. Salvation is over. This
is the most pleasant declaration to tell a sinner that could possibly
be told. Salvation is over. The salvation
of God has already happened. It has already happened. All
who are chosen to be saved, God elected a people, all right,
out of every tribe, nation, kindred, tongue, and generation on earth.
And all who were chosen to be saved are saved. They are saved. The gospel is
a notification of something that has already taken place. I mean
it, we would be wise to remember that. As we step into this pulpit,
we who are called on to step into this pulpit, let's never
remember the gospel is a notification of something that has already
taken place. The gospel is not a call to action. It's a notification to stop all
action. That's what it is. Stop all action. The work is done. It's already
finished. What must I do to be saved? Nothing. Christ already did it. Christ
already did it. Verse 9 says, who hath saved? Ephesians 2 says, by grace you
are saved. What must I do to be saved? By
grace, you are saved. By the blood of Jesus Christ,
you are saved. By the blood that he shed already,
you are saved. The message is not Jesus saves. You ever heard that song, Jesus
saves Jesus. I used to love that song when
I was a kid. Sang it a few times, you know, Jesus saves, Jesus
saves. That's not the message. That's
not the message at all. That song, I looked it up in
the book today. It says, we have heard the joyful
sound. Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Spread
the tidings all around. Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Bear
the news to every land. Climb the steeps and cross the
waves. Onward is our Lord's command.
Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Wrong. That's not the command. That's not the message. The message
is, who hath saved us? Who hath saved us? Who hath already
saved us? Sinful, wretched, wicked us. Verse 9 says, who hath saved
us and called us? We are called to our union with
Christ. We don't decide on union with
Christ. We don't ask for union with Christ. We don't ask for, you know, ask
and you'll receive. You're a dead man. If you could ask, you would receive,
but you can't because you're a dead man. We don't even know about our
union with Christ until we're called to live. When I said live,
that's when it happened. Verse nine says, who had saved
us and called us within holy calling. That means God does
it. That's what it means. Sinful
man doesn't do it. Sinful preachers don't do it.
You're looking at a sinful preacher. Sinful preachers don't do it.
God Almighty does it. 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. God's purpose and God's grace. God's kindness, God's favor,
God's generosity, God's love, it was given to God's people
before the foundation of the world, before any of us were
ever even born, before we ever did any good or evil that the
purpose of God according to election might stand. God the father chose
a people in Christ. He chose to love them. He chose
to save them. He chose to do all that by himself. And that's exactly what he did.
Verse nine says, who had 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, but is now made manifest by the appearing of
our Savior, Jesus Christ. We know all of this. Here we
are, you know, we're declaring it, preaching it. We know all
of this because Christ came. Had Christ not come, all we would
know at the moment is the law. That's all we would know, is
the law. Now God's grace and his truth,
it was given to God's people before the foundation of the
world. But it was evidenced, it was revealed, it was seen,
it was made known when Christ came. Grace and truth. Unto us a child is born. Unto
us a son is given. All the Old Testament saints
looked to the fact that he was coming. That was their hope. All the Old Testament. You know,
we're in the same boat that they're in. We now look to the fact that
he came. They were looking forward to
the fact that he's coming. And we're looking back to the
fact to the cross that he came. But we're still looking forward
to the fact that he's coming again. We're in this. He coming
again. That's what they kept saying.
Hang in there. He's coming. And he came. They were all looking to the
fact that he was going to come and the New Testament saints
look to the fact that he did come. Don't you love the thought
of those angels crying glory to God in the highest peace. has descended down on earth.
Goodwill toward man has appeared, made manifest. Verse 10 says,
but now is made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus
Christ who hath abolished death. I was thinking about this as
I was studying this. I believe the thing I dislike
the most is death. I believe that's the thing that
I don't want to have anything to do with the most is death. Death came from sin. Wages of
sin is death. It's the final result of sin. Our Lord Jesus Christ came and
for his people abolished death. That's what he did for his people.
For his chosen, for his elect, he abolished death. for them. How did he do it? By dying in
their place. And then by rising from that
death that he died in their place, verse 10 says, he brought life
and immortality, immortality, to light through the gospel. Never to die again. with him as he is. No longer mortal, no longer mortal
man. Immortality to light through
the gospel. Verse 11 says, where unto I'm
appointed a preacher. He said, this is the whole reason
why God called me to preach. It was to say that. Where unto
I'm appointed a preacher and an apostle. and a teacher of
the Gentiles. What a declaration. What a clear
portion of scripture. Now with that being declared,
for every soul who believes that, for every soul who believes that,
every soul who has been called by God to it, to know that, to
be so, and to love that, and to cling to that, This is the
result of that work in a child of God. This is what we've received because
of God's work to us, for us, in us, all right? Look at verse
seven. It says, four, because of all
of this, because of all of this. God hath not given us the spirit
of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. I want to take the rest of our
time to focus on the blessed spirit that we have received
because of Christ. The blessed spirit that God's
people have received because of Christ. This word spirit has
a lowercase s. OK, and it's talking about the
character. It's talking about the mindset.
It's talking about the heart of God's people. Their heart
toward God, their heart toward each other. Their heart toward the things
that have been revealed to them. And this particular verse, verse
seven, it grabbed my attention because when I read it, it made
me think of this congregation. It really seriously just made
me think of you individually, and it made me think of all of
us collectively, and it made me so thankful. It really made
me so thankful. Ephesians 4 says that all of
God's people, walk in the unity of God's Spirit, capital S. All of God's people walk, they
live in the unity of God's Spirit. And it says they do because with
God's people, there's one body, there's one Spirit, There's one
hope of our calling. All of God's people have the
same hope of their calling. We all have one Lord. You know,
there are thousands of Jesuses out there. Somebody made this
statement to me and it's so true. He said, with man and with religion
and with natural man, if everybody closed their eyes and you ask
each one of them to picture their version of Jesus, And then everybody
could open their eyes and see it. You'd have a hundred different
Jesus's. And that's true. Man makes up his own God, but
with God's people, there's only one Lord. We all have one Lord. There's
one body. There's one spirit. There's one hope of our calling.
We all have one Lord, one faith. You know, people talk about all
the faiths coming together, all the many faiths. God's people
have one faith. One baptism. We all have one
baptism, one confession. I died in him. I died with him.
I was risen with him. One God and father of us all
who is above us, through us, and in us. That's what we share. That is the spirit of unity that
we share. And the thought of that makes
me really happy. It makes me very happy. I thank
God for the spirit that he's given to us. Verse seven, Paul
said, it's not a spirit of fear. He said, for God hath not given
us the spirit of fear. Now we fear him. All of God's
people fear him in the sense that we reverence him. We bow
to Him. We worship Him. But in Christ, we don't fear
standing before Him. In Christ, do you fear standing
before God? We fear Him. We reverence Him,
knowing I have to be in Christ, outside of Christ. It's a fearful
thing. But in Christ, we don't fear
standing before the judgment throne of God. In Christ, we don't fear death. We don't really fear circumstances
and providence in Christ. And it's because he's put a real
trust in us toward him. I don't want, you know, trials
and troubles. I don't want that. And do I worry
about the fact that they are going to come? Yes. Yes, I do. We just had a Sunday
night message on that recently. But I still trust him. He's still,
by his grace, he's given me a heart and a spirit and a mind to trust
him. And we trust all these promises that
he's given to us. Every word that he's promised
to us, We trust Him. There's no fear in Christ. There's
no fear. Verse 7, For God hath not given
us the spirit of fear, but of power. Boy, I love this. I love this so much. God has
given us, this is the spirit that we share as God's people
because he did all of that. He's given us the spirit of power. The God that we serve is a God
of power. He's not a weak God. He's not
a helpless God. He's not a God who's trying to
do anything. He's not a God who wants to,
but can't or wants to, but you have to let him or wants to,
but you have to help him. The God that we serve is a God
of power. The salvation that has been given
to us is a salvation of power. We're not going to lose it. That's
the spirit that's been given to us. We're not going to lose
it. Because of that, the message
we preach is a message of power. I love this message. I do, I
love this message. I love this gospel. I love, I'm
so glad I don't have to preach a weak, wouldn't be a message. I'm so glad I don't have to give
a weak speech of lies. I'm so thankful I get to preach
a true message of power. Verse seven, for God hath not
given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love. You know there's true love in
God's people. I love loving you. I love you, and I mean it. And I would tell you more, but
I think I sound weird when I do it too much. I do. I really do. I love you. I love
loving you. I love loving with you. We love our sovereign God. While the world hates him, we
love him. Oh, we love him. Why do we love
him? Because he first loved us. We
love the fact that he first loved us. set his affection on us, called
us, spoke peace to us and kindness to us, gave gifts to us and married
us. He loved us and gave himself
for us, and that makes us love him. Oh, we love him. We collectively
love our sovereign, holy God, Jesus Christ. Jesus of Nazareth
is the sweetest name I know. We love his message. All right. I just preached, I believe the
most basic, simple, fundamental message that could possibly be
preached. Are you tired of hearing it? I'm not tired of preaching it.
I'm not tired of hearing it either. We love this message. You know,
when you really love something, I mean really love something,
you know, we're a very selfish people, but if you ever have
those moments where you really, really love something, you don't
try to change it. You don't try to change it. You
love it exactly how it is. If you really love something,
you love it exactly how it is. We love this word. While the
world is trying to change it, Trying to alter it. We love this
word. We love this gospel. We love
our Lord. And in Him, we love each other. We do. We love each other. I
know we're sinners. I know we are. I know that we
show our sin from time to time. I know that we can be a little
hard to get along with from time to time. I get that. But we still love each other. I love you and you love me. Even if I give you good reason
not to love me, I know you do. The love of Christ overrules
everything. This is the spirit that has been
given to God's people. The love of Christ, it just overrules
everything and it's a wonderful, amazing thing among the people
of God. Verse seven says, for God hath
not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and
of a sound mind. He has given us a right mind
concerning these things. That's the ground of our love
and unity, this oneness of a sound mind concerning God and concerning
His grace. It was sovereign grace. It was
sovereign love, it's sovereign mercy. He's given us a right
mind concerning his work, he's given us a right mind concerning
his glory. Our unity comes from the fact,
unlike false religion, we don't put the cart before the horse. He's given us a right mind on
these things. What I mean by that is we don't
put the work of man in front of the work of God. We don't
put the glory of man in front of the glory of God. We don't
put the work of man or the glory of man anywhere. We have a sound
mind on this. All the work and all the glory
goes to Him. And this is what we share. This is the spirit
that we share. Everything is ascribed to God
Almighty, Jesus Christ our Lord. That's what makes us love as
a congregation. If we want love to grow, then
let the message of Christ to grow. Let the word of Christ
to grow. In closing, just listen to these
other scriptures that described this spirit that God's people
get to share. Okay, listen to this. John 14
says we have the spirit of truth. Romans 1 says we have the spirit
of holiness. And you can just put Christ in
all these places. Christ is the truth. Christ is
our holiness. Romans 8 says we have the spirit
of life, Christ. Romans 8 also says we have the
spirit of adoption. 1 Corinthians 4 says we have the
spirit of meekness. Ephesians 1 says we have the
spirit of wisdom and revelation. Hebrews 10 says we have the spirit
of grace. Grace, it just let everything
be covered in grace. That's what God's people want.
Lord, just cover it with grace, cover us with grace. And then
first Peter four says we have the spirit of glory. What a blessing,
what a blessed people we are. What a blessed people we are,
who have been caused to realize and to say, he hath saved us
and called us with a 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. Lord, bless that spirit
among us. Bless it. Keep it with us. Unite
us in it. Make it to grow. For Christ's
sake. Amen.