The Apostle Paul, continuing to teach and encourage Timothy, a lot of what he says in both 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy is simply reminding Timothy of the grace of God. And we need that reminder. You go throughout the week and things happen, some good, some bad. But we need to be reminded that what we are, as Paul wrote in another passage, he said, I am what I am by the grace of God. And that's with all our shortcomings, our sins, and the very fact that we realize that our sins cannot be charged to us. Our many sins, think about that. If it were possible for any of us to sit down and take a tally, of the sins of a day, you would probably be sickened by how much that is. But to realize that each day for a believer, a sinner saved by grace, justified in Christ, is a day of grace. And whether we have a good day or a bad day, whatever, whether we do what's right or what's wrong sometimes we do what's right sometimes we do what's wrong and we realize that by nature as we fell in Adam and born in this world we're God haters think about that when we were enemies Christ died for us and so You know, that's meant to establish our relationship with each other as the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts.

And so he starts out in verse eight, he says, remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David, and that's an emphasis on his humanity and the prophecies, the prophecies of the Old Testament, Christ is God manifest in the flesh. The only way he could be the seed of David applies to his sinless humanity that he came through the tribe of Judah. Remember old Jacob made that prophecy. The scepter will not depart from Judah until Shiloh come. That's a prophecy of Christ. And so as God working all things according to his will, declaring the end from the beginning brought the humanity of Christ through the seed of David. And that came through Mary, who, you know, somebody said one time that Joseph was of the tribe of Judah. Well, so was Mary. She was of that tribe too. And so he's the seed of David. One place in Isaiah, he's called the branch of Jesse, who was David's father. So he's emphasizing the humanity of Christ because Christ died He died to save us from our sins. He died, and how did He, why does that save us from our sins? Because it satisfies God's justice against us. It empties the cup of God's wrath that we earned and deserved. And Christ did that for us, not because we loved Him, not even because we believed in Him. but because of the glory of God and the salvation of His people. And His love towards us was totally, totally undeserved.

And so when you look at someone in this life, especially a brother or sister in Christ, and you say they don't deserve my love, well now you better think about that. That's none of us, they don't deserve our love, we don't deserve, we are unworthy. And so Christ of the seed of David was what? He was raised from the dead. The resurrection of Christ, the pinnacle of his obedience unto death to secure our salvation and final glory. And His resurrection, we're told in Romans chapter 4, was because of our justification. He died. He was buried. He was raised again the third day. He's not dead. He's alive. He raised from the dead. He appeared unto all the witnesses and then He ascended unto the Father where He lives now to make intercession for us. And even in our problems as saved sinners, he still makes intercession for us. We don't deserve it even now. But he does so. And then Paul writes, according to my gospel. And I love the way he puts that. That means as stated in and appropriate to the gospel that I preach. And Paul says it's my gospel. Not because he originated it, or wrote it, or concocted it. but God made it his. And so I can say my gospel. You can say your gospel. That's the good news.

And now in verse nine, he shows that this is the very reason that I suffer trouble. Preaching this great message of salvation for sinners and unconditional love and the righteousness of God that we have and think about that. When you stand before God at judgment, you stand there in the righteousness of God. Because that's the imputed righteousness of Christ. In which he can find no flaw. Thank God he doesn't look at us without Christ. And that's our identification with Christ. That's what the gospel teaches. That when Christ died, I died. When he was buried, I was buried. And when he arose again, I arose again. And when I go to be with him, and when I go to appear before the Father, I'll be dressed in, as the old top lady said, dressed in, I think it was top lady, dressed in garments not my own, in other words, not of my own making. They are mine, because he gave them to me. But they're not of my making. They didn't originate with me. They're not my works or my will or anything that come from me. It all came from him.

And so he says, preaching that message, think about it. Now this is how sinful man is by nature. Now you can talk about the dregs of society. You can talk about the drunks, the whoremongers, the druggists, and you'll see some awful, awful things. Think about over in Africa where they're killing so-called other people, slaughtering them, and that's awful. And you say, well, that's the pinnacle of the sin of man. No, it's not. Now, it's sinful, and it shouldn't happen, and we should never promote or ignore that stuff. But the pinnacle of the sin of man is his hatred for this message. Think about it, Paul says, I suffer trouble, verse nine, wherein I suffer trouble as an evildoer. What he's talking about is how the people who hate our Savior and hate the message of the cross and his righteousness, they who are evil call us evil. That which is admired and applauded of men is an abomination to God and he says even unto bonds, that's why he was in prison. He wasn't in prison for stealing or anything like that, he was in prison for preaching this message in a place where they didn't have a constitution like we have that protected him.

Now he did have some protection though because you know the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the Herodians, they would have killed him Remember he appealed to Caesar because he was a Roman citizen? So he had some protection there but that was the purpose of God because God meant to put him in Rome and think about how much of the gospel got out and how far even when Paul was in chains. Only God could do that.

Well, today we have a Constitution. Now, it may not stand up, you know, and I think about this especially for our children and our grandchildren. We don't know what's coming. You and I both know that there are people in Congress right now who would outlaw what we preach and call it hate speech. But it's the greatest message of love that's ever hit the world.

So Paul writes, whereunto I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even unto bonds, but the word of God is not bound. Wow. Now you and I both know that if it weren't for God, the word of God would be bound. They'd shut us up, they'd wipe it off the face of the earth. But God has a purpose for all things. And for Paul, it was especially, I know it takes the grace of God, for us to recognize when we get in trouble how this can work for good. We do. You get in trouble and something happens. We know the Bible says all things work together for good to them that love God who are the called according to His purpose. Now we know that. But when we get in trouble it's difficult for us to really see how in the world is this gonna work for good? But I know it's going to. And that's what brings up sinful doubts in us and murmurings. You know what a murmurer is, it's a doubter. It's not just complaining, it is complaining, but it's a doubter.

And what Paul, he recognized early on that the fact that he was in prison was going to work for the glory of God. And it took the grace of God and the revelation of God to show him that. And that's why when he wrote to the church at Philippi, he said, don't let my being in prison discourage you, because the word of God is not bound. And it's what he's telling Timothy. You know, somebody, you can imagine when Paul got in prison and the word started going around, how a lot of people reacted. Oh no, no, the world's gonna end, you know. This message isn't true, all that stuff. Paul says the word of God is not bound. Because you cannot bind the Word of God. You cannot stop it. It's going to go where God wants it to go, and it's going to do what God wants it to do.

And I'll show you that. Look at verse 10. Now this is interesting. Therefore, he says, I endure all things, even the trouble, for who? For the elect's sake. Paul wasn't trying to beg sinners to let Jesus into their heart. He wasn't at all, that's not biblical. He was seeking the sheep. Now he didn't know who they were until God brought them to faith in Christ. He may have been preaching in Athens to hundreds of people in Acts 17. So are there some elect out there? Paul would say, I don't know, but if there are, maybe this will be the time that God will bring them into the kingdom. So I'm going to preach to every one of them. You always hear the story about the preacher in England, where he's preaching election. And somebody asked him, said, well, if you believe in elect, why don't you preach only the elect? And his answer is, well, you go around, put a mark on them, and I will. Well, that's crazy. Only God puts the mark on them. He knew that. But we preach to anybody who'll listen. Witness to anybody who'll listen. But we know that if God sends the Spirit to give them life and bring them to faith in Christ and to submit to Him as their righteousness, that's God's elect. And God's not willing that any of them should perish but that all should come to repentance. That's what Peter was talking about.

So why do you go through all this trouble, Paul? Why do you suffer all these things, jail and all that? You know, he could have been a star in the Pharisees, with the Pharisees, if he had preached their message of works. He was a rising star, Saul of Tarsus, fighting heresy. But that which he used to call heresy, he now calls holy. And what he used to call holy, he now calls heresy. God brought him to repentance. Now God, if you're saved, if you're a believer, God brought you to repentance too. And that which you used to think was holy and right, you now see as evil. And that's what Paul said, I endure all things for the elect's sake, look at, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. See, it's a matter of obtaining something. It's not a matter of working for it. But you obtain it. And when you obtain it, you can't turn it down. Because you see the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, I was talking to a fellow about this on the phone last week. Talking about the work of the Spirit in the book of Acts, you know, it seems to be a little different and all that.

Well, first of all, there's the work of the Holy Spirit in conviction. Now, that's what happens to every one of God's people in time when they're born again. And it's called a convincing, a conviction. You can read about it in John chapter 16. He convicts, it says, which means convinces the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Now, if you're convinced that something's true, you can't leave it, you can't not accept it. that's what the Spirit does in the new birth. By his power, he gives you a new heart, a new mind, a new knowledge, a new spirit and you receive that which is given.

But now there's also the Spirit's work in power, in providence and that's what he did in the book of Acts when he gave people the ability to speak the gospel in other languages, things like that. Gave them power of miracles. Protected them. Because they didn't have this back then. You know what this is, don't you? This is the word of God. And it's now complete. So that's why if you ever hear any preacher say, well God revealed something new to me. Get away from them. because there's nothing new under the sun, Solomon said that.

But we have the word of God, and the spirit works through the word of God. So he says, I'm going through this for the election, I know God has a people. If it were up to men and women to make the gospel successful, then what we're doing here today is futile. Do you understand that? Why? Because the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. Neither can he know them. They're spiritually discerned. And he didn't have any spirit. No spirit of life. He's spiritually dead. So if it were up to men and women that we preach to, without the power of conviction from God in Christ, we might as well just be banging a cymbal or a drum.

will work. Look at verse 10, or verse 11. He says, it is a faithful saying for if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him. Now this is what I'm talking about, the identification with Christ. How am I dead with him? Well, when he obeyed unto death, he did it not as a private person, and he didn't do it for himself, He did it as the representative of His people. That's how we're identified, He represented me. How do I know He represented me? Because I believe in Him, that's the evidence. I'm gonna talk about evidences of spiritual life today.

So how do I know He represented me? He's the surety of His people. Our debt was placed upon Him, our sin debt. I believe it was before the foundation of the world in the covenant of grace because he was made our surety, he's the surety of the covenant so our sins were imputed to him and so he died, was buried and rose again as my surety and he's my substitute, he did it in my place being identified with me as a human being, yet he was without sin in himself, but he died for the sins of his sheep imputed to him. And that's why we have his righteousness imputed to us. And then he died as my redeemer. And I'm identified with him in it. He bought and paid for me. He satisfied the debt completely. and established a perfect righteousness whereby God is just to justify his people.

So it's a faithful saying, for if we're dead with him, we shall also live with him. Now, you know what that verse says? That verse says everybody for whom he died is gonna live. There's not gonna be any in hell for whom he died. Because if we be dead with him, we'll live with him.

Verse 12 goes on talking about our persons in this life. It says, if we suffer, we shall also reign with him. Suffer for the gospel. He's not talking about all suffering there. There's all kinds of suffering in this life. You know that. Paul suffered. He just said, when I suffer trouble. Some people suffer with sickness. Some people suffer with poverty. You read about it in the scripture, even many of God's people. The Bible does say that God cared for them and they wouldn't go hungry or something like that. But there's all kinds of different suffering. But what he's talking about is the suffering of the cross. the suffering over the preaching of the gospel, and our public profession and identification with Christ.

So he says, if we suffer with him, we shall also reign with him. But now he says, if we deny him, he also will deny us. Well, how do you jibe that with Peter, who denied him three times? Well, the denying him here refers to apostasy. All right. It doesn't refer to things like what Peter went through. Peter went through because of his human cowardice and he was afraid. Later on, Peter didn't turn back as a coward, did he? Peter was murdered, killed for the gospel.

Now tradition said that Peter was crucified upside down. I don't know if that's true or not but it doesn't matter. He suffered for the gospel and by the grace of God. And I know this now, I'm quick to say this. If any of us stand fast and firm in the face of death, we know it's the grace of God, don't you? It's not our courage and goodness that'll do it. It's the grace of God that'll do it.

But if we If our lives are a continual denial of Christ as the Lord and Savior of our souls, then He'll deny us. But that's not that we lose our salvation now, you know that. They went out from us, we know that.

But now look at verse 13. If we believe not, yet He abideth faithful, He cannot deny Himself. What do you mean if we believe not? We all have times of sin and doubt. I'll use Peter again not that I'm wanting to pick on Peter necessarily but you remember what he did in Antioch? He misrepresented the Lord when he got up and changed tables because he didn't want to see those Jewish legalists, he didn't want them to see him eating with Gentiles, that's what he's talking about.

You remember when Peter approached Christ Christ told him about his impending death and he said not so Lord you know and remember what Christ said to him, get thee behind me Satan. He told Peter later on he said Satan hath desired to sift thee as wheat but I prayed for thee. We're going to have times of doubt but Christ cannot deny himself. If he denied us over our remaining sinfulness he'd have to deny himself. Think about that, and he's not gonna do that. He's faithful.

And you know, that's the very point that Paul's, that the writer of Hebrews is making in Hebrews 11 and 12, when he wrote the Hall of Faith. You remember, he said Abraham was a faithful man. Do you ever know of any times that Abraham doubted, and wasn't faithful? I do. Remember when he went into Egypt? He told Pharaoh that his wife was his sister because he feared for his life. He thought Pharaoh would kill him to get the woman. So I mean, all kinds of things like that. You can talk about Job, you can talk about all these people. But that's what he's saying.

If we believe not, yet he abideth Pharaoh. He's talking about times of doubt in verse 13. So verse 12, he's talking about total apostasy. Because that's the only reason Christ would deny us. Not that we lost salvation, but that we never did believe. In verse 13, he's talking about times of sinful doubt. And remember in Hebrews 12, verse one talks about the sin that so easily besets us. That's sinful doubt. And if you don't believe that, just think about this. Any time that we complain against God's providence, That's sinful doubt. Anytime.

Remember the children, the Hebrew children murmuring, of course they were, a lot of them were apostates. But he says the cure for that is what? Running the race of grace, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. So he cannot, he cannot deny himself. because that would be ungodly and he's God manifest in the flesh. So understand that. He uses we here, I'll just close out with this, he says if we believe not, he uses it in the generic sense that no matter what happens in any individual case for a believer, a child of God, Christ cannot Deny himself. He's always faithful to his promise. Okay.