2 Timothy chapter 1, beginning at verse 8, Paul says, Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner. You know, Paul was in prison at this time, and he was in prison because of the preaching of the gospel. His greatest enemies at that time were unbelieving Jews, who were his brothers in the flesh, but not in the spirit. And then Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles, and they hated that, that he would bring Gentiles into what he called the kingdom of God. And of course, Paul didn't do that, it was God. God has a people out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation, chosen before the foundation of the world, justified in Christ, and he's going to send preachers to preach the gospel and call them out by the power of the Spirit.

But Paul was in prison. They accused him wrongfully in a lot of ways. And so he says, now Timothy, the fact that I'm in prison is not reason for you to be ashamed of the testimony, the gospel, nor of the one who preaches it, the one who's in prison. Because he's there because of God's providence. Paul was God's prisoner. And it's amazing when you look at the history of this that Paul being in prison worked out to more of the spread of the gospel from Rome. And he mentions that in Philippians. He says, my bonds have worked out to the spread of the gospel.

And you remember in the book of Philemon, the escaped servant, Onesimus, who stole from Philemon and he fled to Rome. And he came into Paul's hired house. Paul had a limited prison there. He could live in this house and people could come and go and sing. And Onesimus got there, and Paul preached the gospel to Onesimus, and God saved him, and Paul sent him back to Philemon to do right, to make things right, because now they're brothers in Christ.

So it's amazing how many times we can look in our lives And we see things that we may have done wrong or acted wrongly, but God overruled them for our good. And we may have acted foolishly, but God overruled our foolishness with his wisdom and power. So there's nothing to be ashamed of here, Paul's saying to Timothy. He says, but be thou partaker, a participant, a fellowshiper, that's what that word is, of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God, and that's key. The persecution that Paul was going through, the persecution that Timothy is going through or would go through, are indications of God's grace to us in the issue of chastisement. but we endure these things not by our own power.

Now that's the way we have to think because that's the way it is. We're not going through this life for the glory of God in our own power and in our own wisdom, it's all of God. And he says it's according to the power of God, not we ourselves. All of salvation is by the power of God through the Lord Jesus Christ and all providence God is the one who, you know, you see these signs all over the place, God's in control, and people don't really believe that. But we do. He's in control. And I know it's hard to accept a lot of times. It's hard for me to accept because I just think it ought to be some other way, you know, in my mind. I'm not happy using a cane and stuff like that. Being pain and all. But that's the way it is, and God has a purpose for it. And I'm going to accept it.

Now that doesn't make me be fatalistic. I still go to doctors, still take medicine, I'm trying to get better, all of that. And if it's God's will, by His power, I'll get better. But if it's not, that's the way it is. And so we believe God. We put our souls and our eternal well-being in His hands. and he's made us to even do that. We wouldn't do that apart from his power and goodness. We'd either shake our fist in his face or we'd just be again fatalistic. So understand that. It's all according to the power of God. Salvation is the gift of God according to the power of God and the wisdom of God.

he says be the partaker and the fellowship here is in the gospel, a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel. Now sometimes we go through afflictions because of bad behavior, bad activity and that's nothing honorable about that. All that does is just cast a poor light upon ourselves and it causes us, by God's providence, to think about repentance. You see, Paul, when he got into the prison house, he didn't say, oh, I repent of what got me here. No, he says, it's the afflictions of the gospel. And so Peter has a lot to say about that in his letters when he talks about when we suffer, make sure that we suffer for righteousness sake and not for sins.

And I know we're gonna suffer for sins. You know, even our physical bodies breaking down and getting old is the consequence of our sin. And I believe that's one of the best ways that God brings us especially later on in life, if we live to an old age, he brings us to hate sin. You see, I've told you a story about the preacher. He said, I hate sin, not the consequences, but just sin. And I thought to myself, you're just not enough. You don't hate it enough. But because of these consequences, and we see what sin has done to this world, think about that. What it's done, what it's doing to us. And we can say, we hate it. I wish it was gone. But there are too many times in our lives, in our inner thoughts, our dreams, and all of that, we relish it. And you know, it's just something that we have that sinful nature. Human nature, sinful human nature, there's that side of us. It's not, and we have the Holy Spirit, and he's given us a new nature. That's not two people inside of me now. It's not Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It may look like that, but that's not what it is. It's just these two powerful principles working within our minds and our hearts at war. And it's a constant battle.

So he says, you know, be a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God. Now look at verse nine. He says, who hath saved us and called us with an holy calling.

Now that holy calling is the invincible, irresistible calling of the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the gospel. It's a calling that only God's elect receive. The natural man will not receive the calling because it is not this invincible holy calling that God sends to his elect. The natural man, if left to himself, will never answer this calling positively.

And that's what the Bible says, the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them. And the Bible tells us that those who receive Christ, they don't do it because of the power of the flesh, or the power of blood inheritance, natural birth. They don't receive it because of the works of the flesh, nor of their own will.

That's what's so bad about this idea of free will. You know, when people say, well, I made the choice. I made the difference. God says no. He says he makes the choice. He makes the difference. Because he wants that glory. He has that glory.

So when people talk about free will, you gotta ask them what they're talking about. Now we have a will, even as lost people. Unregenerate, rather, before we're born again. And we can make choices, we do every day. But by nature, until we're born again, and that's what this holy calling is about, it's the new birth, it's regeneration and conversion.

Regeneration mean the giving of spiritual life to the dead. And conversion, bringing them to look to Christ and believe in him and repent of dead works.

Before this, you know, we'll make a lot of choices. We can make moral choices. I can choose to rob a bank or I can choose not to. I mean, extreme example. We can make that choice, but we cannot because of our natural depravity and darkness and and aversion to the things of the glory of God, we cannot make the right choice when it comes to salvation and serving God. And that's what the scripture teaches us.

So those people who say, like for example, I'm gonna deal with this in the message later, they say, well, God loves everybody. Well, he doesn't, he says he doesn't. And Christ died for everybody, he didn't, and he says he didn't. Now you make the difference with your choice. You're inviting him into your heart. The Bible doesn't say that. There's nothing in the Bible like that. Paul and Peter and James and John, they never stood before a crowd and said, now he died for you, he loves you, now you make the choice. They never said that.

Now they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved, that's true. But where does that belief come from? Where does that trust come from? Where does that faith come from? It comes from God. And God gives it, and the Bible says not everyone has it. Why not? Because God sovereignly gives it. He's the potter, we're the clay.

Now, people say, well, if that's true, I won't sit, you know, people use faulty, depraved human reasoning when they hear things like that. When I heard it, when the Lord was bringing me to see the truth, the first thing that popped into my mind, well, if God chose some people, I wanna know who they are and how they know they're there. And he tells us they are those who have submitted to Christ as the Lord our righteousness. And so we seek the Lord. Now, if we seek him, we know, because the Bible tells us that he sought us first. My sheep hear my voice, he said. He died for his sheep.

So anyway, that's what this holy calling is. It's the calling, it's the irresistible calling. Because if this calling comes to you, you will not resist it. And some, I've told you about the guy who said on TV, he said, well, does God bring you kicking and screaming against your will? No. You see, God, this is according to the power of God, okay? And what can the power of God do? He can give you a new will. He can change, he can give you a new heart. What is that, a new way of thinking? A new way of operating, a new motivation? A new meekness, willing to submit. He can make you willing in the day of his power. He doesn't bring you kicking and screaming against your will. He changes your will. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. That's what the psalmist said. And that's great.

So has he made you willing? Because if he has, that's his elect. Has he brought you to faith in Christ, the true Christ of the Bible? So Paul says, who hath saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works. It's not of him that runneth, nor of him that willeth, but of God who showeth mercy, but according to his own purpose and grace. Now here we're coming to the eternal aspect of salvation in the Bible.

His purpose, what is God's purpose? It's to glorify himself in the salvation of his people. And how does he save them? By his grace, unearned, undeserved. But upon what ground does God do this? According to his own purpose and grace, which was given us, his elect, in Christ Jesus before the world began.

Did it before the world began? Now that's the eternal aspect of salvation. God purposed, I've got in your lesson, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. To take out from among the world a people for his name, his glory. To have a people to show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light. He saved us, he called us. separated us in that sense. And he says before the world began, before the world was created. Now that's the eternal aspect of it. This is what was present in God's mind and heart always. I mean, think about it, and it's mind boggling.

When we talk about eternity, we don't even have a proper language to really describe eternity. That's why so many people have such a problem with it. He says it was given us in Christ Jesus. That means when he gave it to us, it's given to us through a representative, through a surety. through an appointed mediator, savior, redeemer. That's Christ. Christ, who is the second person of the Trinity, co-equal with the Father and the Spirit, who always was, always is, and always will be. Having no beginning, having no end.

Christ, who in his deity, never changes. Now in his humanity, there was change. We'll talk about that. because he was born a babe in a manger, a babe, and then laid in a manger, and he grew. There was change in his humanity, sinless humanity now. But in his deity, he never changed. Neither does the Father or the Spirit. So God chose a people in Christ.

Read Ephesians chapter one sometime when you get an opportunity. And so what is it to be in Christ? Well, it's to be chosen in Christ, adopted in Christ, and it's to be justified. And that's why we speak of justification as an eternal reality, a present reality in the mind of God. God's mind did not change towards his people. We were vessels of mercy afore, before, prepared unto glory. And so, when we go through all the aspects of salvation, God's mind never changed.

And our justification, the forgiveness of our sins, the righteousness that's imputed to us, was always based upon what Christ would come and do in time. And we'll talk about that in just a minute. But it's always there. God was reconciled to us, 2 Corinthians 5 says, He reconciled Himself to His people. Now, we fell in Adam. Now that's a time issue, but we'll get there in just a moment. But this is the eternal aspect of salvation in the mind of God that never changes before the world began. And that's a marvelous thing.

That God had you in His mind and in His heart before this world was created. And I look at it this way, and it boggles my mind again. There's never been a time that God sat down and thought out, you know, I think at Randy Wages, I think I'm gonna choose him. He never did that. Or Susan, Robert, Jane, David, Mark, Becky. David and Edith and Frank, Cindy, Leon, Rosa. You too. I mean, this is not the way it happened. You know, people, we think like that because we don't have any choice. But we've always been in the mind of God. always and it's never changed. But now let's go on, look at verse 9 or verse 10. Now this was done before the world began but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Now the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ refers to His incarnation, the womb of the Virgin Mary, His birth, People are thinking about the birth of Christ these days. Most people who think about it don't really know, understand it, know what it's about, and they don't carry it on to the end of the thing. But he was born of a virgin, appointed by God, and this is time now. This is salvation in time, okay? Because God in his eternal mind always had us in mind and gave us to Christ before the world began, that doesn't mean that there's no time events.

But God is the sovereign over all time. He's the appointer of all time. That's what Ecclesiastes 3 is about. There is a time and for every season, all the purposes of time. So there was a time that Christ came into the world to save his elect. Frank, Cindy, Rosa, Melissa, all of it. There was a time that he sent his son. The Bible says in Galatians 4 verse 4, in the fullness of the time, God sent forth his son. Made of a woman, that's the incarnation. his human body had a beginning. Now his deity had no beginning and has no, his human body had a beginning in the womb of the virgin by the power of the spirit, a sinless incarnation.

And he came and he united himself to that humanity, that sinless humanity, born of the virgin, laid in the manger, taken to Egypt, back to Nazareth, and all that, and he began to grow in wisdom and stature That's to be attributed to his sinless humanity now. In his deity, he knew everything. He didn't have to grow in wisdom and stature. And how do you parse that to fit our understanding? You don't. Because God is so much higher than us. Aren't you glad? He doesn't think like we think.

But Christ appeared, that's a time, that's his incarnation. And then it says that by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, well how'd he do that? By his obedience unto death on the cross. That's redemption. That took place in time. What God established and gave us in Christ before time The ground of that, see there had to be a proper ground upon which God could save sinners like us. And we fell in time, we fell into a state of sin and depravity. We're born in time physically. Christ came in time to redeem us from our sins. That blood had to be shed in time because that's the ground upon which God gave us to Christ before time.

God chose us in Christ, justified us in Christ, adopted us in Christ, all based upon what Christ would come in time to accomplish, what? Abolishing death. And he says, verse 10, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. Now that's our new birth. That's regeneration and conversion. when he's brought life and immortality to light. That means we can see it through the gospel. Now, it's not the gospel by itself that brings it to light, life and immortality. It's not just saying words. Now, the gospel words are beautiful. The gospel is God's power unto salvation. It's not just saying the words, and it's not the gospel words itself that gives you life and that brings, helps you to see life and immortality. It's the Holy Spirit who does that using the gospel.

Now there's a lot of people who'll say, well, the Holy Spirit doesn't use any means like the gospel. Well, all I can do is read verses like 2 Timothy 1.10. that he brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. And one of the ways that Christ described the new birth was that when it happens, he gives you eyes to see, spiritual eyes. He gives you ears to hear, spiritual ears.

Well now, if he doesn't use the gospel, when he gives you eyes to see, what in the world are you seeing? If he gives you ears to hear, what in the world are you hearing? It's the gospel message wherein the glorious person and finished work of Christ is revealed as the Lord our righteousness.

And Paul says in verse 11, whereunto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles, for the which cause I also suffer these things. This is why I suffer, he said.

Nevertheless, now look, this is one of my favorite verses. I'm not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he's able. Don't you love that? He is able.

Now, this verse is not talking about our abilities, it's talking about Christ's ability. That he is able to do what? To keep, to guard, that which I have committed unto him against that day. And what day is he talking about there? The day of judgment, the day of his second coming. We could say the day of our death, because that's true too, but I believe Paul has in mind here that day is the day of judgment.

In other words, he's able to keep me, save me, keep me, and bring me through the judgment and the glory, because of that which I have committed unto him. Now what have I committed unto Christ? And here's the answer. My whole salvation. Not just part of it. It's not me and Jesus got a good thing going. It's not partly him and partly me. It's not even 99 and 44 100% him and the rest me. It's all of it. It's in his hands, committed to him.

And those who look at that doctrine and say, well, then I don't have to obey, I don't have to do, they don't know Christ. Because that grace, which brings us to glory, is not just a doctrine. It is a doctrine, and I love the doctrine. But it's not just a doctrine, but it's a dynamic. It puts within our hearts a desire to glorify and honor and please God our Savior.

And that's why we're in a battle. To fight the flesh and to glorify God.