Completing Thee, no work of mine
Could take, dear Lord, the place of Thine Thy blood hath pardon
bought for me, And I shall stand complete in Thee. Yea, justified, O blessed thought,
And sanctified, Salvation wrought Thy blood hath pardon bought
for me And glorified My God shall be Complete in Thee no more shall
sin be all I do and am within thy grace hath set this prisoner
free and I shall stand complete in thee Yea, justified, O blessed
thought, And sanctified, salvation wrought, Thy blood hath pardon
bought for me, And glorified My God shall be Complete in Thee Each need supplied
And no good thing To me denied Since Thou my portion, Lord,
wilt be, I need none else complete in Thee. Yea, justified, O blessed
thought, and sanctified, Salvation wrought, Thy blood hath pardon
bought for me, And glorified my God shall be. Dear Savior, when Before thy bar All tribes and
tongues Assembled are Among thy chosen will I be At thy right
hand Complete in thee ? Yea, justified ? ? O blessed thought
? ? And sanctified ? ? Salvation wrought ? ? Thy blood hath pardoned
? ? Bought for me ? ? And glorified ? ? My God shall be ? Let's open our Bibles again to
2 Timothy 2. 2 Timothy 2. We've given great attention to, and pray
we do every time we come together, the faithfulness of our God.
He has been faithful. And without His faithfulness,
we would have no hope. I can remember 25 years ago,
resigning as a pastor of a group of people that didn't want to
hear the gospel. And I sent out a letter to all
the members of the church told him I wouldn't be back and Michael
called me. First one to call me said, we
like what you're preaching. I've got a place we can meet.
And we met in Michael's flower shop that he was the manager
of 25 years ago today. And Michael, I'm thankful for
you and thankful for all these years of faithful encouragement. You have your Bibles open to
2 Timothy 2, verse 11. It is a faithful scene. just for a minute or two, I want
to repeat some of the things I said earlier, because we have
some folks in here this hour that weren't here the first hour.
But these next three verses is a song. It's a hymn. the early
church sang. It's written in poetic prose,
and Caleb, I mentioned the first hour that maybe you could put
these words to song, but these are, this is what this was, and
it was a summary of the gospel that the church joined their
hearts together in rejoicing in God's faithfulness. And the
first stanza is If we be dead with him, we shall also live
with him. If when Christ died, I died, then when Christ was
risen from the dead, I was risen from the dead, and he is my life,
and my life is hid in him. And I'm in him even now, seated at
the right hand of the majesty on high, looking to all the blessings
of God being in Christ in heavenly places, as the scripture says.
so if we be dead with him, if when Christ faithfully laid down
his life for his sheep, I was found in him, then I have the
hope that when he raised from the dead, I was raised from the
dead, and when he ascended up on high, I ascended up on high,
and And I'm looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of
my faith, setting my affections on things above, where Christ
is seated at the right hand of God. He is my life. Verse two of the second stanza
of this hymn says, if we suffer, And that word means to forbear,
it means to remain. And if we remain to the end,
then we shall also reign with him. There's our hope. looking to Christ. As you receive
Christ Jesus, the Lord so walk ye in him. We never grow beyond
our faith in Christ and our dependence upon Christ. As a matter of fact,
as our faith grows, we see more and more of our need for him. We see more and more of our lack
of any righteousness or any hope of salvation found in and of
ourselves. and growing in grace and the
knowledge of Christ is, well, as we've often said, the way
up is down. The way up is down. God's people
who have been given the faith to look to Christ for their salvation
grow more and more dependent upon him and more and more less
confident in themselves. Scripture says that we are the
true circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, rejoice in
Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. We cannot find
any hope of our salvation, any confidence in our standing before
God based on anything that we've done. Christ had to do it for
me. Salvation truly is all of the
Lord. It's of the Lord and election.
in the covenant of grace before the foundation of the world.
It's of the Lord in redemption when the Lord Jesus Christ bought
his people with the precious price of his blood. It's of the
Lord in regeneration. We didn't just decide one day
we were going to accept Jesus and let the world talk like that.
Oh no. No, the Lord arrested us on our
Damascus road to destruction and stopped us in our tracks
and made us to believe on him. That's the way salvation comes. It's not a decision that you
make. It's a work of grace in the heart
when God makes us to believe. Amen? That's of the Lord. That's
of the Lord. and continuing to remain faithful,
to remain, as the scripture says, if we remain, continuing to look
to Christ for all our salvation, then we have the hope of reigning
with him. And if we deny him, he will deny
us. That is to deny that Jesus is
the Christ, the Son of the living God. It's not to not step up
to the plate when you need to, to confess Him openly. You know, we've all done what
Peter did. Peter denied knowing Christ. He didn't deny that Jesus was
the Christ. No believer can do that. The
Lord said, if you deny me, I'll deny you. We cannot deny that
Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God. We know and
are sure of that. He alone has the words of eternal
life. We have no place else to go.
That's the way. Let me give you a simple illustration.
I'm sure you've had this happen to you. lizard is loose in your house
I had one the other day and I was trying to catch him you know
how quick those things can be and and he goes here and there
and and I thought just stop and let me pick you up I'll put you
outside so you can live because if you stay in the house in a
couple of days I'm gonna find you dead somewhere all dried
up cuz you're not gonna be able to survive in the house you've
had that happen and Every attempt I tried to be merciful to this
lizard resulted in him rebelling against me and running. And sooner or later, I'm going
to find him somewhere dead in the house. Conversely, one time I had a
lizard, I had him cornered. He had no place to go. I mean,
he was just right there in the corner of the room and couldn't
go up, couldn't go right. And I was able to, he didn't
have a decision to make. He could not escape. You see,
if you have a way of escape, you'll take it. If you have a
way of getting away from God, you're gonna take it. If there's
a decision involved in salvation, you're going to decide against
the Lord. But what the Lord does, When
he shows mercy upon his lizards, he corners them. He gives them
no place else to go. It's not an option. He traps
them in Christ and he causes them to see that their only righteousness
is in him. And they've got, they say with
Peter, Lord, where shall we go? Thou alone has the words of eternal
life. And we know and are sure that
thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. But that's a work of grace because
like I said, if you've, if salvation has anything to
do with the decision that I make, I'm gonna, I'm gonna be like
that lizard. I'm gonna run and hide. You know
what Adam did? Hid from God. Adam, where art
thou? God knew where Adam was. Adam
needed to know that he was hiding. Lord, I hid myself. That's what
Adam said. I was afraid and I hid myself. And the Lord cornered him, killed
a lamb, covered his nakedness, made him righteous in Christ. Look at verse 13. If we believe
not, The Lord's not talking about believing on the Lord Jesus Christ
for your salvation here. Every child of God believes on
Christ. He's talking about being unfaithful. And I suppose we could say that
he's talking to the elect person who has not yet been regenerated,
if they believe not. He's faithful. Look at this verse. If we believe not, yet he abideth
faithful, for he cannot deny himself. He cannot deny himself. So if we, which we will by nature,
decide that we're not gonna believe on Christ, he'd change our mind,
doesn't he? You know, that's what repentance
is. It's having a changed mind. And the Lord cannot deny himself.
No, no, that's one of mine. That's one of mine. That's a
part of my bride. And turn with me to Ephesians chapter
five. Ephesians chapter five. We'll begin reading in verse
25. Before we read verse 25, let's go to verse 32. because verse 25 through 32 is
summarized here. This is a great mystery, but
I speak concerning Christ and his church. So what's being said
in these verses about the husband and the wife relationship is
a physical picture of the mystical union that Christ as the bridegroom
has with his bride, the church. And he begins in verse 25, husbands,
love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave
himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with
the washing of water by the word. Here's the way the Lord cleanses
his people. of his own will begat he us by the word of truth. And so the Lord Jesus uses the
preaching of the gospel. Men count it as foolishness,
but God says through the preaching of the gospel, he is pleased
to save them which believe. And so here he's likening this
marriage union to Christ and his church. And he says that
he might present it to himself, a glorious church, not having
spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and
without blemish, undefiled. How is a sinner like you and
me going to be holy and without blemish, without sin, without
any fault in the sight of God, undefiled? Well, to be found
in him. We're going to have Christ to
stand in our stead. And so he goes on to say in verse
28, so ought men to love their own wives as their own bodies.
He that loveth his wife loveth himself. If we be, leave not. If we believe not. Yet he remaineth
faithful, for he cannot deny himself. When the Lord Jesus
Christ loved his bride, he was loving himself. He was loving
him, he cannot deny himself. For no man ever hated his own
flesh, but nourished and cherished it, even as the Lord the church.
Oh, if we believe not, Yet he remaineth faithful for he cannot
deny himself. Man says, I won't believe. Well,
if you belong to the Lord, you will. You will believe. Why? Because the Lord cannot
deny himself. He loves his bride and he will
see to it. That you have union with Him.
That you be given faith to believe on Him. You see, there again,
this matter of salvation is not a matter of decision. It's a
work of grace. And though a man say, I'm not
going to believe. That rich young ruler walked
away sad, but we know whoever he was, that eventually the Lord
saved him because the scripture says the Lord loved him. The
Lord loved him. We know that God only loves his
elect. This idea that God loves everybody
and Christ died for everybody and God wants everybody to be
saved is just not true. It's not true. He loves his bride. He loves his church. And if we
believe not, yet he remaineth faithful for he cannot deny himself. He loves himself, he loves his
body. For this cause shall a man leave
his father. I'm sorry, look at verse 30.
For we are members of his body and of his flesh and of his bones. We're the body of Christ. He
cannot deny himself. Abraham, denied Sarah as his
wife. Isaac denied Rebekah as his wife
when they were down in Egypt. The Lord Jesus Christ would never
deny his wife, ever. And even when those men did that,
and they can be accused of having believed not God, yet the Lord
remained faithful for he cannot deny himself. The Lord did not
allow Pharaoh, in either one of those cases, to have Abraham
or Isaac's wife, to have Sarah or Rebecca. Why? Because God
cannot deny himself. When we are unfaithful, when
that sin which does so easily beset us, the sin of unbelief,
causes us to look away from Christ, to try to find our comfort and
our peace in things outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. He cannot
deny himself. He remaineth faithful. He continues
to bring his bride back to himself. He brings us to faith and repentance
every day. This is our faithful God. He's
faithful. He's faithful. For this cause
shall a man leave his father and his mother and should be
joined unto his wife and they shall be one flesh. And that's
exactly what happened when the Lord Jesus Christ left the glories
of heaven and came into this world and united himself to his
bride. It's what happened on Calvary's
cross when He bore their sins and they died in Him. And He
raised from the dead and He was risen and we were risen together
with Him to life eternal. This is a great mystery. When
the Bible speaks of a mystery, it's not speaking of something
strange or mysterious. It's speaking of something hidden.
This is a hidden truth. This is something that can only
be revealed by the grace of God. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the spirit of God. They are spiritually discerned.
The light of the gospel has to be shined in our hearts for us
to believe this, for us to see that our union with Christ as
his bride is the hope of our salvation, not our faithfulness. Not our faithfulness. If we believe
not, how many times in the last 25 years have we believed not? Yet he remaineth faithful for
he cannot deny himself. He cannot do it. I'm so thankful
that there are things that our God cannot do. Scripture says, that our God
cannot change. The only person that immutability
can be ascribed to, the only thing that immutability can be
ascribed to is God. He's the only one that changes
not. He said, I am the same yesterday,
today and forever. And I change not. I am the Lord and I change not. Therefore you sons of Jacob are
not consumed. Our God has never had a new thought.
He's never learned anything. He's never asked anyone any questions.
He's self-existent. He's glorious, unchanging, immutable
God. And there's where our salvation
lies. It lies in his promise. He said, if you believe not,
yet he is faithful for he cannot deny himself. He cannot change. He cannot change that covenant
of grace that was established in eternity past when God the
Father gave him an elect people. He cannot change the fact that
he agreed before Adam was ever made by entering into a covenant
with his father to be their surety, to be their salvation. He cannot
change that. Our God cannot change. And therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. If God could change his mind
about you, would he have? Yeah, yeah, he can't. If we believe not, yet he remaineth
faithful, for he cannot deny himself. The Bible says that
our God cannot lie. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
five. Look with me at verse 15. For so after he had patiently
endured, he obtained the promise. He's talking about Abraham obtaining
the promise, believing God. He believed God and it was accounted
to him for righteousness. Look at verse 16. For men verily
swear by the greater and an oath for confirmation is to them an
end of all strife. We're in God willing more abundantly. I'm sorry, we're in Hebrews chapter
six. We're in Hebrews chapter six,
verse 16, verse 17. We're in God willing more abundantly
to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel. He's gonna show to us the immutability
of his counsel. What is his counsel? That's what
happened between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Spirit in the covenant of grace before time. And that's what
our Lord's gonna show us now. He said, I'm going to show you
that this counsel of mine cannot change. And I'm going to confirm
it with an oath. Now he's speaking about that
oath that he confirmed the promises with Abraham. When he put Abraham
into a deep sleep and he slew those animals and he put them
on the two sides and he went between the two animals as a
smoking pot and a burning furnace. What is all of that a picture
of? The Lord Jesus Christ sleeping in death and the fiery wrath
of God's justice coming down on him as the sacrifice. and
the Lord's prayers going up as a smoking pot into the presence
of God. There's our hope. The hope of
our salvation is not based on our faithfulness to pray. We
pray, we pray, but our prayers are so fraught with insincerity
and shallowness and unbelief, are they not? And our Lord said
to Peter, Peter, I've prayed for you. What was the difference
between Peter and Judas? Judas denied the Lord that night
too. The Lord had prayed for Peter. He'd prayed for him. That's what made the difference,
his faithfulness, his prayers. So our Lord is saying that God
willingly, look at verse 17. We're in God willing more abundantly
to show unto the heirs of his promise. That's his people. They are the heirs of his promise. What do you do to become an heir?
Nothing, you're born an heir. And so he's showing unto his
people, the heirs of his promise, the immutability of his counsel
by confirming it with an oath. That's the death of Christ on
Calvary's cross. That's the confirmation that
the promise that God made in the covenant of grace was true
and faithful. And that's why, that's why the
next verse says that by these two immutable things in which
it was impossible for God to lie. We're talking about things that
God cannot do. He cannot change. He cannot deny himself. He cannot
lie. He cannot lie. We can rest all the hope of our
souls on the promises of God. And that's all faith is. Faith
is counting him faithful. It's believing what he has said
is true. And so by the two immutable things, The immutability of his counsel
made in the covenant of grace confirmed by the cross that by
these two immutable things in which it was impossible for God
to lie, we might have a strong consolation who have fled for
refuge to lay hold upon the hope that is set before us. What is
your consolation for salvation? Do you think that you're gonna
present something to God that you've done or some prayer you
prayed or something you've believed for the hope? No, these are the
two consolations. This is the strong consolation. Why? Because it is impossible
for God to lie. Impossible. covenant that he made in eternity
past, confirmed by the Lord Jesus Christ's sacrifice for those
sinners on Calvary's cross. There's the strong consolation.
There's the hope of my salvation to come into the presence of
God based on his promise, not mine. We lay hope for refuge. Oh, we have refuge. What is this
a reference to? You remember in the Old Testament,
when a man committed manslaughter, the nearest of kin, according
to the law, had the legal right to take a life for a life. It
was a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
That was the law. But God had set up city of refuge so that
man could flee to a city of refuge. As long as he stayed in that
city of refuge, the avenger of blood could not touch him. And
that avenger of blood is a picture of the law. So we found refuge
for the Lord Jesus Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. We find our refuge in him. and only in Him, we can't find
refuge anywhere else. The Lord Jesus Christ is our
hiding place. He's our escape. Look at verse 19, which hope
we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and
which entereth into within the veil where the forerunner is
for us entered. Even Jesus made a high priest
forever after the order of Melchizedek. So when the Lord Jesus Christ
bowed his mighty head on Calvary's cross, and he cried, it is finished. Father, into thy hands I commend
my spirit. And the veil that separated that
mercy seat in the temple, the holies of holies, was rent from
top to bottom. God said the blood has been put
on the mercy seat. Come. Come. The spirit of the bride say come.
The price has been paid. The debt's been paid. The blood's
been shed. This is our strong consolation. It is impossible for our God
to lie. He cannot deny himself. He cannot
change. He cannot lie. And our God cannot
sin. He cannot sin. He's holy, harmless, separate
from sinners. God made him who knew no sin
to be sin. God charged him with the sins
of his people. The Lord Jesus Christ suffered
the full shame and guilt and the penalty, the justice for
that sin. Our God cannot sin, yet he bore
our sin. Fourthly, our God cannot allow
sin to go unpunished. Our God's holy justice demands
penalty for sin. It cannot go unpunished. And
every sin, every sin will be punished by God. It'll either be punished in hell by those who refuse Christ
or it will be punished at Calvary's cross when God saw the travail
of his soul and God said, I'm satisfied. The fire has been
quenched. The wrath of God has been put
away. The Lord Jesus Christ is called
the propitiation of our sins. That means that God has been
made propitious. There's no more anger. There's no more wrath. There's
no more fear from our God because Christ has put them away. And finally, there's one more
thing God cannot do. He cannot punish the same sin
twice. He can't. That wouldn't be just. Our God is holy and He's just. If I'm looking to the Lord Jesus
Christ for the penalty of my sin, then I need not fear. I need not fear God's wrath. He cannot punish the same sin
twice. Let's turn to our text quickly.
2 Timothy chapter two, verse 11. This is a faithful saying. If
we died with him, if when Christ died, I died, then we shall live
with him. Secondly, verse 12, if we abide
in him, if he keeps us faithful to the end, looking to Christ
for all of our acceptance and all the hope of our salvation
before God, then we shall reign with him. If we deny that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of the living God, the sole successful Savior
of sinners who did it all by Himself. You see, to deny that
Jesus is the Christ is to add something to what He did. It's
to say, well, you know, I've got to put in my prayers and
my works and my decision-making Oh no. Turn, turn with me to
Galatians chapter two. Look at verse 16. Knowing that
a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the
faith of Jesus Christ. not by your faith in Jesus Christ,
but we are justified by the faith of Jesus Christ. What does it
mean to be justified? That means the law's got no claim
on you. I mean, as far as the law is
concerned, you are sinless. We are justified by the faith
of Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Jesus
Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not
by the works of the law. For by the works of the law shall
no flesh be justified in his sight. Oh, what hope. by the faithfulness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Go back with me now to our text
and look at verse 13. If we believe not, you're one
of God's elect and you've heard the gospel and you've turned
your back on it, you can be sure that there will come a day when
he will arrest you. He will make you to believe,
why? Because he cannot deny himself. Child of God, the sin that doth
so easily beset you is the sin of unbelief. How many times you
trust in something other than Christ, and you're not walking
in faith as you ought. But you can say with David, although
my house be not so with God, yet he has made with me an everlasting
covenant. ordered in all things ensure.
This is all my salvation and all my desire. And if we believe
not, he remaineth faithful, for he cannot deny himself." Our merciful Heavenly Father,
We ask your blessings on your word. Forgive us of our sin. Look to Christ for all our acceptance
and give us the faith to rest our hope in him. For it's in
his name we pray, amen. 294 in the hardbacked hymnal.
Let's stand together, number 294.