2 Timothy 2.8, remember that
Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according
to my gospel, wherein I suffer trouble as an evildoer even unto
bonds, but the word of God is not bound. Therefore, I endure
all things for the elect's sake, that they may also obtain the
salvation which is in Christ Jesus. with eternal glory. It is a faithful saying, for
if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him. If we suffer,
we shall also reign with him. If we deny him, he also will
deny us. If we believe not, yet he abideth
faithful. He cannot deny himself. Now,
back in verse eight, I wanna start with the first word, remember. This is a key word in the word
of God. Remember what Simon Peter wrote
in 2 Peter 3.1, he said, this second epistle, beloved, I now
write unto you, in both which I stir up your pure minds by
way of remembrance. These letters that we know now
as the word of God, that God inspired these men to write concerning
our Savior, they were written by way of remembrance. We preach
by way of remembrance, to stir up your minds by way of remembrance. The Lord's institutions, we show
forth his death in the church, his ordinances in the church. The Lord's table, he said, this
do in remembrance of me. That's really what we do. We remind you of things you already
know. Simon said also in another place,
I think it meet while I'm in this tabernacle, while I'm here
on this earth, in this body, to put you in remembrance of
these things, though you know them, though you know them. And that's really what we do,
to remind us And listen, the second verse of what I was just
reading there in 2 Peter 3, verse two, now, that you may be mindful,
what is it that we remember? And this is now the ministry
of Christ, that everyone who speaks for God comes with the
same message. It is the distinguishing characteristic
of this church as opposed to other churches in this world. It's the distinguishing characteristic
of God's church as opposed to just religion, like in the Lord's
day. And remember that religion is always the most evil thing
in the world. It was religion that the Lord
warned against. He didn't say, be careful now
not to hang around with the rough crowd. He said, beware the Pharisees
and their doctrine. Beware the Pharisees. So this
is the distinguishing mark that we determined by God's grace
to know nothing save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's how
you'll know. The only time that I can remember
in the last, gosh, it's probably been 40 years since I've been
in a church building that wasn't somebody that I know preaches
the gospel. One time, Vicki, you'll remember
it. I don't think you went with me, but I've been to one so-called
church service in I don't know how many decades that wasn't
a gospel preacher that I know and am convinced will preach
Christ every time he preaches. And they talked about Satan and
how to deal with Satan. It's just not the message of
this world's religion. It's not Christ. It's not Christ. but it is in God's churches every
time. And so listen, what is it that
we're mindful of? I should have had you turn this.
Let me just read it again so you'd be careful to get this
in your mind. 2 Peter 3.1, this second epistle, beloved, I now
write unto you, in both which I stir up your pure minds by
way of remembrance. I stir it up. And that word means
like stirring up, to wake somebody up. I wake you up by way of reminding
you. What is it that we're reminding
you of? What is it that you need to constantly
remember? That you may be mindful of the
words which were spoken before by the holy prophets. It's not
a new message. That you may remember what God
said, God's word spoken by the prophets, the whole Old Testament,
which is all they had then at this time. and of the commandment
of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior. And how did the Lord
send out the apostles? He said, you go and preach all
things which I've commanded you. Tell everybody what I've told
you. And they did. We're to be reminded
constantly of the simple, plain, clear, bold, eternal gospel of
the Son of God. That's it, that's what this is.
Everyone who has ever spoken for God has had the same message.
The holy prophets are mentioned here, the apostles. And I'll
tell you this, whoever is preaching the gospel in our day, whoever's
speaking for God in our day, what are we doing? We're reminding
you who God is. We're reminding you what you
are by nature and your need of him. We're telling you how God
saves sinners. Sinners need to know how they
can be saved. Who saves sinners and how? We're
telling you again this morning who Christ is and what he accomplished
on Calvary. What he accomplished, not what
he attempted. God doesn't attempt things. what he accomplished
on Calvary. You say, well, I could never
forget any of that, Chris, really? What about when we say hurtful
things, when we just say things that are unhelpful and they are
hurtful, they're offensive, they're deliberately offensive, and we
cause division, and we don't think. When you said something to another
believer or about them behind your back, did you remember all
this then? Did you remember who Christ is then? And what this
is, who we are, the family of God? When you decided not to
worship publicly because of some petty foolishness, you had some
spat with somebody, or you had something more important to do,
did you remember it then? Did you remember who God is that
day? Preaching to myself. I believe all of us can get in
on it. When some failure or shameful regret was tearing at your heart. You know, we all are there at
times when some horrible regret, something you're just ashamed
of, and it's just killing you inside. Did you remember then
who Christ is? Did you remember His forgiveness
and His love then? Did you encourage yourself in
the Lord? When your heart was breaking, you lost somebody or
you're scared you're going to, did you wallow in self-pity and
absent yourself from God's worship? Or did you remember the love
of the Savior for you? Did you crave to hear once again
how everything is in His hands and He doeth all things well?
Or did you forget when somebody made you so mad that you couldn't
see straight? Did you remember then what really
matters? When it was time to worship,
And you were there, but you were distracted by a hundred vanities. Meaningless nonsense. Did God
remind you then of his worthiness? That's what worship means, to
attribute worthiness unto God. Not to dwell on our petty, ridiculous
vanities. Did He remind you of His glory?
Did the love of the Savior demand your attention? The comfort of
the sovereign's promises overwhelm your heart then? May the Lord be pleased to meet
with us and remind us this morning that what's real, what's needful, may the Spirit take the things
of Christ and show them to us. Remember that Jesus Christ Jesus
His name of you is just human name But it means something doesn't
it? Thou shall call his name Jesus
for he shall save his people from their sins just the name
Jesus and If we ever heard it, if this
world ever heard that name, Jesus, it would put false religion out
of business. Just that one, he shall save
his people from their sin. All a false religion is based
on a lie that denies that truth right there. Just that, just
his name, just his human name. Remember that Jesus Christ, the
anointed, the Christ, the one that every Jew looked for and
still today are looking for. He came and stood right in the
same dirt with them and they still didn't see him. Everybody running around saying,
what would Jesus do? They didn't know what he did
when he did it right before their eyes. They didn't know what he
was doing. They don't know what he did on Calvary. Much less
what he would do in some situation that doesn't amount to a hill
of beans. Of the seed of David, the son
of man, it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren.
that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things
pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of his people. The
son of David, remember who he is, made under the law that he might
redeem us who were under the law. The Lord Jesus, who was
made like unto his brethren of the seed of David, who was
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, but who by
the empty tomb proved himself to be the prince of life, the
son of David, but David's Lord, the son of God. The Lord asked the Pharisees,
the religious Jews were always asking the Lord all kinds of
questions, you know, nonsense like who, if a man was married
to, you know, seven people in this life, who, which one's going
to be his wife in heaven and things like that. Who cares? The Lord's going to take care
of everything. That's fine. That's fine. Whatever he does
is fine. I just have a feeling that whatever
my relationship to my wife is in heaven, it's gonna be even
better than it is here. Don't you reckon? The Lord, that's
the Lord's business. Whatever he does will be right.
But listen, they asked him all these questions and he asked
them one question that put them out of the question asking business.
They quit asking him questions after he asked them this. You
remember what it was? If the son of man is David's
son, how come David called him Lord? I had a good question. They didn't
ask that one. He did. Oh, at the seat of David. Power
as the son of man to lay down his life and power as the son
of God to take it up again. According to my gospel, Christ
is sovereign over life and death. Does our text teach that? According
to my gospel. Paul said it's my gospel because
I have no other good news to tell you this morning. It's my
hope, it's my assurance, Christ is my hope. Christ is sovereign
over life and death. According to my gospel, he gives
life to whomsoever he will. He said, as the father quickeneth
whom he will, so he's given authority, power to the son to give life
to whomsoever he will. According to my gospel, Christ
came into this world to live and die and live again for the
salvation of his people. And he did, and they're saved. There again, simple, basic, that's
not complicated. It would put every religion in
this world out of business, all false antichrist religion out
of business if somebody heard it. If this world could just
hear that and know who he is. According to my gospel, as Paul
said, The Lord Jesus Christ is able to save to the uttermost
those that come to God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make
intercession for them. Salvation. Christ is salvation. He didn't die for sinners to
make salvation available to them. He died for sinners to save them. Now look at verse 10. Therefore
I endure all things for the elect's sake. Let's look at verse nine. I want
to make one point about verse nine. According to my gospel,
God's word will not, does not, cannot return unto him void,
but accomplishes the thing whereto he sends it. Look at verse nine. Wherein I suffer trouble as an
evildoer, even unto bonds, but the word of God's not bound.
Not in any sense of the word. Not in any sense of the word.
The Lord said, like the rain that falls from heaven and causes
the tender plants to grow, my word will not return unto me
void. It will accomplish the thing whereto I sent it. What
is the rain sent for? To give life. To give life. from the rain that falls from
heaven, the word of God. He sends it, he causes his rain
to fall on the just and the unjust. And by his grace, those whom
he's loved from eternity hear it and they live. I planted some
tomato seeds a couple of days ago and they're the most shriveled
up little things. You gotta be careful, you can't
do it hardly outside or the wind will blow them out of your hand
dead. Just a shriveled up little piece of junk. All they need to live is some
water. You just put some water on them.
That's sinners. By the grace of God, he sends
his word down like rain. And when that seed is planted
in good ground, in a heart that God has created, that will receive
the word and believe on Christ, It grows, it lives. So according to my gospel, the
word of God does not return void. God is not limited by human circumstances. Paul's in prison now. He's not
only, you know, he kept saying, don't be ashamed of my bond,
because I'm sure most were. I'm not gonna listen to a man
that's been arrested and in prison. Yeah, but somebody will. by God's
grace. In fact, he's gonna write a portion
of the word of God in that place. God's gonna use him like he's
used very few men ever. Though by all human accounts,
it was over for Paul. But when Paul was weak, that's
when God used him. In his purpose of grace toward
his people, he is not limited to human circumstances. Verse
10, as we read a minute ago, therefore I endure all things
for the gospel, for the elect's sake. Remember he just told Timothy
in chapter one, endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Paul was an example in this.
And here's why, that they may also obtain the salvation, which
is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. Remember why John wrote
that this whole book is written? That you might believe that Jesus
Christ is the son of God, and that believing you might have
life through his name. That's why God wrote a book.
Paul said, that's why I preach it. That they may obtain the salvation
which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory since God is the
one doing this And since his word and his purpose through
his word is sovereign and invincible, he shall not fail, he cannot
fail. I'm not discouraged by setbacks,
Paul said. I endure it, whatever it is,
whatever the Lord sends. He's the one that sends it. He's
the one that's saving his people. He doesn't need me to do it.
And if he's gonna use me to do it, he doesn't need for circumstances
to be favorable as far as what we might call favorable. Whatever
it is, he's gonna accomplish his purpose of grace toward his
people. I'm not defeated by affliction
and opposition. I endure all things for the elect's
sake, not because I'm not affected by these things, but because
God is not affected by these things. You see that? It wasn't
that Paul just didn't care. It wasn't that he wasn't affected,
but God's not affected. That's my encouragement. That's
my strength. That's my motivation to go on. The word of God's not bound.
How ashamed we ought to be when we're so easily offended and
defeated. And again, I'm preaching to myself.
It's so easy to be defeated and to want to give up. Paul says
here, there's a purpose bigger than us, bigger than my feelings,
bigger than my pride and my selfishness. It's for the elect's sake. It's
for the reason this whole thing exists is for God's purpose of
grace toward his elect in this world. Can we not endure? Will we endure no trial for the
sake of what God's doing here? God is saving his elect by this
means. And is it just a place for us
to gather and get offended? I know I harp on this son, but
I see in God's church in our day, how easily people are offended
or divided from one another. A bunch of touch me knots. Are we not ashamed of ourselves
a little bit for that? Just a little bit? when the point
of all this is not about our feelings. It's not about who
wronged me or did this. Are we just a bunch of Pharisees
that are shocked and appalled when somebody actually turns
out to be a sinner? Or are we all a bunch of wretched,
vile sinners just huddling together to hear again the message of
hope, the message of Christ and His forgiveness of sin? of his
precious blood and his love for wretched, vile
sinners like us. And you know what you need to
remember in order not to be petty and prideful and divisive? You know what you need to remember?
Who God is. It just so happens the thing
that will dispel all of that nonsense in our churches is the
same thing that saves sinners, the gospel of the Son of God. We just need to remember who
God is and we need to remember who we are. We need to heed the
warnings and the exhortations of scripture. Again, this word,
how is the ministry, how is the Christian life described in this
book? Endeavor, strive, endure, fight
the good fight of faith. Remember who we're fighting against
right here. Has the devil really given you
that much trouble lately? I'll tell you who gives me a
lot of trouble, the man in the mirror. Remember the one thing needful.
Remember what God's doing. Remember whose ministry this
is. It ain't mine. Remember the simplicity that's
in Christ. Remember the point of it all,
the point of this universe is God is saving his elect, so what's
the point of us? We see plainly in the word of
God what God's doing, what are we doing? Simon said there, I'm waking
you up. I'm gonna wake you up by reminding
you who he is, what he did, what he accomplished when he did it,
why he did it, where he is now. I'm gonna remind you, I'm gonna
wake you up if it kills me by the same gospel that saves sinners.
I don't know about you, but I need to be saved this morning. I need
for God to save me right now. And notice in the text there,
salvation is in Christ Jesus. It is in him, it is who he is
and what he did and what he gives. Who does salvation? What does
salvation save from? What do you mean salvation? Save from what? Matthew 121,
and she shall bring forth a son, and thou shall call his name
Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. It is
our sins that have separated between us and our God. And there's nothing we can do
about it. There's not a thing we can do about it. The more
you do about it, the more sins have separated between you and
your God. How does he save his people from
their sins? Revelation 1.5, unto him that
loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. Oh. and hath made us kings and priests
unto God and his father, to him be glory and dominion forever
and ever, amen. He saved us, he washed us from
our sins in his own blood by his one sacrifice for sins forever. Christ has sanctified his people
and obtained eternal redemption for them. Accomplished, past
tense, he did it. In other words, by sacrificing
himself as our substitute, as our sin offering, as God's lamb
slain in our stead, he took our sins upon him and suffered the
wrath of God for our sins. And when he did that, he made
us to be without sin, spotless and pure in the sight of God. by taking our place on Calvary. How did Christ save us from our
sins? Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached
unto you, which also you have received and wherein you stand,
by which also you're saved if you keep in memory what I preached
unto you. Keep in memory. unless you've believed in vain.
For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received,
how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. How did he save us from our sins? He died our death, our eternal
death. The wrath of God against sin,
the wages of sin is death. He died that death in my place.
Not just physical death, eternal death. Somehow Christ endured
our hell on Calvary in our place. And that he was buried and that
he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. That's our
text. the memory part, the salvation part, the him rising from the
dead, having died in our place for our sins. Christ didn't die. We've got to always stress this.
He died for our sins. And what did he do? He washed
away our sins. See, our sins didn't just like,
becomes something that hangs over our head waiting for us
to decide something, he put them away. Everyone he died for is
saved from their sins. He did not die to make salvation
available. He died to save his people, and
that's exactly what he did. That's not complicated. You know
when that gets complicated? When it violates your self-righteous
pride and you try to figure out a way around it. That's when
it starts getting complicated. Right before he gave up the ghost,
do you remember what he said? Taleo. It is finished is the
way that's translated in our Bible. That's a good way to,
you really need two words to translate that one word, taleo
though. And let me explain why. It is
finished. But it has another meaning to
it because of who said it. When I say I've been working
on this project, I've been doing this woodworking project for
months now, but it's finally finished. And it is. I'm not going to touch it again.
It's done. Enjoy. See you later. But is it perfect? Is it perfect? That's what we
need to know about what Christ said on the cross. When he says
something's finished, it's perfect. Perfect. So you need both of those words
to define this one. And it's because of who it is.
When I say something's finished, I've done my best. That's what religion says will
save you. If you just do your bed, that's not gonna cut it.
You need the one who cried, it's perfect. If he cried that for
you, if he said that of you, perfect. He hath perfected forever them
who are sanctified. Same word to Leo. Nothing to add, nothing can be
taken away. Don't try to add your works to
Christ's perfect salvation. Don't try to add your decision
to Christ's perfect salvation. Complete, perfect, eternal salvation
is in Christ Jesus. It's not in you to decide or
to perform. It's in Christ Jesus. And notice
in these next two verses, here's what I wanna, and we could dig
into every word of this and it would be profitable, but of course,
for time's sake, listen to, here's what I want us to see in these
next two verses, how that our reality, our condition, our status
is directly tied to the Lord Jesus Christ. directly tied to
him. You look at it with me, verse
11. It's a faithful saying, if we be dead with him, we shall
also live with him. If we suffer, and remember why
he said you're gonna suffer? For my sake, for my sake. We shall also reign with him.
If we deny him, he also will deny us. Our eternal destiny,
our condition right now before God, who we are, is tied directly
to Him and who He is and what He did. You see that? It's what think ye of Christ.
It's what think ye of Christ. Are you dead with Him? You'll
live with Him. If you suffer for Him, you'll reign with Him.
If you deny Him, He'll deny you before His Father, which is in
heaven. In what sense are we dead with Christ? We will look
at a little bit of the language here. In what sense are we dead
with Christ? Romans 6, 5, if you want to turn
there, Romans 6, 5, let's look at it together. How is it that
we are dead? If you'd be dead with him, we
shall also live with him. That's kind of interesting to
me. I want to live. I want to live forever. I wanna
know what actual real true life actually is. This ain't it. You
might've noticed. Believers notice that. This ain't
it, this ain't what we, this ain't what it's all about, this
life here. I wanna live, I wanna know what
it is to really live with Him. What does it mean? How do you
define life? With him. You see that? Live
with him. You can't live any other way.
With him. That's life. Romans 6, 5, for if we have been
planted together in the likeness of his death, he's talking about
baptism, if you look up in the context there, in true baptism
now, that is an outward Expression an outward Profession of inward
grace You're saying outwardly that
my only hope is that Christ died for me and rose again and Now
I'm dead in him and alive unto God dead unto sin and alive unto
God and if that's true I You'll also be in the likeness of his
resurrection, knowing this, that our old man is crucified with
him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth
we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed
from sin. Now, if we be dead with Christ,
and this is spiritually now before God, our old man is dead. We believe that we shall also
live with him. knowing that Christ, being raised
from the dead, dieth no more. Death hath no more dominion over
him. And remember, we're tied directly
to him, for good or bad. For in that he died, he died
unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves
to be dead indeed unto sin. but alive unto God through our
Lord Jesus Christ. You see how we're tied directly
to him because he died to sin and is alive unto God. Reckon
yourself that way. Reckon yourself to be in him. The old man, the sinful flesh,
the old nature, dead. Why? Because he died. because
he took our sin and died in our place. But the new man alive
unto God, now I can actually worship God. Did you know lost
people cannot worship God? They can't love God, they can
sing it all they want to. A lost person who does not know
Christ cannot love God. But right now, we're alive unto
God. We're able by his grace, because
he first loved us, we love him. Simon wasn't talking crazy when
he said, Lord, you know all things, you know that I love you. He
was telling the truth. That's called being alive unto
God. We're not spiritually dead anymore. There's a me that loves God,
that worships Him, that serves Him. And we're perfect before God
in Christ. True life, true spiritual life
is to be able to stand before God uncondemned, perfect, holy,
spotless in His sight. That's true in Christ also. It's
not just a work done in us that we talked about, we can worship,
we can love. It's a work done for us so that
we stand perfect before God. Holy in his sight in Christ Jesus. If we suffer, he said, if we
suffer, We'll reign with him, Romans
8, 18, for I reckon that the sufferings of this present time
are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be
revealed in us. Oh my. Remember what Paul called
the sufferings that we go through in this life? Our light affliction,
which endureth but for a moment. There's not much to it, and it's
just for a little while, that we might be with him forever. If we deny him, he also will
deny us. Our eternal destiny, good or
bad, is tied to the Lord Jesus Christ, whether you like it or
not. By God's grace, his people like
it. What think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? Verse 13, if we believe not,
yet he about a faithful, he cannot deny himself. How wonderful this
is. We may deny the Lord. I know this, if we trust ourselves
not to deny the Lord, we deny the Lord. And if we do, he'll deny us. But here's our soul's hope and
trust. He is faithful. He cannot deny
himself. He can deny us and we can deny
him, but he can't deny himself. If he said, come to me and I'll
give you rest, Come to him. He'll give you rest. He can't
deny himself He will save his people from
their sins He shall he can't deny himself He will save to
the uttermost those that come to God by him He is faithful He says he's faithful,
he about a faithful. He's faithful to his father.
He came to do the work the father gave him to do. The redemption
of his people. Perfectly honoring his law in
thought, word, and deed in his heart. And saving his people
from their sins. He's faithful to the father.
Of all that the father giveth me, I will lose nothing. He's faithful to all of his promises
to his people. Him that cometh unto me, I will
in no wise cast out. Amen, let's pray.