I please God to bless us together
as we consider his word this morning. Let us turn to the second
epistle of Paul, the apostle to Timothy, and the first chapter,
and we'll read verse 12. The second epistle of Paul to
Timothy, the first chapter and verse 12. For the witch cause
I also suffer these things, Nevertheless, I am not ashamed, for I know
whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to
keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. The Lord has been very gracious
in granting that we have a record of these letters that the Apostle
Paul wrote to Timothy. And Timothy of course was a preacher
of the gospel and he was being instructed in those things that
he should do and those things that he should say and those
things which he should expect. And so as we I've read these
first two chapters in this second letter. You should remember,
of course, that there are all those instructions also in, of
course, the first letter. But here, in this second letter,
there are very important considerations, and we don't propose to go through
in detail, but just to point out that Paul didn't sit back
and say, well, it's going to be an easy journey, Timothy,
and there aren't going to be any problems. No, he was very
faithful, and he told him to expect hardship, and he was told
to endure hardness, and to expect opposition, and also to rely
on those things which God had given to him, and not to follow
and rely on other people's line of things. No, he was to follow
that line which God gave him. How dangerous it can be to follow
just what other people have said, especially in the preaching of
the gospel. We are to follow our own line
of things that the Lord has led and directed us in. Nonetheless,
we are to study. We are not to forget to study
the great word of God. And then we are to also walk
in the fear of God, and to set a good example, and to be so
very meek and humble in our walk. Towards the end of this second
chapter, what good instruction it is, it tells us that the servant
of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt
to teach, patient, in meekness, instructing those that oppose
themselves, if Gaurapuravendra would give them repentance to
the acknowledging of the truth. Well, it's good, isn't it, to
have such words of instruction written to us. But nevertheless,
although we might think, well, this is, of course, written only
to those who preach the gospel, It is obviously principally that
way, but we should think that we are all, every one of those
who are called by the grace of God, we are those who serve the
Lord. We are servants. And we should
never therefore come to chapters and epistles that we have here
and think, They don't have any reference to me, so therefore
I needn't really listen, and in fact I needn't really read
them. Well, they are written for our instruction and for our
blessing. Now, the Apostle, when he comes
down to this twelfth verse, for the which cause I also suffer
these things, he is speaking and telling the Apostle what
he should be concerned about as he proclaimed the great truth
of the Gospel. And we are told in the ninth
verse, who 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." Well, it's a very succinct statement, really. And first
of all, we are told that we are saved. Now, we don't save ourselves. It's the Lord who saves us. And he goes on to spell this
out, where he says, who has saved us and called us. See, calling
comes after we've been saved, because we, of course, are saved
in eternity past. The Lord determined whom he would
call and whom he would choose. It's not anything which is just
left to some casual situation. No, the Lord has ordained whom
he should call. And when Paul wrote to the Ephesians,
in the first chapter and the fourth verse, he says, according
as he has chosen us in him, that's of course in the Lord Jesus Christ,
before the foundation of the world. that we should be holy
and without blame before him in love. It's wonderful, isn't
it, when the scripture is so clear to encourage us. And then
he says, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ, to himself, according to the good pleasure
of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein
he hath made us accepted in the Beloved. So it's quite clear,
is it not, that the Apostle here is reminding Timothy who hath
saved us and called us with a holy calling. Yes, it's a calling
which emanates from God himself. It's not something which we can
produce, we cannot produce it. It is a holy calling And the
Apostle just confirms the truth of it, that there's no strength
or ability in ourselves. He said, not according to our
works. It's not what we have done. And
as, of course, we often refer to in the second of Ephesians
and the eighth chapter, and the eighth verse, it's not a works,
this grace of God, lest any man should boast. Never forget that
our God is a jealous God. and our God will have the honour
and glory in our little lives. And therefore what we're able
perhaps to say, we should remember that we say it as just messengers
from God. We should not think to claim
any honour and glory ourselves, but we should walk very humbly.
And so here, not according to our works, but according to His
own purpose and grace, the Lord's purpose. And His purpose, what
a wonderful thing, if His purpose is. And His purpose has been
to call us out of darkness, the darkness in which we were born,
into, as it's described, the marvellous light. It is a marvellous
light. of the glorious Gospel, and it
is through His grace. We don't deserve it, we don't
merit it, it is a totally unmerited favour. Therefore is there not
great reason to praise and to honour our God for His wonderful
mercy in not dealing with us as our sins deserve? All have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. None of us have
any virtue in ourselves. We are black, vile sinners, born
in this sinful world, and but for the grace of God, we should
all perish in our sins. And so, what a wonderful blessing
it is that we have the great and glorious Gospel, and can
recognise the truth of these words, but according to his own
purpose, and grace, which was given us, his gift, given us
in Christ Jesus, before the world began. Again, we observe here,
don't we, as we, same words, very similar words in that first
chapter to the Ephesians. Yes, before the world began,
our little minds, we can't comprehend, can we? The greatness of God's
plan, the greatness of the glorious plan of salvation, the wonder
of it, that before the worlds began, when there was no world,
there was no universe, there was that darkness, the Lord Almighty,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit determined whom should receive this great
and glorious call. Well, the great important question
for us surely is to have the evidence that we possess this
great and glorious call from Almighty God. And the words are
instructive and encouraging to us, but is now made manifest
by the appearing of our savior, Jesus Christ, who has abolished
death and has brought life and immortality to light through
the Gospel this morning. Do we glory, do we praise God
for the Gospel, the Gospel of salvation, the great and glorious
plan of God, which was set before us in the Word of God right through
the Old Testament. The fulfilment of it described
so clearly in the New. And what a blessing it is for
you and me if we can appreciate the truth of it because of the
work of God, the work of the Spirit in our hearts. That which
is not of the flesh, that which is of the Spirit. And spiritual
things are those which God does in our soul. We have flesh and
blood, don't we? We have a soul. But my friends, what a blessing
when that soul is directed to see the truth of the Gospel. And then it is that we pass from
darkness into that great and glorious light. And so these
words then become a fullness, there is in them. And we recognise
how powerful they are and how needful. But it's now made manifest
by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who has abolished
death and has brought life and immortality to light through
the Gospel. Well, this morning, do we know? Have we the evidence that God
has come to us and called us? Called us. Called us, as it were,
by name. It may not physically be like
that, but it will be as though the Spirit of God has awakened
us to our need of salvation and has caused us to pray unto Him
in a time when He may be found. It is the great and glorious
work of the Spirit and has directed us then to who it is that brings
this salvation. It is, of course, the Lord Jesus
Christ and it's made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour
Jesus Christ. It's abolished that death, born
dead in trespasses and in sins. And it's brought life and immortality,
eternal life. We use the phrase, it's a difficult
one, eternal death, because those who do not know Christ will live
eternally as it were in death, but they won't be dead of course,
they'll be alive. but those you see who are blessed with the
Spirit of God, who've been called, who've been saved. The Lord Jesus
Christ came into this world to save our souls. That was the
great plan of salvation, to save us. Well, and because he saved
us, then we are granted this great gift of immortality. Two light, eternal light. You see, when God gives that
light, when that light shines into our heart, when we see the
great plan of salvation, we realise our hope's built on the Saviour's
death, His perfect life. It's a light which will never
go out. Never go out. And so the apostle
says, whereunto I am appointed a preacher and an apostle and
a teacher to the Gentiles to declare these great truths and
to encourage Timothy in these same great truths, to instruct
them in the great way that the Lord taught the apostle In the
great way he teaches all those who preach the everlasting gospel
and indeed those who are called to serve him. And so we come
down then to this 12th verse. For the which cause? I also suffer
these things. He's directing us to be very
clear that the path of a true Christian is one of suffering. And it is suffering because we
are passing through a sinful world with an evil devil who
is constantly attacking us and constantly trying to get us onto
his ground and constantly trying to listen to his words rather
than listening to the great and glorious words of the Word of
God. And you see how subtle he is. Sometimes he turns us to wrong
ways. He's able to quote scriptures
as we know. But you see, sometimes he quotes
the wrong scriptures. And sometimes we can fall under
them. And sometimes we think it's a word from the Lord, when
in actual fact, it's the devil speaking to us. We need, don't
we, to study the whole counsel of God. The devil takes words
out of context. We have the whole Word of God
to consider and to realise. It is that which guides and directs
us. And so we're told, like the Apostle
says, for which cause these great truths, wonderful they are to
sustain our soul, but nonetheless to expect that we will have to
suffer. But he says, nevertheless I am
not ashamed Well, what a blessing it is for us today if the Lord
has granted us that strength to be able to not be ashamed
of the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, because
it is the power of God unto salvation. And so if it is, To us, the power
of God unto salvation, let us never be ashamed of it. Let's
never turn away from it. To uphold it, to confess it,
to walk it out, will of course bring us into those positions
of suffering. But never forget the truth of
God's word. If we suffer with him as the
Apostle writes to Timothy, we should also reign with him. Surely our objective in being
here this morning is to have a direction to our souls to know
that we are in the right way which will bring us at last home
to glory. It will be of no benefit to come
here without any objective. It would be of no benefit to
have come here this morning just to satisfy some conscience, that
we may have some guilty conscience. May we all have a great and blessed
objective to be found at last in glory with the Saviour, through
eternity, to enjoy that immortal state of light And therefore
may our souls be confirmed that we are in that way, that right
way that leads to this eternal life. And he says, therefore,
I am not ashamed. Well, we read it as many times
in the word of God. We're told words like this. I am not ashamed. My friends,
may we be able, every one of us today, To say no, by the grace
of God, and it's only by the grace of God that you and I will
not be ashamed because naturally we will be ashamed. The devil
won't want you to confess Christ. Be sure of that. He'll want you
to keep your mouth shut. He'll want you not to acknowledge
that you've been saved and that you've been called. He won't
want you to ever testify of the great love of the Saviour to
such an unworthy sinner. He'll want you to be silent.
How successful he is, isn't he? Quite often he is successful and producing
that evil heart of unbelief. Well, the Apostle here was blessed
with a humble confidence in his God. Now we are to beware of
an evil heart of unbelief. And the Apostle here says, I
am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed. The Apostle said, I know whom
I have believed. And my friends, it is important
that you and I are blessed with a God-given assurance that we
do know whom we have believed. There is no godliness in doubting
the work of God in the heart. You see, what we are doing, we
are denying the work of the Holy Spirit. And we're saying, well,
I really don't know, I'm really not sure. And many people are
satisfied to live their life in doubting castle. Well, that
wasn't a good place to be found in, and it's not a good place
to be found in. We may sometimes, of course,
have doubts. But you know, if you have doubts,
what do we do? Do we just consider, well, that's
what I should expect? Or are we concerned about it?
And do we desire then to have the evidence that the Apostle
had and was able therefore to say, I know whom I have believed. And what evidence did he have? He had the evidence that he was
saved. He had the evidence that he'd
been called. He had the evidence of God's
mercy toward him. He had the evidence of God's
love to his soul. And because of those great truths,
he was able to say, by the grace of God, I know whom I have believed. And so this morning, let us just
think, let us just pause perhaps, just look back in our lives, look back in our lives and try
and find and trace out, not your work, but God's work, God's great
and glorious work, that work which brought you and me out
of darkness into the light. It was his grace, it was his
mercy, it was his love. And so, if you were asked this
morning, Well, have you any hope in His mercy? Have you any hope
in His grace? Are you going to say, well, no,
not at all? If that is so, then, and it may
be so, you're in a very sad and a very desperate condition. Because
if the Lord came tonight and called you, summoned you to stand
before his face, you wouldn't have a hope, would you? And you
would be eternally lost. We all need to have that good
hope that the Lord has looked upon us. Indeed, the good hope
that the Lord has chosen us. The Lord has been gracious to
us. The Lord has been mindful to
us. The Lord has blessed us, because if he has, and if we
can humbly trace the good hand of God upon us, then my friends,
let us not deny it. Let us not deny it. And if he has, it may perhaps,
you may think in your life, well, I don't seem to know very much. Well, that doesn't matter. It's
if the good hand of God has come upon you and touched your heart. That's what really matters. So then, by his grace, you will
be able to join with the Apostle Paul and say, for I know whom
I have believed because of what he's done for me. I dare not
deny it. Do we dare to deny the work of
God in our souls? Do we dare to deny there's been
a change? His work has been manifest in
our heart. He's turned us around. He's turned
us And just following poor sinful ways of this world to seek his
face. And so the apostle comes and
he says, I'm not ashamed. He's not ashamed because he says,
I know whom I have believed. Well, don't turn away from such
a great truth as this. Because such a great truth as
this, if you are able to say it, and you will say it only
on the basis of that good foundation of the work of God in your soul,
in directing you to your condition before a holy God, which is as
an absolute lost and ruined sinner, you'll have no confidence in
yourself, you'll have no hope in yourself, and you will have
had to look out of yourself to the only way of salvation, the
only saviour of sinners. the only one who saves your soul,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the great and glorious Saviour. And if
the blessed Spirit of God has led and directed you in this
path, then can you not bless God? Can you not thank God that
because of His grace you can come and say, For I know whom
I have believed. Now, the Apostle goes on and
he says, For I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that
he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against
that day. A blessed persuasion by the grace
of God that what he has done in your heart, he has done And
it's his work. And wonderful thing it is when
the Spirit comes and persuades us. He persuades us in this way. He shows us what he's done. The devil will endeavour to persuade
you there's nothing. There's no life. My friends,
the Spirit of God will win the battle. The Spirit of God is
all-conquering. Yes, and what a wonderful thing
it is when that Spirit of God comes and conquers all our doubts
and all our fears and directs us very clearly to what Christ
has done in order to redeem our souls. What happens? I believe what happens is this,
through that revelation it shows to us something of the amazing
love of the Lord Jesus toward us. That love which was so, so
great that he was willing to suffer on our behalf, suffer
so greatly in order to atone for our sins. Now, what will
the effect be? The effect will be this. The
Lord Jesus Christ will not just be a person in history. He will be a value to your soul. And if he's a value to your soul,
what will that mean? It will mean he is precious to
your soul. because there'll be no one else
who can save your soul. It's only the Lord Jesus Christ. Now then, to think of that, this
great glorious God, nonetheless, God himself has graciously come
into this sinful world to save your soul and call you by his
grace into the light of the gospel and am persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I have committed unto him. It's a wonderful thing
to know that there's that union and that communion between our souls and the Saviour. We have this very blessed word,
the secret of the Lord is with those who fear him. The Lord
gives us this fear of the Lord, then the Lord reveals to us this
great secret of salvation which you can read of, but it's when
the Holy Spirit applies that word to our hearts that we know,
as the Apostle comes and tells us here, for I know whom I have
believed because the Lord has graciously revealed this great
truth to us. And then there is that humble
persuasion, that which we committed unto him, it's his work, yes,
it's all of grace, and he keeps us. Yes, we're kept by the power
of God, and he keeps that which we've committed unto him, his
work, his work. We're thankful that it is so,
that we have such a kind and gracious God, which I have committed
unto him against that day. The work of God is truly wonderful
and truly powerful, and the Lord Jesus Christ himself. He speaks
of this work, you know, when he was on the earth and when
he prayed to his father, that great and glorious prayer recorded
in John 17, he says this, I've manifested thy name unto the
men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine they were
and thou gavest them me and they have kept thy word. Well, if
the Lord has given you some blessed light on these truths to your
heart, then it is because the Lord is manifesting. I manifested
thy name, the name of the Father, unto the men which thou gavest
me out of the world. To think that those who are chosen,
those who are given to the Son, And the Lord manifests the work
of the Father, the great and glorious work that he does. And so, how wonderful it is to
know that the Lord Jesus actually speaks these words in that wonderful
prayer to his Father. What a prayer it was, was it
not? You know, the apostle, when he
writes to the Romans, also encourages us in these words. When he speaks
to us, he comes down, he says, for whom he did foreknow, perhaps
a previous verse, and we know that all things work together
for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to his purpose. If God therefore has called us
we can be sure that all things in our little life are working
together for our good. He says, and we know that all
things work together for good to them that love God, to them
who are the called according to his purpose, for whom he did
foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed, to the image
of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. And of course the chain continues
very beautifully. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
them he also called. Whom he called, them he also
justified. Whom he justified, them he also
glorified. Well, that's the great truth
of the word of God and there's no error in that. And he asked
the question then, what shall we then say to these things? What are we going to say? If
God before us, who can be against us? Well, the devil is naturally
against us. He won't succeed. He that spared
not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall
he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall owe
anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ that died, the blessed Saviour that died for our sins,
that shed his blood upon Calvary's cross, shed his blood to atone
for our sins. It is Christ that died, yea,
rather than is risen again. Oh, what wonderful truth, isn't
it? He's risen again. He conquered the devil. That's
our hopes there, isn't it? It's not in what we've done,
it's what Christ has done. Who is even at the right hand
of God, who also maketh intercession for us, so we can think that
as we come and pray to our God, we're accepted in the beloved,
this great Saviour. Just think of it. As we've prayed
to God today, this great and blessed Saviour condescends to
present our prayers as our great intercessor to His Father, who
is even at the right hand of God, who will also make an intercession
for us. Then He concludes with these
wonderful verses, and it's true, taken to heart, who shall separate
us? from the love of Christ, show
tribulation, sufferings that we're caused to endure, or distress,
maybe distresses, or persecution, maybe persecution, or famine,
or nakedness, or peril, or sword, as is written, for thy sake. We are killed all the day long.
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these
things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For
I am persuaded, you see, he comes back to this great truth, doesn't
he? For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels,
nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things
to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall
be able to separate us from what? The love of God, which is in
Christ Jesus our Lord. Nothing shall separate us. It's a great truth, isn't it?
And how good it is that we can take hold of the word of God
as being truth. The devil will tell lies. The
devil will pretend all manner of things. rely upon the truth
of God's Word. And may we have, therefore, that
humble confidence to be able to come and say, for the glory
of God, for the glory of God, don't forget that, I know whom
I have believed. It's because of his saving. It's because of his calling. It's because of his grace. It's
because of his mercy. It's because of his love. that
I can humbly say with the Apostle, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. It's a great blessing to have
the Word of God which speaks to us the truth of God which
is so positive and so confirming in the Apostle's day when he
wrote to Timothy, and it has not changed. Blessed be God,
he is the same yesterday and today and forever. Amen.