If you will, turn with me to
2 Timothy chapter 1. My oldest daughter came to visit
with me years ago. Her two girls were, I think,
one of them was four and one of them was six at the time. And they were too small to stay
in the auditorium, so when it came time to preach, She got
up, and they followed her, and she was going to the back. We
had a place in the back of the church where the children could
go. And when she came by, she saw me sitting in the chair,
and she said, uh, Papa? I said, yes, honey. She said,
are you going to say the words tonight? I said, oh, I hope so. Somebody has to say it. Faith cometh by hearing. Hearing
by the Word of God. I want to talk to you a little
bit in my introduction about the salvation of somebody I know
will say. And that was young Timothy. Paul begins his epistle to Timothy
by expressing his love, not only for him, but for his grandmother, and for his mother, and then
for him. Not often you see generations
of men and women from one family that the Lord has been pleased
to save. I know there were just a few in mine. We had a large
family. But you don't often see that.
Our church has a lot of people whose names is Whitehead. If
you say Whitehead, half my congregation will look at you. Boy, that's
a rare thing in the kingdom of God to see that many from one
family. And he thanks God for his grandmother
and his mother and for him and for the care that they gave him,
bringing him up, seeing to it that he came up under the sound
of the gospel, no doubt tutored him at home when he was small. One thing I remember thinking
about Henry when I first met him, Brother Mahan, He was just
60 miles up the river from us and we didn't know he was there.
And I was asking questions, had begun to have some interest in
the scriptures and was asking questions about things that nobody
seemed to be talking about. Out of frustration one day, I
was talking to one of the older deacons and one of the other
deacons came up to me and said, hey, there's a guy on every Sunday
morning. Preaches those things. He deals
with those things that you're talking about. And I said, there's
nobody on primetime TV preaching. Oh yes, yes, Brother Mahan does
every Sunday morning. So that next weekend I stayed
home and listened to him, sure enough. So I went immediately
up to meet him, and the very first time I met him, when I
walked away from our congregation, I remember thinking this to myself. He had a genuine care for me. He cared for me. David said, God forbid that I
should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you. You
know who you pray for? Those you care for. Those you
care for. And then Paul speaks some words
of inspiration to this young man. He calls his spiritual son
by reminding him of his confidence in him. Now I'll confess as a
preacher, and I know without any doubt that other preachers
do the same thing, we experience doubts about our own calling. But Paul, and it's a good thing,
Paul assures him of his confidence in this young man and his calling. He even speaks of the laying
on of his hands, talking about his ordination. And it's a good
thing, isn't it, David, when somebody assures you, when you're
not sure, but they are. They have confidence in you. And then he tells him this in
verse 7. He said, God hath not given us
the spirit of fear. We have a healthy fear of God. The fear of God is the beginning
of all wisdom. But as that wisdom comes, it
replaces that fear with love. And he goes on to talk about
that. But we don't, he's not giving us the spirit of fear. Fear. Do we fear? Yes. But it's not given to you
of God. know that we don't fear i suppose i should
say like other men we don't fear i don't fear god's providence
understanding that it's arranged by one who loved me and gave
himself for me and it's brought to pass by one who loves me and
cares for me. I don't have anything to fear
in God's providence. It all works together for His
good, our good, and His glory. And we don't fear dying or death,
which in the end is just a release. It's a release from this world,
and from sin, and from all of these things, from all the temptations,
and all the pain, and the misery, the older I get, the sicker I
get of this world. It's a release, isn't it? I don't
fear death. And we don't fear disease, because
nothing is gonna come upon you that's not for the glory of God.
And if it's for the glory of God, let me bear it by his grace,
let me bear it. I don't fear Satan. The scripture
says, greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world.
If the Holy Spirit is within us, God's presence in us, we
don't fear Satan. All said, we know his devices,
we know how he works. And I don't fear men. Men can't
do anything to me that God doesn't enable them to do. And we don't
fear judgment, understanding that there is therefore now no
condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not
after the flesh but after the spirit. And we're in the flesh,
make no mistake about it. Paul said after explaining all
the differences there in Romans 7 between the spirit and the
flesh, he finally comes down and he said, so then, with the
mind I serve the law of God, but with the flesh would be served
the law of sin. That's just the cold hard reality
of it. We're still in the flesh and therefore we still experience
fear But when we do, know this, it's not of God. It's not of
God. God has not given us the spirit
of fear. Now watch this, I love this word
but. He said but, of power. Of power, what kind of power?
Do you feel powerful? I don't. But here he said he'd
given us but he'd given us the spirit of power. What kind of
power? Power, John 1 says, to become
sons of God. You think any natural man can
do that? No. But God can. And he gives, according
to that verse in verse 12, he gives us power. to become sons
of God, even to them that believe on His name. Power to become
partakers of the inheritance of enlightened saints. I can
rejoice with you, David, tonight and you people. I can rejoice
with you in your salvation because you've given me power to know
that and to share in that inheritance of enlightened saints. He's given
me power to accompany the words of His gospel. Otherwise, they're
just words. They're just going to go out
and fall on the ground. Nobody will even remember tomorrow morning
what I preached. But if He accompanies them words
with His Spirit, oh my soul, you'll remember 50 years from
now. I remember exactly what you said. You know, I preached
32 years. before I went to that church,
32 years before, I preached to that church. And I got up there
and the first thing this old man told me, he said, I remember
the message you preached 32 years ago. And he gave me the points
of it. When God accompanies His words
with His Spirit, you'll remember them. They'll go into your soul. And He gives us power in prayer.
James said, the official fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth
much. We don't feel powerful when we
pray, do we? Let me ask you something. Some
of you in here got some little babies. Do you listen to them
when they talk to you? Do you stop what you're doing?
Them little granddaughters come up to you, papa, grandma, huh? You stop everything you do. Listen. God hears his children. Believers do what no other person
on earth can do. They love. They love. They believe. They repent. They worship. And they rejoice in the truth. Nobody on this earth can do that
but believers. That's power, isn't it? That's
the kind of power he's talking about. God has given to us the
spirit of power, now watch this, and of love. Knowing exactly
what we are in the flesh, and what we're capable of, and what
we practice in our hearts and minds, yet we love one another,
don't we? Somebody does something to offend
you and he's a believer, your first words out of your mouth,
well he didn't really mean it. He didn't really mean it. You
know why you say that? Because you love him. You love
him. How could I ever discern his
love for me and despise another just like me whom he loved? Isn't
that what John says? That's an impossibility. And then he tells us that he's
given us a sound mind. I'm talking about what salvation
is. What salvation is, experientially,
in the heart. He's given to us a sound mind.
I'm not a brainiac, Larry will swear to that. He had to show
me 50 times how to put a message up on Free Grace Radio. I'm not
a brainiac. But that's not what he's talking
here. He's talking here about the wisdom of God in Christ. Revealed to believers, revealed
in their heart, they know it. They know God. God has made Christ to be unto
us wisdom, revealing to us in Him all the treasures of wisdom
and knowledge. And I'm not a Brainiac, but I
know God. And that's eternal life, isn't
it? Sure it is. Often the Lord has opened passages
to me in the Scriptures that the wisest men of their day had
no clue of what it said. Had no clue. But He revealed
them to me in Christ. Because that's where His wisdom
is. I have put these on because I
can't see. You want to see the secret things
of God? Put on Christ. Put on Christ. And boy, your
vision will open up. You can see His glory. A sound mind. We are of God,
John said. He that knoweth God, heareth
us. Isn't that something? My nephew asked me that question
one time. He said, I haven't gone to church much, and I haven't
read the Bible hardly at all. He said, how is somebody like
me supposed to know who's preaching the truth and who's not? I said,
you never will but for the grace of God. Isn't that what John's
saying here? We are of God, he said. He that
knoweth God, heareth us. And he that is not of God, heareth
not us. Hereby know we the spirit of
truth and the spirit of error. That's how you know. God enables
us to hear while he leads others to their own understanding. And
then he tells Timothy this, what he's doing here, he's inspiring
this young preacher by showing him the things that we take for
granted. And we do. And he's showing him
these things and showing him how marvelous they are and how
great they are. He tells Timothy, Be not thou
therefore, that is based on everything that I've just said, be not thou
therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner,
but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the
power of God. The power that's enabled you
to believe, the power that's enabled you to repent and rejoice
in Christ. That's the power. I don't have
any physical power. Sometimes I'd like to just go
unscrew the top of somebody's head and pour it in, because
they just don't get it. But that's not mine to do. That's
His to do. Don't be ashamed of me, Paul
said, and don't be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord. but
be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the
power of God. That is, heartbreaking persecutions
from those of your own bowels. You know what that is, and I
know what that is, and many of you in here know what that is.
From those you've known from your childhood, and even from
them who have professed faith for a while, and then one day
walked out the door. Don't feel shame when those around
you despise you and the gospel you preach. It's happened according
to the power of God. Why did it happen? It happened
to prove your ministry and expose their false professions. In 2
Thessalonians 1.5 it says, it is a manifest token of the righteous
judgment of God. that you may be counted worthy
of the kingdom of God for which you suffer. Now that's my introduction. That's what I'm talking about,
practical Christianity that men talk about. This is what this
salvation is. Now that's my introduction. Here's
the message, 2 Timothy 1.9. God has saved us. Isn't that
what he's been trying to tell Timothy from the get-go? I got to be an apostle by the
will of God. You got to hear by the will of
God. You got to believe and rejoice
and repent by the power of God. God has saved us, Timothy! Wake up! God has saved us! I didn't save myself, God saved
me! Man's wife got angry with me
one day because I wouldn't come over to his house and put my
finger in his face over something he'd said or done. And I said,
if I can't inspire him from this pulpit preaching the glory of
God in Christ, what good's he gonna do for me to stand in your
yard with my finger in your face? Huh? Not gonna do any good at
all. That's what Paul's telling this
young man, wake up! God has saved us! You didn't have anything to do
with it. God has saved us. Now this passage has its own
outline, so let's look at it as God the Holy Spirit has given
it to us. And that's the first thing he
tells us. God has saved us. We didn't get saved. Oh, I don't
like to hear that, do you? I invited a man to church the
other day. He said, well, I got saved last week. We didn't get saved. We didn't
make our peace with God. I've heard men say that. I've
made my peace with God. We didn't accept Jesus as a personal
Savior. God saved us. God saved us. We didn't make our decision for
Jesus. We didn't exercise our free will
by choosing to let God save us. Our Lord said point blank to
his disciples. I had no idea what they were
thinking or saying, but usually when he said something it was
because they were thinking something. But he said, you didn't choose
me, I chose you. I chose you. We need to be reminded
of that, don't we? If we were of the world, John
15, 19, the world would love His own, but because you're not
of the world, but I've chosen you out of the world. Therefore,
the world hates you. It despises you. And you didn't
will your salvation because it's not of Him that willeth. It doesn't
matter what you will. It's not of Him that willeth.
Or of Him that runneth. But of God that showeth mercy.
And we were given the power to become sons of God and believe
on His name, being born again, not of blood, nor of the will
of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Of His own
will, James said, begat He us with the word of truth. God saved
us. God saved us. And if He didn't,
we're not saved. Is that right? That's exactly
right. There's nothing but the restraining
grace of God to keep you from making a false profession and
serving antichrist religion until you wake up in hell. Just the
restraining grace of God, that's all it is. God has saved us. He didn't save everyone, but
He saved some. He saved some. Well, how is it
God saved us? That's kind of a blanket statement,
isn't it? God saved us. Well, how did He save us? Well,
He saved us when He chose us in eternal election and predestinated
us under the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ to Himself according
to the good pleasure of His will. We were saved when God chose
to save us. That's right. He didn't say here
God is going to save you. He said God hath saved you. He is saving us and He shall
yet save us, but He saved us in eternity past. You reckon
anybody God chose in eternity past and predestinated to the
adoption of sons is not going to come and be a son? Huh? Every one of them is going to
come. That's just a plain declaration
of Holy Scripture, Ephesians 5, 3-5. And everything else that
happens in time has a direct bearing on our eternal election
and predestination. Having stated the gospel in all
of its points and all of the preciousness of particular redemption
and justification and a gracious and effectual calling, Paul tells
us in Ephesians 1-11 that in Christ also We have obtained
an inheritance. Now watch this, being predestinated. How come you believe? Because
you predestinated. Isn't that what he's saying here? That's exactly what he's saying.
And you were predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh
all things after the counsel of his own will. Everything in
your life worked together to bring you to Christ. Everything. Somebody said, Boy, I'd like
to go back and change some things. Boy, not me. Not me. I don't think God made any mistakes.
Do you? No. He knows exactly what He's
doing. And then secondly, God saved
us when He gave to His Son all the offices and appointments
necessary to secure our salvation forever. You reckon we could be saved
if He wasn't the one Mediator between God and Christ? What
if we chose to be saved? It doesn't make any difference.
You still have to have a Mediator. The Scripture said there's one
Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. And the
Christ there is representative of all the offices necessary
for Him to be the Mediator. He said, Preacher, I don't understand
what you're saying. Well, to be mediator, he must
be high priest. He can't mediate any peace without
a high priest. Hebrews 7.23, And they, that
is the Old Testament priests, were many, because they were
not suffered to continue because of death. But this man, because
he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore, he is
able to save to the uttermost those who come unto God by him. He mediates the peace of God
because he's the high priest. And to be mediator on Christ,
he must be the federal head and representative. Either he has
to do the work for us or we have it yet to do, one or the other.
Either he was my substitute dying on that cross or else I have
to die. One or the other. And the scripture
said he's the head of the body of the church who is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead. He's my representative. He's
my federal head. In Psalm 27, God said, I declare
the decree, the Lord has said unto me, thou art my son, this
day have I begotten thee. You reckon he's talking about
the Son of God? No. He's talking about the Son of Man. The Son
of Man. He was in the beginning with
God and was God. This is talking about the eternal
appointment of our federal head and representative of His coming
in our flesh in the fullness of time. That's what he's talking
about. And to be mediator in Christ, he must become our substitute
and redeemer. Sin has to be paid for. As in Adam all die, even so in
Christ shall all be made alive. So God saved us when he chose
us in Christ before the foundation of the world. And God saved us
when He gave to His Son all the offices and appointments necessary
to save chosen sinners. And then thirdly, God saved us
by a covenant union with His beloved Son in which He made
us one with Him. I'll tell you all my hope rides
on that, being one with Him. A man in false religion one time,
we had a blackboard up behind him and he put graphs and notes
and all kinds of silliness on there. But one day he said, this
is what forgiveness is. He said, here's a sin and here's
the sin of this and the sin of that. He started naming off sin.
He said, here's salvation. He took that eraser and just
erased those. That's not salvation. Sin has to be paid for. It has to be paid for, and either
Christ paid the debt or we still owe it. One or the other. No gray areas here. One or the
other. And if He paid the debt, how
did He do it? God couldn't unjustly charge
Him. He did it because He's my head
and representative and He made me one with Him. Listen to this, John 4, 17. Herein
is our love made perfect. Remember a while ago I talked
about love, that love that believers have? Here's what makes it perfect.
Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in
the day of judgment, because as He is, so are we in this world."
Huh? You can't even think about yourself
that way, can you? Oh, my soul. As He is. How is He? Oh, He's glorified. He has salvation in His possession. Isn't that what that says over
in Hebrews 9? He purchased our salvation. He'd given to Him. And He sat
down at the right hand of God, securing that salvation forever. Once for all, the Scripture says. Oh, my soul, covenant union with
Him, chosen and precious to God, righteous and just, loving and
merciful. I can't even look myself in the
mirror and quote this scripture. I die, and my spirit's raised,
and I come up before God. And He says, well done, thou
good and faithful son. one with Him. Huh? That's my hope. I don't have
any other hope. That's my hope. Everything rests on my union
with Him. Well, when did I come into this
union? Before the world was. We serve the law and walk before
a holy God with the mind of Christ. as we're one with Him. And then
fourthly, God saves us when we perfectly obeyed the law and
our Redeemer and satisfied His holy justice. That's how we serve
the law in Christ. And I tell you, if you try to
serve it in any other way, you're gonna be miserable. Just miserable. You'll come short, you'll wander
around, oh, I'm not saved, I'm not saved, I don't pray enough,
I don't give enough, and you never will. He never will. But Christ gave Himself. He gave it all. So I can look
at all them scriptures concerning giving. I've given it all because
I'm one with Him. Huh? Now I don't walk around
mourning all day. Huh? That's right. We serve the
law with the mind of Christ. The believer's only hope of righteousness,
sanctification, and justification is Christ, our Redeemer. Justified
freely by His grace, now listen, through the redemption that's
in Christ Jesus. This is what makes us accepted
of God and enables God to be just in His justification of
us. And then fifthly, God saved us when He raised up our representative
and substitute from the grave and declared to the whole world
that everything that Christ came to do and that He did was accepted
of God. His justice was satisfied, His
righteousness exalted and honored the law, His glory has been manifested,
and He raised Him up and sat Him at the right hand of God.
And you know what Ephesians 2 says? When He raised Him up, He raised
us up together. Isn't that what it says, David?
And seated us at His own right hand. If you can't rejoice in
that, you're dead. You're dead. I don't see how
you can help but rejoice in Him. He was delivered for our offenses,
our offenses, and raised again, now listen, for our justification. Now, who is He that condemneth?
It's Christ that died. Yea, rather the treason again,
who's even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession
for us. Who's going to separate us from
the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord? Huh?
Oh, but you can separate yourself. No, you can't. Though we believe
not, yet He's faithful. He's faithful. He cannot deny
Himself. Nothing. Oh, our salvation is
secured by the presence of our Redeemer at the right hand of
the Father, having power over all flesh to give eternal life.
to as many as the Father's given Him, and there's nothing out
of His power and gracious rule to even threaten our salvation,
let alone bring it to pass. This one at the Father's right
hand loves us. Oh, I wish I could just sing
that 24-7. Remind myself that the one who's
seated at the right hand of God loves us. Oh, what a great and wondrous
salvation we've got in God our Savior. And then sixthly, God
saved us when He poured out His Holy Spirit upon the church.
You know, many are ignorant of the work of the Holy Spirit,
and there's churches all over our land and growing daily where
they talk about the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit.
And I'm not mocking the Holy Spirit, I'm mocking them who
don't know the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit's come,
he won't speak of himself. He's gonna take of the things
of mine, Christ said, and he's gonna show them to you. Has God showed you some things?
Well, there's only one way he shows them, through the Holy
Spirit. The eye hath not seen, nor ear
heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which
God hath prepared for them that love him, but God hath revealed
them unto us by his Spirit. How did He do it? By convincing
us of sin. The insatiable want of it, the
awful nature of it, our love of it, the effects of it upon
our minds and hearts, and the darkness brought about by it
in our very souls. Sinners by birth and choice and
practice. And if God the Holy Spirit ever
convinces you of sin, only God the Holy Spirit will be able
to convince you of righteousness. Cause you'll say, there's no
righteousness in me. Peter told the Lord, he said,
depart from me, I'm a sinful man. No, you're righteous, Peter.
You're righteous. He'll have to convince you of
it. And when he does, he'll convince you of judgment. Not that there
is one, but judgment satisfied. And if He ever convinces you
of it, nobody will ever take that convincing away. Nobody
will ever be able to convince you that you're not. Because
we're sons, Paul said, God has sent forth the Spirit of His
Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. The Spirit Himself beareth witness
with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, Romans
8, 17, then heirs, heirs of God, and join heirs with Christ, if
so be we suffer with him, we may be glorified together. The
Holy Spirit also accompanies true gospel preaching. Paul said
we're able ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter,
but of the Spirit, of the Spirit. And then the last thing, let
me give you this. And I quit. God has saved us. And Paul said, and then he called
us. You know why he called you? Because
he saved you. We got it. Religion got this
backwards, don't it? God calls you and then he saves
you. No. No, God saves you. Then he calls
you. And then he saves you some more. Oh my soul. Calls us where? Calls us to faith and repentance.
Calls us out of darkness into His marvelous light. Calls us
from death unto life. Calls us from judgment to justification. Calls us from a curse to everlasting
blessedness. Paul said he thanked our Heavenly
Father, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with how many blessings? All spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ. You reckon he's not gonna give
those blessings to those he gave it to? He's gonna give them. He's gonna give them. Who's he
gonna give them to? Those he chose in Christ. God
has saved us. That's our message to this world.
And this, not according to our works, but according to His own
purpose and grace which was given us before the foundation of the
world. Now I tell you, if you get a hold of what I'm preaching
tonight, you'll rejoice. Your wife or husband may die,
but you'll still rejoice in this. You might lose your job, but
you'll still rejoice in this. You might be going there to the
doctor. I remember telling our congregation,
I said, one of these days, you're going to go into the doctor,
and he's going to leave the room. When he comes back in, he's going
to be doing this. The next day, I took Kathy to the doctor. He
left the room, and he'd come back in the room doing this the
next day. But when he does, you can still
rejoice in this. And there's nothing else. I'm
telling you, I've looked, I've hunted. I've been to nearly every
kind of church there is. There's no salvation out there.
This is it. You have this or you're not saved.
But I tell you, your ears will... I got a little old Yorkie, and
when I say something, them little ears comes up. We call him Uno,
because one ear don't work. Just one ear comes up. But your
ears will come up, or just one if you have it. And you'll rejoice
when you hear this, God has saved us. Oh, may the Lord be pleased
to do that. Thank you. That's the only message that
gives us hope, isn't it?