Alright, if you'll take your
Bibles and turn with me to 2nd Timothy, 2nd Timothy chapter
2. 2nd Timothy chapter 2. Our text
will be found in verse 1. 2nd Timothy chapter 2 and verse
1. The title of this, The Strength of Grace in Affliction. The strength of grace. The apostle
encourages this man, Timothy, this young pastor, Timothy by
these words. He says, Thou, Timothy, therefore
my son, be strong, what? In the grace that is in Christ
Jesus. And the apostle before had mentioned
unto Timothy his afflictions, his troubles. He says in verse
12, he says, For this cause I also suffer these things. For the
preaching of the gospel, the apostle met much affliction,
much difficulty, many troubles. And we know this is true of every
believer in Christ. Every believer in Christ will
meet with great affliction and trouble in this life. If you
think, believer, for one minute that you're going to escape trouble,
we are deceiving ourselves. And I'll tell you this, if we
deceive ourselves in this matter, when trouble comes, surely it'll
be met with doubts and fears and much more difficult. The
Apostle said, I've suffered. And I know this, we through much
tribulation, the Scripture says, shall enter into the Kingdom
of God. Believers in this life, we have
afflictions. Afflictions and troubles. These trials and afflictions
come to every believer and they are sharp and painful. They're
sharp. But as you see the apostle here
as the example of affliction, we as believers in Christ, we
understand this, that all affliction, all trouble, all suffering is
according to the divine will and providence of God. And it is this providence, this
dark providences of God that God uses for the believer and
by which He proves the grace of God in us. Do you desire to
know that grace of God is in you? Do you desire to know that
God's grace is with you, that God's grace is for you? Do you
desire to know that you are in Christ? It is vital that we understand
that. It is vital for our sanity. It is vital for our understanding.
It is vital for our soul to make our calling and election sure,
to know that the grace of God has been worked in us. And how
does God prove that grace has been worked in us? Through affliction. I'll show
you this. Go to Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy
chapter... Deuteronomy chapter 8. Deuteronomy
chapter 8. Look at verse 1. God says here through Moses,
He says, All the commandments which I command thee this day
shall you observe to do, that you may live and multiply and
go in and possess the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers.
And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led
thee these forty years in the wilderness. Now why did God lead
them these 40 years? These that would inherit the
kingdom, these that would inherit the land. Remember, there were
many who died in the wilderness, but these are the ones that were
left. These are the ones that were 20 and under. And listen,
why did He lead them these 40 years? Look at it, He tells them. To humble thee, and to what? To prove thee. to know what was
in thine heart, whether thou wouldst keep his commandments,
or no, he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee
with manna." You see, He caused them to hunger, He caused them
to thirst, He led them in the wilderness to this, to prove
them. Now, did God need proof for Himself? No, He proved their hearts by
affliction. Through affliction He proved
their hearts. He led them in that wilderness
to prove them. And that's what God does by this
affliction. You know what God's doing by your affliction? Listen
to me. The afflictions that we face
are not random. They're not without purpose. They have purpose. They have
meaning. Every affliction. Every difficulty, every trial
has a purpose of God, and that is to prove Thee, to try Thee,
to see that that grace that is in Thee is of God or it is of
yourself. And when God does this, what's
the first thing He proves? The first thing that affliction
proves is the corruption of our nature. That's what it shows.
That's the first thing that comes forth, is the corruption. God
says of the wicked heart, He says it's like the sea that churns
up the dirt and mire. It's cloudy, isn't it? Take a
clear stream, and it's clear until what? You put your hand
down in that mud, and you move it. And then what? It becomes
the muck and the mire come to the surface. And when God afflicts
us, what comes to the surface? The muck and the mire of our
old nature. The sin. We are troubled like
the sea. We are troubled up. The dirt
and the mire come up. It is only in affliction that
the deep of a man's heart is broken up. And the heart pours
out the wickedness. And listen, hard thoughts against
God. Have you not found that to be
true about affliction? It causes us to think hard thoughts
of God. It did to Asaph. You remember
that man Asaph, Psalm 73? When he was afflicted by this
thought, that the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer. Listen,
it was atheism that came out. It stirred up what was in his
wicked heart, in his very nature. The evil of atheism was exposed
in his heart. Listen to what he said. Verily
I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in insanity.
In other words, I have believed God in vain. My religion is a sham. That's
what he said. When he was afflicted, the sin
of unbelief came up. You remember Moses when he was
afflicted by that stiff-necked nation? What did he do? He struck
out against Christ. He hit that rock. He was not
supposed to hit that rock. That was a sin. And he paid dearly
for that. Is this not true of us regarding
our afflictions and troubles in this life? If we're honest,
I'll tell you this, it stirs up the old man. Afflictions,
when they hurt, they stir up the old nature. When we are in
trouble and come and are overwhelmed in our souls, when we are cast
down and beaten and afflicted, smitten of God, the first reaction
of the flesh is to question divine wisdom. Why me? Why this? Why now? What are we doing? We are questioning
God's providence. We're like Jonah. Jonah, I'm
telling you, he was one of the most successful preachers that
ever lived, didn't he? When he preached that message
in Nineveh, the Scripture says that Nineveh repented. And yet,
what did he do? He went out there and pouted.
He went out there and God, even when he was pouting, caused that
gourd to rise up and shade his old bald head. But what did God
do? God sent affliction. He sent
the worm, ate up the gourd in that east wind, And Jonah said,
why don't you just kill me? And what did God say? Dost thou
well to be angry? Listen to me. Are you afflicted?
Are you angry with God? What is that but stirring up
the old man of sin inside of us? It stirs up the corruption.
Affliction proves our corruption, doesn't it? It proves The old
man is still hanging about our neck. Are you under such affliction? Are you pressed and weighed down
by what you see and what you feel? Does the divine hand seem intent
to crush you? Has God spoiled your schemes
and crushed your dreams? We say, Why, it should have been
like this, and it's not. We thought it should be this
way, and God went this way. Affliction, listen, it will prove
you, it will prove your heart. But not only this, it will prove
the grace of God. If there's grace in you, it will
prove it. It will manifest itself. Affliction will not only prove
the corruption, it will also prove that if God has had grace
on you. Now there are some who are only
professors. There are some who profess to
believe in Christ, but affliction, instead of proving the grace
in them, it will prove that there was no grace in them. You remember
that parable the Lord said of the sower seed and the sower
Some seed fell on stony ground, and it sprang up. But because
it had no depth of earth, it had no root, when the sun came
up, it dried up and withered. That's what a man who is only
a professor, he springs up, looks like he's doing well in the faith,
but when the sun of affliction comes, what happens? He withers
and dies because he has no root. in the grace of God. He has no
life in the grace of God. To illustrate that, you remember
the Lord Jesus Christ preached that message. You want a sovereign
grace message. John chapter 6 is the greatest
sovereign grace message ever preached. Christ said, the only
hope for you is to believe on Me. And you can't except the
Father. give you power, except the Father
give you life. No man can come unto Me, except
the Father which hath sent Me draw him." And you know what?
They were offended at that message. That message was an afflicting
message upon their heart, and they despised it. And many disciples
went away that day. But I'll tell you this, the Lord
was not only proving the false disciples, He was also proving
His disciples, wasn't He? He said to His disciples, Will
you go away also? Can you not imagine how afflicted
those disciples were that were left, seeing everybody go away? Can you imagine that? They had a big group. And then
all of a sudden, there were twelve. That was it. And Jesus said to
them, you're going to go too. What was He doing? He was proving
them. He was trying them through affliction. And you know what he found? He
found this. He found faith. Why? Because he put it there.
His grace put it there. And they said, Lord, to whom
shall we go? It proved their ignorance. It proved their weakness
of their flesh. But it also proved this, that
there was grace in them. Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou
hast the words of eternal life. Isn't this true of you, believer,
when you're in trial? This is what God is doing, proving
you. Yeah, He shows you your weakness. He shows you your sin. But if you're His, He will also
show you faith, love, and hope in Christ. Believer, let us in
our affliction know that God's providence has brought it, and
by it, God will prove His grace in us. James says this, Knowing
that the trying of your faith worketh... What? Patience. And listen. Let patience have
her perfect work. That word patience means endurance. Endurance. The trying of your
faith worketh what? Endurance. Now you take a man, he goes out
here and he works all day long, twelve hours in a day. Do you
think he did that the first day? No, he built up to that. And
so it is with grace. God proves us. He causes us through
affliction to be able to endure patience. But our strength to endure this
patience, it cannot be by looking at God's grace in us. Listen
to me. You will not endure by looking
to the grace in you. What graces are in you? Faith,
hope, love, joy, peace, meekness, temperance. These are grace.
These are the graces of God that are worked in the believer. Surely,
affliction proves these graces. But yet, if you are to endure,
you cannot by any means look to those graces in you. That's
why Paul says this in our text. Thou therefore, my son, be strong. in the grace that is in you.
Is that what it says? Look at your text, 2 Timothy,
chapter 2 and verse 1. Be thou strong, my son, in the
grace that is in you. No. No. You can only be strong
and endure in the grace of God that is in Christ Jesus. This is the only way believers
endure. This is the only way we gain
strength and courage. The grace of God that is in Christ
Jesus. You cannot look to the grace
that is in us, but rather that all grace flows from the smitten
rock, Jesus Christ. And as that rock flowed, followed
the Jews in the wilderness, even so does this rock follow us in
the wilderness. Believer, Christ is always with
you. Don't you know that He has never left you? He has never
abandoned you. He is always with you. And just
as He supplied water for those Jews in the desert, so then does
He by His grace supply our needs in this wilderness and in our
affliction. So this evening I want us to
be strengthened not by the grace of God that's in us. Yes, God's
going to prove that grace. He's going to try that grace
that He has put in you. And you will be able to see it.
But when you see it, you're not going to look to it. You're going
to look to the source of it. The God of all grace. And so tonight I want you to
consider Four things about the grace of God in Christ Jesus.
Four things about the grace of God that is in Christ Jesus.
First of all, I want you to consider this, that the grace of God that
is in Christ Jesus is eternal grace. Eternal grace. This is the duration of God's
grace that is in Christ Jesus. It is from eternity. to eternity. It is eternal. Believer in Christ, I want you
to consider this truth in midst of your affliction. This is the
best time to consider this. Listen to me, it's the best time
to consider this in your affliction, in the midst of your trouble.
Consider the duration of God's grace towards you in Christ Jesus. It is eternal. so that you might
be strengthened, that God has set His favor on you before the
world began." When God was alone, can you imagine that? Can you
think of that? That there was a time, if we
could call it time, that God was alone? In His Trinity of His person,
happy and content with Himself. And yet, even then, God had grace toward you. He purposed and decreed that
we should be his sons. It was then he gave us all spiritual
blessings, all the glories of heaven, and all his love and
salvation, all the inheritance of eternal life within. And that says that in Ephesians
chapter 1. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ, according as He hath chosen us in Christ before
the foundation of the world. Why? That we should be holy.
You see, you're holy because God purposed you to be holy.
By His grace from eternity, He purposed it. He willed it. And
this grace was never dependent on our works, but it was given
us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Look, just a page
over, or just a paragraph over in 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse
9. Look at what Paul says. He says
that God saved us and called us with an holy calling. Why? Well, here's a negative. Not according to your works.
but according to His own purpose and grace. When did He do this? Which was given us in Christ
Jesus before the world began. You see, this grace was ours
and it flows through Christ and it's an eternal grace. A grace
of God given us through a mediator, a representative. Paul says in
2 Thessalonians, he says that we should hold fast the gospel
because God has given us an everlasting consolation and a good hope through
grace. In the midst of your affliction,
what is your hope? How do you anticipate, have any
comfort at all that you're going to make it through this? Here's something to be strong
in, that God, in grace, purposed your salvation before the world
began. This grace that was given us
from eternity shall therefore endure to all eternity, for God
hath said, God said, I have loved thee with an everlasting love.
And what's the manifestation of that love? Therefore with
loving kindness have I drawn thee. Has He drawn you by grace
through faith in Christ? And I'll tell you this, God has
loved you with an everlasting love. And His grace is from eternity
to eternity. Give thanks unto the Lord, David
said, for His mercy endureth how long? Well, how long do you need mercy? His mercy endureth forever. Second thing is this, consider
this in the midst of your affliction, that the grace of God in Christ
is not only eternal, but it's unchangeable. The grace of God, consider that,
it is unchangeable. Not only does this grace last
from eternity to eternity, But what makes it so great is that
it cannot and will not be changed. Christ is the same yesterday,
today, and forever. Therefore, His grace is the same
yesterday, today, and forever. Believer, as we are afflicted,
consider that the grace of God is nothing like our grace. His love is nothing like our
love. The love of man is fickle. It's helpless. I may love you,
but I may not be able to do anything for you. Man's love is frustrated. We want to do something for those
we love, but we cannot do anything for them. That is not the love
of God. That is not the grace of God.
God's grace is not fickle. It is not helpless. It is not
frustrated. The love of God is rooted in
the grace of God and is like himself, immutable, unchangeable. And so then, consider this, neither
our condition nor our circumstance have any effect on the grace
of God. Now, you consider that, that
nothing that happens in time has any effect whatsoever on
God's love for you. Nothing. Nothing. Not anything
you do, not anything anyone else does, not anything that a devil
does or an angel does or a man does, not anything accidental
that you perceive accidental that happens to you. Nothing
can affect the grace and love of God towards you. It is unchangeable. If God loved you in eternity,
He loves you now the same and He will love you the same in
eternity. It's immutable, it's unchangeable.
And so our condition has what to do with the love of God? Our
works have what to do with the love of God? Now listen, if God's
love is dependent on you, you know nothing of the grace of
God. If God's love fluctuates with your love, you're in trouble. But it doesn't. Be strong, my
son. in the immutable grace of God
that is in Christ Jesus. God says this, I am God, I change
not. What's the result of that? Therefore,
you sons of Jacob, you vile sinners, are not consumed. Praise God
for His immutable grace that is in Christ Jesus. We may know
God's eternal immutable love and grace only then by looking
to Christ Jesus. That is the only way you can
know the immutable, eternal love of God, is if you believe in
Christ Jesus. For in Him alone is this grace
of God found. You cannot find this grace in
any other place or person except Christ Jesus. That's why Paul
said, I count all things but done that I may win Christ and
be found where? Where does Paul desire to be
found? He said, I want to be found in Him. Why? Because that's
where all the grace of God is found. It is found in Christ. And if you are in Christ tonight,
you listen, the grace of God towards you is immutable. It
can't be changed. It won't be changed. Why? It's
perfect. Is not Christ perfect? Then you
bet this, all of the grace and love of God that is in Christ
is perfect. and all of you who are in Christ are perfect. Have you ever thought about why
would you change something that's perfect? God's not going to change
because it's perfect. It's immutable. Believer, the
grace of God for us is given us in Christ Jesus before the
world began. Therefore, we who were in Christ are now in Christ. And if you
are now in Christ, you listen, you will always be in Christ. Thirdly, I want us to see this,
that in our affliction we should be strong in the grace of God
that is in Christ, not only because it's eternal, not only because
it's immutable, but listen, it is effective. The grace of God
is effectual. Now that word just simply means
it gets the job done. It is powerful. The grace of
God is not some floating mystical thing by which man reaches up
and grabs the grace of God and pulls it to himself. The grace
of God is in itself powerful to accomplish whatever the grace
of God determines to do. It is effectual. So then that God, the father
who loved us and chose us in eternal, immutable grace, he
also purposed our complete salvation through the person and work of
his beloved son. I just quoted that in Ephesians
chapter one, that that he has given us all spiritual blessings
in heaven and places in Christ, according as he had chosen us
in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and we should be without blame before him in love. Having
predestinated us under the adoption of children, how? How is he going
to do all this? How are you going to take something
so vile as this and make it holy? How can he take a son of Adam
and make him a son of God? By Jesus Christ. through the work of a mediator,
through the work of a representative man, which is His Son. So then, the responsibility,
the responsibility of the salvation of all of the elect is where? In Christ Jesus. Go to Isaiah 52. Look at this. Hold your place here. We're going
to go back real fast. But Isaiah 52. Look at verse 13. God says this. Now you listen.
He wants you to look at something. Not just something, but someone.
He says this, Behold... Who? My servant. Who is this? This is Christ.
Christ is the servant of God. He became a man and subjected
himself under the law of God. He became the servant of God.
And listen, Behold, my servant shall deal prudently. That word means successfully. In other words, you look at my
Christ, He will be successful. And then when he is successful,
look what's going to happen. He shall be exalted, and extolled,
and be very high. My servant, after he is successful,
he shall be exalted, extolled, and very high. There's exalted,
there's extolled, and then there's very high. You can't get any
higher than that. God exalts someone. Can you get
any higher than when God exalts someone? When God extols someone,
when God says he's very high, is there anyone higher? No. Okay. Now then, behold this in the
midst of your affliction, believer in Christ. In Christ is all our
hope, all our confidence and assurance. Listen to me, you need assurance.
I was talking to someone just this week, and this lady was
troubled. She said, I just want some assurance. And I asked her, I said, well,
what are you looking at? What are you looking at? If you
want assurance, what are you looking at? Obviously, she's looking at something
other than Christ. Yeah, you're going to need assurance
if you're looking at you. You're not going to have any.
The only hope of assurance of heaven is he successful. Did Christ accomplish the work
of salvation? Did he finish the work? God said,
My servant will be successful. Was he successful? If we're believers
in Christ, all our assurance is in his success. All of our
hope is in his success. Peace with God is based on his
success. Joy of the Spirit, endurance
in this life. All of our hope is in Christ
because He accomplished. He finished. He triumphed in
this work of salvation. He was the prudent servant. He dealt prudently. Successfully
in His work. When Christ came to honor the
Law, listen to me believer, did He honor it? Did He fulfill all righteousness
by His obedience to the Law? Well, if you're a believer in
Christ, you know this is a no-brainer. You don't even think about that.
Yes! We know He did. He was successful. He honored the law of God. He
magnified the law of God and made it honorable. We know that. Did Christ, by His one offering,
by Himself, by the shedding of His blood as the spotless Lamb
of God, when He was made sin and God punished Him on the cross,
did He satisfy the justice of God? Was God well pleased with His
offering? He was forsaken, He was condemned,
He was smitten of God. And yet He endured this suffering,
didn't He? He, despising the shame, He endured
the suffering. As a lamb before his shears is
dumb, He opened not His mouth. And in grace for us, He endured
the cross, He gave His life and He did it once. Why? Because
that was all He needed. We just put in doors in the house
a while back. And some of the doors, I had
to shave off the top. You know how many times I had
to take that door off and put it back on? Why? I was not successful. I did not get it right. I had
to do it multiple times because it was wrong. Christ suffered
once. The Scripture said, but this
man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sin, what did he
do? He sat down. He finished the work. His grace is effectual in that
Christ accomplished salvation. He's a prudent son. And what
did God do when His servant was prudent? What did God do? God
says, He shall be exalted, extolled, and very high. Where is Christ
right now? Where is the risen Christ right
now? He is seated on the throne of
God doing whatsoever He will. He is moving all things. According
to the counsel of his own will and what is his will what is
Christ doing? You can't you may not be able
to see it and you don't even need to I can the scriptures
are clear what he's doing He is saving his people. That is
what he's doing He has been exalted. He is accomplishing
the will of God, and this is the sovereign, effectual will
of God, that all He gave Christ, all those for whom Christ died
and redeemed, every one of them without exception shall come
to Him and believe on Him without exception. Over there in Isaiah 43, let
me see if I can find this real fast. Chapter 43 and verse 7. Look what God says He'll do. See if I can't find it. Verse 5, He said, Fear not, I
am with thee. I shall bring thy seed from the
east and gather thee from the west. I shall say to the north,
Give up, and the south keep not back. Bring my sons from afar. and my daughters from the ends
of the earth. Even what? Everyone that is called by my
name. For I have created him for my
glory, I have formed him, yea, I have made him. What is God
doing right now? He is gathering. You want to
know why this happened over here? God's gathering. You want to
know why this country is being put down and this country is
being raised up? God's gathering. He's calling His people. He is
gathering them by His effectual word. Jesus said this, Of all
that the Father giveth me, I should lose nothing, but raise it up
again. This, my friend, is effectual
grace. And isn't this our experience?
Isn't the experience of every believer the effectual grace
of God? Blessed be the God of all grace
who came to us when we were dead. We were blind and ignorant of
the grace of God. How foolish were we to go about
to establish our own righteousness, thinking we could merit God's
favor, we could somehow stir up God's love by our works? How
foolish. But you remember in the effectual
grace of God how he sent a preacher, and how the gospel was preached
to our hearts and the Spirit of God came and gave us life When that effectual grace came,
what did you see? Did you not see your sin? Your
need? And then what? You saw the remedy. You saw the cure. You saw Christ. And by grace, you received Him. As many as received Him, to them
gave He the right to be called the sons of God, which were born,
not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will
of man, but of the will of God. You were born again of the will
of God? How do you know? Have you received Him? Are you a son of God? If you've
received Him, you are. This is the experience of grace.
Now look, grace was long before we experienced it, right? It
was eternal grace. It was unchangeable grace. But
then it was experienced grace, wasn't it? Experience grace.
We experienced the grace of God in Christ Jesus when we came
to Him and believed. And we know whom we have believed. Isn't that right? We know whom
we believed. We believed on Christ. And we know this, that all the
grace of God is in Christ. All that eternal, immutable,
effectual grace is found in Him. And we believe in Him. And lastly, I want you to be strong
in the grace that is in Christ Jesus because of this. The grace
of God in Christ is inexhaustible. It's eternal. That's a duration. It's unchangeable. It's immutable. It's powerful. But it's also
inexhaustible. When Paul was given That affliction
in the flesh, that thorn in the flesh, you remember that. The
messenger of Satan sent of God to buffet him, and he asked the
Lord three times. He said, Lord, remove this from
me. Don't you imagine each time is
more intense? Isn't that with you? When you're
afflicted, don't you ask the Lord, please remove this? And
then you say, oh God, please remove this. And then you're
on your knees, oh please, Remove this. And what was His answer? My grace is sufficient for thee. My eternal,
immutable, unchangeable, effectual, and exhaustible grace is sufficient
for you. Every word of that is important.
First of all, Is there any other grace that matters? Is there any other grace that
will cause us to endure our afflictions? It is the grace of Christ, my
grace. This grace wherein we stand is
God's grace, eternal, immutable, unchangeable, sovereign grace. My grace is sufficient. The grace
of God in Christ is sufficient to redeem us from our sin, sufficient
to supply us all our righteousness. If His work of grace has satisfied
the justice of God for all the elect, how then is it not able
to satisfy these? Is that not enough? If God says,
I'm satisfied with the graces in Christ, why are you not satisfied? My grace is sufficient for thee."
When we complain of our troubles, when sin is stirred up in our
souls and we are brought very low, we think, how can I be accepted? Have you thought of that? Asa, he said, how in the world? My
religion must be vain. Surely God's good to Israel,
but as for me, when sin and lust and passion
is found in our hearts and overwhelmed us, when our troubles are too
great, seem like we can no longer endure, is His grace sufficient
for me, who is the greatest of sinners? Is it inexhaustible? Is there
a point where God is going to cast me off? Have you ever thought
of that? No. God's grace... I think of it
like this. If a fish could be thirsty, and
he was in the middle of the ocean, is it possible for him to exhaust
his supply of water? No. It's inexhaustible. It's
inexhaustible. It's like a man who gets on the
top of a mountain fearing if he takes one more breath, he
would consume the atmosphere. It's most laughable to think
this, that we could find an end to an eternal, immutable, effectual
grace of God. So Paul says back in our text,
Be thou, my son, strong in the grace of God. Not in you, but
that is in Christ Jesus. Cast all your soul again and
again at His feet, And you will find very sufficient grace to
help. The scripture says God is a refuge
and strength of very present help in trouble. Yes, affliction does break and
set loose the evils in the old man. But I tell you this, there is
no sin too great in his people that has not already been washed
in the blood of Christ. He says this to you, if you confess
your sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us all our sins. All our Every true child of God, when
he is afflicted, will humble himself and seek the grace of
God that is in Christ. And you know what you will find?
You will find sufficient grace. You'll find the need, you'll
find the strength to endure. The man who has been given a
new heart and the Holy Spirit saved by the grace of God will
surely endure the afflictions of this world because of the
grace of God, and he will endure one way, by faith." By faith. The just shall live how? By faith. Isn't this how you
began? By faith? Well, guess what? This is how you will endure,
by faith. This is how you will end, by
faith. You see, faith is the grace of
God. If you have faith, is it not
a gift of God's grace? Well, just like His love, just
like His forgiveness, even so, this faith is inexhaustible. God's people will endure because
this is the will of God. This is the grace. See the wisdom
of God then in our afflictions. He uses them to expose our sin
and humble us and prove us. Not for His knowledge, but for
ours. And therefore, Paul says to Timothy,
Thou, my son, be strong in the grace of God that is in Christ
Jesus. Praise God for His grace that
He has given us. We who were dead are now alive.
We who are full of sin are now cleansed. We who only had an evil nature
now have a new heart, a new nature. And I know this, that if we're
to be strong in the midst of our afflictions, we must set
our eyes solely on the grace of God that is in Christ Jesus. And I'm telling you, there's
plenty of strength there. Why? Because His grace is eternal.
His grace is immutable. His grace is powerful and His
grace is inexhaustible. Paul said that nothing shall
separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.
Nothing. Why? Grace. Grace. Be strong. Be bold in the grace of God that is in
Christ Jesus.