that I, by His grace, might be
able to surrender all, but I confess that there's only
one who surrendered all, and His name is Jesus Christ. He
surrendered all to God so that we might be saved. There's no
salvation in my surrender. There's salvation in His. There's
salvation in His. I surrender that. I surrender
all my salvation to Him. To Him. It's all His work. If
you'll take your Bibles now and turn with me to 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy chapter 1. And we'll
be looking at verses 8 through verse 11 this morning. The title of the message is,
The Grace of Affliction. The Grace of Affliction. Paul tells this young pastor,
Timothy, a man that heard the gospel by the preaching of the
Apostle Paul, who Paul remembers in prayer, and he remembers his
repentance, he says, Verse 4, "...greatly desiring
to see thee, being mindful of thy tears." Remembering his tears. And Paul says this was his great
joy, to remember his tears. Because the Lord had saved this
young man under the ministry of the Apostle Paul. And by this
remembrance, by him stirring this remembrance up in Timothy
concerning his salvation, he has a point, he has a reason
for this. He tells him that he should boldly
continue to preach the gospel. He says, not of fear. God has
not given us a spirit of fear, but of a sound of power, of love,
and of sound mind. You see, the apostle was encouraging
Timothy not to be ashamed of the gospel. And he was faithful
to preach the gospel with the spirit of power, to preach with
the spirit of love and of a sound mind as God has given to him,
and even so should we. The apostle here is not only
stirring up Timothy, but by the Holy Spirit is stirring us up
who believe. You who believe, remember, Remember
how that God came to you and how God saved you. Remember how
you have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. And may this stir
our hearts up that we would not cringe or shrink from the gospel
of Jesus Christ, but rather preach it boldly, declare it plainly,
as God has given us both power and love and a sound mind to
do. Believers are spiritual foes. They desire to silence us or
to make us consent to the ungodly and wicked system of free will
works religion. This is the aim. This is the
aim of the enemy of believers. To get us to compromise the gospel
or to just shut up. That's what the desire of the
enemy is. But my desire for you, which is the desire of the Holy
Spirit according to His Word, is to stir you up to see that
you have been given power and love and a sound mind, and you
should declare the gospel plainly, boldly, that you should not be
ashamed of the gospel. It is true that if we consent
to the Jesus of this world, if you consent to this religious
system and this religious age that your Jesus is the same as
theirs, it's true, you'll never suffer persecution in this world. You'll never suffer affliction.
But Paul would not consent to another Jesus. And neither do
we consent to another Jesus. Matter of fact, in Deuteronomy
32, 31, the scripture says their rock is not our rock. Is that not so? The rock of this
religious age is not our rock. Paul preaching to the church
of Galatia said in chapter 1 regarding anyone who preached another gospel,
He said, if any man preach unto you another gospel which I did
not preach to you, let him be accursed. That's bold language, isn't it?
Well, that's very offensive, isn't it? You bet it is. You
bet it is. He said in plain language, let
them who preach another gospel go to hell. In other words, leave
them alone. Leave them alone. Don't entangle
yourself with them. If any man preach any other gospel
than salvation of God by the free grace of God alone through
the person and work of Jesus Christ alone, then let that man
go to hell. We will not compromise the gospel
of Christ. We preach not salvation according
to any works of man, Either, even faith, which is necessary
for salvation, we declare this plainly, that even our faith
is not of ourselves. Our faith is a gift of God's
grace. We declare this plainly. These
false teachers in Galatia. What were they doing that was
so bad that Paul said they should let them go to hell? Well, they
were adding one thing to the work of Christ. One thing. Circumcision. In the Law of Moses, it said
that a man should be circumcised. And so what they said was, believe
in Jesus, yes. Believe Jesus is all your salvation,
but you also need to be circumcised. They added one thing, one thing
of the law. And Paul said, circumcision or
uncircumcision availeth nothing. Christ shall profit you nothing. Nothing. The false teachers preached that
you must believe in Christ, but you also must follow the law
of Moses. These men He even tried to deceive
others by saying that Paul taught this as well. I hear many free will works religion
preachers throwing out true gospel preachers names. Most of them
are dead because they can't refute them. I even read this past week
that someone had said that Charles Spurgeon did not preach the sovereign
grace of God but preach free will. Now anybody that reads
him knows that that's not true, but they often use God's men
as evidence for their false gospel. But Paul said this, if I preach
circumcision, then why am I persecuted? Why am I persecuted? Then is the offense of the cross
ceased. O believers, see the cross is
offensive. The cross is offensive. You and
I don't have to be offensive. I'm not trying to be offensive.
I'm just trying to tell you the truth. I want to tell you the
truth. The cross itself is offensive
to the natural man. Because It is revealed. It reveals that salvation is
totally and completely the work of Christ and none of the work
of man. Because Jesus, our Savior who
died on that cross, said this about salvation. It is finished. Salvation is done. Accomplished. We preach not a weak and effeminate
Jesus, that this religious age preaches who died in hopes of
saving people. We preach not a Savior who made
salvation possible for all men, but powerful for none of them,
except those who exercise their will. We don't preach a Christ
like that, no. We preach Jesus Christ, the God-man mediator,
the King. We preach a King. Jesus Christ
is the elected King and ruler over all God's elect. He is the
great high priest who gave himself an offering for sin and by his
blood and righteousness forever put away sin. We preach Jesus
the great high priest who reveals the great prophet who reveals
the truth of God and speaks to our hearts the hearts of men
his word by the Holy Spirit. And I tell you we preach a successful
Savior. Don't look at them, and I tell
you this, your bulletins, don't look at them. In your bulletins
later you can read this. But Charles Spurgeon said this,
when I step into the pulpit I'm not dependent upon the will of
man to save himself. I'm dependent upon the grace
of God to save men. This morning I have confidence
in this. I have confidence that Christ will save his people.
I have no confidence in my ability to preach or my ability to save
you or your ability to be saved. I have no confidence in you.
I have no confidence in me. But I know this. Christ will
go to his own. He'll say, you're mine. Come
here. And you'll come. I have confidence
in that. We preach a risen Christ who
has finished the work of salvation and has sat down on the right
hand of God ever living to make intercession for us. We preach
a risen Christ, a successful Christ. And what is this God-man,
this high priest, this king and prophet doing in heaven right
now? I tell you, he's moving all things
after the counsel of his own will. Everything that happens
in time was decreed from eternity to happen. That's just so. That's
just so. God is moving all things after
the counsel of His own will. For what purpose? Why is all
of this going on? To save His people from their
sins. That's what He's doing. Everything that happens is happening
for the purpose of saving His people. That's it. And because He is a successful
Savior, listen to me, none of His people shall be lost. None of His people. None of His
people. Jesus said, All that the Father
giveth Me shall come to Me. And Him that cometh to Me I will
in no wise cast out. This is the will of Him that
sent Me, that of all He hath given Me I should lose nothing. Does that not give you confidence?
I'm not ashamed of that gospel. Are you? I'm not ashamed at all. That is a confident, that is
a sure and a successful gospel. That is the gospel we believe.
That is the Christ we believe. And I am not ashamed of that
gospel and neither should you be ashamed. Don't be ashamed
of the gospel. Why should we be ashamed of a
successful Savior? They should be ashamed of a failure.
We're not ashamed. Don't be ashamed of God's gospel.
The gospel will not win you favor. If you declare this gospel, listen
to me, believer, this will not win you favor with men. It will not. Instead, you will be afflicted. If you declare this gospel plainly,
as I hope that I have this morning, if I've declared it plainly,
I want to tell you, salvation is of the Lord. It's not of your
will, it's not the will of Him that willeth nor Him that runneth,
but God that showeth mercy. Salvation is of the Lord. It's
not of you. And I tell you, if you preach
this gospel, you will be afflicted, you'll be cast out and despised
by the people of this world if you will not compromise this
gospel. Peter said this in 1 Peter 3,
14, but and if you suffer for righteousness sake, happy are
you. Happy are you. I've told you
this before, but we had a woman call on the radio broadcast and
tell me that I should get on there and tell people I'm sorry.
Well, you know that ain't going to happen. I'm not going to do
that. No, I'm not ashamed of this gospel. She should be ashamed of herself,
professing a Savior that does not save. No, happy are you when
you suffer for this, and be not afraid of their terrors, neither
be troubled. Sanctify the Lord God in your
hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every man that
asketh you a reason of the hope. Or that word hope, how many times
have I told you, hope does not mean I wish. You know, you say
things like, gee, I hope, woo, I hope I get this. That's not
what he's saying. Hope is confidence. He said,
ask every man, ask a reason of the confidence within you. And it's very important that
asketh. We don't go around taking this
and beating people over the head with this. I don't have any time
for that. And it doesn't work. I've tried.
It doesn't work. All you get is a sore arm and
they get a sore head. It doesn't work. It doesn't work. But we are to give every man
a hope of a confidence with meekness and fear. Boldness is not displayed
by debating. Have I ever debated this with
you? I won't. I simply tell you. And that's
all I'm going to do. I'm not going to debate. Now
if you ask of the reason of the hope within me, I'll tell you
with meekness and fear. I'll tell you of the hope. Jesus
Christ is my hope. Boldness is not displayed by
debate, nor by self-promotion. I don't seek to promote myself. Nor by striving about words or
vain questions. I don't deal with foolish questions. People say that there are no
foolish questions. That's just flat out wrong. There
are some foolish questions going around. Where did Cain get his
wife? What a dumb question. Who cares? Jesus Christ is the only thing
I want to talk about. We will not consent with another
Jesus, but only know of a successful Savior who saved His people from
their sins." God's men are not perfect in knowledge of all things. I tell you, I don't know everything. But I'm not going to tell you
what I don't know. I'm going to tell you what I do know. And
if I don't know, I'll tell you I don't know. I'm not ashamed
of that. There's many things that I don't
know. I differ with some men who preach the gospel. But I'll
tell you one thing we all agree on. Jesus Christ is a successful
Savior. That's what we agree on. If we
differ on some other things, that's not important. What's
important is we all agree on this, Jesus Christ accomplished
salvation, a successful Savior. This is our rock in whom we believe,
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The more we declare this truth
and the clearer we declare this truth, the greater our afflictions
will be in it. Paul said, Be not ashamed of
the testimony of our Lord, nor of me as prisoner. Notice what
follows in verse 8. It says, But be thou partaker
of the afflictions. If we stand and will not compromise
with this world, We shall suffer persecution. That's just so. Our Lord told us it would be
so. If you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, listen to me, it
is going to get worse. Do you hear me? If you believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, your life is going to turn upside
down and everyone's going to hate you. Okay? There's a sales pitch. That's
it. Your world is going to be hedged
up with thorns on every side. And you're going to be pressed
without measure. Pressed to do what? To believe
on Christ alone. That's what you'll be pressed
to do. Once you believe, you'll always be pressed to believe.
To trust in Jesus Christ. And if we stand, we will be afflicted. We will be assaulted by this
world and by Satan and all the foes of hell. Therefore, be not
ashamed of Christ, but be partakers of the afflictions. Now then,
because of these afflictions, how then shall the believer endure
such afflictions? Paul gives us the answer immediately
following. Be partakers of the affliction. I like that. He said, be partakers.
In other words, willingly. Is it not, embrace them? That's
what he's saying. Embrace afflictions. Why? Because they're a gift of God. They're a gift. It is not only
given unto you on the behalf of the Lord to believe on His
name, but also to suffer. to suffer for His namesake. Afflictions are a gift of God's
grace. You who believe on Jesus Christ
shall endure afflictions, notice, according to the power of God. That's how. How will you endure?
According to the power of God. By the power of God. We cannot
bear the afflictions of this world and suffering of this flesh
in our own strength. We just cannot do it. Herein is how you shall endure. I like this translation of it.
It says, according to the grace of God. That's how. according
to the grace of God. Go over to 2 Corinthians. Look
over to 2 Corinthians chapter 12. We have an example of this
affliction. The Apostle Paul is the example.
2 Corinthians chapter 12. The Apostle here
recounts an experience of his. He says in verse 2, I knew a
man in Christ above fourteen years ago, wherein the body I
cannot tell, whether out of the body I cannot tell, God knoweth.
Such an one was caught up to the third heaven. And I knew
such a man, whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot
tell, God knoweth, how that he was caught up into paradise and
heard unspeakable words which are not lawful for a man to utter.
Of such an one will I glory, yet of myself I will not glory,
but in mine infirmities. For though I would desire to
glory, I shall not be a fool, for I will say the truth. But
now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which
he seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me, or lest I should
be exalted above measure through the abundance of revelation.
There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of
Satan to bruise me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For
this thing I besought the Lord three times, that it might depart
from me. And He said unto me, My grace
is sufficient for thee." The Apostle Paul was caught up into
the third heaven. He was received such revelations. He's received such glory, such
honor to be brought up into heaven. And then when he comes back,
he said, you know, I don't want a glory. I don't want a glory
in myself. I want a glory in God. But yet the Lord, knowing that
he was just a man, gave him such an affliction in the flesh that
Satan himself was sent, a messenger of Satan was sent to bruise him,
to constantly torture him. For what reason? He said, lest
that I should be exalted above measure, and lest my pride would
be elevated above measure. And he sought the Lord three
times for this healing. And you know what the Lord did?
Did the Lord heal him? No. What did He say? The same thing He says to you
and me in our affliction. My grace is enough for you. My grace is enough. His grace
is enough to sustain me. So then, may God by the Holy
Spirit teach us in our afflictions that the grace of God is sufficient
and through these afflictions He will draw us to Himself. Are you afflicted? Good. What
God is doing is drawing you to Himself. And if you didn't have
that affliction, you would not be drawn to God. Behold, in our
text now, go back over to our text in 2 Timothy and look at
the grace of God. There are several things here
about the grace of God that you should hear, that you should
keep in mind in your affliction. First of all, Look at this. According to the power and grace
of God, who have saved us and called us? The first thing you need to remember
in your affliction is who saved you. Who saved you? We, believers, remember we're
sinners. We were rebels. We were like
that demoniac of Gadara. You remember him. This man who
had a legion of demons inside of him, and he was running about
the tombs, and he was naked and running in the tombs like a madman. Even so were we, naked, without
any covering, without any hiding place before God, running in
the tombs of sin. We could not be chained by law
or by man. We were sinners, rebels. We were like this madman who
was full of legion of demons, even so were we full of legions
of sins. Full of sins. Yet it was by the grace of God
that Christ sought us. Believer, when He found you,
were you seeking Him? No. We were like that man, that
demoniac. We had no idea who Christ was
or what He was going to do. We didn't know anything until
he came to us, until he called us, until he cast our sins as
far as the east as the west from us. Then we were like this man
sitting at the feet of Jesus clothed in his righteousness
and in our right mind. You see, it was God who saved
us. All who believe on Christ are
fully aware of this, that God saved us and called us. So when
you're in affliction, remember this, remember who saved you.
God saved you. Remember who called you. You
didn't call God, He called you. And as a result of that, you
cried unto Him. He saved us. And notice the cause
of this salvation. Look at the text. It says this,
first the negative, not according to our works. God saved us and
God called us with a holy calling of the Spirit, not according
to our works. The holy effectual call of the
Spirit is like that of Lazarus. When Lazarus was dead in the
tomb, remember Jesus called him and said, Lazarus, come forth. Remember, believer, that's how
He called you. He called you from the dead. You who have no interest in the
gospel, who have no love for Christ, you don't realize this,
but you're dead. You're dead. And the only hope
for you is if Christ call you. Call you and save you. Call you
from death to life. The cause of our calling was
not from us. We didn't deserve it. But he
called us from the dead. Look at this. Not according to
our works, but according to His own purpose. Purpose. You know, I like that word. Purpose. You know what it means? Intentional. Non-accidental. You remember
that, believer, in your affliction? Remember how God saved you and
called you? On purpose. Not by accident. not by accident. It is a sovereign,
free purpose of God, a sovereign act of God according to His own
purpose, intentionally. The God of this world saves men
by accident. Isn't that right? The God of
this world is wringing His hands wondering who in the world is
going to be saved. That's not our God. Our God sitteth
in the heavens, and hath done whatsoever he hath pleased."
Isn't that right? Is that not your God? Your God
and my God rules all things. God said, I am God and there
is none else, declaring the end at the beginning, from ancient
times of things that were not yet done, saying, My counsel
shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. Let this be our
thought in affliction. that our God who saved us and
called us did it on purpose and by free grace. When God comes
to His people to save them, it was on purpose and it was by
grace. Notice this in verse 10. I want
you to see where and when this salvation and calling was given
to us. First of all, where? It says
He saved us and called us, not according to our works, but according
to His own purpose and grace, which was given us, where? In Christ Jesus. Salvation has always been in
Christ Jesus. There is no salvation anywhere
else. He is the only Savior of men,
and listen, to miss Him is to miss salvation. This whole time I'm preaching
to you, I'm preaching to you of a person, of a man, the God-man. Behold the Son of God, who condescended to be a man
to represent all of his elect that the Father given him, and
obtained righteousness by his obedience and atonement by his
blood. Therefore, we who are saved and
called, we are saved and called in Him. In Him. And we who believe know this,
He is in us. and we are in Him." Now how safe
is that? How safe is that? Can your affliction
take you out of Him? Absolutely not. The Father, He
said, all that the Father had given me is sheep. He said, I
have given to them eternal life and they shall never perish and
neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. And when did He give us this
salvation? in Christ Jesus before the world
began. I hath not seen, nor ear heard,
nor entered into the heart of man the things that God hath
prepared for them that love Him, but God hath revealed them to
us by His Spirit." Believer, where were you when
God chose you in eternity? We were not there. How do we
know these things? The Spirit of God has revealed
these things to us. Behold in your affliction, believer,
the light of our eternal salvation in Christ. And that these things in this
world are but a moment, but light afflictions not worthy to be
compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us. We have in our eyes, our own
eyes, been saved but for a few days. Man is but a few days and
full of what? Trouble. Trouble. But in truth,
believer, our salvation was given to us even before the world began. This is very comforting to those
who are in Christ. God hath from the beginning,
the beginning of time, gave us to Jesus Christ, and Jesus willingly
took the responsibility of saving us and calling us by His Spirit. His purpose was to save us, and
He did not fail. Isn't that right? Did He fail
to save you? You who believe, did He fail
to save you? You were going in the other way. You were going
in the opposite direction. You never would have came to
Him. It seemed almost impossible for you to be saved. It was impossible
for you to be saved. Yet He saved you. He moved all things to save you
and bring you to Himself. Why? Because He purposed to do
it before the world began. Therefore, in verse 10, Paul
said, But now, but is now made manifest by the appearing of
our Savior, Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death and brought
life and immortality to light through the gospel. That which
was from eternity purposed in God, now by the appearing of
Jesus Christ is clearly seen. what God purposed before the
world began. What did God purpose? To abolish
death. To abolish death and to bring
life and immortality to light. Isn't that saving and calling?
That's what it is. Saving. He abolished death. He
took away our sins. He put them away forever under
the justice of God. Satisfied God for them. And then
He brought it to light. We don't say that very much,
do we? Brought to light. It's a very simple expression.
You got a dark room. You can't see what's in the room
until you cut on the light. And that's what God does. Salvation
was always there. But we didn't know it. We didn't
have any experience in it until He brought it to light. Until
He gave us life and light and understanding. And then, by His
grace, we believed. We believed on the Lord Jesus
Christ. As a result of his death, we
see that God's justice is forever satisfied. Life springs up. Oh,
afflicted sinner, listen to me. There's life. There's no life
in looking at what you've done or what you are. There's only
life for a look at the Savior. To believe on the Son of God. Oh, may God call you with a holy
calling. You'll hear me say this word
oftentimes, effectual. You know what that means? It means it gets the job done.
That's what it means. When God calls you, he gets the
job done. It's effectual. It's powerful.
And so when God calls you to life and faith, guess what? You'll
believe. You'll believe. And you who believe,
you who are saved, listen, don't be ashamed of this gospel. The gospel to us is very good
news. And I'm not ashamed of it. I'm
not ashamed to tell you of it. I'm not ashamed to preach it.
But when you do preach it, and you're not ashamed of it, you
will be mocked, ridiculed, and hated by this world. But that's
all right. Because God who gave us the affliction
has also given us the grace to endure it. How? By seeing that
He saved us, and not we ourselves. He saved us on purpose. He saved
us by grace. He saved us in Christ before
the world began, and now He's made it manifest. By what? Notice what Paul says here. He
brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. Whereunto I am appointed a preacher,
an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. For this cause
I also suffer these things. Believer in Christ, Your suffering
is not original. We all suffer the same
things. We all are men of like passions
and afflictions. How then does God save sinners? Only through the preaching of
His gospel. To this world, preaching is foolishness. But to us who believe, it is
the power of God. It is the power of God. This
is the only means. In other words, you're not going
to walk out of here, go into the woods somewhere, and all
of a sudden have an epiphany, and somebody's going to be saved. No. The only way a man is saved
is through the preaching of the gospel. Whereunto I am appointed
a preacher of the gospel. And I'm not ashamed. And neither
should you, even in the midst of your afflictions, look to
the grace of God. I pray that God help you, strengthen
you with this, and comfort you. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed
in prayer.