Turn with me back to 2 Timothy
chapter 1. We are slowly going through this
first chapter of 2 Timothy. And we have now come to one of
my favorite portions of scripture. I mean, really. Every time that
I get to preach from these verses, I feel so excited. I feel so
privileged. I feel so blessed. And it's because these verses
are so clear on what the message of the gospel really is. So clear. The testimony of our Lord, it's
called right here, that's how it's worded right here. The testimony
of our Lord, the true declaration concerning Him and what He has
done in regard to the eternal salvation of His people. And what Paul is telling Timothy
right here is, this declaration of Christ is the truth. It is the truth. but it is not
naturally received by men and women. It is the truth, but it's
not naturally received by men and women. The true testimony
of Jesus Christ is not a popular testimony. And that's just amazing to me. The true testimony of just about
anything else is very intriguing to men and women and mostly accepted
by men and women, but not the true testimony of Christ. It
is not a welcomed declaration. It's actually despised and rejected
by the natural mindset of men and women. Mankind naturally prefers a lie. They prefer a lie. And again,
that's amazing to me. That's just so interesting. But Paul said, Timothy, even
though the message of truth is rejected, and even though you
will be rejected for preaching it, even hated by many for preaching
it, Paul said, Timothy, don't be ashamed of it. Don't be ashamed
of it. Don't be afraid to tell men and
women the truth of it. Be lovingly, kindly, bold in
it. Because this declaration of the
truth concerning Christ is the only message that will save men
and women's souls. The truth is the only message
that will save men and women's souls. People think that the
lie is okay as long as you're devoted to it and you're a, you
know, a devout church-going person. It will not save. People think
it's okay as long as it's close to what the truth says. The truth
being the actual Bible, the scripture. It'll be alright, we'll be okay
in the end. That is not so. In the end, everything will not
be okay. Men and women, good church-going,
fine-dressing men and women will go meet God, and in that moment
they will find out it's not okay. The truth concerning Jesus Christ
is the only thing that will actually save men and women's souls. So
Paul told Timothy, preach it with honesty, preach it with
sincerity, preach it with boldness. Verse 7, he said, 4, God hath not given us the spirit
of fear, but of power and of love, and of a sound mind. 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. He said, God has not given us
the spirit of fear. And that word fear means timidity,
being timid and cowardly in declaring the truth concerning God's salvation
of men and women. Not a lie that's commonly believed,
but the truth. Paul said he has not given us
the spirit of fear, but of power. And that means strength. It means resolve. It means determination. It means boldness. Preachers of God's truth lift
up their voice with strength. Preachers of God's truth lift
up their voice with strength. I'm talking right now in a very
normal volume. And the reason is because lifting
up our voice with strength doesn't necessarily have anything to
do with volume. Nothing to do with volume. It's
very common in false religion. It's very common in false religion
for men to stand up in pulpits and scream at the top of their
lungs so loudly veins pop out in their necks and their face
turns red as a beet and spits flying out of their mouth and
they just act like a word that's not nice to say
in front of our children. Not a nice word, but it's idiots.
They just act like idiots. Fools. Such fools. Thinking that
the more foolish they can be in the pulpit, the more they're
lifting up their voice with strength. I'm about to get old. No, you're
just about to become a loud fool. That's it. Speak in your own
mind. Now don't get me wrong, I raise
my voice every now and then. But that's not what lifting up
our voice with strength is. Lifting up a voice with strength
is telling the truth. That's what it is. Telling the
truth with boldness, not arrogance. Boldness doesn't mean arrogance.
How many times did Paul say, with humility, with meekness,
with patience. With love, he says right here. But it's with resolve. It's with
certainty. I'm telling you this is certain. Without the fear of backlash
and persecution from those who hate the truth, I am telling
you Now if you want me to get loud, I'll get loud now. I'm
telling you, if you preach this truth, it will come with backlash
and persecution. I'm telling you. What God has written in this
word is so persecuted. Why? Why? Our Lord is the one who said,
don't be shocked when men and women hate what I have written
in my word. And hate you for declaring what
I've written in my word. Let me show you that over in
John 15. Turn over to John 15. John 15 verse 16, our Lord said, you have not chosen me, but I
have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring
forth fruit. and that your fruit should remain,
that whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in my name, He
may give it you." God elected the people that He wanted to
save. He said, you have not chosen
me, I have chosen you. God specifically selected out
of humanity who He would save And that is
specifically who He saved. And those are the only ones that
He saved. And to them, He said in verse
17, these things I command you that you love one another. If
the world hate you, you know that it hated me before it hated
you. If you were of the world, the
world would love his own, but because you are not of the world,
but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world
hateth you. Remember the word that I said
unto you, the servant is not greater than his lord. If they
have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have
kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things
will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know
not him that sent me." He said, they will do that to you because
of the truth that you declare concerning me. And that's what
Paul is reminding Timothy of in our text. Go back to 2 Timothy
1. Verse six, he said, wherefore,
I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God,
which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. For God hath
not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and
of a sound mind. If you love someone, you will
tell that person the truth. in any given situation, especially
a situation as serious as eternity, where our souls will spend eternity. A man who will stand up in a
pulpit and lie to men and women just because that's what the
wicked sinful flesh naturally wants to hear, that man doesn't
love those people. If he loved them, he would tell
them the truth. Men stand up in pulpits and they
say, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. How do you
know? How do you know? Based on what we just read in
John 15 and what we read all through the scriptures, God doesn't
love everybody. Do you think that that is something
that needs to be told or not told? That's not very pleasant.
Let's not tell that anymore. That was something from back
in the 50s and the 60s. Why would you keep bringing that
up? Because it's the truth. It's the truth. God does not
love everybody. I hate that. I hate hearing that.
It's still the truth. It is still the truth. He does
not have a wonderful, ordered, and sure set in stone purpose
for everybody. Outside of Christ, God says in
his word that he hates sin, and he hates sinners, and he has
purposed to put all of them in eternal condemnation and hell. It's pleasant, isn't it? If a man really loved the men
and women and boys and girls that he preached to, he would
tell them, God's love is only in Jesus Christ. Only. God's love is only to Jesus Christ. It is only to Jesus Christ. The only way that God's love
can be extended to us is if we were chosen before the foundation
of the world to be placed in Christ. God's love only comes
in Him, through Him. Outside of Him, there is no love. But I have the law. No love. There's no love in the law. So our concern does not need
to be, what can we do to make God love us? Which is what false
religion is built on. What can we do to make God love
us? What can we do to make God happy
with us? Our concern doesn't need to be
that at all. Our concern needs to be begging and pleading the
Almighty that he put us in Christ. My only prayer is that you put
me in Christ. That's it. Our focus does not
need to be this flesh or the works of this flesh or the law
or morality or the community or humanity, humanitarian efforts,
which I love all of those things. I love this community. But the focus of this church
is not this community. What can we do for the community?
That's not our concern at all. I love this law. That's not our
concern at all. Our focus is Christ. We need to look to Christ. We
need to cry out to the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to realize in our hearts
that Christ is all. He is all. Christ is all we have
before God. Christ is all we need before
God. Christ is the only hope that
there is. Who He is, what He did, that's our only concern. You mean to tell me, Gabe, that
is literally all you're going to preach? You're gonna preach
the cross of Jesus Christ every message, every time you stand
up. By God's grace, yes. Why? That's my only concern. That's
our only concern. True love for humanity, for humanity. We'll tell people that. In simplicity,
in clarity. in clarity, in a way where it's
easy to understand what's being said. A lot of times men will
stand in pulpits and they don't want to talk about these things
like election and talk about these difficult things like depravity
and sin. So they'll muddy the water so
you don't have a clue what they're talking about. They'll go round and round and
round, big words, and have you so confused you have no idea
what they're talking about. Love it or hate it, there can't
be any muddy waters right here. No doubt what's being said right
here. Verse 7, 4, God hath not given us the spirit of fear,
but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Clarity, clear
mind. 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." Now, with Paul saying, don't be ashamed of the
testimony, he said, Timothy, here it is. Okay, here it is. This is the truth of the gospel
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is the truth of
who he saved, when he saved, how he saved. Verse eight. Be not 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, who hath saved us and called us within 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. but is now made manifest by the
appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ who hath abolished death
and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel."
What a glorious two verses those are. What a glorious two verses. Who did the saving? He did. Verse 9 says, Who? Him. Christ, He did it. He did it. Well, has He already saved us
or is He still trying to save us? Verse 9 says, Who hath saved
us? Past tense, over and done, finished. He does the saving, He does the
calling. It goes on to say, and called
us with a holy calling. He does the saving, He does the
calling. The bringing, the quickening.
Well, what is there for me to do? Nothing. Well, don't I have to do something
to be saved? Honestly, isn't that in everybody's
mind? I mean, come on, don't I have to do something to be
saved? No. He has already saved us. Well, don't I have to do something
to at least accept it or get it started or make it effectual? No. He does both the saving and the
calling to salvation. He does all of it start to finish
with no work left for us to do. Verse 9 says, Who hath saved
us and called us with an holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to His own purpose and grace. He purposed
to freely give salvation to us, and that's what he did. Well, when did he do that? Was
it when I gave my heart to him? No. Well, was it when I turned over
a new leaf and straightened up and flew right? No. I promise no soul in this room
has done that. Well, was it when I decided to
quit sinning? No. No soul in this room has done
that. It's impossible for a sinner to quit sinning. Well, when did he do it? The
end of verse 9 says that salvation was given to us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. That's when the decision of who
he would save was made, before the world began. Verse 9, 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. Verse
10 says, but, or we could say and, because that's what the
word means, it translates and. is now made manifest by the appearing
of our Savior, Jesus Christ. It is now made manifest. It's
now made known to us. What God did, it happened before
we could have known that it happened. It happened before we were born.
It happened before the planet was formed. It was over and done
long ago. And the only reason it was even
made known to us, the only reason that we now see what was in the
mind and the purpose of God from eternity past is because Christ
appeared. That's the only reason. the appearing
of our Savior Jesus Christ. We know God's eternal purpose
of redeeming His people from their sin by the fact that Christ
came. The Redeemer came. The blood
atonement Himself came. And this is what He did in His
coming. All right, this is what He accomplished when He died
on the cross of Calvary. Verse 10 says, it goes on to
say, who hath abolished death." He abolished death. When He died for His people,
as His people, that death was their death. It's appointed unto
man once to die. It's appointed unto man once
to die. And God's people died their death in Him. And therefore it's over. Death
for God's people is over. It's already over. He said, whoever
lives and believes in me shall never die. Why? Because I have
already died it. I've already died the death. It's done. It's over. It's past.
It's gone forever. It's abolished. Verse 9 says,
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, but is
now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ,
who hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel. The gospel declaration of who
Christ is, what He's done for His people. Through that declaration,
faith is given to God's people. This declaration of He did it
all, we do nothing. Who He did it for was in His
hands and His decision. It was of His will and not of
ours. All right? Those who are not
His people will say, I don't want to hear that. I don't want
to hear that my eternity was in His hands and not mine. But
you know what God's people say? Thank God. Because if it was
in my hands, I would end up in hell. The only hope I have is
that God put it all in His hands. And for God's people, through
the declaration of this truth, when God's people hear it, faith
is given to them. Spiritual life is given to them
and they believe the declaration. And they're given the answer
to this question right here. When spiritual life is given
through the gospel preaching of God's truth, every soul who
is given that life is given the answer to this question. Meaning if we want to know if
we're included. Has he done this for me? Everything? Who hath?
Who hath? Who hath? Did he do it for me?
Did he give this spiritual life to me? Am I included in this?
Well, every person that he gives spiritual life to is going to
be given the answer to this question. And here's the question. Who
gets the glory for all of this? Who gets the glory for all of
this? Who gets the glory in salvation
and the credit in salvation for everything that was done to save
a sinner from his sins? Who gets the glory? Every soul
he did it for will say, he does. He gets the glory. And that soul
will say it in sincerity. It won't be lip service. Anybody,
anywhere can say, oh yeah, he gets the glory. You better believe
it, buddy. He gets the glory. But now, I mean, from the heart, in sincerity,
it will stop right there. That heart will say, he did it
all. He paid it all. He gets the glory
for it all. To him be glory forever. for
everything that he's done for his people. Amen. I pray God will give us faith
to believe that, and I pray he will save our souls. Amen.