Turn with me now, if you would,
back to 2 Timothy 1. 2 Timothy 1. I have something tonight
that I want us to enjoy. I would very much like for us
to enjoy this and find comfort in this. I am hoping that the Lord will
make it real to us and not just make it a doctrine, but make
it something for life, something for today. I hope that the Lord
will enable us to enjoy the certainty of this and the assurance of
this. It's a statement. It's a thought
for us to dwell on. And I'll tell you what it is
when we get to it. I wanna begin by enjoying the
verses that lead up to what we're gonna look at, all right? So
let's look at 2 Timothy 1, verse one. It says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
by the will of God, according to the promise of life, which
is in Christ Jesus. What he said in that verse is,
the will of God is the promise of life to a bunch
of unworthy, hell-deserving sinners like us in the person of the
Lord Jesus Christ. That is the will of God. Verse
two, he said to Timothy, my dearly beloved son, grace, mercy, and
peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. That's
what comes with the greeting of the gospel. Grace, mercy,
and peace. That's a wonderful greeting.
Verse three, he said, I thank God whom I serve from my forefathers
with pure conscience that without ceasing, I have remembrance of
thee in my prayers night and day. He said, God gets the credit
for that. He said, I thank God for continually
bringing you into my remembrance to pray for you. And that's a
wonderful way to look at it. What a wonderful thing it is
to have each other on our hearts to pray for each other. We all
have desperate, desperate needs in life. And it is very comforting
whenever I hear someone who says it in sincerity and means it
and tells me, I have been praying for you. That means everything
to me. And he said, I thank God for
bringing you into my remembrance to pray for you. And I honestly,
I thank God for that. When he brings you into my remembrance
to pray for you, I thank God for that. Verse four, he said,
greatly desiring to see the being mindful of that tears. And remember
he's writing to Timothy. And he's speaking of the last
time they parted, they shed tears. Like, you know, whenever Paul
said his final farewell to the Ephesians, and they just sorrow,
they fell on his neck, just sorrowing, because they knew they'd never
see him again, never see each other again. But he's saying,
I'm looking forward to seeing you again. He went on to say,
In verse four, that I may be filled with joy when I call to
remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt
first in thy grandmother Lois and thy mother Eunice, and I
am persuaded that in thee also. 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. 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, 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, whereunto I am appointed
a preacher and an apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles, for
the which cause I also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I
am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded
that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him
against that day. He told Timothy, this is the
gospel. He said, Timothy, the Lord used
me to teach you the gospel. And he reminds him, this is the
gospel. Verse nine, he said, God hath
saved us. Like a brother pointed out this
morning, that's past tense. God had saved us and called us
within Holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
his own purpose and grace, his free gift, which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began. And that salvation that
is finished, that was in the mind and purpose and will and
heart of God before the world ever began, that salvation, verse
10, he said, is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior,
Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death. What a thing to abolish,
death. And hath brought to life and
hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. He said, Timothy, don't be ashamed
of that gospel. Do not be ashamed of the gospel.
He said, because I'm not ashamed of the gospel. Why? He said, it's because I know
whom I have believed. And am persuaded that he is able. He is able. Paul said, that's
where my confidence comes from. It comes from knowing who I am
believing in and knowing beyond any shadow of a doubt that he
is able. to do whatever He has said He's
gonna do. Whatever He said He's gonna do.
Now, that's the thought that I want us to enjoy together tonight.
He is able. And my prayer is that each one
of you, pew by pew, person by person, will take those three
words and apply it to whatever it is you're going through. He
is able. Our God is able. The Lord Jesus
Christ is able to do everything that has been committed unto
Him. And that's what I want us to
think about for a minute. Some of the things that have
been committed unto Him. And in seeing these things, I
pray the Lord will give us the same confidence and give us the
same assurance that he gave to Paul. Paul said, I have confidence
in this. I'm persuaded of this. I pray
he'll give us that same assurance. It was said of Abraham that he
believed, he was fully persuaded that what God had promised, he
was able to perform. And therefore it was counted
unto him for righteousness. May that same faith be counted
unto us. May that same faith be given
unto us. Paul told Timothy, I thank God
for the faith that was in your grandmother and in your mother.
And he said, I believe I see it in you. And that faith is
not of ourselves. That's the gift of God. May that
same faith be given to us and performed in us that we may believe
that everything God has promised. He is able to perform. He's able. May we receive the confidence
and assurance of knowing that everything this word says is
committed to Christ. He is able, He is willing and
able to do every bit of it. That's what I want. When we walk
out of this building tonight, may these three words just be
sunk into our hearts. He is able. He is able. Now, what things have been committed
to Him? We're just gonna look at a few
of them. All right, just a few. Let's start with this. Turn with
me, if you would, to Philippians chapter three. Philippians chapter 3, if you
look with me at verse 20, it says, For our conversation is in heaven,
from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like
unto His glorious body. according to the working whereby
he is able even to subdue all things unto himself." Let's start with this right here.
He is able to subdue all things unto himself, whether he brings
it down or brings it up. You know, the first thing that
He did for us is He brought us down. You know that? We were
so high on self. We were so high on religion. We were so high on everything
that's contrary to God. And just like He did with each
one of the apostles and each one of the prophets and all of
His people, the first thing He did is He brought us down. He subdued us. And then with the message of
the gospel, you know what he is going to do after that? You
know what he has already done through the message of the gospel
and what his promise is that he will do? He's gonna bring
us up. He's gonna change our vile body that it may be fashioned
like unto his glorious body. You know what our whole problem
is? This vile body. That's the whole problem. This
body of sin and death, he said, I'm going to change it so that
it's going to be fashioned like unto my glorious body. And whether
he is bringing us down or bringing us up, he is able to subdue all
things to himself. King Nebuchadnezzar back in the
old Testament, he said, he said, let me tell you something I'm
persuaded of. He said, I'm confident, I have
full assurance in this. He said, those who walk in pride,
he is able to abase. He's able. He is able to bring
a man down. He is able to subdue. He is able to conquer. And I'll tell you this too. He
is able to bring a man or a woman up. He is able. You see some people
and think there's no hope for them. Have you ever looked at
somebody and thought there's no hope for them? May the Lord
change our minds to say, that's the person Christ came to save. And if I think that there's no
hope for them, there's worse hope for me than there is for
them, because I think I'm better than they are. That Gadarean man, that man was
a lunatic. That man lived in the tombs,
cutting himself. He could not be bound with chains,
it says. They tried to bind him with chains
and he broke them every time. A brother said this to me one
time, this is so good, so true. He said, that Gadarean, he said,
that's me. He said, I try to bind my sin
with chains and I break them every time. You ever tried to
do that? I'm gonna stop doing that, I'm
not gonna do that anymore. He said, I try to bind my tongue
with chains and I break them every time. I try to bind my mind, I try
to bind my thoughts with chains and I break them every time.
That's good, that's true. That is true. That's all of us. That Gadarean could not be bound
with chains. He lived in the tombs, cutting,
mutilating himself. No one could do anything with
him until the moment that Jesus Christ walked up to him. When the Lord came to him, the
Lord subdued him. They found that man sitting,
clothed, and in his right mind. And that's how all of God's people
are found, after Christ subdues them. He brings them to His feet
and they come willingly. I want to be brought to His feet.
Wouldn't you love to be brought to His feet right now? Ask Him to do it. Ask Him, Lord,
bring me to Your feet right now. Subdue me right now. This old wicked mind is everywhere. This old wicked heart is everywhere. But for the grace of God, I would
be anywhere right now but here. Subdue me. Subdue me. I want to be at His feet. I know
you do too. We want to come bowing. We want
to come worshiping. Wouldn't you love to worship
Him tonight? We're here, but that's not good
enough. Wouldn't we love to worship Him tonight? Wouldn't we love
to praise Him? That is going to be glory. And
even though We're breaking those chains all
the time. One of these days, the Lord is
gonna bring us up. And that's what glory is gonna
be. We're gonna worship Him. We're gonna bow to Him. We're
gonna praise Him for who He is and everything He's done for
us. Thank God He subdued us and will subdue us. If He subdued
us, He'll subdue anybody. He will. He will. All right. Here's the next thing.
Not only is he able to subdue us, but turn with me to Daniel
three, Daniel chapter three. It's after Ezekiel in the old
Testament. Daniel chapter 3. I love the story of Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego being thrown into the burning fiery furnace. I just love this story. And you
know how it goes. King Nebuchadnezzar, he said,
if you don't bow down and worship this golden image, this idol
that I have made, When you hear all this music, if you don't
bow down and worship it, He said, I'm gonna throw you into the
fiery furnace. And Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego didn't
do it. And Nebuchadnezzar was told that they didn't do it.
All right, look at verse 13, Daniel 3, verse 13. It says,
then Nebuchadnezzar in his rage and fury commanded to bring Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego. Then they brought these men before
the king, Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true,
O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? Do not you serve my gods, nor
worship the golden image which I have set up? Now if you be
ready, that at what time you hear the sound of the cornet,
flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of
music, you fall down and worship the image which I have made well.
But if you worship not, you shall be cast the same hour into the
midst of a burning fiery furnace. And who is that God that shall
deliver you out of my hands? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not
careful to answer thee in this matter. I love that verse. May
God make us not careful about these things. Not full of care. not full of anxiousness. What
they were saying right there is, we are persuaded. We don't need time to think about
this. You think about this and you get, you know, there are
gonna be consequences. We don't need time to think about
this. We are certain, we have full assurance in this right
here, verse 17. They said, if it be so, If you do, they weren't saying,
you're not gonna throw us into that furnace. They didn't say
that. They said, if you do, if you do throw us into the midst
of the burning fiery furnace, they said, our God, whom we serve
is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace. And he
will deliver us out of thine hand, O King. But if not, Be
it known unto thee, O King, that we will not serve thy gods, nor
worship the golden image which thou hast set up." What that
means is, they were saying, our God is sovereign, and He doesn't
do our will, He does His own. And whatever He pleases to do
is good and right. Either He will deliver us according
to His perfect will, or He won't. But either way, we're gonna serve
Him. We're gonna worship Him. Job said, though He slay me, yet will I praise Him and worship
Him. And they said, He has subdued
us to Himself. We belong to Him. Therefore,
we know that if He wants to and He wills to, He is able to deliver
us. And this is the glorious news
of the gospel right here. He wants to. That's the wonderful
news of the gospel. He wanted to and He did. It was His will in the beginning. It is His will right now. It shall be His will in the end. He who purposed it and accomplished
it shall bring it to pass. He will. Hebrews 7.25 says, He
is able to save them to the uttermost. that come unto God by him, meaning
that are brought to God through him, seeing he ever liveth to
make intercession for them. Hebrews 11, 19 says that Abraham
was willing to plunge that knife into his son. Hebrews 11 tells us Abraham was
willing to plunge that knife. He brought his son up on Mount
Moriah. The Lord said, sacrifice your
son. And he was willing to plunge that knife into him because he
believed in his heart that God was able to raise him from the
dead. And that's what Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego were convinced of. They said, even if he kills us
in the furnace, Even if He kills us in the furnace, He's still
able to deliver us. He delivered us from sin, death,
hell, through the shedding of His own blood. He'll deliver
us from this. He will deliver us. And what
they were saying here is, even if He uses this to deliver us, He will deliver us. You know
how this story ends. Nebuchadnezzar bound them, and
he heated the furnace seven times hotter than it normally was heated.
And he threw them into the furnace, and the men who threw them in
died because they got so close to the fire. And then after they
were thrown in, laying there, bound, laying there, verse 24,
then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished, and rose up in
haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellors, Did not we cast
three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and
said unto the king, True, O king. He answered and said, Lo, I see
four men loose. I never really paid attention
to the word loose before. I've always known there were
four men in there, but he said, didn't we throw three men bound
into the fire? And that's how God's people go
into the fire. That's how they went in. Didn't they go in bound
by sin, bound by the law, bound by everything that they could
not break away from? Three men, didn't three men go
in? He said, I say four, loose. walking in the midst of the fire. How can you do that? How could
they do that? In the midst of the fire, in
the midst of the turmoil, in the midst of the trouble, in
the midst of the flame, how could they just walk right through
it? How could they just walk right through it? You understand
what I'm saying? When that trial comes and the
trouble comes, how are they making it? How are they continuing? I see four men loose, walking
in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt. And the form
of the fourth looks like Jesus Christ." How did he know what
Jesus Christ looks like? The Son of God. See, he looks
like the Son of God. You know what Nebuchadnezzar
saw right there? he saw Christ crucified for them. That's what
he witnessed. Christ crucified with them. All of them could say, all those
three men could say, I was crucified with Christ. I went into the
fire with him. Nevertheless, I live. Nebuchadnezzar saw that and this
is what he said. He said, pull them out. deliver them from going down
to the pit. I've seen their ransom." So they pulled them out, Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego. After they got them out of there,
they didn't have one hair singed. That's what it says right here.
Not one hair singed. They didn't have one burn mark.
Not one smudge mark. They didn't even smell like smoke.
Look at verse 28. Then Nebuchadnezzar spake and
said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath
sent his angel and delivered his servants that trusted in
him. They trusted in him. May God
give us faith to trust in him. I'm telling you, this is the
same God who changes not. And He is able. This God is able. What he did for them, he'll do
for any of his children. These men weren't special, they
were just children of the father. Nebuchadnezzar said, blessed
be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent his
angel and delivered his servants that trusted in him and have
changed the king's word and yielded their bodies that they might
not serve nor worship any God except their own God. Therefore,
he said, I make a decree that every people, nation, and language
which speak anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego shall be cut in pieces, and their house shall
be made a dunghill, because there is no other God that can deliver
after this sword. Then the king promoted Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego. They went from being bound and
thrown into the fire to promote it in the land. He is able to subdue us. He is
able to deliver us. And that's comforting. That is
comforting. Because he has subdued us and
because he has delivered us, I'm going to close out by showing
you three more scriptures, all right? I'm going to begin the
close here. The first one's in 2 Corinthians
9. 2 Corinthians 9 verse 8, it says,
and God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you always
having all sufficiency in all things may abound to every good
work. God is able. He is able. Christ is able to make all of
his grace abound toward you. because He has subdued us and
delivered us. He is able to make all of His
kindness. We prepare for the worst. God's people hope for the best,
but prepare for the worst and expect the worst. But our Lord
is able to make all of His kindness. And I'm gonna tell you, like
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego said, even if He uses this furnace
to deliver us, even if He uses the trial, even if He uses what
we consider to be great heartache and suffering and all those things,
He is able to use that very thing to pour all of His grace on us
and all of His kindness on us. What we think is His harshness
may be His favor His goodness, all of His goodness,
it is His goodness. All things work together for
good to them that love God, to them who are called according
to His purpose. In the same way that His mercy abounded toward
us through the cross of His death, His grace has abounded toward
us through the resurrection of His life. You know, His mercy
was Him not giving us what we deserve. His grace is Him giving
us what we don't deserve. And every need that we have is
gonna be supplied aboundingly. Every need here, it's just gonna
be above and beyond. He's able, He is able to make
all of His grace abound towards you. And then, throughout the
rest of our days, all of our days on this earth, and then,
Turn with me to Acts 20. Not only will all of our need
be supplied here, but every need we ever have for all eternity. every need that will ever come,
He is able to supply it. Look at Acts chapter 20 verse
32, it says, and now brethren, I commend you
to God and to the word of His grace, which is able, He is able
to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them
which are sanctified. That is just, that is, that's
just beautiful to me. An eternal inheritance in the
heavens. among all of God's sanctified
ones. Peter said, it's one that is
incorruptible, undefiled, and it'll never fade away. We don't
have that down here. We put ours in the stock market
and there's nothing stable about it. It's corruptible, it's defiled,
it can fade away. Not that inheritance in heaven.
It is reserved in heaven for all those who are being kept
by the power of God in eternal inheritance. What is the inheritance? Christ himself. He is the inheritance. That's why it'll never fade away.
He will never fade away. So he is able to subdue us. He's able to subdue our loved
ones. He's able to subdue this city. I pray God will save Kingsport. And I'm gonna tell you something,
He is able to. The flesh thinks He's not. No,
He's not able to save. How many people are in this city?
Oh yes, He is. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
said, this God is sovereign and He'll do whatever He wants to
do. Either God will throw us in the fire or God won't. Either
God will save all of Kingsport or God won't. But He's able to. And we should not limit His ability. Whatever we should expect, if
He's willing, He's going to. I pray God might save us. God
is able to subdue us. God is able to deliver us. God
is able to abound all grace to us and to reserve an eternal
inheritance for us. Therefore, let's close with this
verse of Scripture. Go with me to Hebrews 2. Hebrews 2 verse 14, for as much
then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself
likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy
him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver
them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject
to bondage. For verily he took not on him
the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore, in all things, it
behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might
be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to
God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in
that he himself hath suffered, being tempted, He is able to
succor, that means to comfort. He is able to help them that
are tempted. Anytime you need some comfort,
and I'm speaking to myself, anytime we need some help, you ever in
that place where you call somebody on the phone and say, I just
need some help. I just need somebody to talk to. Anytime you need
comfort, anytime you need help, go to Him. He is able. Because of what He has done and
what He has promised to do, go to Him. He's able. He is able. He literally stood there in the
place where you are for you. Let me repeat that. As you go
through what you go through that brings such heartache, such sorrow,
such trouble to you, He literally stood there in that place for
you. In that circumstance involving
those things and those people, He was touched with the feeling
of our infirmities. Everything that we enter into
and have to go through, He bore it, He wore it. He put it in
Himself. He felt it. He groaned. He sorrowed. He cried. He knows where you are. He stood there. He knows where
you are. We have not a high priest who
cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, because he
was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let
us therefore come boldly to the throne of his grace, that we
may obtain mercy and grace to help in time of need. He's able. He's able. Paul told Timothy,
he said, considering the fact that that's our message, why
on this earth would we be ashamed of it? Why would we be ashamed
of it? That's the most glorious message
there is. He is able. Thank God. All right, Brother
Dwight, you come and lead us in a closing psalm.