If I go back to 2 Timothy chapter
1 now, 2 Timothy 1, this is a letter from Paul who is at this time
about probably my age or a little younger, mid-sixties, to a young
man whom he's known for years since from a boy named Timothy. And it's a letter to him Encourage
him to believe, trust the Lord. Exhort him to confess Him and
be a witness of Him and not be afraid of anyone or anything
that comes to pass. He says in verse 8, 2 Timothy
1, he says in verse 8, Be not ashamed of the testimony, the
gospel, of our Lord, and don't be ashamed of me, the preacher
who first heard the gospel from Paul. But this is not just the words
of Paul to Timothy, this is God's word to all of God's people,
old and young, young and old. This is entitled at a message
for young and old believers, and this is an encouragement,
an exhortation to believe. and to be a partaker of the afflictions
for believing the truth. If you believe the truth, everything changes. Now this is the gospel. The gospel
is here in verses 8 and 9. Brother Don Bell said this is
what the Lord used to open his blind eye. Verse 1 begins, Paul, an apostle
of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, according to the promise
of life which is in Christ Jesus. The promise of God. This is not
just an old book of Jewish fables, this is the Word of God. It really
is. No scriptures of any private
interpretation, no man Sat down and decided to write some books. But this is God's Word. And those
of you whom He has spoken to, you know what it is. You know
what it is. He continues to speak to you. Not just the book, facts
and doctrine, but this is the Word of God. And it's to all
of God's people. And it's a promise. We're saved
by promises. And we hope. We can't see God,
can we? We see His hand in everything.
We see His eternal power in God here, but we can't see God. God's
unseen. And this is why the world doesn't
believe Him. They show us. No. It's by faith. Not sight. God gives us faith. And it's
just as real as sight. More so. But this is the promise of eternal
life. That's what this is all about.
Eternal life. 1 John 5 says, He that hath the
Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God
hath not life. You understand that? I don't
think we fully do. And people talk about living
the good life and all of that. If you don't have the Son of
God, you don't have life. You're just existing like an
animal and waiting to die. Then what? But He that hath the
Son hath life, eternal life. We're going to read how He abolished
death. Life. No Christ, no life. I don't care what you got, what
you know, where you've been, what you do, where you go, it
ends. It's not life if it ends. But
this life, the promise, God who cannot lie, has promised us eternal
life, and this life is in His Son. Our Lord Jesus Christ, a
man, Jesus, lived on this earth for 33 years. That's all he lived.
He lived a full life on this earth for 33 years. Some of you
think, that's a long time away. I remember. I was about 17, 18
or whatever. 30? Oh, that's old. Some of you look back and think,
oh, that's young. That's all he chose to live,
and he lived a full life, and then he died. He chose to. Nobody would choose to die He
didn't have to. He did. Why? Us. To show us. This is not life. This is temporary. What's out
there is eternal. And He came back from the grave
and said, I am the resurrection. I am the
life. I'm the way. I'm the truth. I'm the life. And he that liveth
and believeth in me shall never die. That's good news. He says in verse 2, to Timothy,
my dearly beloved son. He loved Timothy. He knew him
from a boy. And he called him his son, but
Timothy wasn't in any relation to Paul. But what it is, is Paul
begat him, and he used this term. You know, we're born of God. No man gives spiritual life to
anyone. The Lord Jesus Christ does, the
Spirit of God. And yet he said this of Timothy,
and he said it of the church at Corinth. He said, you have
many teachers, but you have one Father. You have one that begat
you. One that the Lord sent with the
gospel, which is the power of God, which gives new birth. And there were many that the
Lord used Paul to preach that gospel, which is the power of
God, and they were born again. And they esteemed him as Highly,
for the gospel's sake. And he loved them dearly. He
had a burden for them. Constant burden. He's talking
here about, he said, I pray for you day and night. I think about you. Like a parent
does a child. It's so. One time he said, I
travail in birth till Christ be formed in you. It's a fact. You parents, you fathers, If
you remember when your wife was in labor, waiting to give birth
to your children, you remember that? Can you remember that far
back, Ron? That was a long time ago. But seriously, it's an anxious
time, isn't it? You have this burden. You hope
the child is born alive. That's it. You don't care if
it's a male or female. You want to hear that baby cry.
You want to hear that baby breathe. You want to see that child, you
know, hunger and thirst. You want to see that child begin
to grow up and walk and talk. It's the same with the gospel
people. There's nothing I want more than
to see new births. I don't care if your children
go off to college and become this or that. I want them to
become a child of God. I can't describe this to you
what it's like. Every day I think, this is the
one. This is the message that God's going to use to open blind
eyes and deaf ears. I get a new heart and saved from
this world. My dearly beloved son. Grace. God's grace. Sovereign grace.
Mercy. God be gracious to whom He will.
God will be merciful to whom He will. But Christ said ask,
didn't He? Mercy. He said He takes pleasure
in them that fear Him. We fear Him, don't we? I fear
Him. I fear coming into this pulpit. I fear for you. Mercy. He takes pleasure in them
that fear Him and hope in His mercy. What my hope is for you
and for your children is that God will have mercy upon you
like He did me. This is how He saved me. At the time, I didn't want it. Nobody does. But God was rich in what? Mercy. For His great love and peace. In this world, tribulation. There is no peace for the wicked.
There is no peace for those who reject God, who don't bow to
His Son. There's not going to be any peace. God won't let it happen. But there's peace for those who
bow to His Son, who believe His Son, who worship God's Son. God
made this whole universe for His Son, for His glory. And the
eternal heavens and new earth are all for His Son. And those
who don't have any need for God's Son, God doesn't have any need
for them. But there's peace. Great peace
have they who love Your Word, and nothing shall offend them. Oh, love the Lord, ye saints. There's peace from God the Father
and Christ Jesus our Lord. Verse 3, look at it with me.
I thank God whom I serve forefathers, this is the God of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob. This is the true and living God
with pure conscience. My conscience is clear on this,
that without ceasing, I have remembrance of my prayers night
and day. I pray about you, and I tell
you this all the time, and I'm not telling you this to show
off. I didn't do it for years. I didn't
want it to appear that you think I'm just praying all the time.
Well, I hope I am praying all the time. I hope you are. I hope
you pray without ceasing. But I call your names individually,
each one of you, your children. I'm serious now. If there's somebody that's on
your mind, you're thinking about them, aren't you? You're concerned
about them. And he said to Timothy, I can't get you off my mind.
I don't want to. Oh, maybe if God keeps someone
on your mind and in your prayer, God's going to do something.
Reckon? The effectual, fervent prayer
of a righteous man availeth much. I remember this young rebel coming
back and the Lord bringing me back. And I came for all the
wrong reasons and selfish purposes. I remember coming and a big man
named Gerald King, 6'5", 250 pounds. You can do it. My, my. Intimidating, man. Hands. Steven, he could crush
your hand. Now that is a hand. He turned
wrenches all his life. He had a junkyard, a scrapyard. That's all he did. And, man,
his hands were, like, massive. And when I started coming back,
That big old gentle John. And I'd go over to his junkyard
all the time. Bless her heart. She spent many an hour waiting
on me to get a starter off a car in his junkyard. But when the
Lord brought me back, he came up to me with a big old tear
rolling down his face. He said, I've been praying to
you. I've been praying for you. Me? Why on earth would you think
about me? Must have been up in Lourdes,
huh? Can't get you off my mind. Paul was in prison. Paul was
in jail. What for? Everybody hated him. Did you
read with me? He said, everybody in Asia is against me. Everybody
in Asia is against me. Why? For just telling the truth. And you're not telling the truth
if everybody thinks you're the swale. That's what they think
about false preachers. Can you name one false preacher
that anybody hates? Seriously. Nobody's going to
hate you if you tell everybody God loves you so much. Jesus
died for you. He wants you. We can't be a church
without you. Who's going to hate you for that?
They're going to mock you and scoff at you, but they're not
going to hate you for that. But if you tell them who God is, he might save you, he might not.
He might love you, he might not. You tell them who they are. You
tell them what man is. You're not worth saving. Right? You tell them what salvation
is. There's nothing you can do to save yourself. Nothing. I
don't care about your religion. I don't care what you've done,
ever done, ever will do. It doesn't have anything to do
with God saving you. But you're saved one way by another
person, and it's not yourself. You'll be hated. Why? It's the truth, isn't it? Isn't
that the truth? My dad was a fine man. He had
the respect of many, but he was hated. He was hated. People would
tell others that came into town, moved into town, and the fellow
one time said, I'm new in the town. He worked at the steel
mill. He said, I'm new in town. And he said, where do you go
to church? We're looking for church. And
the fellow said, go anywhere. Anywhere but 13th Street Babysitter. Anywhere, it doesn't matter where
you go, just don't go there. Why? That's what Christ said. You
will be hated for my name's sake. He's telling young Timothy, if
you believe the truth, if you believe the true God and the
true Christ, Salvation of the Lord. If you stand for it, you're going to suffer persecution.
You remember you and school, Jennifer, and they were bringing
up religion, and you took a stand. You could quote John 17 3. I
bet you still can. And you suffered persecution
for that. Nobody believes like that. Oh, yes, they do, too. Yes, they do. In verse 5, Paul was in prison
and he was thinking about remembering the last time he saw Timothy,
and Timothy cried. And he said, I'm mindful of your
tears, verse 5. And I call to remembrance, I'm
thinking about the unfeigned faith that is in thee. Unfeigned
faith. And your mother, Eunice, it would
be like me writing you, Joseph. Wouldn't it? Same thing. Joseph,
what if we were apart for a long time? I was in prison. And you
loved me, and you heard the gospel from me, by the grace of God.
You've got to hear it from somebody, don't you? And I love you, you
love me. We're brothers, aren't we? Well,
this gospel was in your mother. She heard it. And your grandmother?
And your father, your grandfather, oh, you're a blessed man, aren't
you? A blessed man. What a blessing. Oh, what a blessing.
Some of you didn't get to experience this. Some of you didn't have
a believing father. Think about my family. I'm the
most blessed man on the face of this earth. Both my grandparents, maternal
and paternal. on both sides. My father, my
mother, Mindy's father and mother, her grandmother, your great-grandmother, my in-laws, my pastor-in-law, Marvin, and
his wife, and their children. I'm the most blessed man on earth. We're not rich. We're not the
Rockefellers. And I'm sure thankful we're not. Very thankful. And evidently Lois and Eunice
spoke to Timothy as a young man. 3 with me, verse 15. Verse 14 says, Continue in the
things you've learned and been assured of, knowing of whom thou
hast learned them. From a child you've known the
holy Scriptures that are able to make thee wise unto salvation
through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Apparently, obviously,
Eunice and Lois, his mother and grandmother, taught him from
a child the Gospel. And the Lord blessed that. Lord bless you. So he says, remember, I'm thinking
about the unfeigned faith that is in you, Timothy. This is not
fake. Unfeigned means this is not pretense. We're not making
this up. We're not putting on a show,
not because it's Sunday, like you put on your Sunday go-to-meet-and-close,
you know, and you go home and you take them off and then you're
out there in the world. No, no, this is real. This is real. It's called the power of God
and salvation. And I call to remember it's your
unfeigned faith, the real faith. And those that have seen the
power of God, the grace of God, what God does to people, they
know this is real. I met his brother when I were
close friends. We were partners in crime. Anyway,
bless his heart. Oh, may the Lord. You can't believe where he's
at. You can't believe it. You can't believe it. There ain't nobody above saving. But he told his sister when the
Lord began to work on me, he told me, and he said, that won't
last. It won't happen. Didn't it? It changed. Aren't you glad His covenant
doesn't change? His mercy doesn't change? His
grace doesn't change? His power doesn't change? His
promise doesn't change? Aren't you glad our God doesn't
change? That what God does is forever? You and I can't save
ourselves, can't keep ourselves, can't save our children, can't
keep them, but He can. And what He does is forever. And that's why we pray to Him.
We pray night and day. He said, this is unfamed faith.
I see it. He said, I'm persuaded. Verse
5, it's in your mother and your grandmother. There she sits. There sits your grandmother after
all these years. Faithful. Your father. Your mother. Your
grandmother. It's real. It's real. It's real. This ain't fake. It ain't put on. There's a lot
of put on, a lot of fake, a lot of fake religion out there. And
you know it and you can smell it. This ain't fake. Think a big old man like Mike
Torrance, you know, I remember meeting Mack when I first came
here, and I thought he was just one of the finest men I ever
knew before the Lord saved him. And I actually thought he's a
better man than I am. Good father, good husband, good
citizen, good employee, just a fine, upstanding man. And I
thought, he's too good. He's too moral. The Lord won't
save him. He's too good. He's too fine
a man. Wrong. Boy, did he. And his favorite story was when
the Lord came to old Jacob and wrestled him down to the
ground and said, what's your name? And when he got through
with old Jacob, and Jacob was a changed man, he walked with
a limp from there on. He walked differently. He walked
by faith like old Mac. He's not old now. This is the
power of God and salvation. The Gospel. What I'm doing right
now. And there's nobody, Beyoncé, nobody, he's able to say to the
uttermost, them that come unto God by him. And no man can or
will come unto God except the Father draw him. And so we pray,
thy kingdom come. Come, Lord Jesus. Come, draw
them. The cords, the cords of a man.
I can't do it. I hope he can. This is real. It's real. This is real. How old was Timothy? We think he was at this time
about 25. You know that? Jeremiah was 24 years old when
the Lord called him. Charles Spurgeon started preaching
when he was 19. But Timothy was in his 20s. How young is too young to be
saved? I don't know. The Lord knows
that. The Lord began dealing with men
there at a very, very early age. And Timothy was very young and
the Lord was doing something in him from a very, very early
age, the Scripture says it's good that a young man or a young
woman bear the yoke in their youth. Yoke. If you don't become
yoked to Christ, if Christ doesn't put this yoke upon you, you know
what a yoke is for? You know what a bridle is for?
You know what a bit and a bridle and a halter and a lead rope
is for? To keep you from killing yourself.
And you will. You will destroy yourself. In
Psalm 103 it says, Blessed be God who hath redeemed our life
from destruction. I've destroyed myself. He put
this yoke of the Gospel, the yoke of Christ, and yoked you
to Jesus Christ. It's good for a young man or
young woman to bear this yoke in their youth before what? Before
the world gets a hold of them. And it's captivity, buddy, isn't
it? And buddy, there's some cases
like, my brother-in-law, you think, oh, I don't know if he's,
Lord have them bring him out of that. Oh, remember now thy creator
in the days of thy youth. Wherewithal shall a young man
cleanse his way, a young person cleanse their way? How can a
young person not be overcome by this world
and not go into this world and all the filth and the vices and
the captivities? How? By taking heed according
to the Word it says. Wherewithal shall a young man
cleanse his way? By listening to the Word of God."
By sitting there and saying, Lord, speak to me. Like Samuel. The Lord was speaking to Samuel,
and Eli recognized it. He said, Samuel, go back to your
bed, and when you hear from the Lord, say, speak to me, Lord.
Call. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord. to be saved. And so he did. And Samuel went
back to bed that night. And the Lord spoke to him. He
said, Speak, Lord. And he did. And he saved that
young man. And he followed him the rest
of his days. It can happen at an early age. Oh, satisfies Psalm 90 verse
14. Oh, satisfies early with thy
mercy that we may be rejoiced and be glad all our days. Because
if not, the way of the transgressors, hard road to walk. Hard! My son-in-law, your father. We
remember, many of us remember him well from an early age. You know, a nine, ten year old
boy would remember him, and he was just, the restraining grace
of God was upon him. He was just a fine, upstanding
young man, honest and integrity and all that. And the Lord began
dealing with him at an early age. You know him now, don't
you? He's like Timothy. That's what I'm praying for. Unfeigned faith. Not pretense. This is not doctrine. It's a
person. Paul said down in verse 12, I
know whom. I'm talking about a person here.
I'm not wanting you to become a Calvinist. I want you to be
a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ, a lover of the Lord Jesus
Christ. You know Him. Know Him. Be married to Him. Whether or not you're married
to someone else, That's not important, is it? A lot of marriages fail. A lot of marriages in this room
failed, didn't they? It's a terrible thing, isn't
it? But this marriage will never fail. It's great. Our daughter Hannah, by God's
grace, at a very early age, She's about 13 or 14. Well, look with
me in verse 7 and 8. Look at it. It said, God has
not given us a spirit of fear. You know there's a spirit of
fear over all the world. Yeah, everybody fears what? Everything. People fear everything. Everything
but God. People fear everything but God.
Doing everything. God's doing all this. But men
are blind, deaf, and dumb. Young people are blind, deaf,
and dumb. What's doing this? Well, you've got to do this.
You've got to do that. You've got to quit eating this. You've got to quit
going there. You've got to look after this. No, you don't. Fear God. You don't need to fear anything.
He's the one doing it. Because people don't fear Him.
You understand? They're not worshipping Him.
They're not thanking Him. They're not calling on Him. They're not
asking Him. So God's sending all this. Okay? Okay? Okay? Lord, have mercy on me. Okay? He's merciful. He's holy. He's just. He's to be worshipped. He's to be thanked. He says, He hasn't given us the
spirit of fear, but of power and of love and a sound mind.
Verse 8, Be not thou therefore ashamed of the gospel, nor of
me, the preacher of the gospel. Be a partaker of the afflictions
of the gospel. This gospel is not, people don't
believe this gospel. It's an offense. Well, here it
is. Look at the gospel in verse 8 and 9. It says, Be a partaker
of the gospel. Not a gospel. The gospel that's
according to the power of God. See, the gospel is God's power. Whether or not anybody is saved
or not is in God's hands. God's will. This is not a matter
of semantics or, you know, making people an offender for a word
because they believe free will. We don't believe free will. If
you believe that man has a free will, you don't know God. Any
preacher that says that doesn't know God because he works all
things at the counsel of what? His own will. This is the true
God of the Bible, which creates Fear, and reverence, and worship,
and respect, and you bow down and you call upon Him. Why? Because
it's in His hands. It's His prerogative. It's His
will. It's His choice, not yours. It's His whether or not to accept
you or not. That's where you come to when
you meet the God of the Bible. It's not a question of doctrine
here. It's a question of who's God. Who's really God here? Who does the saving? Verse 9.
I knew I'd get excited over this. I'm sorry, I can't help it. He hath saved us. Who does the
saving? Well, God's done all He can do.
It's up to you. That's a different God. That's
a God who can't save. Right? Who hath saved us? Everybody
in heaven saying, unto Him that hath loved us and washed us from
our sins in His own blood. Unto Him, unto Him, unto Him.
Who hath done all this? Who hath? He hath. Who hath saved
us and called us? You know why you called? If you
called. You know why you called? Ask Simon Peter. Ask Andrew. Ask James. Ask John. Ask Matthews. Count this money. Matthew. Sitting
there counting his money, his head down, and somebody's looking
at him. The Lord Jesus Christ, out of
all those publicans, stopped by where Matthew was. Why? Because
he had his name in his palms and in a book before the world
began. And he came by where Matthew was, bless God, and said, follow
me. And he walked off. Matthew looked
up. Dropped his money. Like that
woman with the bucket. Dropped her bucket. Drop the
fellow she's living with and start following Jesus Christ.
That's power. Who hath called us? Whom He did
foreknow, He did predestinate. Whom He did predestinate, He
what? Called. It's not an invite. It's a sovereign
summons. This is what I'm hoping and praying
that the Lord will do. Lord, call her! I can't do it. Call her! Please! He does. He's still doing it. Get me? I won't. I'm out of here. We'll see about that. He who
hath called us with a holy calling, not according to our works. It's
not according to works. He called sinners. This is according
to His purpose, verse 9, and grace which was given us. When
did He do all this? When did God purpose, predestine,
make a covenant, choose a people, elect a people? When did He do
this? Before the foundation of the world. This is not the gospel
according to Calvin. It's the gospel according to
God. It's only one. And the world can't, religion
can't understand how people are going to come if you don't invite
them. If I invite them and they come, it won't last. But if God calls them and they
come, it's forever. If I persuade them, it won't
last. Somebody else can dissuade them,
right? Because if God persuades them,
they ain't almost persuaded. They're fully persuaded of Him. Him. It's all about Him. And
it says, this purpose and grace given us in Christ before the
world began. I was going to give you this
illustration. This is the gospel, and if you
believe this gospel, if you preach it like me, people are going
to turn against you. They just are. Did I say any of that just now? I grieve over my preaching. Did I say any of that just now,
like I was mad at you or angry at you or like I hate you or
like I was looking down on you? I hope it came across like, I'm
really zealous for the glory of God. God must be glorified. And Paul said of some other fellows,
he said, their mouths need to be stopped. Didn't it? Their
mouths need to be stopped. They're subverting whole houses.
People get mad at me for calling names of these preachers. Paul
called 16 names in 1 and 2 Timothy. 16! I said, this fellow, that
fellow, they're against me. They're not preaching the truth.
Isn't it the job of a shepherd, of a pastor, to warn people about
sheep? Isn't it? And Isaiah 56, he said these
pastors, they can't bark. They won't bark at anybody. They're
sweet. I want to be sweet. We're not saved by my sweetness,
we're saved by the truth. Whether men like me or not is
of no consequence. It is to me, I don't want to
be lied, but I want you to love and bow down to Jesus Christ,
the real one, the real God, the real Christ. Don't just be a
religious person. I want you to know Him. The power
of His resurrection. The fellowship of His sufferings. A partaker of the afflictions
of the Gospel. If you believe this Gospel, people
are going to turn on you too. They are. And they'll turn on
your preacher. And you need to stand up for
him. You need to tell him he's telling the truth. Right? I'm not trying to defend myself,
I'm trying to defend the Gospel. Against all these charges. And
all these men you know and love. Gabe. How can anybody hate Gabe? He's such a sweet man. They do!
David Edmondson. Have you ever met a sweeter fellow
than him? Most of Madisonville think he's a false prophet. that you will be a partaker of
the afflictions. You will be persecuted. You will
find that you're a stranger in this world. You're not of this
world. When you begin to believe the
truth, your old friends will turn on you. When Hannah was 13 or 14 years
old, her mother went to pick her up to school, and she was
troubled. And she confided in her mother
and she said, Mom, I don't know what it is. She says, I have
friends. And I like them, I think. But he said, there's something
different. It's just something different. I don't want to know
what it is. And she said, Do you think it could be the gospel,
Mom? That's exactly what it is. And not shortly after that, she
confessed Christ in Believer's Baptism. We're thankful. Seek ye first
the Kingdom of God and His what? Righteousness. Oh, we hear that
all the time. And all these things will be
added to you. So he says to young Timothy,
and I close, he says, don't be ashamed. Confess Christ. Don't be ashamed. Confess Him. Don't be ashamed of me. I'm preaching
it. That's all I'm trying to do.
11, notice Paul put preacher before
apostle. See that verse 11? I'm appointed
a preacher before an apostle. Preaching. God had one son, and
you know what his occupation was? Preacher. This is the most important job
on planet earth, if he's telling the truth. He really is. Really? And I didn't say, I'm
the most important man. I said, this is the most important
job. Preaching the Gospel. And it better be the Gospel.
Because the Gospel is the power of God. Christ. I'm talking about preaching Christ.
Not about Him either. Preaching Him. Holding Him up.
He said, if I be lifted up, I'll draw all men to Myself. I'll
draw them. This is how God draws. And I
want nothing more than every person in this room be drawn
to the Lord Jesus Christ and bow to Him and believe Him and
be a partaker of the affliction and follow Him all the days of
your life. Be married to Him. And then be with Him in glory
some day. That's all I want for you. That's all I want for you.
And that's what I pray all the time. All the time. And this is how He does it. So
you pray. Brethren, can you pray with all
your power while we try to preach the Word? All is vain if he doesn't
know. All right. Brother John, you
come lead us in number what?