Grace. It is amazing. Nancy and I were talking about
the other night, something was on television and somebody sang
Brother Newton's song, Amazing Grace. I told her, I said, he
could never have imagined that the lyrics that he wrote would
ever be as well known and popular as they are today, and yet very
few, very few understand the amazing grace of God. They mouth the words, but they
don't know the message of grace. But if you do, You know it's
amazing. It was Brother Newton who said
when he got to heaven, he said, three things will amaze me. He said, I'll be amazed to see
people there I didn't think I'd see there. He said, and I'll
be amazed that I won't see some people there that I thought surely
would be there. But he said, the most amazing
thing of all will be to find myself there. And I'll tell you,
we'll all sing of God's grace The redemption that is in the
Lord Jesus, we'll praise Him forever and ever, because that's
what heaven is all about, is the worship of God. 2 Timothy
chapter 1 is the portion of Scripture that I hope that the Spirit of
God will enabled me to at least break open to you a few thoughts
from a few of these verses. And as I endeavor to do so, I
hope they will be like the woman who opened the alabaster box
full of ointment and she anointed the Savior. and it blessed everybody
in the house. 2 Timothy chapter 1. And before I go into the scripture,
let's again ask for God's blessing upon the service. Oh, our gracious God, How grateful we are for the message
of grace, grace so undeserved, grace so mighty, grace that is
so sovereign, grace that is always effectual to do your purpose. There are many of us in this
building And indeed, this is so of many who are watching by
way of the internet, we can say that we have experienced and
we are experiencing the mighty wonders of your grace to us. We have been gathered Lord, by
your good providence today that we might render to you that honor
that is your due. We have not gathered together
to exalt any of us. We're all worms of the dust by
nature. We have gathered together to
thank you for every mercy that you give us daily, and to bless
you for who you are in all of your attributes, in all those
blessed characteristics that make you to be God over all,
blessed forever. We read that you're a consuming
fire, and therefore we dare not attempt to come to you except
through that one mediator, the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, that
one who is the Son of Man. the one who redeemed his people,
who saved us by his bloody sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary. Now
we ask for your spirit to be with us, even the spirit of our
Lord Jesus. Oh, gracious, gracious Holy Ghost,
breathe on us this morning. both the messenger and these
who hear. Lord, what a needy people we
are. And we want to hear a word from
you through this book. We bow to no other authority. We read only, Lord, your word. and give us grace to bow to the
authority of the scriptures. Make us who know you to rejoice
in our gracious God today. Instruct us, teach us, admonish
us, rebuke us. Whatever the word is that we
need, Lord, speak that word to each of us. We ask for those who know not
the blessed Savior. Lord, would you, by your mighty,
mighty mercy and grace, invade their hearts and their minds,
give a new heart, a heart of faith, a heart of
confidence to bow to and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, be with us today. You have
said that where two or three are gathered together in your
name, you'll be in the midst. Lord, here we are, having been
gathered by you. And now, we thank you for your
word of promise. You will be with us. Help us to exalt you, to focus
upon the Lord Jesus, the only Savior, And Lord, as we began
the service with David saying, I was glad when they said unto
me, let us go into the house of the Lord. So also when the
service is over, may we leave this building being thankful
that we have been blessed to meet with God. as a congregation. These things we ask, Lord, meekly
and humbly, in the blessed name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus. Amen. As we get to the second epistle
of Timothy, of course, Timothy was a preacher. He was the spiritual
offspring, as it were, of the Apostle Paul. In fact, Paul speaks
of him as being his spiritual son in the faith. At this time,
the great apostle is in Rome and he's in prison. He is going
to be put to death for preaching the gospel. In fact, he writes
this, and this is his last epistle. This is his last letter that
he will ever write. Somewhere around 64 AD, maybe 33 years after our
Lord Jesus has ascended back to glory, somewhere like that. But this is the very last letter
he's ever going to write. In fact, most likely, having
written this while he was in prison in Rome, before this letter
ever reaches Ephesus, which is where Timothy was at this time
because he was a preacher and he was a minister of the gospel.
He pastored the church in Epsos. And most likely before this letter
ever gets to Epsos, well, this man, the great apostle who wrote
over a half of the New Testament, provide you believe that he wrote
the book of Hebrews, then this man will have lost his head on
the chopping block. He writes to Timothy knowing
that death is just outside his prison door. As it were, the
executioner has already sharpened his axe, and whenever the word
comes from the emperor, then this man will lose his head for
the cause of our Lord Jesus. And yet, as he is ready to go,
and he's ready to see the Lord, and he often writes of being
anxious to see our Savior. You know, those who are the people
of God, we have no fear of meeting the Lord. We're anxious to see
him. There's nothing to fear. You
say, but you know, Jim, I have so many sins to answer for. The Savior has answered for your
sins. Do you understand that? There
is no reason for you as a believer to ever fear death. Our Lord
has removed from death its stinger. That's why this man would write,
he said, I'm ready to depart, as he says in the fourth chapter.
He said, I have a desire to be with the Lord Jesus, which is
much better, he says. He says, concerning death, it
means to be absent from this body and to be present with the
Lord. You will never read in the Word
of God. Read the Old Testament, read
the New Testament. You will never read of any believer
who dreaded seeing God. We love Him. We love Him because
He first loved us. He loved us from old eternity. He gave us an election unto His
Son. And God has made every provision
for us in the Lord Jesus. All of our sins were imputed
to Him and He has put them all away. And so we read in the Old
Testament, in that day, in the day of judgment, the sins of
Israel and Judah shall be sought for and they shall not be found. We have no sin. Understand that. We're made the righteousness
of God in the Lord Jesus. And here's a man who is on the
very threshold of meeting the Lord. and he has no fear. Oh, God give us grace in that
day, provided we're conscious and we're not drugged due to
severe pain or whatever. God give us grace in the day
and the hour of death to look death in the face and say, I
don't fear you because of who my Savior is. My Savior has met
death for me, and He conquered it. In fact, the Scripture says,
for the children of God, there is no death. There is no death. When Martha wept because Lazarus
had died, and our Lord Jesus talked about He'd live again,
she said, I know He'll live in the resurrection. Our Lord Jesus
said, Martha, he that liveth and believeth in me shall never
die, shall never die. We fall asleep in Jesus' body
does, and the soul goes back to the Lord. And so here's this
mighty apostle, this man of God, And he writes to Timothy and
this man, he knows he's on the very edge of life. He has lived
his life almost in its totality. He is now ready. In fact, just
look over chapter four since I've made mention of it already. Look in chapter four. He says
this in verse six, and this is like his motto. chapter four
and verse six, for I'm now ready. I'm ready. I'm ready to be offered. And he says, the time of my departure
is at hand. It's near. He knew that. And so he writes to this young
man, Timothy, knowing that that his own life is about over and
he writes to Timothy and he gives him instruction from prison. That's the title of the message.
He gives him instruction from prison. And one of the more amazing
things about this, and of course we know it's written by divine
inspiration, is that here's this man who is about, he's about
to die. Do you understand he's going
to be a martyr for the cause of the Lord Jesus? He has been
put in jail because he has disrupted peace. He has disrupted peace. You've
broken peace. What kind of peace? The peace
of a carnal religion. That's what he upset. He upset
people because he preached grace. He upset people because he preached
the authority of God. And he upset people because he
preached that Jesus of Nazareth was God and is God in the flesh. and that this one who died was
buried, he arose again. And this of course got the Sadducees. This upset the Jews so greatly
that he arose. He preached the resurrection
of the dead through Jesus. And this has upset the Jewish
community and they've now seen to it through a series of providential
events that he winds up in Rome and he is in prison. And though
he is about to die, his mind is upon the welfare of a young
preacher in Ephesus. You're talking about a man who
has a selfless attitude at this point. Were this our situation, most
likely we would be consumed with our own thoughts about Our family, leaving our families
and that sort of thing. But that's not what occupies
his mind. Here he is, as it were, on his
deathbed. I know he's not dying in prison,
but he's going to die right after he finishes this letter. but
rather being bound up in thoughts about his own condition and about
what's going to happen to him, his mind is upon Timothy and
the cause of God in truth. Would to God that even in life,
our minds were less occupied with ourselves and more occupied
with the cause of God in truth. There is only one thing that
matters and that is the glory of God in Christ Jesus. Oh, that God would cause us to
be consumed by this. You read through these epistles
of this man who was Saul of Tarsus and God saved him by his grace.
you will recognize the fact that this is an unusual man. Whatever he did, he did with
all of his heart. We know that. In fact, he followed
the admonition of Solomon who said, whatsoever thy hand findeth
to do, do it with all your might. There's no activity in the grave. And he believed that and he practiced
that in his whole ministry since God converted him, since God
got hold of him, since God saved him by his grace, his whole ministry,
his life is absorbed by and consumed with the gospel of the Lord Jesus. And as I prepared this message,
I thought, oh God, give me that kind of consuming grace to be
more dedicated and more consecrated to the ministry. And I pray the
same thing for you because this is our ministry. This is not
a one-man show. This is not about me. This is
a ministry. This is a responsibility God
has given to all of us to hold forth the truth. And let's do it with all of our
might. Let's be totally devoted to the
gospel. where you live, where you work,
among those that you converse with, among your neighbors, among
your friends, among your families. Don't ever shy away from the
truth. Don't be ashamed of this gospel. Stand tall. and tell people who
God is. Oh, the ignorance that goes throughout
the United States of America, the spiritual ignorance that
has just invaded and it's thoroughly infected all churches, almost
all churches. People don't know who God is.
Let's tell them. Let's tell them. Let's tell them
how holy God is. God's a God of grace. He's a
God of sovereign grace, distinguishing grace, free grace. Let's tell
them salvations of the Lord. And let's denounce error. And
let's lift up the very truth of God. We have that responsibility. And so here is this man who is
at death's door. And he reveals to us that the
Lord has done a work of grace within him and he's so committed
to the truth that here he is about to leave this world and
his mind and his heart is upon a preacher, another preacher,
Timothy. Here's this aged apostle sitting
in a Roman prison waiting to die. His ministry that God had
given him was nearly over. You see, God buries his workmen,
but the work goes on. Isn't that good to know? God
buries his workmen, but the work goes on. And here's this man, and he knows
the work will continue by the means of men like Timothy. Timothy pastors in Ephesus. which was a church that was established
by the Apostle Paul. And he had visited with the elders
of the Church of Ephesus sometime before this. It's recorded in
Acts chapter 20. In fact, he says in that passage,
I know you'll see my face no more. But he admonished them to preach
the word of God. He said, I didn't hold anything
back from you. Don't you hold anything back. And then he told them this. He
said, I know that after my departure, after I leave, grievous wolves will endeavor to enter in among
the congregation with their lives, religious lives. Well, that's
the congregation to which the Lord called Timothy to be the
head elder, the preacher, the pastor. And here's the Apostle
Paul, and he knows wolves have come in. They've infiltrated
the congregation and Timothy must stand firm for the gospel. He even says this, go back to
the second chapter. He makes this statement to Timothy
in chapter two, verse three. Thou therefore endure hardness
as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. As a good soldier. Timothy, the
work is going to be difficult, but you endure all the hardness,
endure the afflictions, endure the mockery, endure the reproach. and be a good soldier of the
Lord Jesus Christ. There as you labor in Ephesus,
where wolves are coming in and trying to devour the flock, not
sparing the flock is the way the apostle put it. You, Timothy,
be faithful in the word of God. Preach the word. In fact, he
will say that to him over in chapter 4. Preach the word in
season and out of season. Just be faithful. Be faithful
to God. You see, that which is necessary
for the servant of God is to always be faithful to the Word
of God. We're not seeking to please men. In fact, this same apostle wrote
in Galatians chapter 1, he said, if I seek to please men, I'm
not the servant of God. Who are we here to please? Who
are we here to honor? Are we here to honor you? Have
I stepped up here behind this, as the old timers used to call
this, holy desk? Have I stepped up here behind
this pulpit to make you feel good about yourself? And the
answer is no. No. There are a lot of other
places where you can go and they will pump you up and you'll just
go floating out of the building. I want you to feel good, to think
right, and in your heart to love the gospel of the grace of God
in Christ Jesus. I want God to do something for
you. That's the reason I preach. I
preach to honor God and preach hoping and praying and asking
God to do something good for you. and the best thing He can
do for you is to bring you down, to put you in the dust before
Him, to where you begin to comprehend a little bit of His absolute
holiness and glory, and your own utter insufficiency and inability
and wickedness, and then may He give you a faith's view of
the Lord Jesus, and his glorious work of redemption which satisfied
the justice of God." You see, this man knows Timothy
has got his work cut out for him. He's got his work cut out for
him. And it's not going to be easy.
The ministry is a glorious thing, but it isn't easy. There's the burden of the ministry,
and the older I get, I truly feel the heaviness of the burden
even more. Because I realize the biggest
part of my ministry is past. That's gone. I have no idea how
much longer the Lord will give me to preach the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ. But oh, would you, would you
pray for me that I would be even more, even more totally consumed by the ministry that God has
given me. And I'm going to pray for you.
that you'll be more consumed for the ministry that God has
given to all of us. Oh, we're heading out into eternity. That's one of the things that
happens as you get a little older, isn't it? You realize, and some
of you, you're smiling because you're getting there, if you
ain't there already. Pardon my grammar. But we know
our days are few. Don't know how many more years
we've got. Listen, enjoy your family, absolutely. Enjoy your family. Hug those,
hug your kids and your grandkids, and as the case may be, some
of you have great grandkids, hug them and love them. Your
spouse be thankful. But remember this, you hold all
things in this world lightly. Lightly. Because God is going
to either take you away from them or them away from you. And may our gracious God May
He so impress upon us His own glory and the majesty of the
Son of God and the worthiness of who He is and what He did
as our substitute in God's sacrifice. May we see the beauties of the
Lord Jesus. May we know and realize the value
of His death. by which he satisfied God and
put away all the sins of his people. May this be the message
that just grabs hold of us, the truth that holds us. I remember years ago when I was
in school and the Calvinists and the Armenians,
we would meet in the student center and we would have debates.
And a lot of times it'd be over a game of ping pong. And we'd
play ping pong and argue theology. It dawned on me one day, arguing
theology, that's pretty useless. That's pretty useless. We're
not arguers. We're not debaters. We're preachers. I'm a preacher of the gospel.
I don't have time to debate with the Church of Christ preacher
across town. Don't have the time, don't have
the interest, because God didn't call me to be a debater. He called
me to be a preacher. Now, if you have a question you
want to ask me after the service, and you come to me, and you truly
want an answer, and you're seeking to know the truth of God, I've
got time to spend with you, but if you wanna argue the word of
God, have no time for that. My ministry is preaching the
gospel of the Lord Jesus. In fact, this same man wrote
over in 1 Corinthians 9, woe is unto me if I preach not the
gospel. Well, how often should you preach
the gospel, pastor? Every time I stand behind this
pulpit, and you hear me, a message that does not have Christ crucified
in it is a worthless and utterly worthless message and ought never
been preached. This man who wrote to Timothy,
he said he wrote to the church in Corinth. He said, when I was with you,
you know, I had a determination to know nothing among you except
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. You see, the message of Jesus
Christ and Him crucified glorifies God. You wanna glorify God? Brag on His Son. Brag on His
Son. because this is God's glory. His saving grace is his glory
to the sons and daughters of men through the Lord Jesus Christ
and his work of redemption. That's God's glory. Now, if you
don't wanna glorify God, leave the cross out. And you can have a religious service,
but you needn't call it a worship service. It's not a worship service
unless you're exalting the Lamb of God. When Abraham and Isaac
went up on Mount Moriah to offer, and Isaac would be offered as
a burnt offering to God, Isaac had overheard his father say
to the two servants, wait here and I and the lad will go yonder
and worship. Well, Isaac had worshiped many
times with his father, and he knew what was involved in worship,
a sacrificial lamb. They go walking. Abraham's got
the knife. The wood's strapped on Isaac's
back and shoulders. He's got the fire. Isaac says, Yes, son. You said we're going to worship,
right? That's correct. Well, dad, we can't worship God
without a lamb. Where is the lamb? That's what he said. Where's
the lamb? And Abraham said, my son, God
will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. Listen, if
we don't have the Lamb of God in our message, if our preaching's
not full of Christ and His substitutionary, justice-satisfying work, we're
not gonna worship God. You can just forget it. You can
forget it. And we preach the gospel of redemption,
the gospel of substitution and satisfaction, because it's the
message God uses to save sinners. Well, I'd love for God to do
a work of grace in someone's heart this morning. Maybe He
will. Maybe for you that you're watching
by way of the internet. Maybe to one of you. What message
do you think the Lord's going to use? He's not going to bless a message
of, well, let's do unto others as we would have them do unto
us. That mess is going to do a sinner no good. Hey, be kind,
be charitable. Yeah, do that. That's great. That's not the way to God. One way to God. Christ said,
I'm the way. Don't you think we ought to tell
people the way, the truth, the life? And this is the message for the
growth and admonition of the children of God. This is the
children's bread. And so this man writes to Timothy. And he says this to him, chapter
one, look at verse eight. He says, don't be ashamed of
the testimony of our Lord. Don't be ashamed of the gospel.
I'm gonna be preaching this evening from Romans 1 and verse 16 will
be in my text, where this same man said, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ. And he tells Timothy, don't be
ashamed of the testimony of our Lord. Don't be ashamed to witness
for Him, to give an accurate witness, to tell the truth about
Jesus Christ, to tell people who He is. He's God. He's man. Tell people what He
did. He came to this earth. God manifests
in the flesh. lived a life of obedience. He
honored God's law. God's law looks at us, it examines
us, and it doesn't have to go very far at all before it pronounces
us all guilty. That's what the law of God does.
The law of God is always strict. It cannot be bent. The law of
God will never give an inch. The law of God never considers
extenuating circumstances. The law of God, here's what it
is. Obey, live. Disobey, die. That's the law of God. We say,
well, that leaves all of us out. You're right. If salvation's
by obedience to the law. The law of God pronounces us
guilty. But our message of good news
is not, hey sinner, this is what you gotta do. Our message of
good news is, hey sinner, redemption has been done, it's finished. The work is accomplished. The
satisfying of all of God's demands were met by the Lord Jesus Christ
when He lived and when He was obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross. Just as satisfying death. Our Lord paid the debt of His
people. Don't be ashamed of that. This
is what Paul tells Timothy. Don't be ashamed of the gospel.
And then he says this in verse 8, and don't be ashamed of me.
Don't be ashamed of me. There are a lot of folks who
were ashamed of Paul. Hey, where's that preacher who
used to come around here preaching? Well, I don't know. Hey, he's
in prison. That's where he's at. What's
he in prison for? Because he preached the truth
of God. Don't you be ashamed of me. In fact, he says in the
latter part of verse eight, but be thou partaker of the afflictions
of the gospel according to the power of God. You take a stand. At Timothy, I'm about to die. Now you have a responsibility,
and here with my dying breaths, I would speak to you in person,
but I can't speak to you in person, so I write it by the leadership
and the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. Be thou partaker of the
afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God. You stand
fast. You have been given the truth. Your mother and your grandmother
taught you the truth of the gospel. God saved you when you were a
young man. Now you have been taught the
things of God by me, the apostle." And he says, now, you stand fast. Don't you back down. Notice what
he says in verse 13. He says, hold fast the form of
sound words, which thou has heard of me in faith and love, which
is in Christ Jesus. Timothy, I love you. I'm gonna speak honestly with
you. Don't you be ashamed of this gospel. And don't you be
ashamed of me. who's the prisoner of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He said, but you go ahead and
partake of the afflictions of the gospel. Go ahead and take
it. When they mock you, remember they mocked your Savior. When they reach out to you to
take hold of you and punish you, remember they did that to your
Savior. When they chase you down and
if they beat you, whatever happens to you, you go ahead and take
it. You bear it. He said of himself,
I bear in my body the marks of suffering for the Lord Jesus.
He said, that's fine. Blessed are they who are persecuted
for righteousness sake. For so persecuted they, the prophets. Now you stand in there now, Tim,
you stand and take it. I don't care what they do to
you. You stand according to the power
of God. Oh God, give me power to stand.
Give me power to take the gospel and preach the gospel and say
like old Luther said, here I stand, I can do no other. Like Moses said to the Levites,
who's on the Lord's side? Come over here and pull out your
sword. Take a stand according to the
power of God. You don't have the power in you.
But I'll tell you who's got the power. I'll tell you who can
cause you to stand. speak to somebody about the gospel
of the grace of God, tell people of God who's sovereign, God who
does all His pleasure, and they begin to rebuke you, stand by the power of God. And then, speaking of God, it
leads him to the next statement. He says, God has saved us. Let
me tell you, Timothy, here's the reason to endure the afflictions
that are going to come to you, because of who saved you. Who
saved you, Timothy? And I look into your faces, the
faces of the people of God, people who love the gospel of God's
grace, people who love Christ, and people who love who God is,
and all of His majesty, and all of His glory, and all of His
splendor. I say to you, who saved you? Did you save yourself? Well, I'll tell you, you've got
a pitiful Savior then. Who saves sinners? God does. God does. By purpose. By purchase. By power. By preservation. and he saves
into perfection, who has saved us and called us. Now wait, preacher,
he kind of got that backwards, didn't he? You know, we were
called before we're saved. No, he's got it exactly right. Before you ever had a thought
of God, before you were ever born, Before our Lord Jesus ever
died upon the cross of Calvary 2,000 years ago. Before God created
the heaven and the earth about 6,000 years ago. Back in old
eternity when there was no time. in the eternal council chambers
of God, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit saved us. Isn't that wonderful? He saved
us then. Oh, it will be revealed in time,
no question about it. But that purpose of God that
saves is an eternal purpose. You say, preacher, do you believe
Eternal justification? Well, how can I not believe that? Listen, all the decrees of God
are just like himself, eternal, without beginning and without
end. Why, even the death of our Lord
Jesus is said in the book of Revelation to be a death that
the lamb died from before the foundation of the world, who
had saved us, and here's the result of saving us, he called
us. He sent the truth to us. I'm so thankful to God that early
in the 70s, as a assistant pastor of a church
in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. God sent us a preacher from Ashland, Kentucky. And he preached the glorious
gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And he said, I don't preach to
you the, and I'll never forget the way that, I don't preach
you the plan of salvation, He said, I preach to you the purpose
of salvation and the person of salvation. And when he said salvation's
in a person, that hit my heart. Never heard that before. Now,
maybe I'd heard it with these ears before, but I'd never heard
it in a saving way. He called me. He called me by
His grace. He called me to look to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Look unto me and be ye saved,
O ye ends of the earth, for I am God. I am the God who rescues. I am the God who saves. I am
the God who redeems. Look unto me, and by the grace
of God I looked. And I've been looking ever since,
bless His name. I've been looking to Him. We begin with a look, we continue
with a look, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of
our faith. And one of these days we will look on him, as you sang,
face to face. And our salvation will be consummated. Who hath called us with an holy
calling, called to holiness, And I must go quickly, not according
to our works. Preacher, give me something to
do. People are forever wanting to
do something for salvation. I say again, it is done. It is done. Not according to our works. So, you know, preacher, God knows
I've prayed and God knows I've read my Bible and God knows I
put some money in the boxes and God knows I've tried to come
to church as long as it felt pretty good. God knows all of
that. Listen to me. As far as salvation
is concerned, it counts for nothing. I'm telling you, it counts for
nothing. You're just building up your own righteousness. That's
what you're doing. But what you need to know is
all of your righteousness, all of your what you call religious
duties and deeds in the eyes of God are filthy rags. God is
only pleased with one man and his work of redemption, Christ
Jesus the Lord. And He's only pleased with sinners
as we're in Him. That's the sum total of it. not according to our works, it's
according to His purpose, His own purpose, not purposes, not
according to the As men say today, the plan of God. God doesn't
have a plan. You have plans, I have plans,
and so often our plans are interfered with because we don't have the
power to bring our plans to fruition. God doesn't have a plan, He has
His own purpose. that he purposed in himself before
the world began. He purposed all things in Christ
Jesus. And he purposed the salvation
of his people. This is all according to his
own purpose and grace, which was given us, when? Or where? In Christ Jesus. And when was
that? Before the world began. When
did he give us grace? He gave us grace before he made
the world. And he gave it to us in Christ
Jesus. But now, he says in verse 10, but now is made manifest
by the appearing of our savior, Jesus Christ, who has abolished
death. There's no death for the child
of God. There's no condemnation of the child of God. And he hath
brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. He says, whereunto I am appointed
a preacher. God appointed me a preacher of
this gospel. The idea of a preacher is one
who is sent forth by the King with a message. I am sent forth
by the King with a message about the King. to tell you who He is and what
He did and why He did it. He did it that God might be just
and justify the ungodly. And I'm sent from the King with
a message about the King to tell you where He is now. He's the
sovereign King seated upon His throne. He says, and I'm an apostle. I'm an apostle. I'm not one whit
behind the chief apostles. I'm an apostle, he said, I'm
a teacher of the Gentiles. He says, and for this reason,
he says in verse 12, I also suffer these things. Timothy, I'm telling
you, you're gonna suffer if you take a stand for Christ, but
I also suffer. You think I've lived on the easy
street all my ministry, he says. Read what he has to say in the
book of 2 Corinthians about all the times he was shipwrecked
and in prison and all the rest. But he says, nevertheless, I'm
not ashamed. Don't you be ashamed. And I'm,
because I don't take Timothy, I'm not ashamed. Because I know
whom I have believed. Salvation is not in a what, it's
in a who. And I'm persuaded, I've got confidence. He's able to keep that which
I've committed unto him against that day. I've deposited my soul
into him for safekeeping. So he says, now you hold fast
the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me in faith
and love, which is in Christ Jesus and that good thing which
was committed unto thee. Now you keep it. You keep it
by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us. That word keep means to
guard the treasure. To guard the treasure. You who
are the people of God, you've been given a treasure. Indeed,
the apostle says over in 2 Corinthians 4, we have this treasure in earthen
vessels. We're earthen vessels, but God's
given you a treasure, the riches of his grace in Christ Jesus.
You keep it now. So I thought we're kept by the
power of God. We persevere because he preserves
us. Oh, what a glorious gospel this
is. Stand fast for it. Be thankful. And don't be ashamed. Don't be ashamed of who God is. Tell people. Well, preacher,
they may not like me. Well, that's okay. That's okay. You're not trying to please men.
You just want to be honest with them. Tell them who Christ is. Tell
them what we all are. We're all in the same boat by
nature. Tell them what God by his grace
has done for you. We'll gather this evening again
at 6.30. That's closing prayer. Bless, oh Lord, the word that
has gone forth this hour how grateful we are that you
have entrusted your precious treasure to this preacher and
this congregation. Lord, may we hold fast to this
treasure. And Lord, keep us ever truthful
to the word of God. Bless our ministry as we seek
from the pulpit to exalt your son. Bless our writings. Bless our lives as we daily walk
before men that we would have occasion to speak a word concerning
the greatness of our God. We thank you for all things,
Father. We bless you, we honor you, and we thank you that we
have been privileged to sit under the glorious
gospel of the blessed God. Make the word effectual to each
of us. For Jesus' sake I pray, amen.