Paul told Timothy down here in
verse 13, he said, hold fast the form of sound words, which
thou hast heard of me, and faith and love, which is in Christ
Jesus. Now, if you remember, last week
the apostles told Timothy, don't be ashamed of me, and certainly
don't be ashamed of the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm
here in this Roman prison with these chains on me, Not for anything
that I've done other than preach the gospel. Preach the gospel.
And then he talked about how God saved us, and he saved us
on purpose. And he gave us that grace in
Christ before the world even began, before God ever created
anything. He gave us this wonderful salvation
in Christ. And then Paul starts here in
verse 12, and I'm gonna pick up here. He said, I'm appointed
a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles, for the which
cause I suffer these things. He said, I'm suffering the things
that I do because I'm a preacher, an apostle, and teacher of the
Gentiles. For this cause, I also suffer
these things. Nevertheless, I am not ashamed. You know, Paul was hated, and
here he says, you know, I'm suffering because I'm a preacher and a
teacher. Now, when you go back in the
days in which he lived, Paul was so hated, and you can go
to, I think it's 1 Corinthians 12. 6 or 8, maybe St. Corinthians 6
or 7, where he talked about all the things that befell him. But
anyway, he was a hated man. He was beaten several times. He was imprisoned. And when he
stood before King Agrippa and Festus and his wife Bernice to
hear Paul Agrippa said, here, Paul, answer for yourself. And
there said the king, there said the governor, and there said
his wife, the one that's coming in to take over. And Paul began
to preach to them, and he began to read to them of righteousness,
and judgments, and temperance, And then Festus jumped up and
said, Paul, your much learning has made you mad. You're crazy. You're crazy. How could you believe
anybody could? How do you believe anybody could
believe what you're saying? And oh my, he got really upset
when he said, your learning's made you crazy. He said, you're
mad. And I tell you, Paul preached
the gospel of Christ, and he preached it to the Gentiles,
and he also preached it to the Jews. The Gentiles, you find
out so many times, they got stirred up against him. Remember at Ephesus,
that he went there and because he was preaching that there was
another God and that those fellows was making, they made their living
making a goddess called Diana. She was made out of silver. And
all these peoples making their living by making these statues.
Well, Paul comes in there, starts preaching, and says, she ain't
got no power. She's just a statue. And oh,
they got in an uproar. They was going to destroy him. There was a good crowd got up
and said, oh, where is the goddess of death? And they got Paul hemmed
up and was fixing to kill him. And the Roman soldiers and them
come running in there and stopped him, and stopped him. My he comes
out of a new religion, and I'll tell you what the religion. We're
gonna lose our jobs. We're gonna lose our work This
fellow's bringing in a new religion here And then the Jews got mad at
him and they stayed mad at him there was a reason he was in
prison they hated him so passionately because he preached salvation
and by grace, not by law, not by works. He preached righteousness
by Jesus Christ, not by the righteousness of the law. He preached the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when he done that, that showed
that the traditions, the ceremonies, and the riches, and the keeping
of the holy days, and new moons, and Sabbath days, and feasts,
they found out through Paul's preaching that it was absolutely
amounted to nothing. Absolutely nothing. And this
same Jesus that you crucified, God made him Lord and made him
Christ. And that's why he said here,
nevertheless, for the rich cause, I suffered these things. Nevertheless,
I'm not ashamed. I'm not ashamed. I'm not ashamed
to be suffering. I'm not ashamed of the gospel.
I'm not ashamed of being hated for being a preacher of the gospel
and a preacher appointed to be an apostle and teacher of the
Gentiles. Then here's a wonderful, wonderful
definition of faith you'll find here, right here. He said, for
I know, he said, this is why I'm not ashamed. This is why
I'm not ashamed. For I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed
unto him against that day. Now you're talking about a definition
of faith. Three things here that defines faith for us. I know
whom? Knowledge. Secondly, the thing
that you got to know is, is you got to have confidence in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And then if you have those things,
then you'll be committed to him. Now, when we talk about knowledge,
I'm talking about, Paul said, I know whom I have believed.
Now we're talking about spiritual knowledge, spiritual knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's necessary to faith in Christ.
You can, Paul, he said over in Romans 10, he says this, how
shall you, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall
be saved. But how are you gonna call on him of whom you've never
heard? How are you gonna believe in
him of whom you've never heard? How are you gonna call on him
that you don't know anything about? How are you gonna trust
him if you don't know him? So here's the thing about it,
you know, and how can they know Christ without Him being preached?
And so people, this is why false, easy-to-believe-ism, and our
medium is, is so dangerous, because they just presented Jesus, and
all you got to do is make a profession of Him, accept Him, go to an
altar somewhere, and you're fixed up. And don't know a thing in
the world about Christ! Oh my, oh listen, we got to have
some knowledge of Christ. Knowledge of the Lord Jesus is
absolutely essential. And I'll tell you this, know
Him who Christ is. Know Him what He did. You know
what our Lord Jesus Christ did? He come into this world, not
for Himself, not to live for Himself, not to do anything for
Himself. Everything He come into this
world to do, first and foremost, was to honor His Father, bring
glory to His God, bring glory to His Father. The second thing
was that He come in this world to live for us, die for us, and
bury our sins. He said, Thou shalt call His
name Jesus, and He shall save His people from their sins. He
ain't gonna try to, he ain't gonna make an effort at it, he's
gonna do it. And I tell you, know what he
did, and then why did he do it? Why did he do it? So God can
stay just, stay holy, stay righteous. And God, in his sovereign mercy,
because of what Christ did, is able to justify them that trust
his blessed Son. You may be the vilest sinner
to ever draw no breath. Paul said he was the chief. But he said this is what happened.
Christ came to save sinners. And he said because he came to
save sinners, he said I'll tell you one thing, I'm not ashamed
because I know whom I have believed. And I'll tell you, he said, and
I'll tell you why, he didn't, he lived and he died and he bore
sin in his own body on the tree. He was buried after he by himself
purged our sins and then God raised him from the dead and
set him at his own right hand. That's why you can get to the
Lord Jesus Christ without moving a muscle. You can talk to him
without ever opening your mouth. How would a blind man see Christ? Same way you and I do, through
faith, by faith, and all by. And I'll tell you this, Those
who believe in Him, they know Him. And the more they know about
Him, the stronger they believe in Him. The more you learn of
Him, the more you know about Him, the more you need Him and
the more you want Him. The more you learn about Him,
oh my, you just get so stronger. Oh my. And then here's the second
thing. Confidence. Oh my. Look what else he says there.
So I know whom I have believed. You can't know Christ without
having spiritual knowledge. You got to know him. Know him,
know some things about him. Know him. Then look what else
he's saying. And I'm persuaded. He said you
got to have, you got to understand Oh my, that I am persuaded that
He is able. Ain't that what it says? I am
persuaded that He is able. That's the second thing. You
got to have confidence that if you come to Him, He can save
you. You got to have confidence in
Him. If you know who He is, you'll have confidence in Him. You'll
have confidence in who he is. You'll have confidence in what
he did. You'll have confidence that he put your sin away. You'll
have confidence in his promises. You'll have confidence that he
actually accomplished what he said he's gonna do. When he said,
my sheep hear my voice. Believe me, they go hear his
voice. He said, the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
Believe me, he laid down his life for just sheep. He's never
saved a goat, never turned a goat into a sheep. People have borne
goats and they've borne sheep. There ain't no middle ground.
That's why the Lord said when he gets to the end of this thing,
he's gonna put the goats over here. Goats wherever you're under.
And the sheep gonna be over here. And you know, this is what I
love about the gospel. It separates people here already.
It already separates sheep from the goats. Oh my, so you got to have confidence
that he is able, oh my, and able and willing, his willingness
to save you and his power to save you, the power to keep you. And that's what he said, said,
I'm persuaded that he is able to keep, to keep. And here's
the third thing, not only knowledge and confidence, but commitment,
commitment. He said, I'm persuaded he's able
to keep this which I've committed unto him against that day. You
know, if you know Christ and you have confidence in, I know
one thing that a person does that does that, they give themselves
to Christ and they're thankful that he takes them. We commit
ourselves to Him. We commit our souls to Him. We
commit our days to Him. We commit our homes to Him. We
commit our souls to Him. We commit everything in our life
to Him. And Lord, I'm Yours. You bought
me and You paid for me. I'm not my own. I'm bought and
paid for with the precious blood of Christ. And so we commit to
Him, and the first thing we commit is our souls. Is He able to keep
it? Is He able to keep us from falling? Is He able to present us faultless
before His throne with glory? Oh my, is He able to keep us? And here's the thing, beloved,
I tell you what, I think this is a dead giveaway if we've got
so many people that don't have no commitment to Christ. They
can't even commit to a service, much less to Christ himself. That's a sad thing that some
people can't even commit to attending the gospel. A woman asked me
the other day, and I don't want to be ugly, I really, really
don't. A woman asked me the other day, would she attend a certain
place out in Platon? I said, I used to go out there
years and years and years ago. And she's a sweet, sweet woman.
And her husband's got terminal cancer. That's what got us talking. She'd just come over and sit
down and start talking to me. But anyway, she said, have you had
some folks that didn't come back after COVID? I said, oh yeah,
yeah, we've got folks that didn't come back. Didn't come back. But I'll tell you one thing.
If you're committed to Christ, if you know Christ, and you're
convinced of his willingness and his ability, There's not
a soul in this building right now, right this minute, that
has not committed themselves to Christ. And that word committed
means to put in trust. To put in trust. Here, take my
soul. But I'm going to put it in your
hands. I'm going to take my life. I'm going to trust you with my
life. I'm going to trust you with my health. I'm going to
trust you with my mind. I'm going to trust you with my
home. I'm going to trust you for my living. I'm going to trust
you for everything that I have. I'm going to trust you for everything.
I'll tell you, you can take it away from me just like that.
And you can give me more just like that. Oh my, listen. I tell you, where
there's true saving faith, oh my, you can't separate trust
in Christ, cast yourselves upon Him, leaving yourself totally
in His hands to do with you what He will from faith in Him. You just can't. You just can't.
Then look what Paul told Timothy now. Oh, look what he said. Listen,
against that day. He said, I can keep that. Listen,
I love this here. Against that day. What day? The
day of Christ. The day we appear before Christ.
Then look what he told Timothy. Now, Timothy, hold fast the form
of sound words which thou hast heard of me in faith and love,
which is in Christ Jesus. And that's the word form here.
It means pattern. It means the word pattern. All
new men are so ready to depart from the faith, depart from pure
doctrine, pure doctrine, depart from the gospel of God's glory
and free grace in Christ. And so he exhorts Timothy, hold
fast, hold fast to that gospel, hold fast, hold it in your head,
hold it in your heart. And ah, you hold on to that form
of sound words, the gospel, sound doctrine, sound words, words
that will produce soundness and words that will produce faith
and commitment and joy and peace in believing. And oh, you listen,
the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, they're wholesome words, glorious
words and blessed words. And that, like I said, that word
form is pattern. And what he's saying is, you
hold forth to the pattern that I've preached, the gospel that
I've preached, and the other apostles have preached. You hold
forth to, whatever they preach, that's what you preach. You follow
their pattern. You follow their pattern. And
I tell you what, and here he said, you preach the unsearchable
riches of Christ. Now, let me tell you something.
We've been trusting the Lord Jesus, preaching the Lord Jesus
for many, many, many, many, many years, heard the best preachers
that God had on this earth, and heard, oh my goodness, just,
and yet of all that we've heard, you reckon we got to the depth
of the riches of the Lord Jesus Christ? You reckon we fully,
fully, fully understand what we have in Him, what He did for
us? what he accomplished for us,
and what we got to look forward to in eternity. Have we plumbed
the depth of the wealth of Christ yet? His unsearchable riches? And every time I try to say something
about him, I go in the house and say, oh Lord, I missed it
again. I missed it again. But if you give me another, if
you give me another opportunity, I'll try, I'll try it again another
time. I'll try it another time. Oh my, preach the unsearchable
riches of Christ. Preach the righteousness of Christ
as the only righteousness. Preach repentance toward God,
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And you do it like you've heard
me preach. Oh my, hold fast to those sound words. And hold them,
look what else he says here. Hold fast the form of sound words
which thou hast heard of me. You've seen me and you've followed
me and you listen to my preaching. You hold fast to what I preach.
And then he says, of faith and love which is in Christ. Now
here's the thing about it. You hold on to that faith and
love that's in Christ. You know, hold the truth of Christ
in faith and hold it in love. You're talking about sound doctrine.
Over in Colossians, I was reading that the other day, and Paul
gave thanks for them, first of all, that he heard their faith.
Then he heard their love, and then he heard their hope. That's
three things that every believer's got, faith, hope, and love. He said to the faithful brethren
in Colossae, I've heard of your love. for one another, I've heard
of your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and I've heard of the
hope that you've got laid up for you in heaven." And that's what he says, you
know, these are the marks of sound doctrine, and both of these
things are in Christ. Now listen to me, you know, it's
Faith is in Christ. Love is in Christ. So if we have
faith, He gave it to us. If we have love, He gave it to
us. And these two things, wherever
there's faith, there'll always be love. Wherever there's love,
there'll always be faith. They go together, and they're
both in Christ. They're both in Christ. And I
know this, no man, no man can persevere Persevere in the gospel,
in sound doctrine, unless God gives him true faith and gives
him a genuine love, he can't do it. He can't do it. Something
will get him sooner or later. And then look what he says in
verse 14. That good thing which was committed
unto thee by the Holy Ghost, which dwelleth in us, keep. that
good thing which was committed unto you, unto thee keep by the
Holy Ghost, which was given unto us. And what he's talking about
here, guard and keep, and keep it with the greatest care. And
he's talking about the gospel here, this is what he's talking
about. Because I know whom I have believed, hold forth the form
of sound words, and faith and love, and so he comes on down
there. Now you guard, you guard this gospel that was committed
to your trust. It's a precious gospel, it's an excellent gospel,
and it's been entrusted to you, and it's been entrusted to you
by the Holy Spirit, and we know we got to keep it by the Holy
Spirit that dwells in us. Now let me show you something
over here, and look over in 1 Thessalonians, just go back to your left, and
that's 1 Thessalonians 2 and verse four. And this is what
he's talking about. Oh, the gospel's a treasure.
And he says, you guard it and you keep it. The Holy Ghost is
the one who dwells in us and gives it to you, and you keep
that. Look what he said in verse four.
But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel,
even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God. Gotta honor God,
because God's the one that tries our hearts. And no time in our
preaching did we use flattering words. As you know, our cloak
of covetousness, using our words to let folks know that we want
what you got. God is our witness. Nor of men
saw we glory. We didn't have any glory on what
we were saying. Neither of you, nor yet of others,
When we might have been burdensome as the apostles of Christ, we
didn't do it. We didn't do it. And that's what
he's telling Timothy, you got this gospel. It's been committed
to you. You keep it by the Holy Ghost,
which dwells in us. And I'll tell you what, the gospel
is a treasure. Oh, what a treasure it is. Even
though it's in earthen vessels, it contains the riches and glories
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's a trust, oh my, it requires
faithfulness in those that are stewards of it. It's required
in a steward that he be found faithful. And I'll tell you something,
Hebrews 13, 17 says this, that all those who preach the gospel
and all those that God has called, it says over there that they
will have to give an account. They will have to give an account
of their stewardship. You know, we preach to you as
one that has to give an account. I've got to give an account for
myself. I've got to give an account for
you. I've got to give an account of
the gospel. You know, you think about that.
I've got to give an account for the words that I preach. I've
got to give an account for you and what I preach to you. And
you know who I've got to give an account to? To my Master.
to my master. So it's very imperative, that's
why Paul said, you keep that Timothy, you keep that gospel,
you keep that treasure, and I mean you keep it with the greatest
care and concern. Oh my, and I tell you what, Keep
it pure, keep it pure, keep it free. Don't let nobody bring
in their traditions and add to it. Don't bring in their mixtures
of men. Don't add nothing to the gospel.
Don't add works to it. Don't add faith to it. Don't
add anything to it. Just make the gospel pure. Christ
himself is our all in all. And oh my, no wonder the apostle
said, who is sufficient for these things? And he says, the only
way in the world we can keep it is by the power of the Holy
Ghost in us. That's the only way he can keep
this gospel, this treasure. The only way you and I can keep
this treasure is by the Holy Ghost dwelling in us, keeping
us. And then look what he says here
in verse 15. And he's talking about some things that Timothy
know here now. He said, this thou knowest. You know this,
Timothy. that they which are in Asia, Ephesus is in Asia,
Roman Empire in Asia, that's where Ephesus was, that thou
knowest they which are in Asia be turned away from me, are whom
hath by jealous and homogenous. Oh my, Timothy was at Ephesus
right then, and I tell you what, and he said here, he said, we've
got some folks that's done departed from the faith, And then apostasy
and departure from the gospel has always started there. That's
why I said, hold fast the form of sound words. You know, people
had already started turning away from the gospel. Here's these
folks that says, you know, they evidently, they was with Paul.
They was fellow laborers with Paul. And then all of a sudden,
they turned away from him. Maybe they turned away from him
because they were ashamed of him. Maybe they turned away from
him because he's in prison. But I think they turned away
from him because they didn't want to pay the price. And I
tell you what, and he said, oh my. He said, they've turned away
from me. They've turned away. They've
turned away. And I tell you, it's grievous.
It's so grievous to You know, to see somebody depart
from the faith. It is, it's very grievous. And
I tell you, and I say this with all sincerity and honesty, when
you depart from the gospel, you're not just departing from the gospel,
you're departing from Christ himself. Because you can't separate
the gospel and Christ. That's why Paul said in Galatians,
I marvel that you're so soon removed from the grace of Christ
into another gospel, which is not another. And oh my, it's
discouraging. It's discouraging to see people
apostatize. But yet, no matter how many people
depart from the faith, one thing we're gonna do, Whether there's
10 of us, 5 of us, 6 of us, or 50 of us, I tell you this, one
thing we're going to do, we are determined, determined to hold
fast the gospel of substitution. That gospel of Christ bearing
our sins in his own body on the tree. I'm going to keep that
treasure committed to us. And evidently these two men here
were ministers of the word. And then they began to err from
the faith and departed from the apostle Paul. Turned away from
him. Turned away from him. And then look what he said. I
love these two verses right here. I just love them. I think I preached
from them years and years ago. And then he says, and you know,
and Paul knows this man too. And Peter knows, Timothy knows
this man. The Lord give mercy. Oh my. The Lord give mercy to the house
of Onesiphorus. He's praying for his friend,
Onesiphorus. And praying for his old house,
look what he says. Said, he oft refresh me. Oh my,
he'd come and refresh me. He'd bring me things, he'd bring
me money, he'd bring me food, he'd bring me clothes, he'd bring
me, he'd refresh my heart. He said, what I'm reading today
where that says where he refreshed me means he gave Paul a little
breathing room, somebody to breathe with and fellowship with that
would sit down and visit with him. And that's why I said he
often refreshed me. And listen to this, he said he
was not ashamed of my chain. When he come to meet me and visit
me, he said right down there was my chain on me. And he wasn't
ashamed. He wasn't ashamed. He wasn't
ashamed to sit down by me. He wasn't ashamed of the gospel. And oh, listen, and I tell you
what, the love of Christ, can you imagine how much Christ loves
a believer that here he is, he diffuses himself over all who
connected with him. Oh, he wasn't ashamed of Paul's
chains and sufferings, but he identified with him, identified
with this afflicted apostle. And he supplied him with whatever
was necessary, food, clothing, money, And oh, look what he says
in verse 17. Now, Joseph has never been to
Rome, and this is why he said, you know, he said, but when he
was in Rome, he sought me out. Rome was a big city, huge city. And he said, you know, he didn't
know where the prison was. He didn't know where Paul was.
And he couldn't go to believers because they didn't know that
if they didn't know that whether he was one or not. But when he
was in Rome, he sought me out. And I mean, he was diligent about
it. This is what he said. And he found me. He found me. He found me. And he wasn't ashamed.
And listen to this. Listen to this. The Lord grant
unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day. Do you see how it's worded? The
Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that
day. And how many things, even when
I was in Ephesus, how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus
thou knowest very well. Now I tell you what, of all the
things I want to find in that day, I want to find mercy in
that day. And he's talking about that day
when he's called out of this world to face Christ, that day
of Christ. And I tell you, too many people
are in arrest and return of their works and their charity and their
investments in this life. But this prayer that he prays
for Onesiphorus right here, This is the real blessings of God
toward believers. The mercy of the Lord in that
day, how much richer a reward could anybody get than that? For those who await the Lord
Jesus Christ without expectation of earthly reward. And oh my, and Paul was constrained
to say, oh the Lord grant to him that he may obtain mercy,
find mercy of the Lord in that day. I tell you, listen, I tell
you, nothing can constrain anybody but love. Nothing can compare
with the mercy of the Lord in that day. You know, he mentioned
that twice in that day. He did there in verse 12, that
committed unto him against that day. And then obey to the Lord,
grant, that he may obtain mercy of the Lord in that day. Beloved,
we all got that day. We all have that day. And no wonder the apostle says,
the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we're the
children of God. And if we're children of God,
we're heirs of God. Join heirs with Christ. So I
reckon, and this is what Paul was experiencing right there,
I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not
worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed
in us. Oh, the Lord grant that we, we
find mercy of the Lord in that name, every one of us. Our Father, oh, our gracious
God in heaven, thank you for your word. Oh, thank you for
your word. There's nothing like it, nothing
like it. Lord, it blesses my heart. It
teaches me and instructs me. And I need teaching, I need instructing. And I need to keep the gospel
that you've committed to my trust. But Lord, I can't keep it without
you. Without you dwelling in me by the Holy Spirit, can't
do it. But Lord, if you strengthen me,
uphold me, and uphold these dear saints of God, we'll hold to
this treasure. We'll believe this treasure.
We'll rejoice in this treasure. We'll find our true riches in
the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone. Lord, let these folks
go on their way. and keep them for Christ's sake.
Amen. Amen. Thank you, Lord, for saving my
soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me Thank you, Lord, for giving to
me Thy great salvation, so rich and free.