If you want to turn with me to
2 Timothy chapter 1, that will be my text this morning. I appreciate this privilege.
I count it the greatest privilege to be invited here to preach
to you. I appreciate you, Pastor Mary. This church is very dear to my
heart. Thank you for the fine meals, your hospitality, and
your kindness, not only today, and this weekend, but through
many, many years, the Lord has blessed you, and I trust that
he will continue to bless you and uphold his work here in this
place. In 2 Timothy chapter 1, and I
want to begin reading in verse 7, a very familiar passage to
most of you. 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse
7, 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 with an 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 life through the gospel. I have some thoughts on verse
9 this morning. Let me begin by saying what has
been said often. You and I have heard this happen,
we've seen it happen so many times. A hyph of verse quoted,
either the first hyph of a verse that's been quoted and leaves
the last hyph out, or quoting the last hyph and leaving the
first hyph out. And let me give you a couple
of examples that all of us are aware of. John chapter 6 and
verse 37. How often have we heard the last
portion of that verse quoted? and him that comes to me I will
in no wise cast out." And I'm not here to say there's anything
wrong at all, and it may be profitable in a timely fashion to only quote
that portion of that verse, but that's not all of that verse.
And I fear that those who often quote that portion only are not
even aware of what the first portion says. All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and he that comes to me I will in
no wise cast out." How often do we hear Romans 8.28 quoted,
but we hear only a portion of it. All things work together
for good to them who love God. And whoever quotes that stops
that. And that's fine. We love this. But the last portion
of that verse is very important, because it tells us who they
are to whom all things work together for good. To those who love God,
to those who are the called according to His purpose. All things do not work together
for good to everybody, but to those who are called They're
called to love God, and they love Him because He's called
them and given them a heart to love Him. And He's included them
in His purpose, in His eternal purpose. But it's to them that
all things work together for good. All things didn't work
together for Pharaoh's good. My goodness, the man was grounded,
as far as we know, and died and went to torment. Who can say
that all things work together for Judas' good? But who does all things work
together for good? To those who love God. To those who are called according
to His purpose. And we'll see in this first year when we find
out something about God's purpose. We find out something about salvation. That's what God has purposed
here. Salvation. And I want to give
you some thoughts about that this morning here in verse 9.
Who has saved us and called us with an 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." Now,
what's the first thing that we can see about salvation? It's
older than the world. Isn't that so plain? It's older
than time. Before the foundation of the
world, God purposed salvation. It originated in His heart. He schemed it, if you will. The
triune God planned it all out before there was ever time. before time was conceived in
the womb." Can you imagine the surprise of our first parents
when they had sinned against God? And they went and hid out
behind the trees, and the Lord called them to give account.
And there they stood before Him, and their conscience was so guilty
they were filled with shame and dread. And no doubt they thought
the next word was seal or eternal doom. They were looking upon
his frowning face right in front of him. But to their great surprise,
what did he do? He clothed their shame by sins
that he himself had made. And then you and I come here
to our text, and what do we find out about it?" That was his purpose
all along, to their utter surprise and amazement. He knew exactly
what they were going to do, as terrible as it was. But he had
already knew what he also was going to do. He was going to
clothe their shame. They had ruined themselves. They
had plunged the future humanity into sin and darkness and death. How just God would have been
to call for that angel with a flaming sword and just cut them asunder. But He didn't. He clothed them. And he sent them from this garden
with the promise of a coming Redeemer to undo everything that
they had done. And he had already purposed to
do it. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that amazing? Before the
world began. What's the first thing we discover
in the heart of God? Now, this is amazing. This is
amazing. Before judgment, what was in
the heart of God? Even before justice is revealed,
what is it that we see in the heart of God? It's grace. Grace. Before anything else is revealed,
go back before time, and there it is. He manifests grace because
His purpose was a gracious purpose. And that purpose was to save
a great host of chosen sinners, and he purposed it before time. Oh, what grace, what love, what
goodness, what mercy! He hath saved us according to
his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before time. There had never been a sin like
the sin of our first parents. This was the worst sin that had
ever been committed, or ever could be committed, because it
was so willful. It was so deliberate. It was
meant in your face. The Bible says that Adam offended
God. By the offense of one, many were
made sinners. But consider what a sin this
was. The Lord told him exactly what
he was going to be tempted about. Don't you eat of the tree. And
he told him the tree's name. The tree of the knowledge of
good and evil. Told him where it was. In the midst of the garden. Told him the effects that would
happen if he ate it. You'll die. And not only did
he willfully ignore all of that, he fell in with God's enemy. in this sin, lifted up his hand
against God, whom he knew was good. And when he sinned, what did he do?
Did he fall on his face and seek for mercy? Did he cry out, is
there forgiveness with the Lord? Why, no, he ran and hid himself.
And when he was called from his hiding place to give account,
he blamed God It's the woman which thou hast given me. Wasn't
this a terrible sin? And thank, brothers and sisters,
of the dreadful effect that it's had. I'm still looking at it. I still feel it. Every child
that's born into this world, you can trace the effects, that
awful effect of how that child is born in sin back to the first
sin. A child, when it's conceived
in the womb, is conceived in sin. And he comes forth from
his mother's womb, speaking lies, a sinner from birth. And why? Adam. Look at all the devastation
we see in our society today. We're losing our country right
before our eyes, and there's nothing we can do about it. Wars, heartaches, fears and tears,
and things aren't going to get any better in this world. It's
always been bad, and it's going to get worse if anything. And
what do you trace it all to? Back there in the garden. In
the garden where our first Christ lifted up their hands against
God. And by one man, sin entered into
the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon all men. But what a wonderful, wonderful
thought. God, knowing all of this, had
a purpose. To save him, this awful sin,
this utter rebellion, this willful sin, would this deter God from
His purpose? Not even Aldrich. Before he sinned
this awful sin, God had a purpose, because his purpose to save was
before time, before the world. Isn't that grace? You know, if it had slipped up
on him and caught him off guard, then
he had hastily clothed him and saved him. He may have changed
his mind later on and said, no, this is worse than I thought.
I changed my mind. I'm going to damn you yet. But
he had plenty of time to think about it. Oh, the triune God,
the covenant God, he sat down and thought this through. He
thought it out. He said, here's what's going
to happen. Here's what Adam is going to do. Here's how bad it's
going to be. Do we have grace enough to save
him when it happens? You think he didn't do that? He tells us to sit down and count
the cost. A man is silly. If he goes to
build a tower or a house and he just has enough money to lay
the foundation, people are going to mock him. He said, when you
go with a purpose, you better make sure you have sufficient
to accomplish your purpose. Wouldn't he tell us to do that
and him not have enough? Oh, he said, do I have enough
grace to save Adam? Do I have enough grace to save
such sinners?" And he searched his heart. He says, I do. So he settled it all before time,
everyone. Settled it all. Where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound. Oh, this is not only a gracious
purpose, but I'm telling you it's a purpose that will stand
the test. It stood the first test, and
that was the big test. And he'll stand the test, because
this God who purposed is a sovereign God. And he says, I have spoken
it. I'll bring it to pass. I purposed
it, and I will also do it. You and I have to look around
us today, and we get so discouraged because of the effects of this
awful sin that we see. in us and around us. God's judgment,
we have such a sense of it sometimes, don't we? Oh, we wonder sometimes,
why don't he just take us all away? Why does he let me live?
Why does he let society exist? And we have such a sense of this
awful, awful justice and judgment of God. But think of this. Think
of this. What's the first thing? God has
revealed to us about Himself before anything else. What's
He revealed about Himself? Is it not grace? Is it not the
free favor of God? If you go back before time, what
was in His heart? Grace. Grace. If you know anything about sin
and yourself and your utter depravity and the depravity of the human
mind and society, you'll get awfully discouraged and depressed
if you don't remember the thing that's in the heart of God over
and above everything else, grace. I love that portion of Scripture
in John chapter 1. I think it's in verse 14 where
it tells us what's in the heart of Christ. The Word was with
God, and the Word was God, and the Word was made flesh, and
dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the
only begotten of the Father, full of what? Full of grace. How big is Jesus Christ? How
immense is He? The universe dwells in Him. In him and his person dwells
all the fullness of the Godhead body. How he lives must he be. And yet the Bible says he's full
of grace. Oh, that should be encouraging
to us. Think of that when you see the awful, awful shame and
your sin and the depravity of the human race that's around
us. Grace. Not something Adam deserved,
not something you and I deserved, but his grace was something that
was in his own heart. It originated with him, grace. The God of all grace has a gracious
face, and it stood in the garden when sin abounded. God has a purpose. And his purpose
is to manifest what's in his heart. Grace. His own purpose and grace. I don't know what all God's doing
today, to be honest with you. I don't understand very much
of what he's doing in me. I can see and understand very
little of what he's doing. But I know this much. He's working. He's not passive. He's not sitting
still waiting and hoping somebody will do something for him. He's
not waiting to see how things are going to turn out. He's not
reacting. He's doing. He's working. And
what's he doing? What's he purposed to do? Known
unto God are all his works from the beginning of this world. And what's he purposed to do?
Well, the Apostle Paul says here in my text, he hath saved us. He hath purposed to save us. Ah, you want to be saved? You
see, the salvation of your soul, the single most important thing
in this world, between the eternities, for all eternity. He hath saved
us. And saved us from the very thing
that would have damned us. saved us from the very thing
that he hates. He loves righteousness and he
hates iniquity. He's of too pure eyes to even
look upon one sin or one foolish thought. For a man to be saved
from sin, oh, that's a blessing ain't it? He hath saved us from
our sins. Boy, the Bible has a lot to say
about sins. I looked it up one time and counted
the times I forgot, but man, sins and iniquities, those two
words are mentioned over and over and over in the Bible. Bad. Sins are bad. Iniquities are
bad. But I was amazed when I looked
this up the other day and found out the first place sins and
iniquities are mentioned. And it's very telling, I think,
where the Lord was pleased to put it in His Word. You know
sins are never mentioned all through the book of Genesis.
You'd think they would be, wouldn't you? The word iniquities are
never mentioned. It's almost like Moses was writing
and said, Lord, should I mention sins here? Lord, iniquities are
abounding. Don't you think I should say
something about it here? No, don't say anything about
that yet. He gets to the book of Exodus. Sins and iniquities
are never mentioned. You never see those two things.
You know the first place in the Bible that these two words are
mentioned? In Leviticus chapter 16. You know what Leviticus chapter
16 is about? the great day of atonement. Now,
ain't this amazing? Let me read the two verses that
first mentions sins and iniquity. The first one is found in Leviticus
16 and 16, and listen to this. And Aaron the high priest shall
make an atonement for the holy place because of the uncleanness
of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions,
and because of their sins. He shall make an atonement for
the holy place because of their sins." First time that word is
mentioned. The first time the word iniquities
is mentioned is found in verse 21 of that same chapter. And
listen to this. And Aaron shall lay both his
hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all
the iniquities of the children of Israel, all their transgressions
and all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat. And
he shall send them away by the hands of a fit man into the wilderness,
and the goat shall bear upon him all the iniquities, until
land not inhabited." And he gets there and the Lord says, now
Moses, you can say something about sins. In this light, they're
atonable. In this light, they've been transferred
to the sinner from him to his substitute. Don't that tell us
something, brothers and sisters, about sins and our iniquities? Your sins, do they ever bother
you? Do you ever grieve over your
sins? Does your eyes ever well up because
of your iniquities? Do you confess them to God? Yes,
you do. And while you're doing all of
that, and while sometimes you feel the weight of them upon
your conscience, you're only to consider your sins in this
life, dear child of God. They've been atoned for. They've
been purged. They've been put away. They've
been taken away. Somebody says, well, if I believe
that, I'll just go ahead and live like the devil, and I'd
sin as I would. Have you heard people say that?
One fellow told me one time, he said, talking about effectual
calling, he said, if I believe like you, I'd just stay home.
I said, how do you know you would? You don't believe like I do. Ain't that strange? People jump to conclusions, don't
they? Brother David was preaching last
night, and this is a prime example. He said, he told David, as soon
as David said, I'll stand against God, what did he say? God has
put away your sin. You'll not die. But here's the
strangest thing about that. I don't know how many hours,
days, but you find David just a little later on, right in Psalms
51. And it sounds to me like his
sins aren't put away at all. He wants to be washed. He wants
to be first. What's going on? Didn't he believe
what Nathan told him? The Lord has put away your sins?
Of course he believed. But there's two courts, you see.
There's the court of heaven. And there's where his sins were
put away. There's the court of conscience.
And he wanted to see his sins put away there. We want both courts to be cleared
up. When you think of your sins,
dear child of God, while you are confessing your sins, when
the Father's rod is heavy upon you because of your sins, as
it was upon Nathan David, remember this, you are to only consider
your sin in this light. Two thousand years ago, Jesus
Christ purged those sins away by Himself. Oh, that's an amazing thought,
isn't it? And you come here to your text and you realize, even
before you were born, He purposed to do this for you. For you. Isn't that amazing? You go to the New Testament,
and you know the first place this word sins is mentioned in
the New Testament? Matthew chapter 1 and verse 21.
His name shall be called Jesus, for He shall save His people
from their sins. Save you. He saved you. He saved you. He saved us by
His sacrifice. And by His sacrifice upon the
cross, He saved us from the penalty of sin, because He bore it Himself. He saves us from the guilt of
sin because He bore our guilt because He bore our sins. He
saves us from the love of sin and the power of sin when He
regenerates us and gives us His Spirit. And soon, He'll save
us from the presence of sin because He'll take us to heaven to be
with Himself where there is no sin. Then isn't it a wonderful
thing? Can you think of a more greater
blessing than to be saved from sin? You go to a funeral, and somebody
says about some man who lived and died without any hope in
the Lord Jesus at all, oh, he's better off. Oh my, if he died in his sins,
he's not better off. If I live and die in my sins,
don't let me die if you can help me. Oh, if I'm dying in my sins,
I'll tell my wife, sweetheart, sell the place if you have to.
Empty our bank account. Sell the kids. Don't let me die in my sins. Put every machine on me you can
imagine. If I die in my sins, I'll perish
forever. There is no hope for me for all
eternity under God's wrath, away from the only hope and life and
salvation. Don't let me die in my sins.
Better never to have been born than to die in your sins. Oh, then what a blessing that
He saved us from our sins. And what a blessing when you
begin to examine and realize that He purposed to do it all
along. He has saved us, but not by accident,
but on purpose. I challenge you to do this. We
all heard what Spurgeon asked the old lady in his congregation,
and I did that to an old lady that was my next-door neighbor.
She was a very religious lady. I think the Lord may have saved
her before she died. When I asked her one day, I said, Has the
Lord saved you, Frank? She said, Yes, I think He has.
I said, did he save you by accident or did he save you on purpose?
And boy, that tucked her back. She was afraid to say by accident. So she said, well, I guess it
was on purpose. I said, when do you think he
purposed to do that? And she said, well, I don't know.
So I told her. Oh, brothers and sisters, it's
a great blessing to be saved. But to think he purposed to do
it. His own purpose. His own purpose. Not according to our works. There's none that doeth good. What could we do to be saved?
It wasn't that God looked down through time and saw that we
would do something. Our Master said, without Me,
you can do nothing. No, it was by His own glorious
purpose. And it was a gracious purpose
to reveal the love and the goodness that was in His heart. Oh, this virgin said, if you
could soar this morning on the wings of faith, If you have faith
too, you can soar back to the foundation of the world, and
stand there and look back in eternity that's past, and then
jump off the edge of time and soar back into eternity, way
back yonder to another beginning, where the throne of God dwelt
alone, full and happy, without any need at all. And there you
would see the Lamb's book of life. And if you had faith, if
you had faith enough, you could stand there and watch the Lord
of Glory as He pens your name down in that book. And why would He do it? Because
He was pleased to. Because He was just pleased to.
That's all. Oh, I know of nothing. I know
of nothing that strips us of our false confidence and puts
our face in the dust than this blessed truth that I'm trying
to talk to you about this morning. Men who think that their destiny
is in their hands, that they're the captain of their souls, and
God is at their disposal, and He's waiting on me, and whatever
I do, He'll react to it. Oh, how vain, and this truth
here puts that in the dust right where we need to be. But I don't
know of a more gracious doctrine that will fill a poor broken
heart with more confidence and assurance. He hath saved us and called us
with a holy call. according to his own purpose. You know God has a purpose to
save everybody, hasn't He? Isn't that a truth? Well, we
don't talk much about that side, do we? He's purposed to let some men
die in their sins. God has purposed, and this is
only known to Him, to reveal His justice against sin. So it's His will and His purpose
to let men die in their sins. And that's just. He's willing
to make His wrath and His power known. And He'll be right in
doing that. But thank God, He's purposed
to save a great host of them. And for that, we bless Him. For
that, we praise Him. The adoration for Him fills our
hearts. for what he's done, for his electing
love. I was telling some of the folks
in that church the other day, when the Lord first saved me,
I went to a grace conference not far from where we lived.
I don't remember very much that was said, but I remember how
they closed in prayer. The pastor got up and he asked
this old man if he had dismissed the conference in prayer. And
I never will forget what that old man said. I remember him
getting on the back of the seat and lifting himself up. And he
said, Oh, our Father, thank you for your elected life. Is that your attitude about it? Thank you. I praise you. I have no hope apart from it.
Bless you for your elected life. If you hadn't chosen me, I would
have never chosen you. I'm just reacting. You're just
reacting to what God's doing. Why do you love Him? Because
He first loved you. Why do you come to Him? Because
He drew you. What do you know about Him but
what He's taught you? You're just sent past Him. Here
we are. Until He comes and He does the
work. And He continues the work. And
why does He do it? Because of what's in His heart.
Grace. Discriminating grace. Boy, Paul said to Timothy here,
he said, Timothy, you listen to what I'm telling you, and
this will help dispel your fears. God has not given to us the spirit
of fear. Don't be afraid to be partakers
of the afflictions of the gospel. Why? Because your destiny is
fixed. Oh, some of you here this morning,
bless your hearts, you're going through physical trials, you're
going through trials on your job. Some of you are young and
it's difficult where you're working. You suffer because you're a believer.
Don't be afraid. Your destiny has been fixed. And what you may suffer physically,
what you may suffer in this life is only temporary. It's just
for a while. Your eternal happiness has been
sealed by the sovereign God. What else matters? What else
matters? Our life afflictions, which are
for a moment, just a moment, and that's all. I may never see
you all again. Next thing you hear of me, they
may have put me in the emergency room and said, He's not going
to be here but a few more days. But what does it matter? My destiny
is fixed. And it was fixed before I had
a being by God, my Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. And he
says one more thing, and I'll close with this. Don't be ashamed. When this shame
begins to rise up in your face, and we have it, we have it. Here's something that will help
dispel your shame. Will I be ashamed of God? My Father who was so careful
that He put my name down and purpose to save me, could I possibly
be ashamed of Him? Am I Lord Jesus who came and
loved me so greatly He died upon the cross for me? Can I be ashamed
of the Holy Spirit who has begun His work and promised never to
stop it? Can I be ashamed? Free will is not ashamed because
it's something they're doing, you know. Something they're working
up and working out. And we should be ashamed because
it's God who's working in us and for us? We've got nothing
to be ashamed of. You're here this morning and
you're lost. This should encourage you so
much. You say, Bruce, how could that encourage me? I'm lost.
This scares me to death. What if God had not written in
this book that he had purposed to save anybody? That would be
scary. If he has purposed to save and
he's written about it for our encouragement, Then just maybe,
He's chosen you. Nobody knows that He's chosen
them until they come to Him and find it out. And I'm sure they're
surprised when they find out they're one of them. Mary Magdalene
had seven devils. I don't know what those devils
Rupert made her do, but I imagine she's a pretty rough woman. But
you know something? He cast those devils out, and
she found out she was one of his. Isn't that wonderful? There's a king by the name of
Manasseh that burned his children in the fire. Hell deserved him. I'd have put him in hell if it
had been me. I'd have killed him. God saved him. But he had trouble doing it,
you know. Remember the story? The Lord sent his prophets, and
he didn't pay any attention to the prophets. The Lord said, I'll
get him. You leave him alone. He sent his enemies and they
made handcuffs out of bras and took him and threw him down in
the dungeon. And in his affliction, he sought the Lord and found
out that he was one of His. There was a self-righteous Pharisee
killing the Lord's little children, women and men, persecuting them. On the way to Damascus one day,
the Lord put his face in the dust and said, Jeremiah, There was a man on the cross,
had one foot in the grave, and said, I deserve to die in my
sins. I deserve just what I'm given. But he turned to the Lord
and said, remember me. And he found out he was one of
His. And wouldn't it be a surprise
if you looked to Christ this morning and you saw all your
sins washed in His blood? And you could say, oh my, I'm
one of His. I'm one of His. And you live in the faith of
that until you left this place here and wound up to see Him
face-to-face, who chose you and redeemed you and calls you. Lord,
bless you. Thank you.