what great hymn that the Lord
gave Joseph Hart, what truth he speaks, that if sin does not
affect you with woe, then you don't know the Spirit of Christ.
Because it was sin that caused the heartache of Christ, It was
sin that brought him to the cross. It was sin that caused his death.
Not his own, but ours. And we are, by the spirit of
God, taught to know ourselves to be sinners if we know Christ. If a man thinks himself to be
good and acceptable, in any fashion before Almighty God, then he's
not been acquainted with what sin is. And he's not been acquainted
with what he is. But it is the grace of God that
teaches us to know ourselves to be sinners. And you know,
it's not, some say that to make an excuse for themselves. We
don't, you should never use that as an excuse It's a true thing,
you are indeed a sinner, but it's certainly a thing that shouldn't
give us cause to excuse ourselves and say, oh well, you know. No,
it should break our heart. May the Lord give us such a tender
heart and mind today. We're looking at 2 Timothy in the first chapter. And I wanna read, we've gone
over some of these verses, but I wanna begin there in verse,
well, let's start in verse eight. It says, 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 light through the gospel. whereunto I am appointed a preacher,
and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. For the which
cause I also suffer these things, nevertheless I am not ashamed. For I know whom I have believed,
and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed
unto him against that day. Hold fast the form of sound words
which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in
Christ Jesus. That good thing which was committed
unto thee, keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us. This thou
knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from
me, of whom are Phagellus and Hermogenes. The Lord give mercy
unto the house of Onesiphorus, for he oft refreshed me, and
was not ashamed of my shame. But when he was in Rome, he sought
me out very diligently and found me. The Lord grant unto him that
he may find mercy of the Lord in that day. And in how many
things he ministered unto me at Ephesus, thou knowest very
well. Now, I think it's good for us
to always know what the order in which the salvation of God's
people occurs. That's not a thing that's widely
taught and probably comes as a shock to many people as they
consider what the Lord says concerning salvation and calling. Now, I
was raised in a tradition, a theological mindset, a system of thought
or whatever you want to call it, that taught that A man is
saved by something that he does. And men are encouraged to be
saved. It's right there, it's right
in front of you. You can just be saved when you get ready and we sure
hope that you will once you let the Lord save you. As the Lord brought me to uh... my senses I say or he gave me
some sense and time and I read the scriptures and I came to
understand that uh... such is not the case that's not
the way things occur and Paul very plainly states this order
in this passage of scripture when he says who hath saved us and called us He didn't say He called us and
saved us. He said He saved us and then
He called us. And then He sheds light on what
He means when He says, but is now made manifest by the appearing
of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death and
hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. See, we would have never known
what it is that Jesus Christ did on Calvary's cross. The fact
that when he went to Calvary's cross, he saved his people from
their sins. That's what he came into the
world to do. And he didn't have to wait till the end of time
to find out if he did any good. Because what he came to do was
to save his people. And He did that. And we're saved
by the work of Christ, not by anything that we do. Now it is
indeed a true thing that in the Lord's own time He calls men
by the sound of the gospel. Now whether that's heard by the
hearing ear or whether it's not a word that might be necessarily
spoken at that time. See, you don't have to have a
preacher in the sense of somebody taking a text and standing before
you and saying certain words for a man to be called unto the
Lord. The Lord calls men many times without the preacher being present,
but Preachers are sent by the Lord for a very important purpose. And we must never make that to
be a light thing. Paul said, how shall they hear
without a preacher? And how shall they preach? How shall they go if they're
not sent? And who is it that sends the
preacher? It is the Lord. And what's the
purpose of the preacher being sent? It is to give light. It is to manifest the light of
the gospel, which the gospel is a light that shines and tells
us what it is that Christ did. You see, without the gospel,
I mean, when Peter stood on the day of Pentecost and he preached
the gospel, He told them what Christ did, did he not? And that
was indeed a thing that broke the hearts of some there, and
they said, men and brethren, what shall we do? Now, not everybody. Some men went on their way, said,
you know, what was that guy talking about? You know, I never heard,
you know, I ain't got time for that. We gotta get on back and
do whatever we gotta do. We got a long journey home. But
the Lord called. those whom he saved. And when
he called them, they believed. And believing, they said, what
shall we do? And what did Peter say? He said,
repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus
Christ. There's no other name under heaven
given among men whereby we must be saved but the name of Jesus
Christ. But let us never forget that
it is God who has saved us and called us, giving us light that
we might know and understand and see the glorious work that
Christ has done. And apart from that light, we
can't see it. Man can't know it. Man can't
figure it out. You won't ever figure it out.
I mean, God's got to show it to you. And he has declared it,
and does presently declare it. Paul said, this is the reason
the Lord sent me, whereunto I am appointed a preacher, and an
apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. He said, I must do
it. I go forth with it. I declare it. For which cause also suffer these
things? What's he talking about his imprisonment? For he was in a Roman prison
at the time that he wrote this. and was facing a death penalty. Now, he had been under house
arrest for a period of time, and then he was ultimately taken
into a regular incarceration. He wasn't in a house arrest up
until the time of his death, but he ultimately, as his whatever
the tide changed against him in the Roman court, and they
considered him to be a seditious person, that he was a dangerous
person. Of course, they hated the gospel is what it boiled
down to. It was according to the purpose of God. But here
he was in this jail, and he said, for the witch cause I suffer
these things. Nevertheless, I am not ashamed. He says, I'm not sorry one bit
in the world. He says, I wouldn't change anything.
He says, I'm not grieving the fact that I'm here in this jail.
He said, in fact, I'm glad that I'm here because the Lord sent
me to declare the gospel in Rome, and that's exactly what he did.
And he says, I'm not ashamed. And here's his testimony. Here's
why he's not ashamed. He said, for I know whom I have believed." Now notice
he did not say, I know I have believed. Now that's what I was
taught when I was growing up. My brother, you got to know that
you believe. Well, that was a big problem
for me because I never did know when I believed. I wanted to
believe but I didn't know anything. They kept telling me, well, you
know, you got to believe. Well, I won't believe but how
am I going to do it? Paul said, he didn't say, I know
I have believed, but he said a very important thing. This
is a very important thing. In fact, this is the heart of
what true faith is, dear brethren. He didn't say, I know I have
believed. Boy, I'm happy now, I've believed.
And if you know if I ever get in trouble or get thinking, get
low or whatever, I'll go back and I'll say, well, you know,
look, back on such and such a date, I believed. I signed the card.
In fact, I got it over here in the cabinet. I'll go look at
it and I'll say, well, there it is, I believe. No, he didn't
say any of that. He wasn't concerned about that
he had believed. He said, I know whom I have believed. Now that, dear brethren, is a
very important point. He said, I know whom I have believed. It doesn't make any difference
if I know whether or not I have believed. Because sometimes I
wonder if I ever have. But I know whom I have believed. It's the same thing that Peter
said to the Lord. You know, I've only got a few
things that I know. I think about this sometimes
when I'm writing and preaching, and everything I say comes out,
to me, it's the same. I mean, I always come back to
the same old stuff, because it's just the same old, it is the
truth. Peter said, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thy is the word
to be taught of thy. Who else you gonna go to? See,
that's the one in whom you believe, is the one in whom your dependence
is. Not what you did, not what you're
gonna do, not what you may yet do, but who it is that your confidence
is in. What is your confidence today? Is it Christ? If it is indeed,
then you shall never perish. because he is eternal life. A lot of people think, well,
we get eternal life, it's like we got a stamp put on us, we
got eternal life. But no, brother, our life is
Christ. We live because he lives. Some people, they'd like to have
eternal life so they could just go off on on. I mean, who wouldn't
want to live forever? And a lot of people want to just
live forever doing the same old things they're already doing.
They say, man, I don't want to die, I want to keep on living.
But they want to keep on living in the darkness that they're
in. See, our life is Christ. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed. and I am persuaded he says I've
been convinced that he is able he is able now brethren you know
a Savior who is not able to save those he came to save is not
much of a Savior now There is a Jesus that is preached
far and wide today that is not a Savior. He's a good man that
tried to do good, and he would indeed do as much as he could
if you just let him. Well, that's not the Savior that's
in the Scripture. Christ is that one that came
to seek and to save that which is lost, that which belonged
to him and was lost. And he gained it. You see, when the coin was lost
and the widow, or they searched for it till they found it, that's
a picture of Christ. He searches for that sheep. Lord, thou hast here thy ninety
and nine. Are they not enough for thee?
No one is out in the wide wilderness. And he
said, I must go and get it. And you see, that's the picture
of salvation is in Christ. Paul said, I'm persuaded that
he's able. He's mighty to save. That's what
the prophet said as he saw that picture. And the Lord spoke to
him and said, I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. He's a savior that cannot fail.
He's a savior who is triumphant at all times. And he came to
accomplish a purpose. And he has accomplished that
purpose. And he is presently calling his people out of the
darkness in which they dwell by nature. And he says, come unto me all
you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Now not everybody is heavy laden. Not everybody is in need. But I tell you, everyone that
is, everyone that knows themselves to be a sinner knows themselves
to be lost and undone and without any help or hope. They know they're
perishing. Christ is mighty to save. He is able to keep that which
I have committed unto him against that day. with the mouth confession is
made unto salvation see there is indeed a calling there's a casting of oneself
upon the Lord that takes place by the work of the Spirit of
God in a man it happened on the road to Damascus the Apostle
Paul or he was at that time Saul of Tarsus he was walking down
the road And he saw a great light. And he was convinced that in
the purpose that he was, he was serving God. He was righteous
in his own eyes, was he not? I mean, he was a Pharisee of
the Pharisees, but the Lord shone the light around him. And he
said, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he fell on his face
and he said, who art thou, Lord? See, there was a commitment made that
day. He wasn't looking to make one because he thought he already
was all right, wasn't he? But he fell on his face and he
knew that the one that spoke to him was the Lord. And he was
asked Job. Job was a good man. He was righteous
because the Lord determined him to be righteous. But he was an
upright man. He was a fine fellow. And he
knew a lot about the Lord. But the Lord brought him to a
place where he confessed something. He said, Lord, I've heard about
you. I grew up in the church, he said.
Daddy was a deacon. My uncle was a preacher. I heard
all about you. He said, oh Lord, no matter how I see it, and I
hate myself, and I repent in dust and ashes. Oh, what a glorious
thing it is when God calls a sinner to himself. And he brings you to a place,
see, no longer Was Job boastful of what he knew? But he would
tell anybody of the one that he knew. See, because when he
was brought down to that place, he saw where he didn't really
know much of anything at all, everything that he thought he
knew he didn't know, but that he did know that there was a
God in heaven and that he ruled and reigned. and that he was
that one who held the keys of life and death in his hand. A
sovereign God. And then he goes on to declare
to Timothy to hold fast that thing, the form of sound words. Now, sound doctrine's an important
thing. Doctrine's not the most important
thing, but It is a vital part of that which the Lord calls
His people unto, to know Him. And to know Him is a twofold
thing. Number one, the Spirit of God
must teach us who He is, but the Spirit of God uses the Word
of God to teach us who He is. And so it is that we hold fast
the form of sound words. Now the form of sound words is
not always pleasant. Now you can turn on the radio
and TV preachers, and by and large, they're going to tell
you pleasant things, are they not? Why? Because they want to
keep you coming back. And they want to especially keep
you sending them cards and letters in. Because you know God will
go out of business if you don't send your money in. But you see,
a form of sound words is sometimes very painful to hear. Because
it just strips us bare and naked. We have nothing You know, if
you came here expecting me to, you know, what's the term, affirm
you, or whatever, you came to the wrong place. The only thing
I'm gonna affirm to you is that you're a sinner in need of a
savior. And that's an affirmation that
you need. You need to know that. But only the Lord can convince
you of it. I can tell you all day long,
and you'll say, eh, you know, he goes overboard on that. Well,
brethren, there's no overboard. You can't go overboard on two
things. You can't go overboard on how wicked men are by nature,
and you can't go overboard on how grand and glorious the Savior
is. It's impossible. You can't go
too far either one way or the other. You just keep drilling
down on either one of them, and you're gonna strike oil every
time, because it's gonna be true. And you can't ever, you just
can't exceed it. How sovereign is God? What a foolish question. You
know, how sovereign is God? I mean, some people have a limit
on how sovereign He is. See, most people, if you ask
them, is God sovereign? Oh, yeah. Yeah, He's sovereign. Well, I mean, is he sovereign
enough that he chose some people in Christ before the foundation
of the world? Well, you know, I mean, God gives
every man a chance to be saved. Well, brethren, there's nothing
that goes by chance in the kingdom of God, because he is sovereign. And He determines all things.
He knows the end from the beginning. And the reason He knows the end
from the beginning is because He's the one that wrote the beginning
and the end. It's all His. Hold fast the form
of sound words which thou hast heard of me in faith and love
which is in Christ Jesus. That good thing which was committed
unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us. This thou
knowest that all they, now this I wanted to touch on this. This
thou knowest that all they which are in Asia be turned away from
me of whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes. Now evidently Phygelus and Hermogenes
were at one time followers of Paul. upholding the gospel. And let me say this, I don't
necessarily think that what Paul's speaking of here concerning Phygelus
and Hermogenes is that they departed from the gospel. But I believe
what he's speaking about here is that they kind of abandoned
Paul. in his imprisonment because he
goes on to contrast Hermogenes and Phygelus with Onesiphorus. He said, Onesiphorus, he ministered
to me. Now what we learn from this is
that we ought never be ashamed of the gospel. Evidently, the heat got built
up pretty heavy when Paul was imprisoned and condemned to death. And the Christians were fearful
to be associated with Paul for fear that some of this might
come on them. Some of them were. That's what
he's speaking about, I believe. He said, some which are in Asia
be turned away from me. of whom are fidelis and homogenes. But the Lord give mercy to the
house of Anesophorus, because he wasn't that way. He said,
he stuck with me. Now, brethren, we never need
to be ashamed of the truth of God or the consequences of standing
for the truth of God. Now, I believe that if days will
come I don't know, I'm not a prophet in that respect and I'm not prophesying
this to occur, but I believe that you can look at the signs
of the times and tell that the times will come when those that
stand for the truth of the word of God will be brought into courts
Already it's happening in some measures now, but it's going
to be more of a thing as this culture that we live in shows
more itself to be a reprobate culture. And the destruction
of God awaits upon it. And I believe that that time
will come. Let us not turn to the left or
to the right. We're not talking, I'm not talking
about political stuff now. Forget that, I mean, you know,
we're not interested in the politics of it. I mean, you know, all
that stuff's what it is. But I'm talking about the word
of God. I'm talking about the glory of Christ. I'm talking
about standing for those things that are true in the face of
whatever may come our way. And so be not as those who, evidently
turned away. And, you know, look for their
own benefit rather than ministering to a brother who was in need. And may the Lord grant to us
mercy. That's what we need. All of us
need that. And we come this morning to a
most solemn time. and a most joyous time at the
same time. It's a joyous thing that the
Lord has given us a memorial such as this. It's not joyous
for us to remember the sufferings of the Lord. He said remember
his death. Now we remember the outcome of his death each time
that we declare the gospel. Paul said that he would preach
nothing other than Jesus Christ and him crucified. So each time
the gospel is preached, we're preaching what Christ did. But
this particular thing that we're about to do is done for the remembrance
of the death of Christ. Now surely we remember why he
died, but this is a memorial to the fact that he did die.
and that it is by his death that sin is taken away. And so this
is a most solemn time, and I say that because the taking of this
carries with it a most solemn warning, and that is not to take
this unworthily. Now, what is it to take it unworthily
is to take it without due regard to Christ and His body, of what
He did, what He came to do. It's to have no real interest
in it. In other words, sometimes people
would just come and do this because it's the thing to do. I remember
as a kid, I wanted to join the church because I wanted to take
the Lord's Supper, not because I had any regard to what Christ
did, but I just thought, you know, that would be a neat thing
to do. I mean, everybody's doing it, and I want to do it, but
the only way you could do it in that church was you had to
be a member of the church. So I wanted to do it, so I joined
up so I could do it. I was taking that unworthily. because of the fact that I didn't
have any regard to what it was. Don't take this unless you love
Christ and you believe that what He did for sinners is to lay
down His life that they might have life. And that you believe
by the grace of God that you have cast yourself upon Him for
mercy. that is to have proper regard
for it. And so there is that warning,
but then he says to the people of God, he tells all people examine
yourself. Now I know there's a lot of error
that goes around that. A lot of times people will try
to tie it into all kinds of things that you know that you need to
look and be sure you don't have anything going on in your life
that's not right and all of that. Well, if you get to looking,
every one of you in here might as well go on out the door now
because you wouldn't ever find a time in your life when there
wouldn't be something that would disqualify you from taking it
if it had anything to do with things that you do or don't do.
Okay, so it's not about that. It's about a regard to Christ.
And so while there is that admonition, the point is to get men to look
at what Christ did. And he says, having examined
yourself. He said examine yourself and
so, that is having done so, so let him eat. So the admonition is not given
for those who believe in Christ to find a reason not to take
it, but it's to warn those who don't not to take it. But it
is to admonish the people of God to examine themselves and
see that it's Christ's righteousness alone that makes us fit to come
here. And so we come today with that
in mind, to remember the Lord's death. Now this is a temporary observance. We're not gonna do
this forever. We're only gonna do it until
such time as the Lord comes again. And so we come here to take this
bread and drink this wine to remember the broken body of the
Lord and the blood that he shed on Calvary's cross.