Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us. If you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'm going to be preaching from 2 Timothy chapter
one. I preached on this last week
concerning God's purpose and grace. Well, today I'm going
to talk about a godly persuasion, a godly persuasion. And I'm taking
that title from verse 12, how the apostle Paul here writing
to young Timothy, one of his, uh, uh, apprentices in the preaching
of the gospel, and he's encouraging Timothy, showing him that this
thing of preaching the gospel and how we're stirred up as preachers
to preach it, or as evangelists, or as witnesses, is not to be
determined by our circumstances, but to be determined by the power
of God, the purpose and the grace of God. And we know this and
believe it if we've been a partaker of a holy calling. He mentioned
that in verse nine of 2 Timothy 1. God who hath saved us and
called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, he
says, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was
given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, Verse 10, but
is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, He
came in time, became incarnate, God manifest in the flesh to
save His people from their sins, and who hath abolished death
and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
He is the light of the world. And He's the only way of eternal
life and immortality, living forever in the fellowship God
and he says in verse 11 whereunto I'm appointed a preacher and
an apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles. Now verse 12, this
is where I got our title from, a godly persuasion. He says for
the witch calls I also suffered these things. Now the things
that Paul's talking about that he suffered was being persecuted.
You know, persecuted over the preaching of the gospel. Persecution
is something that we don't look for, but it comes with the territory. And the reason is, is because
the gospel is so offensive to the natural man. The natural
man hates the light of the gospel. John 3, 19 and 20 tells us that.
that this is the condemnation, that light has come into the
world. And men love darkness and hate the light. Why? Because
their deeds are evil. That is the deeds, the deeds
he's talking about, there are religious efforts and works,
human morality, that people think make them righteous in God's
sight. They think it makes them right
with God. But that's work salvation, that's
legalism, that's Pharisaism, that's self-righteousness. And
the gospel shows us that the only righteousness that we can
have before God as far as attaining and maintaining salvation and
having a right relationship with God is the imputed righteousness
of Christ. That righteousness that Christ
worked out in his obedience unto death for his people, the elect
of God, his sheep, his church, in his obedience unto death as
our surety, our substitute, our redeemer, and he's our life giver,
he's our preserver. All of that is owing to the grace
of God. None of it's conditioned on us.
And the works of believers are the fruit of God's grace, not
the cause of God's grace. Well, that brings persecution.
And Paul says, this is the reason I suffer these things. And that
persecution, when I read that, I recall what the Lord preached
over in Matthew chapter five in the Sermon on the Mount. Listen
to this, this is Matthew five and verse 11. He says, blessed
are you when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall
say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. And
then he says something that's amazing. Verse 12, rejoice and
be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven for so
persecuted they the prophets which were before you. So he
says, when men and women persecute God's people over the gospel
now, not over, you know, we can be persecuted even for our bad
behavior, but that's not what he's talking about. He said,
when men persecute you, revile you for his sake over the gospel,
and you suffer for Christ's sake. He says, you're blessed. and
you need to rejoice. Well, I can tell you right now,
when I'm persecuted over what I preach here on this program
and in our church, I don't feel blessed, and I don't feel like
rejoicing, but I know I can. I know I am blessed, and I know
I can rejoice, and here's the reason why. Now look back at
2 Timothy 1 and verse 12. Paul writes, for the witch calls
I also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I'm not ashamed.
I'm not ashamed of it. I don't shirk back from it. For
I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able. Now notice Paul didn't say I'm
persuaded that I am able. He says, I'm persuaded that he
is able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that
day. The reason Paul wasn't ashamed
or shirking back from preaching the gospel of God's grace in
Christ, the only way of salvation, is because he had been persuaded
that this is the truth. This is the only way. Now who
persuaded him? It wasn't the preacher. Now God
may have used a preacher, but ultimately it's God who persuades
his people to believe, to repent, and to persevere in the faith. Because preachers don't have
that power. You see, the gospel is the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believe it. Now that doesn't
negate or devalue the preaching of the gospel. The gospel must
be preached because God uses that as an instrument. He uses
that man preaching the gospel. But the power is his. And I think
about it this way. You can go back to the book of
Acts. In Acts chapter two, the apostle Peter stood up and preached
at Pentecost and 3,000 people were saved. Probably more because
they had families and other, but either way, there was a great
outpouring of the Holy Spirit there, God persuading people
because he's God and his way of persuasion can never be unpersuaded,
can never be rejected. But it was God's power, it wasn't
Peter's. And then you go over to the book
of Acts, I believe it's chapter seven, where the evangelist Stephen
stood up and preached. And nobody was converted at that
time, but Stephen suffered death. They stoned him. Why? Because at that time, God had
not determined to save any of those who hurt Stephen. but it
was all of God. You understand that? Now this
is what that holy calling is about. I know whom I have believed,
and I'm persuaded that he's able to keep that which I've committed
unto him against that day. Now this persuasion, what does
it involve? Well, it involves a man's sin
of God to preach the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit.
And in the power of the Spirit, that person or those people to
whom this man preaches or these men, in the power of the Spirit,
what happens? The Holy Spirit imparts spiritual
life. He gives them a new heart. Jeremiah
spoke of this. Ezekiel spoke of this. The Lord
speaks of this. You must be born again from above
or you cannot see or enter the kingdom of heaven. And that new
birth from above involves the giving of spiritual life. You
see, we're born spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. Ephesians
2.1, and you hath he quickened, enlivened, given life, who were
dead in trespasses and sins. We have physical life, but we
don't have spiritual life until the Holy Spirit imparts spiritual
life. And he gives us knowledge. The
Bible says in Romans 1.16 and 17, that I quote all the time,
for the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believeth, to the Jew first, the Greek also, for therein is
the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is
written, the justified shall live by faith. Now, what is that
from faith to faith? From faith is the revelation
of God in the knowledge of Christ through the gospel. So it's knowledge
revealed. From faith is knowledge revealed.
To faith is knowledge received. And it's the knowledge of God,
who God is, who we are, who Christ is, how God saves sinners. It's
the gospel. It's the good news. So this holy
calling, this persuasion, involves being born again, having been
given spiritual life, spiritual knowledge, and then being convinced
or convicted of that knowledge. And this is what Christ spoke
of in John 16. Look over in John chapter 16.
Christ here in the upper room discourses, he's telling his
disciples, he's going to the cross, and he says in verse seven,
this is John 16 and verse seven, he says, nevertheless, I tell
you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go away. Expedient, what does that mean?
It means it's necessary. He said, it's necessary that
I go away. Why is it so necessary that he
go away? Well, first of all, where was he going? Well, he's
going to the cross, going into the grave, gonna be raised out
of the grave and going under the Father. That's where he was
going. If he didn't go, there'd be no
salvation. You understand? There'd be no
righteousness by which God could justify sinners. If Christ didn't
go away, in this sense, to the cross, to die and to be buried
and to be raised again and to ascend unto the Father, if He
didn't do His work, there'd be no salvation for anybody. And He says in verse seven, nevertheless,
I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go away, for if
I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you. But if
I depart, I will send him unto you. Now the comforter there
is the Holy Spirit. And it's the same word as advocate.
Now, the Holy Spirit is a comforter and an advocate, not in the same
way that the Son of God, Christ was and is, but he's a comforter
and an advocate in the sense that he does his work of bringing
sinners into the kingdom of God through the preaching of the
gospel. And that's what he does. And then Christ, he describes
the work of the comforter here. And it involves this holy calling.
It involves this godly persuasion. Look at it. In verse eight, he
says, when he has come, he will reprove. Now, if you've got a
concordance, that word reprove, you may see the word convince.
It could be the word convict. And it's persuaded. That's what
it is. He will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and
of judgment. The world? What world is he speaking
of there? He's talking about the world
of God's elect. It's those who he convicts, not
everybody without exception there. If he convicted everybody without
exception in the way of the new birth, then everybody would be
saved. But that's not the case according to the Bible. but he's
going to convict the world, persuade the world, God's elect out of
every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation all over this world
of three things here he mentions. He says of sin, of righteousness,
and of judgment. Now, what do you mean convict
of sin? We all know we're sinners. We quote that verse, Romans 3,
23 all the time, all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God. It's more than that. And even that Romans 3.23 is
more than what most people think. Well, what do you mean? Well,
look at verse nine. He says, he will convict the
world of sin because they believe not on me. What's that mean? It means this, now think about
this. It means that without Christ,
and the salvation that God freely provides and gives to his people
in and by Christ, everything we are and everything we do is
sin in God's sight. Do you believe that? If you don't,
you haven't been convicted. You see, Christ is the only way
of salvation. If you think there's any other
way, then my friend, you haven't been convinced of sin. You haven't
been convicted, you haven't been persuaded. You see, that word
sin, there's many words for sin in the Old and the New Testament.
But this particular word for sin is the most common New Testament
word, and it means falling short, missing the mark. And what he's
saying here is the Holy Spirit, when he comes in the preaching
of the gospel, a man preaching the gospel, reading the gospel,
He will convict God's people in this world that at their best,
they always fall short. You see, at my best, I still
fall short of the perfection of the law that can only be found
in Christ. And that's the perfection of
the law, that righteousness is the standard by which God judges.
Acts 1731, God hath appointed a day in the which he will judge
the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained,
in that he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath
raised him from the dead. You see, sin has to be measured
as it pertains to Christ, the righteous one. The one who died
on the cross was buried in a rose again. His blood is the only
way that my sins can be washed away, paid for, pardoned, purged. His blood. His righteousness
imputed to me is the only way by which God can justify me and
give me life. Sin demands death. Righteousness
demands life. The wages of sin is death. The
gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ my Lord. So this
persuasion is that holy calling under the preaching of the gospel
as God sends his preachers out whereby God with that holy calling
persuades his people this reality of sin that without Christ All
I am is sin. Christ told the Pharisees, He
said, if you don't believe that I am, that He is the Messiah,
you will die in your sins. And my friend, there's only two
ways to die. You either be a sinner who dies in your sins and perishes,
or you're a sinner saved by grace who dies in Christ. Well, let's
go back. Now look at John 16 and verse
10. Here's the second thing he mentions
of this persuasion, this holy calling. He says, he will convince
the world of righteousness because I go to my father and you see
me no more. Now what is that? Righteousness.
Righteousness is perfect satisfaction to God's law and justice. It's
a legal term, which is the standard by which God measures. all morality,
all efforts. And what He says here, the Holy
Spirit when He comes in the preaching of the gospel, He will convict,
persuade God's people that Christ and Christ alone is the only
righteousness that we have before God. Know it, nothing else. Our works are not our righteousness,
Christ is. Romans 10, four, for Christ is
the end of the law, the perfection and finishing, completion of
the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it. Second
Corinthians 5, 21, for God made him, Christ, to be sin, how?
By imputing our sins to him, he as our surety, Christ who
knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God
in him. Paul wrote in Philippians 3,
he said, that I may know him and be found in him not having
mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which
is through the faith of or the faithfulness of Jesus Christ,
the righteousness which we receive by faith. And so how do we receive
this righteousness if we're one of God's people? Well, first
by a legal act of imputation, God charges it to our account. As He charged my sins to Christ's
account, Christ paid that debt, established righteousness, His
righteousness is charged to my account. And then He applies
it to me mentally and spiritually as He shows it to me in the gospel,
and I am persuaded that this is the way of salvation. Christ
is my righteousness. And I have none, no other. And
if I don't have him, it's all sin. So that's the persuasion. Well, here's the third thing
in verse 11 of John 16. The Holy Spirit will persuade
or convict God's people in this world of judgment because the
prince of this world is judged. Now, what is he talking about
there? Well, there's a lot of different ideas that people have,
but you have to understand the context here. He's talking about
the new birth, the Holy Spirit coming in the new birth, wherein
he gives life and knowledge, persuades of sin, of righteousness
and of judgment. And then he says that this judgment
that he's talking about here is not just simply that there
is a final judgment. A lot of people believe that,
but they don't know the standard, don't know the gospel, don't
know Christ. But he connects it with the prince of this world
being judged. And that's the same as the prince
of this world being cast out. And when did that happen? It
happened when Christ died on the cross. When Christ gave his
life, he's the one who said this, on the cross, he said that Satan
was cast out. And let me show you that in John
chapter 12. In John chapter 12, the Lord
said in verse 31, he says, now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the prince of this
world be cast out. In verse 32, he says in John
12, and I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all
unto me. Lifted up on the cross, that's
what he's talking about. But that would include also being
lifted up out of the grave. And he said, I'll draw all unto
me, not all without exception, but all those whom he will persuade.
The world that he convinces of sin, of righteousness, and of
judgment. And it says in verse 33, this he said signifying what
death he should die. So it's talking about the cross.
And you say, well, why is that judgment connected with Satan?
Well, you know, Satan often, is described as the accuser of
the brethren. He accuses, that's one of his
names. He is the accuser. And what does
he accuse us of? Well, he accuses us of sin. He
accused Job of sin, you remember? When God testified that Job was
a just man. And Job was a sinner. But here's
the point. The sins of God's people are
not charged to them. They were charged to Christ.
And they were judged when Christ died on that cross. We were judged. Romans 8, I think it's verse
34, it says, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
It's God that justifies. Romans 8, 33 and 34. And who
is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died, yea, rather
is risen again and is seated at the right hand of the Father,
ever living to make intercession for us. And that's what the Holy
Spirit in this persuasion, godly persuasion, this holy calling,
the power of the Spirit and the preaching of the God convinces
us of judgment, that I've already been judged. People say, well,
we're gonna stand before the judgment and find out where we're
going. Listen, the judgment is a declaration that God brings
before the whole universe that you're either in Christ or you're
in yourself. In Christ is salvation. No sin
charged to you. You've already been judged when
Christ died. When he died, I died. He was my surety, my substitute,
my redeemer, my representative. When he died, I died. When he
was buried, I was buried. When he arose again, I rose again.
And he's seated at the right hand of the Father. I'm there
with him legally. I will be there with him one day personally when
God takes me to go home to be with Christ. And that's the whole
thing, see? Look back at 2 Timothy 1.12 in
our text. This is what Paul's saying. This
is, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. I don't have to fear men. I don't
have anything to be ashamed of when I preach Christ. Now, if
I come to you and brag on myself, talk about myself, then I've
got a lot of things to be ashamed of. I'm telling you the truth.
but God forbid that I should glory, brag or boast, save in
the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified
unto me and I unto the world. You understand that? If I come
on this program and talk about all what I've done for the Lord
and what I plan to do and what I pledge to do and talk about
my experiences and all this, I've got a lot to be ashamed
of. But if I talk about Christ, the glory of His person, who
He is, God manifest in the flesh, if I talk about what He did on
the cross, in His life to obey the law, and in His death on
the cross as the substitute of His people, whereby He finished
the work and brought in everlasting righteousness, then I don't have
a thing to be ashamed of. I'm persuaded that He's able
to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. And
what have I committed unto him? My whole salvation. My whole
eternal life is committed to Christ. That's what faith is.
It's not committing it to you or to the preacher or to the
denomination or the church, it's committing it to Christ. I know
whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that he's able to keep
what I've committed unto him against that day. Hope you'll
join us next week for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia. 317-07. Contact us by
phone at 229-432-6969 or email us through our website at www.theletterofgrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.