Good morning, everyone. What
a song to lead in today's message, Great is Thy Faithfulness, because
we're going to again examine why the gospel is to be considered
a faithful saying. It's described that way on four
occasions by the Apostle Paul in God's Word. And so I ask you
to look with me again in 2 Timothy 2, where today I'm bringing the
second of a two-part series on this subject, Why the Gospel
is a Faithful Saying. And today we'll be focusing on
the latter part of verse 12 and verse 13 of 2 Timothy 2. But to capture the fuller context
as we did before, let's begin our reading back in verse 8.
There we read, Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David
was raised from the dead according to, what Paul calls here, my
gospel. Wherein, he says, I suffer trouble
as an evildoer, even unto bonds. They had accused Paul of doing
evil, and as we mentioned before, he's writing this from prison
in Rome. He says, but the word of God
is not bound. Therefore, I endure all things
for the elect's sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation
which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. It is a faithful
saying. You may recall in the previous
session we established that that it here is that which Paul had
just called my gospel. That is the specific word of
God that is not bound, the word of the gospel. How God saves
sinners based solely upon the merits of the person and work
of the Lord Jesus Christ, what the scripture calls His righteousness.
So he's saying that the gospel is a faithful saying. It's trustworthy. It's worthy to be believed, he
says, for. That is, for in as much or because. And he continues then to tell
us why the gospel is a faithful saying. Saying for, if we be
dead with him, we shall also live with him. If we suffer,
we shall also reign with him. And you may recall that's where
we left off there in the middle of verse 12 with part one of
this series. But he continues here to describe
why the gospel is a faithful saying when he adds, if we deny
him, he will also deny us. If we believe not, yet he abideth
faithful. He cannot deny himself. Well,
to refresh your memories in part one of this series, as we focused
primarily on verse 11 and the first part of verse 12, we saw
Paul was saying that this gospel is a faithful saying because
of, first, the union or the oneness between Christ and His sheep. They're those that Paul called
the elect there in verse 10 of our text. And when we considered
this union in Christ, we looked to examine it from two aspects.
One was, first, this oneness in the suffering, death, resurrection,
and the resultant reign of the elect, the sheep, as one with
Christ in His accomplishment on the cross. why they weren't
there, but they were one with Him as He substituted Himself
for them. And we looked at that oneness
then in the believers' resultant walk of faith. How, for example,
they suffer with Him as a result of having been one with Him in
what He accomplished there on the cross. Now, as we go forward
this morning, we'll see that not only is the gospel a faithful
saying because of the union of Christ with the elect, but it's
also faithful because of the truth concerning these two united
parties. Now, very simply, we have, out
of all of Adam's fallen race, some fallen sinners who, like
all fallen sinners, are in desperate need of that which they cannot
produce, but these are those who are united with the other
party, the God-man, who cannot fail and did not fail to produce
what they needed on their behalf. So today we see that in addition
to the believers' union with Christ being cited here by Paul
as he writes to Timothy as a reason that the gospel is worthy to
be believed, a faithful saying, we also see the complementary
truth regarding in whom it is we are to trust. the trustworthiness
of the one to whom believers are united. And that makes this
the gospel of God's grace. It makes it a faithful saying
indeed. Now, to begin with, I want you to notice, as Paul continues
now citing the reasons why it's a faithful saying, there's a
distinction between those things we considered previously. That
is, those things listed prior to the middle of verse 12 and
the reasons he cites now going forward. And the distinction
is simply this. In verse 11 and the first part of verse 12, he's
listing things which are true of both Christ as well as those
he represented. For example, when he died, his
sheep died with him. They weren't there personally,
but they died in the person of their substitute and representative.
And likewise, they can be said to have suffered with Him. And
thereby, they reign with Him victorious over sin and Satan,
based upon the victory that He won in putting away all of their
sins at the cross of Calvary. But going forward, He only mentions
things that we can attribute to men and women in this life.
You see, there's no sense in which we could say that Christ,
for example, denies Himself. In fact, he says explicitly,
Paul tells Timothy there at the end of verse 13, he cannot deny
himself. It wouldn't make sense to speak
of Christ as one who believes not, believes not in himself.
But on the other hand, it can accurately be said of all men
and women at some point, at some point or another, that they deny
Christ in unbelief. So today, I want us to consider
this sharp contrast between these two parties. That is, what we,
as a sinner, can or better cannot produce or accomplish when it
comes to our salvation with what Christ, the sinless one, could.
he could produce and he has accomplished. And in this we'll see again why
the religion of works, that is, those notions about salvation
that we all initially imagined to be so, that is, that it's
conditioned at least in some way or to some degree on some
response or action that we take, that that is, in fact, an unfaithful
gospel, a false way, in sharp contrast to the one true religion
of grace, that is, that sets forth how Jesus Christ satisfied
every requirement and condition for His sheep, for the sinner's
salvation, that they were fully met there by Christ in His finished
work on the cross. Now, in the middle of verse 12,
Paul adds these words. He said, if we deny Him, He also
will deny us. Although I've divided this sermon
at this point, we can see how it's related to the first part
of this verse because there it was speaking, if we suffer, the
with Him being implied, that we also shall reign with Him.
That is, as we consider that, you'll recall that was our suffering
with Christ on the cross. He is our representative there.
And in our subsequent walk of faith, that is, suffering for
His sake or for righteousness' sake, in identifying with this
gospel. And as we consider our own walk
in this world, we know that if and when we're not actively involved
or identified with the ministry of the gospel, if we, for example,
ignore the means of worship, if those things that are part
and parcel to our confessing Christ before men, then if that's
not the case, you certainly will not suffer for it. And those,
if we suffer with Him, those are the ones that shall reign
with Him. Well, such a persistence, of course, of denial of Christ,
you see, is to be among those He is describing here. He certainly
can't describe all denial when He says, if we deny Him, He'll
deny us. For as we'll see, that, as I've already mentioned, that
can be said of all men at some point. It's just as is true of
those that Christ mentioned in Matthew 10, verse 32, when He
said, Whosoever therefore shall confess Me before men, him will
I confess also before My Father, which is in heaven. But whosoever
shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father,
which is in heaven. So we see that this denial is
the opposite of confessing Him. Now, in the latter part of verse
12 and verse 13, again, I want you to see there's a sense in
which these actions, that is, denying Him and believing not,
They can be attributed certainly to the lost, but also to born-again
believers as well. For example, we know that we
all initially begin in this life in darkness, alienated from and
in opposition to God. That's why a new birth, that
is the gift of spiritual life, a quickening, is necessary. So, initially, we all deny Christ,
yet those who obtain like salvation, who come to Him in faith and
repentance, Christ says, those that come to Me, I will in no
wise cast out. He's saying, I will not deny
them before the Father, as we just read. He says, no, if they
confess Me, I'll confess Him before the Father. So, how are
we to understand this? You know, this points out to
us why, as the Scripture itself tells us, that no Scripture is
of any private interpretation. We can't take one phrase, such
as, if we deny Him, He will deny us, and apply that to all types
of denials. And I think you see from the
whole of Scripture that what He's speaking of in 2 Timothy
2, as well as in Matthew 10 there, is true of those who totally
or finally deny Christ, a denial that they are never brought to
repent of. We know that those are the ones of whom Christ speaks
when he says if we deny him, he will deny us. When I think
of this, I'm reminded of the seriousness of it as we consider
those mentioned by our Lord in the end of the Sermon on the
Mount in Matthew 7. He said there that many will
say to me in that day, he's speaking of the day of judgment, they'll
say, Lord, Lord, And he says, they'll approach me saying, haven't
we prophesied in thy name? That's in the name of Christ.
These would be those who call themselves Christians, you see.
And cast out demons and done many wonderful works. All these
things in the name of Christ. And yet Christ denied them as
he declared that he would profess unto them that he never knew
them. Saying, depart from me ye that work iniquity. Now, how
can it be said, these men who preached, prophesied in the name
of Christ, he said, they denied me. And he's denying them before
the Father. How can it be said of religious
men and women who name the name of Christ, who labor in his name,
that they have denied him? Well, I bring this up because
it points to seriousness of the self-examination we should all
make. Consider, it may help if you'll consider that that Greek
word that is translated deny, it is a word that means to disavow,
to reject, to disown. Now certainly one who is preaching
and going about in a ministry that they call Christian, that
is in the name of Christ, They do not imagine that they are
disavowing Him while they call themselves a Christian. They
don't imagine that they're rejecting Him or disowning Him. It may
help if we also consider that that word has the connotation
of to contradict. To deny Him is to have faults
that stand in contradiction to the reality of who He is. So how does this apply to our
day? How do the multitudes... Christ is speaking of a future
judgment. He's saying many in that day
are going to say, Lord, Lord, haven't I done these things in
thy name? And he's going to deny them before the Father. It means
that these many are those who unwittingly deny Christ. Well, how do they do that? Well,
I can speak firsthand. I do it as can many of you, I
know. I was a prime example, see, of one who, years ago, denied
Christ, but I didn't recognize I was denying Him. Not until
God providentially brought me to hear this fateful saying,
His Gospel, and granted me true faith and repentance. I, at that
time, before that time, considered myself a sincere, zealous Christian. And yet my gospel, that is, how
I thought God saved sinners, caused me to hold views, whether
voiced or not, views of a triune God that are altogether different
than He is. That is not as revealed by Christ
in God's gospel, but as a contradiction. And as such, I was actually rejecting
the Christ of the Bible or denying Him at that time. Now, you understand
no one knowingly does that. Not if they consider themselves,
say, of the Christian faith. But to have thoughts of Him that
are altogether different is to have concocted ideas that stand
in contradiction to who He is. In other words, it's to have
an idol of our own imagination. No one certainly participates
in idolatry knowingly. If you know you're worshiping
an idol, you'll leave it. And graciously, God brings his
people to just that, to repent of that very fact. You see, consistent
with how I was taught, I imagined that every human who ever lived
was an object of God's love. and that Christ came and He lived
and died for each and every one of them without exception. And
yet, I also believe the scriptural truth that many, even most, shall
ultimately perish from among those that I presume Christ had
died for. You see, I read scriptures such
as Jacob have I loved, God says, but Esau have I hated, but they
didn't register with me. We know that God, by definition,
must be perfect in every attribute of His character. You know, when
we speak of a holy God, that's what we're talking about. His
holiness refers to the perfection of all of His attributes. And so, anything less than perfection
in any character of quality, see, or quality of character,
I'll get it right here in a minute, that would be a denial of His
impeccable holiness. And I want you to see the contradiction
that I held, because you see, Unfortunately, my views mirror
that of most of those who go under the name of Christ today.
But my gospel, my doctrine at that time, whether I was confronted
with the reality of those thoughts or not, they expose underlying
perceptions about a triune God that stand in stark contradiction
to the reality of who He is according to Scripture. You see, if one
had reason with me, he might say, well, Randy, you must not
believe that God's really all-powerful, because He must just not be able
to save all of those people He loves, since we know that the
Bible says most perish. And I would have said, no, no,
I was accurately taught that God's omnipotent, He's all-powerful. And they'd say, well, you must
not believe He's all-wise. Perhaps he couldn't foresee the
obstacles and how difficult it might be, or maybe he couldn't
foresee the things he needed to see in order to engage all
of his mighty power to ensure that your well-being is an object
of his love, at least for those that perish. And I'd have said,
no, I know he's all wise. He's omniscient. But listen,
if I insisted, that he was both omnipotent, all-powerful, omniscient,
all-knowing, then think of what my doctrine must have imagined
about the efficacy of God's love. It was a love that was of no
value whatsoever, for it would not even bother to engage all
of his power, his infinite attributes, to ensure the well-being of those
that he presumably loved. It would be like that mother
whose kid was about to dart out into the street in front of a
car saying, at least my concept of God at that time would have
been, she would have said, well, I'm not going to intervene with
his free will decision to do that. And though I love him,
supposedly love him, I'm not going to stop him from going
out there and getting killed in front of that car. We'd have her locked
up as an unfit mother, wouldn't we? And yet that's what multitudes
must hold a view of, including yours truly in years past, about
the love of God. It was a worthless love. You know, I think a lot of folks
imagine, as I did at that time, to view, as we were taught, that
God loves everybody without exception. that we were actually magnifying
His love. Why, look how far out it spread,
but in the reality is that such thoughts reduce that love to
absolutely nothing. It's of no good to those objects. And look, if that were the case,
such a God would have to be mutable. He would have to change, although
the Scripture tells us He changes not. Listen, for God to change,
He had to be in error and correct Himself. So He wasn't God back
there. Or either He had to improve, which means He wasn't God before
He improved, or else He had to get worse. He changed for the
worse. So He was God and He became something
less than God. You see, that's an impossibility
just by the definition of deity when we speak of an eternal God
that changes not. But here's, listen, the notions
that salvation's conditioned on the sinner in some way. And by default, that's what you
must believe if Jesus Christ did the same thing for the people
who go to heaven as he did for the people who go to hell. Well,
then what makes the difference in them? It's got to be something
that proceeds from you. Now, to think that means that these
objects of what I would have even called His everlasting love
back in those days, that God had to change, that His love
had to turn to cause Him to send some of those people He loved
to hell. It would have to turn, you see,
into wrath and fury. as He determines to punish them
with everlasting destruction, these the objects of everlasting
love? And what of His justice? If Christ
died for the sins of all men, and the punishment of their sins
was endured by Christ for them, and yet multitudes of them, even
most according to Scripture, are ever punished, for the sins,
for their sins, that Christ supposedly has already been punished for?
Where's the justice of God? If Christ paid the debts before
God's justice for all men, can it be just with God to cast any
of those folks into hell? And yet the Scriptures clear
most perish. Now, the Scripture says the judge of the earth shall
do right. Well, the truth is there was
a time Where my answer to all of that was, well, I just didn't
think about it that way. I didn't think about it those
terms. In fact, I recall initially excusing myself that way. And
thankfully, a pastor graciously and kindly explained to me that
I had it just right. That was the problem, that I
didn't think about it that way. You see, I didn't think about
it because I had no regard for the honor of God's character.
It didn't enter my mind about worrying about how God could
be like He is and still save me a sinner. The scripture describes
that, that aspect that is true of all initially. says they have
no fear of God before their eyes. That's not speaking of a cowardly
fear, but a reverential respect for who He is. I like most by
nature, you see, I was consumed with the notion that there must
be something I can do to be saved. When I got serious about religion,
I'm going, okay, now what do I have to do? And I was consumed
with, I want to make sure I accepted Jesus in total disregard for
the fact that the real issue that I needed to address was
how could a holy God accept me, a sinner, instead of the other
way around. And so in my practice of the
religion of works, and that's what it was, but we didn't call
it that. We know better than that. Anybody that studies this
Bible knows it. It says salvation is by grace. But it was works. It was grace
in name only. It was only disguised under that
banner. It's the religion that's natural
to us all. And I, and all others of like
mind, denied God as He was. You see, by my way of thinking,
He had to dispense with one of His attributes in order to exercise
one of the other ones. He had to dispense with His justice
in order to show His mercy. And that cannot be. You see,
such a scheme would require that God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit all deny their one undivided essence of
character as deity, as God. But as the last phrase of verse
13 tells us, He can't do that. He cannot deny Himself. He must
act consistent with who He is in every attribute of His character.
The Scripture teaches us that He changes not, that He cannot
lie, and that's why if we deny Him, if we persist in denying
Him, if there's no repentance of that denial, He's going to
deny us because of who He is. And to persist in such a denial
is to die in unbelief. So again, what distinguishes
believers from unbelievers as it pertains to this issue of
denying Christ. As I've said, we all initially
deny Christ, yet He doesn't deny those He saves. Furthermore,
even after having been enlightened by God's Spirit, under the true
gospel of grace, so as to see God as He is, as both a just
God and a Savior, as the prophet Isaiah described Him. True believers,
still on occasion, sinfully deny Christ due to the influence of
remaining sin, an influence that will plague us until we leave
this world, or as Paul put it, this body of death. This often
takes, for the believer, takes on a subtle form of being unwilling
to confess Him among others, perhaps by our silence, or in
some other way we allow our friends and families to who we know believe
another gospel, to assume perhaps we're like mine. We naturally
are prone, see, to avoid the disfavor of others. I don't know
about y'all, but I like people to like me. And that's not a
point to be proud of. But we'll do so even to the point
of compromising our faith. I think Peter is perhaps one
of the best known scriptural examples of one of God's own
who denied Him. Yet Peter didn't deny Him in
a total or a final way, for we know Christ didn't deny Peter.
He was a choice servant. So look with me in Luke 22 at
the record here of Christ's discourse with Peter to shed a little more
light on that. In Luke 22, beginning in verse
31, we read, And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, he's speaking to
Simon Peter, Behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he
may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for thee that
thy faith fail not. And when thou art converted,
strengthen thy brethren. And he, Peter, said unto him,
Lord, I'm ready to go with thee both into prison and to death.
It's as if Peter's saying, don't worry about my faith failing.
And he, Christ, said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not
crow this day before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest
me. And if you read on from there,
you'll see, sure enough, just as Christ foretold, Peter denied
Him clearly three times before the dawn. And yet, Scripture's
clear that Christ does not deny Peter. So, what distinguishes
Peter, who denied Christ, from others to whom the words of this
text here in 2 Timothy 2, if we deny Him, He'll deny us, does
apply? Well, I can tell you this. It's
not Peter, and it's not any virtue found in Peter, But it's Christ
alone that makes Peter to differ, so that he, Peter, in fact, would
not deny Christ in ultimate unbelief, so as to perish therein. I think
Christ was pointing out that difference when he said, Satan
hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat, but
I prayed for thee that thy faith fail not. And when thou art converted,
strengthen thy brethren, Note, he didn't say, if thou art converted. He said, but when. Now, whether
this is speaking of Peter's initial conversion or rather just his
repentance from the denial at this point in time, that's not
the issue here. When he says when, he is communicating
that Peter's ultimate, final conversion, perseverance in the
faith was sure and certain because Peter was bought with the price
of Christ's precious blood which He would go to the cross to shed
for all of His sheep. And the Scripture says Christ
knows His sheep, and they come to Him, and they all shall be
saved. And so His resulting conversion
and perseverance in the faith, it was sure, and it was certain
to be manifested in time. Along those lines, consider how
the book of Jude closes. It closes with these words, "...now
unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present
you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.
You who would fall if he didn't keep you from falling are presented,
though, faultless, based upon the very merits of his work being
put to your account." To the only wise God, our Savior, be
glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen. You see, all of us would
fall, none of us would persevere, all of us would persist in denying
Him if we were not kept by His preserving grace. This gospel,
now I say that to say this, the gospels of faith are the same
because all of salvation, from beginning to end, is conditioned
on the Lord Jesus Christ who cannot fail and did not fail
in that which he accomplished at Calvary. He continues in verse
13 and says, If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful. He cannot
deny himself. Again, Paul's saying in here
that the gospel is trustworthy to be relied upon, a faithful
saying, and that our salvation, see, is not a product of our
believing, our faith, but rather the faithfulness of Christ who
cannot deny himself. He mentions this, if we believe
not, right after having said, if we deny him. And you can see
the continuity of the thought there as well, because denying
Christ is always a product of our unbelief, our lack of faith. That's why we don't confess Him.
at times. You see, all of our doubts, all
of our fears, all of our worries are due to some degree or occasion
of unbelief or lack of faith. So, let's talk again, as we did
with denying Him, how sinners believe not. Well, first we'll
consider, again, that there are some who never believe on Christ. They never believe this fateful
saying, the gospel of grace. They may believe a gospel, they
may be religious, they may name the name of Christ like those
in Matthew 7. But many, as he said, he will say to in that
day, depart from me, I never knew you. If we leave this world
in unbelief, it will be to our own destruction. Christ told
His disciples in that great commission in Mark 16 verse 15, He said,
Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized,
that baptism being a confession again, not a denial, but a confession,
an identification with Christ as He's revealed in that gospel.
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth
not shall be damned. The gospel is a faithful saying,
as this verse teaches us, that those who believe it shall be
saved, and those that believe it not shall be damned. And that
has to be the case, because Christ abideth faithful, and He cannot
deny Himself. And the gospel that we're commanded
to believe points sinners to Christ, to the one who has met
every requirement, every condition for the salvation of his sheep.
That gospel that we're to believe calls on sinners to have no confidence
in the flesh, that is a work of our hand, to repent of such
notions, of salvation being based upon anything that proceeds from
them. So, what we see is the gospel
itself excludes any notion that sinners are saved because they
believe. Rather, they believe because
of what their Savior has done for them. A few pages over from
our text, in that opening salutation of Paul's letter to Titus, he
says this, Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ,
according to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledging of
the truth which is after godliness, in hope of eternal life which
God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began. For God
to lie concerning the promise of salvation to His elect would
be a denial of Himself. And as Paul tells Timothy here,
he cannot deny himself. Now, I want to remind you again
as we mentioned in the first part of this series, of Christ's
Word in the book of John, when He said that all the sheep, the
elect, all that were given to Him by the Father, He said, they
shall come to Me. And those that come to Him, He
says, He will not cast out. If they come to Him, believing
His gospel, this is declaring they shall be saved. There's no ifs, ands, or buts
about that. There's no lack of clarity here.
You know, other places God is clear about things. The Scriptures
are full of such declarations. For example, it says that He
shall by no means clear the guilty. God doesn't save sinners without
their guilt having been removed by a suitable, acceptable sacrifice
of the infinitely valuable blood of Christ having been made for
them. He doesn't show mercy by just pretending as if you did
not sin. You see, any sinner who clings to the notion that
God will save him or her if they'll just do their part because of
something that's proceeding from them, the sinner. Let's be clear. That is to not believe God's
gospel of grace. And Christ said, they that believe
not shall be damned. God cannot deny who He is. He's
both a just God and a Savior. And for any who lack the perfect
righteousness, which Acts 17 tells us all are going to be
judged by before God, for them His justice demands their eternal
damnation. And as proud sinners, we go,
wait a minute, that's just not fair. You see, this thing's really
about God. The only reason any sinners are
saved It's because of his chief design that he be worshiped,
that we fall down and worship him, that he might receive all
glory. God is holy and he will not commune
with sin. Only those whose sin debt has
been paid can stand before him cleared of that guilt, having
the very merit of his perfect obedience unto death imputed
or accounted to them. Now, so there are some who never
believe. Then consider that in the same
sense that all of us initially deny Christ, we all come into
this world in darkness, the scripture says, as unbelievers, spiritually
dead, and so therefore believing not. We trust in a false way
that's a way that seemeth right to us, but the end thereof are
the ways of death, Proverbs 16, 25. And so all of us initially
believe not, including God's elect prior to their regeneration,
the new birth, and the belief of the gospel. And lastly, we
have then, as Hebrews 12, 1 describes, it talks about the sin which
doth so easily beset us. And it's speaking there of the
sin of unbelief that continually plagues believers. Back in our
text in 2 Timothy 2, the literal translation of this phrase, if
we believe not, is if we are unfaithful, if we are without
faith, many, as I've said, physically die without the gift of God-given
faith. God's elect, justified by His
shed blood, shall be given the gift of faith that was purchased
for them in time. But they all begin life's journey
void of faith. And finally, even born-again
believers are plagued with moments of sinful unbelief throughout
their lives, moments of unfaithfulness. Now, I say that because as we
consider that first, most persist in denying Him and believe not.
Secondly, even His elect initially deny Him and believe not. And
then thirdly, even born-again believers have occasions where
they deny Him in unbelief. Then you can see a little bit
about why this fits in with him saying why this is a faithful
saying. It's because of who we are. It's in part because of
who we are. We're sinners, as Romans 3 describes
us by nature, saying there's none righteous. No, not one,
and we've got to have, we've got to be righteous to be accepted
by Him. You see, in that we see in part
why it's a faithful saying because it directs the gospel, that saying,
directs us to take no confidence in any work we might perform,
any decision we make, anything that proceeds from us, the sinner.
Instead, it has us look to Christ for all of it. So it's a faithful
saying and it's worthy of our trust because it fits our need
as sinners. in need of salvation by God's
pure, unadulterated mercy and grace that is in Christ Jesus.
We need a righteousness we cannot produce. So, why is the gospel
a faithful saying? Well, as I just said, it's partly
because of the reality of our nature, that gospel of grace
fitting our need as sinners who are unable to save ourselves,
who cannot commend ourselves to God in any way, But you know
that would be of no avail if it weren't for the glorious truth
concerning the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ,
to whom believers are united. If it weren't for the truth concerning
one who is able and has provided for his people, what they had
no possibility of providing for themselves. God imputing to them
the very merits of what He accomplished, His perfect obedience unto death,
just as He imputed or charged to His account the sins of those
people that He had no part in producing. What a wonderful exchange. God through the Apostle Paul
sums it up for us in the last part of verse 13 when he states,
even though you believe not, yet he, Christ, abideth faithful. He cannot deny himself. Jesus
Christ could not and he did not fail at that which he came to
do. And he, the God-man, he can't lie. He's faithful to execute
his threats and keep his promises. And if he isn't, he is not God.
His purpose shall come to pass, His counsel, the scripture says,
shall stand. And so for any who persist in
denying Him as He's revealed, in unbelief of His gospel, this
faithful saying, refusing to believe and submit to the truth
that Christ alone met every condition or requirement for their salvation,
Any who lack the repentance from the notions of our common first
religious thoughts, that surely there must be some part we can
play in order to distinguish ourselves from those who perish,
that it's conditioned on us at least to some degree, we may
say he's done 99%, you see, lacking repentance from those notions,
then I hope you can see such a one shall be justly banished
from the very presence of a holy God. Why? Because God's just. Because of who He is. He cannot
lie. He cannot deny Himself. He cannot
deny His strict justice. He cannot deny Himself as a just
God. But on the same basis, likewise,
because of who He is, there's good news for all who flee to
Christ. You see, for to do so is to have
been granted the gift of faith and repentance. So is to embrace
with the heart God's gospel and turn to Him in repentance. They
see how God can be both a just God, see, and a Savior. by that
virtue of the imputation or the charging of Christ's righteousness. So, based upon the same truth
that God's just, that God cannot lie, that Christ abideth faithful
and cannot deny himself, believers are fully warranted to be assured
of their salvation because it's upon the merits of one who can't
fail. Why would you want to go to the
judgment pleading your faith or something that came from you,
a sinner, knowing who we are, when He commands us, and we can,
if we will, by God's grace, and only by God's grace, be banking
on and pleading the perfect, impeccable righteousness of the
God-man. Well, believers, having His righteousness
as their own, they stand before Him without fault. It's a faithful,
it's a trustworthy, you can bank on it saying. Because it sets
forth that all of salvation is conditioned on Him and not on
a sinner such as you and me. God's elect in the scripture
are called the Israel of God. We often refer to them as spiritual
Israel in contrast to the nation Israel under the old covenant.
And yet, He also refers to them as sons of Jacob. Israel for
whom the nation was named you may recall the story in the Old
Testament his name initially was Jacob and When he calls his sheep his
elect sons of Jacob He's denoting their own unworthiness as that
name means cheater supplanter Malachi 3 6 this is what God
says he says for I am the Lord I change not therefore Because
I change not, because I am the Lord, ye sons of Jacob are not
consumed. He abideth faithful, and he cannot
deny himself, and all whom he purposed to save, they shall
be saved. If even one sinner for whom Christ lived and died
failed to behold him by God-given faith that he purchased for them,
or if one sinner for whom he died should perish in hell, God
The Father, the Son, and the Spirit would all have to deny
Himself. But because He changes not, there's
salvation for sinners. Sons of Jacob, who if judged
on the very best they could offer, would deserve God's eternal wrath.
The best prayer you pray, the best sermon that can be preached. No, we need a perfect righteousness.
If you've been brought to the place to see your desperate need
for this mercy, Now this is some good news to me, I've got to
tell you. If you've been brought to see that you must have this
unmerited favor of God, unmerited by you the object, but one that
was certainly merited by the perfect satisfaction rendered
to God's justice by the sinless substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ,
then listen, you can rest assured that having placed your trust
in Him, you are among the blessed of God, to whom His righteousness
is imputed, whose sins were bore away by Him because, you see,
that faith is a gift of God that is exclusively granted to those
for whom it was purchased by the blood of Christ on the cross
of Calvary. It's a faithful saying, it's
a gospel worthy of your trust, not because of our confidence
in our own faith, but rather because this faithful saying
directs us to place all of our confidence in Him. And now that's
a well-placed confidence. Islamitations 3.22.23 teaches
us, and I think is our hymn before the message alluded to. It reads,
it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. It's because
his compassions fail not. It really is an everlasting love.
They are new every morning. They're continual. Great is thy
faithfulness. Well, how about your gospel?
Paul said his gospel, God's gospel, was a faithful saying. Is yours?
Well, know this. If your hope for acceptance before
God is based upon anything other than or in addition to Christ's
person and work, His righteousness, that which He established at
the cross of Calvary in His obedience unto death, and the very merits
of that being freely put to your account, imputed to you, then
to trust in anything other than that is anything but faithful. Such a misplaced faith will most
certainly fail you, for by default it leaves you, the sinner, see,
relying upon something that proceeds from you, a sinner. And all that we do is tainted
by our sin. The scripture is clear that the
very best that you and I, sinners, can produce will not suffice
before a holy God. We need a perfect righteousness
in order to be reconciled before a holy God. As we read in Isaiah,
He says, all our righteousnesses are His filthy rags. So think
about that. If the difference in going to
heaven and hell is based ultimately on something you do or don't
do, Christ didn't even really need to come into this world.
Because He came to do for His people, you see, what they couldn't
do for themselves. So such thoughts deny the necessity
of Christ even needing to come into the world to save sinners.
Look at the shame and reproach it cast upon His work. So repent
of such notions. Let us dare not to presume to
make the difference that only Christ, God manifested in the
flesh, could make and has made, because God will not share His
glory. But what good news for those
who now look to Christ alone for all of their salvation, having
been granted spiritual life and faith and repentance, so as to
embrace God's gospel, for you see, it's indeed a faithful saying,
It can't fail, because He can't fail, and you can bank on it.
It's a faithful saying, because Christ abideth faithful, and
He cannot deny Himself. So, look to Him for all of your
salvation.