Kept and Committed to God

The text again this evening is the one I had this morning, 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 12, for the which cause I also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.

It would seem as though 2 Timothy would have been the last letter that Paul wrote before he died. He was imprisoned in Rome and then was executed. And it would seem as though this was perhaps the last thing, the last words that he wrote. And of course, there are many sort of last words, famous last words. You've heard the expression, famous last words. And we saw this morning, sadly, the last words of King Agrippa, almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. But here are some better last words, and there are many. I've just written down three.

From 1555, Hugh Latimer to Nicholas Ridley. Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man. We shall this day light such a candle by God's grace in England as I trust shall never be put out as they were martyred. And before that, in 1536, we have William Tyndale.

Lord, open the King of England's eyes. How relevant is that today? Those words, Lord, open the King of England's eyes. Before again, he was martyred. And then John Milton, who English poet who wrote Paradise Lost in 1674, Death is the great key that opens the palace of eternity. And then if you want a famous one from fiction, there's Inspector Morse. Thank Lewis for me, if you've ever followed the stories of Inspector Morse.

But on a lighter note, it reminds me too of several years ago when my mum and dad, they still lived in Wiltshire before they moved here. And I was visiting for a few days. And mum wanted to see this lady, she was in her a home nearby. This lady used to live in the village where we lived. And she lived sort of just about opposite to where we lived. Mum wanted to see her because it might not be much longer that she would live for. And she was a bit wary about me seeing her. She's not like she was, you know, He wanted to sort of prepare me for what I might find when I saw her. And I said, that's all right, I'll come in and see Vi, I'll come and see her. I wasn't deterred by that.

And what amused me by it is that I went in and saw her And the last thing that she said to me, which was basically the first and the last thing she said to me, have you still got your comics? Because I used to have comics, Beano and Dandy. I used to have them when I was young. And I was quite amused by her saying, you know, from what she remembered of me when I was a child, have you still got your comics? which I didn't have then.

So that was quite amusing. But it's amazing how sometimes you remember last words of people. And they can be quite telling, can't they? But we don't want to be like King Agrippa. But we want to have the faith of people like Latimer and Tyndale. And what will our last words be? We don't know. We don't know when our last day will be. And what will our last words be? Well, we don't know.

May they be words praising God, or expressing what God has done for us and that we know where we're going. I'm thinking, like this morning, we were thinking of knowing God and being persuaded. And the word sort of persuasion, sort of quite a forceful word, isn't it? You know, you sort of try and persuade somebody, sort of make them realise it's very urgent.

And so it is, isn't it, with the matter of our souls and where we will spend eternity. I mean, that's so important. That's so urgent and vital, isn't it? As I said, none of us know the time that we will be here upon the earth. I don't want to be morbid at all, but the reality is we don't know. And are we ready to meet our maker? What is the answer that we give to where will I spend eternity?

So we thought this morning of those words, keep, know, and persuade. And we've got two more words from that verse in 2 Timothy 1 this evening. And the first is keep. Keep. For I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. And it's a lovely word, isn't it, to think about the word keep and being kept. We read in Psalm 121 and verse 5 that the Lord is thy keeper. The Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.

And Isaiah 26.3 says, Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee.

And we might say, what can we have what's perfect We're not perfect. The world's not perfect. So can we have something that's perfect, where God is perfect? And what God gives is perfect. James 1, 17, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness Neither shadow of turning.

And so the idea here is of safety. You know, somebody wants you to keep something, but they want you to keep it safe. They entrust it with us. we might keep it and keep it safe for them. And if we are the Lords, then we are safe in the arms of the Lord Jesus. We're safe in him. There's no safer place to be than in the care and in the arms of the Lord Jesus. that verse in Isaiah 26 verse 3, thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee. So there's this relationship between the perfect peace that God gives and our minds being stayed on him and trusting in him. So sort of a link between the two.

Well if you Why you're not feeling at peace is because your mind's not stayed on the Lord. It's sort of wandering around onto other things. And that happens, doesn't it? And I can testify that sometimes perhaps I've been a bit frazzled because and a bit troubled and a bit agitated because I'm not looking to the Lord. My mind is not stayed on the Lord. And we need the Lord to help us to fix our gaze upon him because it's very easy, isn't it, to wander in our minds and in our thinking. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. as we sing, prone to leave the God I love. And it's very easy, isn't it, to be led astray or to go off at a tangent in things in life.

Psalm 4.8 says, I will both lay me down in peace and sleep, for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety.

Again, there the keeping and the safety together. And it's good, isn't it, to be able to sleep, to have a good night's rest, to be able to lay down and to rest in the Lord. And there may be things that will face us on the morrow that can be very challenging or daunting.

It may be that we're given a good night's sleep. This afternoon I had a nice little doze and it really helped. I was feeling a bit tired and I just laid down for an hour or so. It made all the difference. And so it is, isn't it? That rest, that sleep to our bodies.

There is often the benediction that is said. We find in Numbers 6, 24 and 25 and 26. The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face shine upon thee, be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace. So again, we have peace, safety, being kept.

And I've mentioned before, isn't it, that somebody was asked how they were. And they didn't sort of say, you know, I'm not too bad. I often say not too bad. Sort of standard answer. But they said, I am being kept. I'm being kept. And that's a wonderful thing to be able to say. The Lord is keeping me. And we need to be kept and we're kept from temptation and dangers in life. And the Lord indeed keeps. The other one, the other word that I want to just think about.

Is the word committed in that verse, committed. Now, there's kind of a negative and a positive aspect to the word committed, sort of in our general use of the language. Negative is to... they've committed a crime. It's a negative thing, or they committed a crime. But then, on a more positive side, is being committed to a cause, being loyal to a cause. The word sort of commitment, you know, perhaps is is what you want perhaps in business and companies.

Well, we have rewarded this person for their commitment over the years. And of course, football fans are very committed, aren't they? To their team. Perhaps they're the group that are very, very committed. They go and watch their team. They pay a lot of money. They watch their team, home and away, all over the country, paying lots of money. In the bad weather, in winter, they go. And the team perhaps still keeps losing. But they're committed. And you often hear People saying that I'm united or whatever team till I die is a kind of a famous sort of chant that fans give, showing their commitment to that team, to that cause.

But our commitment, well, it should surpass that to the Lord. We should be indeed committed to the Lord, as the Lord was committed to us in saving his people from their sins, that it was planned before even the world was founded, that the Son of God, what condescension that he should come into this world still as God, but as man, and live as he did and then suffer and die. It was a wholehearted commitment because it meant, didn't it, his sufferings, which we can't really begin to describe, and also Well, it is death. What an excruciating death. There was no half measures where the Lord was concerned in saving his people. Another example of commitment we see in the book of Genesis and with Joseph. I love the character of Joseph.

I'm sure I've mentioned that before. And in Genesis 39, we read, it's really concerning Mrs. Potiphar at this time, the incident with her. But Joseph refused and said unto his master's wife, Behold, my master, what of not what is with me in the house? And he hath committed all that he hath to my hand.

We see that this of Joseph, whether it was Potiphar's house or in the prison. And then, of course, with Pharaoh. know, there was a trust in him that they committed things to him and it just kind of left Joseph, well you sort it out, sort of thing. Such was the trust that they had in Joseph. And we read, the keeper of the prison Because, of course, he ended up in prison because of the false accusation of Mrs. Potiphar, who had said that Joseph had committed a sin with her. And of course, he hadn't. It had been all made up. The keeper of the prison committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners that were in the prison. And whatsoever they did there, he was a doer of it. So there was great commitment then by say by Potiphar and by the leader of the prison and then later by Pharaoh.

That trust in Joseph, this man indeed of God. We read in Romans 3 verse 2, What advantage then hath the Jew? Or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way chiefly, because unto them were committed the oracles of God. And the glorious gospel is committed to Paul and then to Timothy and we saw that in chapter 1 and verse 11, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust. That's in 1 Timothy 1 and verse 11.

There's a sort of thinking of this word committed, sort of in the negative and the positive way, thinking about our relationship with the Lord. We are sinners, we have committed sins against God. So that's a negative thing, that we have committed sin. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. But on a positive side for us, from our side, we commit over to the Lord our sins. It's as though we go to the Lord and said, I have this sort of understatement of sin.

I can't get rid of it. And I am handing it all over to you, Lord, to get rid of. And it's only the Lord who can do that. And the Lord indeed, in his commitment to us, will have done that. I have dealt with your sin. I died on the cross. I suffered in your place. I died in your place. My blood was shed that you could be washed from your sins.

So we sort of see the two sort of sides and perhaps the use of the word in different ways, the two sides. We've committed sins, we sort of commit them, we hand them over, as it were. So we come to realise, I can't do anything to lessen this mountain of sins. And it just keeps growing. It just keeps growing day by day. I can't do anything to get rid of it or lessen it in any way. But we can't. It's only the Lord that can deal with our sin and our great problem, which is our sin and fallen nature.

But there's a sense too, isn't there, that we've committed over to the Lord, as that verse 12 says, about able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. So not just sort of our sins sort of being dealt with. But the good that we do as Christians, we know that we can't be saved by our works.

But it does say, doesn't it, in Scripture that they rest from their labours and their works do follow them. And so it's right, isn't it, that we seek to do good things. That's a thing we should do as the Lord's people. Those things that are good and show that we are his people, that we have these, we have talents, we all have gifts, don't we?

We've been given different gifts. And it's wonderful the gifts that we have. And it reminds me of the parable of the talents. One had five talents and he went away and got another five. And one had two and went away and got another two. So they're both doubled. But the one who had one, Well, he would have been commended if he got another one, doubled it as well, would have been commended. But no, he went and buried it. And it reminds us of scripture also in 1 Corinthians 12, where it speaks really of the body and the different parts and perhaps the gifts that we have. Verse 14, 1 Corinthians 12, for the body is not one member, but many.

If the foot shall say, because I am not the hand, I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? So it's as though comparing to another part, well, you know, I'm not so, you know, I'm useless, you know, I'm not so valuable. No, we shouldn't take that attitude. And if the ear shall say, because I'm not the eye, I'm not of the body, is it therefore not of the body?

They're parts of the body and foots and hands and ears and eyes, we know they're all very important parts of the body. And they're different parts of the body. But we need them, don't we? We soon struggle if perhaps our hearing goes or our sight goes, or if the ability to walk or use our hands go. If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now have God set the members, every one of them, in the body as it had pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body.

And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee. So it sort of changes from saying, well, because I'm not that, then I'm worthless, to saying, well, because I'm this, then, you know, I don't need you. You're not needed. Now, that shouldn't be the attitude either. When we think of ourselves, we think of the fellowship of the Lord's people. The Lord has given us gifts, different gifts, and we are to use them. We're not to bury them as one talent did, but we are to use them. for the glory of God.

Somebody that I know locally, she's got MS like me and I hear from her occasionally. She used to work where I used to work in battle many years ago. And, you know, I sort of went, oh, you know, we worked together. And she was very, very humble when she said, oh, you know, I sort of. She said, oh, you know, I just did the data entry. You were up there, you know, more important work you were doing. Admittedly, I got paid more than her. But that's not the point.

I mean, what she did. was vitally important because in order for me to analyze data, it had to be there in the first place. And she would, along with others, she would input the data that then I and others would use and tabulate and analyze and do amazing things with. So there was a great importance for us both with the work that we did. And so it is in the life of a church, you know, we all have different gifts, and not all can do this, and not all can do that, but it's wonderful when all gifts sort of dovetail and blend together and there is that working together.

That's perhaps a strength, isn't it, of a team. You know, it's not about the individuals, it's not about the star studded player, but the success comes when the team works together. They work as a team. It's not about one person standing out. No, there is that togetherness in the team, working together.

And We see, don't we, in the chapter that I read, as I say, probably Paul's last letter and was speaking, writing to Timothy and doing the work of an evangelist in verse 5. But watch thou in all things, endure affliction, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. Seems as though, perhaps in a way, it seems a bit of a lower task or lower on the scale compared to Paul who was an apostle. And here's Timothy described as an evangelist. But we read in Ephesians 4, 11 and 12, he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers. So there might sort of be a pecking order there, but no. Why?

For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. So may it be that we don't rely on our works, but that we recognize that The Lord has given us the ability to do what we do. We're thankful for that and that we seek to glorify God. That's why we're here, to glorify God. We might then enjoy him forever.

And I trust too also that there will be the committing at the end of our days, our lives over to the Lord. Acts 7, 59 and 60, they stone Stephen, calling upon God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And just as our Lord on the cross commending over to his father, his spirit. May that be where it comes to our final days, that indeed, we have that peace, that we know that we're safe in the arms of the Lord Jesus.

And that, indeed, he will then take us to be himself. You know, it's all of God, isn't it? It's all of God. That we are what we are. We can't in any way get our own way to heaven or we can't buy our works as they say or whatever. Get to heaven that way. It has to be, doesn't it? The work of God.

And it'd be lovely to be able to hand over at the end of our days, knowing even perhaps if it came suddenly, that we have committed our lives over to the Lord. We know that we're safe in the Lord and that we're forgiven, that we're saved and that we're going to be forever with the Lord. May that be so with us all that we are safe in the arms of Jesus, that we know that we will be forever with the Lord and all of the grace of God. But in the meantime, may we know that we are his and may he help us to use the gifts that the Lord has given us for his glory, for the good of one another and for his glory.

May that be so indeed. So may there be that committing over to him as he has committed himself to us. Well, there was everything wholehearted about what the Lord did for us. And may our service for the Lord be wholehearted for him. May we be passionate in what we seek to do for the Lord and our concern for others and concern concerning ourselves.

Just a few thoughts just again to Read that verse. For the witch cause also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I am not ashamed, but I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. And we're going to be singing about that in a moment. And may the Lord bless to us his word. Amen. Let's sing then from Hymns for Worship, enclosing number 123.

I know not why God's wondrous grace to me has been made known, nor why, unworthy as I am, he claimed me for his own. But I know whom I have believed and have persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have permitted unto him against that day. It was for 123. Michael's word is great, to me the best he may give. Oh, I am worthy. I know not how this flaming faith to me he did impart, believing in his word.

O peace live in my heart, that I may have faith that I am persuaded that he is able which I've committed unto Thee, who gives the bread. The Lord, the Father, the Spirit, is of this a man of sin, that he is able to keep the wish I've lifted unto him against that day. The Lord of water, of earth, or air may be reserved for me, Of weary ways or golden days Behold His ways I see But I know who I am believing And I'm persuaded that He is able To keep that which I've committed I'll turn him against the dead. I know not where my north may come, I know not how or when. If I shall pass the All means remain the end. But I know who I am believing, That I am persuaded that He is able To keep God uncommitted, Unto Him against the devil. Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the Prince of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.

Kept and Committed to God

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Kept and Committed to God

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