Hopefully some of your Bibles
open there to 2 Timothy chapter 1. This second epistle that Paul
wrote to Timothy, he wrote when he knew he was very near the
end of his ministry. He has some important instructions
for Timothy as he's going away. The title of the message is Hold
Fast to Sound Words. It comes from verse 13 where
Paul, in his final instructions to Timothy, he's warning him
to hold fast to the form of sound words. We'll begin in verse 1. We'll work our way there and
look at it in context. It begins in verse 1, Paul, an
apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the
promise of life which is in Christ Jesus. Now, you know the story,
how God had taken Paul and put him into ministry, made him an And he gave him a message according
to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus. This is the
message that Paul spent the rest of his ministry preaching, that
eternal life is given by promise, by promise of God. God promised
eternal life to his elect before the world ever was. God made
this promise of life to his elect before any of them existed? When
there was just God. That's when He made this promise.
When there was nothing else, no one else, just God. Look over
a few pages in Titus chapter 1. Here's this promise in verse
2 of Titus 1. In hope of eternal life which
God that cannot lie promised before the world began. We have
hope of eternal life because God who cannot lie promised.
And he promised it before the world ever was. Before there
was anything, just God. And that promise of life, Paul
says, is in Christ Jesus. That's why this promise is sure.
Because it's in Christ. He's the fountain of life. He's
the giver of life. He's the source of life. Because
God put all life in Him. And the job of the Apostle Paul
in his day and gospel preachers today is to set forth this way
of life. to point men and women to Christ. Everybody who will listen, go
to Him. He's the way, the truth, and
the life. If you want life, you're born dead. If you want life,
go to Him. He's life. That's where you'll
find it. We're dead in Adam, but have life in Christ. And
in verse 2, Paul says he's writing to Timothy, my dearly beloved
son. Grace, mercy, and peace from
God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. Now you know Timothy. is not Paul's natural son. He's
a spiritual son. Timothy was a younger man, converted
under Paul's ministry from what we understand. And a very, very
deep affection had developed between these two men. He called
Timothy my son. Growing up, I can't tell you
how many men I heard Henry call him my son. He had all his sons
all over the place. Well, that's the way Paul was
with Timothy. They were close. It says of Timothy
in one place, he says, as a son with a father, he served with
me in the gospel. And they developed, you see it
in his writings, what a deep affection he has for Timothy.
And we understand how he feels. We have family relationships. What we have right here, this
is a family. That's where it's at. We're brothers
and sisters. These are family terms. It's
a very special love that God's given us, a very special relationship
that God's given us. We ought to value it greatly
and guard it closely. That's what we ought to do, like
Paul did with Timothy. And what you do for the people
that you love, you desire the very best for them. Paul says,
while I'm praying for you, grace, mercy, and peace. It's a common
salutation. He goes on in verse 3. He says,
I thank God. whom I serve from my forefathers
with a pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance
of thee in my prayers night and day, greatly desiring to see
thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I might be filled with joy."
And Paul could say that he served God with a pure conscience. And
you know it wasn't because his conscience was pure because he
wasn't a sinner. Because he was. He's a sinner. He called himself
the chief of sinners. But he had a pure conscience.
You know, there was a day when Paul was a Pharisee, and he thought
he was without sin. But I guarantee you, at that
time, he didn't have a pure conscience. He was always in his conscience
in the back of his mind. He had to do more. He had to
do more. He had to do more. He couldn't quit. His conscience
wasn't pure then, because a pure conscience comes from having
your heart sprinkled with the blood of Christ. And he's a Pharisee,
and his heart wasn't sprinkled yet, but now it is. And that's
the way we are today, believers. We're sinners. But our conscience
is pure. It's clean. Because that sin's
been paid for. We're without sin before God. All I can see in myself is sin,
but before God, I don't have any. Because it's been put away
in the blood of Christ. And Paul, you see here again,
this is his affection for Timothy. He gives thanks for Timothy.
He says, I remember you in every prayer. And that's a good sign
for both Paul and Timothy, that they be brought to the hearts
and mind of each other in prayer. That's good evidence that both
of them are children of God. When the Lord gives them the
desire to pray for each other, pretty good evidence they're
both children of God. And Paul says, I pray for you and I hope
I can see you again, so I'll be filled with all joy if I could
see you again. He remembers when he left Timothy
at Ephesus, the tears that he left him with. And he said, I'd
be so happy to see you again. This genuine affection goes both
ways. You know, when Paul left, Timothy
was weeping and crying. Paul says, it'd give me joy to
see you again. In verse 5, I'll show you why. It would give him
such joy. And what else gave Paul such
joy? He says, when I called to remembrance the unfamed faith
that is in thee, which dwelt first in my grandmother Lois,
and thy mother, Eunice, and I am persuaded that in thee also."
We have joy when we see unfeigned faith in those people that we
love. We're thankful because that unfeigned
faith is a gift of God. It's not something they produced.
It's a gift God gave them. And God gave that gift of faith
to Timothy. And Timothy, I don't really know
a whole lot about him, but I can say this with absolute certainty. Timothy was a blessed man. The Lord blessed him. Not only
did Timothy have faith in Christ, but his mother and his grandmother
did too. They were known to be faithful women. Paul says about
the faith that dwelt in them remained in them. At this time,
the writers say that Timothy's grandmother, Lois, had died.
But she remained faithful to the end. And this is a blessed
family. Matthew Henry wrote this. He
said it's a comfortable thing when children imitate the faith
and holiness of their godly parents. I read that and I had to laugh
to myself because I'm telling you what, I use a word a whole
lot more strong than comfortable. It's a marvelous gift of God's
grace when children imitate the faith of their parents, when
they both have faith in Christ. Right here are some folks that
are mighty blessed. Now you ride along with Timothy.
Generate two and three and four generations of believers. The
Lord's blessed your family. Well, we should be especially
thankful. And that's kind of what Paul's
telling Timothy here. To be especially thankful when the Lord blesses
you this way. See, this didn't happen on accident.
I can just see in my mind's eye Timothy, a little guy. About
the age of our little ones here. And his mother, United, she's
working with him all week on his memory purse. He's practicing
it and practicing it. He goes to, sees his grandmother,
Lois, and she wants him to practice it. He practices it to her. Even
when he messes it up, she's proud of him. She thinks he's the best
thing since sliced bread. But the Lord put that boy and
that family on purpose. So those women, his mother and
his grandmother, teach him the scripture. And the Lord blessed
him. He blessed that teaching. Look
over at page of chapter 3, verse 15. He reminds Timothy that from
a child, you've known the Holy Scriptures. How'd he know them?
Well, his mother and his grandmother taught him. You've known the
Holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation
through faith which is in Christ Jesus. See, this kind of faith
that we're talking about here, that the grandmother and the
mother and the son had, That wasn't handed down by human blood. That wasn't handed down by inheritance.
The only thing Timothy could inherit from his earthly parents
and his grandparents was sin and a sin nature. Salvation is
by grace. This gift of this thing of faith
is a gift of God. And that's what Paul's telling
him. Now, God's given you this special, special gift. So in
light of that, in verse 6, he says, wherefore, because you,
Lord has blessed you like this. I put thee in remembrance, that
thou stir up the gift of God which is in thee by the putting
on of my hands." Now he tells Timothy, because the Lord has
blessed you so much, I would remind you to use the gifts that
God has given you. Stir them up to a fire. Now Timothy's
gift was the gift of interpreting the scripture and preaching.
But the same principle applies to every gift of the Spirit.
Every one of God's children has various gifts. And whatever your
gift is, use it. Stir it up and exercise it so
it'll grow. Don't just take it for granted.
You know, the more the Lord has blessed us, the more willing
we should be to use the gifts that the Lord's given us for
His glory, for His namesake. Our Lord said, To whom much is
given, of him shall much be required. So the Lord's blessed you. Now
stir those gifts up. Use them. Exercise them for God's
glory. And let me say this about this
thing that Paul says, you've received this by the putting
on of my hands. The Apostle Paul was an apostle. He had authority
and power we really don't know anything about. Now there are
no apostles today. They're gone. And these gifts
of the Spirit don't come to us today by the laying on of hands.
I heard Henry talking about laying our empty hands on your empty
head. That's all it'd be, just empty. The gifts of the Spirit
that Paul is talking about here today come through hearing the
preaching of the Gospel, from being taught the Word. That's
why it's so important for us to stir up the gift that God's
given you, because all those gifts work together for the preaching
of the Gospel, so people in our community can hear. Now, verse
7, Paul says, For God has not given us the spirit of fear,
but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Stir up this
gift that you've got in you. Don't be afraid to use it, because
God's not given us a spirit of fear. We don't fear the response
of men to our preaching. I hope they love it, but if they're
angry about it, I don't fear it. We don't fear the persecution
from men. We don't fear the failure of
our preaching. We don't fear those things because
the Lord's not given us a spirit of fear. He's given us a spirit
of power. He's given us the gospel, which
is the power of God unto salvation. No need to be afraid of it. Just
let it out. Just let her loose. Let it run well. God's Word won't
return to him void. Just let her rip. Just let it
out. The Lord's given us the spirit of power. And He's given
us the spirit of love. And that's a good thing. Because
power without love is dangerous. That's where you get a tyrant.
When you have power without love. And we've been given love for
Christ. Love for His people. But this is love for all men.
A love and compassion and a care for all men. Men, people out
in our community. That's why we want this building.
So we have a building where people know you can come here and hear
the Gospel preached. Because we care about them. That's
why we support missionaries. Because wherever God's sheep
are found, we want men and women to hear the Gospel. To hear Christ
and be pointed to Him. So the Lord has given us the
Spirit of power, of love and giving us a sound mind. A sound
mind. You might look at me sometimes
and not think I've got such a sound mind. But he's talking spiritually
here. A sound mind spiritually. A healthy
mind. You understand the issues of
salvation. You know how men and women are
saved. You understand something about
the glory of God. These things are firmly established
in your mind. And a sound mind won't be deceived. It won't be easily distracted
away from the truth of Christ. You won't be easily drawn away
from Christ because you've got a sound mind. And a sound mind
is one of these gifts we need to stir up. Stir it up and exercise
it so it remains strong. Now verse 8, Be not thou therefore
ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his But be thou
partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power
of God." I was reading this this week and I thought that right
there tells you all you need to know about human nature. That
even after the Lord saved us, we've got to be reminded, don't
be ashamed of the gospel. Isn't that shameful? That's the
nature, that's that dead nature we're carting around with us.
We don't have to, never should be ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Never should be ashamed of his
people. This gospel is the gospel of your salvation. We love it,
we're not ashamed of it. And there's no reason to be ashamed
of the Apostle Paul. Yes, he's in jail, he's in prison,
but he didn't do anything wrong. He's in prison for preaching
the gospel, for not compromising it, for not backing down. Instead
of being ashamed of him, we ought to be holding him up as an example.
We ought to be respected and admired instead of being ashamed
of him. And we have brethren who are in trial. We don't be
ashamed of your brethren who are in trial. There's no reason
to be ashamed. That trial didn't come on them
because the Lord couldn't stop it. Our Father sends trials for
our learning and for His glory. And rather than be ashamed of
one when they suffer, Scripture tells us you suffer with them.
You get right down there with them and suffer with them. Listen
to this quote from Pilgrim's Progress. If you'll go with us,
you must go against wind and tide. You must also own the truth
in his rags, as well as when in his silver slippers, and stand
by him, too, when bound in irons, as well as when he walketh the
streets with the paws. And you just don't be ashamed
of them. Suffer with them. Because Timothy and all of us
here were warned, you just prepare to be partaker of the afflictions
of the gospel. Because they're coming. And you think, I could never
do that. You see some of our brethren
go through triage and say, I couldn't do that. There's just no way
I could do that. You will. You will. You'll be
able to. I'm confident of it. Not because
of our strength, because what does Paul say here? According
to the power of God. When he sends trial, he sends
grace to match it. He'll send the power to match
it. You can just rest assured of it. That's God's Word. Now
verse 9, Paul says, talking about here the power of God, who has
saved us and called us with an holy calling. Not according to
our works, but according to His own purpose and grace. which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. You know,
if we're going to be ashamed of anybody, we ought to be ashamed
of ourselves. Ashamed of how we're fallen in
Adam, just dead in trespasses and sins. Yet the Lord saved
us in Christ, in Christ Jesus. And you think what it took for
God to save sinners like you and me. He didn't just wave a
magic wand and say it's done. He didn't just stamp you with
diplomatic immunity and give you a passport with diplomatic
immunity. No. God's Son had to become a
man. The humiliation. Can we imagine
the humiliation, the condensation of God to become a man? He became a real man. Lived in
a human body. God did. Lived under the law. Kept the law perfectly. The king
became a servant. God became a man. And then the holy Son of God
was made sin for His people. You and me are sinners. We can't
ever enter into the humiliation that God's Son suffered to be
made sin. The holy Son of God, the anguish
and torment of His soul when He was made sin, the filth, the
hunt, the disgust that He was, contrary to everything that He
is, yet He was made sin for His people. And He bore every last
bit of the hell that those sins deserved. He drank that cup dry. And He died. as a sacrifice for
sin. He was slaughtered for the sin
of his people. He died. God died, hated by men
and abandoned by the Father. What he suffered, for you and
me, how could we ever be ashamed of someone that would love us
like that? And he didn't stop there. After
he saved us, he called his people. He calls us with the effectual
call of the gospel. He didn't call us now to religion.
He's not calling us to a set of doctrines. He's calling us
to Christ. He calls us, the one who loved
us and gave himself for us, now calls us to himself. And we come,
because he calls effectually. Paul says it's a holy calling.
This gospel that we preach is a holy calling. This is a call
to holiness in Christ. That's how we're made holy in
Christ. It's a call to a holy life before men. Now, this salvation
that we're called to, we've been given by Christ's sacrifice.
Paul wants to make absolutely clear here. Salvation is never,
never, ever, ever according to our works, either works that
we did before conversion or after. It's never due to any work of
our own. Salvation, God's salvation, is
entirely due to God's purpose and God's grace to sinners. Before
the world was ever created, it was God's purpose to save a people
in His Son. He said, I'm going to save them.
He chose them. He put them in His Son to redeem.
And every believer in the fullness of time, every one of those people
that God chose He saved them, and He saved them on purpose.
He didn't leave it to accident. He didn't leave it to their choice.
He didn't leave it to them, well, they might take it or leave it.
No, He saved them on purpose. And He made sure His purpose
was accomplished. Salvation is the purpose of a
sovereign God. It's the choice, it's the election
of a sovereign God. We see that in His first salvations
of the Lord. He purposed it. He saved us. He's the one that called us.
It's by His grace and it's given to us in His Son. Salvation is
of a sovereign God. And this salvation is a free
gift. Utterly free. You can't buy it.
It's free. It's not a reward. It's a grace. It's a gift. It's
distinguishing, electing grace. It's free grace. It's effectual
saving grace. This grace saves every sinner
Christ died for. Every one of them. Not a chance
it'll fail. It's effectual grace. It's rich grace. It's keeping
grace. It'll keep you to the end. Amazing
grace that saved a wretch like me. Grace is a charming sound,
harmonious to the ear. If God's given you an ear, it's
harmonious. He saved us by His grace. But now when? When were we saved? Paul talks
about this salvation which was given us in Christ Jesus before
the world began. Salvation is eternal. Now we're such pea brains, we
think from me, from where I'm at to the future, that's not
salvation. Salvation, or that's not eternal either. Salvation
doesn't have a beginning and doesn't have an ending. It's
way back there. before the world ever was and
eternity passed. That's when it was given us in
Christ Jesus. And it'll last clear to the end.
There has no end. You'll never lose it. It began
before time and it'll last long after time ceases. It never began
at any point in human history. It was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. But now in time, God revealed
His salvation, His purpose. Look at verse 10. 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." Here, the Lord Jesus Christ is
God's salvation revealed. That's what Simeon said. They
laid that baby, Jesus, in his arms. And he said, Now let thy
servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. Christ is God's salvation. He
is God's purpose revealed. God's purpose was always to save
a people through the sacrifice of His Son. In the mind and purpose
of God, it was done. But in time, the Lamb had to
come. The Lamb of God had to come and
be sacrificed for sin. And here He is. He suddenly appears
for all to see. And God's purpose is finally
revealed. It used to be hid in the Old
Testament types and patterns of sacrifices and the ceremonies.
God's purpose was hidden. But now in Christ, the way is
plainly seen. It's Him. And Paul says, when
Christ appeared, He abolished death. Well, how did He abolish
death? Well, He destroyed Satan, first
of all, who has the power of death. Second, he abolished death
because he took the sting of death away, which is sin. He
removed the power of death. And he abolished death to the
believer because he abolished the second death. These bodies
are going to die, but there's no fear in the death of these
bodies because these bodies, they're just dust. There's no
fear because after that, there's no second death, there's life.
Death is not the enemy to the child of God. It's our friend.
Death is a gate. I read this this week. Death
is the gate that we pass through to leave this world, this world
of sin and hatred and wretched unrighteousness. It's the gate
that we pass through to leave all that and enter into the presence
of Christ, to enter into what he promised us before the world
began. It's the gate that we go through to leave this place
and go to Christ. Where there's no more sin, there's
no more tears, there's no more sickness, there's no more sorrow,
there's no more death. It's joy and peace and rest with
Christ. He abolished death and He revealed
eternal life. He brought to light immortality
and life. Eternal life. Christ died, but
He rose again to never die again. And when he did that, Christ
clearly revealed, the truth of the resurrection was clearly
revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Look back at Job 19. The Old
Testament believers, they knew something about the resurrection. Job did. Job 19, verse 25. Job says, For I know that my
Redeemer liveth. and that he shall stand at the
latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms
destroy this body, this body is going to be put in a grave,
these worms are going to eat it, it's going to be dust, yet
in my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall see for myself,
and my eyes, even though my skin worms destroy him, my eyes shall
behold him, and not another. He's not going to be a stranger,
I'm going to know him when I see him, though my range be consumed
within me. Job understood something about
the resurrection, but he doesn't understand it nearly like you
do, because Christ has come. He's made that so obvious. Now
we know everybody, every son of Adam will be resurrected in
that great day. But everyone who Christ redeemed
is going to be resurrected just like Christ was. Resurrected
to eternal life with our Lord, will ascend back to glory with
Him and be with Him forever. Paul says, whereunto I am appointed
a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. Paul
was appointed by God to be a preacher of this eternal gospel, to tell
folks that life is found in Christ. And Paul, you know, he was the
apostle to the Gentiles. Spent the rest of his life preaching
to those Gentiles. Now, a person asked me one time, When is a man justified? That's
a pretty smart fellow that thinks about things like that. When's
a man justified? And I'll repeat an answer that
I heard a long time ago from Brother Henry. There is a sense
that we're justified before the world began. We were put in the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
We were justified at that time. At that moment, in the mind and
purpose of God, it was done. And there is a sense in which
we were justified when Christ appeared. When He suffered and
died, His blood was actually shed to pay our sin debt. We
were justified. The great transaction was done.
And third, there is a sense in which we are justified when we
are given faith to believe. We hear God's preacher. God gives
us faith and we believe. The blood is applied and we are
justified when the blood of the Lamb is applied. of those parts of that answer
in these last three verses. Verse 9, which was given us in
Christ Jesus before the world began. It's now made manifest
by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ. And whereunto I
am appointed a preacher. And God's salvation requires
all three. It's eternal. It began before
the world was. It was paid for in time by the
blood of Christ, but without faith. It's impossible to please
God. God believes it. And every one
of God's elect will experience all three of those. Now, verse
12, for the which cause, because I preach this gospel, he says
I also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I'm not ashamed,
for 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,
Paul was in prison. But he wasn't there in prison
and he wasn't suffering because God was punishing him for something.
Paul was in prison for exactly quite the contrary. He was in
prison because he had been a faithful servant of Christ. He preached
the gospel to the Gentiles and the Gentiles hated him for it,
the Jews hated him for it, everybody hated him for it. And they threw
him in prison. But he wasn't ashamed. He wasn't ashamed of
being there. Because Paul knew Christ. He knew whom he had believed. Not a what, but a who. And this right here is saving
faith. It's knowledge, it's confidence,
and it's commitment. Saving faith is knowledge. You
have to have a spiritual knowledge of who Christ is before you believe
him, don't you? You have to know something about
who he is. What did he do? Why did he do it? Where is he
now? You have to know who he is. There has to be knowledge
before you believe him. And if you know him, if you believe
him, there's confidence. Absolute confidence. I'm persuaded
that he's able. Just like that leper John preached
about Sunday. Lord, if you will, you can make
me clean. I know you can, but will you? I have no doubt in your power.
And everybody that comes to Christ like that leper finds out not
only is he willing, The gospel, you can't call it the gospel,
what you hear preachers talk about today, is God willing if
you let Him. Now, not only is He willing,
He's able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by Him.
Completely confident of it. You're not ashamed when you're
confident. And then thirdly, there's committal.
Paul says, He's able to keep that which I've committed unto
Him against that day. Well, Paul, what have you committed
to Him against that day? Absolutely everything. Everything
that I am, everything that I hope for, all my salvation, all my
soul I've committed, lock, stock and barrel to the Lord Jesus
Christ. And I'm confident He'll keep it. He'll not lose one.
Now, verse 13. Hold fast the form of sound words
which thou hast heard of me in faith and love which is in Christ
Jesus. Hold fast this form. The word form is pattern. It's
like when you pour concrete and make a pattern. If you hear some
preaching that doesn't fit into this pattern of the gospel that
you've heard preached, you throw it away. You run away from it.
It's not like, well, you know, they've got some good things
and, you know, maybe we could learn some things from them.
No, you throw it away if it doesn't fit this pattern of the gospel.
You hold fast to what you've been taught. You remember it
and you cling to it. We've got some kindergartners. We've got some of our children.
Maggie and Tyler started kindergarten this year. I've been thinking
a lot about them when they go to kindergarten. Well, last Sunday,
Sunday morning, they had a lesson in their Bible class on creation.
God created the heaven and the earth. He created it all. He
spoke and it was there. He created and it was good. You
know what? Here you are in school. It's
not going to be too long. Too many years you're in school.
Somebody's going to tell you God didn't create the earth.
They're going to tell you that. Can you believe that? That's
crazy. But they're going to tell you.
And when they tell you that, don't you believe it. Now you
remember I told you this. Don't you believe it now. You
remember the lesson your mama and daddy taught you. You remember
the lesson Miss Janet and your other teachers taught you. God
created this earth. He created it. He created it
for His good, for His glory. and for our good. And the same
thing that applies to our kindergarteners applies to every one of us. You
remember the truths of the gospel you've been taught. Remember
them like your life depends on it, because really it does. You
remember. You hold fast to the truth of
the fall of Adam. In Adam all died. Even so, in
Christ all may lie. Man is totally depraved. We are completely incapable We
have to do anything good, anything righteous, anything to please
God. We have no hope at all in ourselves. You remember that
now. Cling to it, because that will
keep you looking to Christ. You hold fast to the truth of
redemption in the blood of Christ. Righteousness comes through the
imputed righteousness of Christ. We're regenerated by the Spirit.
Those three R's, ruined by the fall, redeemed by the blood,
and regenerated by the Spirit. You hold fast to the truth of
unconditional election. God chose a people simply because
it seemed good in His sight. They weren't any better. They
didn't do anything any better than anybody else. It's unconditional,
without condition. Hold fast to the truth of limited
atonement. Christ didn't die for the whole
wide world. He died for the people that God gave Him before the
world began. You hold fast to the truth of the preservation
of the saints. We'll be kept by the power of God. Hold fast
to the teaching that salvation is a free gift from a sovereign
God. It's not earned through religion.
It's not gained through knowledge of doctrine. It's a gift, a gift
of God. And you hold them, like Paul
says, in faith and love. They've got to go together, faith
and love. You'll hold what you love. You'll hold what you believe.
Now, you hold them in faith and love. In verse 14, Paul says,
that good thing which was committed unto thee keep. by the Holy Ghost
which dwelleth in us. Now what good thing is committed
unto you? Well, it's the Gospel. That's a good thing. It's been
committed unto us. The unsearchable riches of the
Gospel have been committed unto us. Well, how am I going to keep
it? How am I not going to lose it?
I might lose everything. I'm going around looking for
stuff. We're going to keep it by the Holy Ghost. By the power
of the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us. Now you read what that
says. It's simple. Which the Holy Ghost
which dwells in us. You've been made a temple of
God. God the Holy Ghost dwells in
you and His people. My friends, that's a blessing
that a son of Adam can say God the Holy Ghost dwells in me.
That's a blessing. It goes back to what I was saying
earlier. Be thankful. Be so thankful. Stir up that
gift that God's given you. And hold fast to it, like it
was a valuable treasure. Because it is. I stopped to get
gas the other day. And as they're paying for my
gas, and I saw a sign that said the lottery drawing for tonight
is $40-some-odd million. And I thought, buddy, if I had
that ticket, I'd be hanging on to that thing. That's what Paul's
saying right here. You hang on to it for dear life,
because it's everything you've got. There's going to come a
moment when there's nothing left but Christ. Nothing left but
Him. You hang on to Him now. And we
have to be warned to hold fast. Because everybody won't. Look
at verse 15. For this thou knowest, all they
which are in Asia be turned away from me, of whom are Phygelus
and Hermogenes. Maybe these two fellows turned
everybody in Asia against Paul. I don't really know. But hold
fast, because now everybody's not going to. will be disappointed
when they don't, but not surprised, because we just know they won't.
But here's our hope. God's elect will hold fast. They'll hold fast because God's
got a hold of them. Look at verse 16. The Lord give
mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus, for he oft refreshed me, and
was not ashamed of my chain. 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 on that day. and how many things
he ministered unto me at Ephesus thou knowest very well." Onesiphorus
showed what Paul has been talking about. Faith and love. He very
diligently sought out Paul. He loved him. He diligently sought
him out. Sought him until he found him
so he could help him. And not just at Rome, but at Ephesus
too. Everywhere he went he would be willing to help God's servant.
He held fast to the gospel and he held fast to the people of
God. that the Lord let us do the same.
Alright, Cecily, come lead us in a song.