So it's 2nd Timothy chapter 1
and verse 12. I am not ashamed, it's the second
part, I am not ashamed for I know whom I have believed and I'm
persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed
unto him against that day. And I ask you, I ask you, what
man anticipating standing before the Holy Lord God can yet declare,
I am not ashamed. I know I am a sinner, but I am
not ashamed. I know that I've done many things
wrong, but I'm not ashamed. I know I have not been right
in the sight of God, but I'm not ashamed. What kind of man
can truthfully say that? Only the man who believes himself
cleansed in the blood of Jesus Christ and clothed with his righteousness. Malwin said, I know whom I have
believed. He believed God and he knew God
in Jesus Christ. He believed God when God said
there was forgiveness of sin in Jesus Christ. He trusted Christ when the Saviour
said, I am the way, the truth and the life, no man cometh unto
the Father but by me. He believed his Saviour when
Jesus said, I will come again and receive you unto myself,
that where I am, there ye may be also. So this is a testimony
that our brother left with us. And I just want to very simply
touch lightly on a few of the major stepping stones in this
little text as we pass over it today. And I want to just think
about what the Apostle was saying in this little reference to Timothy,
the Apostle Paul, and what Marlwyn was saying to us when he quoted
and voiced Paul's message. He said, I know, and that reminds
us that Our knowledge is a spiritual knowledge that comes by illumination
of the Holy Ghost. Knowledge of spiritual truth
is a spiritual gift. And there are many, many people
who claim a knowledge of Christian things. There are many people
who make profession of faith. But the reality is that the knowledge
of spiritual truth is a spiritual gift. It is spiritually imparted
and it must be spiritually received. Spiritual knowledge is enjoyed
only by those who are quickened in their souls and made spiritually
alive. And a spiritual knowledge and
spiritual wisdom are, like our justification and our sanctification
and our redemption, gifts received upon the ground of our union
with the Lord Jesus Christ. It is because the Lord Jesus
Christ stood for us, represented us, and includes us in all of
the blessings of his accomplishments that we have the knowledge of
Christ as our Saviour. Paul said, I know, and he then
went on to say, I am persuaded. And as we have remarked that
our knowledge is the illumination by the Holy Spirit, so our persuasion
is by the preaching of the Word. The Gospel teaches us about the
Lord Jesus Christ. And we might have heard about
the Lord Jesus Christ from being a child. We may have grown up
in a Christian home, we may have been introduced to Bible stories,
we may have had a familiarity with these truths from the earliest
age, but it is only when that Word comes to those who have
been spiritually illuminated, those who know the truth, that
the gospel begins to stir in our souls and teach us of the
way of life. And that's what the apostle was
referring to here. He says, I am persuaded and it
is the gospel that teaches us about our saviour. I've mentioned
before, I think, how many preachers tell us that preaching the gospel
is to be targeted on unbelievers and preaching Christian living
and Christian ethics and Christian morals, morals for godly living,
is the portion of believers. And that effectively means that
you are preaching grace to those who have no desire for grace
and preaching the works of the law to those who have no need
of a law work. It's the wrong way round. The
gospel is for sinners and converted blood-bought sinners at that. It teaches us what Christ has
done for us. It teaches us that Christ is
our strength, our comfort, it equips us, it preserves us from
Satan's attacks and the weaknesses of our own flesh. The gospel
teaches believers that every believer is incapable of righteousness
in ourselves, but that we are covered in righteousness by the
imputation of divine righteousness and justification from above.
It teaches us that we are unable, but that in all spiritual gifts,
needs and certainties, he is able. And that's, again, what
the apostle directs us to. I know whom I have believed. I am persuaded that he is able. We might allude here to the attributes
of our saviour, such as we mentioned on Sunday past, all the qualities
and characteristics that make our saviour beautiful in the
eyes of his dependent people. His holiness, His glory, His
omnipotence, His patience, etc. But I want rather, if I may,
just to think about Christ's ability to keep us in the sense
of the supply of our every need in this daily life, in this world. Paul said, he is able to keep
that which I've committed unto him. And that was what Malwin
was leaving with us as well. He is able to supply every need
we have. Let me ask that another way. Are we in this world ever without
need? I don't think so. Physically,
emotionally, spiritually, in our families, economically, as
far as employment is concerned, as far as our relationships go,
We always are in need of something. And even when a perceived need
gets sorted, all that happens is that the next need becomes
greater in our view, in our perspective, and we go from one need to another. but the Lord Jesus Christ can
supply all our needs. We can lean on him. We can rest
in him. We can rely upon the one who
is able to supply all our need. Able to keep is the catch-all
that Paul employs. He is able to keep us when we
are unable to keep ourselves. None of us know what the end
of life is going to be like for us. None of us know whether we'll
be able to maintain our testimony, whether we'll be able to keep
an alertness and an awareness and an appreciation of what is
going on around about us. But when we can't keep ourselves,
the Lord will keep us. He is able to keep his promises
to us. When there's no real reason for
him to do so and every reason that he shouldn't except that
he is faithful to his word. We were thinking about that with
the young people on Sunday past, how that the congregation or
the princes of the congregation said to the people of Israel,
we must let these people live. We must let them live because
we have given them our word before God. Well, that is just a picture
of the fact that God has made an oath. We call it the covenant. He has made an oath and he will
keep his people upon the ground of the promises that he has made,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And he's able to keep our sins
hidden behind his back, forever cancelled, forever removed, forever
cast in to the sea of his forgetfulness. He will turn again, says Micah.
He will have compassion upon us. He will subdue our iniquities
and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. Against that day of need just
reminds us that there will come a day for us all when it's our
time in that coffin. That day of dying, that day of
judgment, that day of need. And yet it is a statement also
of confidence. I think I would be right in saying
that we all enjoyed Malwin's comments when he spoke in this
little Zoom gathering in past months. He didn't speak every
meeting, but he was worth listening to when he did. He's not going to be speaking
any more to us, at least on this side of eternity. And yet he
has left us in this little verse, in this verse in his dying, in
his passing, a testimony that reminds each of us that we have
a saviour who knows our every need. and has supplied our every
need and promises to keep us safe, sound and certain until
the day he brings us into glory and then forever. Our gospel
is that in Christ we are not ashamed. We know in our heart
and soul that truth that can only be by spiritual illumination. We are persuaded by the gospel
and the good news of all that the Saviour has accomplished,
that we are his purchased, his prized and his perfect possession. And we know upon that basis that
we shall be kept safe evermore. I give unto them eternal life,
says the Saviour, and they shall never perish, neither shall any
man pluck them out of my hand. Amen.