For a scripture reading this
morning, turn with me to the book of 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy. And we'll read the very first
chapter. If you have a marker, you can
place one there. I'll come back to this and use
this as my text. 2 Timothy chapter 1, beginning
with verse 1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ
by the will of God, according to the promise of life which
is in Christ Jesus, to Timothy, my dearly beloved son, he wasn't
a blood relative, he wasn't a son by blood, but a son born under
his preaching. And he calls him, my dearly beloved
son, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ
Jesus our Lord. I thank God whom I serve from
my forefathers with 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 may be filled with joy. When I call to remembrance the
unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother
Lois and thy mother Eunice, and I am persuaded that in thee also
Wherefore, I put thee in remembrance, that thou stir up the gift of
God which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. For God hath
not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and
of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed
of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner." Paul
was a prisoner down in Rome. But be thou partaker of the afflictions
of the gospel according to the power of God, who hath saved
us and called us with a 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. 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. Whereunto I am appointed a preacher,
and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles, for the which
cause I also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I am not ashamed,
for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. Hold fast the form of sound words
which thou hast heard of me, and faith and love which is in
Christ Jesus. That good thing which was committed
unto thee, keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us. This thou
knowest. that all that are in Asia be
turned away from me, of whom are I jealous and homogenous. The Lord give mercy unto the
house of Onesepterus, for he oft refreshed me, and was not
ashamed of my change. 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 in that day. And in how many
things he ministered unto me at Ephesus, thou knowest very
well. I invite you this morning to
turn back with me to 2 Timothy chapter 1. I use verse 12 as my text. And my subject this morning is
persuaded to commit. Persuaded to commit. Paul said,
I know whom I have believed. And I'm persuaded that he's able
to keep that which I committed unto him. Those who are persuaded
are persuaded to commit. There is no persuasion of God
apart from that. Persuasion is of little value
except it be effectual. We can argue about stuff all
day long, go home and neither one of us know anything. But persuasion is of real value when it's effectual. And persuasion cannot be effectual
except it come from the Word of God. The first thing most
people tell me when they start, just the fact that I'm a preacher
and they'll start in right away giving me their testimonies and
this and that and their hope and all this stuff. And most,
when they do that, will go back to an experience. Something happened
in their life, something did this, I did that, I made up my
mind, I walked down an aisle, went to a revival, on and on
it goes. Persuasion cannot be effectual except it come from
the word of God. I don't want to know what you
feel, tell me what you know according to this book. And even the Word of God is of
no value to you, except it be set before you in the light of
the cross. Simply learning Scripture will
be of no value to you. We learned Scripture when I was
in false religion. We learned it every week. We
memorized a verse, you know. But it had no effect on my life
whatsoever. It has to be presented. Somebody
said, take your hymn book and turn to page 860. Before I knew
what I was doing, I picked up a song book and I thought, now
wait a minute, there's only 400 pages in this song. And he said,
no, H-I-M, the hymn book. This book is about Christ. Turn to this prophet. Turn to
this book. This is the Word of God. I don't
have any information on God except in this book. Even the Word of God is of no
value. He looked at those Jews and he
said, you search the Scriptures. I give you that. You search them.
You know them. You know wherever common, period.
Question mark, you know it all. Every jot and tittle, you've
memorized it, you've transcribed it by hand, you've searched the
scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life. And they
are they that testified me. But you won't come to me that
you might have life. They would not hear the gospel,
and he is the gospel. What is it to be persuaded by
God? It's a holy conviction of the
truth as it's revealed in the person and work of Christ. That's
the persuasion of God. In John 16, our Lord said of
the comforter, that is the Holy Ghost, He said, now I have to
go away. They were mourning the fact that
their that this man, they've never met anybody, never a man
spake like this man. He was the Christ, they were
persuaded of that, and they were sad when he told them he was
going away. And he said, it's expedient, if I don't go away,
the Comforter won't come to you. The Holy Ghost, the gift of the
Holy Ghost, the Father is going to send him upon my acceptance
into glory. On the basis of my person and
work, he's going to bless you with the Holy Spirit of God. And when he's come, he will reprove
the world of sin and of righteousness and of justice. Of sin, he said, how's he going
to convince you of sin? Tell you you're a sinner? Is He going to keep pushing you
until you confess something to Him? How's God going to convince
this world of sin? He's not talking about every
man and woman in the world. He's talking about His people
who are in the world, if you want to get right down to it.
How's He going to do that? How does He convince a sinner
of his sin? Well, He says right here, because
they believe not on Me. You can tell a sinner all day
long he's a sinner, and I do, but it ain't going to convince
him of anything. What will convince a man that he's a sinner? He
will not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He won't do it. He won't do it. Never was a man
more worthy of trust, obedience, and commitment than Jesus of
Nazareth. Never. Not a flaw in him. Not a mean streak in him. The
scripture said they hated him without a cause. They had no
cause for him. When Satan came to search him
and abuse him and use him, he found nothing in him. Nothing
that he could use. He was perfect. He that hath
seen me hath seen no fault. Which one of you convinces me
it's him? Huh? There's no cause for him to be
rejected and hated. He was wisdom incarnate. He was love incarnate. He was
kindness in its purest form. He had power to create the universe,
yet not a bruised reed did he break. Kind. Loving. There's no reason
to not believe Him. And what of God's mercy and grace?
He's the brightness of the Father's glory and the express image of
His person. No man knoweth the Father save
the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal it. Is God gracious? My, yes. How do you know? Look
at His Son. Look at the Son. He's the brightness of the Father's
glory. He came into this world to save sinners. He came into
this world to accomplish the redemptive will of God. He didn't
come here to judge my soul. He could do that from heaven.
He came into this world to manifest the name of God to save poor
sinners like us. And here's what he said in John
3. We're all big on John 3, 16,
but we don't go down to verse 19, do we? This is the condemnation that
light has come into the world and men love darkness rather
than light. Here's light, pure light. No
darkness in him at all. Then why do we continue to be
what we are? Why do we continue to be drawn
into what we are? Here's the condemnation. Men
love darkness rather than light. Why? Because their deeds are
evil, all of them, even your religious deeds, evil. Why won't men and women believe
on him? Sin. That's why, sin. I ain't talking about the water
mountain you stowed, I'm talking about sin. by one man, sin, S-I-N,
singular, sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and
so death passed upon on me. How'd I know that? They're all
sin. Their mind, the scripture said,
is enmity against God. Not the God of this world, not
that God who loves anybody, anywhere, anytime, anyway, but the God
of the Bible. That's who they hate. Their mind
is enmity against Him without a reason. It says they're not subject to
God, neither indeed can be. Not God's means and not God's
way and not God's man and not God's son. He will reprove the world of
sin because they believe not on Him. He's not asking you to
sell the farm. He commands us to believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. I told what could be. Think about what I'm saying.
Here He is. I've given you a righteousness.
It's in my Son. I've given you a hope. It's in
my Son. Oh, where's the Son? He's here.
Right here. Why won't we believe on him?
Sin. That's why. Sin. What does reprove mean? It means
to tell a fault. Tell a fault. Convict. or convince. How will he convince
men and women who hate God of a saving righteousness? Well,
here it is, John 16, verse 10, of righteousness, because I go
to the Father and you see me no more. The Bible says all our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. The leper's cloth that he covered,
a menstrual cloth, it's a All our righteousness are as filthy
rags. He says man at his best state,
not at his worst, but at his best state, is altogether vanity. He says all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. And in Romans 3, where the Apostle
Paul defines what it means to be under sin, he said both Jews
and Gentiles, he said we before proved they're all under sin.
The first definition he gives, there's none righteous. None? None. None righteous. And he knew what they were going
to say, but he said no, not one. He said that twice in Romans
chapter 3. Once after he said there's none
righteous, the second time after he said there's none good. He
knew what they were going to do. Oh, my grandma. No, not one. Not one. You cannot be saved without a
righteousness. You have no hope of heaven without
a righteousness. And if righteousness come by
the law, that is by your obedience to it, by your manufacturing
of it, by your observance of it, Then he said Christ died
in vain. That's the alternative. He came into this world to provide
poor sinners with the very righteousness of God. He said this is the righteousness
of God which is by faith of or the faithfulness of Jesus Christ
and it's unto all and upon all them that believe. Abraham believed
God and it was counted to him for righteousness. Well, how will the Holy Ghost
convince chosen sinners of this righteousness? By the resurrection
of Jesus Christ. He didn't stay in the temple.
Now listen to me. He came into this world to provide
his people with a righteousness. He was born of our bones. Here
he is. He's a man. He's ever with a
man and ever with God in one person. He came into this world
as a representative. He's the head of the church.
That's federal head. He's the representative just
as Adam was to all mankind. Did he provide a righteousness? Was his obedience accepted of
God? Well, how do I know? He died
on the cross and I know God accepted his work. No, he was raised from
the dead, wasn't he? Raised from the dead, raised
for our justification, what the scripture said. 1 Corinthians 15, 17, he said,
if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, and ye are yet
in your sins. He said, I go to my Father, and
you see me no more. You're not going to see him again
as a substitute. When he returns, he's coming
back without sin. He's not coming back as a substitute,
he's coming back in the glory of his father's house. He put
sin away. Put it away. Where'd he put it?
I don't know. But when God said he put it away,
that's a way, isn't it? I don't need to know where. I go to my father and you don't
see me again. You don't need to see him. He
came, he did what God sent him to do, and God raised him from
the dead. He ascended, he sent the angels,
and he stepped onto a cloud with those angels, and those apostles
sat there and watched him fade up out of sight. Where was he
gone? Accepted. Accepted of God. He ascended to the right hand
of God. And because of what he did, God
gave him a name above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every
knee shall bow. He's Lord. He's Lord. He did what he came to do, and
God proclaimed before men and angels that his work was accepted. What a statement. I go to my
Father. I go to my Father. How did he
go? Triumphant. Victorious. without sin. And we, Paul says in Ephesians
1, are accepted in the beloved. And then he says in John 16,
11, of judgment. We're talking about being persuaded
of God through the Word of God. We're persuaded, convicted, convinced,
call it what you will. of judgment because the prince
of this world is judged. That is, the power of Satan to
enslave and dominate and rule over chosen sinners was taken
from him. How does he rule? How does Satan
rule? What does he do? You don't see
him. You don't feel him. How does
he rule? How does he manage to reign in
sinners? By deceit. Huh? By lies. That's how he does it. He's the liar and the father
of lies. He was a murderer from the beginning. The prince of this world is judged. That is, the power of Satan to
enslave, dominate, and rule over chosen sinners was taken from
him. He says in John 12 verse 31, he said, Now is the judgment
of this world, and now shall the prince of this world be cast
out. Hebrews 2.14, For as much then
as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself
likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy
him that had the power over death, that is, the devil. And Satan's
power is the power of deceit. He lies. He lies. Paul said, I have renounced the
hidden things of dishonesty. He renounced them. Why? Why? Because of his knowledge in Christ.
Because of the truth. Now he sees the truth. And now
he denounces the hidden things of dishonesty. He said, I don't
walk in craftiness anymore. I don't handle the word of God
deceitfully. Well, what caused him to do that,
Satan? Well, he does. How does he do
it? In religion, mostly. In religion. Jesus Christ and him crucified
is the manifestation of truth. In verse 11 of John 16, he's
not talking about being convinced of a future judgment. When he
says he's going to convince you of judgment, your conscience
tells you that there's going to be a judgment. Creation proclaims
that judgment and demonstrates it in storms and catastrophes
all the time. What he's talking about is judgment
satisfied. Huh? Judgment satisfied. Judgment exercising itself in
the death of Christ and removing us from it altogether. Listen to this verse. This is
Romans chapter 8 verse 1. There is therefore now, right
now, right this minute, there is therefore now no condemnation,
no judgment, no cursory, none, nothing. in them which are in
Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."
What's he talking about walking after the Spirit? The truth.
The truth taught to you by the Spirit. We walk in faith given
by the Holy Spirit based on the righteousness, that imputed righteousness
of Christ to us. And we walk in peace and rest
of a satisfied Listen to this Romans chapter
3 verse 24. Being justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that was in Christ Jesus. Whom
God set forth to be a propitiation for our sins through faith in
His blood. That is faith that His blood
was effectual. His blood to put away sin. And if God ever convinces you
of sin, He'll have to convince you of righteousness and justice
satisfied. He's the just and justifier of
all them that believe. And brethren, this is how God
saves sinners, by telling them the truth as it's manifested
in Christ. He calls them, Peter said, out
of darkness into his marvelous light. He delivers us from the
power of darkness, from the influence of Satan, from lies, just plain
old lies. I'll never forget old brother
Barnard, he held that first big revival right in the middle of
that park up in Ashland, Kentucky. And he got up and he said, two
biggest lies ever been told. God loves you and Christ died
for you. You could hear a pin drop in that place. And he went
on to tell them what he was talking about. God doesn't love everybody. He loves his people. He hated
Esau. Wouldn't have hated him before
he was born. These two, before they'd ever done any good or
evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand,
it was said unto him, the elder's gonna serve the younger, gonna
reverse the process. That older son's gonna serve
the young one. As it's written, Jacob have I loved and Esau have
I hated. That's what God said. When you
say that ain't right, take it up with God. Ain't that what
Paul said? You're going to find fault with
me, he said. You're going to find fault with
what I'm telling you. But who art thou, O man, that replies
against God? The unconverted soul loves darkness
rather than light because their deeds are evil. And when God
saves a sinner, that sinner shows forth the praises of Him who
called him out of darkness. God did something for him. There
ain't no way that man sat down with a book and come away with
that. God did something for that man. And it's a great work. It's a divine work. And it's
an effectual work. And without apology, Paul tells
Timothy, God hath, past tense, hath saved us. And then he called
us. When he saved us, he wanted to
put us in Christ back yonder in eternity. when he provided
us with a substitute, a savior, one mediator between God and
me and the man, Christ Jesus. Well, how do we know that's so?
Because he appeared. Now he's made manifest. He appeared. What did he do? Huh? Put away
death. Brought life and immortality
to life through the gospel. There's a sense in which chosen
sinners were saved before they actually had a being. God saved us by divine election,
putting us into an eternal covenant union with his Son. He made us
one. Over in our Lord's high priestly
prayer in John 17, I hope you'll go home this afternoon and read
that prayer carefully and prayerfully. Read that prayer. He said, I
pray for them, O Father, which shall believe on me through their
word. These men I'm sending out are
going to preach Christ and Him crucified. And all your people
are going to believe on me through their word. Through their word. 2,000 years before they actually believed. And then he prayed, that they
all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that
they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou
hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest
me I have given them, that they may be one, even as we are one,
I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect and
one, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and as
love them as thou hast loved me. You mean God loves me the
same way He loves His Son? That's what He said. That's what He said. Boy, don't you wish you could
wrap your hand around that? Wrap your mind around that? He
loves me just like He loves His Son. God saved us, Paul said,
and called us with a holy calling. It wasn't according to our words.
But it was according to His own purpose and grace given us in
Christ Jesus before the world began. And this holy calling,
this eternal union with Christ, it's not of us, it's of God.
God the Father trusted all, everything that He intended to do into the
hands of His Son. And the son fully accomplished
it, and having satisfied divine justice, having wrought out a
perfect righteousness, God raised him from the dead and seated
him at his own right hand. And there he ever liveth to make
intercession for us. You mean he's up there telling
God, now don't kill him, don't kill him. No, his presence there
as our substitute and representative, that's what makes intercession
for the sinner. He looks on his son. He looks
on his son. Boy, don't you hope he don't
look at your sins as the sinner. He looks at you just like he
looks at his son. Crowned him with glory and honor.
Gave him a name above every name. And you'll bow to him. You'll
submit to him. Look to him. Believe on him and
call on him. Or you'll burn in hell, one or
the other. And all that God purposed to
do in Christ, all that the Holy Ghost prophesied of Him and manifested
in the appearing of Him, that's what we preach. We preach
a person. A person. And the Gospel is the
glorious person and work of Jesus Christ. And to this end, Paul
said, verse 11, appointed a preacher. That's what God sent me out to
tell them. The work's done. The war's over. There's salvation
in a man. Not in a man trying to get you
to do something, but in a man who came and did it for you.
And God seen that, raised him up, crowned him with glory and
honor, set him up there as the guarantor of your inheritance.
You couldn't lose it if you wanted to. And if you could, you would. But He ain't going to let you.
He ain't going to let you. You're kept by the power of faith. Who's Paul preaching to? Pagans. Gentiles. That's pagans, isn't
it? Pagans. Salvation is of the Lord. To
Him, Daniel said, belongeth righteousness and mercy and forgiveness. And
there's no standing before God by way of any church, any denomination,
any theology, or plan, or any place. We have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ. And oh, my friend, I cannot overemphasize
the privilege set before you today. God sent me to you and
drew you to me. And you may never hear it again.
May not. Father draws all those who will
come to his son, John 6, 44. He's going to teach every one
of them. How's he going to do it? Through
his means, in his time, by his power. That's how he's going
to do it. And all those he teaches are
going to come to Christ. And what are they going to do
when they get there? They're going to commit. What are they going
to commit? Everything. Huh? Think about it. If you commit
your soul to Him, what else are you going to keep? Well, you can have my soul, but
you ain't getting my time. That's what religion leaves in
your head and heart. It's not that way when you see
Christ. If you see Him as He is, what
He is, where He is, my soul, you're going to commit to Him.
You're going to commit to him. If you don't, it's because you
don't believe on him. You're still in your sins. And
he said in verse 12, for the which cause I also suffered these
things, imprisonment, beatings, poverty, isolation, public humiliation. The list goes on and on. Nevertheless,
that is all these things aside, he said, I ain't ashamed. I'm
ashamed of my past. I am. And if you ain't, there's
something wrong with you. I'm ashamed of my past. I'm ashamed
of things I've done and people that I've wronged. I'm ashamed
of bad decisions that I've made. But I'm not ashamed of the testimony
of Christ. Not ashamed. Nor of men's attitude and conduct
toward me because of it. Why? Paul or any other man of God,
how can they do these things, suffer these things, hope to
accomplish the will of God in the ministry? He said, I know whom I have believed. And that's my question to you
this morning. Do you know him? To know him is to be persuaded
that he can keep that which you commit to him against that day.
He can't fail. There's no failure in Him. He
can't change. He's God. Nothing can overcome Him. He's
all-powerful. He's God. He's not going to lose
anything that was committed into His hands. I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of My hands. And my Father, which is greater
than all, you're in His hands. I'm in the Father, and the Father's
in me. Oh, my soul, you can't get more
secure than that. Well, how do I know Him? I know
Him through the preaching of the gospel. 1 Corinthians 15,
One more, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached
unto you, which also you have received, and wherein you stand,
by which also you are saved, if you keep in memory what I
preached unto you, otherwise you believe in vain. For I delivered
unto you, first of all, that which I also received, how that
Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures. That he was
buried and rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures.
And he was seen of the apostles, and he's seen of this one, and
that one, and Cephas, and different ones. He's seen of over 500 brethren
at one time. Do you know him? Can you say with
him, I know whom I have believed? I never could. I always went
back to experience an altar or something, depending on what
kind of denomination I was at or where I was at. And one day, I was inviting
a man to revival, and he said, well, why do you want me to come?
I don't know what to say. Nobody ever asked me why. They'd
either say yes or no. This guy asked why. Why? I didn't know what to say. I
said, well, we have an evangelist there. I'd like for you to come
hear him preach. He said, what's he preach? I said, he preaches
the gospel. He said, you wouldn't know the
gospel if you met it in the middle of the road. Boy, it made me
mad. Flew all over me. But he was
right. I didn't know the gospel. And that's what he told me. If
you know it, tell me what it is. I couldn't tell him. Couldn't tell him. The only thing
I had in my head was I'll walk and I'll obey and all this kind
of... That ain't no gospel. Gospel's in the Son of God. In
the Son of God. And Paul said, I know him. I
can sit down here and roam in the dungeon, this old, stale,
humid, wet, stinking prison, and I can say I'm a prisoner
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Huh? I know whom I have left,
and I'm persuaded, I'm convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt, I'm
convinced that he's able to keep that which I've committed unto
him against that time. Oh, may the Lord help us to do
it, every one of us.