If you'll turn back with me now
to 2 Timothy chapter 2, my text is verse 19. In this chapter, Paul writes to
his beloved son in the faith, he often referred to Timothy
as his son, and warns him about the pitfalls of the ministry. Now, you might think, well, this
is odd, preaching to a conversation from one of the officials to
the concerning ministers. But the same pitfalls that concern
them concern you. We all have the same pitfalls.
It's just that it's more devastating when it's in a ministry. It's
devastating to the whole congregation. And so he warns young Timothy. He tells him in verse 3 to endure
hardness. Boy, that seems like a contrary
word to a man who believes in grace, don't it? Hardness. There's a hardness in this world
that must be endured by all those who believe and especially of
those who preach the gospel. It's a hardness. Persecution. difficult situations, and lean
times, hardness. And there is a hardness in the
hearts of those we minister to, of which I have no control whatsoever,
whatsoever. Bring things, wonderful things,
gracious things, things from the very promises, the precious,
precious promises of Christ, and see men and women just despise
those things. That's hardness. Hardness. And you want to just get a hold
of them and shake them and say, wake up. Wake up. I'm saying
these things for your benefit. I'm not saying these things to
make you angry. But the truth of it is, I have
no power to remove that hardness. of heart. There's a hardness
in those that we minister to, and only God Himself can take
away that stony heart and give us hearts of flesh. There's a
hardness in men, sharp and cruel statements, talking behind our
backs, and unwarranted criticism. And Paul tells young Timothy,
he said, as a soldier endures the hardness that goes with being
a soldier so you endure this hardness because it goes with
the ministry. And then secondly, he warns Timothy
as a young preacher not to entangle himself with the affairs of this
world. As a preacher, he is being told
here, don't become a businessman. Don't become a businessman. Don't
be a politician. Don't use the pulpit as a sounding
board for politics. Don't be a lobbyist. Keep in mind what you're about
and why God has left you in this world. And we are, every one
of us, engaged in the ministry of Christ, and the same thing
that applies to me applies to you. We all have families and
homes and responsibilities, and I encourage you to meet all those
obligations. But you can go too far. You can
go too far with it. And you can begin to live for
those things and ignore the things of God. And then thirdly, he
warns Timothy not to strive about words to no profit. Boy, there's so many things going
on right now. Right now. Had been now for years.
Going on. In my lifetime. Over words. Over words. Whole churches splitting
right down the middle over words to no profit. Words of no profit. Words that are not about critical,
vital areas. I don't say that we ought to
let those things slip, but I'm saying there's things going right
now that's led to divisions over things which are not critical. And Paul tells him, he said,
don't strive. Don't get in there. Don't take
the bait. Just don't get in it. Don't argue
over things that are not real and vital issues. These kinds
of arguments are always in, now listen to me, in having an evil
influence on all your hearings. That's all that's going to come
out of it. And then fourthly, he warns him to shun profane
and vain babblings. If you engage in these things,
they will increase. Just like putting fertilizer
on weeds. I go out in my garden sometimes
and instead of putting that fertilizer in the row, I just go out and
kind of throw it. You know what grows the fastest? The weeds.
The weeds. He said their words eat away
at your hearers like a cancer, like hymenaeus. by leaders who
both preached that the final resurrection of the saints had
already passed. Can you imagine what kind of
devastation that would bring on you this morning if you thought
the resurrection of Christ, the final resurrection of Christ,
had already passed? My soul, my hopes are all built
on that resurrection, my final hopes. on that resurrection. And these two men stood up and
preached that it had already passed. And it was like a cancer,
like a cancer that went into that place. And there's no end
to the vain babblings of the natural man, filling man's heads
with the notions of free will decisionism. That's a cancer. That's a cancer just like the
first. Filling their minds with thoughts of self-righteousness,
law-keeping, Keeping of holy days. Intermediate places where
the dead go. Ideas that the dead can be ransomed
by gifts of money and property from these places. Purgatory. Convincing men and
women that if they do the best they can do, God will accept
them and show them favor. Self-interpretation of the Scriptures. The princes of this world knew
nothing of the mysteries of Christ. They came by revelation. That's
why you know them and that's why I know them. By the revelation
of God. A new birth without the seed
of regeneration. Faith with no knowledge of Christ. The re-institution of the priesthood
and the church. These are vain babblings. Vain
babblings. We're not to allow those things
in our assembly. And I'll be honest with you,
if I hear of you talking about them on the front steps, you're
going to hear from me. These are vain babblings and they're
like a cancer. They're like a cancer. They get
started and you can't stop them. There's no antidote. They just
eat and eat and eat and eat until there's nothing left. Vain babblings. And actually, as you begin to
be aware of all that's out there, all that surrounds you, all the
Antichrist religions, all of the worldly accepted denominations. Just turn on your TV, they're
on every channel. On Sunday morning, they're on
every channel. All that surrounds you, all of Antichrist religions,
all of the influence of this world, all the temptations, all
the dangers, all the snares, You kind of get the feeling,
well, what's the use? What's the use? Man, the enemy. Can you remember, now I'm trying
to quote something here on a shoestring, but was it Elijah whose servant
went out and he looked up and the enemy was all around? He
looked up there and they was all around, completely surrounded.
And he came back in and he told the old prophet. He said, oh,
he said, it's all over now. It's all over. He said, the enemies
have us surrounded and there's no way out. And the old prophet
prayed, Lord, open that young man's eyes. And he sent him back
out. And when he looked, there was
another circle beyond that circle and all the armies of God, all
the angels of God surrounding that army. If that's where you are, listen
to what Paul tells Timothy here in verse 19. Nevertheless. Oh, I love that word. Nevertheless. All these cancers, all these
ungodly men, all these snares and pitfalls and all these things,
nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure. What is God's foundation? Other
foundation can no man lay than that which is laid Christ Jesus
the Lord. His foundation standeth sure. Standeth sure. And it has this
seal. This seal on the Son of God. Here is the seal. The Lord knoweth
them that are His. I don't know, but He does. He does. And really, your security
is not in me knowing. It's in Him. So my message to
you this morning is the Lord knows His own. He knows them. He knows them. We sang that song,
I know whom I have believed. I'll tell you what makes me happier
than that. He knows me. Before I believed. Before I believed. Now, let me give you seven things
here, and I'll try to be brief. But there are seven things here
that I know about our Lord's knowing His own. And the first
thing is this, He knows them distinctly. You know, false prophets
have for hundreds of years tried to make the elect of God out
to be some kind of an impersonal number. When you talk about the
elect of God, most of them say it strictly concerns Israel,
natural Israel. But the ones who have seen beyond
that, they still can't see it as distinct people, but they
see it as a number. When he talks about his elect,
he's talking about a group. He's talking about a gathering
together of people over time to fill up, kind of fill up God's
quota, so to speak. And it's a number that no man
can number, but it's always this impersonal number. When it gets
right down to it, are you saying that God chose Darwin Pruitt
before the foundation of the world? That's exactly what I'm
saying. That's exactly. He knows them distinctly. Distinctly. They use language
like this. God looking down through the
telescope of time to see who would and would not choose him. Who would and who would not follow
after God. And while that idea appeals to
natural man, it's hardly the language of Scripture. That man
Jacob, whom the Lord used to establish the election of God,
was called by name. Do you know that? He was a twin
boy, and Paul said before he was ever born, before he'd ever
done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand, it was said unto his mother. She was carrying
these twins in her womb. It was said to her, the elder
is going to serve the younger, as it is written. Now listen,
Jacob have I loved. Huh? That's not an impersonal
number. That's an individual. Jacob have
I loved, and Esau have I hated. Is that too hard? I'm telling
you, when He chose a people, He chose them distinctly, individually. Just like old Jacob. I don't think you can get much
more personal than that, can you? Huh? Actually, if you look up the
word for know, in Romans 8.29, those of you who have Strong's
or Young's Concordance, look it up. And the word foreordained
in I Peter 1.20. Foreknow in Romans 8.29 and foreordained
in I Peter 1.20, you'll discover that it's the exact same word. Also there in Romans chapter
11 where he used that word foreknow. Has the Lord cast away His people
whom He did foreknow? That word's the same as foreordained.
Same word. So that what God foreknows is
what God foreordains. When God foreknows a thing, it's
because He's foreordained a thing. There was nothing before there
was God. There was no time. God's not like us. I have to
wait till December 1st to see what's going to happen on December
1st. But God don't. He's not a man. And God chose
His elect from among all men, not in the innocence of pre-creation. That's another thing that preachers
try to pass over on men. If you preach election as per
individual, then you're denying the pre-innocence of man before
creation. I'm not going to get into that,
but I can tell you this, when God chose a people, it was in
the light of all that man would be. All that he would be. Well, how do I know that? How
do I know that God preordained the fall of man? How do I know
that? Because He chose us in a Savior. There would be no need
to put us in a Savior if we didn't need saving. You see what I'm
saying? God chose His people out of the
fallen corrupt sons of Adam, rebels, ungodly and ignorant. And I don't know who are and
who are not the elect of God. And thank God their spiritual
welfare doesn't depend on me knowing them, but of Christ knowing
them. In 1 Thessalonians 1, He gives
us some evidences. But even these are not infallible.
These are not infallible evidences. Demas gave evidence of being
saved. The same man who called that
to our attention in 1 Thessalonians 1 called Demas his fellow laborer. So Demas, he gave evidences of
faith, but he went back to the world. But all take comfort in this,
the Lord knoweth them that are his. Sometimes we don't even
know it ourselves, do we? Huh? Sit around and scratch your
head. Boy, I tell you. I get to looking things, looking
at how I am. I don't read enough. I don't
study enough. I don't pray enough. I can't
preach as clear as I want to preach. Maybe you're not one
of God's elect. I'll tell you who knows. He does. He does. And when you get to
that place, just rest it. Just rest it right along with
everything else in here. He knows His own distinctly,
and then secondly, He knows them eternally. There never was a
time when He didn't know us. Never was. In Ephesians 1-4,
we're told that the Father chose us in Christ before the foundation
of the world, before there was a world, before there was a garden,
before there was anything. God chose us in Christ. I don't know. Folks get this
idea that election is something that God does in time. It's eternal. A fellow told me one time, man's
converted, now he's become one of God's elect. No. He was converted,
if he was, because he's one of God's elect. Election's not something
that happens in time. It's an eternal, unchangeable
work of God from the beginning. Listen to this. 2 Thessalonians
2.13. God has from the beginning chosen us unto salvation. And the real meat of this doctrine
is this. You know, you go over there to
Romans 8 and that golden chain of assurance beginning up there
in verse 28. He gets through that and he talks
about Whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of His Son. And whom He did predestinate,
them He also called. And whom He called, them He did
also justify. And whom He did justify, them
He also did glorify." And then he says, what shall we say to
these things? What are we going to say to that
eternal, unchangeable work of God? What are we going to say
to that? Here's what Paul said, if God be for us, who can be
against us? Huh? If God be for us, who can be
against us? If God Himself has set them apart
for His glory and set them apart according to His divine purpose
of grace, who can be against them? Who's going to thwart the
work? Who's going to prevent it? Who's
going to keep it from coming to pass? He knows them eternally. And
then thirdly, He knows them lovingly. Listen to this, Jeremiah 31,
verse 3. The prophet said, The Lord hath
appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an
everlasting love. Therefore, with lovingkindness
have I drawn thee. That man He draws in time with
lovingkindness. is that same man that He loved
from everlasting. Some preachers like to read Ephesians
1.5, and I do too. But they read it this way. They
take that last portion out of verse 4 and bring it down and
attach it to verse 5. And so it reads this way, "...in
love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will. Is not love the golden thread
that seems to bind everything that God has purposed to do for
His elect? If I had time this morning, I'd
take you down through there and show you all the places where
He said He did this in love, in love, in love, in love, all
the way down. And if love be the motive in
their election, shall it not run the whole course? One writer said, where else shall
the waters run except back into the ocean from which they came?
That's where that love goes. It goes back to him. He knows
his own lovingly. And then fourthly, he knows them
savingly. Election, as I quoted to you
from 2 Thessalonians 2.13, is unto salvation. First, a determination to bless,
and then an election in Christ, in Ephesians 1. He said, Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,
according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world. Election and salvation are intertwined. We've been chosen in a Savior. a chosen and a Savior. Thou shalt
call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from the sin."
And then way back yonder, in the book of Isaiah, when He was
making Himself known, He said this, He said, Look unto Me,
all ye ends of the earth. I am God and there is none else.
He said, I am a just God and a Savior. Now listen to me a
minute. If there was any possibility
of man saving himself, God would not have chosen him in a Savior.
To me, that ends all arguments, right? If there was any possibility
of you producing a righteousness acceptable to God, He would not
have made Christ your righteousness. If man could redeem himself,
there'd be no need of a redeemer. But God first appointed a Savior,
a Redeemer, and then chose us in Him, blessed us in Him, and
secured us in Him. And there is no salvation outside
of Christ. Adam and Eve would have doomed
the whole race except God had made provision for him and for
his elect among his offspring. And search if you will, you cannot
find any other reason for the preservation of this world except
the salvation of God's elect to the glory of God in Christ.
God is long-suffering, he, Peter said, usward, not willing that
any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And
ignorant, unbelieving men see election as a closed door. I
say to you this morning, it's not a closed door, it's an open
door. It's an open door. Were it not for election and
the Savior in whom they were chosen, no flesh would be saved. Wouldn't be any salvation. We'd
be like Sodom and Gomorrah. The hope of election is not election
itself, but the one in whom we were chosen. That's the hope
of election. God elected me. He chose me in
Christ. You take Christ out of election,
and election would be doomed. It would doom man just the same
as man was doomed in a garden. But God did not choose us in
Christ. He chose us in Christ and He
made provision for us in Christ. And He did so before the world
began. God made for us, David said. These are the last words of that
old prophet David. He said, It be not so with my
house. God hath made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things and sure. And he said, this is
all my salvation and all my desire, though he make it not to grow. God appointed his Son in whom
we were chosen to be our surety. Surety of what? Surety of that
everlasting covenant of grace. And as our surety and guarantor,
he assumed all liability for all the terms and conditions
of that covenant. And so David says, it's ordered
in all things insure. In the ark of the covenant was
the heavenly manna, the priestly rod, and the tables of the law. And all these things were sealed
in an ark, which pictures Christ, overshadowed by the mercy seat
sprinkled with the blood. God has saved us, Paul said,
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. He knows us savingly. Think about what God could know
about you without the person and work of Christ. There's nobody here this morning,
if I had a big monitor up here and a little wire feed and I'd
go back there and clip it on, it'd show everything that's on
your heart. Ain't nobody want that on this morning, would you?
Think what he would know of you apart from Christ. Oh, my soul. There'd be no fellowship. What
fellowship does light have with darkness, or life with death,
or understanding with There could be no blessings of any kind unless
God were willing to compromise His character. This whole religious
world takes the dealings of God with sinners and takes them out
of context. God outside of Christ is a consuming
fire. See, in the wilderness and all
through the history of Israel, the mountains of corpses who
died under the wrath of God. I'm not here week after week
trying to get you to adapt to a new creed or join a new denomination
or some cult. I'm laboring as best I can to
point you to Christ and make you see that apart from Him,
God can't have anything to do with you. And you can't have
anything to do with Him. God knows His own, but He knows
them savingly. Savingly. And then fifthly, God
knows His own continually. God doesn't know men in eternity
past and then forgets them and die. That's what we do. That's what we do. That's not
what He does. In verse 13 of our text, it said, if we believe
not. Anybody here know anything at
all about unbelief? Anybody here that's never experienced
unbelief? I'll tell you this, if you haven't,
you don't know God. If we believe not, yet He abideth
faithful, He cannot deny Himself. Even His disciples cried, Lord, we believe. Help Thou our unbelief. The strongest believer has unbelief. If he had no unbelief, he'd never
fear, would he? He'd never worry. He'd never
doubt. He'd never weep. He'd never become angry. Can
you imagine a fellowship with God based on your faithfulness? Paul took his faithfulness out
to the dung heap where it belonged, didn't he? The disciples experienced
unbelief for which they were rebuked as
we are. But Christ did not break off
His fellowship with His disciples because their hope was based
on His faithfulness and not theirs. It was based on His righteousness
and not theirs. Actually, Paul says this, if
we walk in the light as He is the light, we have fellowship
one with another. We not only have fellowship with
God, but we can have fellowship one with another if we walk in
the light as He is the light. I tell you this, you walk any
other way, there's going to be division. Going to be a division. He and He alone is able to save
to the uttermost all who come unto God by Him. What a cold and bitter time it
is when we cannot feel His presence with us. But even then, He's
with us. Even then, He's with us. I'll
never leave you, he said, nor forsake you. David said, if he
took the wings of the morning, flew into the uttermost parts
of the sea, he said, there, there's my Savior. There He is. He knows us continually and ever
liveth to make intercession for us. And then sixthly, he knows
his own experience. That man is drawn by divine power
to come to Christ, hear of Christ, and trust in Christ. He said
in John chapter 6, he said, and they shall all be taught of God.
Every man, therefore, that hath heard and hath learned of the
Father cometh unto me. What is this experiential knowledge
of Christ? Well, it's a work of the Holy
Spirit in the hearts of men. That's what it is. And it concerns
us, and of our sins, and in the light of our sinnerhood, He reveals
the person and work of Christ to our needy souls. Until we're
made in the experience of grace to see ourselves as we are, the
Gospel is still in word only. It's just word only. It doesn't
mean anything. It doesn't mean anything. It's no more than just a creed. learning some scientific fact,
and at the time it seems irrefutable, and you accept it, but it doesn't
mean anything. It offers no strength, no comfort,
no power, no mercy, no motivation, and no love. It becomes a point
of argument and debate, not a living hope. It becomes a point of pride,
not the way of humility. God has purposed to manifest
His glory in the salvation of chosen sinners who will be living
memorials of the saving grace of God in Christ. And how does
He do that? He first convicts you of sin.
Of sin. It's Christ in you, the hope
of glory. Christ is my confession. Christ
is my banner. Christ is my righteousness. Christ
is my Lord. Christ is my motivation. Paul
said, for me to live is Christ. It's Christ. And then our Lord tells those
Pharisees this, who boasted in their sacrificial life, who boasted
in their own righteousness who boasted in their keeping of the
holy days and their wearing of the religious garments and reading
of the Scriptures and all those things. He stopped them and he
said, now you go learn what this means. I'll have mercy and not
sacrifice. You go learn that. Because you're
not worth anything to me until you learn that. You're not going
to benefit anybody until you learn this. That's what this
experiential knowledge is. Until we see ourselves totally
depraved, we cannot see Him as totally sufficient. We just see
Him in part. Until we see that all flesh is
grass and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, we cannot
see Christ as all. Conviction of sin is a necessary
part of our salvation. It marks out our election as
surely as all the other evidences. He said, this is a faithful saint
and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into this
world to save sinners of whom I am chief. How could any man
know his election of grace except as God has purposed to reveal
it to him and in him? And then this one last thing,
and I'll quit. God knows His own graciously. Grace is a particular thing just
like love. Grace and love can never be declared
universal. They can only be shown individually. And so our Lord tells us, who in time are made to see His
kindness and mercy in Christ, He said, by grace are you saved. By grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, It's not of works, lest any man
should boast. It's the gift of God. Those who are known of God are
so known by the grace of God. An election, we're told in Romans
11, verse 5, is according to the election of grace. Of grace. This knowing you is by the grace
of God. So what's my point in all this?
Well, my point in all this is that the foundation of God standeth
sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are His. His
foundation was laid for the salvation of those He chose in Christ and
love from everlasting. And Christ is that foundation.
And He standeth sure. All God's promises in Him are
yea and amen. And His fellowship goes unbroken
because He knows us in Him. And Paul tells us this, and I'll
quit with this, let every man that nameth the name of Christ
depart from iniquity. And they will. They will.