Okay, well I want to bring you
back this week to the verses that we looked at last week in
2 Timothy, chapter 2, verses 11 to 13, because we only addressed
the first two of the aspects of that faithful saying. Let
me read it to you again. It is a faithful saying. It's
one of Paul's four faithful sayings. It is a faithful saying, for
if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him. If we suffer,
we shall also reign with him. If we deny him, he also will
deny us. If we believe not, yet he abideth
faithful. He cannot deny himself. So this
is a faithful saying. It's worthy of special attention. All scripture is profitable,
but this is worthy of special attention. You see, I want to
know how I, a sinner, justly found guilty and condemned by
God's law, how can I ever be just with him? How can that be? The answer, as you know, is in
the gospel. It's in the good news. It's in
union with the Lord Jesus Christ. It's by being united with God's
son. who is the God-man, who is the
surety, the guarantor of his people, the substitute for his
people. It's in union with him that I
can be in that position. Everything is in him. Everything
is with him and by him. That's how I can be right with
God. It was the electing love of God, His grace before the
beginning of time, that chose a people to put them in Christ. In the covenant of grace, the
Trinity, the Godhead, the Father chose a people in Christ. God
the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, covenanted to become man, to
stand in their place, to come and redeem. The Holy Spirit covenanted
to regenerate those people and bring them to faith and belief
of the truth. All of this is in the eternal
purposes of God, and it's in union with Christ that it is
all accomplished for us and in us. Union with Christ. As in
Adam, as we all are united with him in our flesh, all die. Because sin has come upon all,
as we were looking earlier in Romans chapter 5, the second
half of it. As in Adam, all die. This is
1 Corinthians 15, but it's saying exactly the same thing. As in
Adam, all die. Even so, in Christ shall all
His people, I would put in parentheses, shall all be made alive. Death
in Adam, the first Adam, life in the second Adam, the Lord
Jesus Christ. It all depends upon the federal
headship, the headship of a people. Adam as the federal head of the
whole human race, he sinned and all have sinned in him, Christ
as the federal head of his believing people. He was righteous, he
has imputed to his people righteousness and paid for the sins of his
people so that the Holy God does not behold iniquity in Jacob. And this faithful saying is about
that union of Christ and his bride, his church, his people. And if you have been regenerated,
given new birth, new life, spiritual life by God's spirit, if you
have been brought to newness of life in believing, you prove
your election of God thereby. That's how you prove it. It's
your belief that proves it. How do I know that? The scripture
tells me. First Thessalonians chapter 1 verse 4, knowing brethren,
says Paul, to these Gentile believers, knowing brethren, beloved, your
election of God. How does he know their election
of God? Was he there back in the mists of time before time
began? No. He knows it because, he says,
for our gospel came not unto you in word only, oh they heard
words with their physical ears, but also in power. a preacher
preaches to a mixed congregation a mixed congregation who knows
who's going to listen to this do you know do you know some
weeks on free grace radio it shows that about a hundred people
have downloaded this message these messages that's the sort
of numbers you may think there's just a few of us here but of
that mixed number many will hear words think of the words they'll
hear the words they'll understand the english language they'll
hear that But for some, the message of the gospel of grace will come
in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance. So that
Paul says later on to them, I think it's verse nine of the same chapter,
what manner of entry we had unto you, brethren. What manner of
entry. They preached, and the doors
of the castle that is the hard heart of man were just burst
wide open. And the Spirit of God came in
and shone light where there was darkness. The light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And so in the
second epistle, he says, we know, he says, brethren, beloved of
God, for God hath from the beginning chosen you unto salvation through
sanctification, setting apart of the spirit and of belief of
the truth. You believe the truth. We know
that the people of God, as it says in Ephesians 1 verse 7,
are redeemed by blood. We have redemption through His
blood, through the blood of Christ. We have redemption. What is redemption?
It's the payment of the price that the law demands for satisfaction. We have that in the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And you have in believing new
life with Christ. You prove you have new life.
You believe the gospel. You prove you're the elect of
God. You prove that you were put in Him before the beginning
of time. Hence, you must have died with
Him to the flesh. You must have done when He died
on the cross. You were in Him. You believe
Him now. You're the elect of God. This is how you know you're
the elect of God. You believe Him. And for those
that believe Him, who are the elect of God, they were put in
Him so that when He died on the cross, they died in Him. You have new life, so you must
have died with Him. to the flesh, to the law, and
to sin. When he died, I am crucified
with Christ, Galatians 2.20. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless
I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me, and the life which
I now live in the flesh, because I still do, I live by the faith
of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. He is
his people's surety. He is his people's federal head.
They're representative. Each member of his body, in the
eye of God's law, died in him. Each of us, if you believe him.
Each member of his body, he is the head. We are the members
of the body. When the head died on the cross
of Calvary, the members died in him. You know, you can't kill
a head without killing all the rest of the body, can you? we
died in him. So Colossians 3 verse 3 says
this, talking to believers who are alive in the flesh, Paul
says you are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. Dead
in a legal sense to any covenant of works. You're dead to it,
you're dead to it. Just as you're interested in
his death, so you have a keen interest in his life, and so
it says, for if we be dead with him, we shall also live with
him. We're dead to the law, just as
the illustration I gave last week. that the murderer who is
justly executed under the law against murder, in those places
that still have execution for murder, that one is dead to the
law. The power of that law which says
you shall not murder has no more power over him because he's dead
to it. The law has exacted all that it can. He has no relationship
with that law anymore, and so are we to the law of God in Christ. We're dead to it. And if we be
dead with him, we shall also suffer with him. Sorry, we shall
also live with him. And then we also saw the next
verse, verse 12. If we suffer, we shall also reign
with him. if we suffer. As he suffered. How did he suffer? He suffered
being tempted. That was one way. He suffered
being tempted. And a believer, you or I if we
believe, have two natures. We have the old nature which
is the old man of the flesh, which is sinful which always
returns to its base state, which never truly improves, it's never
sanctified or made any better for the presence of God, absolutely
not, just does not happen. If truth be known, the more you
know Christ, the more you know that you're the chief of sinners,
the more you know that in you, that is in your flesh, there
dwells no good thing. But in this flesh, if there's
a new man there, the new man of the Spirit of God, you're
conscious of temptation and you're conscious of the anguish that
that causes because the flesh lusts against the spirit and
the spirit against the flesh and these two are contrary one
to the other. That's how we suffer, by temptation,
as Christ did. He suffered, says the scripture,
being tempted. But also, as he did, we suffer
persecution for being his people in this life. Persecution, which
can be psychological. isolation, misunderstanding,
being falsely accused as he was. All of those things are the lot
of the people of God, depending on how much the badge of the
Lord Jesus Christ is on display in your life and attitude and
words and witness. Falsely accused, perhaps at work,
how does it work itself out? Sidelined, denied a promotion
that by your natural abilities you would normally have. Perhaps
at times and in places physically tortured and martyred as people
have been for the faith of Christ in the past when they just could
not could not renounce the gospel of his grace and especially at
the hands of religious people. If we suffer we shall also reign
with him. The life of faith is a life of
cross bearing but it's a life of promise of reigning with Christ. It's a life that assures we're
assured in the scripture that even now we're seated with him
in heavenly places. I don't understand how that can
be, but that's what the scripture assures us. That in Christ we're
seated with Him. Just as we died with Him on the
cross, and as we rose with Him to newness of life, we're seated
with Him in heavenly places. So then let's go on. Second half
of verse 12. If we deny Him, this is the faithful
saying, still part of it. If we deny Him, He also will
deny us. Now, what's your reaction to
those words? If you're a child of God, there's
probably a pang of guilt that is searing through your heart
at the minute. If we deny him, he will deny us. It can cause
alarm, can't it? You see, why? I'll tell you.
My testimony of Christ is feeble. How often Have I remained quiet
when perhaps I should have spoken? Surely Christ has got enough
cause to deny me before the Father, hasn't he? Can you not say the
same sort of thing? Listen to what Jesus said in
Matthew chapter 10, verses 32 and 33. Whosoever therefore shall
confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father
which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before
men, Him will I also deny before my Father, which is in heaven.
Does that not give you cause for concern? If we deny Him,
He also will deny us. But I want you to think for a
moment. It isn't our love or our faithfulness to Him that
is the root cause of our union with Him. It's not based on us
and what we do. It's based on His love for us. We love him, says John, because
he first loved us, not because there was anything different
to other men and women in us that made us love God, that made
Christ precious to us. Think of Peter. Think of Peter,
the disciple. Do you remember Peter, the night
before Christ was crucified? He denied Christ with cursing. He denied Christ with cursing.
Satan had desired to have him, but Christ had prayed for him.
Jesus told him that, Peter, Satan has desired to have you, but
I've prayed for you, that you'll be kept. Peter denied Christ
with cursing, and yet he was restored, for he was a true child
of God. The cause of his love for Christ
was Christ's love for him. And you remember after the resurrection,
Peter was filled with guilt and remorse. He looked into the eyes
of Jesus before he was crucified, having denied him the third time
and heard the cock crow. And he went and wept bitterly
for what he'd done in denying his Lord. But did he love him?
Peter, do you love me? Yes, Lord, you know that I love
you. Feed my sheep. Peter, do you love me? Yes, Lord,
you know. You know all things. You know
that I love you. feed my sheep, Peter was restored,
because Peter was always a true child of God. Peter was always
an object of the love of God, unlike Jesus, who'd been there,
who'd professed the same, who'd been in the same company. And
yet when he denied him, he denied him with malice and with cursing
and with malicious intent to bring down the Lord Jesus Christ. No, it's not our weak, frail
daily walk which ties us to Christ. Yes, we're weak in the flesh,
but where is your heart's desire truly? Isaiah 49 verse 14 says
this, but Zion said, the people of God said, Zion is a picture
of the people of God. The people of God said, the Lord
hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. I may be deserved
to be forgotten and forsaken. And God says this, can a woman
forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion
on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, other people
may forget, yet, this is what God says to his people, yet will
I not forget thee. He says this, behold, I have
graven thee on the palms of my hands. That's where his people
are written. Their names are written on the
palms of his hands. That's a pretty indelible place
to write them. They're there for eternity. It
doesn't depend on your faithfulness or my faithfulness. Lamentations
3 verse 18, we read it earlier, it says this, my strength, my
hope is perished. but then he has hope. And verses
22 and 23 he says, great is your faithfulness, your compassions
fail not. Peter denied Christ, but was
always his child. Judas though, he was apostate. And like all false professors,
and all hypocrites who deny Christ's Godhead, this is what they deny,
they deny the Godhead of Christ. They deny the redemption of Christ,
the fact that Christ in his blood has redeemed his people. They
deny the work of the Holy Spirit in saving the people of God.
That's what they do, and they're lost for all eternity. You see,
you may feel with shame that you've denied Christ in certain
situations through silence. But if you're pointedly asked
the question, you won't deny him. If you truly know him, when
you're put on the spot, you won't deny him. Don't feel that you
have to be constantly on a soapbox preaching in order to get around
this, if we deny him, he will also deny us. That can be so
counterproductive. Remember this. If you're at work
or you're at school, your employer or the school does not employ
you, if I can use that term of people at school, to be constantly
preaching and standing on a soapbox. Absolutely not. You display your
faith in Christ in so many other ways of attitude and diligence
and truthfulness and faithfulness and all of these things. But
if you know whom you have believed, this is what Paul says, I know
whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that
which I've committed unto him against that day of judgment.
I know him. I know what he's done. If you
know him, I doubt you'll deny him when you're pointedly asked
what you believe. Think of the martyrs, you know,
a few hundred years ago. Think of the martyrs who could
not, in that pointed situation, when put absolutely on the spot,
they could not deny their risen Lord Jesus Christ. They had to
say, it doesn't matter what you do to me. It doesn't matter though
you kill the body, though you torture the body, it doesn't
matter. They could not deny him. But there's also a denial. There's
a denial by lifestyle. We can deny him by the lifestyle
that we live in the world. If we adopt the attitudes of
worldly living, If we show where our treasure really is, because
it says in Matthew 6.21 in the Sermon on the Mount, where your
treasure is, there your heart is also. We can deny him by the
way that we live, by the worldly attitudes that we have, by the
things that glitter and sparkle, especially at this time of year
when materialism seems to go absolutely mad. We can deny by
our lifestyle and we can demonstrate where our hearts truly are for,
I repeat it, where your treasure is, there your heart is also. We can deny him in that way.
It's not just by publicly standing on a soapbox and speaking out
in a public place. It's not just by that, it's by
the attitude of life. It's by showing where our heart's
desire is, showing where our treasure is. We can deny by our
lifestyle. We can deny the Lord. And he
says this, You see, if you show where your heart truly is by
where your treasure is, maybe you're not the Lord's at all
because your heart is drawn away to those things. When Christ
said, set your heart on things above where Christ is seated. And if we deny him in that way,
by a lifestyle, he will deny us. He will deny us. But there's
another way of denying him. it's denying him in our personal
experience. You know, we saw a couple of
weeks ago the Song of Solomon, where the Shulamite, who is a
picture of all the people of God, the Church of God, and the
Beloved, who is a picture of Christ, in that love story which
is the Song of Solomon, they go through periods of great powerful
affection and love. And the words overflow. And this
is the heart of the redeemed soul for the Lord Jesus Christ
who has redeemed. But there are times when she's
looking and she can't find him whom her soul loveth. And she
goes out in a panic seeking him because he's withdrawn himself.
And why? Because she's been distracted. Because the world has allured
her heart. You know, that's what happens. We drift from him and as a result
he denies us in his manifestation of his love in our souls. The
world allures us and draws us and gradually we become more
carnal, more fleshly in our thinking, more worldly in our thinking.
We're denying him and he will deny us. We become cold. We almost become dead in this
way of life. And he drifts away from us. And
he withdraws his presence from us. This is an inward denying
of Christ. If we deny him inwardly, he will
also deny us the blessings of his presence. And as the Shulamite
becomes aware of her carelessness in inwardly denying the beloved,
he withdraws to a distance from his people. This is a denying
that can go on in the heart. Christ won't manifest his saving
love in a soul that is drawn aside by the idols of the world
and the false religion. He won't do it. He won't manifest
himself. And what do I mean by manifest
himself? I mean manifest himself in all of his saving love and
grace. in knowing those tokens, in seeing
those tokens of his redeeming love of knowing that he has truly
saved us from our sins and from judgment to come of knowing that
he has truly taken us to himself he won't manifest us in those
things and those are what we yearn for if we're true believers
that's what we need if we deny him inwardly in allowing our
fleshly hearts to be drawn aside by the world into carnal, cold,
dead thinking, that's an inward denying of Christ. And like the
Shulamite, he'll withdraw himself. And then he says this, so if
we deny him, he will also deny us. There's that denying when
put on the spot. You won't do that. You won't
be constantly with a megaphone shouting at everybody and making
a nuisance of yourself, but if you're put on the spot and you're
truly Christ's, you will confess. You will live a life by your
lifestyle, you will show that he is your heart's desire and
not the treasures of the world. You will show that without speaking
over much. What was it that Daniel did,
you know, that they saw? Was he constantly blowing his
trumpet and preaching his gospel? No, he was just faithfully doing
his thing. What did they do when they set up the idol that they
all had to bow down and worship? What did Daniel do? Just exactly
what he did every day. Prayed to his God three times
a day. That's what he did all the time. And he didn't change
in that. And then we read verse 13. If
we believe not, yet he abide of faithful. He cannot deny himself. If we believe not, this is part
still of this faithful saying, the flesh is weak. The flesh
of the believer is weak. We're constantly being told that
we have to put off the old man with his works. We have to put
to death the old man with his desires. The flesh is weak. An
evil heart of unbelief is prone to rise up in the believer's
flesh, in yours and mine if we're believers. We doubt him. We doubt
him. Sometimes we listen to Satan
whispering in our ear doubts about the truthfulness of God's
word. But he is constant. God is constant. He doesn't change. He cannot deny himself. He cannot
deny the promises that He's made to His people. He cannot deny
His eternal purposes of grace. He cannot do it. It would be
contrary to His nature. He has purposed from before the
beginning of time to save a people for His glory. This is the will
of the Father that sent the Lord Jesus Christ, that of all that
the Father gave to the Son, He should lose nothing. We may be
unbelieving in our flesh because we're frail flesh as long as
we live this life, but he is constant. He cannot deny himself. He abides faithful. His promises,
his eternal promises of grace, his eternal purposes of grace,
he cannot deny them. They remain constant. He may
deny the manifestation of his love in a child who's drifted
into unbelief, just like he withdraws from the Shulamite, he may deny
the manifestation of his love, so that it isn't always that
same constant feeling, but never the reality. He withdraws, he
denies the manifestation, if we slip into unbelief, but not
the reality, because his purposes are constant. He may deny the
taste of that love, that taste of the sweetness of the salvation
that you know is yours in the Lord Jesus Christ. He may deny
the taste of it, but never the existence of it. It's always
there constant. He may deny manifestations of
his favors in your experience inwardly, but not his tender
heart. Because he's loved his elect,
we read in Jeremiah, he's loved his elect with an everlasting
love. Not a love that's dependent on
your love, he's loved his people with an everlasting love. It's
like a parent disciplining a child, like a father disciplining a
child. The child may feel unloved for
a time. But the truth is that the Father's
love is constant, even in those moments when discipline has to
be exercised. God is faithful to his covenant
promises. He's faithful to his electing
saving purposes. He cannot deny himself. He cannot
go against those things. Nothing that we do can cause
him to go against those things. This flesh is weak, but nothing
we do can go against those things. This isn't a letter's sin that
grace may abound, it's a fact of the faithfulness of God. God's faithfulness to his covenant
promises, to his electing saving purposes, it doesn't depend on
the child's belief or the child's improvement in the flesh, but
it depends on himself. This is what God said through
Jeremiah. Jeremiah 32, verses 40 to 42. He says of his people, I will
make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn
away from them. Not conditional, did you notice
that? I will not turn away from them to do them good, but I will
put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me.
Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good. And I will plant
them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole
soul. For thus saith the Lord, like
as I have brought all this great evil upon this people, so will
I bring upon them all the good that I have promised them. That's
what God promises to his people. Even if we believe not for a
season because the flesh is weak, he abides faithful. He cannot
deny himself. Do you want to deny him and be
unbelieving? Not if you're his true child,
I'm sure you don't. You lament the weakness of the
flesh. You want to be faithful, whatever the consequences in
this life, whatever others might think of you. But your security
depends on God's purposes of grace, which are unchanging. Even if we believe not, yet he
abideth faithful. He cannot deny himself. Turn
with me to Hebrews chapter six. and we'll close with this Hebrews
chapter 6 and verse 13 you see God made great promises
to Abraham which he fulfilled which he kept which he carried
out perfectly exactly as he had said and yet Abraham was wayward
Abraham was a sinner Abraham lied. Abraham did those things
that were wrong. Even at the end of his life after
Sarah had died, Abraham did that which was fundamentally wrong.
He took concubines to himself and had more children. He did
those things which were fundamentally wrong. But look what it says,
verse 13, For when God made promise to Abraham, Because he could
swear by no greater, he swore by himself. You see, he abideth
faithful, he cannot deny himself, saying, Surely, blessing, I will
bless thee, and multiplying, I will multiply thee. And so,
after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For
men verily swear by the greater, And an oath for confirmation
is to them an end of all strife. So they swear by something that's
greater than them. And that puts an end to all contention
about whether the promise will be kept. It's an end of all strife
because there's a binding legal covenant based on the oath. Wherein God, verse 17, willing
more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability
of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath. God's counsel is
unchangeable. God's oath cannot be altered. That by two immutable things,
his counsel and his oath, those are the two things. The counsel
of God, the wise purposes of God, and the oath, the promise
of God, that by two immutable things in which it was impossible
for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation. For on
what basis could we have a stronger? God has promised. It's God's
counsel that he will do this. We have strong consolation. Who
has strong consolation? Those who have fled for refuge
to lay hold upon the hope set before us. Which hope we have
as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which
entereth into that within the veil, whither the forerunner
is for us entered. Even Jesus made an high priest
forever after the order of Melchizedek. God remains faithful. His purpose
is, irrespective of what we do, but if we're his children, if
we're his children, our treasure will be in heaven. Our hearts
will be in heaven with him. Our minds will be set upon things
above where Christ is. When we're put on the spot, we
won't be able to deny him. We won't be able to. and he won't
deny us before his father. God's oath to Abraham didn't
depend on Abraham's faithfulness. God's oath to us, his people,
doesn't depend on you or me. Praise God, praise God, oh that
he would keep us, oh that he would strengthen us with this
weak flesh to look to Jesus. This is why we're told, looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Not looking at
the world, not being distracted, the flesh will constantly want
to be drawn aside and deny him, deny him externally and deny
him internally, but not the spirit of the new man that he is put
within.