Turn to 2 Timothy, chapter 2. Gracious Father, thank you so
much for your word, and may we absorb every word of it. May
our hearts be impressed with it. Lord, help me now as I preach.
Help us all as we listen. And may the word preached find
good soil in our hearts. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.
I've entitled this message, An Old Hymn. An Old Hymn. And that's because the portion
of scripture that we're going to read is believed by many to
be one of the early hymns of the church. It begins in verse
11. Paul says, here's a trustworthy
saying. It's a well-known saying. And it's kind of written in a
poetic form, so we figure it probably was sung by them. It
says, if we died with him, we will also live with him. If we
endure, we will also reign with Him. If we disown Him, He will
disown us. If we are faithless, He will
remain faithful. He cannot disown Himself. Now, hymns are the outpouring
of the Church, the outpouring of the souls of the people that
are in the Church. of the age is often revealed
in the hymns. That is, you find out what songs,
what hymns churches are singing, you'll know what the church is
about. And that's why it's so distressing that so many of the
hymns that are written today and most of the hymns that have
been written in this, I say this century, I'm even thinking of
the 1900s, so shallow, so little to them. And it was because,
I believe, that there was so little depth to the spirit of
worship that was in people's hearts. I know a lot about you
guys because of the hymns that you choose for us to sing on
Sunday night. That's why I'm sure glad you
chose the hymns you did tonight, because I knew that I was going
to say that statement. And boy, what great hymns you chose. Now,
hallelujah, God has saved me. Revive us again. All that thrills
my... Soul is Jesus. I love to tell
the story. And this reveals, when these
are the hymns you want to sing, it reveals what's in your heart.
We can learn our confessions to say, can't we? We can learn
the Apostles' Creed and learn this, that, and the other, and
we can regurgitate that back up on cue. But when it's left
to us to say what we want to say or choose the hymns we want
to sing, people will eventually get around to choosing the kind
that that speaks to their heart as their heart speaks. Well, here's a hymn of the early
church, and it tells us a lot of what they were about. What
were the prominent themes that they spoke about and heard about?
What did they consider the important matters of the gospel and the
worship of the Lord Jesus Christ? Now, Paul calls this a faithful
saint. He said, here's a faithful saint.
Now, I don't know who wrote it. I don't think Paul really quick
scratched out this little poem. I think this was something well
known. He said, now here's a faithful saying. And because it's a faithful
saying, that means it's worthy to be fully accepted by everyone. I love a faithful saying, don't
you? The word means a trustworthy saying. Here's a trustworthy
saying. King James, I believe, uses the
word faithful. Here's a trustworthy saying.
We hear so much that can't be counted on. We've sung some songs,
and you know, I choose them, and there's some good things
in them, and then there's some verses we get to, and you get to a line
or two, and you kind of want to mumble, you know, because
you really don't want to say it out loud. It's really not all that good. I've been in churches, and they'll
choose a song to sing, and I'll stand up, and then I have four
verses, and there's a couple of them I can agree with, and
I just kind of stand there the rest of the time, I feel a little
bit awkward about it, you know, but you don't want to sing what
isn't true. You don't want to say what isn't
true. And you don't want to have to listen to what isn't true.
All the blessedness of having the scriptures, for all the scriptures
can be read and they can be taken in as faithful, as reliable,
as trustworthy. And here's what, here's a trustworthy
saying. Something we can count on. Not
only something we should count on, something we must rely on. You know, there's not a word
of God which we can say, well, I wonder if I'm going to believe
that. Well, there's a faithful saying, I wonder if I should
follow it. We dare not ever pick and choose
from the scriptures. Someone once said, truth is not
a smorgasbord. You know, I like a buffet, don't you? You go to
a buffet, and if you don't like roast beef, take chicken. If
you don't like green beans, take mashed potatoes, or take both,
or leave them both off. It's okay, it doesn't matter. You
can take what you want at a buffet, but God's Word is not a buffet.
God's Word is given to us, and we are to live upon every Word
of God. Our Lord was tempted there in
the wilderness, and Satan said to Him, change these. stones
into bread. And he said, man lives not by
bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of
God. And every word that comes out of God's mouth is a reliable,
trustworthy, faithful saying. And not only can we take it as
truth and live upon it, we must. We must. Now, here are four contrasts. In comparison set before us,
he says, if we died with him, we also live with him. Now, the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ is a gospel of identification. By that means, it is a message
of how we who have been chosen by God have been identified with
him. We have been put, as it were,
in the same boat as the Lord Jesus Christ and whatever he
did is credited to us as though we did it. Whatever he endured,
we are credited as though we endured it. And whatever he is
given in return for his labors is given to us as though we earned
it. The scriptures put this principle
this way, as he is, so are we in this world. Now it says, if we died with
him. Now the Lord Jesus Christ died,
and when he died, there are some people who died with him. Not
everybody did. You know, this is a pretty strong proof of that doctrine which
is sometimes called limited atonement or particular redemption. That
doctrine that teaches that the Lord Jesus Christ did not offer
a sacrifice for everyone. Because if he died for everyone
and everyone died in him, then everybody's going to live with
him, according to this scripture. But we know that not everybody's
going to live with Christ. Therefore, it must be that not
everyone died with Christ. But our Lord Jesus Christ, our
God, descended and took on human flesh, and he took on human flesh
for several reasons. He took on human flesh so that
he could fellowship with us, so that he could communicate
with us. But he also took on human flesh so that he could
bear our responsibilities. So that he could come under the
law. We were responsible to the law.
And Jesus Christ came under the law that he might bear our responsibility
for us. And fulfill our responsibilities
for us. We know that we haven't. I mean,
there's not anybody here. I mean, I know if I said anybody
here ever kept the Ten Commandments, you've been here long enough
to know not to raise your hand. None of us fulfilled our responsibilities. So our Lord Jesus Christ was
born of a woman made under the law that he might fulfill our
responsibilities under the law and then redeem us from the law.
And that brings us to the third reason why the Lord Jesus Christ
took on human flesh. He took on human flesh so he
can die. God can't die. God is spirit. And our Savior
in that pure spiritual form cannot die. To him belongs immortality. The Lord God, who alone hath
immortality, says the scriptures. And our Lord Jesus Christ cannot
pay our debt if He does not take upon Himself a nature which can
die. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ was
under no obligation to die. There was no natural process
of death in Him, like there is in you and me, because there
was no sin in Him. But He could die. And indeed, He did die. And He
died not simply because wore himself out and came to the end
of life. He died because his life was taken away from him. Now, he says, no man, no one
takes my life from me. He means that no human did. He
did lay it down. It was not against his will.
But he was delivered up. Delivered up to God. And God
took his life. It wasn't Pilate. It wasn't a
Roman soldier. It wasn't any of them that took his life. God
did. And God did this as a way to exact a payment for the sins
that he bore. And when God exacted that payment,
those sins that he bore were put away. They were put away. They were
gone. And they shall never be punished again. Now listen to
that carefully. This is a very important point
to make. If we don't understand this about the redemption of
Christ, we don't understand anything much about His redemption. The
sins that Jesus Christ bore were put away and shall never be punished
again. Now then, what does that say
about that doctrine that a man can... that Jesus Christ tried
to save everybody and He died for everybody and paid for everybody's
sins, but if they don't believe, they go to hell. It says that that doctrine is
not true. Jesus Christ, by the one time, perfect offering of
himself, hath perfected forever. Then, they are set apart by God. And you don't get any better
than perfect. If we died with Him, we shall
live with Him. Paul says in Galatians 2.20,
I am crucified with Christ. What do you mean, Paul? I see
you there. I don't see any nails. I don't see a cross. That's one of the good parts
about it. I'm crucified with Him, and yet I'm never crucified.
I die with Him, yet I never die. Paul said, I'm crucified with
him, crucified in him. When he died, I died, and I no
longer live, he says. Now, the King James says, nevertheless,
I live, yet not I. Here's what I believe Paul's
making. He says, I'm crucified with Christ,
and I no longer live. And because I no longer live,
the law has no claim on me because the law has claim on a man only
as long as he is alive. The only way to get out from
under the law is to die. If a man commits a crime against the law,
a capital crime, and they execute him, he's under the law until
they pull the switch, and the moment they pull the switch and
he's dead, he's no longer under the jurisdiction of the law.
He is, legally, Of course, there's a big problem. He's also dead.
But here's the thing about the gospel of Christ. We die and
remain alive. Because we died in Christ and
the law counts us dead. And since we're dead, it has
no claim on us. Now, when our Lord Jesus Christ
died, what happened? Our sins were put away. And it
says, because he did this, God highly exalted him. He began
that exaltation by bringing him out of the grave. Now, the resurrection
was not an event all by itself. It was the beginning of an event.
It was the first step of an event. And the event was the glorification,
exaltation, and coronation of the Lord Jesus Christ. He went
down to the depths of death, and in the depths of death he
paid for the sins of his chosen people, And God accepted his
payment and gave testimony of that acceptance by bringing him
out of death. And the Lord Jesus Christ made
a 40-day stopover here on earth to give some final instructions
to his disciples, and then he finished the journey toward heaven. And God sat him at his right
hand, gave all authority in heaven and earth to him, made him the
ruler over all the works of his hands. He is the sovereign ruler
of heaven, earth, and hell. He reigns. He's not going to
reign. He already does. In the book
of Revelation, chapter 11, I believe it is, it says, The
kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and
of His Christ. If we die with Him, we will live
with Him. We will live as surely as He
lives. Look over at Ephesians, chapter
2. God does not say here that if
we died with Him and live our lives the best that we can, that
we shall live with Him. Here is the objective truth of
the Gospel. Here is the Gospel utterly outside
of our involvement or experience. It's simply this. If we died
with Him, by the grace of God, if we died with Him, we'll live
with Him. Now I know that there's a whole
lot of things that go on between dying with Him and living with
Him. But this is certain. If God put
us in Christ when Christ died and we died with Him, then we
will be in Christ forever and shall live with Him forever. Ephesians chapter 2. Beginning verse 5, Ephesians
chapter 2, verse 5. I'm in the wrong book, that's
why I can't find it. Ephesians 2, verse 5. God made us alive with Christ.
Even when we were dead in transgressions, it's by grace you have been saved.
And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the
heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. in order that in the coming ages
He might show the incomparable riches of His grace expressed
in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. Now, I want you to notice
that very often the Scriptures describe the entirety of the
Gospel and never once mention our involvement in it. It says that He made us alive.
It doesn't say anything about what we do. Why? Because what
we do is not the issue. It's what Christ has done. And God made us alive with Christ,
and that means for you and me that He made us alive with Christ
before we were ever born. And He seated us in the heavenly
places with Christ before He ever seated us in this world
in the experience of our lives. And the only time that our experience
comes into this, he says, so that in the incomparable or so
that in the ages to come, he might make us trophies of his
grace that he might show us all as a display of the incomparable
riches of his grace. And, you know, I will be tickled
to death to be set in God's trophy case. That trophy is not something
designed to bring glory to itself, is it? It may be a pretty thing. It may be in gold and set on
a marble pedestal and all that, and yet people don't go up and
brag on a trophy. The trophy is set there to catch
the eye, to brag on the one who earned it. And God will make
all of his people like the Lord Jesus Christ, and indeed they
will be a beauty to behold, a glorious thing to look upon, and yet as
beautiful and glorious as they are, the people that see it will
not glorify them. The glory will be to the everlasting,
incomparable grace of God that set them there. And you know, I believe that
every believer wants to be Just that, a trophy, a testimony to
the incomparable riches of the grace of God. A hymn by John Newton, Amazing
Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. You know, there's John Newton. wrote that hymn, his life before God saved him
was indeed a wretched life. He was a slave trader. Spent
some time as a slave trader. Now I want you to imagine when
God brings together, here at the end of the world, all his
people and sets them out as trophies of his grace, and the rest of
the world is made to look on. Can you imagine one of his companions
on the slave ship going by John? John, is that you? John, you don't look wretched. You're glorious. Oh, I remember
you. Cow-mouthed, hating and being
hated. Now look at you. John will say,
it wasn't me. But me, you remember. is the
me I was, and the me I would have remained were it not for
the incomparable riches of the grace of God. What you see before
you, any difference you detect between what I am now and what
I was then, you mark that up to the grace of God. You imagine
one of those slaves, he held down in the nasty holds of those
ships, and I'll tell you, it was a miserable, awful way to
treat men. Can you imagine one of them seizing? And you know, maybe one of these
that sees him and God left that slave in his unbelief and he
sees him as an unbeliever and he's bitter against John. He's
still mad at John these hundreds of years later because John shackled
him in the bottom of that ship and treated him like dirt. And
now, behold, this man who robbed him of his freedom is sitting
there glorified like the Son of God Himself. He said, how'd that ever happen? And that man's going to have
to acknowledge the grace of God. Because that person, though he's
full of bitterness, he's going to realize that the bitterness
he feels toward John, John justly deserves. And John justly deserves
that bitterness from God, and John didn't get it. And every one of us who's been
made alive with the Lord Jesus Christ in time to come, we will
be put up in God's trophy case. And the world will look on in
amazement, because they knew us. They know us, don't they? And they'll see what God makes
us into. And it may be through clenched teeth. They'll have
to say, He has done all things well. And we're going to look at each
other, and we're going to glorify God for what we see. He will show the incomparable
riches of His grace in us, for we will live with Him. In Romans
chapter 6, Now, if we die with Christ, we
believe that we will also live with Him. This is Romans 6, beginning
with verse 8. Now, if we die with Christ, we
believe that we also will live with Him. For we know that since
Christ was raised from the dead, He cannot die again. Death no
longer has mastery over Him. No longer is Lord. But death,
He died. He died to sin once for all. The life he lives, he lives to
God. And we died in him, and that means we died to sin once
for all. Say, wait a minute. Sin seems
pretty alive to me. He's talking about legal death
here. All the charges of sin levied against us were put away
in the death of Christ. And our connection to the master
sin was cut loose. And sin, no longer has lordship over us. Has a lot of power, but no authority. And we no longer, inasmuch as
we've died to sin, we live to God. We are bound to Him. We are bound to God. United to
Him. And our life comes from Him. The Lord Jesus Christ bore our
sins and he died under those sins once and lives under God
and therefore we're dead to those sins and we're alive to God.
With a different life, not just an endless continuation of the
old life, but a new life. And that life shall go on forever
and someday. according to the prayer of our
Lord Jesus Christ, and according to all the promises and prophecies
of Scripture, that life that we now live shall be given its
fullness in the very presence of God Himself. And we will be
with Christ forever. Then it says, if we endure, verse
12 now, 2 Timothy 2.12, if we endure, we will also reign with
Him. Now everybody, that believes Christ will have
that faith tested. Now in verse 11, he's talking
about things that happened outside of us. If we died with him, we
will live with him. But now he speaks of things that
happen in our lives and in our experience if we endure. The word actually means to remain
under. You know, it's one thing to have
something cast upon you and be able to cast it off and to move
on. It's another thing to simply
have to live under something. And that's what it's talking
of here. And the believer constantly lives under trial of one form
or another. Now, it's not always a trial
of circumstances. It's not always a trial of the
things that are outside us, of hard times and stuff like this.
It's quite often simply the trial within, the trouble within. The
doubts, and the fears, and the waverings, and the temptations,
and all of this. And we live under it. The failings
under temptations. We live under that all the time,
don't we? It always presses us out and
presses us down. It's there. And it always makes
us, or tempts us, that's the word to use, it always tempts
us to try to throw off those things By means of our own efforts,
by means of our own doing, our own righteousness, sin bears
us down. We find ourselves under the weight
of our guilt and the temptations to try to throw it off if we
endure, if we just stay under it. And let it be held up instead
by Christ and by the word of His promise. And to deal with
our sins and our troubles, not by our own efforts, but by an
appeal to the grace of God. If we endure. If we endure persecution. Look over here at chapter 3 verse
12. 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 12. In
fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus
will be persecuted. Do you know why? That's probably
why there's not nearly so much godliness as we would like to
see. We know this, don't we? If we
go out, if we actually pursue Christ with all our hearts, not
just here on Sunday, but throughout the week, we know we're going
to rub folks the wrong way. They don't like Christ, and they
aren't going to like us liking Christ. And here's what we do. And this was somehow going to
fit in this morning's message. I thought of it, but I didn't
think of it while I was preaching. But it's come back to my mind.
Here's what it seems like what we do. We get up Sunday morning
and we put on our Sunday clothes. Though our Sunday clothes aren't
that much different than our everyday clothes here. We aren't
too much given to that. But still, most of us kind of
dress up a little bit. And we put on our Sunday clothes
and we put on our Sunday attitude. And we put on our Christianity
and we come to church and among the other people of God, we find
it easily easy to live godly in Christ Jesus. And we worship
him and we sing praises and we say, good to see you, brother.
And we do all this kind of stuff. And then we go home, we wake
up Monday morning and we put on our work clothes. And the
sad thing is we put on our work attitude. We put on our work
thoughts. We adjust our way of living.
We adjust how we think and what we do because we're not going
to be coming into contact with brethren today. We're going to
be coming in contact with worldlings. And if we just hang it out there
that we love Christ like we do, if we approach this world just
like we approached church the day before, we're going to get
in trouble. And we all learn how to navigate
our way through this life. so as not to stir up any trouble. And that's just so sad that we
do that. You know why? Because in all likelihood, the
people among whom we live aren't going to hear the Gospel unless
we stir up a little trouble. I was listening to a fellow preaching
the other day. He said don't try to change the
Gospel. He said the Gospel is a dangerous thing. And don't
try to find some way to preach it that the world's going to
like, because there isn't a way to preach it that the world's going to
like it. Just realize that if you're going to go out there
And let it be known what the truth is, and if you're going
to live in pursuit of Christ, it's going to be dangerous because
you're going to be going upstream against the world. Those that want to live godly
in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. If we endure. If we just let it be that way. If we say, I'm going to pursue
the Lord Jesus Christ, whether or not the world likes it, whether
it smiles or frowns, if we endure, we will also reign with Him. You see, our Lord Jesus Christ
came into this world and He pursued God with all His heart. I know
He's God, but He pursued God. He pursued the will of His Father.
He was a godly man, and His godliness cost Him. And yet through that,
he came to his throne. And you know, we who continue
to believe, and that's the essence of godliness, is to continue
to believe him. We who believe, we keep on believing. We fall flat on our face, we
keep on believing. We stand tall, we keep on believing.
The world pats us on the back, we keep on believing. The world
says you're an idiot, we keep on believing. We just keep on. And if we keep on, we'll reign
with Him. In fact, as we keep on, we are
reigning with Him. What is it to reign? It's to
be in control. What is it the world wants to
rule you on more than anything else in the world? Faith. Faith that the world wants to
rule you and tell you what to believe and who to believe. And they tried to do it to these
early believers. And all the threats they used. You and I,
we get it pretty mild. You know, we're probably going
to get some frown and a cold shoulder. They'd throw these
people lions. Some of them chopped their heads
off. My understanding is Nero covered some of them with tar
and lit them up like torches. They reigned. Nero could not
make them bow. Did Nero rule over him? No, he didn't. Nero, he had that
name Caesar in front of his name, but it didn't mean a thing. He
could not rule these people. And even though he lit them up
like torches, all it did was spread the light all that much
more. You know, the most frustrating thing for a man to do is to come
up against God and his church. Men have been trying to do it.
They've been trying to put out the light of truth ever since
the light of truth appeared. They've been trying to silence
Christians ever since they started talking. You know what? Haven't
been able to do it yet. They reign. He says if we disown
Him, He will also disown us. This one's a... This is one meant to make us
pay attention to something. First of all, it's to make us
realize this matter of following Christ is not some light matter. It's not something that, well,
it's something we better take pretty serious. If we disown
Him, what does it mean to disown Him? I've looked at the places
where this word is used. He's not talking about that we
experience a moment of cowardice in the face of the world. We
all do that. He's not talking about moments. He's not talking
about that in our actions, sometimes we act as though we don't believe
because all of us do that. Look over at John chapter 19. And when you find that, hold your finger there. I didn't
write this text down, but I think I can find it real quick. There we go. Acts chapter 3,
verse 14. Now Paul, excuse me, Peter is
speaking to the Jews. And he's speaking to them in
Jerusalem. And he says to them, you disown,
same Greek word, you disown the holy and righteous one and ask
that a murderer be released to you. Now, the first thing it
is to disown Christ is to disown who he is, to deny who he is,
the holy one. That is the one whom God set
apart. That's what the word holy means, to set apart. Deny him
as the one that God set apart, as his Christ, the Lord's Christ,
sent to save. Secondly, the righteous one.
You denied the holy one, the righteous one. They denied that
he was righteous, and they denied that he was the righteous one
sent to be the savior of the unrighteous. This is the name
by which he shall be known, the Lord, our righteousness. And
these people denied him in that very office, the very office
in which they desperately needed him. Remember what Paul says? Excuse me, John. He says, children,
I write these things to you that you sin not. But if you sin,
we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous
one. So when they denied the righteous
one, they kicked out their advocate. They kicked out the one who could
have been used to plead their case. They kicked out, they set aside,
they rejected the very one sent to intercede in their behalf. And then look over here at John
chapter 19, verse 15. What Peter was referring to when
he says you rejected him and notice him that notice now how
they rejected. Verse 15, but they shouted, take
him away, take him away, crucify him. Shall I crucify your king? Pilate asked. We have no king
but Caesar, the chief priest replied. And here comes the Lord
of heaven, and they said, we'll not have you rule over us. We
don't have any king but Caesar. And they disowned him as their
king. So they disowned him as the Christ.
They disowned him as the righteous advocate. They disowned him as
the Lord, the King. And friends, if we disown him
like that, he will disown us. If we cannot, if we do not, Own
up to Christ in this world for who He is. He is our Savior. He is our Advocate. He is our
Lord. Then when we stand before Him,
He will disown us, and He'll say, He's not mine. The Lord Jesus said it so plainly
using His very same words. If you disown me before men,
I will disown you before the Father. See, this is the opposite of
endurance. Some people did that, sadly. There were some who, when
the day of trouble came, when the day of persecution comes,
when the day of trial came, they disowned Christ. They disowned
him by seeking their salvation somewhere else. They disowned
him simply by not standing up for him. Now, that brings us
to this little problem. This very same word is used when
it says that Peter denied. What of him? Well, there's a
few differences there and a few similarities. One difference
is this. Though it's a little bit shaky,
I'll admit, but it is the difference. Peter never denied Christ. He
only denied that he knew him. Now, that's not good. I'm not making excuses for Peter.
But Peter never did deny that he is the Christ. Peter never
did deny that he was a righteous one. Peter never did deny that
he was the Lord. But he sure played the part of
the coward, didn't he? And really, While those things
are true, I cannot find a complete excuse in those things to make
it so that this wouldn't apply to Peter. Why didn't this apply
to Peter? For one very simple reason. Christ was gracious. That's why. That's why. And it was necessary that Peter
be crumbled down to nothing. that Christ might build him up. Can you imagine how different
Peter's message would have been on the day of Pentecost if God
had not ordained and prophesied and allowed to come to pass that
Peter would be such a coward on the night of crucifixion? Peter needed all the stuff and
knocked out of him. And God let it happen. And Peter
never would be able to brag after that. He had no leg to stand on. He had
an indictment over his head. You disown me before men, I'll
disown you before the Father. And out of that wretched indictment,
Christ pulled him out. And said, but you know what?
I'm not going to disown you after all. You disowned me before men,
but you won't do that again. You won't. And he converted Peter. And Peter, to our knowledge,
he did some silly things. Peter, to our knowledge, never
did that again. He went to his death. He went to his death,
owning his Lord, not disowning him. But whatever it means, I
know this, I don't want to be disowned by
Christ. I don't want Him to say, depart
from me, you worker of iniquity, I never knew you. You're not
mine, you never were, and you never will. I don't want that. And therefore, by the grace of
God, I will own Him. I will gladly say, He is my Savior. He is all my righteousness. He
is my Lord. And it says, if we are faithless,
he'll remain faithful. He cannot disown himself. You know, I think that some put
this, and it's a legitimate way to take it, that even if we prove
unfaithful, God will remain faithful to his promise and we'll be saved
anyway. And I believe there is a legitimate way to apply that,
but I'm not sure that that's exactly what points being made. In another place, Paul says this,
Will the unbelief of the Jews make the word of God of no effect?
No. In other words, will the unfaithfulness
of the Jews make God unfaithful? No. And you know, if we prove
faithless, if in the end it's proven that
you and I aren't believers, that is not going to change what God
is. He's still faithful to save all
of His people. He's still faithful to His Word.
He will save all that come to Him through Christ. You know, Some preach up the gospel as
though its success is dependent on the faith of men. It's not. Its success is dependent on the
faithfulness of God. And you and I may prove lost. It just might happen. You and I might prove to be nothing
more than religious people. But God will prove to be exactly
what He said He was, no matter what we do. And that both makes
me sit up straight, pay attention, and gives me a great deal of
comfort. I'm glad that God's going to go on being God, just
like He said He was. And I'm glad that whether or
not men believe this gospel, whether or not I believe it,
He's still God. Christ is still the Savior. There's
still salvation to be found in Christ. And every wretched sinner that
comes to God through Christ shall be saved, because God is faithful,
even if I'm not. He can't disown himself. I might
deny it. Oh, I hope I never do. I'm 50,
almost 52. I don't know how much longer
I'm going to live. It seems like Terrell's lived to the early
age, so give me another 30 years. Sometime in the next 30 years,
you know, I might prove to be an unbeliever. I might deny him. But if I deny him, do you know
what you can say? Well, Joe denied him, but God will never deny
him. He will not deny himself. Joe may have been faithless,
but that doesn't mean God's promise is of no effect. The promise
stands. And we may see every professed
believer that we know un-profess. It will not change God. Heavenly Father, change and decay in all around
I see. O Thou that changest not, abide
with me. We thank You, Lord, that You
can't disown Yourself. We feel in us an ability to deny you. We know that if we were left
ourselves for a moment, that's exactly what we'd do. Lord, uphold
us. Make us endure. In your faithfulness,
make us faithful. Be with us in the coming week. Give rest to the weary, Lord. Comfort to the sorrowing. And
help to the troubled. Forgive our sins and set Christ
before us. In his name we pray. Amen. You
are dismissed.