Tonight, I'm going to speak to
you on the subject, words that teach. Words that teach. There are four
words that I want to deal with in this message this evening. But by way of introducing, and
I'll give you the text in a few moments. But by way of introducing
the message, let me make these statements. Saving faith in Christ Jesus must be known and may be known. And true saving faith is evident. A person does not have to wait
until judgment day to find out if he is saved or not saved,
if he's a child of God or not a child of God. We're taught
in the scriptures to examine ourselves and to settle this
matter and to know our state. You're familiar with these verses.
I'll just quote them, make reference to them. In 1 Corinthians 11,
when When Paul gave the instructions
for the observance of the Lord's table, he said in 1 Corinthians
11, verse 28, let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of
that bread and drink of that cup. When we examine ourselves at
the Lord's table, what are we examining ourselves for? whether we believe that Christ's
body was broken and his blood shed for us. Do we believe? Do
we discern and understand the sacrifice of Christ? And we examine
ourselves and we say, yes, I do. I've heard people say, well,
I don't know whether I'm saved or not. But you know, I've never
heard anyone say, I don't know whether I believe or not. I've heard people say, well,
I don't know whether I'm saved or not. But I've never heard
anybody say, I don't know whether I believe God or not. I do believe
God. And so do you. I've never heard
anybody say, well, I don't know whether I believe Christ died
on the cross or not. You do. I don't know whether I believe
He paid our sin debt or not. So, Paul said, examine yourselves. And so let him eat. Eat that
bread and drink that cup. And then in 2 Corinthians 13,
Paul wrote this. Examine yourselves. Whether you
be in the faith. Know you're not your own selves.
How that Christ dwelleth in you. Unless you're a reprobate. I'm
not a reprobate. I believe Christ. You do too.
That's why you're here. You're here to worship Him. You're
here to sing praise to Him. You're here to rejoice in Him. That's why you're here. You do
believe. You're not a reprobate. A man knows whether or not he
believes the gospel. A man knows whether or not he
believes the Word of God is the Word of God. Sure he does. A
woman too. And then Peter wrote these words.
Give diligence. to make your calling and election
sure. For if you do these things, you
shall not fail. Let me read that verse in 2 Peter
1. Wherefore the rather brethren
give diligence to make your calling and election sure. For if you
do these things, you'll never fail. Make your calling sure. If he's called you, you've heard
the gospel, believe the gospel, received the gospel, trusted
Christ, then you're one of God's elect. You know your election
by your calling. You don't know your calling by
your election. You know you're elected because He called you.
He's going to call you as elect. So you examine and give diligence
and make your calling sure. For so an influence shall be
ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Don't make the simplicity of
Christ complicated. Salvation's in Him. It's believing
Him. It's trusting Him. It's resting
in Him. And I'll tell you this, those
believers in Scripture, I'll just give you a few of them,
those people whom the Apostle called our examples, they were
sure that they believed God. Abraham believed God. He knew
he believed God. When God spoke to Abraham, Abraham
believed. Job said this, I know. Job said,
I know that my Redeemer liveth. And in the latter day, he'll
stand on this earth. And though worms destroy this
body after the flesh, yet I'm going to see God. And not another. With these eyes, I'm going to
see God. My Redeemer is God. My Redeemer is God. David said,
the Lord is my shepherd. He is my shepherd. That's confidence. That's assurance. I have no other
shepherd. The Lord's my shepherd. You have
another shepherd? I don't have any other shepherd.
The Lord's my shepherd. Therefore, I shall not want.
I shall not want for rest, righteousness, redemption, restoration, or eternal
life. Isaiah said this, by his stripes
we're healed. He was wounded for our transgressions.
He was bruised for our iniquities. And then here's the text. I did
get to it. 2 Timothy chapter 1. 2 Timothy chapter 1. And Paul
said this in 2 Timothy 1. And here's where I want to get
these words. 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 12. Paul said in verse 11, let's
read verse 11 and then verse 12, whereunto I am appointed
a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher. Words that teach. I'm a teacher of the Gentiles.
For the witch cause I also suffer these things. Ronnie read some
of the things that were called upon to suffer for the gospel
sake. Nevertheless, I'm not ashamed. I'm not ashamed, for I know whom
I have believed. And I am persuaded that he's
able to keep that which I've committed to him against that
day." Now, there are four words that I want to deal with this
evening. One is knowledge. He said, I know whom I have believed. And true knowledge leads to confidence. And I'm persuaded he's able.
And confidence leads to committal. If you know Christ, you'll rest
in Him. If there's ever a revelation
of who you are, and who I am, and what we are, and we ever
see the cornerstone, the rock, the refuge, the city of refuge,
we'll plead to Him. There'll be a committal. And
then that committal will lead to a confession, which we're
going to experience this evening. Now let's look at those words
and the statements here in chapter 1, 2 Timothy, verse 12. He said, I know whom I have believed. We do not build our hope of salvation
and eternal life on religion. I know there are a lot of people
who today get religion. But we don't build our hope of
eternal life on religion, nor do we build it on church affiliation.
There's a great deal of emphasis today on denominationalism. I'm Baptist or I'm Methodist,
I'm Catholic, I'm Jewish, I'm Muslim, I'm this, that, and the
other. But our hope of life eternal is not in church affiliation.
And it's not in feelings. This poem by Luther expresses
that so well. For feelings come and feelings
go. And feelings are deceiving. Our
warrant is the word of God. Nothing else is worth believing.
And though all my heart should feel condemned, sometimes it
does, for want of some sweet token. I know one greater than
my heart, and his word cannot be broken. So I'll trust in God's
unchanging word till soul and body sever. The words of men,
the creeds of men, the feelings of men, The plans of men will
pass away, but his word abides forever. Our hope of eternal
life is not built upon religion, church affiliation, feeling,
experiences, deeds, works, morality. Paul says, I know whom I have
believed. Our hope is in Christ, our Lord
Jesus Christ. And you know I quoted these men
from the Old Testament and from the New Testament. If you examine,
if you examine carefully all of these believers in Scripture,
now you examine their testimonies, they always begin with Christ.
You see in the Old Testament, Abraham, he's called the father
of all believers. Our Lord described Abraham's
faith. Here's the way he described it.
He said, Abraham rejoiced to see my day. He saw it and was
glad. He saw Christ. He saw Christ
in the sacrifice. And when he walked up that mountain
with his son Isaac, he said, my son, God will provide himself
a sacrifice. He saw the day of Christ. His
hope was in Christ. Just like Paul said here, I know
whom I have believed. I know him. It's not I know when
I believed, or what I believed, or what I felt, or what I experienced,
or who I joined, what I joined. It's I know whom. Moses. Our Lord described Moses' experience
and his faith. He said Moses. Moses wrote with
me. And the reason he said that is
these Jews had just said They didn't need Christ. They didn't
need this man Jesus. They said, we have Moses. He
said, if you had believed Moses, you'd believe me. He wrote of
me. Moses' whole ministry was about
Christ. The Passover lamb was Christ.
The manna, the bread from heaven, Christ. The rock, smitten. Moses smoked the rock. That rock
was Christ. That mercy seeks Christ, that
priest that takes the atonement into the Holy of Holies is Christ.
Moses wrote of me. Job. Of whom was Job speaking? Job is the oldest book in the
Bible. Job lived before Abraham. The reason I know that is the
Lord said when Satan appeared before the Lord, the sons of
God came before the Lord. The Lord said, did you consider
my servant Job? There's none like him. But if
Abraham had been around, he'd have said he's like Abraham.
But there's none like him. Not on the earth. And Job wrote
so many years ago. And Job said, I know my Redeemer. Kinsman Redeemer. Living. And he's going to stand on this
earth. My Redeemer is going to stand on this earth. And I'll
see Him. Mine eyes will see God, who's
my Redeemer. That's Christ. Isaiah quoted
a while ago, He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,
as a root out of a dry ground. He had no form or comeliness
when we should see Him. There's no beauty that we should
desire Him. He's despised and rejected of men. A man of sours,
equated with greed. But He was wounded by our transgressions. Who's this man Isaiah? Who's
he talking about? Who is he seeing here? Wounded,
bruised. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He's led as a sheep before her shearers is dumb. As a lamb
he opened not his mouth, and yet by his knowledge shall my
servant justify many." I know who. And then Peter, whom
do you say that I am? Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. To whom shall we go? Thou hast
the words of life. John said, the Son of God has
come. given us a knowledge and understanding
that we may know God, Him that is true. Our hope is in the person and
work of Christ. Turn to Hebrews 1, just a moment.
And there's no better place to turn in the Bible and talk about
who and what and where. Who, what and where. I know whom
I have believed. I know what He did and I know
where He is. Look at verse 1 through 4, 1 through 3. God, who at sundry
times and in different ways spake in time past unto the fathers
by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us. Now
who? By his Son, whom he hath appointed
heir of all things, by whom also he made the world, who being
the brightness of His glory, the express image of His person,
upholdeth all things by the word of His power." That's who, what
now? When He had by Himself purged
our sins without anybody's help or aid, that's what He did. Where is He? He sat down at the
right hand of the Majesty on high. Now what I'm saying is, Don't complicate that. If the
Spirit of God has shown you the simplicity of Christ, the singleness
of Christ, the certainty, the effectual person and work of
Christ, don't bring yourself into it. I hear these preachers
saying, now if you'll accept Jesus as your personal Savior
and believe, He died for you. Now hold on a minute. He died for sinners. whether
he died for me or not. I know he died for sinners. I
know he came to save sinners. And God doesn't call on me to
believe he died personally for me. He calls on me to believe
what he said about him dying for sinners. Now Spurgeon verified
that. I want you to listen to what
he said about that. When I came to Christ, I had no knowledge
of any personal or saving interest in the death of Christ. But I
knew some things. I knew I was a sinner, a great
sinner. I knew God said in His Word that
Christ came into the world to save sinners. I knew that, of
whom I'm chief. I knew also that God said He
was made to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in Him. And I knew God said,
look unto Me all the ends of the earth, for I am God. You look to Me and be saved.
I am God, there is none else. I looked. I trusted Him on the
strength and authority of His Word, His promise. He said, come,
I came. He said, believe, I believe.
He said, trust, I trusted. He died for those who trust Him.
I trust Him. He died for those who believe
Him. I believe Him. That's the simplicity. It's not
simple to a complicated, confused, natural mind, but it's simple
to someone who sees that it's not by works of righteousness
which we've done, but according to His mercy, His saving. And
I know. I know that. Back to my text. That knowing
whom, I know whom. I know whom I have believed. Now that leads us to confidence.
And if I know 2 Timothy 1.12, whom I have believed, I'm persuaded
that he's able to keep that which I committed to him. Our confidence
is not in ourselves. I hope I can hold out. He's going to hold me. He will
hold me. He will keep me. We're kept by
the power of God through faith, not without faith, through faith.
There's an inheritance laid up in heaven, incorruptible, undefiled,
that fate is not away, reserved in heaven for you who are kept
by the power of God. My confidence is not in myself or in anyone else on this earth.
It's in Christ. We are the circumcision who worship
God in spirit, rejoice in Christ, and have no confidence in this
flesh. My confidence is not in church, in a church or church
leaders. Too many of them prove unfaithful. You know, God shows us that in
the Word when He does not cover up the weaknesses and failures
of some of His greatest servants. For example, Paul had to rebuke
the Apostle Peter in front of the whole church one time because
Peter went over there and sided with the Jews and wouldn't fellowship
with the Gentiles. Went over with the circumcision
and the Sabbath keepers and the legalizers. And Paul said, now
wait a minute here, Simon. You're building again those things
that Christ destroyed. You're resurrecting those things
that He buried. You can't do that. So, don't
follow. Follow me as I follow Christ,
Paul said. Our hope is not in confidence,
not in ourselves, not in our church leaders, Our hope and
confidence is in our Master. I am confident. I am persuaded. He is able to keep that which
I've committed to Him. I'll tell you why He's able.
I'll give you five good reasons why He's able. Number one, He's
able to keep that which I've committed to Him because the
Father sent Him to do that work. He said, you know, when He came
to, the angel came to Joseph and said, now, Mary is going
to have a son. You call His name Jesus, for
He'll save His people from their sins. God so loved sinners, He
gave His Son. God sent Him. He came here. He's
able to save because God sent Him for that purpose. He's able
to save because He's the anointed priest after the order of Melchizedek. The only eternal priest. All
these other fellows were just temporary, just patterns and
pictures and types. But He is. He has an unchanging
priesthood after the order of Melchizedek, wherefore He's able
to save to the uttermost them that come to God by Him. He's
the only one, only mediator between God and men. Only priest. Only advocate. Therefore, he's
able. Thirdly, he's able to save because
he's willing to do it. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep. I'm calm that they might have life and have it more
abundantly. No man takes my life from me.
I lay it down willingly. Fourthly, he's able to save to
the uttermost them that come to God by him He's able to keep
what I have committed to him because he paid the debt in full. By one offering, he has perfected
forever them that are sanctified. And fifthly, he's able because
of where he is right now, because of where he is. You see, our
representative and our substitute, numbered with the transgressors,
went to the cross, bearing our sins as our surety, slain under
the judgment of God's broken law, buried, and God raised him
from the dead. Whereunto he gave evidence to
all men in that he raised him from the dead, and he said, Come
up and sit at my right hand, that I make thine enemies thy
footstool. And he is in the presence of the Father, seated as our
forerunner. and where the head is, the body
is. That's right. So one word, I
know who I have believed and I'm persuaded. I know who he
is, therefore I'm confident he's able because of who he is and
what he did and where he is now. And that leads to the third word,
a committal. I have committed unto him. Now,
my friends, there's no argument here. Christ Jesus is Lord of
all or He's not Lord at all. It'd be unworthy of His great
name to talk about a partial surrender to Him. It'd be unworthy of His great
name in person to talk about a token allegiance. You know,
we get upset when people burn the American flag. A lot of people
have put bumper stickers, love it or leave it. And that's about
right, you know. That's about right. Well, if
we think our country, land of the free, home of the brave,
is worthy of full allegiance, I pledge allegiance to the flag
of the United States of America. And to the republic for which
it stands, one nation under God. A lot of men right here have
gone to war to preserve this nation. And you love this nation.
You don't agree with everything that's going on, but you love
the freedom of it. And I tell you, go to another
country and you'll be glad to come back here. Just oh so thrilled
to come back here. And if we get upset when people
just give a token allegiance or a token surrender and commitment. Think how unworthy it is for
us to give a token allegiance to Christ, the perfect one, and
the perfect kingdom, and the perfect government, and the perfect
freedom of His grace. There's no such thing as part-time
discipleship. token allegiance, partial surrender,
love Christ one day and walk with everybody else the next.
Those who come to Christ come completely or they don't come
at all. Paul said, I've committed. I know who this is. And I'm persuaded he's able to
do all that I need to have done that God requires. Therefore,
I've committed my soul to Him. My soul, my mind, my heart. I know no other master. He's
my Lord and my God. Set your affection. You know,
that's not plural. A lot of people read it that
way. Set your affections on things
above. That's because we think along this love comes and goes
stuff, you know. But your affection is your heart,
mind, and soul. Set your affection, the real
you, the real you on Him where Christ sitteth at the right hand
of God. I have committed my soul to Him. Secondly, I have committed
my sins to Him. Paul said, I was a blasphemer.
I was injurious. I persecuted the church. I got
the blood of believers on my hands. He was on his way to kill
some more of them when God spoke to him on the Damascus road. But I've committed all my sins
to Christ. And His blood has covered them
all. Put them away. Cleanse them. Separated them
from us as far as the east is from the west. My sins, oh, the
bliss of that glorious thought. My sins, not in part, but the
whole, nailed to the cross. I bear them no more. It's well,
praise the Lord, with my soul. I've committed my soul to Him,
my sins, I've committed my life to Him. That's what Paul is saying
here. He's able to keep that, keep
my soul, keep my heart, keep my life. I don't understand God's providence,
nor do you. And we never will during this
journey. Therefore we may struggle and
fret under his divine providence and under his good work. But
it's his work and we're committed. It's his providence and we'll
surrender. It's his purpose. While we don't
understand it, we don't have mind enough to agree with it
at this present time. But old Eli summed it up for
every one of us. When the Lord spoke to him, through
Samuel about the death of his sons. He said, well, it's the
Lord. Let him do what seemeth him good.
Don't seem good to me, but that's not the issue. But you let him
do what seemeth good to him. I don't know about tomorrow.
It may bring me poverty. But the one who feeds the sparrow
is the one who stands by me. And the path that be my portion,
be it through flame or flood, his promise goes before me. And I'm covered with his blood.
And my life is in his hands. My times are in his hands. It's
his. And it's the Lord. Let him do
what seemeth him good. And that will take care of all
of it. You don't have to understand it. You don't have to. You just
have to believe it. And then I've committed my body
to Him. One of these days, this old tabernacle
tent will be folded up and laid aside. And not very long. But when it is, we have a building.
A house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. A building
of God. And we'll lay aside this old
nakedness and be clothed upon with glory. That'll be wonderful.
And he'll change this old vile body and make it like to his
glorious body. Now the fourth word. I know whom I have believed. That knowledge leads to my confidence
in him. Confident, persuaded. And that
leads to a committal. And that leads to confession.
And Paul said back here in verse 12, because I suffer these things,
nevertheless, I'm not ashamed. I'm not ashamed. I'm not ashamed
to own my Lord, to confess His name. To confess Christ is to
believe His Word and to receive it. That's where you start. You
can't confess what you don't believe. But we believe the Word. I have the glorious privilege
of standing here and confessing openly and publicly ever service
this Word. Abraham believed God. So first
is to believe His Word. Secondly, to confess Christ is
to walk in His Word. Abraham believed God and he went
out, not knowing where. He believed God. He took his
son to sacrifice him. He gave evidence. He walked with
God. Somebody said one time, a man may be truthful and not
be saved. A man may be an honest man outwardly
and not be a believer. But a man can't be a believer
and not be an honest man and truthful man. So God's people
confess Christ by believing His Word, by walking in paths of
godliness and righteousness. And then to confess Christ fourthly
is to be identified with His people. That's what you're doing
right here. You're here with whom you want
to be. This is the company you like
to keep. This is the family with which
you want to be identified. You want to be identified with
the things of God, with the people of God, with the Word of God,
with the worship of God, with the Gospel of God, with the truth
of God. You want everybody to know this.
And these, this word, this gospel, and these people are my people. That's what Ruth said. She said,
entreat me not to leave you. Where you go, I go. Your people
be my people. Where you lodge, I lodge. Your
God be my God. And where you die, I die. And
I'll be buried. That's identification. See? I'm
not ashamed of him. I'm not ashamed of you. I'm not ashamed of you. I've
got some relatives I'm ashamed of. They don't believe the Gospel,
but I'm not ashamed of you. I'm ashamed of Christ. I'd be
ashamed to identify. And then to confess Christ is to follow
Him in baptism. Turn to Acts chapter 8. Acts
chapter 8. When Paul met that Ethiopian
eunuch going from Jerusalem to Ethiopia and preached the Gospel
to him, In Acts chapter 8, verse 12. Or verse, I'm sorry, verse 35. Then Philip, it's Philip met
the Ethiopian eunuch. Then Philip, verse 35, opened
his mouth and began at the same scripture and preached unto him
Jesus. That's what I preach tonight, I preach Christ. And as they
went on their way, they came to a certain water and the eunuch
said, Hey, see, here's water. What does it hinder me to be
baptized? I want to confess Christ. And Philip said, now here's the
way he hedged about baptism. If you believe with all your
heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Jesus the man, the anointed
Messiah, is none other than the Son of God. I believe that. I
do too. And that satisfied Philip. He
commanded the chariot to stand still, and they both went, both
of them, down into the water, for baptism is a burial. It pictures
Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. It pictures my death to the world,
burial, resurrection, and walking in the newness of life. It always
follows believing. You don't baptize anybody but
a believer. The Bible doesn't teach adult baptism necessarily. It teaches believers baptism.
A child may believe, but it doesn't teach infant baptism, because
they can't believe. But that's the one way that Philip
hedged this baptism about. He said, if you believe that
Jesus Christ is the Son of God, in your heart, you may be baptized. He said, I believe that. I believe
Jesus Christ, the Son of God. So he stopped the chariot, and
they both of them went down into the water, both Philip and the
eunuch, and he baptized them. And when they would come up out
of the water, the Spirit of the Lord called Philip away. And
the eunuch saw him no more. But he wasn't trusting Philip.
He didn't need Philip to hang around. He saw him no more. He
went on his way rejoicing. He went with Christ. See? He
didn't need Philip to hold his hand. And he said, Oh, my salvation's
gone. Philip's gone. No, Christ did
my salvation. Not Philip. Philip went his way,
and this man went his way rejoicing, resting in Christ. All right.