2 Timothy

[0:00] Jesus, how heaven is it place where thy dear people wait for thee where the rich fountain of thy grace stands ever open close the face 738, June 385 also

[1:28] CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS

[2:30] CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS

[3:40] CHOIR SINGS May the Lord direct our thoughts to a few words you'll find in the first chapter and the second epistle of Paul to Timothy.

[4:30] The second epistle to Timothy, the first chapter, the twelfth verse. For the which cause I also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I am not ashamed.

[4:49] For I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.

[5:04] It was particularly the second part of this verse which seemed upon my mind to bring to you this evening.

[5:18] I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.

[5:31] There is something wonderfully strengthening and encouraging in the way in which Paul writes to Timothy.

[5:44] Those of us who have had fathers, natural fathers, who have shown a great deal of love and sympathy to us, will understand perhaps how encouraging and strengthening a kind word is.

[6:05] Even naturally, a kind and encouraging sentence may help us in life's troubles. But in regard to the things of our souls, those spiritual matters which lie most closely to us, there is only really one who can encourage.

[6:33] There is only really one source of strength and comfort. Nevertheless, when Paul writes to Timothy, he does speak in a way which I believe the Holy Spirit used to comfort Timothy.

[6:57] He speaks of Timothy's upbringing. He says, I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee. There is no suggestion of a question in Paul's mind as to Timothy's position.

[7:16] He had evidence, you see, and a persuasion in his heart that Timothy was in this condition, that there was unfeigned faith in him.

[7:29] He says, And I believe that that may be a word of counsel to those who are older, to speak very kindly to those who are younger, especially where there are some evidences of God's gracious word.

[7:59] It seemed to me, friends, in days gone by, as I look back upon my early experience in the things of God, that there were some who were only too ready to pour the cold water of doubt and question upon the very first beginnings of hope.

[8:21] I'm thankful, ever thankful, that I had a father who spoke more tenderly than that. I do hope that those of you who have dealings with young people will bear that in mind, that as Paul speaks to Timothy, he does so in a most strengthening and encouraging way.

[8:43] He says, I am persuaded that in thee also. There will be enough to rouse up doubt and question and unbelief in the hearts of these weak believers, these young believers.

[9:00] I'm not suggesting that Timothy was in that sense a weak believer, but he was certainly young in the way compared to the Apostle Paul. And so there is much of encouragement then in this chapter to those, shall we say, in the early part of the life of faith.

[9:22] The Apostle says, I am persuaded. And so often you find that this is the way that Paul speaks. He speaks with such confidence and assurance.

[9:34] And so in this verse, he turns from Timothy's condition and he points out a little of his own condition.

[9:49] He says, I also suffer. Of course we know that he was suffering as he wrote this epistle. We know from the later chapters that he was very near to the end of his journey.

[10:07] In the fourth chapter he says, I am now ready to be offered. The time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight.

[10:20] I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto all them also that love his appearing.

[10:43] But for the time being he suffers. He suffers for the sake of the gospel. But he says, I am not ashamed. I am not ashamed.

[10:55] There is much, he says, in this sense that would discourage. There is much that he is experiencing which if he had been left to natural reason would have made him say, well, everything must be wrong.

[11:10] He was in prison in Rome. And it would appear that on this occasion, I believe the second occasion that he was imprisoned at Rome. His condition was far different to the first occasion when he was imprisoned in Rome.

[11:26] Not now enjoying that same liberty which he had enjoyed before and with the imminent threat of death before him and no hope of escape.

[11:41] Now that was his position. I suffer. He says, I suffer these things for a good cause though. Now he had a good conscience on that point.

[11:55] He was suffering for a good cause. For the which cause? The cause of the gospel. The cause which he speaks about in the previous verse. I am appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles.

[12:11] Nevertheless, I am not ashamed. That word ashamed there means more than just a sort of blushing embarrassment that we might associate with the word ashamed.

[12:25] He means that there is nothing that has happened that makes him ashamed of his profession so as to want to turn away from the things which he has been preaching and teaching.

[12:38] There is nothing, he says, really in this word, nothing that has come to pass in my life which make me regret the way that I have taken, the way of faith and hope in Christ, the way of obedience to Christ's command and the preaching of the gospel.

[12:55] I am not ashamed. And because trouble has come upon me because of the things which I have been doing, preaching and teaching, we are not to suggest that he was in any way overwhelmed by these troubles.

[13:14] Rather, it seems the reverse. That his faith is most wonderfully strengthened in the midst of this time of trouble. And his confidence grows and shines even more brightly when the circumstances are most painfully opposed to him.

[13:34] I am not ashamed. You know, it is in times of trouble and distress, in times of distress and trouble such as the apostle was suffering from, when for the truth's sake we may be in distress.

[13:53] It is at such times as that that Satan is so busy suggesting, well then, if this is right, why has God allowed the trouble to come?

[14:04] He might well have come to Paul for all we know and have said to him, well now, there you are. If you thought you were doing what was right, then surely God would give you liberty.

[14:18] Surely he wouldn't let you be brought to Rome like this and be in prison. And you know, left to our human, fallible, weak understanding of things, we should surely turn and say, well, that must be right.

[14:35] There's something, there's something wrong. God can't be what I thought he was. God can't be as great and as mighty and as powerful and as gracious as I once thought he was.

[14:50] Now that's becoming a shame, to be ashamed in such a way as to turn from those convictions that were formerly held, to turn from that faith in Christ and in God.

[15:11] He says, I am not ashamed. Friends, that's a wonderful thing that the Apostle Paul should be in such great suffering and yet say, I am not ashamed.

[15:25] Though everything seems against him, yet he says, no. No. We should remember that the Apostle was not claiming here that he had nothing to be ashamed of in a personal sense.

[15:42] That's a different matter altogether. The Apostle's not speaking here of a sense of shame for his own personal shortcomings and sin. That he does very often in other places, but here he is speaking of the things for which he has been apprehended.

[16:05] The things for which he suffered. He says, regarding those things, there is nothing in what I have taught, nothing in what I have been teaching the Gentiles of which I am in the least ashamed.

[16:19] for I know whom I have believed. This is a sublime and blessed confession, friend, in the time of great suffering.

[16:39] Now I expect that in your hearts, like it is in mine sometimes, you read through verses like this and you think, well now of course that was the apostle, he was in great trouble, he was a great saint, he was an apostle, he was wonderfully blessed of God and by the time you've said all that, you've gone on to the next verse.

[17:03] There's something really inside you that's been saying, well of course I just don't understand things like that. This is an experience that is not mine.

[17:15] Indeed, you know, there is that at work in our hearts sometimes that would make us turn from every statement of scripture which has in it this holy boldness and confidence.

[17:30] But I want just to, as it were, give a kindly warning from my own experience of these things. There are two great sources of trouble in a believer's life.

[17:49] One is his deceitful heart and the other is a deceitful devil. And those two great forces will be ever trying to cheat the believer out of any comfort.

[18:03] The devil will use any trick and every trick that he knows to try and prevent the souls of God's people from deriving any comfort from the blessed word of truth.

[18:17] And if he can turn your attention from the word in any aspect of it, he will. And if he can use any argument, he will. And one of the arguments that he has often used, I believe, with the people of God is this argument.

[18:36] Well, of course, the apostle was so great a man, so wonderfully blessed. He was a man who was so blessed with that measure of the Holy Spirit that we just can't attain to these things.

[18:55] Now, friend, don't think I'm suggesting for a moment that the apostle was less than what I've described. He was greatly blessed. He was. All those things that I said, he stands as a burning and a shining light in the record of God's Word as he was blessed of the Spirit.

[19:16] In fact, there is no other life, it seems to me, in the New Testament of which we have a greater knowledge, a greater amount of history than the life of the apostle Paul.

[19:32] That is, apart from the Lord Jesus himself. you know, these words are not just written that we might admire, as it were, from the distance, the experience of a great man of God.

[19:53] These words are written for our instruction. They are written, inspired by the Holy Spirit, to be on record down through the ages of the world's history, salvation, to be a source of instruction and profit to the people of God.

[20:13] And when unbelief and Satan join hand in hand to try and divert your attention from such words as these, when they join hand in hand and try and tell you that you, a poor, weak, nobody compared with the apostle Paul, shouldn't even look at things like this, because you can't understand these wonderful mysteries.

[20:40] I believe we should be warned by this. And if my words this evening, friends, do nothing else, I hope they might encourage, encourage your hearts to go back again to the word of God, to go back prayerfully to these very words and look at them slowly.

[21:06] I know whom I have believed. Now, friends, I believe that this is the experience of every true believer.

[21:21] I'm not saying that every true believer will always be able to say this, but I believe it is the experience of every true believer, because you don't believe in something that you know nothing about.

[21:38] It would be folly to suggest that I should trust anything to a person I knew nothing at all about. I wouldn't even trust ten shillings to a person I knew nothing about.

[21:51] We don't. It's absolutely contrary to our natural understanding of things. It certainly is so in spiritual things. How much more so, friend, when the thing which is being spoken about in this verse is eternity and a never-dying soul.

[22:12] We don't commit the keeping of our souls to someone that we know nothing about. And so I say, friends, that every true believer knows in whom he believes.

[22:26] It is absolutely essential that by the teaching of God the Holy Ghost, a person shall know something before they can believe.

[22:40] Faith cometh by hearing, says the apostle, and hearing by the word of God. How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?

[22:51] And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? Why, friends, I believe this lies as the foundation, as it were, behind the epistles of Paul.

[23:08] He writes epistles to teach, to set before the people the precious truth of God. He knows that it is only as they are taught the truth that they can know anything of a certainty.

[23:25] It is only as we are taught things. It is only as God by his blessed spirit reveals to us certain things that we can believe in them, particularly in regard to the person of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

[23:44] We can't believe in Christ, friends, if we know nothing about him. I believe that lies at the root of the folly of so much so-called evangelism today.

[23:57] People are called to believe. They've never been told anything about the one they're called to believe in. They've never been taught what he is or who he is.

[24:11] We don't believe and we shall not believe in a true and spiritual way, friends, until we know something. I know whom I have believed.

[24:28] I thought of this in a very simple way. My little boy came to me not so long ago and he had one of his little treasures in his hand, a worthless thing, I suppose you would count it to be, but to him it was important.

[24:45] And he ran up to me and said, Daddy, will you keep that for me? No, he did it because he relied on me. He knew me.

[24:57] And he knew that if he asked me to do this, I would do it for him. He trusted me. Now, I believe the apostle is saying something as simple as that, really.

[25:11] He says, I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.

[25:24] Now, friends, what are these things or these characteristics that the apostle knew about which caused him to feel as strongly as he did?

[25:39] He must have seen something with the eye of faith. He must have seen something with that inner and spiritual understanding which caused him at the very first to go to the one he saw and commit to him this great matter.

[26:02] Let me turn the question in a more personal way. What have you seen in the person of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ which has caused you to go to him?

[26:18] I know whom I have believed. Now, friends, this is a very personal matter. The apostle has to speak personally because as he tells those at Corinth, this matter is essentially personal.

[26:38] He says, What man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of a man which is in him? This is personal. It's only the spirit of a man that's in him that can know these things.

[26:54] Now, he says, I know. It is a matter of personal conviction with me. I know whom I have believed. I believe this lies at the very ground, at the very foundation of the beginning of true faith in the soul of God's people.

[27:22] There must be a revelation of Christ. There must be a divine teaching so that they shall see with that inner eye such things in Christ as strengthen them and draw them and encourage them to him to cast all upon him.

[27:42] I know whom I have believed. Now, what is a testimony then of God's word regarding these things?

[28:00] Well, if you look in the very first part of this chapter, you'll see some of the things which the apostle knows about. he knows Christ Jesus.

[28:14] He knows him as a person and he knows him as a divine person. They breathe through the life and testimony of the apostle Paul this utter conviction that Christ is God.

[28:31] The hymn writer puts it like this, that Christ is God. I can avouch and for his people cares for I have prayed to him as such and he has heard my prayer.

[28:45] Now, that man knew that Christ was God. The apostle Paul knew Christ as God. He says, as the Holy Spirit strikes him down upon Damascus road and that light shines from heaven, who art thou?

[29:05] Lord. I believe his own question carries its own answer. Who art thou, Lord? He knew that the one who appeared to him was Lord.

[29:21] He had an answer, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. Now, in that experience, I believe the apostle was deeply and truly persuaded that Christ was God, that Christ is Lord.

[29:47] Now, friend, I could not believe, I could not trust, I could not rest or rely upon one who was less than God in regard to matters eternal and spiritual.

[30:00] Could you? it is utterly beyond my comprehension how many can commit their spiritual concerns into the hands of a sinful man.

[30:15] We have no priest but Christ and no mediator but the Savior. There is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.

[30:29] I dare not trust the keeping of my soul into the hand of one who was less than God. All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth, he said.

[30:42] Now, I know, friend, that Jesus Christ has all power. Just as the apostle knew this, there are certain things, I believe, which will be deeply embedded in the convictions of these people.

[30:58] They will know without a shadow of a doubt that certain things are true concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. And whatever men may say against him and against the truth as we have it in the scripture, they are deeply persuaded concerning the man Christ Jesus.

[31:21] I know who he is and I know what he is and I know what he has done.

[31:32] Now, there is another point, friend. We not only know who he is, where he came from, what he was as the God man, as God manifest in the flesh, as the Father's blessed gift coming into the world, but we also know he comes into the world to save sinners.

[31:59] God sent his own beloved son into the world, says the apostle, to save sinners, of whom I am chief. I know whom I have believed.

[32:16] You know, friends, there are certain things about the character of the Lord Jesus Christ, which make this so attractive. The apostle knew not only that he was the God man, not only that he came from God and went to God, not only that he gave his life a ransom for men, but he knew something about the sacred character of Christ, as a man full of grace, as one full of compassion and love and tenderness.

[32:53] I know. My little boy who came and asked me to look after this treasure for him, he knew.

[33:06] He knew something about me. He knew something about my feelings toward him, and that encouraged him to come.

[33:18] Now if I had been a severe, harsh, bitter man with my children, if I had kept my children always at a distance, the sort of fathers we read about, I suppose, in story books, well I imagine that those children of those families would never dare approach their father.

[33:41] father would be in the study, and the children would be in the playroom, and never the twain should meet. But not so today, friend, and a good thing too.

[33:58] Not so in regard to the apostles feeling toward the Lord, I know whom I have believed. And springing out of this, he says, I know whom I have believed.

[34:16] The margin renders the word trusted. I know whom I have trusted. Now friends, the knowledge that the apostle speaks of here is a knowledge of Christ.

[34:34] But there is something ever joined to this knowledge in the experience of the apostle, and it's this, knowing he trusts.

[34:46] Now that would distinguish for us two kinds of knowledge. There is a knowledge which doesn't affect a person, a knowledge which doesn't affect a person's heart.

[35:00] A mere knowledge of certain facts, of certain truths, never sinks down into the heart so as to affect that person. But the knowledge that the apostle had was a knowledge which affected his innermost being.

[35:16] He says, I know, then he says, I have believed. Built then upon the knowledge which the Holy Ghost had given to the apostle was this trust.

[35:31] I trust, says the apostle, I lean upon a foundation. Or to use another illustration, from the family, unlike a little child that runs to its parent and flings itself into the arms of the parent in a time of trouble and need or fear and distress, I know, and that knowledge causes that little child to run immediately to its parent.

[36:03] I know whom I have believed. Those are very helpful words in that second chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians.

[36:18] In the twelfth verse we read, we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us, of God.

[36:34] Now there's the secret of it, the secret is in the blessing of God the Holy Ghost, it is in the work of the Holy Spirit, I know whom I have believed.

[36:51] Now let me ask another personal question for this is a very personal matter, can you say that? You say again, you might turn to me, well, this was the Apostle Paul, you shouldn't expect us to say things like the Apostle Paul, we're so different to him.

[37:14] Now friends, can you say that? I know whom I have believed, because if you can't there's something sadly wrong. You cannot have any comfort in regard to time or eternity in spiritual matters, unless you can.

[37:36] If there isn't that knowledge which with real conviction lies in your heart and has drawn you to Christ the sinner's friend, then friends you are yet unsaved.

[37:50] I must be faithful on this matter. There are none saved out of Christ, and there are none but those who do believe who are saved. I know whom I have believed.

[38:08] This is one of the most fundamental, elementary things in regard to the life of God's people. It's the very beginning of their life.

[38:21] Is this believing? You see how often in preaching the apostles began like that.

[38:33] Repent, believe, repent, believe. John came preaching the baptism of repentance.

[38:44] Christ came preaching the kingdom, saying repent ye and believe the gospel. I know whom I have believed. Let me look at it in the opposite sense.

[39:03] Unbelief says, no, I don't receive the things which scripture teaches. Unbelief starts right at the bottom. It doesn't believe the word of God.

[39:17] God. It doesn't believe the word of the gospel. It doesn't believe that Christ is God. Now, how stands the case with us?

[39:32] Are we believers or unbelievers? I know whom I have believed. Now, unbelievers never go to heaven.

[39:47] that is, as unbelievers, never. I know whom I have believed.

[40:01] Now, let me turn in a slightly different way to this word and put it like this. I say that this is elementary and fundamental in the life of God's people.

[40:14] unbelief. But the devil and your heart will try and cheat you out of this. Unbelief will ever be working in your heart to say, now, are you sure?

[40:26] Are you sure that that really is so? Do you really know? Have you really believed? Have you believed in the way in which God's people believe? If this matter is so important, then is it really right with you?

[40:40] Now, friends, I believe that Satan sometime with his work like this drives us into a corner and when he has driven us into a corner, what shall we say?

[40:55] We shall say this, I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. Now, I know there's nothing in me.

[41:06] I know there's no hope in me. I know there's no hope in anyone else except the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. I know there's no other safety but safety in him.

[41:21] And I know, I know in whom I have believed and I know whom I now believe. I know who I'm trusting in. Now, friends, I believe sometimes we sadly dishonour and sin against our Lord by hesitating in this matter.

[41:43] I know who I believe in. Very simple. But, friends, I believe a very blessed confession of hope in the name of Christ and in the Saviour.

[41:57] I know whom I have believed and I know who I am trusting. I know this, friends, that the one in whom I believe has said that he will never let those who trust in him be put to confusion.

[42:17] And however hard the devil may try, and however hard my evil heart may try, and however hard men may try, they cannot cheat you out of this.

[42:29] No. What man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of a man which is in him? We have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

[42:46] I know whom I have believed. But then the apostle goes on a little further and he says, I am persuaded that he is able.

[43:01] I know the knowledge which he had at the first end, drew him under the blessed leading and encouragement of the spirit.

[43:12] It drew him as he trusted in the Lord, and now he says, I am persuaded. Now I believe that the most weak and feeble of God's people can say that.

[43:30] I am persuaded that he is able. They may be questioning his willingness. I'll deal with that in a minute.

[43:44] But they know in their hearts that he is able. I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.

[43:57] Now friend, can we not say I am persuaded that he is able to keep whatever is committed to him? Just as a kind human father will keep the little treasure that the child places in his hand, he'll put it in a safe place perhaps, and there it will be when the child comes back for it.

[44:24] He's able to keep it. Now friend, this is a most solemn sacred matter. It's a solemn sacred transaction between God and the soul of a sinner.

[44:40] It's a thing which you cannot pass through without knowing about it, friend. I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.

[44:56] Now friends, I believe that I have committed the keeping of my soul unto him as unto a faithful creator. You look as the apostle Peter speaks of it.

[45:13] He says, Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him.

[45:24] in well doing as unto a faithful creator. And there was another man who knew what it was in the time of his suffering to commit his soul.

[45:37] By that I believe he means everything. Not only his soul but everything. He commits his whole life, his life temporal, his life eternal, everything.

[45:51] he commits into the hands of this faithful creator. Now friends, what a sacred matter this is.

[46:03] I am persuaded that he is able to keep. I am persuaded that this gracious God in the person of his son is able to keep the soul, to guard the soul of all those who commit the keeping of their soul unto him.

[46:25] And not one of those who do so commit the keeping of their souls to him can ever be lost. Now what a wonderful thing that is. Now if my little boy came to me and said, Daddy will you keep that for me?

[46:41] And he came back a few minutes later and he said, Daddy have you got that that I gave you? And you said, no, I've forgotten where it went. Or no, I've lost it. And that happened two or three times.

[46:53] I rather think the little child would lose confidence. Now the apostle had not lost confidence, had he? No, he says, I am persuaded.

[47:06] And so I believe in our heart there is that by the blessing of God which witnesses to this truth that God doesn't forget.

[47:18] God doesn't neglect that which is committed to him. He doesn't forget about it. He can never lose it. I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.

[47:37] God will be. If you want the other side of the truth, you see it in the words of Christ when he says, all that the father giveth me shall come to me.

[47:49] Now there you see something that happened long before the apostle committed anything to Christ. You see the father committing the soul of the apostle to Christ the Savior all that the father giveth me.

[48:10] Now that's a wonderful truth which I hope God may show you if not now later on and persuade you of the blessedness of him.

[48:22] But the present experience may simply be this and him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out. Now what is this coming to Christ for?

[48:34] It's not just coming for temporal deliverance. It's not just coming to Christ for natural blessing. It may well be that as well but it's coming to him in the matter of our soul.

[48:51] It's coming to him with a burden. It's coming to him with something that we can't do. It's coming to him with our sinful hearts.

[49:02] Our wicked nature our great need coming to him and him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out.

[49:13] I'm persuaded says the apostle. He is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. Now let me say friends that anything less than that is just downright unbelief.

[49:26] it is. If we say that we are not persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him then it's blasphemy and it shows that we are not true believers.

[49:44] I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him.

[50:05] Do we know about this? Not just once in our lives but repeatedly and especially in times of danger and need and trouble as the Lord brought you back recently friend to that point in your soul's experience where you once again as it were have to lay everything before the Lord and say Lord here I am a poor weak helpless creature I am oppressed says Hezekiah undertake for me you ever prayed a prayer like that?

[50:43] Why then you are one of these people you have committed unto him something you know very well you can't bear it yourself he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day I wonder what day this is that the apostle speaks of against that day well I suppose there is one day which looms large upon the horizon in the time of a soul's great need and that is the day of death or the day of judgment so far as I can view it in scripture the two are the same the day of death and the day of judgment this is the great day a solemn and terrible day it will be for some but not for those who walk this path

[51:52] I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day you know friends there will be no confusion in the hearts of God's people in that day though it will be wild confusion everywhere else bold shall I stand in that great day says the hymn writer bold that which I have committed unto him against that day won't slip out of his hands in the day of judgment friend there's nothing if I might speak figuratively that slips through the fingers of the Lord in that great day if it was left to us why friend we would make shipwreck every day I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which

[52:57] I have committed unto him against that day but now I must just come back to this I hinted earlier that there may be someone who says well I am deeply persuaded that he is able and I know that I have in my utter need I was going to say in desperation well it is like that in soul desperation in absolute need I have committed unto him everything but all this troubles me is he willing to receive is he willing to receive why friend I believe the whole of God gracious revelation of the gospel assures a sinner in that state that he is willing he is willing to receive how many invitations did the Lord address to his hearers and how free and gracious they are come unto me he says all ye that labor and are heavy laden could he be unwilling to receive a burden soul him that cometh unto me

[54:12] I will in no wise cast out is there any hint of the least unwillingness to receive the dying thief makes his appeal in the hour of his desperation in the hour of his terrible need and grave danger Lord remember me a wicked man he was the one beside him he says had done nothing amiss but he knew in his heart he deserved to be where he was but was the Lord unwilling to receive him no he is able to keep and if there is anyone here this evening who may be troubled in this matter as to the Lord's willingness to receive may the word of Christ himself be your assurance we have no other assurance but the word and promise of Christ that him that cometh to him he will in no wise cast out friends I am as persuaded that he is able to keep as I am persuaded that he is willing to receive that which

[55:32] I have committed unto him against that day the wonderful gospel is the gospel of the grace of God oh think of that the grace of God I know then whom I have believed my mind went in this connection to the epistle of John the first epistle of John this wonderful confidence that the apostle expresses in these words is reflected also in John's epistle he says hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his spirit and we have seen and do testify that the father sent the son to be the savior of the world whosoever shall confess that

[56:34] Jesus is the son of God God dwelleth in him and he in God and we have known and believe the love that God hath to us God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him the fifth chapter he says by this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments a little later these things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the son of God it's the same word you see trust believe to them that believe on the name of the son of God that ye may know says John that ye may know that ye have eternal life that ye may believe that is go on believing on the name of the son of

[57:37] God a wonderful verse that is these things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the son of God that ye may know that ye have eternal life and that ye may believe on the name of the son of God a little later he says and we know that we are of God and the whole world lieth in wickedness and we know that the son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true and we are in him that is true even in his son Jesus Christ this is the true God and eternal life and that was the confidence that John enjoyed in this God whom he knew whom he knew in the person of Christ the Saviour in whom he trusted blessed is the man that trusteth in the

[58:44] Lord for says the apostle I know whom I have believed now friends as I said you may not always be able to repeat these words with the same measure of feeling of assurance but I believe that the Holy Spirit has brought me back to such parts of scripture as these more than once in my life he has brought me back to them like this now look at this what do you know about this I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day no friends if you try and drive a wedge into that verse you destroy the very ground of the hope of God's people this is the confidence that we have in him that he heareth us

[59:52] I know whom I have believed humanly speaking we would say I know a thing because I've seen it with my natural eyes seeing is believing that's what we say naturally which is a very foolish saying when you think about it because seeing isn't believing believing in scripture is hoping in that which we don't see it's trusting in one we don't see with our natural eye the things which are eternal are things which we can't see with the natural eye says Isaiah I hath not seen nor heard neither hath entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that wait for him I know whom I have believed and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day may the

[60:59] Lord add his blessing Lord will pray on next week and next week and let's go to hymn number 1059 hymn hymn hymn 17 jesus the truth the way to the sure honoring life on thee my feeble soul I stay for thou can see the life hymn by that me ten hundred and fifty nine years i've happened

[62:00] From blessed Spe frente to heaven, let the starved glory be white again.

[62:18] I delight thee, and so I stay, where's the rest behind?

[62:37] I delight thee, and so I stay, where's the rest behind?

[63:07] I delight thee, and so I stay, where's the rest behind?

[63:37] I delight thee, and so I stay, where's the rest behind? I delight thee, and so I stay, where's the rest behind? I delight thee, and so I stay, where's the rest behind?

[63:49] I delight thee, and so I stay, where's the rest behind? I delight thee, and so I stay, where's the rest behind? I delight thee, and so I stay, where's the rest behind?

[64:03] I delight thee, and so I stay, where's the rest behind? I delight thee, and so I stay, where's the rest behind? I delight thee, and so I stay, where's the rest behind?

[64:15] I delight thee, and so I stay, where's the rest behind? I delight thee, and so I stay, where's the rest behind? I delight thee, and so I stay, where's the rest behind?

[64:27] I delight thee, and so I stay, where's the rest behind? I delight thee, and so I stay, where's the rest behind? I delight thee, and so I stay, where's the rest behind? O God, O God, O God, O God, O God.

[65:05] The End Oh Lord, Ignite the Apartment.

[66:05] Игр – Thank you.