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294.
Reading verse 40, Lord.
Enlarge our scanty thought to know the wonders thou hast wrought. Unloose our stammering tongues to tell thy love immense.
Unsearchable.
294.
Some comments on the last part of our chapter, but.
Just so John doesn't have to begin reading in the middle of a sentence, perhaps it would be good to read from verse 8, but we've made comments on.
Some of these verses, but as I say, it's all part of the same sentence, so it will give them thought, but I think it'd be nice to go down these last few verses if we can.
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Second Timothy, chapter one and verse 8.
You're not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel, according to the power of God, who has saved us.
And called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.
What is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ?
Who has abolished death and has brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel?
Where unto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles, for the which 'cause I also suffer these things, nevertheless I am not ashamed.
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.
Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus.
That good thing which was committed unto the key by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in US.
This thou know us, that all they which are in age you be turned away from me, of whom are if I jealous and homogeneous. The Lord give mercy under the House of Onosepras, for He will OFT refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain. But when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently and found me the Lord. Grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day.
And then how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus, thou knowest very well.
Like to just make a comment or two to bridge what we had before us this morning and what we have in these verses that follow. Or at least something of what we have. And that is to reinforce that when you read the life and ministry of the Apostle Paul, you realize that Paul after he was saved on the Damascus Rd. he lived in view of another world. You say as you we read the 2nd epistle.
Why? Why was it that Paul wasn't discouraged at the end?
Things were pretty bleak, outwardly speaking. All had turned away from him.
There were, as we said earlier in these meetings, just a few names that he could commend. Some had turned away that are named like Dimas and so on. Why wasn't Paul completely discouraged at the end of his ministry?
Because he was living as we have here in view of that day.
He knew that there was something else, another world. The stories been told before, but I think it bears repeating.
About William Kelly, whose commentaries many of us have en enjoyed and and read.
But William Kelly, I believe it was his nephew, he had a nephew who went off to one of the great universities in England at the time.
And he well, among other things, he was studying Greek. And the professor realized very quickly that this young man must be getting some tutoring in his Greek over and above what was being taught at the university.
Because he was excelling in his studies. And so he was questioned about it. And he was told that yes, indeed, his uncle William was tutoring him in Greek. And the professor and the Dean of the college, the university made an appointment to have an interview with William Kelly. And the Dean of the college was astounded in the presence of one of the great minds of England at that time. And finally he leaned across his desk and he said, Mr. Kelly.
You could be a great man in this world and Mr. Kelly looked him straight in the eye and he said.
Which world? And that's really what we have with Paul. He had a vision. Well, he'd been caught up there. He had more than vision. But he it's like that verse in Proverbs that says where no vision is, the people perish.
And in taking up a chapter like this or an epistle like this, brethren, if we can just get a vision of what's ahead.
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These things that we have spoken of, that were characteristic of Paul, that he sought to impress upon Timothy as he passed the torch to him and was about to pass off the scene, these things will become.
A reality in our lives, not just something we merely enumerate as one of the doctrines and the practical truth of the Word of God.
But I was thinking too, in connection with what was said this morning of Moses.
You know Moses first of all. He was a man when he came out of the palace, who was mighty in words and deeds.
But that wasn't the kind of material God could use. He had to spend 40 years in the backside of the desert in the school of God. And when he came out of that, what did he say to the Lord at the burning Bush? Well, I can't win. I can't even speak well in our modern language. He was basically saying, I stutter and stammer and I can't put words together. How do you expect me to go in and talk to Pharaoh? That wasn't the Moses you found 40 years before. He was afraid in the one of the senses in which Brother Bill was bringing before us this morning.
But he was now the material God could use. It wasn't the material God could use when he was mighty in words and deeds of the Egyptians and the schools of men.
But now he was the kind of material God could use, because he was going to have to go forth independence.
But you know, when you come to Hebrews, there's some interesting statements made about Moses. It says he endured us seeing him who is invisible. He lived in view of another world.
He esteemed the reproaches of Christ greater than the treasures of Egypt, because.
He had recompense unto the reward. He was. He had something else in view. Was it easy? No, even His own brethren spoke of stoning Him. It wasn't easy, as we said this morning. Was it worth it? Ask Him in a coming day. Later on He stood on the Mount of Transfiguration with the Lord, with the glory of Egypt, and it was a glorious nation at that time. Was the glory of Egypt worthy to be compared to the glory?
Of the Mount of Transfiguration, Is the glory of Egypt worthy to be compared with what's ahead for you and for me? Anything in this world, Paul. When he got saved, he left those things behind that he once counted dear. The things he wants that he once thought gave him status religiously, socially, and every other way. They were nothing. Why? Because he had found something better.
His desire was to win Christ. He had the prize before him, and he was living in view of that day. And that's why he could say that he knew whom he had believed, and was persuaded that he was able to keep that which I he committed unto him against that day. And, brethren, we need to live in view of eternity.
As Dawn was saying in the address.
It was impossible, in one sense, for those in the Old Testament to have the viewpoint that you and I do.
It's true that, as we've been hearing from Hebrews, Moses endured as seeing him who is invisible.
And it's true that men like Abraham looked for a city which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God, but I would suggest that their thoughts of that were very dim and very imperfect compared to what you and I know.
Why is that?
Because what we have in verse 10 here brings before us what God has done.
The appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, that's not his appearing in the coming day, that's his appearing on this earth as a man. And what was the result of that? Perhaps a better word is annulled. Death. In one sense, death has not yet been abolished.
If you and I are left here at some point, if the Lord doesn't come, we will have to pass through death. It will be abolished in the coming day. The last enemy that will be destroyed tells us in First Corinthians 15 is death, but God has annulled death.
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You and I can now look upon death as that which is ours.
Death is ours. Why? Because God has brought, as it says in the end of the verse, life. And although immortality perhaps is all right of a word, the Darby translation reads incorruptibility brought life and incorruptibility to light through the gospel.
It has often been mentioned before that every Old Testament Satan, no matter how godly.
Did not really know where he was going when he died.
They knew about resurrection, they could trust God, but they did not really know where they were going. But now God has brought it all to light, brought to light the fact that not only do you and I have life in Christ, but in corruptibility. That is, there is every reason to expect that all of those in this room may well be caught up.
To meet the Lord in the air without having to go through death, without having to to see, as it were, those bodies facing corruption. It's been brought to light through the gospel. So your vision and mind is is in a Vista, if you like, that none before this dispensation of grace could ever have. And God as it were, says to you and me, even in these last days when yes.
There are difficulties, yes. There is a giving up, yes. The last days are characterized by many, many things that are very sad. God says, as it were, come up and get the viewpoint from the position where you really belong.
Because it's all been manifested by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Nulled that you put in place of abolished. Well that's what I suggest it's it's a it's a good word. Would you agree with that Yeah I, I sometimes render useless or inactive. It's the same type of thing that, uh, to the Christian because of eternal life and I just I just didn't hear it real clear it was all Bill that's why I asked there and I know it's a good word yes it's because sin death still exists in this world is an actual fact we die.
But uh.
The power of death is has been taken away, hasn't it? Looked at us, Hebrews, chapter 2.
For another related part of it.
In verse 14 it says Hebrews 214 For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He's the Lord. Jesus also Himself likewise took part of the same.
That through death he might destroy him. That had the power of death. That is the devil. So the one that had the power of death is destroyed. The word there is an old as well, because Satan still operates in this world, but his power has been annulled. It's no longer a valid power. And we recognize that. So that's beautiful because I remember somebody using the illustration of David when he went.
Down into the valley of Elah to fight with Goliath. And of course he brought him down with his stone from his sling. But when he ran down into the valley, he stood right on top of Goliath, and he drew Goliath's sword out of his sheath and cut his own head off with his own sword. That's the picture we have. Through death. The Lord Jesus went into death. He tasted death. He knew what death was in this awful reality.
But since he went into death, he destroyed or annulled him that had the power of death.
Here in our chapter he has an old death and then back. I think you mentioned that bill in chapter 15 of Revelation First Corinthians. It says in verse 26 and it's talking about a future day.
Actually, it has its fulfillment in in Revelation at the end of the 20th chapter, the last.
Enemy that shall be destroyed is that but for us right now.
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In the same 15th chapter First Corinthians, it says in verse 55.
Oh, death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.
So the sting of death is already gone.
Good illustration of it. When Israel crossed the Jordan River, Bill mentioned yesterday afternoon that it went all the way back to the city of Adam and what that represents.
Adams, But the city of Adam is apparently about 30 miles north of where they crossed the river. And the picture is they crossed the river on dry land and they did not see any water at all.
That's the annulment of the power of death when they went through with him.
The arc went in first, and then there was the dry land. And that dry land was the work of God was of such power that when they went through, they didn't see any water at all. All the water that was there at that time had flowed downriver and the stopping of the water was totally out of their sight 30 miles north. And God now uses death as an instrument of good for us.
But its power to harm us is is done.
And that's why in First Corinthians 15 and other places, it's referred to as sleep for the believer. We lie down and go to sleep. We have every expectation that in the normal course of things, it's only a temporary thing. And in a while, after our bodies have had sufficient rest, we rise up and we go on our way. So death is of even those, the Saints of God, who passed through physical death. It is.
A very temporary thing, and while waiting for the resurrection, they're absent from the body and present with the Lord, which, as Paul said, is far better.
We have a living picture when the Lord Jesus raised Lazarus from the among the dead and he was already four days in the grave.
And later on we read that the layer table with the Lord Jesus and.
As though there had nothing happened to him and but we do not read anything that he was saying. He did not tell anybody what he went through during that time where he was dead and his thoughts or anything he saw.
We would have liked to know how that was, but we are not told it. But the reality is there that he was dead for four days and that he was put alive again by the power of the Lord Jesus.
Certainly.
Well worth repeating in verse 12.
It does not say I know what I have believed.
It says I know whom I.
And all the peace and the joy in our souls is not dependent so much on what we know, although we do need to know sound teaching. It's very important to know it. But when it comes down to the persuasion of the soul, it's.
Whom is everything? The person that we believe in.
And trust in and have rested our souls upon is what we need.
Before we go on, we just to come in a little bit more on that verse 10. I think you mentioned that Bill, didn't you the is brought life and in corrupt ability to light through the gospel. Would you open that up a little bit more?
Will you go ahead, Bob I?
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My thought on it is just fairly simple as I expressed it that.
There was, as we know, life in those Old Testament believers, but it wasn't in that sense, and we don't want to make it complicated. It wasn't the kind of life such as, if I may say so, that dawn was bringing us to see. In John's Gospel, chapter 3, the Lord Jesus talked of heavenly things. He talked of eternal life, a life lived out in the power of the Spirit of God.
A life that now has its horizons beyond this world and looks to heavenly things. And what is characteristic of that life? The constant, immediate expectation of the Lord's coming. And so the Lord Jesus could say, for example, at the grave of Lazarus, he that liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believeth thou this he says to Martha. And Martha realizes that she's a little out of her depth in that conversation.
Why? Because it was something that could only be apprehended by seeing beyond all that God had revealed in the Old Testament and was going to bring out in the dispensation of grace.
Go ahead Bob, you must have some large thoughts on that. I don't know, I just enjoy it. It's been said that life is for the soul and incorruptibility is for the body and both things have been brought to light, you know, in the Lord Jesus rose and that first Lord's Day he breathed on them and said receive Holy Spirit.
It was.
Imparting life in resurrection in a way that had never been known before. It was like God in chapter 2 of Genesis. When he made man, He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul. That was the first creation, now the Lord Jesus in resurrection.
In new creation because the Lord Jesus and resurrection is head of a new creation breeze on them.
Life in resurrection by the power of the Holy Spirit and life in resurrection. The Lord Jesus said a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see me have. It's not fresh in blood. It's flesh and bones because life and resurrection is by the power of the Spirit of God. So he breathed on them.
The Holy Spirit, and I think that's the thought of eternal life. Eternal life is the.
Knowledge of God, the full revelation that we now have because of the Lord Jesus and because.
Of his finished work on the cross. We know God. So the Lord Jesus says in John 17 this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. What is eternal life? We always think of it as a life that goes on and on forever. That's true, but that's not the full sense of it. It's the knowledge, the full revelation of all that God is.
We have it now because of the Lord Jesus, because of that finished work. And now the Lord Jesus in resurrection imparts life through the Spirit of God. He communicates that risen, that resurrection life, and that's the life we have now. It's the life that cannot die, this body I live in.
Is subject to death because it's part of the first creation.
But the life I have in Christ is a life that can never die. Isn't that wonderful, brethren? You realize that we are possessors of that life. He's brought to light through the gospel life and in corruptibility because in that creation, that new creation to the Lord, Jesus is already head of. When he comes again to rapturous home, these bodies are going to be transformed. You can't go to heaven with that body you have on right now.
It's got to be transformed and it's going to transform these physical bodies to be bodies like his body of glory. So it's a body that cannot be corrupted. It's in First Corinthians 15. It's incorruptible, it's immortal, no longer possible for anyone in that, in that resurrection sphere to experience sickness or or death, Absolutely impossible.
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That's what he has brought to light through the gospel. Wonderful to realize down here we suffer sickness and we struggle with it, and we feel for those that are passing through special trials. But brethren, we're soon going to be in a sphere where life and incorruptible incorruptibility will be in their full.
Enjoyment, we can enjoy that right now because we have that new life right now we still lack the redemption of the body, but he has brought it to light through the Gospel wonderful revelation that we have because of the work of the Lord Jesus. And just to say one quick.
After one.
First John, chapter one.
First John. The epistle of First John gives us in significant detail what the life is.
To see it in its various aspects, read first John. And so it begins in verse two or verse one. That which was from the beginning which we have heard, which we have seen, the beginning here is the beginning of the Incarnation.
Of that which presents eternal life to us, We didn't know it in our chapter until the appearing. He had to come, who had to come.
That eternal life had to come among us, and so that which is seen with our eyes, John says, That which we have looked upon, our hands have handled.
Of the word of life. For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us. Why was it manifested? How did we see it? Why did man never have a revelation of it before? Because it had never come to earth. And the person of the one who displayed it and manifested it to us. And so he begins the Epistle that way.
And there's much, much connected with it. Part of it is the the eternal life is that which has imparted to us.
The divine nature.
And we participate in a relationship with God that has nothing to do with the first creation, the Adam, Adam and his race. But we have been given to share in that eternal life, Christ, who is our life, as we had in Colossians one that life is imparted to us to share with it in its source.
And that is what is it. Look at the Lord Jesus and you see what the life is.
You see them as He is now, and you're looking at eternal life. How does it apply to us in that sense? Look at chapter 3. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. What's it mean to be a son of God? Verse two. Beloved, we are the sons of God, and it does not yet appear that we shall be. But we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
But.
Children of God God, when he brings children into his family, wasn't revealed.
Before the eternal life was seen here on earth and the person of the sun.
But now we know it in resurrection power as Bob was bringing it out.
It's like the other side of death. It's life in new creation. But the essence of it, the wonder of it, is it's His life imparted to us. The very nature of God in life and love is that which we partake in. And So what does it make us? It makes us like Him.
It makes us like Him. Everyone who has eternal life as it is going to be seen in US is going to be like Christ.
Not just a little bit like him, but morally, totally, completely, perfectly consistent with himself because it's his life. There is that which he is unique that we never take part in. We never rise up to his glory. Thank God he it's never would want to. He should have the supreme and honored place. So we never become him, equal to him in any sense of the word. But as to a matter of life.
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It's been imparted to us, and if you're going to have that kind of a life, God says, well, of course you have to have a body suited to it. You can't have a mortal body connected with such a life and have it retain and keep it that way. And so in First Corinthians 15, this mortal has to take on immortality. This body of humiliation that's been purchased by the blood of Christ has to be changed into an immortal condition.
Because it's the only condition which is suited to the life that is in it.
To clarify something I didn't mean, and I'm glad Bob brought it out, I didn't mean to imply when I connected incorruptibility with those of us who are here and expect to be alive when the Lord comes. It's not limited to us. It applies to every St. of God that will be raised at the Lord's coming. Everyone will share in that incorruptibility when the Lord comes.
And there will, we will have, has been said bodies that are completely suited to that sphere of things, so that when we sit down in the Father's house in the coming day, we're going to be perfectly comfortable. When the apostle Paul was temporarily caught up to the 3rd heaven, the eternal dwelling place of God, it was a temporary thing. And he said he didn't know whether he was in the body or out of the body.
But when we get there, we'll be in the body. But these bodies, as has been said.
Will not be new bodies. It never says we get a new body, but they will undergo a tremendous change. We will have changed bodies.
He'll change these bodies of humiliation. And so when we get there, as I say, we'll sit down perfectly comfortable, not wonderful. We sit here in these meetings and we're comfortable when we're thankful for comfortable chairs and climate control and all that has been provided for us. But we're not completely comfortable, really. Some of us have a few little aches and pains. There's burdens and cares.
There's, you know, everybody seems to have a little different internal thermostat. Some of us might be a little too warm, some of us a little too cool, some some of us just right. We're never really perfectly comfortable in these bodies here in this world, no matter where we are. But we're going, as we were saying earlier to another world, brethren, and there we're going to be have bodies suited to that and the the realization, the enjoyment of this.
These truths that we've been just talking about in our souls, the reality of them.
Is going to give us the proper response and practical effect in our lives while we wait that moment Dawn didn't read on but the next verse in first John chapter 3.
After he speaks of being with and like Christ, he says, and everyone that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure in the measure in which this hope and this truth is a reality in our souls. It's not that it should have a practical effect on our lives. It will have a practical effect. Why is it so often we don't walk as men and women of heaven?
Why is it we don't always have that character that there ought to be that we've heard about in these meetings and the hymn we sang in the previous meeting in connection with, uh, with, with being men of heavenly birth and so on. Why is that? Because we know these things intellectually, Perhaps we can turn from page to page in the word of God. We can enumerate it as fundamental doctrine of Scripture, and that's good. We need to have that he's going to talk about.
A form of sound words, an outline of truth. Wonderful, vital, especially in the days in which we live, to hold these things.
As fundamental doctrines from the Word of God. But that is not enough, brethren, if we go out of this room.
At the end of these meetings and we have simply learned intellectually a set of doctrines and truth, and that is as far as it has got. Then it will have no effect on our lives while we wait for the Lord to come. And that's why we need to let this become a reality and sink down in our souls that we might be like Paul. You know, he was a he goes on to say he was appointed a preacher, an apostle, a teacher.
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Of these things, but it had a practical effect on Paul's life as well. And Timothy and others, when they looked at the apostle Paul, they saw the reality of it in his life. Just notice a little later on when he speaks of this to Timothy about having fully known. Yes, in chapter three he says to Timothy verse 10.
But thou hast fully known my doctrine. But he doesn't end there.
He says my manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity and so on. He gives a list of things. The doctrine that Paul was given to present and we have it in our hands by inspiration. Thank God this afternoon. It was more became more than that to the apostle Paul and he could say to Timothy, Timothy, you've seen the reality of what I've taught you and you've seen it in view of that which is ET is eternal.
Well may it be true in a measure at least of each one of us.
To about it in its practical.
Carrying it out.
A man of the world can't see it.
He's blind. He's dead in his sins.
But.
If it's lived out in our lives before him.
There's one thing in them they can't deny it, and that's his conscience, even if he's blind to it mentally.
The working of it out in a life that manifests it before his soul. As it's been said by some remember in preaching the gospel, a man's conscience is always on your side. And it's true. The conscience of man needs enlightenment, and even if it can't be under understood in the intellect, the word of God has that power through the testimony of a life.
To manifest itself to the conscience of a soul. And so it's a very real responsibility that we have in the world in which we live, that we display what we have in such a way that even if his mind can't see it, our fellow man is touched in his conscience by it.
Like to make another comment too on eternal life that's.
Part of what eternal life is.
When God created Adam?
Adam knew God as his creator and this was before he ever sinned. Adam knew God as his creator and God came down and visited Adam and they had fellowship together.
But Adam and his innocence.
Did not know the full character of God.
Adam was innocent.
But when we receive eternal life.
We receive a life which is holy.
A life which can for the first time have the measure of fellowship with God that God intended for us as creature, and so he has imparted to us.
That which enables us to have a fellowship with himself that we never had before.
I say John 17 it was quoted this is life eternal that they might know the the only true God. Does that mean that I can count off that he's omnipotent and omniscient and all bunch of descriptive words that man uses to describe God in philosophy class no.
I know it's hard.
I know it's hard. I know it's hard better. I know my own heart. My heart is deceitful and desperately wicked in a natural sense. But having received eternal life, I have a life which resonates with his own heart in a way I can say I know the heart of God.
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And likewise in light, God is light in his very nature, and he says you're my child and you walk in light as I am in the light. And we'll have fellowship together according to all that God is in his being. An eternal life is that which enables us to share in that character of fellowship with God. And it was not revealed, and it could not be revealed.
And tell the Lord Jesus came and manifested it and then did a work that we could participate in it. And as soon as the work was finished in which we could participate in it got immediately began to reveal it in the Gospel and one other. It's the opposite side, but it's a solemn side of it too. It wasn't until the Lord came.
And did the work on the cross that God fully revealed.
Righteousness and wrath. If you go to Romans chapter one where you get the other side of it, you see that God through what he did on the cross of Calvary in the judgment of sin and his Son who bore that sin, God was revealing in it the full measure of his righteous character and of his wrath against unrighteousness. And so someone says.
I don't thank God. He loves too much to put anybody in hell. He's never been to the cross in his soul. He has never gone to the cross and see what God revealed at that cross as to his own holy character and nature. And that also has been revealed. And that revelation is what man is going to be judged by if he stands before God.
In his sense.
Verse 12 for a moment.
I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto him.
And turn with me please to First Peter chapter 4.
And verse 19, First Peter 419.
Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God.
Commit the keeping of their souls to Him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.
In creation, in the beginning it said let us create.
So we see the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit here, the faithful Creator. I might stand corrected, but I believe it's the only time that the two are used together in faithful Creator. In the verse that we have in Second Timothy, we have assurance.
And we have security.
An assurance in the security lies within the one with whom we have committed our soul to.
When I take the check to the bank and I deposit it, I entrust it with the people that I deposited it with.
And when we commit, we have deposited our soul and entrusted it with the faithful Creator.
When you have a committal and you take vows, there's 22 parts to the to the vows, and that vow is registered on high the moment that we are saved and we've deposited our soul with him to the faithful Creator.
And in turn, he also commits something back to us, doesn't he?
And he commits his oracles, the oracles of God.
And he commits the gospel to us, doesn't he? When you look there in first Peter chapter 4, if you look at verse 11, this has been ringing out all day.
If any man speak lame speakers, the oracles of God, the oracles of gods are the words of God.
If any man minister let it do it is the ability.
Which God giveth?
That God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ. We've been talking about power. We've been talking about the differences between each and every one of us and peculiar our brothers have brought out. And here we see that we have a difference of the ability that's been given to us by God, don't we? But the motivation behind.
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What we've been committed with.
Lies Inn.
That God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.
To whom be praised, and dominion forever. Amen.
And so we touch upon committal here, don't we?
And vows that are rang out in whom we've committed our soul with and what he's committed to us that day.
Could we say, Brother Bill, that?
It goes even beyond the committing of our souls to him in the sense that.
Paul is looking onward here to the judgment seat of Christ to that day, and not only was he secure in the sense of what his soul and his ultimate eternal security would be, but he's very sure about what he's doing for the Lord and the fact that that deposit is going to be secure. We all know what it is for.
Banks to fail in this world, although thank the Lord it hasn't been as common perhaps as.
It was in at some points in history, but.
Here is a Here is an investment that really will pay off.
Here is where you and I can put a deposit that will have no no possibility of being eroded.
Wall Street can't touch it. A sudden crash in the stock market can't touch it. It's a deposit that Paul says. I know whom I have believed. If everybody else is giving it up, if there's opposition from every angle, Paul says in verse 11, I am appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles.
That is, he was in a special place, but he calls on Timothy and ultimately on you and me to follow him. And then, of course, as you point out, there's a deposit connected with us as Dawn was bringing out with the vessels in the time of Ezra that had to be accounted for by number and by weight. So we make a deposit up there, but God says I'm giving you a deposit and I count on your responsibility to carry it out, too.
That's in verse 14, isn't it?
The deposit that we've been given, in fact, Mr. Darby's translation.
Instead of using what I've committed and that which was committed, it uses the word deposit. It's interesting. It's helpful to see that. So there is one deposit that the apostle had with God and then there is a deposit that has been given to us to keep. But I think it's good, brother, and for us to see that the Apostle Paul was a vessel specially called.
For suffering because he was the apostle to the Gentiles and the apostle to open up the gospel of the glory. It had to do with another scene seeing a heavenly calling and it just seems like Satan who is the Prince of this world makes a special object of of ridicule and suffering those.
That would be connected with a heavenly glory. The apostle Paul lost everything he says in Philippians 3. For the love of whom I have lost all things, and do count them, but dumb that I may win Christ. He lost everything. There he stands before King Agrippa and all those mighty men in the Roman Empire.
Come in with palm and sit down, and a man is brought in in chains. Who is that man? That man is the man that God had chosen.
To open up heavenly glory.
And it wasn't appreciated.
And brethren, it seems like the enemy is trying to rob us too.
Of that which will last forever, that deposit that he talks about here, that deposit in the heavenly bank, if you will. But he says, I am not ashamed. Paul, aren't you a little bit kind of radical? Why do you preach in such a way? You get yourself imprisoned. Don't you think you should knock off a little bit and be a little bit more moderate?
00:55:24
I am not ashamed, he says. And so he says to Agrippa. I would that you were all such as I am, except this chain. That man in the chain before all those earthly potentates was the freest man there. He was the man who had real eternal gain before his soul. He lost everything down here, Brethren, it comes to me so often that.
The enemy is robbing us by occupying us so much with earthly things. There's nothing wrong in themselves with material things, but sometimes they get such a hold on our life. We are occupied so much with them.
Those verses that Don read in Colossians chapter 3 about set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. Come on, brother and sister, I have to confess for myself as I evaluate sometimes the day's activity, what percent of that day was my mind set on heavenly things I have to say it's a pretty.
Small percentage.
We get so occupied with things down here. Apostle Paul lost everything, and I have noticed that people in this world who have little materially often appreciated in greater measure the heavenly glories that we're called to. Why do we let these things interrupt the enjoyment that God means us to have right now?
I'm challenged by our brother in other parts of the world that are losing their lives.
And here we are. We love our comforts. Nothing wrong with the comfort in itself, but we love our material things. But it's robbing us of the enjoyment of what Paul is speaking to us here.
Says I'm not ashamed. How that speaks to my soul. Not ashamed.
And he won't have to be ashamed in that coming day when he's evaluated before the judgment seat of Christ. Brethren, when we stand there and look back, I'm afraid, and I'm going to have to say.
Why did those toys down there occupy so much place in my life?
Why wasn't I more occupied with that heavenly glory that had been called to Lord help us brethren, to get our evaluations straight, Paul says. I'm not ashamed, for I know whom I have.
Uh believed an M persuaded.
And persuaded means that he calculated per definitely what he was talking about. And he said, I am persuaded that he is able to keep my deposit for that day. He won't be ashamed in that day either, brother. But Scripture speaks about the judgment seat of Christ and it speaks about in First Corinthians 3 about suffering loss.
I'm afraid that's going to be.
The experience that I will have and I the Lord is the judge, brethren, but we need to reflect on these things now and live in view of that day of coming glory.
John as well. That exhorts us in connection with not being ashamed at his coming.
There is that sense and as you say, that sense of loss. But just to go on, because our time is, uh, flying by, I'd like to make some comments on the 13th verse. Just say before I do that, that there are three things in this chapter that all the failure in man cannot touch. One is life in Christ. It's introduced to us at the very beginning of the chapter and we've spoken of it at some length. The other is our holy calling. You have that in verse 9.
And the other is sound words. Nothing can touch that can touch those three things. No failure in man, no failure in the Church of God, but were exhorted in or Timothy is exhorted and it's for our.
01:00:08
Exhortation 2. To hold fast or to have a form of sound words or an outline of truth is the way Mr. Darby translates it, and this was very important for Timothy.
As Paul was about to pass off the scene, and especially in regard to the fact that these are the last days described, when the truth of God was already in Paul's day being given up. And brethren, if Paul saw the seeds of the last days in perilous times before he passed off the scene, how much more are these things a reality in the days in which you and I live just before?
The Lord Jesus is about to come and the day of grace, the Christian era is about to end, and it ought to really exercise us. But Timothy was told to hold fast the form of sound words. Very interesting that in both of these epistles we have a number of exhortations in connection with doctrine or teaching. In fact, in the previous epistle, the 1St Epistle, 9 times.
Paul speaks about doctrine. I believe there's four or five times in this epistle. You can count them some time.
But this was vital for Timothy to get a hold of. Now what earth is a form of sound words or an outline of truth? I suppose we can all spend our lives studying the word of God and reading scripture and still.
Have to admit that we only have an outline, but is it isn't? It's not hard to have just some outline, some idea of what the different writers bring before us. Paul's ministry, John's ministry.
The four Gospels and James and Jude and the different writers. What Peter's ministry brings before us, the Old Testament books and writers to see. Just to have a few short sentences perhaps, that sum up. What is this book saying? What is this writer's line of teaching? Just as an example, Paul brings before us the truth of the church and the hope of the Lord's coming.
The dignity of sonship, John brings before us the relationship of the family and the he, he develops the thought of life as we've had before before us in eternal life and so on. And just to have some outline, this is going to be a safeguard when that which is per when something is presented to us that is not the truth, we can say, oh, that doesn't fit because Paul's ministry is such and such. That doesn't fit in first John, because that can't be what it's saying because.
We have that outline now. I'll repeat an OFT repeated illustration. I've used it many times myself.
But I noticed as when I've been home the last couple of times, that there is a large jigsaw puzzle spread out on a table in our family room. And we often do that as the winter approaches and we spend some evenings together putting together a jigsaw puzzle and we we enjoy that kind of relaxation. But when we put together a jigsaw puzzle, there's something we always do first.
We always do the border. We get the outline of that puzzle. Why? Because it helps us to know how big the puzzle is, to visualize how big the puzzle is. But it also helps us.
To not put pieces in the wrong place in the interior of that puzzle.
If you work from the border in you're less apartment to put pieces in the wrong place or to force pieces where they don't belong, you do the outline. And that's true in many things that we do.
We we like in in school they might teach an outline first and then they fill in those details that are necessary. Well, Timothy was to have an outline of truth and if he was to have an outline of truth.
How much more you and I who are in a day when things have deteriorated to to such a .1 more little comment about this expression. Hold fast. I want to take that just the way it appears in our King James Bible because it does take energy of faith to hold fast to something. It takes spiritual energy if we are going to get an outline of truth and if we are going to.
01:05:07
Hold fast to that outline. Even when the truth of God is being subverted and given up, it's going It's not going to be easy to stand for the truth. Read some of the Old Testament examples.
About a man who defended a field of lentils and, and on and on and on it goes. Those who valued what they had from God. It took it took energy in one way or another to defend it and hold onto it. And it is no different than the deposit of truth that you and I have been given. We must hold fast to it if we're going to enjoy it and walk in the good of it.
Uh, turn over to Titus Chapter 2 a moment.
And look at verse seven of Titus chapter 2 together.
In all things, showing thyself a pattern.
Of good works and doctrine.
Sound.
Healthy doctrine, the word pattern, by the way, and the word type 2, IPE and the word form, I believe can all have, uh, a same type of meaning. And our sisters can understand pattern real easily. You lay out a pattern to make a dress. It's like Jim talking about the puzzle. You lay out the pattern to make the dress. You can use various colors of material and make the same dress again off the same pattern and it can be handed down and handed down and it keeps using it. And that's what takes place here.
When the sisters helped, an older one helps the younger one, the older brother helps the younger one. It's a pattern, it's a type, it's a form of sound doctrine there. And so you won't can have a good healthy doctor and helps in having a good healthy assembly. By the way, it's a beautiful chapter to look at. But a pattern or a type, I can look at what my mother was like and my father was like my elders or my anything. And there's a pattern, there's a type, isn't there?
And each book has a form or an outline. And it does help and I encourage younger brethren to seek to get an outline. I remember an older brother giving younger brothers each time they got together. It was just kind of a cottage meeting at a home. And but they took up one book every time they came together just to give the outline of that book.
Romans is a book that speaks about the gospel and the 1St 8 chapters deal with the question of sin.
From chapter one to chapter 5, verse 11, it talks, it deals with the question of sins, those unrighteous acts we've done from verse 12 of chapter 5 through chapter 8, it's sin that evil root in us that produces those sins. And if you have that outline, it really helps to understand the whole book. And so it is with the Word of God. And to understand it is very important, very helpful.
Another illustration that is used is plans to build a home.
Here you have a empty lot. You want to build a home. What do you do first? Did you get some plans made-up on paper? There it is laid out. Now you go according to those plans. Where do the doors go? Where do the windows go? It's all in there. And so it is in the Word of God. We have the instructions. First Corinthians deals with order in the assembly, and it's a universal epistle written not only to those Saints in Corinth, but to.
All those in every place call upon the name of our Jesus Christ, our Lord.
So it really helps to get an outline of doctrine of sound doctrine.
The outline itself, but it's important to recognize too when.
And you're gonna follow something, be sure where it came from.
When God speaks, he speaks. He speaks from what he knows. When the Lord Jesus came into this world, he spoke what he knew.
We live in a world.
So much of what man follows is nothing greater than the imagination of man.
It's not truth. It's just man's present imagination operating on present problems. And very, very often it's disconnected and it's, I'm not talking about building a boat or something like that. That's not in the moral realm, but when God speaks to us in the moral realm of things.
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Be sure we have a sense of who it's coming from.
And so much of what we think we often have absorbed within our thinking patterns without much sense of where it came from.
We're constantly exposed to man's thoughts apart from a life that's consistent with God, and very very often, quite uncritically. We absorb wrong thoughts and don't even realize that we're thinking with wrong patterns of thinking.
So it's very important for us to recognize we hold in our hands the perfect outline of sound words, not to take away from the individual thoughts that have already been expressed, which I think are the is the point here. But just to remember when we want to learn, we need to go to the right source. We need to go to the word of God and to back up one moment further.
The Apostle Paul.
Said I know whom I have believed and a lot was said about how he suffered for it. But back that thought up a little bit. I know whom I have believed. Who is he referring to?
He's referring to the man that lived here on Earth.
That it could be said of him at the end of his life and Daniel, he shall be cut off and have nothing. Nothing. If you evaluated the life of the Lord Jesus Christ at the time of his death, you would say that life ended in nothing.
In fact, the world said.
Get rid of it. We don't want that life here on earth. Crucify them. Get rid of them, and that's the value that was placed on that life.
It was worth nothing to man, It was a life to be rid the earth of, and consequently from a natural perspective you could look at the life and say it was cut off and have nothing.
That's the man that Paul followed. That's the man that he could say I know whom I have believed. He followed that life and that man. And consequently, because he did, he could say in the end of Galatians 6, God forbid that I should glory saving the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
That's where he was gotten rid of. That's where that man ended his life. That's where the world put its stamp of value on him.
God forbid I should glory. Is he gonna identify with the shame of it? Absolutely he is, because he identifies with that man. And he says by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. And so if he ended his life in shame.
And rejection. I'm as I'm following him, he's my Lord. Why would I expect anything better? And yet did did it make him ashamed? No, not really. He said I glory. He had properly evaluated it in such a way he could say I'm going to glory in that cross and I'm going to identify with the man that's on it. And if the world says I don't want you, then I'm willing to take the same side of the cross he's on and say I don't want the world either.
Can do the same thing to me it did to him.
I want to stay with him on his side of the cross.
Turned away from Paul.
Expand on that a little then.
I think you have it. Go ahead.
Well, we know that much of Paul's ministry had been in Asia, although I thank the Lord that not all of it was there. And I suppose that, as we had mentioned earlier, the highest truth that God ever gave to man concerning the believer's blessings is in the Epistle to the Ephesians. And he stayed there, as far as we know, longer than any other single place.
There was tremendous blessing in Asia and they had a real opportunity to learn of that heavenly calling and all that was entailed in enjoying that heavenly calling. But the time came and we face it today.
01:15:16
When there were those that said Paul.
And I'm going to paraphrase a bit. That brand of Christianity doesn't appeal to us.
And we know that the ultimate attempt was to bring Christianity down to the level of a worldly religion.
To take away from that heavenly calling. To take away from what that life really teaches us.
And from following that rejected man in all that he went through, all the way to the glory.
Reminds me of what? And some will recognize the source of this quotation, but a brother who was at a reading meeting back in the 1800s and somebody said to him, why do more believers not want to hear and enjoy the truth of God or words to that effect?
And his answer was very terse and very to the point. He said, well, they will usually listen to you until you want to take them up to heaven.
Does that say it all? I believe it does. And again, we don't point the finger because the tendency is in our own hearts, isn't it? And that's why Paul puts this here. And that's why we have it preserved to us as a gentle warning.
All in Asia be turned away from me.
In uh, Second Timothy chapter 4 and verse 16.
Just a couple of chapters back there.
At my first.
Answer. That was his defense.
No man stood with me.
Turn 2. Psalm 69.
And look at verse 20 of Psalm 69.
Reproaches broken my heart.
And I am full of heaviness.
And I looked for some to take pity.
But there was none.
And for comforters.
He looked for one to take pity.
He looked for one to give him some comfort and he found none.
And what did he do when he left? He sent us a comforter.
That's our Lord, and our Savior has provided for us.
But there is encouragement, isn't it there before the chapter ends? Because if the chapter ended with all they in Asia have turned away, would that be a very sad end to the chapter? But isn't it beautiful that Paul goes on then to denote an individual who hadn't just turned away, but had so was had searched him out diligently? We often say that the last days are characterized by individual faithfulness.
And I think perhaps we have a little picture of it here, a little beautiful little illustration of it here, all in Asia turned away. That's in contrast to the first epistle where some would would turn away in the last days and some had erred and so on. But here it was all but not quite there was there was a nest of force. And it's very beautiful to my own soul that you have this man, just two brief mentions of him, one in this chapter and one at the end of the epistle, and it's in connection with his household.
That beautiful, you know, I have I, I know there's other thoughts on this, but let me just make a little application and give a thought that I've enjoyed in my own soul in the regard to the fact that he's mentioned within connection with his household. I have wondered, brethren, if this whole household, not just the man of the house, the head of the home, but this whole household was a household.
Where they were seeking to go on for the truth of God, where they where they valued the apostle Paul and his ministry. We know it was a household where he was OFT refreshed. Wasn't a lot of places where Paul was refreshed?
01:20:08
Especially near the end of his ministry and his life and so on. But here was a household where Paul found refreshment, those that loved and appreciated him. And I'd just like to say that I believe it's a little hint or a little encouragement that in the last days it is possible to go on in the enjoyment of the truth of God, not just as individuals, but as households. So little aside too, but it's interesting in the list that's given.
At the end of the epistle of the very few that were seeking to go on and that Paul could commend.
He doesn't again, just commend individuals, but he commends a couple, a couple that we've had several that you have several times mentioned prior to this and in the book of the Acts and so on. But that couple is Priscilla and Aquila. There was a couple going on. Here was the household of Vanessa Forrest. There were individuals who were going on and I believe what it shows, brethren, that in every sphere of our lives, whether it's individually.
Whether it's as a couple, whether it's as households, there is the provision even in the last days to go on in the enjoyment of the truth of God and to live for God's glory. And as a testimony in these very, very dark days when morally and spiritually the cloud is deepening over the Western world and what we call Christendom. But there were these bright lights that encouraged the apostle Paul. So on one hand, yes.
He felt it, and he felt it very keenly for those who had turned away from him.
Who were not willing to associate with Paul the prisoner, who, as Bill said, no longer seemed to appreciate that line of things that he had presented, that heavenly line of things. But on the other hand, his heart was encouraged too.
With those that were going on and brethren, as we leave these meetings and leave this chapter.
Let's look at the positive. Let's not, let's be aware of the negative. Let's be exercised by those things that are wanting, but let's be encouraged too. There are those that want to go on. There are those who have a desire. There's young people here who have a tremendous desire to please and serve the Lord. There's those who desire to go on at the Lord's table.
To enjoy the truth of God, to go out with the gospel. If we look simply at the negative, we're going to get discouraged. There's plenty within and around us to discourage on every hand.
But I believe we need to focus on that which God is doing. I've been to places in the last few months. I never thought I'd see the work of God the way I've seen it. It's not great things, brother, but a person baptized here.
And at real cost. More cost than I've ever had to pay someone gathered to the Lord's name here.
Someone saved here, someone restored to the Lord their little things. But brethren, it's encouraging. The Lord is still working by His Spirit. The resources we have, as we said at the beginning of the meeting, are still the same.
The resources that we had in the first epistle were the are the same in the second epistle. And if we focus avail ourselves on of those things, focus on those things, I believe, brethren, the Lord can keep us in ourselves, no.
He was, Timothy was told, to keep it by himself. No, in his own strength, no, by the Holy Ghost. The power still there, brother. The resources are still there. The encouragement is still there if we're willing to look for it. And let's press on and be used as instruments like Timothy was for the blessing of others and for our own encouragement and blessing as well.
#285.
Verse 3.
To us they cross with all its shame, with all its grace be given.
The earth disowns thy lowly name. God honors it in heaven.