Address—Robert Boulard
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Let's sing hymn #287.
287.
Let's turn to Second Timothy again. I had a line of things that I had on my heart to just look at.
This meeting is roughly 45 minutes and I'd like to look at 7 things that Paul encourages Timothy with in this epistle and those things that are in Christ. He speaks in verse one. I'll just perhaps read them through and then comment on them individually. We won't have a lot of time to comment on each one, but you know Timothy had.
A wonderful outline of the Word of God of the New Testament truth that had been revealed to Paul.
And what Paul told the believers was that Christ was going to have a church. It was a great mystery. It was hidden in the Old Testament. They didn't, they couldn't search the Scriptures. They couldn't even look into the skies with telescopes or anything and never figure this out. It was a secret that God had. He had secrets in his heart. And it was revealed to Paul. And Paul was used of God to convey the truth of the heavenly calling of the church.
He conveyed it to the Saints at that time and then, as we know, he wrote.
These scriptures. And so he speaks of those things to Timothy.
And he encourages Timothy in the line of things, some things that can never change, some things that were a possession that he had immediately right then and then, right then and there. And they were absolutely unchangeable. And then these little glimpses of the truth that Paul gives to this man, perhaps not a young man at the time of, uh, Paul's martyrdom. This was written probably the same year that Paul was martyred. And Timothy had known Paul.
For about 16 years, maybe just a little more than that. And so he knew the apostle Paul. He walked in fellowship with the apostle Paul and now Paul was trying to encourage him. So in chapter one, second Timothy verse one, Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus.
00:05:16
And then if you just turn down to verse nine, it says who has saved us and called us with an 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. And then a little further on in that chapter in verse 13.
Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me in faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus. And then in chapter 2, verse one.
It says Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace.
That is in Christ Jesus and then in that chapter a little further on verse 10.
Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sake, that they may also obtain the salvation.
Which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. And then a little further on here in chapter 3 and verse 12.
It speaks of.
Yeah, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall.
Suffer persecution and then in that same chapter, verse 15.
That the and that form from a child thou has known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation.
Through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. So those seven little expressions that the apostle Paul uses in Christ, you know, it's, umm, there are many things that we have in Christ. And I'm one of these guys that make lists. I have lists in my Bible on, on many pages. I have lists, but in the back of my Bible, I have lists as well because I have a faulty memory. I put charts in the back of the Bible, uh, so that I can, uh.
Look at them and have my thoughts organized and what the apostle Paul will get into a little bit later. But Paul was interested in Timothy and that Timothy would have an outline of, uh, truth. And Timothy had studied Timothy had applied himself and he had a knowledge of what Paul taught. But in, in a day that, uh, this last letter that Paul wrote to Timothy, it's evident that perhaps he was disheartened.
And perhaps there's someone here that's disheartened, Someone here that sees.
A a fewness of numbers and God isn't counting numbers. That's not always after he's after fruit and he's working in us to form the characteristics of Christ in our lives. I've mentioned this morning that Christ in US, perhaps not that specific verse, but Christ in us, the hope of glory. It's really we're not indwelled with Christ, we're indwelled with the Spirit of God, but the Lord Jesus is with us. We can count on his presence he.
Hebrews chapter 13, he says.
Umm, He will never forsake us. Lo, I'm with you. Alway I'm not quoting it this right. I'm just going to read it here. There's a couple of passages of scripture that say the same thing, very similar. Chapter 13 of Hebrews verse five. Let your conversation or your manner of life be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have. For he hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.
And so we need to have a sense of the abiding presence of the Lord. That's why we don't pray and ask the Lord to be with us. He is with us, but we need to pray and ask him to give us a sense of his presence. Isn't it wonderful to walk through this world and see all of the moral corruption and the, the, the violence and that fills the Western Christian world and umm, violence and corruption fills the Western Christian world, the giving up of the word of God.
And the restraint of the Word of God, and we have all kinds of instability, but the believer walks through with a sense and should walk through with a sense of the presence of the Lord. Well, this first thing that Paul encourages Timothy with in his last letter, he says that he was an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus.
You have life. If you know Christ as Savior, you have life.
What kind of life do you have?
00:10:02
You know, in John's ministry, he talks about being born again. When John speaks about being born again, he says.
In a sense that you have a fallen nature and while you're physically alive, that life is corrupted and you need to have a new life and a new nature. And so John takes things up from that perspective. But Paul in his ministry says you're dead. In trespasses and, umm, sins, he says you're dead.
You're dead towards God, morally and spiritually dead, and it would take an act of God.
To bring you into blessing. And so that's why you know, the Lord saved Paul and you could read it in Acts Chapter 9. He intervened in Paul's life and on that day that he intervened, he quickened Saul. Saul was dead. He didn't hear the voice of God. He couldn't hear the word voice of God. Brother Gordon used to give us a little illustration that suppose we had a dead dog on the floor.
And he's got 100 lbs of books.
On his back, he doesn't feel a thing. He'll never feel a thing. You could talk to him, he won't move. That was like fall on the day that he met the Lord, he was dead. He couldn't hear the voice of God, very religious, but he was dead before God, morally and spiritually. And it took an act of God himself, the Son, the quicken him and he says live. And Paul heard the voice of the Lord for the first time.
And so you have life. If you've heard the voice of the Lord, you're quickened. And when you believe the gospel of the grace of God.
You believe that Christ died for your sins. Then Paul teaches us that we're sealed with the Spirit. The work is finished, and you have new life. You have new life when you're quickened.
I sometimes have told a story about my father. He was on his 4th birthday, you know, he was, he came downstairs, they said happy birthday, you're 4 years old. And he began to cry. He cried all day. On his 4th birthday, he said I'm going to die. Brought up in a nice, a Roman Catholic home. And umm, they said no, no, you're, you're all right. Everything will be all right. The priest will get you in and umm, you know, just you're young.
He said no, I'm going to die and I'm not ready to die. And he cried all day on his 4th birthday. And then when he was eight years old, a man next door, a farmer, gave him a Bible and he started to read it. I'm not going to go into the whole story, but at 20 years old he went to work on the railway and there was a young man in the next bed to him who was, I believe, a believer. He was brought up in a Christian home.
His name was Bert Hoole and umm, he got talking with him. He went.
To Rockway Valley, went to a gospel meeting, heard the gospel of the grace of God, and then someone gave him the gospel preacher that name that night, gave him a gospel tract, wouldn't let him out the door until he got a gospel tract, shoved him a bunch of gospel tracks in his shirt pocket and he got out of there. But you know, he read the matchless Pearl. He got saved. So I think sometimes, you know, at four years old, he was quickened with the Spirit of God. He was given life.
And God always completes the work that He begins.
And so 16 years later, he was sealed with the Spirit, and the Spirit came to dwell within him. And so he's with the Lord now. But you know the Spirit of God is going to be indwelling the believers for all eternity. It says He shall never leave you. You and I are going to be indwelled with the Spirit of God for all eternity. So Paul speaks of that life.
Which is in Christ Jesus you have divine life.
And it doesn't matter how unstable things become in this world, how unstable, how much wickedness abounds, how much moral corruption there is. You have a life that can never be corrupted. You have a life that is in Christ, that's bound up with that blessed One in glory, glorified man. And you are going to have your body, the very body you sit in here this afternoon, the very body you have is going to be glorified. It's going to be just like Christ.
At his coming, Paul gives us the details of those things. But you know, I think this is wonderful.
That the epistle opens the last epistle, last known writings that the apostle wrote. He says Timothy, you have life. Don't ever forget that you have life that was promised of God in Christ Jesus and you know that term Christ Jesus. When we use that term, Paul uses it pretty well exclusively, not Peter, not John, but it means.
00:15:03
When his title is given before his manhood name, Christ is the.
Equivalent, the Greek equivalent to Messiah. And so it's Christ Jesus. He's a risen, glorified man and your life is bound up with that. Blessed 10 What a future we have, What a life, what a life you have.
You have a life that's just, it's the life of Christ himself, and you can enjoy the same things that He enjoys and He wants you to enjoy those things.
Well, we turned down to the second point here that he wants to bring in verse 9.
Who have saved us and called us with an 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.
Well, you know, the order in Scripture always recognizes the order that God has in His Word.
It's not written like a sloppy grocery list or a sloppy a sloppy shopping list while you, when you go to the lumber yard or something like that, very orderly. You have divine life.
But you know, you have life and you have been called as a result, you have a holy calling and it's a not according to your works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which he was given us in Christ Jesus. And so you have been called, Paul could say to Timothy, you are called of God. What are you called for? Let's look in, uh, we were looking earlier enrollments and the readings chapter one.
In many different places we could turn, but chapter one is very easily.
Umm, you can remember it.
Romans chapter one, verse one Paul.
A servant of Jesus Christ called to be an apostle. You'll notice those are words are in italics.
Umm, to be so I just put a pencil line around them and just a, a slight pencil line through it and you could read it this way. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ called an apostle, separated under the gospel of God. And then a little bit later on, I think it's verse 7.
Uh, where does it say called Saints? Yes, verse seven, chapter one, verse 7 to all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called Saints, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. What a wonderful to be called of God. But you know, when when you were called, you were called, you were given a gift when you were saved.
When you were quickened, perhaps?
I think it was when you were sealed, you were sealed with the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God came to dwell within you and you were given a gift.
Paul was called to be an apostle.
And he didn't say, well, I think I'd like to be an evangelist. I think I'd like to be a teacher. No.
They were called of God. Those older brethren, those that were apostles were called of God. But you are a St. It means a holy one. God has set you apart. You have a holy calling. And so Paul encourages Timothy, you know, he says you don't have to go on with this corruption. Don't feed on it. Separate from it. You'll notice that there's six different terms that are used in the epistle. Second Timothy.
Umm chapter two I think chapter 2 in the beginning of verse.
Chapter 3, He speaks of several different terms that speak of separation. Did you ever notice that? I'll just mention them in umm, chapter two of Second Timothy, verse 16, he says shun profane and vain babblings. And then a little bit, uh, later on he says umm.
I'm probably going to miss some, but uh, let's look here at, uh, verse 19, right at the end it says depart from iniquity.
And then he says in verse 21, if a man therefore purge himself.
From these he shall be a vessel unto honor sanctified. Verse 22, flee also youthful lusts. And verse 23, he says foolish and unlearned questions avoid knowing that they do gender strife. And then the last one is in verse five of the chapter that we're reading the reading meetings, chapter three. He says right at the end that they're having a form of godliness, but denying the power they're up from such turn away.
00:20:18
And so he gives a warning that not everything.
That says it's Christian. Not everything, not everyone that claims to be Christian and takes the banner of Christ is honoring Christ. You know, I was in a, in Mexico or actually was in Texas on the Texas side at a flea market and uh, selling Bibles and books and so on. And sometimes, you know, we sold 300 or $400.00 worth of Bibles at a flea market.
And books, good ministry CHM umm in Spanish, uh, some of the mini ministry that's available at BTP.
All kinds of materials that were very good, solid ministry at a flea market in the Spanish language. And so we had some, uh, a girl come up and she said, do you have any JW Bibles, Jehovah's Witness Bibles? I said, no, we only sell Christian Bibles. She said, well, Jehovah's Witnesses are Christians. I said, no, Jehovah's Witnesses.
Call themselves Jehovah's Witnesses, but they're really not witnesses of Jehovah.
Witness of Jehovah recognizes that Jesus is Jehovah and so that's not Christian. Well, she went away disappointed that we didn't have any JW Bibles. But beloved brethren, let's be clear in our communication and we could be a help perhaps to some of those that are, uh, snared in, uh, unprofitable and.
They're deceived by the enemy and they're going on to destruction because, you know.
It says he that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
And so if you have a friend that doesn't have Christ, he doesn't have life, but if you have the Son, you bowed your knee to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and you've accepted Christ as your Savior, you have life. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God hath not life. Well, the Apostle Paul spoke and he said, you're called a St. you're a Saint of God, you're a holy one, and you can be.
Thankful that it's a holy calling in Christ Jesus.
Christ could never sin. He was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners.
And you are called to walk with him as the Holy one, as one that is not taking part of and feeding upon the filth of this world. What a wonderful thing it was for Timothy, you know, to be reminded of these things. I trust it's an encouragement this afternoon for us to remember that we're Saints and it's not serving the church, not serving the Roman system and so on. And then, uh, doing two or three miracles and being recognized as a, as a St.
Oh, you'll forgive me for, I don't mean to enter to bring lightness into this meeting, but I was on an airplane flying from, I think it was from Toronto to Montreal. It's just an hours flight, uh, from gate to gate. And I sat beside Roman Catholic priest and, uh, I love talking to the Roman Catholics, you know, because my dad was a Catholic and he was brought up in that superstition and that ignorance. And so I began to, umm.
Yeah, speak to him of Christ. And it was evident to me that he was a believer out halfway through the flight, he turned to me and he said, oh, I didn't introduce myself. We haven't introduced ourselves. He says, my name is Father David. I said, well, I'm so glad to meet you, David. I'm Saint Robert. And so he was. He chuckled a little bit and that sort of thing. But we, it gave an opportunity to speak of divine things and to tell him and just the blessedness of what it is to be a Saint of God.
You're not an Angel, you wouldn't want to be. You're a Saint of God and you're you've got a holy calling. You were called to be a St. and here you were given a gift before the world began.
God is interested in you individually.
He knew you before you were born and he's interested in you individually and he's working with you individually to bring you into the knowledge of the truth and the appreciation of the truth.
Well, let's go on here, he says in verse 13. Hold fast.
Or let's read the new translation. Have an outline of sound words. Have an outline of sound words which thou has heard of me in faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus. So really, we have sound words in Christ Jesus. Solid, solid teaching. There was no error in what Paul taught.
00:25:19
You know, in chapter 15 of the Acts.
There were Judaizing teachers and they came to, umm, I think it was Antioch, and they came there and they said, you know.
Paul wasn't telling you the whole truth. He told you only part of the gospel, but you have to do your part. You have to be circumcised and keep the law or else you can't be saved. You we could read that in Acts chapter 15. I think it's verse one. They say state that and then a little bit further on in verse five, they kind of modified it a little bit because they got hauled up on the carpet for it.
But you know, Paul didn't leave out a part of the gospel. He gave it to us all in his entirety. Do you have an outline of it?
I carry this little piece of paper in my, uh, Bible to see if I can find it here. It's a a sheet of paper folded into four and umm.
Well, now that I say I think I have it. Here we go.
That's on that 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of paper. It's actually the European size, but I've folded it in a four like this.
And you know, Paul's ministry has he was given many revelations, but the sum of his revelations, most of it, most of what he taught can be categorized into four lines of doctrine. One is all of those things that we have in Christ. And if you took one quadrant of this sheet of paper and you wrote in Christ and then listed them listed, listed the scriptural references.
You could enjoy that for a long time. And then what's another part of Paul's doctrine? He teaches it about the coming of the Lord.
Lords coming, the rapture, the sequence of events and the change that's going to take place in our bodies. He tells us all about it. Paul teaches us not Peter or John. And then he tells us about the Lord's Supper was mentioned this morning.
A revelation was given to Paul till he come.
Says that we're going to be able to remember the Lord in his death the way he asked us to do it, till he comes. And he tells us the doctrinal significance of the loaf and of the cup. The Lord tells us the significance of it. Perhaps you might say from a Jewish perspective and from a historical perspective, but Paul tells us from the church's perspective.
The doctrinal significance. And then he tells us, umm, oh, what else? Uh, he tells us about the rapture, the, umm, the church, the great mystery, Christ and the church.
Wonderful. And he tells us that Christ is going to have a bride. One quadrant.
And he tells us how the church should meet and why, how it should be ordered, how the Spirit of God should have the lead, what the different types of meetings that there are in the church.
You should have an outline of Paul's doctrine. It's not as big as the Titanic. You can't understand it, and you can enjoy it and it was given to you. Well, Paul says to Timothy, have an outline, have an outline of sound words. Why is it important to have an outline of sound words? No, Mr. Darby said in his writings. He said it's not possible for us to live in a right way during the Christian era if we don't know.
Paul's doctrine.
It's not possible to live in a right way in the Christian era unless we know Paul's doctrine. I would add a little bit to it, know it and enjoy it and savor it, just like a good steak. Well, he was to have an outline, which is in Christ Jesus. It's connected with the person of Christ, the work of Christ, and the Church of Christ. All of the aspirations that you and I have are heavenly. We have a heavenly calling.
We know that there are different callings. There's a heavenly calling, We read about the holy calling, but there's a high calling of God. And so we could read those different, uh, aspects of the truth and get a little bit of an outline and understand those things and enjoy them. And I would just say this in connection with, with comment that was made this morning. Be careful what you read.
Read good ministry. There's lots of it. There's lots of good ministry. You know John Kemp.
00:30:04
I'm quoting John Kemp. He says, you know, in our homes we have enough books, Christian books, real good, solid ministry. We have two lifetimes worth of books. There's not a possibility of reading all those books in one lifetime. I wanna just give you a little challenge, particularly to the young people. Start your library. If you don't have your own library, start your library. I went into the home of a man recently, maybe a couple of months ago.
The traveling through Florida did not gather to the Lord's name, but exercised about.
He's left his false position and I came into his library and I probably John Kaiser knows the brother in Florida. I can't remember exactly. I can't remember his name, but I came into his house and he brought me into his library and I saw all of the old writings. I saw them all.
A whole wall for he says I'm still buying this stuff. He says it's going out of print because nobody's reading this stuff anymore. Hardly. And I want to make sure that I've got a copy. And so he's buying up these books of ministry and he's making sure that he's got it and if he wants to read it or his kids want to read it, they've got a copy of it. Well, thankfully we have books electronically as well, but read those solid books of ministry. And I want to give you a challenge. Can you read?
Book one. Book of ministry.
Build your library, buy some books. You pay $100 a $125.00 for a hotel room and **** it's gone. You'll never see the results of it, really. But if you buy 100 bucks, $125.00 worth of books, and you have some reference materials and something that you really think that you'd like to read, you'll profit in your soul now, and others will profit too. And so Paul was encouraging.
Timothy in this way, well, he speaks a little bit, uh, later on.
Here and he speaks in chapter 2, verse one. Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace.
That is in Christ Jesus.
That's the fourth thing, the 4th point that he brings before him. Now Timothy, he had just uh, you know, Paul had just written, he says umm, in verse 15 of the previous chapter, this thou knowest that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me, of whom are just and homogeneous. The Lord give mercy under the House of Vanessa for us.
Can't you just sense the pathos in Paul's voice as he thought about these things?
You know, we don't think of it very often, but you can read different passages of scripture in Paul Wept.
Paul wet Paul is thought, you know, here's Paul, he's facing the angry mob and he's just about to be stoned or whipped. And, uh, but here he's crying. What's he crying about? He's weeping about the Saints weeping that they wouldn't go on. And so he speaks of these had all gone away, those that we don't see anymore. And he says it was characteristic of the ages to go and to a popular line of Christianity. They didn't forsake Christ.
But they forsook the heavenly calling of the Church, and they began to live like worldlings, and the Church began to settle down into the earth, into the world very early on.
So the Lord by inspiration uses Paul. He says be strong in the grace.
That is, in Christ Jesus you have a Savior that never uttered an angry word, that those soldiers that were pounding the nails into his hands and to his feet.
You know what, it was common. I would think that it was common as those thieves were crucified 1 by 1, and then the Lord in the midst. I have imagined in my own mind, probably not unjustly, but I hear all the cursing and the swearing and the wrath and the anger coming out, the filth and the stench of the wickedness of the first man, Adam, as they were being crucified and they deserved what they were getting, but the blessed Savior.
It says he openeth not his mouth.
Before his fears, he was dumb. He didn't. There were only gracious words that proceeded from his mouth. He said, father, forgive them for they know not what they do. And so Paul was telling Timothy, you know, many Saints have gone away and they weren't going to walk in Paul's doctrine. And he's in a sense, he says, don't feel sorry for me and don't feel sorry.
00:35:03
Just act graciously. Just be gracious in your thoughts.
And be gracious in your actions towards those beloved brethren.
And so he says the grace that is in Christ Jesus, you know, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. You know, I don't have time to look at it, but you look at it the very last words that Paul writes, he speaks of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then you read the very last words that John, the apostle John writes.
In Revelation, he speaks of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. The very last words of Peter, he speaks of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And all of them just they saw a departure. They saw the height of the power of the church. It's in its pristine, umm, condition after its formation on the day of Pentecost. And they saw what the church should be like. And some of us who have been at the Lord's Table are among the Saints gathered to the Lord's name for 50 years or more.
We see what it used to be like and in the Old Testament as those, uh, young men, as the old men, saw the new temple in Ezra's day, Nehemiah's day.
They wept. They said it's not the same. It looks all right, but it's not the same. But beloved brother, isn't it wonderful? Paul speaks to Timothy. He says be gracious in your spirit and remember that Christ.
Had grace as he faced what he faced. While he speaks again a little bit later on here of salvation in umm chapter 2 verse 10, he says I endure all things for the elect's sake, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
Now you know that salvation is spoken of in different ways in the Word of God.
Had spoken of the eternal salvation of our souls and then our present salvation and present day that we live in. We need to be, our lives need to be saved, our testimonies need to be saved. Different things. But then we have a future deliverance. We have a future salvation.
Are the salvation of our bodies is not yet complete. The redemption of our bodies is not yet complete. But you know, the work is gonna be finished very shortly. The Lord's gonna call us. We're gonna, you're gonna give a shout of victory.
And we're going to be called into the presence of the Lord. And what Paul longed for is that Timothy?
Would have a saved life as well as a saved soul. And you have an enemy everyone of us has an enemy that will never give up. He will never give up trying to destroy our lives. And he doesn't care how he does it. He doesn't care what lies he uses, what tactics, what defeat. He wants to destroy your life, morally, physically, spiritually, he wants to destroy you.
And so Paul speaks here of having salvation.
In Christ Jesus with eternal glory. And so Paul, Peter was, I'm sorry, the apostle Paul was speaking to Timothy and he was Speaking of enduring.
And Peter, Paul had seen, I'm sorry. Timothy had seen Paul suffering at the hands of men. And apparently he probably saw him get a beating at Derby and being stoned and thrust out of the city. He'd seen Paul abused.
No, he says a little bit further on.
He speaks of uh.
Having being godly in Christ here chapter 3 verse 12.
Just make a couple of comments on this. Chapter 3, verse 12. Yeah. And all things, all that will live godly or live piously in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Just hold your place there and turn to Matthew's gospel, Chapter 5. We'll look at one verse there, couple verses, Chapter five, I think it's verse 11.
Yes.
Chapter 5 of Matthew, verse 11. Blessed are happy are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
00:40:15
You know, there was no man on earth, ever.
That face persecution like the Lord Jesus. No man that was harassed like the Lord Jesus day in and day out.
He was harassed and he was falsely accused.
He bore all kinds of abuse. That's what affliction means, you know, affliction.
To bear affliction and endure hardness as a good soldier. Affliction means to bear the reproof or the, uh, abuse of this world. And so all that will live godly or piously in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. And so Timothy was going to suffer.
Timothy was going to suffer. If he was going to walk in communion with Christ and reflect the life of Christ and reflect the moral glories of Christ in his life, he was going to suffer for it.
Are you willing to suffer for Christ? Is it worth the cause of Christ to suffer for him and to live like a Christian, to dress like a Christian, to speak like a Christian? Is it worth while? There's a coming day of glory, and Paul speaks of it a little bit later in this epistle. Well, because we've run out of time, I'll just mention those seven things again in chapter one, verse one, we have the promise of life, which is in Christ Jesus.
And then a little bit further on in verse nine we have our holy calling that is in Christ Jesus before the world began. Then we have in verse 13 that were exhorted to hold fast or to have an outline of sound words which thou has heard of me in faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus.
And then we have in chapter 2, verse one, the grace.
That is in Christ Jesus. Then we have a little further on.
The apostle Paul verse 10, the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and then in chapter 3 verse 12 we have the godly or the pious living in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. The last one is having faith salvation verse 15 from a child that was known. The Holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
And so the Word of God is what is necessary to be able to safeguard our souls, safeguard our testimony, and to walk in communion with the Lord.