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We are studying a new book in our chapter-by-chapter study, which of course is 2 Timothy. We've gone through our three Psalms as we normally do between books. We went through 1 Timothy, the next three Psalms, and now we're up to 2 Timothy. I wanted to continue on with these Epistles 2 Timothy from the Apostle Paul. And let's start during verse number 12, 2 Timothy 1 verse 12. It says, 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. The title for the sermon tonight, brethren, is Committed unto him, committed unto him, committed unto the Lord, of course. And just for your understanding, you know, there is some time that's taken place between the book of 1 Timothy. And I think when you look at the book of 1 Timothy, it's quite clear that Timothy is quite new to pastoring. You know, he's taken on the position as the bishop of the church in Ephesus. And then when we get to 2 Timothy, it's been a few years. It's easily been about two years. You know, if you look at just the traditional historical sort of view of these books, generally people would say, yeah, it's been about two years. And the reason for that, 2 Timothy is Paul's, you know, pretty much confirmed Paul's final Epistle. Because as we get through 2 Timothy, he's speaking about himself, you know, basically coming to the end of his life, which we'll have a look at soon. But the reason we often say two years is because as we look at 2 Timothy, you'll notice that Paul is a prisoner. And every time Paul would write an Epistle, he made it very clear whether he was a prisoner of Rome or not. And one thing we notice here is that he definitely is a prisoner. If I quickly read to you at the end of the book of Acts, Acts chapter 28 and verse number 30, Paul was under house arrest. In Acts chapter 28, verse number 30, it says, And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching those things, which concerned the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no man forbidding him. And so we've all been under house arrest for two years, toward the end of his life there. It is believed that, you know, 1 Peter was written at a time when he was not arrested. He was not a prisoner. And now we do find himself as a prisoner coming to the end of his life. And that's where the two years comes from. It's not a big deal, but just gives you sort of a feeling. Okay, it's been a couple of years. You know, Timothy has grown into the role. And these could very well be the last words of the Apostle Paul. Okay, and so these are important words for him, of course, to pass down his legacy onto Timothy. But so let's start there in verse number one, 2 Timothy chapter one, verse number one. It says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God according to the promise of life, which is in Christ Jesus, to Timothy, my dearly beloved son, grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. And now just very quickly, as I said, I just want to prove to you that this is toward the end of Paul's life. So if you quickly go to chapter four, 2 Timothy chapter four in verse number six, go to 2 Timothy chapter four in verse number six, Paul writes, for I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand. Of course, his departure is that he believes, I'm sure the Lord God had revealed to him that his death is very near. And so you can see this is toward the end of his writings. May very well be the last writings of the Apostle Paul. And so if these are going to be the last writings of the Apostle Paul, as I said, he wants to, I mean, it's an important book. It's an important book to Timothy. It's an important book to all pastors. It's an important book to all believers. Because, you know, the Apostle Paul was greatly used by God for the New Testament times to preach unto the churches. And so it's really important that we take these things seriously. It's like Christ, you know, before Christ ascended up to heaven, you know, the final words of Christ was the great commission. We know that was something dearly on the heart of Christ and need to preach the gospel to baptize believers and teach the whole cancer of God. And so if we consider in the same view that these are the last words of Paul, then we can understand how important this is. And let's go back there to chapter one, please. Second Timothy chapter one, verse number three, it reads, I thank God whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day. And so Paul says he's serving the same God that his forefathers have served in the past. And of course, the forefathers are the Old Testament saints. And so you need to understand this book. It is definitely a passing on of the torch, right? Paul is passing the torch of the faith and of the gospel to Timothy. And he hearkens on to the, upon the Old Testament saints. You know, the same God that I worship, the Father and his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the same God that was passed down. The torch was passed down generation by generation. And he finally came upon Paul. Now he's passing this on. And we need to remember this in our Christian life, you know. I mean, I think about this all the time because I've got kids. And I think about our children all the time. And I want to make sure that whenever I preach a sermon, yes, it's for the adults, don't get me wrong, but I really want the sermon to be understood by the children. You know, I'm not going to use large fancy words that children generally do not understand. And I want to teach with clarity, all right? Our kids absorb a lot more than we realize. And I realized that we need to make sure that the next generation is a generation that loves the Lord, that wants to serve the Lord, that wants to keep new life after church, you know, marching along for the Sunshine Coast. Hey, and also be thankful for our forefathers, our spiritual forefathers. Hey, for me, it was my mother. My mother gave me the gospel. My parents, I was raised in a Christian home. Praise God for that. Hey, but your spiritual forefathers may not necessarily be blood, okay? Because many of you have been saved out of families that are not Christian. And so we all have spiritual forefathers. You know, Paul was a spiritual forefather of ours. Timothy is a spiritual forefather of ours. And we continue to pass on this torch down generation after generation so they can remain faithful unto the Lord, all right? And so that's the point of this whole book, all right? Passing on that torch to the next generation. Now look at verse four. Paul says, greatly desiring to see thee. So he's not seeing Timothy for a while because he's imprisoned, okay? Being mindful of thy tears that I may be filled with joy. Interesting. Paul, for whatever, whether it's just a revelation of the Holy Ghost, he just hears through the grapevine that Timothy is struggling. He says, being mindful of thy tears. I'm being mindful of your tears, Timothy. I know you've been weeping. I know you're going through a hard time. Hey, Pastor Timothy, the ministry is not easy. You're having challenges. You're having difficulties. And Paul is hoping that he could see Timothy, but he's not sure whether he will. He's desiring that. He was to see Timothy. And he says, if I can see Timothy, he says that I may be filled with joy because I can come alongside you and encourage you and motivate you. And you can see my release that I'm no longer imprisoned and that we can both be joyful together. You can see the heart of Paul. Hey, that's my heart right now. I want to get up there to the Sunshine Coast and see you, brethren. You know, I have a desire to see each one of you, to speak to each one of you face to face once again. Let's keep going. Verse number five. When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which brought first thy grandmother, Lois, and thy mother Eunice, and I am persuaded that indeed also. And again, we're touching that topic of the generational changes or the passing down of the faith, right? The reason why Timothy is a faithful Christian is because his mother Eunice taught him. But it didn't come from his mother. It came from his grandmother, Lois. You know, Paul was able to see grandmother Lois, she's faithful for the Lord, serving the Lord. It's clear that she passed the faith down to a daughter. And it's very clear that the daughter passed the faith on to Timothy. And so we see three generations of Christians. All right. And again, that passing down of the torch. And we need to remember this. And for the ladies, let this be an encouragement to you. You know, quite often, most of the stories that we have in the Bible are about the men. You know, the men are the ones to be pastors. Hey, but you may very well be the mother or a grandmother of a great pastor. Okay. As long as you pass down your faith to your children, to your children's children, three generations in Timothy's family. Hey, and this faith, as it is being pointed out by Paul, he says the unfeigned faith. What's the unfeigned faith? Well, something that is feigned is something that is fake. And so he's saying, Timothy, your faith is not fake. It's unfeigned. It's been passed down generation to generation to generation. You all love the Lord. You all continue serving the Lord. And the reason Paul points out that it's an unfeigned faith is because when we do pass our faith down to the next generation, we could potentially create a feigned faith, a fake faith. You know, it could be, you know, today that for the parents, you know, you love coming to New Life Baptist Church. You love hearing God's word. You love singing praises. And look, you know how many churches there are that are preaching false things, false gospels, or churches that basically have patterned themselves after some worldly rock concert. And you say, you know what? No, I cherish New Life Baptist Church. I cherish the doctrines that we believe. And for you, your faith is not feigned. It's true. All right, you know, not only are you saved, but your faith toward God and to his word is true. And sometimes we can pass down our faith. Yes, our children get saved. I'm not saying they're not saved. They're saved. Their faith on Christ is real. But as far as living faith to faith, as far as living a faithful life for the Lord God, it could just be fake, right? Our kids may very well be coming along to New Life Baptist Church and just be like, I don't want to be here, though. Right? I mean, got better things to do on a Wednesday, dad or mom. You know, I've got better things to do. And, you know, they come to church and they go through the motions. Hey, but, you know, to them, it's not, you know, they're not that faithful. That could be. And something we have to be aware of because as our children grow, they may, you know, they may not appreciate what New Life Baptist Church is. They may not appreciate the doctrines that we hold dearly, right? Because many of us have made the decision to be a founding member of New Life Baptist Church. We made the decision to leave our old churches and become part of this church. And so we cherish it. It's important to us. We've made that hard decision to go to a church that will preach truths that are uncompromised, knowing full well that we're never going to be this massive, massive mega church. We're never going to be this rich church, right? We're just going to be battlers for the Lord. They're on the Sunshine Coast against many churches that are feigned. Many churches that are fake. But here's the thing. Our children may not have that appreciation. You know, they may grow up and go, look, they're saved. They know we've been there. They need to be in church. The reason I'm saying this preference because I've seen it. I've seen generation after generation. I've seen pastors, children, right? The children of pastors go into the world or they still have that in them. I've got to be in church and they end up going to some hillsong. They end up going to some watered down liberal church just because they don't get confronted with the truth of God's word. They receive watered down preaching and they like it that way because they wouldn't live a life that just pleases them. They wouldn't live a life where they can enjoy the pleasures of the world without being confronted of the truths of God's word. And so they'll decide to go down to the watered down Baptist church or, hey, they'll love the music of the hillsongs and all the varieties of that. And they'll end up in one of those churches, you know, not because they don't love the Lord necessarily, not because they're not saved. It's just that it's fake. Like they're not living faithfully. They don't have the same love and desire that you have for this church of the doctrines that we preach. And so we need to be aware of this. This is the whole teaching, all right? Paul passing down the torch to Timothy, also recognizing that his faith has come from the grandmother and the mother passed down generation after generation. And we want to make sure that the next generation that our children understand our appreciation for a church like ours and independent fundamental Baptist church that will preach from the King James Bible without compromise. Sadly, guaranteed, some of our children will not appreciate our church when they become adults. Right. And for the children listening, I hope it's not you. Okay. I hope it's not you. All right. And we need to be aware of this because we have stories for us in the Bible where good men of God ended up having children that were unfaithful. All right. If you can quickly turn to turn to 1 Samuel, keep your finger there in 2 Timothy and turn to 1 Samuel chapter 8. Turn to 1 Samuel chapter 8, please. 1 Samuel chapter 8 and verse number 1. Now, of course, Samuel was a faithful prophet of the Lord. He was a judge, a prophet, and he was, you know, well respected in the kingdom by the kings that have come, you know, King Saul, King David. But we learned that Saul's children were not faithful in 1 Samuel chapter 8, verse number 1. And it came to pass when Samuel was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel. So did Samuel want his children to serve the Lord and to serve the people of God? Absolutely. Okay. He wanted them to be judges. He wanted them to know the word of God. And they probably did know the word of God growing up under Samuel. But then what happens? It says in verse number 2. Now, the name of the first one was Joel and the name of the second Abiah. They were judges in Beersheba and his sons, look at this, and his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after Luca and took bribes and perverted judgment. Hey, they became judges, but they didn't become judges for the Lord, for the service of the Lord, they became judges for what he paid them. Hey, and he didn't pay them enough for them. They took bribes. They perverted their judgments. And so they went after filthy Luca. They went after the money. That's why they became judges. And you know, we have pastors like that. They become pastors for the money. It's not, they don't become pastors to just sacrificially give to the Lord and to do a work for his kingdom. They do it for the money. It's crazy. All right. We can see how Samuel, a faithful man who loved the Lord, ended up having children that were just not faithful. Hey, were they in the ministry? Yeah, they were in the ministry. They became judges, but they did it for the money. Okay. They chased up the money. And I mean, you know, it breaks my heart that if I see my children go off into the world and for them, it no longer becomes about the Lord God, right? Their love, their service, it becomes about loving money, loving the service of money and how much they can amass for themselves in this world. It would break my heart. Hey, but it can happen. And so we need to make sure we don't take our children for granted, that we train them, that we teach them. Samuel's not the only man. Let me read to you about Job. And I've spoken to you about Job a few times as we're going for the perfect man series, because God says he's perfect and upright. But you know what? When we read Job chapter one, verse number four, it says, and his sons, that's Job's sons, went and feasted in their houses every one his day and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them. And it was so when the days of the feasting were gone about that Job sent and sanctified them and rose up early in the morning and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, it may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually. So Job operated as a priest for his family. Job operated before Moses, before the Old Testament times, and he operated as a priest and as his children were feasting and having fun and celebrating. In Job's mind, he knows his children. He knows that, look, they're probably getting up to a mystery. They're probably getting up to wicked, sinful things. And just in case that they are, I'm going to go offer a sacrifice unto the Lord. I'm going to step in on their behalf to appease God's wrath and God's judgment upon them. And so Job is an upright, perfect, upright man. And even he had concerns that his children did not love the Lord God the way that he did. All right. They would get into a lifestyle of sin. And so these are just sad realities of life. You know, if you know your Bible as well, you know that one generation of the Israelites could have been godly, next generation, they're worshiping false gods. Okay. I mean, everything could just change in one generation or you can have a wicked generation and then God raises up a godly man in the next generation and they get back, you know, we're the Lord, they get back on, you know, serving the Lord. But you know what, brethren? It doesn't have to be that way. We don't have to lose our next generation. We can have the next generation serving the Lord. We can have the next generation after that. Our grandchildren serving the Lord. Why? Because as we saw in 2 Timothy, that's what happened with him. His grandmother served the Lord, his mother served the Lord, and now Timothy is serving the Lord. And so, you know, the generations, these are real issues for us to consider. Sometimes as parents, we think that, hey, we come to a good church, we hear good preaching, and we just assume that our children know everything. No parents. It's your job. It's not enough for this pastor or this church to teach your kids. Parents, you need to teach and guide your kids as well. That is a common error that many parents make. Well, I take my kids to church or I take my kids to Sunday school, but then the parents aren't spending time teaching the children the word of God. I'll quickly read to you from Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse number 6. Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 6 says, Brethren, this is a command. It's not an option. It says, Teach them what? The words of God, the scriptures. And so we learn here that God just wants us to continually teach our children the word of God. They would learn from the mistakes that we will teach them righteous things. And, you know, I thank God that my parents raised me with biblical principles. But, you know, if I'm just honest, many times the biblical principles that I got taught was not shown to me later in the word of God. You know, it's kind of taken for granted. We know these are biblical principles, and so we're raising you a certain way. But what children really need to know, brethren, is what can you show me in God's word where that is? Okay. And the reason I'm saying this is because, you know, when your children come to church, they hear this preacher and they hear other preachers always talk about that this is the final authority. That all our practice, all our doctrine comes from the word of God. We always say, hey, don't trust man or, you know, make sure that you confirm everything you hear preached even from a pastor from God's word. We keep talking about God's word as the final authority. Well, if this is the final authority, then our children are going to learn this is what I trust in. We know this is perfect. We know this is God's word. And so when you direct your children and you teach them something from the Bible or you rules around the house or rules of living from biblical principles, the next thing you need to do is let me show you where that is found in the Bible so they can understand. This isn't just mums and dads ideas, but they understand that it's coming from God's word, which they will respect as they grow up in the house of God. All right, so make sure you teach your children. Don't take them for granted, or they will take our faith, our doctrines and our church for granted. Let's keep going back to 1 Timothy chapter 1, sorry, 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 6. It says, Wherefore, I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee, by the putting on of my hands. And so we learn here that the apostle Paul is the one that ordained Timothy. And when Timothy was ordained, he received this gift of God. And Paul is telling Timothy, stir up this gift. Stir it up. All right. Now, again, if you're just reading 2 Timothy, you're not going to fully understand what this gift is. So let's just remind ourselves, go back to 1 Timothy. 1 Timothy chapter 4, please. 1 Timothy chapter 4 and verse number 13. 1 Timothy chapter 4 verse number 13 says here, Till I come, give attendance, notice the next words, to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. All right. So the pastor, the bishop is meant to read God's word, to exhort, that's to build people up with God's word. All right. And to doctrine, that's teaching God's word. Notice how important God's word is to the work of a pastor. Then it says in verse number 14, Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. So this is again, when you got ordained, Paul being one of those that ordained Timothy. Then it says, verse number 15, meditate upon these things. What things? Well, what we just read, the reading, the exhortation, the doctrines. All right. Meditate upon these things. Give thyself wholly to them that thy profiting may appear to all. And so pastors are required to continue studying God's word. That the people would see, hey, this prophet in this pastor, he's growing in doctrine, he's growing in knowledge, he's growing his teaching skills, he's growing his ability to edify, to build up, to exhort the brethren in accordance to the doctrines of God's word. And so I've said it before that this gift that is given to, I believe this, this gift is given to every pastor that has been biblically ordained. It's a special gift of understanding the scriptures, of teaching the scriptures, a greater depth that I personally have experienced. I truly believe we all have it. But the key thing is here, we're not to neglect it as we saw in 1 Timothy. And in 2 Timothy, we're to stir it up. Okay. So pastors need to continue studying God's word. You know, a pastor should never get to the points where they write out their 100 sermons. And look, some pastors are like this. Okay. They've got 100 sermons. And basically, once they've gotten to sermon number 100, then they start all over again with sermon number one, and they repeat and they repeat and they repeat, hoping that no one in the church realizes that they're repeating the same sermons over and over again. Now, brethren, there's nothing wrong with repeating sermons. Okay. There have been sermons that are preached for New Life Baptist Church. And I've basically taken that same sermon and preached it to Blessed Hope Baptist Church. Okay. Because it's different. It's a different congregation. So I've done that. I've done that a few times. There's nothing wrong with repeating, right? But the problem there is if you just become a, you know, all you just repeat, you never go back and study. Now you're just studying your notes. You're just studying, you know, your sermon. Okay. You're not stirring up the gift anymore. That gift of the Holy Ghost helps you proclaim God's word. It needs, you need to be constantly studying. If that's your desire to be a pastor, you can't get to the point where you think, well, I know enough. All right. I don't need to study God's word anymore. I know enough. I've gone to Bible college. I've done my, you know, my years of experience and I know enough. I can just preach sermons on the run. No, pastors are required to continue to stir up that gift of studying God's word. You know, pastors, sometimes they regurgitate someone else's sermons. You know, in the days of the internet, you can't get away with it anymore. Where people download other people's sermons, maybe they pay $15, you know, for 50 sermons from their favorite pastor. And now they've got the notes, they've got the references, and they're just preaching the same sermons as their former pastors. Well, you can't get away with that in the internet because it's so easy to look up, right? I mean, you can take my sermons and maybe type in word for word and see if there's other sermons like that, but I guarantee you're not going to find anything like it because the sermons that I prepared for everyone are from scratch. Okay. Yes, I might take ideas from sermons I've heard from other pastors. Good things that I've learned that I want to pass on to my church, but every sermon that I preach is from scratch, right? It's my own personal study with God's word, with God's Holy Spirit guiding me. So that's how it is. And one thing that I've also, I'll just share with you something else that I've also noticed is when I talked about the Bible with my fellow brother in the Lord, who's not a pastor. All right. And you know, generally speaking, our church, we all have desires to know God's word. And it's awesome. It's fantastic. I love speaking about God's word with believers. Okay. But usually when I talk to just your general layman, your general church member, it's more about, you know, trying to discover what is the Bible saying in this passage? When I talk to a fellow pastor, there's a different view that pastors have. Okay. It's not so much what is the scripture saying? Okay. Which we, I mean, obviously we talk about it, but more than that, it's, well, how do we apply this passage? How do we apply this passage in our lives? Or how do we apply this in our church? What are the conditions? How do we, how do we remain consistent with this teaching or this teaching? Maybe it sounds a little contradictory to this other teaching. So how do we reconcile these things? That's generally, when I talk to pastors about the scriptures, that's the kind of conversation we generally have. Okay. Cause we know, okay, we understand what the scripture is saying, but now it's our job to teach people, to exhort people, to answer questions. And so our study is a little bit deeper than the kind of studies that I generally do with people that are just brethren in the Lord. Okay. And again, I believe the reason for that is because every pastor that has been biblically ordained has received that gift. And we need to stir up that gift, not neglect that gift that God has given us as we continue to study God's word and then be used by God to teach the people that God has given us. All right, let's keep going there. Verse number seven. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of sound mind. Be 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. So verse seven and eight, we need to read that together to understand verse number seven is beautiful. I use it so many times and so many sermons, but let's keep it within the context here in verse number eight. What is happening? Well, Paul is concerned that Timothy might become ashamed of the testimony of our Lord. Now, the word ashamed, when we think about the word ashamed, we often think about the word embarrassed. Something along those lines, right? You're ashamed, you're embarrassed. Obviously, Timothy is not embarrassed. He's pastoring a church. He's good friends with the apostle Paul, all right? He's not ashamed of the gospel. He's not ashamed, as embarrassed, I should say. He's not embarrassed of the gospel, the testimony of the Lord. He's not embarrassed about Paul. He says here of me, he's prisoner. That proves that Paul is in prison. He's arrested, all right? But in the Bible, many times the word ashamed means being discouraged or let down, okay? Being discouraged or let down. And so what, you know, we saw earlier in verse number four that Timothy had some tears. Well, we kind of figured we learn here in verse number eight what those tears are about. So let's just read it again and think about being discouraged. When we read the word ashamed, think of the word discouraged, okay? Be not therefore ashamed or discouraged of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner. So Paul started to get discouraged that the testimony of the Lord is causing afflictions, all right? And for Paul, hey, one of my best friends, one of my mentors, my teacher is in prison. And this is causing Timothy discouragement. And then it says, but be thou partaker of the afflictions. So you, Timothy, be part of the afflictions. So Timothy is probably going through some afflictions. Some problems for the testimony of the Lord, right? And we understand this is part of the Christian life, but sometimes these burdens can become so heavy. And Timothy as a pastor is starting to be weighed down, let down, discouraged by all the turmoil, the struggles, the persecution that's coming because of his faith. And so Paul's trying to encourage him, all right? Timothy has become fearful of what's taking place. He sees Paul in prison. Maybe he thinks he's next to be thrown in prison, right? Gets discouraged. That's why in verse number seven, for God have not given us a spirit of fear. Don't be afraid, Timothy, but of power. Be powerful of love. Have love of sound mind, right? Don't think crazy things. You know, don't be afraid of things that you're not even sure is going to happen. Have a sound mind. And so I learned here that Timothy as a faithful pastor, that he can get discouraged. Pastors can get discouraged. Hey, even this pastor has gotten discouraged from time to time. Okay, now here's the thing. I'm not afraid of being thrown in prison. Sometimes just problems rise up. You know, turmoil, struggles. Hey, even struggles of the brethren that are heavy on the heart of a pastor. And so, you know, please pray for me. Pray for good pastors that love the Lord. Pray for me because obviously, taking on a role like being a pastor, especially of two churches, there are going to be struggles. There are going to be difficulties. There are going to be afflictions. And, you know, I'm not necessarily going to share all those with you guys, but I hope by reading 2 Timothy, you realize they're there. They exist. And so I need your prayers. Don't forget to be praying for your pastor. Hey, and look, if one day I'm not your pastor and you find yourself another great church, another great pastor, be praying for that pastor as well. Amen. Because it is a tough job. It does require a lot of sacrifice. Affliction is part of the job, you know. If you can quickly just go to chapter three in the same book, 2 Timothy chapter three, one of the most famous verses I'm sure we're familiar with. 2 Timothy chapter three, verse number 12. What does it say there? 2 Timothy chapter three, verse 12. Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. So what's saying there? All that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. So it's not just pastors. If you, brethren, live godly, if you ladies live godly, if you children live for the Lord God, you are going to be persecuted. We all suffer this. Hey, but these are the afflictions of Christ. We get to taste a little bit of the sufferings of Christ. What an honor because he has suffered so much for us. And brethren, don't forget, when we suffer for the Lord, the Lord's going to bless us. He's going to help us through. He gives the spirit of love, power, and of love, and of sound mind. He's going to guide us through the difficulties. I'd rather suffer and suffer affliction for God than to suffer affliction for being a troublemaker, being a nuisance, right? I'd much rather suffer the Lord God because there are eternal rewards for the suffering that we go through. Back to verse chapter one, please. Second Timothy chapter one, verse number nine. Second Timothy chapter one, verse number nine. It says, who have saved us and caught 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. I love this verse, all right? Anytime that we have the gospel being proclaimed, the gospel across all generations being proclaimed as one that is by grace through faith without works, one that is found within Christ Jesus, I love to promote it, okay? Because what do we learn here? That salvation has been the same and consistent even before the world began, right? Verse number nine. Before the world began, salvation has always been by grace, right? According to his own purpose and grace. It's always been, not according to our works, as it says there in verse number nine. It's always been given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. The reason I like to highlight again, because there are those that teach that salvation in the Old Testament was by some other way, that it wasn't by Jesus. It wasn't by grace. It was by works, and they believe in multiple gospels. Those people are idiots. They're false prophets, and they're not saved, brethren. Let's teach these things. Salvation even before the world began, even before Adam and Eve lived, God's plan for the answer to sin, the answer of salvation has always been by his grace, without works, found in Christ Jesus, okay? So if you need to highlight that verse in the Bible, highlight it, okay? Because it confirms salvation has always been the same. And some people say, well, pastor Kevin, the Old Testament saints, they did not know the name of Jesus. They did not know exactly how he would suffer. Yes, that's right. They didn't necessarily know all the details. It doesn't matter what they knew, what they were taught by God, their faith on the Lord by calling upon them Lord, brethren, by grace, through faith, without works, that's if they place their faith in the Lord God, they called upon the name of the Lord, whether they knew the name of God as God Almighty, or they knew the name of God by Jehovah, as was announced by Moses, they placed their faith in that Lord, as for the sacrifice and salvation for the sins, brethren, they too would be saved. Because look at verse number 10. Even though this was the plan from the beginning of the world, even though salvation has always been in Christ Jesus, it says in verse number 10, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ. And this appearing, of course, is his first coming in Bethlehem's manger. It says, who have abolished death and have brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. What's the gospel? The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And so salvation, God's purpose and his grace was manifest. What does the word manifest mean? It was revealed, all right? So it's not that they had no knowledge in the Old Testament, but the fullness of God's salvation in Christ Jesus, the death, burial, and resurrection of his son was fully revealed, fully manifest when Christ came 2000 years ago and when he died on the cross and rose again from the dead. All right? So we have the benefit today living in New Testament times because we understand the full manifestation, the full revealing of God's salvation. Yes, the Old Testament saints, they didn't have, you know, they sort of like, you know, they had their faith in the Lord God, but they didn't fully understand how the whole thing will transpire. But we have that benefit brethren, okay? But just because we have that benefit now, it doesn't mean it wasn't true for them before because once again, salvation was the same even before the world began. All right, verse number 11. Where unto? I'm appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles. So Paul says, I've been appointed this position to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. Verse number 12. For the which cause I also suffer these things. So he suffers for preaching the gospel to the Gentiles. All right? Nevertheless, I am not ashamed. So it's the same ashamed as what Timothy was. You know, it's like I'm not discouraged, right? Nevertheless, I'm not discouraged, okay? For I know, why is he not discouraged? Why is he 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. This is a beautiful verse. I love this verse in the Bible. And we took the title for the sermon from here tonight. Committed unto him. Committed unto him. And I believe verse number 12 is the glue that keeps the whole chapter together, okay? What do I mean by this? What is it that Paul had committed to the Lord? And you know, if we take verse number 12 alone and we just sort of just focus on that verse alone. Let's read it again. It says, for the which cause I also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I'm not ashamed. He says, for I know whom I have believed. Hey, salvation is by believing on whom? Who's that on Christ, right? Believing on Christ. And he's persuaded and persuaded that he is able to keep. Keep what? That which I committed unto him against that day, the day of judgment, okay? So what is it that the apostle Paul committed to the Lord God? Well, he committed his soul to the Lord God, right? The moment you believe on Jesus, you say, Jesus, I trust you as my savior. Please save me from my sins, right? You're committed. Committing your soul, your life, your eternal life, your salvation to the Lord God. You're committing your faith upon him. And here's the thing. The moment you commit that to the Lord Jesus Christ, you say, Jesus, it's just by you. It's just by your sacrifice. It's just by your grace. It's not by my works. Then the Lord God is going to keep that which you committed unto him. He's going to keep your soul. The Lord God will keep your soul, right? You can never lose it once saved, always saved. You know, whatever we commit to the Lord is kept for all eternity. Praise God for that. So you take that passage. Absolutely. And you know, this is where sometimes people, when they explain their salvation, you might ask someone, so what did you do to be saved? You know, we know the best answer. We know, well, I just simply believed on the death, burial, resurrection of Jesus Christ. I trusted him alone for my salvation. I know it's not by my works. And I know he's given me eternal life that I can never lose it, right? We would answer a question like that. How do you know you're saved? That's how we would answer that. Sometimes you talk to people and they say, well, I've committed my life to Jesus. And it's not clear, but I want you to understand where that comes from. I committed my life to Jesus. It comes from this passage, all right? He says here once again, which I've committed unto him against that day. I've committed my life to Jesus. And of course, there are different understandings of what that term means. Some people mean, well, I've committed my life, therefore I'm going to, you know, to be saved. I've just submitted myself to his Lordship and I'm just going to keep all the commandments. I'm going to be a good person. And that's how I'm saved. That's how I've committed my life to him. Obviously, that's a false gospel. That's a gospel that works. But there are some that just don't know how to phrase it any better. And they're just saying, look, I've committed my life. In fact, I've committed my soul. I know that it's just by Jesus that I received salvation. And of course, that person is saved. And you're using the kind of language that we see here in verse number 12. And so if you go through the soul winning, someone says, I've committed my life to Jesus. You don't necessarily know are they saved or not. You need to ask the relevant questions to figure out whether they're trusting in salvation by works or whether they're trusting salvation in the finished work of Jesus Christ. But as I said, this is probably the verse that keeps this or holds this chapter together. Because the first way that we can see that we can commit something to the Lord is by committing our soul, our salvation to the Lord Jesus Christ. And we have everlasting life. Now, when we looked at verse number six, we also saw that there was a gift of God within the apostle, the bishop Timothy, pastor Timothy. And that gift was to be used. Okay, it's a gift of God. All right. And God wants us to stir that up, stir that gift up. Now, as a pastor, I know what that gift is. Now, for you brethren, we've all been given gifts of God. We had a look at this even on Sunday. You know, God's made us all different. He's given us different spiritual gifts of how we can serve him. And so we can commit this gift to the Lord God, right? When I study God's word and I get ready to preach God's word, I do it unto the Lord. Because I serve him first. And if I commit it unto the Lord, I know it's going to be a blessing to the church. Well, you know what, brethren? If you've got some gift to serve your local church, commit it unto the Lord. Give it unto the Lord, all right? And the Lord will bless you. The Lord will reward you. However you use the gifts that God has given you, spiritual gifts to serve him, he's going to lay up treasures for you in heaven. Praise God, okay? You're not going to lose anything that you commit unto the Lord. That's verse number six, verse number seven. You know, it was about the spirit of fear, right? Commit your fears unto the Lord. Brethren, if you're afraid, you know, you're going for difficulties, commit those fears. Say, Lord, I'm afraid. I just want to commit these fears to you. I'm going to live in your hands. And Lord, please give me the spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind. And that's what he promises you. You commit your fears to him and he gives you the right spirit to soldier on even in the midst of fears. In verse number eight, we saw that the apostle Paul had committed himself to the afflictions or the sufferings of the gospel, okay? And if you give yourself to the afflictions that come by living godly and to preach his word, then the Lord God's going to help you bear it and persevere, continue to serve him faithfully all the days of your life. And so as I said, I do believe verse number 12 is, you know, we need to understand the whole chapter in light of what verse number 12 is saying. We need to commit ourselves unto the Lord. And this is what Paul's encouraging Timothy. Paul says, look, the reason I could go through afflictions and being in prison is because I know I've committed myself to the Lord and he is going to remain faithful unto me. And now he's encouraging Timothy to do the same with the sufferings that he's going through. Verse number 13, hold fast the fall of sound words, which thou has heard of me in faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus. This is awesome. You know, Paul is saying, look, everything that I've taught you, Timothy, all the sound words that I've taught you, you know, hold on to those things, right? It's important that we appreciate the preaching that we've heard from men of God in our lives. You know, I hope you can take on board the sound preaching, the sound words that I preach unto you, brethren, that, you know, you can then one day passes on to your next generation or to people that you can influence. Amen. You know, God has given us several, not just me. I know many of you listen to other preachers online. Hey man, if they're men of God and they're preaching God's word, hey, hold on to those sound words, pay attention, absorb them, then pass them on to others. We should never think that, you know, we don't need to worry about what anyone else has said. You know, I can just come to the truth all by myself. If God has given you faithful men, listen to what they're preaching unto you. And, you know, I once knew a pastor that said this phrase, that there's no doctrine too big to be sacrificed upon the altar of God's word. Okay, there's no doctrine too big that can't be sacrificed upon the altar of God's word. Hey, that sounds good. Okay, that sounds good, right? That whatever doctrine we believe in, we need to make sure that we've built our foundation upon God's word. I never thought that this pastor basically meant, you know, I'm going to do away with what anybody taught me and I'm going to start all over again. Okay, I'm going to start all over again, right? I'm going to start every doctrine. We're going to examine every doctrine all over again from the scriptures. Ignoring what we've been taught in the past, that's foolishness. You know, that same pastor ended up believing in oneness theology and rejecting the eternal sonship of Jesus Christ. Okay, so please never take that approach. I'll just reinvent the wheel. I'll just start all over again. Why start all over again? When God has given us faithful men, preaching us God's word to get us to the point where we are now. Yes, hopefully you can take on board what you've learned and then grow from there and keep growing and then pass it on and they can grow and they can pass it on and they can grow and they can pass it on. You know, we should never be people that think we're so prideful so we can just work it out all by ourselves. Let's ignore everyone. Let's ignore every other doctrine. Let's just start all over again. Yeah, if you want to get into heresy, then that's where you start. You start all over again. No, we want to listen to the sound words that we received from preachers of the past. And look at verse number 14. That good thing which was committed unto thee, keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us. Hey, what's that good thing? The good thing is the sound words, the doctrine, the preaching that has come from Paul to Timothy. It says that good thing which was committed unto thee. Now, as I said, the title for the sermon was committed unto him. You know, that we're committed unto the Lord God. Hey, but once we've committed ourselves to the Lord God, God now commits certain things to us. The sound words, the word of God. God has committed the scriptures to us, brethren. So we can use this and be an influence to others. He's committed to me. You know, this offer us as a bishop. It's my job to preach to you, to feed you God's word. You know, it's my job to teach you all the counsel of God. Amen. And then we have the lost. And each one of us have been committed the gospel, brethren, to preach to the lost. So we can give them the sound words of the beautiful gospel, salvation by grace alone on the finished work of Christ. And so, brethren, we commit ourselves to the Lord. Amen. Praise God, commit yourselves to the Lord. Now the Lord committed his word to you, his sound words. Now you go and influence others. You go pass on the torch of our faith onto other people. Verse number 15. This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me, of whom are Phygelus and homogenies. Phygelus and homogenies. All right, so Paul's saying that everyone in Asia, Asia is not Asia as we consider today. Asia in the time of the bubble is Asia Minor, which is like Turkey. You know, the area of Turkey that we know as modern day. Now, when he says all they that are in Asia, he's not saying that every believer in Asia Minor has turned against Paul. Because then he names a couple, you know, Phygelus and homogenies. So it's, and obviously he's writing to Pastor Timothy. So I believe Phygelus and homogenies, I believe these were pastors of other churches. Okay. And they have become afflicted. They've gone through the afflictions of the gospel. They've been ashamed of the testimony of Christ. They've become ashamed of Paul, a prisoner, once again in the hands of the Romans. And now they want nothing to do with him. And so they turn their churches basically against Paul. They're no longer supporting Paul. They're no longer encouraging Paul. They're no longer writing letters of encouragement to Paul or sending people to go and refresh him anymore. And Paul does not want the same thing to happen to Timothy. That Timothy will continue to soldier on. And brethren, this is just a reality of church. I wish it wasn't like this. You know, there are many churches that have started out strong, serving the Lord and soul winning and preaching hard and being uncompromising in the doctrines. But then things get too difficult. And the pastors, they start to struggle. They start to weep. They start to go through problems and hardships. And then they just, okay, well, let's just avoid all the hardships. And they start to preach watered-down sermons. They no longer stand for the Lord God. Hey, let's stop going soul winning because we don't want to offend the community. Let's just do a letter box drop. Let's just drop off tracks. All right, let's not be confrontational with our soul winning. You know, and they get become watered down, watered down. And then when you got someone that is on fire for the Lord, someone that is just serving the Lord faithfully and uncompromisingly, then those same paths, they turn again. That's the wrong way of doing it. You're going to turn people off. But yet that person is the one that's going to win the loss to Christ. They're going to be the ones that wake up people to the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so brethren, I love zealous Christians. You know, I never want to zap the zeal from a Christian. Now, you know, obviously, sometimes people are very zealous and sometimes a bit immature with their, you know, zealousness. But I don't want to take away the zealousness. I just want to help that person grow and mature and become more well-rounded but continue with your zeal to serve the Lord, Reverend. All right, because when we have zealous people in our church, that's going to help me become more zealous. And we can just continue to rub off of each other, right? To love the Lord, to love the lost, to love the gospel. And to win people to the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, these churches in Asia, you know, they're pastors. They become weak. They become discouraged by the persecution. And they no longer want to associate themselves with the apostle Paul. Verse number 16. The Lord gave mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus, for he oft refreshed me. He was not ashamed of my chain. But when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently and found me. So Paul identifies, no, there's actually someone from Asia, okay, that has been good to me. He has sought me and he came to Rome, just trying to find me, trying to figure out where I was. And when he found me, he refreshed me. You know, we enjoy each other's company. He came and, you know, encouraged me in the Lord. You know, he came and we prayed together. And brethren, that's what we need to be to each other. We need to encourage each other in the Lord, all right? Let us never be a church that just turns people away. It's like, you know, that person and we just want nothing to do with them. Listen, if they're a brother in the Lord, if they go through persecution, they go through struggles, we need to refresh that person. We need to encourage that person. We need to show them that we love them, okay? Because we're human beings. Yeah, we have the Spirit of God, I understand. We have the new man, I understand. We're saved, I understand. But we still need human interaction. We still need human fellowship and encouragement. All right, brethren. So don't be like the others in Asia that deserted Paul. You know, don't be a church that deserts this pastor. I don't know how long I'm stuck here in Sydney. Brethren, you know I want to get up there, all right? Obviously, I don't want to go through two weeks of hotel quarantine with my kids. I don't want to put my kids through that, right? But you know what? Besides that, brethren, I want to get up there. All right, brethren? And when I get up there, I'm not going to desert blessed up at this church either, okay? We need to encourage each other. We need to remain faithful to each other. Refresh one another. Pray for one another, brethren, because there's not many of us out there, brethren, okay? There are not many saved. And within the saved, there are not many that go to a church. And within those that are going to a church, not many of them are going to a good church. And even those that are going to a good church, there aren't many going to a soul-willing church that's preaching uncompromising sermons, brethren. New life at this church is important for the Sunshine Coast, okay? It's the place you want to be if you want to serve God and find encouragement and to encourage each other. And you know, sometimes people, brethren, they're very kind to me as well. You know, very generous. And I appreciate all the generosity that I receive. But I feel like sometimes like embarrassed because I look at what Paul's gone through, the sufferings that he'd gone through. I don't go through anything like that. And people still are very generous, very hospitable toward me, which I appreciate. Verse number 18, let's end there. The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day. And in how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus, thou knowest very well. So Paul wants to ensure that Onystophorus is found mercy, receives the mercy of the Lord, right? Once again, because he's part of the church, he's part of the church in Ephesus. He's part of one of the churches in Asia Minor. And you know, a lot of these churches have ignored Paul. You know, Paul doesn't want God's judgment to fall upon Onystophorus. And so, you know, he's been someone that has been helping Paul. Now, obviously, the reason he says in verse 18, thou knowest very well. He goes, you know very well that Onystophorus was a man who loved Paul, who helped Paul. It's because Timothy was the pastor of that church. And I just want to quickly show this to you. If you've got, if your Bible, not all Bibles have this. This Bible here on my pool, but doesn't have this information. But if you go to the end of chapter four in second Timothy, at the end of chapter four, some Bibles have this. Look at the at the end of verse number 22. So you got like a little, what do you call it? Like a little footer at the end of the chapter. And in some Bibles, it says there, the second epistle, answer Timotheus, ordained the first bishop of the church of the Ephesians, was written from Rome when Paul was brought before Nero the second time. I'm not sure if your Bible has that or not. I believe that is accurate, completely accurate, okay? That Timothy was the pastor or the bishop of the church there in Ephesus. That's why he knew Onesiphorus very well, because he was a man that had served Paul at the time when Paul was visiting that church. All right, brethren, that's second Timothy chapter one, committed unto him. Brethren, thank God that we've committed our souls to the Lord God. We've committed our salvation to him. We know that only by grace that we are saved through the finished work of Christ. But hey, commit everything else that you have to the Lord. He's all, he's given us each one of us spiritual gifts. Commit those gifts to the Lord. Do the work, serve the Lord, serve the local church. By serving the local church, you serve the body of Jesus Christ. Hey, and if you've got fears, commit those fears unto the Lord God, that he will give you a spirit of power and of sound, of love and of a sound mind. All right, brethren, let's go to Word of Pray.