Confidence - 2 Timothy 1:8-12

This morning we're going to talk about 2 Timothy, and the verses I'm focusing in on is 2 Timothy 1, verse 12. For this reason I also suffer these things, but I'm not ashamed. For I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard that which I have entrusted to him until that day.

So Paul's telling Timothy not to be ashamed of the testimony, about our Lord Jesus, or of him who is in prison and suffering, but to join in him in the suffering for the gospel, which is the power of God. He reminds Timothy that they were saved and called and set apart by God to the gospel, by God's grace, for the purpose that was proposed in eternity past. He reminds Timothy, I'm sorry, that the grace was now been opened up by the revealing of our Savior Jesus Christ who has abolished, put out of business, that word we've studied before means to put out of business, death on the one hand and he's brought light and life on the other.

Paul was appointed to bring light, to bring to light the good news by presenting the gospel. Paul was appointed by God as a herald or a preacher. He was appointed an apostle. And if you study what an apostle is, they were extremely powerful men and a teacher.

So what got my question mind working is why did I think that Paul would take this opportunity to reference all of his afflictions? In the preceding verses, he declares that he suffers afflictions because he's a preacher to the Gentiles of Jesus Christ. As a preacher to the Gentiles, he suffers on the one side from the Jewish hatred, on the other from Gentile mockery. Both combine to make his afflictions many and his sufferings intense.

If you've ever studied the record of his sufferings, they're extraordinary. He'd been an inmate in prisons. He'd been publicly whipped. He'd received 195 stripes on his back. He'd been beaten three times with rods. He was stoned and left for dead once. He had been betrayed by the Jews and assaulted by the Gentiles. He'd been naked, cold, hungry. He'd been houseless and he's been homeless.

The Jews hated him because he declared that a Jew crucified on a Roman cross was their Messiah. He was poked fun at by the Gentiles because he taught that the Jew whom they crucified had risen from the dead, sat on the right hand of God, and was now the only Savior in the world. So now, if he continued this preaching, it meant only to multiply the afflictions and emphasize the sufferings.

He would have at every turn a prison door. a lifted hand of violence, or the darkening shadow of death. In every voice, there would be a threat. In every look, there would be a scowl. And on every brow, there'd be a wrinkle of hate. And on every lip, a smile of contempt.

I got to thinking, if this was one of us, how would we stand up and view these circumstances? Well, I can tell you how Paul viewed them. None of these things moved him. On the contrary, as he contemplates his suffering, he knows that he is looked on as the off-scouring of the earth, and that should he be put to death, it would be with humiliation and shame.

And he cries out with one voice in a triumphant ring, he says, nevertheless, I'm not ashamed. And he sets at once to exhort Timothy and us to steadfastness to faith, and thus proclaims himself in a word, as he does in action, the very picture of confidence, courage, and unhesitating assurance. So what verse 12 really is about is an outburst of confidence in the midst of all of these sufferings. And he lays out the source of his confidence. He says he knows who he has believed, he was persuaded that Christ would keep that which he had committed to him, and he was persuaded that Christ will keep him until that day. The first one, he knows whom he has believed.

Notice the apostle doesn't say in what I have believed. He says, in whom I have believed. I've always marveled that when we study the book of Romans, when you get to chapter 7, there's all these, well, if I do this, or I did this, or there was this program, or this, until it gets down to verse 23, and Paul says, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? It's always a who question. So he says here, who? whom I have believed in.

It's a real important difference. What it does is it places us in connection with the person of Christ himself. The apostle had spoken of the truth, but truth is a lie to the person of Christ. He is the truth, and in him was life, in him is power, in him is linked with the love which applies it, which maintains in our heart, in the heart of it by, I know, says Paul, whom I have believed.

I know him. He had committed all of his happiness to knowing Christ. So the next question that came to mind, well, what does he know? Well, he knows that the person whom he has believed in is the image of the invisible God. The express image of his person and the brightness of His glory. He knows that.

He knows that He is the Creator of heaven and earth. He by whom all things were made, and by whom all things consist, and the supreme center of whom all things move. He knows that He is the Son of God, yet God the Son. He who came to be a man, He died for men, rose again, and sits at the right hand of God. and is the man in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, even Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ of God. He knows him as sacrifice for sin. He knows him as his substitute, his Redeemer, his Lord, his Master, his precious Savior. He knows that his Savior loved him and gave himself for him.

He knows all this because Jesus Christ had appeared to him on the Damascus road in glory and there revealed himself brighter than the midday sun. But he also knew these things because he took the life which was this glorified man had lived on earth and he put it side by side with the holy scriptures which he had studied from his youth up. And you know what he discovered? That the man fit perfectly like a glove to a hand, everything that was prophesied about who the Messiah would be. He knew that Jesus of Nazareth was none other than He in whom Moses and the prophets wrote about.

He knew all this, and yet He knew Him in all these things. He knew Him in still a deeper and a more fuller way. He knew Him as the One who makes a constant revelation of Himself to those who love Him and to those who seek Him. He had met him in prison on the decks of sinking ships. He had talked with him and felt his touch and his love. He knew his grace and he knew his power.

In a word, Paul had experienced Christ in his daily life. He knew him not only in his outward glory, but he knew the Spirit's power in his own soul so that he could say, as no other man has ever surpassed him in saying, Christ in us, the hope of glory. There may be doubt or uncertainty about everything else in the universe. There could be no doubt about who Jesus Christ is.

He knew him. He felt him. He had him not only upon the throne up there, but here in the very beat of his own heart. So much a part of himself that he could say, he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit. And thus Paul, Paul's confidence was born of that kind of knowledge, which in the last analysis we call intimacy. He had the consciousness and awareness of Christ and could therefore say, I know him.

Everyone here today has the privilege and the benefit to know the Lord Jesus Christ just as intimately as the Apostle Paul did. The list I've just gone through are all things that are in the Word of God. They're all in Paul's epistles. And when you take out your Bible to sit down and read it, you're not just accumulating a group of facts that you can say back to somebody. What's really happening is that you are gaining in this acquaintanceship, this intimacy, just like the Apostle Paul had. It is more of a desire on God's part. that you would have an intimate personal fellowship with Christ than it is on your part.

He's always working in that direction. The second part of these verses, what Paul said, he was persuaded that Christ would keep that which he had committed to him. Now the word committed means to give or to place a deposit in. This word means if you went down to the bank and put your $12 in there, you've committed it to the bank. You've made a deposit. He's able to guard that deposit. The bank hopefully is able to guard your deposit.

Paul had committed something to Christ. He had committed his spirit, his body, his soul, himself. His daily life his thoughts his words his deeds everything every circumstance every condition But the part that we don't spend a lot of time looking at is what did Christ commit to Paul? He gave Paul which or maybe ask it this way what came first was what God What the deposit that God gave Paul or was it the deposit that Paul gave back to God which came first? I think it has to be the deposit that God gave Paul. It's like we've talked about before about the idea of God's grace and we had this thing called the grace circle and on the top it says God loves me.

That's the starting point. It's 1 John 4, 7 down to 10. Here in his love, not that we love God, but that he loved us. That's the starting point. If you come down to the 3 o'clock position, and it's our love towards God. We love Him. Well, why do we love Him? Because He first loved us. If you come down to the 6 o'clock position, we obey Him. We do His will. Why? Because we love Him. Because He first loved us.

And then at the 9 o'clock position, you have He rewards me for obeying Him, for loving Him, because He first loved me. You have to complete the circle. So in this case, Paul's confidence is based on the fact that the deposit that God made into him first was the driving force in everything that he was and that he did.

There were, however, once that is in place, like in 1 Timothy 6.20, he says to Timothy, O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you. avoiding worldly empty chatter and opposing arguments of what is falsely called malice. Timothy was to do the guarding.

In 2nd Timothy 1.14 he says, guard through this Holy Spirit who dwells in us the treasures which he has entrusted to you. Paul knew that the starting point in all this was God's grace. and that as a result of God's grace, Paul would act in response to and realize that his response was guaranteed by God in the first place.

So the text could be translated, Christ had committed something to Paul, and he had. He had committed to him his very own nature. He had given Paul the Holy Spirit. He had committed to Paul himself through the Spirit, so Paul could say, it is no longer I, but Christ that lives in me. And Paul was assured because of that, that Christ would keep this double commitment, keep Paul and keep what he himself had given to Paul.

He was persuaded that Christ will do the keeping. I dare say lots of times we aren't persuaded, we aren't convinced that Christ will do the keeping. There isn't any thought in Paul's mind, there's no question about it that arises ever. He is totally persuaded. He's convinced by all that Christ is, by all that Christ has done, and by all the profound consciousness of Christ which nothing can disturb.

Christ is his keeper. putting a wall around him, and around you and me, with omnipotent power and loving providence, standing guard over all of our circumstances and his, he is himself so one with Christ that any blow to him would be a blow to Christ.

So what would it matter at that point whether Paul was in prison or in a palace. What would it matter if he was out in the desert or in a town or hungry or naked or even dead or alive? Christ was on guard. Christ would keep watch through the midnight till the morning. So who does the guarding? It's God who does it for all those that belong to him. God is guarding Paul and his ministry through Timothy and both are true. The keeping power of God is the second reason why Paul is so confident about things in the midst of his suffering.

The third thing that he talks about is that he is persuaded that Christ will keep him until that day In the text, he calls it that day. In other writings, he speaks of it as the day of Christ. That day is coming for all of us, the day when Christ shall rule without hindrance over the earth, the day when sin and sickness and sorrow and death shall flee away, and when life shall be as it should be, and it'll be like a poem, like a psalm of praise, perfect delight of victory for God. God knows that the day of Christ will be the day of the believer of the Christian. That in that day the Christian will be transfigured, he will be glorified, he will be eternal, and he will shine with the resplendent glory of Christ himself. He will be filled with unspeakable joy and the happiness of God.

Paul is absolutely persuaded that Christ will keep him until that day and for that day. He knows that the whole logic of the redemption that Paul has, has been that he might be brought into that day and set forth as a trophy of God's grace, as the subject of God's kindness through the ages to come. So Paul is fully persuaded. He's persuaded by the blood of Christ, by the Spirit of Christ, by the Word of Christ, the past faithfulness of Christ, the inner consciousness of Christ.

All proclaim the fact that Christ will keep him to and for that day. He knows that when that day comes, He will find compensation for all of his losses. He will have honor for all of his shame. He'll have wealth for all of his poverty, healing for every stripe, salve for every wound, and a crown for every robbery. God's honor and glory for every contempt of man.

And above all, he shall see Christ as he is and hear him say, Well done, thou good and faithful servant. And thus in the eyes of all who hit him, in the eyes of all the universe, he will be justified as the preacher to the Gentiles, the witness of the gospel of the grace of God. You know, it's interesting for Paul to know and be persuaded about that coming day. He may come sooner or he may come later.

It doesn't matter to Paul. Say that he should not come for centuries. We're always talking about seven years and 15 seconds from now. Say that Paul should die and his body turned to dust. Say that no man should know where he was buried and all men should forget him, that even his name should be lost in the memory of man. Doesn't matter.

Paul knew that he who made the planets and the stars, who laid the babe in Mary's arms, who hung the victim on a cross and who lay a dead body in a borrowed grave, who is sitting in heaven as the man of glory, who held Paul's heart in his own by the indwelling spirit and the very throb of the divine nature, who had pledged blood and honor and the very word that upheld the universe, would watch over his dust, would receive his spirit. And when that morning came, without clouds, would bring him forth as a shining jewel from the dusty jewel case of the grave and flash him out as the matchless brilliance of a crown of glory.

And Paul was at ease. He was content. He was confident. with a confidence that never faltered, a confidence that carried him to the sword of death, and made him as though on the eve of his execution he could write to Timothy, I have fought the good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day.

So what are the sources of Paul's confidence? The view of Christ and all of his glory was revealed by Paul in the written word. Our confidence should be just like his. We have his word that lays all this out for just you and me. I've often thought that we somehow take a person like the Apostle Paul and we make him a super saint. Somebody who is a step or two up from the rest of us. It's not true. We're all sons. We all inherit. There are no second lieutenants, sergeants, generals in the body of Christ. Everybody is a son.

So every privilege and every apprehension of the glory of Christ that Paul had is our privilege too. And it's in the Word. the experience of Christ in the heart, is to minister to us by the Spirit through that Word. That's why the Word is so precious to us.

These are the sources of confidence for those who profess the name of the Lord Jesus. They are the source of and inspiration for your steadfastness to any service God had called you, to any trouble you might face, whether it's really, really terrible or it's not too difficult at all.

And in a day like we live in today, today is the hour when confidence really is lacking in the church and with individual believers. It's time when doubt and uncertainty and spiritual ignorance, it is a time when doubt, uncertainty and spiritual ignorance are universal. It is a time therefore that needs the tonic of spiritual assurance. The Christian who is confident in Christ and the church that is full of confident believers, Christians who believe, who know, who are persuaded, and who experience the changeless Christ in their hearts, are the Christians and the church that will move the world, that will win souls, that will establish the faith, and that will glorify God.

I would conclude with an encouragement to all of us that whatever our circumstances are today, we can come to the restful persuasion like Paul had. For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced He is able to guard what I have entrusted unto Him until that day.

Let's pray. Father, how we thank You for Your Word and we thank You for Your Son. How we thank You for Your Spirit that would reveal the very person of the Lord Jesus to us, which would in turn create a confidence in us that could not be wavered by any set of circumstances. Father, that we would grow in the knowledge and the grace and the confidence of the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you. We pray in your son's name. Amen.