Greetings, radio friend, in that ever-precious name of the Lord Jesus, and a very warm welcome to the study of the Word of God, the best book in the world, the Bible. We continue our study in Second Timothy, Chapter One, where we are taking up in this first chapter the responsibility of holding to the truth of God and considering God's challenge to the believer in the last days of Christianity. We would like to read today, commencing at verse nine through verse twelve, Paul writing to say, God hath 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, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death or annulled death, and hath brought life and immortality to life, through the Gospel, whereunto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles, for the which cause I also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed. and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. May God the Holy Spirit bless the reading of his word. May the Spirit of God also give to us the ministry of this precious portion for our blessing and eternal edification. Let us connect the preceding verses that we have followed in this chapter regarding Paul's exhortation and his words of encouragement to Timothy. As the preceding eight verse of our reading declares, He was not to be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of even the dear Apostle Paul, God's beloved prisoner, but to be willing to be a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God. The beloved Apostle Paul closes that verse by a statement regarding the afflictions of the gospel, the afflictions of the gospel that the believer should be willing to partake in, to share, to bear, and to suffer according to the power of God. And then as we read on, Paul gives the eternal value of the gospel and our willingness to suffer in the afflictions of the gospel because it reveals the purposes of God which are sure and they are eternal. The first foundation of this basis that Paul lays down for being so thankful is first in verse nine. He has saved us. He has saved us. Oh, my radio friend, you that are Christian, you that know what it is to be saved. You have every right to go unto the Lord. You have every responsibility to stir yourself up for God in these days of declension. For God has saved you, and God has saved me. Oh, the joy of being saved. What a debt of love we owe God for saving our souls. We often sing, thank you, Lord, for saving my soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to me thy great salvation, so great, so free. I say, my fellow believer, if God has saved you and me, then you and I should certainly be faithful in the gospel. And he has saved us. And that's one of the righteous basic foundations. Why? We should be on fire for the Lord. Second, He's called as also with an holy calling. Oh, the joy of being thus called out of this world of sin, separated by the grace and the power of God, set apart into a calling that is now holy instead of being in a path that was once definitely unholy. and he called us, he saved us, and he called us. And note how, not according to our works. You know, I rejoice that salvation is by grace alone, through faith, none of works, lest any man should boast. And God, not according to our merit, but though we were totally undeserving, he saved us. and called us. My Christian fellow believer, may I encourage you and may I exhort you to see your responsibility to God. And then notice why he called us and why he saved us. But according to his own purpose and grace, according to his own purpose, he had a direct eternal purpose in saving you and calling you and me. as doing it by his grace, his grace purposed. And oh, what a purpose that is, to bring us into that eternal glory with him that is yet to come. And that grace and that purpose was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. My beloved Christian, won't you pause for a moment to worship? And consider carefully that before the ages of time ever began, God had an eternal purpose, which included his desire for you and his desire for me. Tis a mystery I cannot explain. Tis a mystery that I can never comprehend. The sovereign grace of God. the predestinated purpose of his mind and heart to determine before the world began that I should be a saved child of his, and redeemed by his grace and called with unholy calling. And this, in Christ Jesus, before the world began, oh my beloved friend, great is our God, great is the calling of a Christian. May you and I value it. That's why we should never be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord. And that calling, that grace, as Paul goes on to say in verse ten, hath been manifested. It is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ. We would never have known that. It would never have been revealed. It would never have come to the light of human knowledge until The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, appeared from heaven. No wonder Paul writes in the Epistle of Titus, chapter two, verse eleven, saying, The grace of God hath appeared, bringing salvation unto all men. Thank God for the coming into this world of his only begotten Son. I want to say to every man and woman, whether you're saved or whether you're not saved, the greatest event that ever took place in human history. For the benefit and the blessing of all mankind was the coming into this world of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It was the most glorious life that has ever shone in the darkness of this world of blackness and sin. The coming and the appearing of Jesus Christ, our Savior Jesus Christ. Why did he come? He came to abolish all and know death. The Apostle writes, Death. The wages of sin is death. You and I deserve those wages. And those wages God said you must pay. And what a joy to realize Jesus Christ, the Son of God, willingly, voluntarily, sent by the Father, came into this world to annul the power of death upon the poor sinner. And to bring life and immortality to light. through the Gospel. May I repeat what I stated? In reference to the fact the greatest event in human history was the coming into this world of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Name the coming of all other men from Adam down to this present day and to the end of history. I say the greatest event in human history, the coming into the world of any man, any person, the greatest event was the coming of the Son of God. My beloved radio friend, I know it's nearly two thousand years ago since he came, that that coming of the Savior, not just merely to live. What coming to die for your sins and for mine? How could he abolish death? There's only one way he could and did abolish it, and annul its power. And that was by going into death. And he paid the inevitable penalty that sin demanded, the wages of sin is death. And he came out of death. Thank God. Up from the grave he arose, as we often sing, Death could not keep its prey. Jesus, my Savior, he tore the bars away. Jesus, my Lord, up from the grave he arose, with a mighty triumph all his foes. He arose the victor of a dark domain, and he lives forever with his saints to reign. He arose, he arose, hallelujah, Christ arose. We're to God, my radio friend. If Christ is not your Saviour, I could point to your soul with power and conviction this precious truth. Jesus Christ, our Saviour, came into this world to annul the power of sin and death for you and to save you, and to bring to you immortality through the Gospel. Oh my radio friend, would that God every man and woman knew why Jesus came. I'm not interested. him, whatever other person has come into this world. As much as I am, Jesus, son of God, came into this world to save sinners. No wonder Paul said in First Timothy, one fifteen, those words, this is a faithful saying, worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world, what's all, to save sinners? And Paul added, of whom I am chief. I wish I could see your faith. I wish I could read your heart. I wish I could read your mind, but thank God he is able to. But I would, by his grace through the Spirit and the Word, seek to bring your faith to faith with Jesus Christ, the Son of God, why he came into this world. O beloved, you and I whom he has saved, and called us according to his own purpose and grace, a purpose that was in his heart in the eternal ages before time ever began. But has now been made known by the coming of our Lord Jesus into this world. And he's abolished and nulled the power of sin and death for the believer who has trusted in the Savior and brought immortality to light through the gospel. And to you who know him not, I wish I could save you, but I cannot. But I'll do the best thing that I can. I point you to the only one who can. It is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Will you receive him as your Savior and come into the possession of eternal life? For his name's sake, shall we pray? Father, we bow in thy presence, and commend to thee thy precious word, blessed to the hearts of all, to the salvation of sinners, as well as to the blessing of thy people. For we ask it in Jesus' name for his honor and glory. Amen.