because in the Bible God has spoken and God gives us answers to those important questions of life and death. And I want to speak on one verse from the New Testament. It's in the second letter of Paul to Timothy, chapter 2 and verse 19, where it says this, that are His. This is saying that the Lord has a people who belong to Him. They are His and He knows them. Not only in this life, but in the life to come forever. And there are two things suggested by this text. First of all, the people them that are his. And secondly, the privilege. The Lord knoweth them that are his. First, the people. Them that are his. It's referring to a special people in this world. Why are they special? Because they belong to the Lord in a personal relationship. and when they die they will be completely his in heaven. He has taken them to be with himself. They have passed away from this life to eternal life in heaven. You might like me to say that Pam is now in heaven because she was a good girl. I cannot say that. any more than I can say that I will be in heaven because I am a good man, or that any one of you will be in heaven because you are a good person. The fact is, the Bible says we are all bad in the sight of God. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. The human goodness that we might think we've done cants for nothing in the sight of a holy and pure and perfect God. And beside Him and His standards, none of us is good enough. And the worst of it is, we naturally have no heart for God or for doing the things that please Him. The Bible says we are rebels against Him and we disobey Him continually. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Someone once tried to catch a preacher out and say this, would I be sent to hell for stealing a Mars bar from Tesco? That would be a bit harsh compared to the crimes of say, Adolf Hitler. And the preacher said, yes you would be. Because that is not the only crime you have committed. Jesus said the first and great commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. And you have not done that. That's the trouble. Not the Mars Bar. In other words, it's not just things we've done or not done. It's what we are in our hearts before God. We are those who do not love Him. and those who are not good and cannot do anything to please Him. But you see, we are His when we become so by a conversion experience and that's the message of the Bible. We need to be changed. We need to be saved from our sin and we need to be brought into a right relationship with God and then we are His and among this privileged people. And the wonderful news is, dear friends, we can all become so. He can have us as His. Because the Lord Jesus died to take the punishment deserved by sinners like us. And He lived a perfect life that more than makes up for our sinning against God. And this is the Gospel message. the good news that the Lord Jesus invites you to trust in Him alone for salvation. Only He is the way to God and Heaven. He's the Saviour that God has provided and that He can be ours. It's not a question of go and be good. It's come to Him and be sorry for your sin. It's not to try to do the best you can, but trust in Him to save you. It's not hope for the best, it's hope in Him alone for salvation. We become a Christian when we repent of our sin and come to Jesus Christ and ask Him to save us and come into our lives and He does. and He is all the Saviour we need. If you pray to Him and call upon Him like that, He will not turn you away. And here is the big question. Are you His? Them that are His. You can belong to a church, but not to the Lord. You can be christened or baptised, but not be His. You can do many good things, yet be a stranger to the Saviour and a stranger to God. Jesus says on the Day of Judgment that there will be many who will come before Him and He will say, depart from me, I never knew you. However, to come to Christ, to be saved, to follow the Lord Jesus, it means you can say, my beloved is mine and I am his. There is apparently a gravestone in a cemetery in Scotland and beside the usual engravings on the gravestone, the name of the person and the dates and so on, there's a picture of an up pointing hand and the finger pointing upwards and under there is the word His. What a wonderful thing. His. Not here, but with Him. Because His. The Lord's people are known in heaven. His now and His forever. Well, that's the people. What a wonderful blessing to be among those who are His people saved by marvellous grace and now safely with the Lord. Dear Pamela, she heard these things and loved these things and in her simple way we trust and believe that she trusted Jesus and she is with him according to his wonderful mercy and loving kindness. And it's a message to us all, isn't it? that this wonderful Savior can be our Savior and we His people. Let's see this other point here. Not only the people but the privilege. The Lord knoweth them that are His. Now that expression, it doesn't mean when we say, oh I know Him, that can be very passing and superficial. It's rather like A father who says, I know my son. A deep, close, warm relationship of love and understanding. The Lord knoweth them that are His. He knows His people. And dear friends, He knows what He is doing and what He does in the lives of His people. And there are mysteries, aren't there, as to why certain things happen. Why it is that people do suffer in this world? Why it is that there are disadvantaged people and people who have problems in life and things and people who suffer and people who die young? These are mysteries. But you see, with God there are mysteries we acknowledge, but never mistakes. He knows what He is doing. John chapter 13 verse 7, Jesus says, What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter. In heaven all mysteries are cleared up and things are made up to us. And the Lord in His love blesses and we see the whole picture then, but not till then. He knows what He is doing. and he lovingly comforts meanwhile. The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and he knoweth them that trust in him." It's a wonderful thing to trust in the Lord and find refuge and strength in him. The warmth of his care and his support like no other can be to us. A personal relationship with the Lord who makes his love known. and draws us to Himself and holds us up in our weakness and pain and sorrow. He knows all who trust in Him and He knows what best will comfort and what best will help us through. He says, I know their sorrows. A man in the Bible said, He knoweth the way that I take. The Lord understands and He feels for us. And the Lord Jesus in heaven, concerning His people, He is a great High Priest who is touched with the feelings of our infirmities. It moves Him regarding what we suffer. He feels for us and with us and can give us the help we need. He knoweth, you see, them that are His and understands and is with us in these things. No one else can be like that. People can say, oh, I know what you're going through. I know how it must feel. But they don't really. Because so often they're not there, are they? Where we are. But the Lord is there where we are in a divine and glorious way and can fully understand and sympathize. The Lord knoweth them that are His. He says to us, I know how you are feeling. I know what it is like. He was the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief here. He went through the whole gamut of human experience and everything was done to him to humanly qualify him as well as divinely to be that sympathetic Savior and that loving comfort and support. The Lord knoweth them that are his and of course he knows to give them a place in heaven to make up for everything. The Lord knoweth the days of the upright and their inheritance shall be forever. Blessed be His name. He has prepared greater things for His people. For His believing people, He keeps the best until the last. We don't always have the best of it in this world, although we have the best that is for us according to His wisdom and loving kindness. But, oh, there is a day, He says, when I make up my jewels. One by one, He gathers them out of this world to assemble them before Him in glory, to shine as the jewels, precious, precious things, Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints and precious it is to live forever sharing his glory in an infinitely better world. He knows us. It will be no surprise who he takes to heaven. No surprise whom he welcomes to glory. He's known them all their lives. He's been with them all through and now he receives them as his own and they to meet Him and be with Him where He is. Compared with this, what a bleak, uncertain life it is not to be a Christian, not to know the Lord, to live for this present world for a few years and feed upon the limited things that are here and be lost forever when we die, not to know the Lord and not to be with Him forever afterwards. Those of us who are Christians would never want to go back to before we were converted, back to before we knew the Lord. Those years were empty, wasted. Jesus said, I am come that ye might have life and that ye might have it more abundantly. These things are certain. God has spoken. And stake your all upon what He says in His Word. Trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and say, upon a life I did not live, upon a death I did not die, another's life, another's death, I rest my whole eternity and you will be safe. safe now and safe for evermore. May it be so for the glory of His name. Amen.