I would invite you to turn with me in your Bibles to 2 Timothy 2 and we're going to be looking at verses 8 through 14 today. And you're going to need your Bible because we're going to be looking at a bunch of different verses as we seek to talk about what it was that Paul meant when he spoke of my gospel and the importance of it. God is not like us. He does not do things the way that men do things. When we think about how a man would take the world, we think about mighty armies, we think about forces galvanized to go and to kill others and to conquer their land. But the Lord, in taking the world for himself and spreading his kingdom, did not do it by sending generals and armies. He did it by sending his own son. And then after him, men who we would never have imagined would be world changers, fishermen, tax collectors. He sent them into the world to proclaim the good news that Jesus had come. And so he used the weak things to overcome the strong. If we had been bookies in the first century betting on whether a bunch of Palestinian sectarians who had previously been employed in the fishing trade would be able to overcome the mighty Roman Empire, I can guess that we would put the odds on the side of the empire. And yet ultimately, because God was behind them, the apostles and then through those who followed them, That message that came in such weakness, it triumphed over the mightiest empire that the world had ever known until it was Caesar bowing the knee before the Lord Jesus Christ. And instead of forcing others to declare, Caesar is Lord, Caesar himself declared, Jesus is Lord. That is the great good news of the gospel, that it changes hearts, it changes the world. But let's consider now as we look at Paul's word how that goes about and how we should be so filled with joy that God is determined to work this way. Let's go to him though before we read his word and ask for his help in understanding it. God our Father, your servant is weak. I feel the weakness of my voice right now. And I know I am not in good health, but I know, oh Lord, that you can use the weak things. to do that which is impossible. It is impossible, I know, Lord, for hearts to be changed, for hearts of stone to become living hearts of flesh. But yet, Lord, what is impossible for man is possible with you. So I pray, Lord, that we would once again be awed at your gospel. Those who have known it for many years, Lord, I pray that once again our eyes would be opened to see its beauty and its wonder. And Lord, to be once again stirred up to endure to the very end. For those who have never yet bowed the knee before Christ, I pray this would be the day that that happens, that they see their need, they see the weight of sin that is on their shoulders, and that they desire to have the forgiveness that can only come through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, your Son. Now, Lord, please open our eyes. Help us to hear and help us to understand. Forgive me, oh Lord, for my own poor messenger status, but make my words, oh Lord, as weak as they are, effectual in your cause. And I pray this in Jesus' holy name, amen. 2 Timothy chapter two and verses eight through 14. Remember, this is the word of the Lord that we are hearing. Remember that Jesus Christ, at the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel, for which I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even to the point of chains. But the word of God is not chained. Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. This is a faithful saying. For if we died with him, we shall also live with him. If we endure, we shall also reign with him. If we deny Him, He also will deny us. If we are faithless, He remains faithful. He cannot deny Himself. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God will stand forever. As I read those words of Paul and was preparing to preach today, I could not help but be carried back to the words of a Chinese pastor, Wang Yi, who, as you know, was arrested by Chinese authorities on December 12th, and that simply for his faithful proclamation of this great gospel message. Yi knew his arrest was coming, but he did not cease preaching. He did not go into hiding. Instead, like Paul, he wrote a letter for the benefit of the church, and he wrote not only for his own congregation, not even just for the congregations in China, but he wrote for the benefit of the church throughout the world. And Pastor Yi wrote in part. and see if you can't see the way that this reflects the kind of things that Paul was saying as he was writing to Timothy. Pastor, you wrote, I hope God uses me by means of first losing my personal freedom to tell those who have deprived me of my personal freedom that there is an authority higher than their authority, that there is a freedom that they cannot restrain, a freedom that fills the church of the crucified and risen Jesus Christ. Yi understood that though the time was coming when he would be put in chains by the Chinese government and possibly never be released from those chains in this world, as Paul said, though he is chained, the word of God is not chained. And there is nothing that can stop its spread or prevent its messengers from going forth. And it was Yi's sure hope that even by means of his imprisonment, the gospel would be spread. But how does Pastor Yi write such things, looking forward, as he does, to torture and to humiliation and possibly execution for years in what Chinese authorities euphemistically call a re-education camp? How, for that matter, could Paul write those words that he wrote to Timothy from this wretched Roman jail, knowing as he did, as he gazed at his own chains, that his own imprisonment was probably coming to an end shortly, and that whether he was imprisoned for a long while or a short while, his end would not be being released this time by the Roman state, but by being let out by Roman soldiers to be executed for the sake of his Savior, Jesus Christ. Well, the answer to that question is not that they had some vain pie-in-the-sky hope that things would get better by and by, but rather they knew this. Both of them knew that they were part of something that God had been doing throughout history and indeed is still doing. What Paul calls in this letter as he addresses Timothy, his spiritual son, his faithful disciple, what Paul calls my gospel, that is literally my euangelion, my good news, And he calls it my gospel, not because he was the author, of course, but because it was his good news to proclaim. He was a messenger and a minister of it. And so, therefore, it was something we can tell people about something, and it remains something that's outside of us. There are things that, for instance, that I teach day by day that don't particularly move me. I don't feel them. It's not my bit of history, so to speak. And yet there are things that captivate me, that are very important, that I want to relay them to the next generation when I'm teaching. And so it becomes, so to speak, my history, even though I wasn't part of it. In this, Paul is relating something that was so central to him, this gospel message, that it was his gospel, my gospel. My gospel, as he put it, had culminated in the coming of Christ and his resurrection. And that because of this gospel that he proclaimed, because of that, those who heard it and believed would become heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ. So Paul, and after him, countless other people like Pastor Yee, wrote to assure those who would in turn come after them, like Timothy, that they need not fear, that all of their most central, most basic, most impossible to meet needs, had been met by God in this gospel. And I'm sure that as Paul, chained as he was in this prison, as he wrote, he was thinking back on the words that had been, you remember how we read in the earlier chapter, how his grandmother and his mother had passed on the scriptures to him, had taught him as a child, had prepared, so to speak, the ground for the gospel seed so that when Paul came preaching, Timothy had believed and then had been built up in the faith so that he would one day be that minister of the gospel to succeed or come after Paul to be a preacher in his model. I'm sure that he was thinking about the things that he was taught and no doubt He would remember those words that had been given to him in the scriptures, that Christ was the seed of David who would reign forever. When he thought about that, Paul, no doubt, was reminded of the words of another faithful messenger, another man who had been martyred for his faith, and yet who had given his testimony, his glorious testimony of the coming of Christ, coming of the Messiah. That faithful messenger was the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah ministered from 740 B.C. to 680 B.C. That is 60 years. Isaiah lived a long life. He outlived several kings. And through all of that time, Isaiah proclaimed the same good news, even though he lived in a country that was declining spiritually. And even though, fortunately, Isaiah lived to see the day when a king would come in, Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, who cared not for the Lord nor his ways, who was filled with pagan idolatry, still Isaiah, no matter what the state was doing, proclaimed the same gospel regardless of how it was received. for Isaiah knew that he was part of the mighty work that God was doing. And so he was prophetically enabled to see forward in time. What Paul was looking back on, that is the coming of Jesus Christ as he sat in that Roman jail, the coming of Jesus Christ and his resurrection, that glorious resurrection. For we remember that Paul was a witness of the risen Lord Jesus. Isaiah had been able to look forward in time to see. He knew that the Christ that is the Messiah would come because, of course, that's what Christos means, the Greek word. It means anointed one, Messiah. It's the same. And so he looked forward to the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, and thus Isaiah was able to write joyfully those words that were immortalized in that libretto that Handel set to music. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end. Upon the throne of David and over his kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. And it was Isaiah's steadfast belief that the Lord indeed would perform what he had promised, what he had actually promised through the prophet himself, that he, through his own zeal and by his mighty right arm, he would accomplish this that enabled Isaiah to endure, to endure being arrested and imprisoned and then put to death under the wicked king Manasseh. And so too, Paul, who came after Isaiah, 700 years after Isaiah, roughly, could look back and could see how God had made that promise. And then God had fulfilled that promise through Jesus, sending him into the world at exactly the right time. The prophets, although they knew he was coming, had not known the moment when he would come. Even the angels had desired to look into that. And yet Paul had been part of that generation who had seen it come. He'd come into the world at exactly the right time that he might save his people. That is the elect he speaks of in verse 10 of the verses that we read. To save them from what? To save them from the world, the curse of the law. That was what he came to save them from. Not merely Romans, not merely their troubles, not so that they could live their best life now in a material sense to have great wealth. The gospel is not about that, brothers and sisters. I remember C.S. Lewis' words where he said something to the effect of, I did not become a Christian in order to be made happy. I always knew that a bottle of port could do that. And he's right. The gospel was not given to make us happy. The gospel was given to make us holy. something that we could never be without God working in us and for us. And so Paul was able to write to the Galatians in Galatians 4.4, but when the fullness of the time had come, in other words, when everything was ready, when language had been established that spanned the Mediterranean, that is Koine Greek, so that If you lived in Italy, or you lived in Spain, or you lived in Egypt, or you lived in Israel, there was a common trade language that everybody spoke. And at a time when the roads connected the world, where the Pax Romana had brought peace, At that time, when the gospel could finally burst forth from Palestine, Jesus came. So he writes, but when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. That coming of Christ had been prophesied, and now Paul went forth declaring that it had happened, and that we had been saved from our sins by the working of the Lord. And so, once again, Paul writes, as he begins to write to the Roman congregation, what has he set down for them? I hope you're doing well. I hope the weather's not too bad in Rome. No, he starts by saying this in Romans 1. You may want to turn there. He says, Paul, a bondservant, this is Romans 1.1, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God, which he promised before through his prophets in the holy scriptures. Note that. There are many who want to unhitch the Old Testament from the New Testament today. They don't see the relationship between the two. They don't see the importance of the Old Testament to the New Testament. They're hung on so many things. It struck me that as Elder King was reading, that is from the Book of Deuteronomy, that without the Old Testament, we don't really understand the impact of the New Testament. We don't understand, for instance, if we haven't read that chapter of Deuteronomy that talks about what should happen in the cases of sexual immorality. What would normally happen, for instance, when one who was betrothed as a virgin was found to be with child? And how serious that was. And what a great good gift of charity it would have been for Joseph to have put Mary away quietly instead of exposing her. How serious that was. And yet the angel came, of course, to Joseph to confirm that the child within her was not the result of fornication, but rather the result of the working of the Holy Spirit. If we don't have the Old Testament, we don't see not only details like that, but the whole train of prophecy, how the gospel begins and continues on and then moves towards its ending. The Bible is all of one piece. Revelation, gradually building on revelation. messenger, building on messenger. That's something I hope you'll see today, that as one prophet came forth, another prophet came after him, taking up his mantle as Elisha took up Elisha's mantle, and then continuing to preach the same message, building on what went before, just as Timothy came after Paul, preaching the same gospel that Paul had preached. And so Paul is able to write in Romans 1-2 about the Gospel of God which he promised before through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord who was born, here we go with that phrase he uses when he's speaking to Timothy, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection of the dead. speaks of the incarnation of Jesus Christ. It's obviously something that's very important. It was only the God-man who could do the work that God had appointed him to. But at the same time, it's not the incarnation that's at the center of Paul's message, because Paul knew that by itself the coming of Jesus Christ was not enough by itself to fulfill the prophecies of the gospel. By means of the incarnation, Jesus, the Son of God, yes, he took for himself a true body and a reasonable soul. And Paul wants Timothy to know that and wants us to know that, that Jesus Christ was really a man. He didn't appear to be a man. He wasn't an angel, as the Jehovah's Witnesses believe. He certainly was not the archangel Michael. Michael's sacrifice could never have taken away your sin. No, this was a true man the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who took to Himself a true body and a reasonable soul, who was born of the seed of David, the house of Judah, according to the flesh. And that's a reference to the fact that He was indeed the Son of Mary, that He was a descendant of King David. But the incarnation, we need to remember, by itself didn't save anyone. Think of this. Jesus could have come to earth, could have ministered for a while, healed many, fed many, He could have even raised the dead. But if he had done all of those things, proclaimed wonderful good things, had been that wandering good prophet or sage that so many modern liberal Christians think of, if he had done all of those things, and yet had not gone to the cross, had not died there, having the Father's wrath poured out upon him, and then been raised from the dead afterwards, his coming would have done nobody any eternal good. It was only by coming to die and then to be raised again that salvation was effected. That is the gospel. We see the gospel, the heart of it, in the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is the central point of all of Paul's preaching. He keeps going back to the resurrection, that Jesus was raised from the dead, thus offering that infallible proof that Christ had done what He said He would. In this, in the resurrection, we see the proof that Jesus is the Son of God and that He is that King of kings and Lord of lords whom Isaiah had prophesied would come. Now, Paul assures Timothy, Jesus has come. Jesus has died for our sins, and Jesus is risen again. And he says to him, and he's gonna say that throughout this letter, this is the message we have to proclaim. Brothers and sisters, there are so many good things that the church can do. We can be involved in obviously building houses for the poor, carrying food to those who are hungry. We can be involved in medical missions, bringing medicine to places where it's so badly needed. We can be involved in things that are sort of good, jazzercise and stuff like that, classes on how to balance your budget. The church can do a myriad of different things like that, but if we are not proclaiming what Paul called my gospel, we are failing in our central calling as a church. No matter what else we do, we have failed because it is for this that we were called, to proclaim the good news that Christ has come, that Christ has suffered and died, and that Christ has been raised again, and that if we believe in Him, then we will be saved from our sins. And therefore, as ministers of the gospel, Paul tells Timothy they must be willing to endure all things, to endure all kinds of suffering, that those whom the Father has chosen, His elect, those whom He has chosen to be saved, might hear the gospel and be gathered into the kingdom, that they might believe. Patrick Fairbairn, a Presbyterian pastor, summed up what Paul is trying to say to Timothy this way. He said this, What then do you promise? He did not say simply for the sake of some persons, but for the sake of the elect. If God chose them, we ought to suffer all things for them in order that they also may obtain salvation. When he says that they also, he means to say as also we, for God chose us also. And as for us, God suffered so also we for them. And I hope you see that chain of the promise and the redemption by suffering and then the willingness of those who have been given that ministry to go out and suffer as well. Isaiah had to be willing to suffer for the gospel. Paul had to be willing to suffer for the gospel. Pastor Yee had to be willing to suffer for the gospel. I, in turn, have to be willing to suffer for the gospel. Here's the amazing thing. What Paul is saying is that you have to be willing to suffer for the gospel as well. For the sake of who? For the sake of the elect. Now you may be saying to yourself, I'm not a pastor, why do I have to suffer for the sake of the gospel? Are you not ones to whom the gospel, my gospel, has been entrusted? Have you not been given that word? I'm not a great preacher, but I hope you've gotten the basics of the gospel here, haven't you? Sabbath after Sabbath. You know it well enough now that you can pass it on to others. And you need to, for their sake, they need to hear it. And think not just of the people that you meet out in the world, but what about your own descendants, your own children? They need to hear that gospel from you, mom. They need to hear that gospel from you, dad, or grandfather, grandmother. They need to hear that gospel, those descendants of yours, that they in turn might pass on that gospel to their descendants and so on and so on. Now, I hope you see the wonderful way the Gospel and its proclamation come together. There is suffering and glory on both sides. The suffering and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, followed by all who would come in His train, His messengers, they too suffering, but then experiencing the glory He purchased. Immediately after the fall, you remember, God promised to send the seed, His Son, Jesus Christ, into the world. And He said there would be suffering involved in that. Genesis 3.15 says, And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed, as God speaks to the devil here. He promises him this. He says, he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. God promised that Jesus would crush the head of Satan. But he also said, in referencing that bruising of the heel, that his servant, his son, would suffer in the process. and then starting with righteous Abel, he sent messenger after messenger to proclaim that message, and they all suffered for it. That's something that the prophets and the apostles had in common. They suffered for that message. Stephen, as he's standing before the Sanhedrin, about to suffer for the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ, about to be stoned to death, says to them, which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? God sent his prophets to give you the message, the good news, the euangelion. and you killed them. He goes on to say, and they killed those who foretold the coming of the just one, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers. And this is something that's continued on in history, suffering and glory. But remember this, Jesus' suffering is something that was final. We suffer for the sake of the gospel, yes. We go out and we proclaim it, and we're persecuted for it. But our suffering is small and light compared to the suffering that Christ had to suffer for us. His was the definitive suffering, the suffering that overcame sin once for all. Isaiah also prophesied that. In Isaiah 53.3, open your Bibles, would you, to this great prophecy of the gospel. Isaiah 53 is sometimes called the Gospel according to Isaiah because in it we see the most poignant description of what Jesus had to do for us on the cross. In Isaiah 53 we read, and we hid, as it were, our faces from Him. He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. Why did we need that? Well, he goes on to say, all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before it sure is a silence, so he opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who will declare his generation? For he was cut off from the land of the living. for the transgressions of my people, he was stricken. Christ had to suffer for our sake, and not merely to suffer the pain of crucifixion, but to suffer the wrath of an angry God poured out upon him in our place. But in so doing, Jesus obtained a glorious inheritance. And so, too, those who proclaim the gospel faithfully before he came and after he came for the sake of the elect, those whom God has chosen to receive that message and to believe it, those whom he has appointed to eternal life. Paul has talked about how athletes compete for that crown that fades away, for the momentary acclamation as they cross the finish line or they finish the fight, the winners. People applaud. They're brought up to the winner's stand. If it's at the Olympics, they stand on the highest podium, and they play the national anthem, and everybody tears up for a moment, but then they go away, and the glory quickly fades, like the glory of the reflected God faded from the face of Moses. But what Paul is talking about here is a glory that doesn't fade, a crown that is not perishing, an inheritance that cannot be taken away. I'm sometimes appalled when I read about how much the government takes in inheritance taxes these days. Our inheritances are gradually fading away in this world. And yet, there is an inheritance that Jesus tells us is laid up for us, that is safely deposited, that is vouchsafed by the Holy Spirit, that cannot be stolen by thieves, cannot rust, moths can't eat it, nothing can take it away. This is your internal, eternal inheritance. Something that has been vouchsafed to you by God. And Paul and the messengers after were so filled with joy at the contemplation of this, they could not hold it in. It was like the fire in the bones that Jeremiah speaks of. They had to communicate it to other people. They had to pass it on to the elect whom God had chosen. Brothers and sisters, this good news should fill us with joy as well. It is amazing that anyone can hear about the gospel inheritance and yet not be moved by it. To know that at one time we were poor, wretched sinners who deserved nothing but death and instead have been clad with an inheritance inestimable, that we can't put a price tag on. God has given us all of his riches in Jesus Christ. He has put them in our hands. And why? Because He loved us. And why did He love us? Because we're so good? No, He loved us because He loved us. He chose you for His own inscrutable reasons. Before He even created this world with all of its wonders, He was thinking of you and your inheritance and how it would be given. And so his messengers come after preaching that message, that good news, and they die for Christ. But now they live and reign in heaven with him. Nero lived in a palace. He enjoyed all of the opulence and the wealth of the Roman state. He was the one who was in office as Paul was writing these things. If somebody had looked at the different conditions of Paul and the condition of Nero, they might say, well, I'd rather be Nero. And yet, A few short years after these words were written, Nero found himself running from his own people and ultimately committing suicide with the help of a servant because he was too cowardly to do it himself. He who had been so high was brought so low in a moment, and what did he become an inheritor of? What did his wealth, his opulence, all of the grandeur and splendor that he surrounded himself with, what did that help him at the end? Not a bit. And ultimately, he ended up perishing eternally, going down to hell. And yet, what of Paul? Paul was dragged out of his jail cell. He was brought to a place on a road, and his head was suffered from his body. He died the death of a traitor to the Roman Republic, and yet, what did he gain? Everything. He gained life eternal. He gained the right at that moment in time to enter into what had been promised to him, that is to live and reign in heaven with the Son of God, Jesus Christ. And Paul, this is the great good news, knew that was coming. None of this was a surprise to him. He didn't have his head chopped off and then go, whoa, wait a minute, heaven? Who knew that was coming? Who knew that I would be living and reigning and have eternal life? He knew. He knew in advance. And so he warns Timothy not to turn aside from suffering and glory like so many others. And that is, I mean, truly, you should read the words that he speaks about Demas and those who have turned aside as tragedies. Here they are at the very moment when they should be preparing for victory, about to be going to hell. And he warns if we deny him, he also will deny us. Jesus said the same thing to His followers. If we deny Him, He will deny us. If we are faithless, well, He remains faithful. He cannot deny Himself. Brothers and sisters, He will never turn away from those He has chosen. So take heart, Christian. Let me give you just two quick applications. The first is this, know that while you may be persecuted for your faith, remember this, remember what Paul knew, remember what Isaiah knew, remember what Timothy knew, that they were part of something a sovereign God has been doing throughout history. Know this, His promises will never be thwarted. When you see men like Wang Yi imprisoned and suffering, know that they are doing that for the sake of the elect, and that this too is a proof of God's love to the elect, that He sends these faithful messengers. that they will not hold it back no matter what the cost is, because they love God's people so much they can't hold it back. And God does wonderfully strengthen His servants in those moments, enabling them to be more than conquerors, as Paul puts it. Jesus Himself promised, He said in Luke 12, 11, now when they bring you to the synagogues and magistrates and authorities, they will not hold you back. Do not worry about how or what you should answer or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say. Calvin said this about it. He said, such is the unshaken courage of the martyrs of Christ when the consciousness of being engaged in a good cause lifts them up above the world so that from a lofty position they look down with contempt, not on bodily pains and agonies, but on every kind of disgrace. They know in that moment that because of what God has done for them, because of His zeal, because He chose them, because He sent His Son Jesus to die for them, because He gave them the gift of the Holy Spirit, that they have everything and that it can't be taken from them. You should know that too. It has been my struggle not only to set before you the good news of the Gospel, but to help you to turn your eyes away from the world and all of the things that the world sets before us, all the sticks and carrots that the world, the flesh, and the devil use to try to disconnect Christians from the gospel, those promises that if we'll only go along to get along with the world, if we'll compromise here, there, and everywhere, that we will obtain something that's worth giving up, the gospel truth. There is nothing that you can gain. What is it in this world that is worth more than eternal glory with Christ? If you know, please, after the sermon, tell me what it is. I can think of nothing. This life is so very short and without Christ. It is without hope. But with Him, there's nothing that men can do to take away our inheritance, our reward. As Luther sang, the body they may kill, God's truth abideth still. His kingdom is forever. And that is what we've been given. Leave you with one final contemplation. This is my final application. Isn't it amazing what provision God has made for his elect children, his chosen ones? And how amazing, before that, that God chose us. He didn't choose us because of foreseen faith or goodness. We would never have come to that if it was up to us. Again and again, God tells us in His Word that our hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked, that we're worthy only of suffering and judgment. And yet God determined not to leave us in that condition. Because He willed, because He elected us, because He chose us, He caused us to come in the fullness of time to faith. He made us willing to believe in the day of His power. If you believe the Gospel today, it's because God loved you so much that not only did He send His Son into the world to die for you, but that He gave you the gift of the Holy Spirit, giving you that new life, that new heart. And so sometimes we look at what's going on in our lives and we judge God's love to us by the circumstances of what's happening in our life today at that moment. I lost my job. God must not love me. My marriage has fallen apart. God must not love me. My kids are on the wrong path. God must not love me. My neighbors have more money, more wealth, a jet ski. I don't have any of these things. God must not love me. My house is a shambles. God must not love me. Oh, brothers and sisters, do not judge God's love for you by the condition of your material goods or your circumstances in life at that present point. If Paul had been doing that from a jail in Rome waiting to be executed, he could only have concluded that God hated him, but God loved him so much. that he had made provision for him by sending his son. Jesus, at the lowest point in all of recorded history, cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? At the very point where salvation was being accomplished. We are fools if we judge God's love for us by our circumstances at a moment in time, rather than what he has provided for us in what Paul called my gospel. Do you want to hear what love is? Do you want to see how much God loves you? Then listen to these words from John. Burn them into your brain. First John 4.10, remember them when you are at your lowest moment. John wrote this. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. That's love, and that can never end. Remember that, brothers and sisters. Let's go before the One who has made such provision for us. God our Father, I pray, Lord, that You would remind us day after day of the gospel. of the provision that you have made for our greatest need by the sending of your son Jesus into the world. He died that we might have eternal life. And so if we are called to suffer for his name, then let us rejoice, because this too will do good for the elect, for those who come after us. Remind us that a glorious thing has happened, that we have been made part of that train of redemption that you have been working throughout history, even we who are not worthy, Lord. We who were but earthen vessels, You have used us for a glorious purpose. And I pray, Lord, that You would help us to remember Your love to us, seen in the sacrifice of Your Son to be a propitiation for our sins whenever, O Lord, we think You are not there. May our assurance rest in Your completed work and in Your perfect love. Thank You for it, Lord. We pray this in Jesus' holy name. Amen.