Turn with me back to 2 Timothy chapter 1. We are slowly going through this first chapter of 2 Timothy. And we have now come to one of my favorite portions of scripture. I mean, really. Every time that I get to preach from these verses, I feel so excited. I feel so privileged. I feel so blessed. And it's because these verses are so clear on what the message of the gospel really is. So clear. The testimony of our Lord, it's called right here, that's how it's worded right here. The testimony of our Lord, the true declaration concerning Him and what He has done in regard to the eternal salvation of His people. And what Paul is telling Timothy right here is, this declaration of Christ is the truth. It is the truth. but it is not naturally received by men and women. It is the truth, but it's not naturally received by men and women. The true testimony of Jesus Christ is not a popular testimony. And that's just amazing to me. The true testimony of just about anything else is very intriguing to men and women and mostly accepted by men and women, but not the true testimony of Christ. It is not a welcomed declaration. It's actually despised and rejected by the natural mindset of men and women. Mankind naturally prefers a lie. They prefer a lie. And again, that's amazing to me. That's just so interesting. But Paul said, Timothy, even though the message of truth is rejected, and even though you will be rejected for preaching it, even hated by many for preaching it, Paul said, Timothy, don't be ashamed of it. Don't be ashamed of it. Don't be afraid to tell men and women the truth of it. Be lovingly, kindly, bold in it. Because this declaration of the truth concerning Christ is the only message that will save men and women's souls. The truth is the only message that will save men and women's souls. People think that the lie is okay as long as you're devoted to it and you're a, you know, a devout church-going person. It will not save. People think it's okay as long as it's close to what the truth says. The truth being the actual Bible, the scripture. It'll be alright, we'll be okay in the end. That is not so. In the end, everything will not be okay. Men and women, good church-going, fine-dressing men and women will go meet God, and in that moment they will find out it's not okay. The truth concerning Jesus Christ is the only thing that will actually save men and women's souls. So Paul told Timothy, preach it with honesty, preach it with sincerity, preach it with boldness. Verse 7, he said, 4, God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love, and of a 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. He said, God has not given us the spirit of fear. And that word fear means timidity, being timid and cowardly in declaring the truth concerning God's salvation of men and women. Not a lie that's commonly believed, but the truth. Paul said he has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power. And that means strength. It means resolve. It means determination. It means boldness. Preachers of God's truth lift up their voice with strength. Preachers of God's truth lift up their voice with strength. I'm talking right now in a very normal volume. And the reason is because lifting up our voice with strength doesn't necessarily have anything to do with volume. Nothing to do with volume. It's very common in false religion. It's very common in false religion for men to stand up in pulpits and scream at the top of their lungs so loudly veins pop out in their necks and their face turns red as a beet and spits flying out of their mouth and they just act like a word that's not nice to say in front of our children. Not a nice word, but it's idiots. They just act like idiots. Fools. Such fools. Thinking that the more foolish they can be in the pulpit, the more they're lifting up their voice with strength. I'm about to get old. No, you're just about to become a loud fool. That's it. Speak in your own mind. Now don't get me wrong, I raise my voice every now and then. But that's not what lifting up our voice with strength is. Lifting up a voice with strength is telling the truth. That's what it is. Telling the truth with boldness, not arrogance. Boldness doesn't mean arrogance. How many times did Paul say, with humility, with meekness, with patience. With love, he says right here. But it's with resolve. It's with certainty. I'm telling you this is certain. Without the fear of backlash and persecution from those who hate the truth, I am telling you Now if you want me to get loud, I'll get loud now. I'm telling you, if you preach this truth, it will come with backlash and persecution. I'm telling you. What God has written in this word is so persecuted. Why? Why? Our Lord is the one who said, don't be shocked when men and women hate what I have written in my word. And hate you for declaring what I've written in my word. Let me show you that over in John 15. Turn over to John 15. John 15 verse 16, our Lord said, you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit. and that your fruit should remain, that whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in my name, He may give it you." God elected the people that He wanted to save. He said, you have not chosen me, I have chosen you. God specifically selected out of humanity who He would save And that is specifically who He saved. And those are the only ones that He saved. And to them, He said in verse 17, these things I command you that you love one another. If the world hate you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love his own, but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, the servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me." He said, they will do that to you because of the truth that you declare concerning me. And that's what Paul is reminding Timothy of in our text. Go back to 2 Timothy 1. Verse six, he said, 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. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. If you love someone, you will tell that person the truth. in any given situation, especially a situation as serious as eternity, where our souls will spend eternity. A man who will stand up in a pulpit and lie to men and women just because that's what the wicked sinful flesh naturally wants to hear, that man doesn't love those people. If he loved them, he would tell them the truth. Men stand up in pulpits and they say, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. How do you know? How do you know? Based on what we just read in John 15 and what we read all through the scriptures, God doesn't love everybody. Do you think that that is something that needs to be told or not told? That's not very pleasant. Let's not tell that anymore. That was something from back in the 50s and the 60s. Why would you keep bringing that up? Because it's the truth. It's the truth. God does not love everybody. I hate that. I hate hearing that. It's still the truth. It is still the truth. He does not have a wonderful, ordered, and sure set in stone purpose for everybody. Outside of Christ, God says in his word that he hates sin, and he hates sinners, and he has purposed to put all of them in eternal condemnation and hell. It's pleasant, isn't it? If a man really loved the men and women and boys and girls that he preached to, he would tell them, God's love is only in Jesus Christ. Only. God's love is only to Jesus Christ. It is only to Jesus Christ. The only way that God's love can be extended to us is if we were chosen before the foundation of the world to be placed in Christ. God's love only comes in Him, through Him. Outside of Him, there is no love. But I have the law. No love. There's no love in the law. So our concern does not need to be, what can we do to make God love us? Which is what false religion is built on. What can we do to make God love us? What can we do to make God happy with us? Our concern doesn't need to be that at all. Our concern needs to be begging and pleading the Almighty that he put us in Christ. My only prayer is that you put me in Christ. That's it. Our focus does not need to be this flesh or the works of this flesh or the law or morality or the community or humanity, humanitarian efforts, which I love all of those things. I love this community. But the focus of this church is not this community. What can we do for the community? That's not our concern at all. I love this law. That's not our concern at all. Our focus is Christ. We need to look to Christ. We need to cry out to the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to realize in our hearts that Christ is all. He is all. Christ is all we have before God. Christ is all we need before God. Christ is the only hope that there is. Who He is, what He did, that's our only concern. You mean to tell me, Gabe, that is literally all you're going to preach? You're gonna preach the cross of Jesus Christ every message, every time you stand up. By God's grace, yes. Why? That's my only concern. That's our only concern. True love for humanity, for humanity. We'll tell people that. In simplicity, in clarity. in clarity, in a way where it's easy to understand what's being said. A lot of times men will stand in pulpits and they don't want to talk about these things like election and talk about these difficult things like depravity and sin. So they'll muddy the water so you don't have a clue what they're talking about. They'll go round and round and round, big words, and have you so confused you have no idea what they're talking about. Love it or hate it, there can't be any muddy waters right here. No doubt what's being said right here. Verse 7, 4, God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Clarity, clear 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." Now, with Paul saying, don't be ashamed of the testimony, he said, Timothy, here it is. Okay, here it is. This is the truth of the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is the truth of who he saved, when he saved, how he saved. Verse eight. Be not 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, who hath saved us and called us within 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 Savior Jesus Christ who hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." What a glorious two verses those are. What a glorious two verses. Who did the saving? He did. Verse 9 says, Who? Him. Christ, He did it. He did it. Well, has He already saved us or is He still trying to save us? Verse 9 says, Who hath saved us? Past tense, over and done, finished. He does the saving, He does the calling. It goes on to say, and called us with a holy calling. He does the saving, He does the calling. The bringing, the quickening. Well, what is there for me to do? Nothing. Well, don't I have to do something to be saved? Honestly, isn't that in everybody's mind? I mean, come on, don't I have to do something to be saved? No. He has already saved us. Well, don't I have to do something to at least accept it or get it started or make it effectual? No. He does both the saving and the calling to salvation. He does all of it start to finish with no work left for us to do. Verse 9 says, Who hath saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace. He purposed to freely give salvation to us, and that's what he did. Well, when did he do that? Was it when I gave my heart to him? No. Well, was it when I turned over a new leaf and straightened up and flew right? No. I promise no soul in this room has done that. Well, was it when I decided to quit sinning? No. No soul in this room has done that. It's impossible for a sinner to quit sinning. Well, when did he do it? The end of verse 9 says that salvation was given to us in Christ Jesus before the world began. That's when the decision of who he would save was made, before the world began. Verse 9, who hath saved us and called 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. Verse 10 says, but, or we could say and, because that's what the word means, it translates and. is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ. It is now made manifest. It's now made known to us. What God did, it happened before we could have known that it happened. It happened before we were born. It happened before the planet was formed. It was over and done long ago. And the only reason it was even made known to us, the only reason that we now see what was in the mind and the purpose of God from eternity past is because Christ appeared. That's the only reason. the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ. We know God's eternal purpose of redeeming His people from their sin by the fact that Christ came. The Redeemer came. The blood atonement Himself came. And this is what He did in His coming. All right, this is what He accomplished when He died on the cross of Calvary. Verse 10 says, it goes on to say, who hath abolished death." He abolished death. When He died for His people, as His people, that death was their death. It's appointed unto man once to die. It's appointed unto man once to die. And God's people died their death in Him. And therefore it's over. Death for God's people is over. It's already over. He said, whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Why? Because I have already died it. I've already died the death. It's done. It's over. It's past. It's gone forever. It's abolished. Verse 9 says, Who hath saved us and called 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, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. The gospel declaration of who Christ is, what He's done for His people. Through that declaration, faith is given to God's people. This declaration of He did it all, we do nothing. Who He did it for was in His hands and His decision. It was of His will and not of ours. All right? Those who are not His people will say, I don't want to hear that. I don't want to hear that my eternity was in His hands and not mine. But you know what God's people say? Thank God. Because if it was in my hands, I would end up in hell. The only hope I have is that God put it all in His hands. And for God's people, through the declaration of this truth, when God's people hear it, faith is given to them. Spiritual life is given to them and they believe the declaration. And they're given the answer to this question right here. When spiritual life is given through the gospel preaching of God's truth, every soul who is given that life is given the answer to this question. Meaning if we want to know if we're included. Has he done this for me? Everything? Who hath? Who hath? Who hath? Did he do it for me? Did he give this spiritual life to me? Am I included in this? Well, every person that he gives spiritual life to is going to be given the answer to this question. And here's the question. Who gets the glory for all of this? Who gets the glory for all of this? Who gets the glory in salvation and the credit in salvation for everything that was done to save a sinner from his sins? Who gets the glory? Every soul he did it for will say, he does. He gets the glory. And that soul will say it in sincerity. It won't be lip service. Anybody, anywhere can say, oh yeah, he gets the glory. You better believe it, buddy. He gets the glory. But now, I mean, from the heart, in sincerity, it will stop right there. That heart will say, he did it all. He paid it all. He gets the glory for it all. To him be glory forever. for everything that he's done for his people. Amen. I pray God will give us faith to believe that, and I pray he will save our souls. Amen.