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Unashamed Confidence (2 Timothy 1:8-12) | Special Baptism Sunday (Matthew 28:18) This stream is created with #PRISMLiveStudio
Well, good morning, and welcome to Kootenai Church. We're glad that you're here today on our Baptism Sunday.
Thank you for joining us. Would you please stand as we begin our service this morning with a call to worship from Psalm 145.
And it says in verses 1 to 8, I will exalt you, my God, O King, and I will bless your name forever and ever.
Every day I will bless you, and I will praise your name forever and ever. Great is
Yahweh, and highly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall laud your works to another and shall declare your mighty deeds.
On the glorious splendor of your majesty and on the words of your wondrous deeds, I will muse.
Men shall speak of the strength of your fearsome acts, and I will recount your greatness.
They shall pour forth the memory of your abundant goodness and will shout joyfully of your righteousness.
Yahweh is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, and great in loving kindness.
Would you sing with us this morning together Psalm 145, how great. I'll bless your name,
O God, each day that I awake. From dawn to setting sun, through greatness
I'll proclaim. Your glory far exceeds all human thought.
So with each breath I'll bless your name, O God. Your name will be revered by children yet to come.
As generations sing of wonders you have done, your strong and mighty deeds are always near.
O God most high, your name will be revered.
How great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised.
How great is the Lord our God. How great is the
Lord, and greatly to be praised. How great is the
Lord, and greatly to be praised. How great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised. How great is the
Lord our God. How great is the
Lord, and greatly to be praised. Ever without end, creation will rejoice.
When works of wicked men you finally destroy.
Your power will proclaim, till Christ descends.
And you will reign forever with us. How great is the
Lord, and greatly to be praised. How great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised. Let's sing together another
Psalm. Psalm 144. O bless me the Lord God. O bless me the
Lord God, my rock and my might. He trains me for battle, my hands for the fight.
My fortress deliverer, my refuge and shield. He brings down my foes, and beneath me they yield.
O Lord, what is man that you recognize him. The son of man that you are mindful of him.
For man is but vapor, his brief earthly days.
Are just like a shadow which passes away. Most holy, most glorious, the
Ancient of Days. Almighty, victorious, your great name we praise.
O Lord, stretch your hand from the heavens above. Deliver and save me from strangers and floods.
Their tongues speak so falsely, and truth they despise. Their right hand they hold forth to swear to their lies.
A new song to you, O my God, I will sing. And offer my praise on a harp of ten strings.
You give kings their triumph, your hand has, O Lord. Have they hid your servant from hurt by the sword.
Most holy, most glorious, the
Eternal God, unchanging, mysterious and unknown.
Your boundless love, unfailing, grace and mercy shown.
Bright seraphim in ceaseless flight around your glorious throne.
They raise their voices day and night in praise to you alone.
How may the glory be to our great
God. Lord, we are ruthless in the storm.
Surround us with your angels, hold us in your arms.
Our cold and ruthless enemy, his pleasure is our harm.
Rise up, O Lord, and he will flee before our sovereign
God. How may the glory be to our great
God. Let every creature in the sea and every flying bird.
Let every mountain, every field and valley of the earth.
Let all the moons and all the stars in all the universe.
Sing praises to the living God who rules them by his word.
God. You may be seated. Just a couple of announcements.
Today is our baptism service, so it's good to see a full house. I ran into a couple people and I thought, what are you doing here?
It can't be the potluck. And then it occurred to me, oh, these people attend another church, but they're here for a baptism, so that's good.
After the service today, we have a potluck, and if you're here and you didn't know anything about that, and you're new to the area, new to the church, you're welcome to join us for that.
That's after the service. So as soon as we're done with our baptism service, then it would be good if everybody were to make their way outside, out into the yard.
Grab your food, make sure it is in the kitchen. They're going to set up some tables in here, and then we'll make an announcement outside when we're ready to pray and start going through the line.
And when we're outside for the potluck, just a couple of reminders. Number one, kids, please go through with your parents, through the line with your parents.
And then second, we would prefer for the kids not to play inside of the building, running around in different rooms here.
So we're going to lock up everything that we can lock up, but please keep your kids outside with you for the playtime.
And there is a men's Bible study sign -up sheet on the table out in the foyer. If you would like to participate in that, men, we need to know who you are, what you're planning to show up.
So make sure you put your name on that list. Turn your Bibles, please, to 2 Timothy 1 for our
Scripture reading. 2
Timothy 1. We're going to read the first chapter and a couple of verses into chapter 2. 2
Timothy 1. Beginning at verse 1, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, according to the promise of life in Christ Jesus.
To Timothy, my beloved son, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father in Christ Jesus our
Lord. I thank God, whom I serve with a clear conscience the way my forefathers did, as I constantly remember you in my prayers night and day, longing to see you, even as I recall your tears, so that I may be filled with joy.
For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother
Eunice, and I'm sure that it is in you as well. For this reason, I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.
For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our
Lord or of me, his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, but now has been revealed by the appearing of our
Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life in immortality to light through the gospel, for which
I was appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher. For this reason, I also suffer these things, but I'm not ashamed, for I know whom
I have believed, and I'm convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day.
Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.
Guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us the treasure which has been entrusted to you. You are aware of the fact that all who are in Asia turned away from me, among whom are
Phygelus and Hermogenes. The Lord grant mercy to the house of Venicipherus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains.
But when he was in Rome, he eagerly searched for me and found me. The Lord grant to him to find mercy from the
Lord on that day, and you know very well what services he rendered at Ephesus. You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
These things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
Suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. You stand with me as we pray. Let's bow our heads.
Our Father, we have read here of a great salvation that has been bestowed upon those who are in Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
We have every reason to have a bold confidence before You, for You have saved us and called us with a holy calling.
You have granted us a grace in Your Son from all of eternity. You have blessed us because You have showed favor to Your Son, and because we are in Him, Your favor rests upon those who have their faith in Him, and we are grateful for all of that, for imputed righteousness, for imputed faith, for the grace of salvation and the opportunity to proclaim that salvation in our union with Christ.
So we ask Your blessing upon our service, our worship, our fellowship, and our testimony here to the name of Christ, in whose name we pray, amen.
Let's sing together, Thy Mercy, My God. Thy mercy, my
God, is the theme of my song, the joy of my heart and the boast of my tongue.
Thy free grace alone, from the first to the last, hath won my affections and found my soul fast.
Without Thy sweet mercy, I could not live here. Sin would reduce me to utter despair.
But through Thy free goodness, my spirit's revived, and He that first made me still keeps me alive.
Thy mercy is more than a match for my heart, which wonders to feel its own hardness depart.
Dissolved by Thy goodness, I fall to the ground and weep for the grace, the mercy
I found. Hallelujah.
Great Father of mercies, Thy goodness I own, and the covenant love of Thy crucified
Son. All praise to the Spirit, whose working divine, steals mercy and pardon and righteousness mine.
All praise to the Spirit, whose working divine, steals mercy and pardon and righteousness mine.
Hallelujah. In Philippians chapter 3, verses 7 through 11, it says,
But whatever things were gained to me, those things I have counted as lost for the sake of Christ. More than that,
I count all things to be lost because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my
Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as lost so that I may gain
Christ and be found in Him. Not having a righteousness of my own, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God upon faith, that I may know
Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings being conformed to His death in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
We're going to sing our last song this morning before the message, Cling to Christ. Father, I can come to you and boast of deeds
I've done. In my pride I strive to earn the favor
Christ has won. He alone leaves my acceptance, all my works aside.
So I come with empty hands and I cling to Christ.
Go astray and battle needless fears.
Voices tell me I'm condemned and that I can't draw near.
But your spirit calls me homeward with your words of life.
Jesus bore my every sin, so I cling to Christ.
It's more than I can do to keep my home.
The peace is that you cling to me.
It's more than I can do to find peace.
Two earthly aims in time will turn to dust.
Let me learn what loss is gain. For those who know your love, all the treasures of this world will never satisfy.
You alone are endless joy, so I cling to Christ.
You may be seated. Sorry for the delay, nothing is today as it should be.
These guys are going to continue to mess around here while we get started. All right, baptism is a proclamation of our identification with Jesus Christ.
We do this in obedience to Him to show that He is our Lord, that we belong to Him, that He belongs to us.
This act of baptism displays something that He did on our behalf, and it is a public confession that we do in the presence of many witnesses because it takes courage to stand up in front of other people and even on a live stream and proclaim that you are a sinner, that you deserve nothing but God's wrath, that you have done nothing to earn
His favor, that you can do nothing to earn His favor, and all you deserve is judgment, and then to also proclaim that you are, because those things are true, placing your entire faith and confidence in somebody else who merited your salvation and did everything necessary to earn not only your forgiveness, but your eternal righteousness and your eternal glory.
So as we prepare for baptisms, which we are going to have coming up here shortly, I want to give our attention to a passage that describes the kind of confident boldness that should mark every believer in Jesus Christ.
This passage not only describes that confidence, but also explains to us the grounding and the reason why we should have that kind of bold, unashamed confidence in Christ.
And that passage is 2 Timothy 1. We read it a few moments ago, and you'll need your Bibles open to that passage this morning again.
So please turn there. 2
Timothy 1. We're going to read together verses 6 -12.
We're going to be focusing mostly on verses 8 -12 and really kind of zeroing in at the end on verse 12 itself.
And then this is going to be our passage this morning. 2 Timothy 1, beginning at verse 6. For this reason
I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.
Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me, His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, but now has been revealed by the appearing of our
Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which
I was appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher. For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed, for I know whom
I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.
Now that is our passage for this morning. We're going to be focusing, as I said, mostly on verse 12. We'll be catching verses 8 and following as well.
But before we do, a bit of context, because we haven't been in 1 Timothy and I haven't had an opportunity to lay a foundation of this book, so just sort of bring us up to speed on what this passage is that we're dealing with and the context in which the book was written.
This is the last letter of the Apostle Paul to his young protege, Timothy. In fact, it is the last letter of the
Apostle Paul, period. As he writes this, he was imprisoned for the gospel, and this is his second imprisonment in the cause of Christ, the first imprisonment we read of in the book of Acts, at the end of the book of Acts.
And after that, he was released for a period of time, and then he was arrested, and now he is imprisoned again, no longer under house arrest where his people could come and visit him frequently and freely and bring him gifts and things would be cared for.
It's not that kind of an imprisonment. That was at the end of the book of Acts. That was the first imprisonment. This one is a hole in the ground, and he is given nothing, and if people don't bring him even food and water, then he would end up going entirely without.
Christianity by this point in history was becoming an illegal religion. Christians who would not worship the state or say
Caesar is Lord had become public enemy number one and were becoming increasingly unwelcome in the culture because their morals did not fit with the increasingly darkening moral culture of the day.
So their morals were not welcome, their ethics were not welcome, and Christians were being blamed for most of society's ills.
In fact, by the time Timothy got this letter, we're only a couple years away from the Emperor Nero setting fire to Rome and then fiddling on his rooftop as he watched
Rome burn, only so that he could blame it on Christians and launch what would end up being a 250 -year government -sponsored persecution of the church.
That's the context in which this book is written, and Timothy had been a long -time traveling companion of the
Apostle Paul, a trusted partner with him in ministry for years, since Timothy was just an older teenager, in fact.
Timothy was given the charge to deal with the false teachers who were in the church at Ephesus. Three weeks ago, we looked at Acts 20 where Paul called the elders of the church of Ephesus out to him at the shore at Miletus, and he charged them, saying,
Beware, and guard yourselves and the flock over which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.
And know, Paul says, that from among your own selves men will arise speaking perverse things, twisted doctrinal things.
And now that had come to pass, and after the release from his first imprisonment, Paul had left Timothy in Ephesus and wrote 1
Timothy to him, and he says in chapter 1, verse 3, Upon my departure from Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrine.
So that warning of Paul to the Ephesian elders that some among them would begin to teach perverse things, that had come to pass, and now
Timothy was there to deal with the false teachers in Ephesus. Fast forward a couple of years, Paul is now in prison and he is writing to his young pastoral protege,
Timothy, with these instructions telling him, Timothy, while the culture is hostile against us, do not shy away from this gospel.
Do not shy away from this Lord, this Messiah, and do not be shaken amidst all of the hostility of the world.
Do not be shaken away from your confidence in Christ and his gospel, and do not be ashamed of me, the
Lord's prisoner. That's the context in which this is written. And I want you to notice in our text, verses 8 -12, three reasons that Paul gives why we should not be ashamed.
First, in verses 8 -11, we have a saving gospel. Second, in verse 12, we have a securing
God. And then third, also in verse 12, we have a sure glory. We have a saving gospel, a securing
God, and a sure glory. We'll take each one of those three. Beginning at verse 8, in fact, I want to back up and just read verse 7 because it's part of this context.
Verse 7, Paul says to Timothy, God has not given us a spirit of timidity but of power and love and of discipline.
The word that's translated timidity there means cowardice or fear. It was used sometimes in an idiomatic way to describe somebody who had a fallen heart.
Their heart had just fallen. They had lost all moral or conscience, courage.
So they just had nothing inside of them that was strong, so they were very weak. And he is saying, God has not given us that spirit of a fallen heart but one of boldness and strength, one of power and love and discipline.
So he writes in verse 8, therefore, because God has not given us that spirit of a fallen heart but instead given us a spirit of courage, therefore,
Timothy, verse 8, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me, his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God.
Paul was Christ's prisoner. He identifies himself as his prisoner in verse 8. This is the first mention of Paul's sufferings in the epistle, but it actually becomes a theme all the way through this epistle as Paul mentions it from time to time that he was enduring affliction and enduring imprisonment.
In fact, if you just look at verse 16 of this same chapter, he says, the Lord grant mercy to the house of Anisiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains.
Notice in verse 8, he says to Timothy, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me, his prisoner.
Then in verse 16, he references a fellow servant who was not ashamed of the
Lord or of his prisoner, Paul. In fact, he was not ashamed of Paul's chains. In chapter 2, verse 9, he says,
I suffer hardship even to imprisonment as a criminal, but the word of God is not imprisoned. Chapter 3, verse 11, look what he says.
He describes his persecutions and sufferings such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and Lystra. What persecutions
I endured, and out of them all the Lord rescued me. 2 Timothy 3, 12, indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
Then you get into chapter 4, and not to read all of these verses, but just to give you the highlights. In chapter 4, verse 16, we find out that Paul had been on trial at least one.
He had made at least one defense before Caesar. Chapter 4, verse 11, he had been abandoned by everyone except for one companion, his friend
Luke. Chapter 4, verse 13, he was facing a winter in this prison, and so he asked Timothy to bring his parchments and his cloak so he could be worn before winter and asked him, please come before winter.
He had been harmed by Alexander the coppersmith, verses 14 and 15. He had been abandoned, verse 10, and he was expecting execution soon, verse 6.
So he says to Timothy, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, this is chapter 1, verse 8, or of me, his prisoner.
And then look what he says to him, join with me in suffering for the gospel. That is an odd invitation, isn't it?
If I ask you to join me for a potluck of smoked tri -tip and delicious food this afternoon, you think that sounds like an invitation that I can enjoy, take you up on that.
But if I say, join with me in suffering, what type of a suffering? The type of suffering we've just seen
Paul describe in this epistle. And he is saying to Timothy, you must be willing, if called upon, to join with me in suffering for the gospel.
Do not run away from that affliction, do not run away from that persecution, do not be ashamed of it, do not shy away from it, do not be shaken by the hostility of the world, but instead, join with me, come with me and join me in this suffering.
Because Paul is saying to Timothy to be ashamed of Paul and his imprisonment was to be ashamed of Christ since Paul was in prison for one reason and one reason only, and that was his testimony regarding Christ.
Paul was not in prison because he was an insurrectionist, Paul was not in prison because he had spoken ill about Caesar, Paul was not in prison because he had violated any law of the
Roman Empire, Paul was in prison because he was preaching the gospel of Christ. And he had become public enemy number one.
And so he says to Timothy, join with me in suffering for this gospel. Don't be ashamed of that. I haven't done anything deserving of this persecution, this affliction, and this imprisonment, and therefore gladly, joyfully, boldly, unashamedly, align yourself with me and with this gospel and join with me in suffering if necessary.
And the reason we are called to suffer is because of what Christ has done. Look, he describes that in verses 9 and following.
We are to suffer for the gospel according to the power of God, verse 9, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was granted to us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, but now has been revealed by the appearing of our
Savior, Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which
I have appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher. That's the details of a saving gospel.
We serve a God who has wrought salvation from sin and from death. He has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel by redeeming sinners who deserve nothing but judgment, nothing but God's wrath, and he forgives them and justifies them, not according to their works, but according to his own grace, which he grants to his people from all eternity.
In other words, this grace that is granted to those who partake of salvation is a grace that is given to them before time begins.
It is from all eternity. It's not a grace that is given for all eternity. Paul's saying it is a grace that was given from all eternity.
Go back as far as you can go back, and there is a God there who has purpose to redeem and to justify sinners, and he grants grace to those people, a select number of people, a grace to be redeemed, forgiven of their sins, declared righteous, and secured for everlasting glory.
That is a grace that was given to you before time began. But now, in time, that grace has been manifested when
Christ steps into human history and lives a perfect life in the place of his people, representing them as he bears the weight and the burden of the law, living it fully, and obeying
God in all things. He actively obeys God in the law so that he is righteous, so that the righteous one then can be hung on a cross and suffer a hideous, cursed death on that cross in the place of his people, so that now those who have placed their faith in Christ and turned from their sins can be declared righteous, not because of anything that they've done, but because of what
Christ has done, and their sins can be forgiven, not because they don't deserve to be punished, but because they have been punished on the head of another, their substitute, who bears their wrath and pays their penalty and pays their debt in their place, so that now the guilty can go free, not because God winks at sin, not because he ignores sin, but because he is able by the grace of Christ, a grace granted to us in him from all of eternity, he is able to show both love and justice, because it is at the cross that love and justice meet, where God is able to show love towards sinners by forgiving their sin, because he punishes another in their place, one who came voluntarily and left the glories of heaven to step into time and space to live a perfect life and then die that death in the stead of his people.
It was his rescue mission, and he did that. That is the glorious gospel that we embrace.
That is the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, that we deserve to be treated as criminals for our law -breaking, but instead another who never broke the law stepped in and was treated as a criminal in our place.
And then that one who never broke the law but stepped in in our place, that one who lived in the fulfillment of the law, we get treated, we, lawbreakers, get treated as if we have never broke the law and lived the perfect life that he lived.
That is the great exchange over which all of Scripture is written. That is the great exchange of righteousness and sin, which the gospel promises to those who repent and believe upon Christ.
That is the saving gospel. What is that is to be ashamed? Have I said anything that is to be ashamed yet?
Nothing. Second, we have a securing God. Look at verse 12. Verse 12,
For this reason I suffer these things, but I am not ashamed. For I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard what
I have entrusted to him until that day. The word that is translated believe there, I know whom I have believed, in verse 12, it means trusted.
It is sometimes translated in Scripture as faith. In fact, in this place it would probably be valid to translate it,
I know the one in whom I have placed my faith, or I know the one whom I have trusted, whom I have confidence in.
Notice that Paul is describing here a confidence that is placed in a person. Three times he says, I know whom
I have believed, I am persuaded that he is able to keep what I have committed to him against that day.
Who does that pronoun refer to? He and him and whom? It may refer to the
Father, and it may refer to the Son, to Christ. In this context it could refer to either one of them or to both, and I'm not sure that we need to pick between them because both the
Father, his grace that he granted to us, and the work of the Son are both mentioned in the immediate context.
And really, truth be told, to trust the Son is in fact to trust the word of the Father because the Father says, place your faith in the
Son, I will forgive your sins and give you that righteousness and bring you to be with me and adopt you into my family.
So to place your confidence and faith in Jesus Christ and to commit everything to him is in fact to take
God the Father at his word, and to place your faith in God the Father is to place your faith in God the Son.
For the Father says that the Son is the proper object of our faith. So when we place our faith in him, we are placing our faith in the word of the
Father, and we are in fact doing something in obedience to the Father when we place our faith in the Son. So I don't think we have to choose between who it is that we have committed these things to.
I think the Apostle Paul is simply saying whether you're talking about the Father or the Son, I know whom
I have believed. Notice he says I know whom I have believed and not what I have believed. What I have believed is important enough.
What I have believed is important because you must believe everything that I described to you in the first part of that regarding the gospel, the saving gospel.
There's intellectual, doctrinal, and theological content there that we must embrace and believe and place our faith in, these promises, but our confidence ultimately is not in what we believe because we can believe in an intellectual sense all of the right things without ever entrusting ourselves to the salvation that is offered in Jesus Christ.
So he says I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that he is able to keep what
I have committed to him against that day. Our confidence objectively is in the work of a person.
It is in Christ Jesus. That is where our confidence rests. Not in a doctrinal statement, as good and necessary as that is, but in a person.
I'm actually looking to, as a believer, we are looking to a person who stepped into time and space and made claims about himself and his followers and the salvation that he is offering, made those claims and then did a certain thing, died on a cross and then rose again on the third day victorious over death, which is why
Paul can say that he brought life and immortality to life through the gospel. This is what the work of Christ has done.
He is a sovereign God who has abolished death. He is a sovereign God who is sovereign over time.
He grants grace to us in Christ from all eternity. He is sovereign over sinners choosing to redeem them, to save them, to justify them and he is sovereign over salvation, able to abolish death and bring life to light through the gospel.
He is able to do that and so Paul is convinced that he is also able to keep whatever it is that we have committed to him.
Now if he is able to abolish death, to suffer death and to rise again, if he has shown himself faithful to do all of that, then how difficult is it to trust him with this little thing of what
I commit to him, my individual soul and destiny. It might seem like a lot to me but it's really not a lot in the grand scheme of things, is it?
I mean if he has shown himself faithful to do all of this, then I can trust him to guard and to keep, that's what the word means there, to guard, to watch closely, to keep watch over, to deposit, that's what the word, what
I have entrusted to him, to guard what I have entrusted, the word is a word that we translate deposit,
I've deposited something with him. What is it that we have deposited with the Lord Jesus Christ?
When we place our faith in Christ, we are depositing to him, we are committing to his care, to his charge and to his keeping everything that could and is precious to us.
We are entrusting him with our salvation, our life, our immortality, our forgiveness, our righteousness, our eternal destiny, our soul and spirit, our hope of everlasting life and any reward that we could ever hope to get from him.
That is what we are entrusting him with. That is what we are committing to his charge. Is Christ worthy of that hope and confidence?
Well in time he was manifested to abolish death and bring life and immortality to life through the gospel. And he has done that, died, buried and rose again.
And therefore it is certainly justifiable that we would entrust him with anything that concerns us, all that concerns us.
And Romans 10 verse 11 says that whoever believes in him will not be disappointed. We believe as Jude says that he is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory blameless with great joy.
We will not be ashamed on that day because he is able to keep everything we have committed to him until that final day.
We have a saving gospel and a securing God and third we have a sure glory.
And this is at the end of verse 12. Paul references what we have entrusted to him being kept until that day.
This signals a forward looking anticipation in the epistle and this is a theme that kind of goes all the way through this epistle.
For a man sitting in a prison expecting his execution at any day, the apostle Paul is sure looking a lot to the future in those moments.
What day is he looking forward to? He is confident that he has entrusted his soul and his safe keeping to a savior who will ultimately keep and preserve and guard it until the final day.
The final day of the resurrection, the final day of reward, the final day of his eternal kingdom and eternal glory.
Though he was expecting to step into the grave at any moment in physical death in this world,
Paul knew that he could trust that on that final day he would be raised and not forgotten and that his savior who was able to do all that he has done would keep him to glory and preserve him and deliver on his word on that final day everything that he has promised.
And ultimately this is what the Christian looks forward to. Paul is at the end of his life and he was aware that he was about to depart and be with Christ.
And so this book is full of forward looking statements. Look at 2
Timothy 1 verse 10. He talks about the appearing of our savior Jesus Christ who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
He's there talking about living forever, never being able to die, immortality. Look at chapter 2 verse 10.
For this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen so that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory.
He's looking forward to an eternal glory. He's thinking about the appearing of Christ. 2 Timothy chapter 4 verse 1.
I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead by his appearing and his kingdom.
Preach the word. 2 Timothy chapter 4 verse 8. He talks about a future reward. In the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the
Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.
That day is the day of Christ's appearing. And then in 2 Timothy 4 verse 18. The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom.
To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. What a confident statement. What a testimony. That this man sitting in a prison aware of his soon execution has been abandoned and forsaken by all of his traveling companions, some of his friends.
Demas forsook him. Others had left to go off in ministry at Paul's request. But he has been left alone.
Only Luke was with him. In the terms of most of the world he had been forgotten. And this was a man who it would be safe to say that the apostle
Paul was one of the most, if not the most recognized Christian figure in all of the world at that time.
The most recognized. And now this man who has served faithfully and sacrificially for decades is sitting in a
Roman prison about to be executed. His head about to be severed from him. And there is nothing about his present circumstance which would indicate any reason for optimism or hope.
There's nothing about his circumstance that would give him any reason to have confidence or conviction. The culture was against him.
The government was persecuting him. He had nothing to his name. And as far as the world is concerned, this troublemaker was about to be dispatched and then forever forgotten.
And yet he says that he is convinced that the one to whom he had committed everything would abolish death and give him immortality and not forget him, but instead raise him up on the last day and bring him safely into his eternal kingdom and give him eternal life and eternal glory.
That is a confidence. Sometimes it's difficult for us to just get to the end of the month and we need to have a payment made and we're a little short on the finances.
We think, is God going to be able to come through this month? Or how is this going to work out? Compare those circumstances to the apostle
Paul. He has given everything to Christ. He has done everything for Christ.
And now he's sitting in a prison and it seems as if he is getting absolutely no return on that deposit or investment whatsoever.
But the apostle Paul looks past the guillotine to the eternal glory and says he will usher me safely into his eternal kingdom.
Friends, we have a saving gospel, a securing God, and a sure glory and therefore we are not ashamed.
Baptism is a means by which we proclaim before other people our confidence in that God and we display in a physical way what it is that he has done for us spiritually speaking.
I'm going to explain to you just quickly what you're about to see up here. You're about to see 14 people.
We have 14 people being baptized this morning. So you're about to see 14 people be baptized and we are going to do in the physical realm what
Christ has done for us. He died, he was buried, and he rose again. That is what baptism symbolizes.
The word baptized means immersed so we immerse. We don't sprinkle. We don't pour. We immerse those who have given a credible profession of faith in Jesus Christ, demonstrating their union with him.
Because Christ died in our place, because he rose again in our place, we have confidence and conviction that having repented of our sin and placed our faith in him, that we died in him, that his death was our death, that our sin he bore and that his righteousness we receive and that because of what he has done and that it has been accepted by the
Father, demonstrated or evidenced by virtue of the fact that he raised him from the dead, we are united with him and we also will be raised with him, not only to newness of life in this world, but also to eternal glory and to his kingdom in the next.
So that is what baptism symbolizes. It's a reminder of what our Savior did for us. So I'm going to get out of the way.
Each of the baptism candidates, hold on, settle down. Each of the baptism candidates is going to step up here behind this microphone.
And speak clearly into the microphone as they give their testimony. And then
I'm going to be down here and when they give their testimony, they're going to come up and step down into the tank and I'm going to baptize them.
While Josh is setting that up, something that you should know, this is not pertinent to it, but just because we need to burn some time.
Normally we fill up this tank, I started on Saturday, it fills up to a certain point, then there's a recirculating pump that pumps through that and warms it up because it's cold water.
For some reason the recirculating pump didn't kick on, didn't circulate it or warm it up. So it's nearly as cold as yesterday when it came right out of the spigot.
So we've got some bags of ice, you guys can bring those in now. Alright, Ed is going to step up behind the screen and help distribute towels to them as they come up and Rick is going to be up here to give a hand to any of the ladies who need a hand stepping down into the tub.
Are you ready, Josh? If you've never been here before, you should be able to see it up here projected just in case you can't see it down below.
Alright, JT, you're up. Alright. JT. Hello.
For those of you who don't know me, my name is JT and I've spent the majority of my life pursuing the ways of the world.
I lived a life characterized by lust, greed, anger and all around falsehood that manifested itself in the form of depression, narcissism and addiction.
I was sinful and wicked. Last year I was invited to attend Kootenay Community Church and a little into that time
I was struck by the severity of my sin. And I could do nothing to shake this truth. God was making himself known to me.
Through scripture and interaction with members with the members of Kootenay, I was strengthened in my knowledge of truth and began to understand
Christ's sacrifice on my behalf. Through their love and devotion to God and God's miraculous work in my heart and mind,
I'm no longer a slave to sin. I've placed my faith in God and will live for him as a vessel for honorable use.
There's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me, not by my doing but by the grace of God. I'm pursuing baptism out of obedience to the
Lord because I'm no longer a slave to sin but a servant of God. I have died and my life is hidden with Christ and God.
I'm devoting my life to Christ and to living by faith as an implement for honor and ministry for his glory.
JT, have you repented of your sin and placed your faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation? Yes. And you desire to be obedient to him in believer's baptism?
Yes. Based upon that credible profession of faith in Christ, I baptize you in the name of the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit. My name is
Randy Gadbury. I'm a sinner. Five years ago, my wife Marilyn and I decided we were going to attend
CUNY Community Church when I retired. That didn't happen because my wife became sick and the doctors didn't find the cancer until it was too late.
After my wife's passing in 2020, I decided that I would continue with our plans of attending church.
It only took a couple of services when I realized that I hadn't accepted Jesus Christ into my life.
By confessing my sins to him was my only way for redemption. I am now proud to say that I have accepted
Jesus Christ, my Savior, and my life has been changed for the better.
Thank you. Sit down.
Come right here. Sit down. Yep. You have a second to catch your breath?
Randy, have you repented of your sin and placed your faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation and your desire to be obedient to him in baptism?
Based upon that credible profession of faith in Christ, I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. My name is
Cody Hughes. Me standing here is a bigger miracle than I can ever describe to this body.
Christ saved me from the brink of death countless times until a good work in me could start.
I was born in the dark, hardened by it, and I am deserving of nothing.
Some of my first memories were bedtime stories that were written by Stephen King and Ding Kuntz.
My childhood was a thing of nightmares and something I wanted to escape from. By the time
I was an adult, I had already gone through 18 years of hardening, I was spiritually and morally bankrupt, and sin had taken root in my life.
I was more lost than I could ever understand. I sought help in all the wrong books, all the wrong psychologists, all the wrong gurus, and all the wrong religions.
I didn't know where to find God. I was knocking on the wrong doors. What is worse is that I didn't understand the cost of sin, nor did
I understand the suffering I would cause Christ, our Lord. The cost of my purchase must have been great to our
Lord, and for that I am sorry. I believe that Christ found me and began a good work in me after hobbling into a church with a broken leg, a broken heart, and a broken spirit.
I was arguably even found in a broken church. God in his glory led me to repentance, to contrition, impossible victories over sin, regeneration, and sanctification.
Out of love for him and all that he has done for me, especially his propitiation at Calvary, I want to live for him, care for his desires, and be subservient to his will.
I long to be called a good and faithful servant and be pleasing in his sight. I praise
God in all his mercy, forgiveness, grace, and for his glory. I am ever grateful to our
Lord, my Lord, Jesus Christ. Thank you.
Cody, have you repented of your sin and placed your faith in Christ alone for salvation? Are you going to be obedient to him in believer's baptism?
Based upon the credible profession of faith in Christ, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Hello. My name is
Sylvia Anders. This is my faith journey. I was baptized in the
Catholic Church as a baby, and I attended Catholic school for the first through third grades.
Our family attended Mass regularly. As a teenager, I was confirmed in my faith and acknowledged
Christ as my Savior. I believe then, as now, that Jesus is
God's only Son, that he was born of the Virgin Mary, that he suffered, was condemned, and that he died on the cross to take away the sin of all men who believe in him.
I believe he arose on the third day that he is ascended into heaven. I believe no one comes to God in heaven except through faith in Jesus Christ.
A few years ago, we moved to Naples, began yet another search for a church home.
We attended a couple of different congregations before the mother of a dear friend recommended
Kootenai Community Church. Since then, it has become the only church we are interested in being a part of.
With the help of scripture readings and explanations by Pastor Jim, I've come to doubt my baptism as a baby, and I now feel the need to proclaim my faith and participate in this important ceremony in obedience to the
Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you. Sylvia, have you repented of your sin and placed your faith in Christ alone for salvation and desire to be obedient to him in baptism?
Based upon that credible profession of faith in Christ, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. My name is
Marcia Van Eaton. I was baptized at a young age after asking Jesus into my heart.
Though I understood the basics of sin, salvation, Jesus, and the cross, it wasn't until much later in life that I understood that salvation is more than just a belief.
He isn't just my Savior, he is also Lord. If Jesus is Lord, there will be a radical transformation and there will be evidence.
I didn't have that. Therefore, I suspect my early conversion was a false one and that my true conversion didn't happen until decades later when my life began changing.
I'm getting re -baptized today because I want to proclaim that I'm a follower of Christ, he is my
Lord, and I want to be obedient to him. Marcia, have you repented of your sin and placed your faith in Christ alone for salvation and your desire to be obedient to him in baptism?
Based upon that credible profession of faith in Christ, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Grab my wrist.
Hi, my name is Calder Cates. I grew up going to church and have heard the stories my entire life.
But I've always known that I don't get salvation from that. Salvation was something that always worried me because of the obvious reason that I didn't want to burn in hell.
For a long time, I claimed to be a Christian and didn't believe it. I would read my
Bible for a week and then be living in sin for a month. It wasn't until about six months ago that I really understood the gospel.
Now the weight is lifted and I no longer have to fear hell because God chose me to be a part of his kingdom.
I repented from my sin and was reconciled to God. I started hunger and thirst for righteousness.
I started to want to learn more about God and his character by reading his word. And I started to mourn over my sin.
It is still impossible for me not to sin, but the difference is that now I strive to be more like Christ.
And when I sin, I ask for forgiveness and thank Jesus for making it possible for me to be righteous in God's eyes.
Jesus Christ, the creator of the world, humbled himself and took on the form of a servant, lived the perfect, spotless life which no one else could have done, and then he took the punishment that I deserved and was crucified on a cross.
Then after three days in a grave, he rose from the dead, defeating sin. And now when the
Father looks at me, all he sees is the righteousness of Jesus Christ. In getting baptized,
I am identifying with Christ's death, burial, and resurrection and proclaiming my faith to all my brothers and sisters in Christ.
Colter, have you repented of your sin and placed your faith in Christ alone for salvation? You want to be obedient to him in baptism.
Based upon that profession of faith in Christ, I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Grab my wrist.
Hello, everyone. My name is Carson Hayman. I was born and raised in a Christian home, and I don't have some crazy conversion story.
But this I know. I am a sinner. I was born a sinner, and up till the day I die,
I will be a sinner. I am not, however, a slave to my sin, because Jesus Christ came, lived a perfect and blameless life, and died the most gruesome death.
Yet death did not conquer him. He rose again on the third day, and in so doing, crushed the head of the serpent.
And I know that in Christ, I am free from my bondage to sin, and I'm here to publicly proclaim my faith.
I am a slave to Christ, and there is no better master. I stand before you today because I wish to obey his command to be baptized.
Carson, have you repented of your sin and placed your faith in Christ alone for salvation? Yes, sir. And you desire to be obedient to him in baptism.
Based upon that credible profession of faith in Christ, I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit. Hi. My name is
Malik Iduko. I'm 18. I've grown up in a Christian home and been exposed to sound doctrine my whole life.
That being the case, it was very easy for me to go along with what I was taught, believing it on a surface level because it was what
I was told was true, never questioning whether or not it was what I genuinely believed or if I was actually saved.
I would go to church on Sunday and Monday. It was back to the unrepentant sin and defiance that controlled my life.
I had dug a grave for myself and happily jumped in, and if not for God's mercy, when he sent his
Son, Jesus Christ, to live the perfect life that I couldn't and to die on the cross for the sins of all who repent and believe,
I would still be there today. I don't know the exact date when God saved me and gave me a new heart and new desires.
Looking back at my life, it is evident to me that I'm not who I was. I no longer love my sin, but I hate it.
I no longer seek it out, but flee from it. I've done nothing to deserve his saving grace, nor could
I. But I praise and thank God for the sobering reality that he even still grants it to me.
Malik, have you repented of your sin and placed your faith in Christ alone for salvation and your desire to be obedient to him in baptism?
Based upon that credible profession of faith in Christ, I baptize you in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Hello.
Okay. My name is Lucas Creel. I used to think being a Christian was just going to church, just getting through the sermon, then going to talk to my friends.
This was a consistent thing for me because I didn't strive to learn more about God and what it meant to be a Christian. But as God started opening my eyes,
I realized there were a lot of things I thought were fine that actually weren't fine. I realized I really tried to impress people and cared more about pleasing them than pleasing
God. Also, I was scared of death and what would happen after I die. I realized if I died that night, I wouldn't go to heaven but to hell.
I'd always heard that Jesus died for my sins, but it always went way over my head. But seeing there in fear, I realized
Jesus is the only way, truth, and life. Because he died for my sins, he wore my punishment, which was due to the fall of Adam and Eve.
When I repented, my fear was taken away. But as a growing Christian, I realized that it is a lifelong fight with sin, and there are things
I have to do and also called to do. One of these things I am called to do is baptism. Not only is this a commandment
I need to obey as a Christian, but this is something I want to do as it is a public confession of my faith. Lucas, have you repented of your sin and placed your faith in Christ alone for salvation?
Yes. And do you desire to be obedient to him in baptism? Yes. Based upon that credible profession of faith in Christ, I baptize you in the name of the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Hello.
I'm Ryan Razor. I don't know when I became saved. I had a profession of faith when
I was seven or eight years old, but I didn't understand the gospel. Bit by bit, my understanding of the scriptures and the gospel grew, and somewhere in my teenage years,
I learned that I had to repent and put my faith in Jesus' death on the cross to be saved. And by God's grace and the
Holy Spirit's work in me, I did. However, between then and now,
I had a lot of doubt that made me afraid to be baptized. Today, though there are still doubts and fears that I will have to fight,
I am finally ready to obey God's command and be baptized. Ryan, have you repented of your sin and placed your faith in Christ alone for salvation?
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Oh my gosh.
Okay. If you can see me. My name is
Caitlin Koshuba. I have had a long journey before coming to Christ. I lived decades of my life lost and defiant.
Although I had attended church only a handful of times as a child, I was never presented with the true gospel or had any born -again
Christians around to influence me. Eventually, I found myself immersed in New Age doctrine and was terribly deceived believing
I was spiritually enlightened. I lived unapologetically for myself. I lived with my heart hardened towards God.
Six years ago, my husband and I found ourselves in church for the first time as adults. It wasn't long before I knew
I needed to be saved. While attending our first church, I felt biblically starved as if I wasn't being fed the truth.
I made it my mission to read as much scripture as I could and after many tearful prayers, I had found some wonderful Bible teachers to follow, such as John MacArthur and Justin Peters.
Our family has been in the process of moving from Montana and the first sermon I attended here in person was on baptism and I knew what
I needed to do. I have been convicted of my sins and I repent for all that I have done and all that I was.
I know that I was a wretched sinner who only by the blood of Christ have been given a chance at a new life, an eternal life.
I know very well how painful and dark a life without Jesus is, so I run to him. He is my
Lord and Savior and I want to proclaim that to all. I should have let some water out.
You almost baptized yourself right there. Caitlin, have you repented of your sin and placed your faith in Christ alone for salvation?
And your desire to be obedient to him in baptism? Based upon the profession of faith in Christ, I baptize you in the name of the
Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Hi, my name is
Hazel and I was born into a Christian home, but it wasn't until I was around 12 that my family started to do family worship together and to watch and participate in the way of the
Master. When we started, I thought it was just a waste of time. I also thought that just because I was born and raised in a
Christian home, that automatically made me a Christian. I couldn't have been more wrong. After a while,
I became scared because I came to understand that you had to be chosen by God, and that nothing
I could do would change the fact that I was a sinner destined for hell. Because, as Romans 3 .23 says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Through the process of being discipled at home, church, at youth group, and at Cocoa Lake Bible Camp, I have repented of my sins and have put my faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ, who saved and justified me by life, death, and resurrection.
I desire to live my life in obedience to Him, in His word. As Galatians 2 .20 says,
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I live, but Christ who lives in me. In the life I now live, in the flesh,
I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Hazel, have you repented of your sin and placed your faith in Christ alone for salvation?
And you desire to be baptized in obedience to the command of Christ? Based upon that profession of faith in Christ, I baptize you in the name of the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Hello, my name is
Micah Lynch. When I was 10 years old, I was told that I was saved. I believed this for years, but I never thought much about it.
Three years ago, I started to think about what would happen if I was not saved and Christ came back. For a long time,
I struggled with the thought that what if I wanted to get saved but somehow I did not get saved? What if I missed something?
At first, I wanted to get saved so that I would escape God's judgment. This went on for about a year and a half.
The next year, I went to Cocoa Wall Lake Bible Camp and had the opportunity to talk to someone there about what was going on inside me.
The person I talked to showed me how simple salvation is, and that it is not complicated. I am a sinner in need of a
Savior. Christ is that Savior, and if I put my faith in Him, I will be saved. It was at that moment that I desired to be saved, not so that I would escape
God's judgment, but because I was a sinner who needed the Savior. I had fully grasped the reality of my sinful nature and my need for a
Savior because there was nothing I could do to earn my salvation on my own. I felt a change in my life.
I no longer wanted to sin and had a longing and hunger to read God's Word. Now I want to obey
God's command and be baptized. Micah, have you repented of your sin and placed your faith in Christ alone for salvation?
Did you desire to be obedient to Him in baptism? Based upon that credible profession of faith in Christ, I baptize you in the name of the
Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. My name is
Sarah Lynch, and when I was younger I went to church and Sunday school because that was just what we did on Sunday.
And I didn't really realize that the reason we were at church was to worship God, and I did not really care. When I was at home,
I would sin, and it did not really bother me. I only hoped I would not get caught. As I got older,
I began to realize I was a sinner. Though at first I didn't really care, but after a while I started to care.
I knew I needed a Savior, and I knew Jesus was the Savior I needed. But I did not understand the goodness and faithfulness of God for a long time.
The fear of Him not saving me because I was not one of His elect held me back from accepting His free gift of salvation.
This went on until someone told me that God was good and would not give someone the desire to be saved if He did not plan on saving them.
After hearing that, my doubts slowly went away, and I finally was able to turn away from my sins and place my hope in eternal life through Christ, my
King and Savior. After that, I still had small doubts coming from time to time, often along the same lines as the first.
But by reading my Bible, I found greater assurance in God's faithfulness. Sarah, have you repented of your sin and placed your faith in Christ alone for salvation?
And desired to be obedient to Him in baptism? Based upon that credible profession of faith in Christ, I baptize you in the name of the
Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I've already been baptized, so let's pray together.
Father, we're just so thankful for the great gift of the Gospel. To those of us who've repented of our sins and put our faith in You, that is the greatest gift, the greatest love that anyone's ever shown.
So we're grateful, Lord, that You've convicted these 14 people, that You've regenerated them,
You've brought them into Your kingdom and into our family. And so I pray, Lord, that we would be helpful to them, that we would help to edify them and to grow them in their faith.
Do these things in the name of our Savior, Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Okay, would you please stand with me as we end our service this morning.
Let's sing, To God be the Glory. To God be the glory, great things
He hath done. So loved He the world that He gave us
His Son, who in atonement bore sin, and opened the life -gate that all may know
Him. Praise the Lord! Praise the
Lord! Praise the Lord! Let the people reach up to the
Father, to the Son, and give
Him redemption, the purchase of blood, to every believer the promise of God, the vilest offender who truly believes that moment from Jesus a pardon receives.
Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Let the earth hear His voice.
Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Let the people rejoice.
O come to the Father, through Jesus the Son, and give
Him the glory, great things He hath done. Praise the
Lord! Praise the Lord! Let the earth hear His voice.
Him the glory, great things He hath done.
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our