2 Timothy 1, Guarding the Guarded

Please open your Bible with me to 2nd Timothy chapter 1 Hear the word of the

Lord you mean the whole chapter Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus To Timothy my beloved child grace mercy and peace of God the

Father in Christ Jesus our Lord. I Thank God whom I serve as did my ancestors with a clear conscience as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day

As I remember your tears, I long to see you that I may be filled with joy I Reminded of your sincere faith a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother

Lois and your mother Eunice and now I'm sure Dwells in you as well For this reason

I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God Which is in you through the laying on of my hands for God gave us a spirit not a fear but a power and love and self -control

Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord nor of me his prisoner But share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God who saved us and called us to a holy calling

Not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began and Which now has been manifested through 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 apostle and teacher, which is why I suffer as I do

But I am NOT ashamed for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day

What has been entrusted to me? Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus by the

Holy Spirit who dwells within us guard the good deposit entrusted to you You are aware that all who are in Asia Turned away from me among whom are

Phagellus and Hermogenes May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Anna Sephoris for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains

But when he arrived in Rome, he searched for me earnestly and found me May the Lord grant him to find mercy from the

Lord on that day and you well know all the service He rendered at Ephesus May the

Lord add his blessings to the reading of his Holy Word Well, don't you hate to be on the losing side?

Wayne doesn't know how it feels Philadelphia Eagles fan. He forgot that was all old days He's on the winning side now.

Don't you hate to get that sinking feeling that it doesn't matter what you do Your team is getting beat

It's just a matter of time before you slink off the field in defeat Watching the other team give each other high -fives.

Don't you hate that? When I was about four years old, I was part of a softball game at the apartment complex we lived in in Birmingham, Alabama the game but it's like for everybody adult and child and It became apparent to me even at only four years old that our team was going to lose

So I decided to solve that problem And avoid defeat and all the wisdom of four -year -old can muster.

The only way I could I Quit the losing team and joined the winning team

Four -year -olds can get away with that Now growing up in Alabama. I've always been an

Alabama football fan even during those those lean years When Alabama was just another run -of -the -mill team, but over the last decade

It has been the dominant college football team winning five national championships over the last ten years

The result of all that success is a lot of new fans

People love winners. They love being on the winning side So now

Alabama football t -shirts and stuff is there are everywhere Mary found a shop in Singapore selling them.

I have a pastor friend who found them on sale in Jerusalem It is not at all unusual

Just be walking down the Danville Riverwalk and see someone go past with an Alabama shirt on of course one day

Hopefully not this season But one day Alabama will be just another team As in the pack and all those fairweather fans

Will put away their Alabama shirts and go after Whatever is the next big thing?

Probably NC State, right? Timothy is feeling threatened

Maybe he felt like he was now suddenly on the losing side. He was overwhelmed. He's intimidated

Fear you have a spirit of fear you're shamed He's intimidated by persecution from without and problems from within problems like false teachers and deserters

I'm sure there had always been some resistance from the religious leaders but for a while that resistance seemed like like nothing compared to the

Mushroom like growth of the movement that he was a part of for a time

Being a leader in those early days those glory days being a leader in the church, it was exciting

It was rewarding like being the founder of a corporation. That's just sweeping the business world except in this case

The rewards were eternal Converts were just flocking in people were eager to learn and to grow and do whatever they had to do in Jerusalem the

Christians there sold their property and shared everything in common They believed in the loftiest ideals of the

Lord Jesus and put them into practice. What's it just talk? They were doing this stuff similar things were happening in Ephesus where Timothy was the church was then a successful Thriving movement with apparently unlimited potential.

It was thrilling to be to be winning to be on the winning side You know the pagan temple they were dwindling

The idol makers were going out of business because so many people were becoming Christians no longer buying their idols

They were flooding into the church You know every week you'd come and there were more people than the week before Had to get new chairs that have to expand they were tempted to think look at all the growth

We must be doing something, right? But then No reason they could tell something happened the tide seemed to turn

Persecution went from mere harassment of religious leaders to the iron fist of the

Roman government To worship a crucified Savior had always been repugnant to the philosophical elite

Now the educated leaders were working to turn the the public opinion against the church

Christians developed a bad reputation the way they called each other brother Sister including their own spouses was used to start rumors that Christians were incestuous when they spoke even symbolically of eating the flesh of Christ and drinking the blood in the

Lord's Supper They were accused of being Cannibals what people whisper behind their backs.

That's for real But worst of all in Roman eyes was an accusation the Christians couldn't repudiate they could always say no

We don't know we believe in incest We don't we're not cannibals but the one they couldn't repudiate was that they would not worship the

Roman gods not even the Emperor and in an age when many people believed that bad things like like droughts or Earthquakes or defeats in battle that that happened because the gods were angry at them

Then Christians became convenient scapegoats the gods were angry with Rome So the explanation went because these

Christians they weren't worshiping them. They've thrown about their idols They're not going to the temple and the gods are having their revenge on us

So suddenly becoming a Christian was something to be ashamed of It was unpatriotic, you know un

Roman to be a Christian. It was uncivilized No Educated people don't believe in those that this

Jewish God it was even immoral and for Timothy this hit home

When his mentor and close friend the Apostle Paul was in chains and more than likely facing execution

And others fearful of the same fate were deserting like Phagellus and Hermogenes mentioned near the end here in verse 15

So one Sunday people come to church and wonder where's Phagellus and his family? And then the next

Sunday, where's Hermogenes and the wife and kids? People were falling away

Because they couldn't take the pressure the crowd started to dwindle Some of the teachers they had loved before Turned out to be false teachers.

It had to be denounced and then they took some followers with them away there were now empty seats where there had been standing room only before and now the temptation was to think

So many gone We must be doing something wrong Now What would

Timothy do? Perhaps you've experienced something similar Where there are times like maybe right after your conversion when

Christ seemed so so near and so dear When the Holy Spirit seemed to be electric in the in the air all around you

When you were in church every time the doors were opened because you craved hearing the

Word of God You crave worshiping and singing you listen to Christian radio or our podcast and read

Christian magazines and books Maybe you're even one of those zealots who even read missionary prayer letters.

You can believe anybody reads that stuff You prayed expecting immediate answers and when you got them you expected more and greater next time

You joined every ministry you could because you were sure the kingdom of God was going to break through This is important.

You had to be there, but over time the excitement seemed to escape Like air leaking out of a balloon

Some of that is natural As you learn some of what goes under the name Christian some of the things on radio and podcasts isn't really very edifying maybe after a while you get a little cynical and you wonder whether These lofty ideals that people talk about in church like the church is the family of God about making disciples

You wonder whether all that's just empty slogans. Is this a show we put on for the money You learn you don't have the gifts for some things so you drop them

You learn sometimes you need a rest from even those ministries you have a gift for but still

You you feel that something vital has been ebbing away Like you're running out of gas

You may know some who have deserted the church or biblical worship or even the faith all together And you pray for and you witness to them, but nothing seems to change

Over time that discourages you and you think What are we doing wrong?

That is making us lose To Timothy and to us the Apostle Paul has a strong challenge in this chapter and the challenge is the cure for our discouragement

Here he tells us five things to remember our heritage rekindle our gifts retake our cross

Recall the gospel and retain the pattern first Remember your heritage

Even though Paul is writing to a close friend. You think about that? This is a close friend of his not like us We just send an email quick.

We don't even say, you know, pretty much of anything about who we are But even if no, that's what he's doing.

He's writing to Timothy his close friend He reminds Timothy of his credentials just in case you forgot Timothy in verse 1

He reasserts his title as an Apostle He's an Apostle and that Apostle ship didn't come from a committee or a congregation or an ordination council

But it comes from God himself. That's where he's coming from. That's what Paul is saying we need to know that and in verse 3

Paul even mentions his human heritage that is the ancestry of people who zealously sought to serve

God that he is descended from and he knew purposely reminds Timothy of his own godly heritage you to Timothy Your heritage

He mentions his mother and his grandmother by name They had a sincere faith that they passed down to Timothy So for both men the baton of faith had been passed to them.

It was their turn now Now would they be able to faithfully pass it on to the next generation?

Well, Paula's telling Timothy that these people pass on a deposit to you now. It's your turn to guard it to spread it

Don't be ashamed of it And be able to pass it on finish your leg of the relay race

Timothy, and that is our challenge this morning Will we be so so weighed down? with discouragements

Embarrassments Intimidation we're afraid get discouraged again. This won't work out

Perhaps even fear of being on the losing side That we're losing fear of being called bigots and haters

Of being associated with a movement that is increasingly unfashionable and scoffed at We so afraid of all that that that we will fail to finish our leg of the race

It helps if we remember our heritage those who came before us and passed the baton to us You may have a godly heritage in your families like Timothy He had a mother and grandmother who gave him faith with his milk

That is as much as one person can give another faith if you fail You'll be failing them you'll be diminishing what they believed and sacrificed and prayed for But even if we did not come from a godly home, maybe your parents grandparents, maybe they were all

Pagan who knows we we are we are all recipients of the sacrifices of those who went before us in the faith

Those who like the Apostle Paul here were willing to lose their lives for the gospel that it might eventually get to us

That's what he's doing here. Isn't he the thousands of martyrs from Paul onward? forfeited their lives

So that their faith might live that it might get to us and we've lived and we live because of their faith later after centuries of the church following and falling into tradition and Philosophy rather than the the sound words that Paul mentions at the end there that the church reached a low point of corruption and confusion

But the gospel was guarded Evangelical preachers like Martin Luther or were willing to declare here.

I stand and face possible death So the church was revived and reformed and this church

Exists to guard that Reformation It's in our name second rekindle your gift

Because of your heritage the Apostle tells Timothy you should stir up your gift. The same is true for us

Perhaps the years of discouragement of disuse you've let your strengths and serving God become weak

Paul would tell you Rekindle your gifts the word there verse 64 for rekindle is an image like of a fire nearly dying out

Started a fire start to die out gets to a point. We're just glowing embers But if you can stir it up add some more wood or whatever you're burning or more

More oxygen get the flame To rise higher again, you see even though your gifts come from God you need to attend to them like you would to attend to a fire

Providing extra fuel and oxygen to keep it going and you do that through two ways through prayer and through practice

First you pray particularly pray to be filled with empowered by the Holy Spirit for it's the

Holy Spirit who is power the spirit Here he talks about not of fear not intimidated by we're losing.

I'm afraid to lose now But of look power and love and self -control

If you're controlled by fear Even just fear of being disappointed. You're not being filled with the

Holy Spirit The Lord Jesus said that the Father freely gives the Spirit to those who ask him

So we should freely and frequently ask him shouldn't we you have a promise you'll get you'll get in with when you ask so ask

The Apostle Paul said in Ephesians chapter 5 verse 18 He commands us there to be filled with the Holy Spirit So while it's true as Paul says here in verse 14

If we have the Spirit within all believers have the Holy Spirit dwelling within them. There are our fillings There are empowerings that we can experience.

It's something that we should be continually seeking and and Receiving just like you regularly seek

You know to be fed You know probably two or three times a day you want a meal you want to be fed to your stomach seek

Regularly to be filled with the Holy Spirit That's because we desperately we need his power for our gifts to be effective

Perhaps one of the reasons if you're discouraged That's what the reason you're discouraged is that you've been trying to witness or to worship or to live your

Christian life whatever you're trying to do by your own strength and Then you're disappointed because you don't have any power on your own.

So pray for the filling of the Holy Spirit He provides the oxygen your gifts need to be rekindled so you can burn with power love and self -control

But you need power to do things Perhaps one reason many Christians lack an experience with God's power is that they aren't they aren't doing very much

Here Paul is telling Timothy to rekindle the gift by putting into practice That's what you need to do.

Apparently he has been so intimidated as Timothy was so intimidated That he was afraid to practice his gift

Probably preaching and teaching if he's disappointed as you know, he's been preaching teaching so long and Hermogenes forgetless.

They heard me so long and look what became of them. Well, forget it. It's not working The Paul said you rekindle keep doing it get the fire burning again and the gift but he but he though he got discouraged

He stopped doing it and that gift began to weaken through disuse just like your muscles begin to weaken if you don't use them

Policy I can rekindle your gift by doing it put more fuel on the fire and he would say the same to us and We need power to keep doing things

We have to think of power. I think we look at that word. Maybe we think of the explosive power, you know about a power lifter just a

Second or two of a jerk and you get that weight up above your head. Maybe of a sprinter Like 40 yards and you're done or of dynamite just an explosion of power.

Maybe that's what we think Some like to point out that the word there for power is dunamis and there's where we get the word for dynamite

And that's true, but it means it means ability. You have the ability. It's you're not given a spirit of fear but of ability

And of love and self -control ability to do what? You need the Holy Spirit to give you the power the ability to keep doing

What you're called to do for Timothy preaching and teaching for you for you faithfully worshiping

Serving living every day for the glory of God like a long -distance runner that the power of endurance the power to keep

Grinding even after you're tired the power to push through that wall the runners cut distance runners call it to the end

You keep going even when others desert because they ran out of power when crowds dwindle

When people betray you when you don't look like a success anymore when it seems when it seems like You're on the losing side

Do you have that power three we take your cross

In verse 8 the Apostle tells Timothy that by the power of his spirit What do you power to do we take your cross?

You know rather than being ashamed because we look like losers through our suffering. He gives Timothy an odd invitation

What a weird invitation he gives Timothy look at that second half of that verse and verse 8

Come join my suffering Timothy Join with me in suffering

How'd you like that you respond to an invitation like that get the one in the mail over the Internet come suffer with me

What an invitation? But there it is and that's what the power is to do to suffer with him there it is up front

What is up is a mallet Paul here challenges Timothy, you know, you remember all that talk? We talked a lot

About the cross take up our cross. We sang that song lead me to the cross It's so good

So emotional and we were saying it and we preached it when the gospel was spreading like wildfire

The church was booming and people loved it. We loved it. Remember all that. Well, it wasn't just talk

So don't see the scorn and the persecution the deserters the false teachers the fact that we've been shrinking lately instead of expanding

Don't see all that as signs of failure You must be doing something wrong That's that cross

You said you wanted to take up it's all part of the call take up your cross again and see all the trials as Signs that the world and the devil and even our own sinful nature is

Rebelling against the gospel against the kingdom of God Because it's true Because it's from God And they hate it

Darkness doesn't like light Well, how about your own life? Was there a time when you read the invitation from Jesus take up your cross to deny yourself and follow him that you read that?

With delight you said yes Lord With eagerness Yes, that's just what the life

I want to follow Jesus no matter what you sang that song not be all else to me Save that thou art

You sang it with tears You're willing to go anywhere to do anything to lose anything to bear any burden to obey

Christ But over time That enthusiasm was eroded

Gradually worn down Perhaps now you find a little boredom

Maybe a little lack of recognition from others Maybe resentments toward others in the church.

You've been a little offended Maybe an obsession with money just daily grind of having to make a living

That's been enough to dampen your spirit You thought the Christian life would it be all thrills one day of glory one mountaintop after another and now it seems

Oh drudgery another time to open the Bible. I have to go to church That means that now

Congratulations because now is your time to answer that invitation Paul says it to us now.

Yes Share in suffering take up that cross not for some grim act of self -flagellation

But by relying on the spirit of power and of love and of self -control

Face that intimidation that fear of losing or that of that boredom

That feeling that you've been cheated that discouragement Choose to suffer wrong

Share in suffering by the power of God after all

Suffering is part and parcel of the gospel And speaking of the gospel fourth

Recall the gospel the Apostle wants Timothy to recall the gospel because keeping it before us is

The best way to fan into flame our zeal and gifts like Peter trying to walk on the water But sinking as he's distracted by the wind and the waves and the rain

Timothy is intimidated by the problems around and within the church Perhaps he's wondering whether he bought into the wrong movement

You know, this is what I signed up for all these problems I thought I thought we're going to keep growing

He's sinking So Paul wants to bring his focus back On the gospel not just on the promise.

You can Paul doesn't notice Paul doesn't promise him. Hang on Timothy I promise you just in a couple maybe a year or two. It'll turn around again and we'll be booming again

No, he doesn't say that take up your cross. Look at the gospel If you're discouraged intimidated if you

Discouraged or intimidated or just bored the cure for that is not just more steely determination

Not for me to browbeat you It's not even for the hope that well thing to turn it will be a success again next year.

It'll just coming around again soon It might not you might have to keep going Through things getting tough.

The cure is to look once again at The gospel and this time look deeper

Look as deeply as you can Consider its beginnings its ultimate origins.

That's what the Apostle Paul does here He mentions the gospel at the end of verse 8 and then in verses 9 and 10

He briefly explains it practically shouting how our salvation Came from and rest on God's sheer grace

Notice how he puts it Paul writes in verse 9 that he saved us

Interesting. That's the way Paul puts the gospel. He saved us He doesn't he doesn't just say that God made salvation possible

That it's available out there and like the way a store makes milk available But you've still got to go up go out and buy it for yourself.

No He doesn't even ask Timothy to remember how he remember how you received Christ Timothy to use our current terms

He doesn't say that either His focus is like a laser beam on what God has done he

Saved us Now, why did he save us? Because we did something that deserves special favor.

No Paul declares not according to our works But according to his own purpose and grace he saved us by his grace

For his purpose Our works that is anything that comes from us our actions or our attitudes our choices had nothing to do with it

He gave us that grace in Christ Jesus notice that it's not just kind of a holy word you throw in there just to make it sound sanctified

He's saying something important there. The grace comes to us in Christ Jesus that is by associating us

With the Lord Jesus by seeing us in Jesus other words by the father treating us as if we were

Jesus So the father chose to see us not in our sins

But in Christ's righteousness In other words, we were put in a right relationship with the father because he saw us with his son

Why because of his grace And in case we're tempted to think well God saved us because you know, he looked he can see the future

So he looked forward from eternity past and he saw what we would choose

He saw what we would do He saw we would go to church and choose to have faith in him And so we would deserve faith saving and so he saved us.

No, it doesn't work like that Paul insists that our salvation was something given to us before we were even born

He saved us In the past and he's so sweeping about it knows we were given grace he says

Translate this phrase in various versions. This is a different way for different versions put it before the beginning of time

He saved us before the beginning of time before the ages began from all eternity

Literally there the Greek says that God gave us this grace before eternal times or could be

Before the ages before there were any ages God saved us

So if you're a true believer here this morning your salvation wasn't something you just you picked up in church

Some years ago. It was there and you got it when you made your decision

No, that may have been when it was manifested when it revealed itself in time in our lives

But if you are truly saved then your salvation was settled by God's decree From eternity

So for Paul, our whole salvation was so settled. He's tell Timothy in verse 10 that Christ abolished

Give me notice that he abolished death past Abolished I'd say he's going to abolish or he's abolishing but he abolished death and brought life and immortality to light

Now he's not suggesting there's not still something of death to have to deal with near the end of this letter He mentions that he's nearing his own death, but he is saying that the believer never has to experience all of death

He may have to experience the death of the body the separation of the soul from the body But he does not experience spiritual death the separation of the soul from God and certainly not eternal death

When body and soul will be separated from God forever and for the true

Christian even physical death will be reversed in the resurrection and for Paul that is such a fact that He writes as he writes of it as if it had already been accomplished.

He abolished it because Christ has accomplished it He has done everything that needs to be done to abolish death

We're now only waiting on the implementation Death has been abolished

It's as good as done now looking at that This renewed vision of the gospel

This is the gospel that Paul reminds Timothy of boy if if Timothy need the pastor of these church in Ephesus needs to be reminded of the gospel how much more do we

Look at that this renewed vision of the gospel that lifts you out of discouragement or boredom

If you keep before you the truth that the gospel is guarded that our salvation is settled from eternity past That the doom of death and Satan is sure then you'll never be tempted to think you're on the losing side.

Maybe we're losing This vision of a God who saved you from eternity past out of his sheer mercy will inspire gratitude worship

Only gratitude for what God God has done in the past but a settled gratitude for what you now know

God will do in the future So that hope that trust in a grace that was settled in the past So you now know it will be there in the future that brings both peace and assurance

You know, nothing can quiet our fears Wipe away our discouragement like the knowledge that our safety is founded in the concrete of God's eternal decree he saved us

Recall the gospel have knowledge of what it is, but not just doctrinal knowledge of what?

But personal knowledge of who in verse 12, he says he knows the who

He knows him whom he has believed He doesn't just say well, I know the doctrines

About him. He says he knows him That's why even though he's suffering

He knows he's convinced that God will guard what has been entrusted To him that is

Paul says his soul I've entrusted my soul to him on my life my eternity the gospel itself

I know him and I know he will keep it safe He says he is suffering because Christ called him to proclaim the gospel.

You want to know why Timothy? Well, I'm in chains about to have my head cut off Feeling discouraged, you know, like things may were going not your way

Why people are desert want to know Timothy why people are deserting you why you're having hard times not because you're doing something wrong

But because we have the truth and Paul is able to keep going through the discouragement through the dwindling through the abandonment and insults and loss

Because he knows him whom he has believed Do you?

fifth retain the pattern Finally Paul challenges

Timothy out of discouragement and fear by telling him to retain the standard of sound words in verse 13

The word their standard or it could be a pattern is like what a seamstress uses

You have seen a seamstress get the cloth out and puts a pattern over it cuts around the pattern She carefully follows the pattern when cutting the fabric.

They'll just fly off on her own whims. Well, this might be a little different It's gonna be something interesting try something You know what

I feel like because it's new No now if the Apostles own close disciple had to be reminded to follow the pattern

How much more do we? For 200 years following the Reformation most evangelical churches didn't allow anything in their worship services

There was not explicitly from the Word of God that they were extremely zealous That we follow the pattern of sound words.

It was it were inspired by God Many like the Puritans would only sing Psalms like we sing one song.

That's all they would do. No other songs. No other hymns only Psalms They would find us a little too liberal Yeah, but now in our day, you know, you look at our chorus books the songs that are put out there

Some of there are fine songs but rarely when you see ones that are really closely following the pattern of Sound words in Scripture.

Well, they're just compositions poetry They're not following the pattern of Scripture. Now. Why is that?

Why is it that in our day? We're so loose with what we allow into the worship of God And the way we speak about the gospel

Just kind of we think we can compose or even we make up words for God We attribute them to God put them on a billboard

Something you know see what church this Sunday quote God. What do you say that what gives you the right to say?

God said something if it's not in the Bible Could it be that one of the reasons we're so discouraged or so weak?

It's because we're like someone's been gotten overweight and lethargic with by eating too much junk food We've gorged ourselves on junk teachings

Maybe always own relationships or pop psychology Motivational slogans our worship is full of sugar not protein

We're weakened with boredom intimidated by the world measuring success by numbers afraid of commitment and accountability because we've not carefully retained the pattern of sound words

We've not stayed on the diet of God's healthy words in Scripture.

And so we've gotten sick Off our own junk words. So in conclusion

Guard the gospel Timothy Guard the gospel covenant don't be discouraged ashamed or afraid

Certainly, don't be bored You're you're not on the losing side. Oh, you might have to go through some suffering.

You will have to count all things loss But you won't be in the end counted as a loser you won't lose because God will and most assuredly guard the gospel and Your soul notice that in all that Paul is trying to say to his friend

Timothy to encourage him to stay faithful That's what he doesn't do He doesn't like the burden of success of the gospel on Timothy.

He doesn't tell him This is what I've heard people say to Christians today you know if you fall away if you give up if you don't volunteer you don't go out there and witness if you don't help

Jim Jr. Or Jim this year all thousands will be lost to an eternity of hell and the gospel will perish

Falling into a black hole of superstition it all rests on you You go crazy if you believe that or you'd twist the gospel the

Word of God to reinterpret it that that might be in the short run that's probably is in the short run a

Useful way to manipulate people maybe you know, Paul could have usefully manipulated

Timothy here with that But he doesn't go there. In fact, he says the opposite of that doesn't he? You know, he doesn't say success relies on you

Timothy. You better get to work Because it's all gonna fail if you don't do what you need to do.

You don't say that He says I know I Know you're being intimidated

Timothy. I know you're fearful. I know you feel like you're losing you're discouraged people disappearing people deserting you

I get it But Timothy, I know I Know him whom

I have believed. I Know that he will guard the gospel He chose me to be safe safe from before eternity passed.

I Know that he will win Sure, forgetless and homogenies might defect to the other side

But God will raise up an anesthesia for us and that's encouraging and I know that no matter what

I have to suffer I'll be guarded. I know That I'll be on the winning side and There's our challenge in our incentive guard the gospel

Guard it because in it you have salvation Guard it

Because it is guarded by God himself and If you know him