A Word in Season: He is Able (2 Timothy 1:12)

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The Apostle Paul loves to declare his confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ. Sometimes it seems that the more pressure the

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Apostle faces, the more difficulties Paul has to deal with, the clearer, the more intense and the more fervent become his declarations of his confidence in Christ.

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When things become darker and gloomier, Paul fixes his eyes upon the light of the world.

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And so it is that in 2 Timothy in chapter 1, and verse 12, we find Paul saying,

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For this reason I also suffer these things. Nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom

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I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep what I have committed to him until that day.

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Paul understands that as a commissioned man, an ambassador of Christ, he is going to suffer many things.

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Nevertheless, despite those pains and persecutions, the Apostle remains persuaded that he will never have any reason to regret his faith in Christ Jesus, that the

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Lord will never let him down, that he'll never collapse under the weight of the burdens that he has to bear, that he'll never come to the end of his course and find himself disappointed because what

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Christ had promised is something less or something else than he had anticipated. He has no reason to be ashamed of Christ, no reason to be ashamed of the

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Gospel, no reason to be ashamed even in the midst of sufferings, because he knows certain things.

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And there's this building sense of conviction, layer upon layer of certainty in Paul's statement.

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I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep what

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I have committed to him until that day. As so often, the

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Apostle Paul is looking ahead to that last great day of judgment. He's looking to the moment when he's going to stand before the judge of all the earth, and he knows that in that day he will not be found wanting, not because he has been himself a great man, he declares himself to be a great sinner, not because he's heaped up service in the employ of the

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Lord Jesus Christ, for he knows that he is an unprofitable servant, but because he will stand in Christ Jesus, and Paul has committed himself, his ministry, all his labours and all their fruits into the hands of him who is able to keep what he has committed to him until that day.

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Paul knows, he believes, he's persuaded, he has committed, there's principle and there's practice, there's conviction and there's action.

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Why? Because Christ is able. His power, his grace, his kindness, all those promises which are yes and amen in him, as God, man, as deity joined with humanity, as the one who has come and suffered and died in the place of the ungodly, the

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Lord Jesus is all sufficient for everything that Paul is and everything that Paul needs.

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He is able as a saviour to keep the apostles soul. He is able as Lord and God and deliverer of his people to make good on all of his promises.

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He is able to bring in and to keep hold of all those to whom

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Paul has preached, upon whom the Lord God has set his love. He is able to sustain those men whom

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Paul has been the means of sending out to continue the work. He is able to hold up every

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Christian in all of those churches which have been established under the influence and the ministry of the apostle.

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He is able to keep that gospel rolling out until all the chosen are called in.

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He is able to do everything that he has promised. He is able to hold everyone that he has saved.

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He is able to guide them all safely to the end. And when that day comes, both

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Paul and all others who have trusted in Jesus, having known now that he is able, having become persuaded, being sure because of all the evidence of God's word and experience, that what

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Christ has accomplished is sure and certain and lasting, we may come to that day with confidence, living and dying, with the absolute certainty that the

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Christ who is able to save, will save, does save, has saved and is saving all his beloved people.