In Richmond, Virginia, the ministry is given through Brother Stephen Cohen.
We are sorry we were a little late. There was an accident on the highway, so we should have been here before 3:30.
Will you please turn to 2 Timothy? Second Timothy, chapter 1. We will read from verse 3.
I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience,
how unceasingly I have the remembrance of thee in my supplications night and day,
earnestly desiring to see thee, remembering thy tears,
that I may be filled with joy;
calling to mind the unfeigned faith which is in thee,
which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice,
and, I am persuaded, in thee also.For which cause I put thee in mind to rekindle the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.
For God hath not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power, and of love, and of wise discretion.
Be not therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner,
but suffer evil along with the glad tidings according to the power of God,
Who hath saved us, and hath called us with a holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace,
which was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages of time,
but hath been made manifest now by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ,
Who hath annulled death, and brought to light life and incorruptibility by the glad tidings;
as to which I have been appointed a herald, and apostle, and teacher of the nations.For which cause also I suffer these things, but I am not ashamed;
for I know Whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep for that day the deposit I have entrusted to Him.
Have an outline of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.
Keep, by the Holy Spirit which dwelleth in us, the good deposit entrusted.
We have been considering together lately the last three letters written by the Apostle Paul. They are 1 Timothy, Titus, and 2 Timothy. Now, 2 Timothy is the last of the last three letters written by the Apostle Paul.
Most likely, it was written probably a few months before his martyrdom. If we can reconstruct the events, Paul was in prison in Rome for over two years in the beginning, as we find at the end of the book of Acts. He was allowed to live in his own apartment, and he was given certain liberty to receive those who came to see him.
After he had been there two years and more, he was acquitted. He was set free. Now, after he was set free, all we can say is that most likely he went to Spain, because, you remember, in Romans 15 he mentioned how he desired to go to Spain. So very likely, he did visit Spain.
But he also revisited the places in Greece and in Asia where he had laboured before. He was in Ephesus, no doubt, because the first letter to Timothy shows that he was there. But because he could not remain there long, he left Timothy behind.
He was hoping that he would return pretty soon. As he was delayed, he wrote the first letter to Timothy, not only to tell him, but to show us how we should behave ourselves in the house of God.
He also visited the island of Crete, and there he left Titus behind. That is how we have the epistle to Titus. Probably from Crete he went again to Ephesus, and from Ephesus to Troas. Maybe from Troas he was going to Nicopolis. He was hoping that he might spend the winter in Nicopolis. You remember in his letter to Titus, he mentioned that, and he hoped that Titus would come to Nicopolis to join him.
Now, Nicopolis was a Roman city. You know, as the Romans conquered the world, they established Roman colonies in many different places. Nicopolis was a Roman colony, a Roman city. That is to say, in that city everything was Roman: the customs, the habits, the law, the government—everything was Roman.
Paul went to that city, Nicopolis. Now, we do not know why he went there. It was possible then that things began to change.
Because, you know, in A.D. 64—and some historians think it was A.D. 66; we do not know, probably 64—Nero, the Roman Caesar, burned the city of Rome. He set fire to that city. Probably he was thinking of rebuilding it.
But after he set fire to the city, the hostility of the people was of such an immense measure that he was frightened. He was looking for a scapegoat, trying to put the blame on somebody else. The easy prey for that, of course, were the Christians.
So he began to put the blame on the Christians, saying that the Christians had set fire to the city. Because of that, there was great persecution throughout the Roman Empire. The people were very hostile to Christians, and the Roman Empire began to persecute Christians in a very severe way.
It was considered a crime just to be a Christian. To be a Christian was a crime against the nation.
We do not know why Paul went to Nicopolis. On the one hand, as a Roman citizen, he might find some protection there. But on the other hand, being a Roman colony, probably the persecution would be even more severe, because Nero, the emperor, decreed that Christians must be persecuted as criminals.
But anyway, we know that Paul was in Nicopolis. Whether he was taken after he arrived there, we do not know. But from what we can gather, we can say that Paul was free and was again brought to Rome.
This time, when he arrived at Rome, it was very different from the first time. The first time he was there, he was involved in a matter of Jewish law, disagreement over Jewish law and custom. Because of that, he was treated very kindly.
But this time, when he was again a prisoner in Rome, he was not simply a person who had some dispute with Jewish law and custom. He was a common criminal, and he was treated very severely.
As a matter of fact, from 2 Timothy, probably he was put into a dungeon or somewhere. Onesiphorus had a very hard time just to find him, to locate him.
He was in prison there, and because the whole atmosphere had changed, Paul said, “All Asia hath forsaken me.” Probably he was speaking of those believers who came from Asia and were in Rome. When they knew that Paul was put in prison, nobody would acknowledge him. They were all thinking of their own safety.
Not that all Asia had denied the Lord, but in the sense that they were so afraid that they forsook Paul and left him alone. Only Onesiphorus found him out and visited him.
We do not know what happened to Onesiphorus. Some commentators tell us that, when Paul wrote 2 Timothy and mentioned the house of Onesiphorus, probably Onesiphorus, because he visited Paul, had been killed. That was possible because the whole atmosphere had changed.
When Paul made his first defence, nobody stood with him. He was all alone. But thank God, the Lord was with him, and he was delivered out of the lion’s mouth.
After his first defence, of course, there would be the final trial. From all that he could see, most probably he would be killed.
This happened not only to Paul, but the whole thing was spreading over the Roman Empire. Paul was thinking of Timothy. When he was in that kind of situation, waiting, as it were, for his martyrdom, he longed that he might see Timothy once again.
Dear brothers and sisters, in a sense this second letter to Timothy may be called the last will and testament of Paul, because after he wrote it, he was martyred.
He longed that he might see Timothy once again. He remembered Timothy’s tears—probably when they took Paul away from Timothy, or when Timothy heard that Paul had been taken. He remembered Timothy’s tears.
There was such a relationship between Paul and Timothy. Timothy was a son to him. Before he died, he yearned that he might see him once again.
Sometimes we have the wrong concept that, to be spiritual, you have to be less human. Sometimes we think that a spiritual person is not human at all. You have no emotion, no affection; you do not feel anything. You are just like a rock, with no feeling at all. If you are like that, then you are spiritual.
But Paul, before he died, longed to see Timothy just once again. How human that was.
The more spiritual a person is, the more human he becomes. I often feel that we are all human, but the redemption of the Lord Jesus ought so to deliver us from the fallen human level that we may be truly human—divinely human and humanly divine. This is what our Lord Jesus is.
So here you find Paul, before he died, longing to see Timothy. He wrote his letter to urge Timothy to come to him before it was too late. He wanted to see him once again. That is very human.
But, of course, he wrote his letter not only because he desired to see Timothy. That was one reason, but there were other reasons. At that time, you can see that the situation had completely changed.
Within thirty years, or a little over, the gospel had spread all over the world of that time. Just within that short period, the gospel was preached all over the world.
Even though there was persecution from the Jews, and sometimes the Roman magistrates might not be very favourable, as a whole the Roman Empire was very tolerant toward Christianity. The gospel was able to spread all over the Roman world. There was not yet a national policy of persecuting Christians.
But now the situation had completely changed. The Roman Empire was using its full power against Christians, to wipe out the Christians.
Paul was in prison, and his martyrdom was approaching. Many believers were frightened.
If it had only been pressure from outside, probably the consequences would not have been quite so bad. But within those thirty or so years, as the gospel was preached all over the world, gradually heresy began to creep into the church.
People began to introduce heathen philosophy, mixing the gospel with the philosophy of this world. Heresies began to spread into the church. Then there was corruption everywhere.
On the one hand, there was pressure from outside; on the other hand, within itself there was corruption and heresy. In other words, Christianity was weakened from within. It was rotten from within when persecution and pressure came upon it.
Christianity looked as if it was going to be completely wiped out.
As Paul looked into the future, as he looked back to the past, and as he considered what was happening in the present, a question arose: Will the testimony of Jesus continue on?
Paul was soon to lay down the torch, as it were, of the testimony of Jesus. The torch had to be handed to somebody else—maybe to Timothy, and to somebody else. Would there be people faithful enough to continue with the testimony of Christ?
What would happen to the gospel? What would happen to the future of the church of the living God? The whole thing, as it were, was in the balance.
Many were shaken. All Asia forsook Paul. Even his own fellow worker, Demas, loved the world and left him, going to Thessalonica.
Looking at this, you might say, “Demas left the Lord.” No. The time was just too difficult. He could not stand it. He left in order to have a better, easier time. You find there was falling away on all sides.
What would be the future of the testimony of Jesus Christ? Paul knew Timothy was comparatively younger. Actually, Timothy was not really young, but he was comparatively young.
Timothy was of such a nature and temperament that he was very timid, very shy, and physically weak. Timothy was not a person who could push himself forward. He was a person who could withdraw very easily. Paul knew him well.
When all this pressure came to descend upon the church, of course Timothy would also feel the pressure of the hour. Would Timothy be able to stand firm? Would he be able to take from the hand of Paul the torch of the testimony of Jesus Christ and faithfully carry it on?
Paul wanted to see Timothy not only because of that human relationship. He wrote to Timothy because he wanted to encourage him. He knew Timothy too well.
Brothers and sisters, I do feel that the second letter to Timothy has a very special message for us today. It was not only for Timothy; it is for us today.
What is our situation today, dear brothers and sisters? Is not our situation today very similar to the last days of the Apostle Paul?
Even though we say there is not persecution all over the world, yet there is persecution in many parts of the world. Just to be a Christian is a problem. You may be put into prison because you are a Christian, not because of anything else that you have done. This is happening, and has happened, in many parts of this world.
Satan knows that his days are numbered. He is out to get us.
If you read 2 Timothy 3, Paul says that in the last days there are perilous days, very dangerous times. He begins to describe what these days are, what the dangers are, and what the phenomena of the day are.
Probably we would say that he was describing the symptoms of the world. In a sense, yes. But if you read what he says in the third chapter of 2 Timothy, you find that he was not describing the situation and conditions of the world as such. He was describing the condition of so-called Christianity.
If you compare 2 Timothy 3 with Romans 1, they are almost alike. Romans 1 describes the world, but 2 Timothy 3 describes the so-called church.
The church has become so much like the world that it appears as if there is no difference between the church and the world.
“Men shall be lovers of money, lovers of pleasure, lovers of self.” Yes, people in this world love money. Money is their god. But look at Christians today.
Lovers of pleasure—of course, the world is seeking pleasure, but that is all they have. But how about Christians? Lovers of self. Oh, how we love ourselves! Not lovers of God, not lovers of the good.
If you read the whole passage, you will find that we have the form of godliness but deny the power thereof. The form is still there, but where is the power? Where is the first love?
Oh, brothers and sisters, we are seeing falling away from all sides.
As we are in such a situation, what can we do? Many who knew the Lord have fallen away. Many who were servants of the Lord have left. Are we able to continue?
What should we do at this moment, when everything is shattered, everything is shaken, and everything is falling off? Does God have a message for us?
When Paul wrote 1 Timothy, it was shortly after he was released from his first Roman imprisonment. Ephesus was the centre of his labour for many years. You remember that in his third missionary journey he made Ephesus his centre of operation. He was there for three years.
If you read his letter to the Ephesians, the church in Ephesus was in its first love. Because they loved the Lord so much, they were able to know the Lord so much. Paul was able to share with them the whole counsel of God, the eternal purpose of God in Christ Jesus. What a church it was!
But after Paul was released from the Roman prison, when he revisited Ephesus, do you know what he found there? Evidently, those elders of the first generation had passed away. There was disorder. There were other teachings preached in the church in Ephesus. The situation had changed.
Paul had to leave Timothy behind to try to set everything in order. There was disorder, chaos, corruption, evil teachings, people going after fables, and so forth.
Yet, even though things had changed, Paul said in 1 Timothy, “I write this letter to you that, if I should delay, you may know how to behave in the house of God, the church of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth.”
In other words, even though there was corruption, even though there was disorder, even though things had begun to change for the worse, Paul still considered that to be the church of the living God. It was still the house of God. It was still the pillar and base of the truth.
But after only a few years, when Paul wrote the second letter to Timothy—probably in A.D. 67 or 68, the last year of Nero, the year Paul was martyred—because of the persecution that came upon the whole church, the situation had completely changed.
Not just a little bit changed, but the church was, as it were, in the balance: whether it would continue on or whether it would be completely wiped out; whether the testimony of God would be held or whether it would be wiped out by the Roman Empire.
Just in a few years, it was completely changed. You could not even see the difference between the church and the world. What a falling away!
Brothers and sisters, are we not today in a similar situation? In the church of the living God, in its normal state, we have the Word of God telling us how to behave.
But can we say that the church today is still normal? Are we not today in an abnormal situation? When the church is abnormal, then what do we do? Do we give up? Should we withdraw ourselves? Should we try to hide ourselves?
What should we do? Is there any word from the Lord telling us what we should do in this abnormal time?
I have been looking to the Lord: “Lord, is there any word, any word for Thy people today, when everything is so abnormal, even the church is abnormal? Is there any word by which we may know we are walking in Thy will?”
When the time is abnormal, the normal way is no longer sufficient. You have to know how to meet an abnormal situation with a special way from the Lord.
Because of this, dear brothers and sisters, I do thank the Lord for 2 Timothy. If there were no 2 Timothy, I do not know how I should live in abnormal times.
Thank God, there is 2 Timothy. Oh, I feel 2 Timothy is so essential to us today. We are living in most abnormal times. We are living at the end of the end. Everything is coming in so quickly.
On the one hand, it is true that our Lord is coming back soon. But on the other hand, we are in the darkest of hours. Can we continue? How shall we continue? What shall we do as God’s people?
If you read 2 Timothy, thank God, He shows us the way. So I do believe 2 Timothy is written for abnormal times. It is not only for Timothy; it is for the testimony of Jesus in abnormal days. Therefore, it is for us today.
The whole letter is very precious. We can read that letter and see the relationship between Paul and Timothy—what love there was between Paul and Timothy, how they loved each other, how they longed for each other. It was pure in God.
But for our fellowship this time, probably we will just mention a few points in 2 Timothy that are essential for us today. This afternoon, I think I will just mention one.
That is in 2 Timothy 1:12–14:
For which cause also I suffer these things, but I am not ashamed;
for I know Whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep for that day the deposit I have entrusted to Him.
Have an outline of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.
Keep, by the Holy Spirit which dwelleth in us, the good deposit entrusted.
Here you find the word deposit. This is a very important word. What is a deposit? When you go to the bank, you deposit your money in the bank. Why do you deposit your money in the bank? Because if you put your money in your home, probably a thief will come and steal your money away.
So you take your money and deposit it in the bank. Let the bank keep it for you, because you believe there is security there. A deposit.
Dear brothers and sisters, do you know that we have a deposit? As you read, you will find that the deposit has two sides.
“I know Whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have deposited with Him until that day.” When everything is falling away, if you know Whom you have believed—not only what you have believed, but Whom you have believed—then you can stand.
In abnormal times, it is our personal knowledge of a Person that gives us the strength to stand. If all we know is doctrine, teaching, and truth—however accurate they are—they are good for normal times, but they are not enough for abnormal times.
When abnormal times come, the only thing that will sustain us is our knowledge of a Person. We know Whom we have believed. If you look at people, people are falling away. If your trust is in people, your trust will fail.
But thank God, we know Whom we have believed. We know Him. And not only do we know Whom we have believed, but we are fully persuaded, fully convinced, that He is able to keep for that day the deposit we have entrusted to Him.
We know Whom we have believed: the Lord Jesus. He is the One Whom we have believed, and we know Him. We are fully convinced that He is able to keep for that day.
What day? It is the day of Christ. It is the day when He shall return and we shall all stand before the judgment seat, that we may be blameless before Him.
He is able to keep until that day the deposit I have entrusted to Him. What is that deposit? Different commentators offer different opinions, but I do not think we need to go into that. What we need to see is what the deposit is.
No doubt, the deposit is ourselves: our faith in the Lord, our love for Him, our whole life, everything that concerns us, everything that is related to us.
We have believed in Him, and we commit ourselves—our life, our faith, our love, our grace, our all. We commit everything as a deposit into His hand.
Dear brothers and sisters, believers under persecution have said, “We have not denied the Lord. We are still Christians. Even though we do not talk about it, we are not able to talk about it, but we are still Christians. We have not denied the Lord.”
As proof, they showed their identification cards. On the identification cards, they were still labelled as Christians. If you are labelled as a Christian, you have a great deal of inconvenience. That is happening in China now.
So, dear brothers and sisters, I do feel the time is coming. If there should be oppression, probably one day it will be a problem. Certainly Antichrist shall appear.
But thank God, if we know beforehand that suffering is connected with the deposit, we have such a marvellous deposit, such a precious deposit. If we suffer for that, it is worthwhile. It is not something to be ashamed of.
But when Paul suffered, lots of believers were ashamed of Paul. All Asia turned away from him. They wanted to have nothing to do with him, because Paul was considered a criminal. Who wanted to befriend a criminal or defend a criminal? They would be suspected as being of the same kind.
Brothers and sisters, oftentimes we wonder whether we can persevere. I think it is good for us to consider this. It is dangerous if we all feel confident in ourselves.
Some people think that they so love the Lord that, if they should die for the Lord, certainly they will die with Him. Look at Peter. “Oh, if everybody falls away, not me, not me. I am willing to die with You. I am going to die with You.” But what happened?
Brothers and sisters, as we see the clouds gathering, as we see the storm coming, as we see the whole thing approaching, as we see that in some parts of the world to be a Christian is considered a crime, do you think we can escape that?
Suppose it came to us today. Are we able to stand? Are you confident? Oh, if you are confident, you will fall. “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.”
But even though there is no confidence in ourselves, yet we do have a place. That is, we have a bank that the robber cannot get into. Nobody can get into it.
Our life is in Christ. Our whole relationship is in Christ. Do you think we can keep it ourselves? We are foolish if we try to keep it ourselves.
But if we deposit it in Christ, He is able to keep that which we have deposited with Him until that day, that we may stand before Him without shame. This is our keeping. This is our security.
But, dear brothers and sisters, the bank cannot keep any deposit if you have not deposited it. If you put your money in your home and it is stolen, you cannot go to the bank and ask for reimbursement. They will say, “You have not deposited it with us.”
If we do not commit ourselves completely to the Lord, do not leave anything behind. It is foolish. Dear brothers and sisters, in view of the perilous days, the only safe thing is to deposit yourself and everything.
Just give yourself to Him and say, “Lord, I leave myself and all in Your hands, and You are to keep it. I cannot.”
Probably Timothy was thinking of the very same problem: “Will I be able to stand?” His temperament and his nature were such that he knew he could not. Maybe he was frightened. “What can I do? Paul is able to do that because Paul is of a different nature and temperament. He is a person with an iron will. But I, Timothy, certainly cannot.”
Here is the secret: It is not Paul. It is not Timothy. It is Christ.
Let me illustrate. You will forgive me for using this illustration, because I admire that person very much. Have you heard of a famous Chinese Christian by the name of Wang Mingdao?
He was a famous Chinese Christian. He came for the Lord, and he lived such a life with the Lord. He was such a Christian gentleman. There was no one in China who preached Christian ethics and practised them more than that person.
He was well known in China. When the Communists came, he stood firm. He said he never compromised with the Japanese during the Japanese occupation, and he would never compromise with the Communists.
He not only would not compromise, but he wrote and published things against Communism, against everything that was not of the Lord. He was not afraid. He was ready to go to prison. He had his little package ready at any time. He was ready to go to prison, and he did.
All the Christians at that time looked up to him. Everybody looked up to him. He was taken into prison, and you know what happened.
They put two other persons in the cell with him and worked on him day and night until his personality was completely broken. He would say anything they wanted him to say.
He made a public confession that he had poisoned the young people in China. He called the college students, and he had poisoned them. He was an anti-revolutionary. He confessed all these things with tears.
A dear brother from my youth visited him later. For a long time, he said, “I am Judas. I have betrayed the Lord.” He was depressed.
But gradually his spirit began to be renewed. When my friend went to see him, he told my friend, “When everybody says Wang Mingdao is good, I may not be that good. When everybody says I am that bad, I may not be that bad.”
He went back to the police and said, “I deny everything that I have confessed.” They put him in prison again.
I use that as an illustration. Why was this strong man destroyed? People weaker than him were able to stand, but he who was the strongest of all was destroyed. Why?
Because the strength is not in us; it is in Christ. No matter how strong we are, we cannot stand in ourselves. No matter how weak we are, we can stand if we are in Christ. If it is Christ, we can stand.
So, dear brothers and sisters, this is a time when we have to deposit ourselves. Do not keep yourself to yourself. You will not be able to keep yourself.
We have to put our deposit into the hand of our Lord. He is able to keep until that day the deposit which we have entrusted to Him. This is our security.
But the deposit has two sides. This is what we have deposited with Him. But do you know that He has put a deposit in us too?
Here you find Paul telling Timothy, “Have an outline of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. Keep, by the Holy Spirit which dwelleth in us, the good deposit entrusted.”
Thank God, we can put ourselves as a deposit into Christ. But do not forget: He has also put a deposit in us.
Do we know that we have a deposit? Do we know that our Lord has entrusted us with such an expense, that He deposits something precious with us for us to keep?
It is not one-sided. I remember years ago I read a story, and it was a true story told by D. L. Moody. D. L. Moody told a lot of stories, but they were all true stories.
One story concerned a criminal who robbed a bank, or something of that nature. Because of that, he was seized and put into prison. While he was in prison, he was converted.
After he was released, he could not find a job because nobody could trust an ex-convict. Eventually, he could not find a job until a Christian heard about him.
The Christian was in a security business, an insurance business. He heard about that man, asked him to come, and employed him.
One day, some rich people had a box of jewels and entrusted it to that security company to keep for some time.
That Christian employer put that box of jewels in the hand of that ex-convict to keep. He was sitting in a room alone, with a gun in his hand, and the box before him. He was there keeping that box.
Nobody else would have done that. And you know what happened? As he was sitting there watching that deposit, of course thoughts began to come through his mind: “You do not need to rob a bank. Do you see? Just take it and go.”
But no. Tears came down. He was so grateful that his Christian employer trusted him enough to entrust that precious box of jewels to his keeping. He could not fail his employer. He kept it.
Dear brothers and sisters, do you know that the Lord so trusts us? He has deposited Himself in us.
All that we have heard, all that we have seen, the outline of sound words, the gospel, the Christ that we know, all that we have experienced, all His truth that He has given to us—do you think that all He has given to us is just for us to enjoy? Yes, but no.
Whatever you have seen and heard and received from the Lord is a trust; it is a deposit.
Brothers and sisters, is it not humbling to think that our Lord Jesus is willing to entrust Himself to us, knowing who we are and what we are? There is a deposit He has entrusted to us.
What should we do with the deposit? Is it because the time is getting more difficult that we should compromise? Should we give up? Should we go away and throw the deposit away?
Many have done that. Many will do that. But how about you?
Especially in abnormal days, you should be exercised even more to see how precious it is that the Lord should deposit Himself in us, and how we should keep that deposit for His glory.
But how are you going to keep that deposit? By the Holy Spirit Who dwells in us.
By ourselves, we cannot keep it. Our life is weak. Sometimes we are willing, but our flesh is weak. But thank God, He has given us the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit in us will keep that charge for us.
All we need to do is cooperate with the Holy Spirit, yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit, let the Holy Spirit take control of our life, and let the Holy Spirit rule our life.
Be filled with the Holy Spirit. That is to say, let the Holy Spirit rule over your life. If we allow the Holy Spirit to rule over our life, thank God, the Holy Spirit knows how to keep that deposit. He knows.
Never, never trust the flesh. In our flesh there is no good, there is no good.
Oh, dear brothers and sisters, at a time of great falling away is the time that we should be reminded of the good deposit that God has entrusted to us.
He is so faithful to us. Can we fail Him? We cannot.
If you consider the whole matter of the deposit, I believe it will tell you how to behave in abnormal times. Other people may go away. Demas may go to Thessalonica. All Asia may forsake Paul. But not Paul—he could not do it.
He knew Whom he had believed. He knew that the Lord was able to keep the deposit for him. How could he not be faithful in keeping the deposit that God had given to him? Faithful unto death—and thank God, he was.
So, dear brothers and sisters, I do believe that the Word of God for us today, in our time, is this: There is a deposit, and we should pay attention to it. May the Lord encourage us. Shall we pray?
Our Heavenly Father, how we praise and thank Thee that Thou hast never left us alone.
Thou hast always a word for us. Thou dost not want us to grope in darkness nor to fall off the way. Lord, Thy word is our strength.
We do praise and thank Thee that Thou art able to keep us until that day. We praise and thank Thee that, by Thy Holy Spirit, Thy deposit in us shall be kept. We do desire to keep it.
O Lord, encourage us that we may not follow the crowd, that we may press on toward the mark, the on-high calling of God in Christ Jesus; that we may complete our course and keep the faith.
We thank Thee that Thy servant Paul was not ashamed of his suffering, because he knew Whom he suffered for and what he suffered for. Lord, we ask Thee to arm us with the same mind, that we may be able to be faithful by Thy grace to the very end.
Oh, how we praise and thank Thee, knowing that Thy return is imminent. It will not be too long. Lord, keep us faithful to the very end, that when Thou shalt appear, we may receive the crown of righteousness.
O Lord, do encourage our hearts as we see falling away on all sides. Lord, keep us faithful.
We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.