Will you please turn to 2 Timothy? Second Timothy, chapter 1, verse 12.
For which cause I also suffer these things; yet I am not ashamed: for I know Him whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to guard that which I have committed unto Him against that day.
The other version says, “And am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.”
Turn also to Acts, chapter 9, verses 15 and 16.
But the Lord said unto him, Go: for he is a chosen vessel unto Me, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings, and the children of Israel:
For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.
Then Acts, chapter 20. We begin with verse 18.
And when they were come to him, he said unto them, Ye yourselves know, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, after what manner I was with you all the time,
serving the Lord with all lowliness of mind, and with tears, and with trials which befell me by the plots of the Jews;
how I shrank not from declaring unto you anything that was profitable, and teaching you publicly, and from house to house,
testifying both to Jews and to Greeks repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there:
save that the Holy Spirit testifieth unto me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me.
But I hold not my life of any account as dear unto myself, so that I may accomplish my course, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.
And then from verse 31:
Wherefore watch ye, remembering that by the space of three years I ceased not to admonish every one night and day with tears.
And now I commend you to God, and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you the inheritance among all them that are sanctified.
I coveted no man’s silver, or gold, or apparel.
Ye yourselves know that these hands ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me.
In all things I gave you an example, that so laboring ye ought to help the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.
Then Acts, chapter 26—just one verse, verse 19.
Wherefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision.
This morning, we would like to consider a very important subject: the matter of commitment.
I believe that commitment is very important to our Christian life, as well as to our Christian service. Unfortunately, I think that this matter of commitment is very much misunderstood and greatly abused.
For this reason, it is important for us to go back to the Word of God and see the place of commitment in our lives. What is commitment according to the Word of God? How should we be committed? And what will happen if we commit?
Now, instead of approaching it from the theological standpoint, I think the best thing to do is to approach it from a biographical standpoint—that is, to illustrate commitment with a real life. Then we will know what commitment really is: that it is not a theory to theorize, but a life to live.
In the New Testament, aside from our Lord Jesus, I think the one person who stands out in this matter of commitment is the apostle Paul. So, we would like to use the apostle Paul as an example of scriptural commitment.
But before we do that, I think we need to mention a few things first as the foundation of our consideration.
You know, our God, whom we believe, is a God of commitment. He is committed.
First of all, He is committed to Himself. You remember that verse in 2 Timothy—I think it is chapter 2, verse 13:
If we are faithless, He abideth faithful; for He cannot deny Himself.
Now, that simply means that He is fully committed to His own Person, to His own character. He cannot deny Himself.
He is love, and He will keep on loving, in spite of how unlovely we are, in spite of how we do not love Him. He still keeps on loving. Why? Because this is His very character. He cannot deny Himself.
He is light. He keeps on shining. If we turn our back to Him, He shines on our back.
He is righteousness. He keeps on being righteous, especially in His judgment. He reveals and shows forth His righteousness. He did not even spare His only begotten Son.
He cannot deny Himself. He is fully committed to His own character.
Our God is a God of commitment. He commits Himself to His purpose. He who has called us is faithful; He will perform it.
Whom He foreknew, He predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son. Whom He foreknew, He called; whom He called, He justified; and whom He justified, He glorified.
I like very much one phrase in the Old Testament: the zeal of the Lord will do it. In other words, He is zealous. He will perform whatever He has purposed.
Now, I do thank God for that, because if God is not committed to His purpose, then what will happen to us?
How changeable we are. How fragile we are. How unfaithful we are. If it is left to us, we are finished. But thank God, God is committed to His own purpose.
Once He purposes His purpose upon you, He will never let you off until He accomplishes what He designed for you. Now, glory—glory to God!
Our God is a God of commitment. He is committed to His promise.
In 2 Corinthians, chapter 1, we are told:
How many soever be the promises of God, in Him is the yea: wherefore also through Him is the Amen.
There are so many promises of God, but every promise of God is backed up by God’s commitment. He is committed to His promise. He will fulfill all that He has promised to us, no matter what.
God is a God of commitment. That is within His character.
If you look into the Godhead—it is a mystery—but if you look into the Godhead, you will find the commitment that is there: how the Father is committed to the Son, and how the Son is fully committed to the Father.
There is no reservation, no drawback, no change, no shadow. The commitment in the Godhead is complete and perfect.
Even though our Lord Jesus had to die on Calvary’s cross, even though He who knew no sin was made sin for us, even though on the cross the Lord Jesus cried out, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”—it is commitment.
The Father is committed. The Son is committed. And because They both are committed, They will not change. The Father did not spare the Son, and the Son, in spite of such agony, was faithful to the very end.
Commitment.
Now, if God is a God of commitment, certainly He expects His character to be with us. In other words, there is no such thing as an uncommitted Christian. A Christian is supposed to be committed.
If you are not committed, you miss some character of God in your life. There is no such thing as an uncommitted church. A church is committed.
The church is committed to the testimony of Jesus. Why? Because the church is a lampstand. A lampstand is committed to the light that it upholds. If it fails in its commitment, that lampstand will be removed.
So, brothers and sisters, at the very outset, let us be very clear on one thing: as our God is a God of commitment, therefore He does expect us, who are redeemed by His precious blood, to be a committed people.
God loves to commit Himself to His people. God loves to commit His name to His people. As a matter of fact, He has committed His name to us. We are all called Christians—Christ-men. He has committed Himself to us.
But how much are we committed to Him?
Now, with this as our basis, we can go back to the life of the apostle Paul.
The first passage that we read is a declaration. Paul, towards the end of his life, made a declaration—a statement—and he made that statement with joy:
I know whom I have believed.
Now, is that not wonderful? “I know whom I have believed.”
Dear brothers and sisters, do you know that there is no commitment if you do not know? In other words, knowledge is the basis of commitment.
You do not, you cannot, and you should not commit yourself to anything that you do not know. That would be blind.
What is commitment? Commitment is not committing yourself to a cause, to an organization, to a creed, to a person other than the Lord Jesus, or to a group of persons. No.
Commitment is to commit to the One whom we believe.
Nowadays, there is much talking about commitment. We are exhorted, encouraged, and even coerced to commit ourselves to a certain organization, to a certain group, or even to a person—perhaps a dynamic person.
And because of this, lots of problems and abuses happen.
According to the Word of God, commitment is not primarily to be committed to anything: any teaching, any form, any organization, any man, or any group of men. No, that is not it.
Primarily, commitment is commitment to Christ. Now, if you have not committed yourself to Christ, and yet you commit yourself to anything other than Christ, you have problems—lots of problems.
The apostle said, “I know whom I have believed.” He could make that statement only after he was met by the Lord on the road to Damascus.
Before that, he was Saul the Pharisee. You know, Saul the Pharisee was a committed person. But to whom was he committed? He was committed to Judaism.
If ever there was a young man who was committed to Judaism, it was Saul the Pharisee. He himself tells us that he was more advanced than his contemporaries. Why? Because he was fully committed to Judaism. He was committed to Judaism according to the traditions of the fathers.
He was so committed that he considered Jesus must be wiped out. And he did try to wipe out the followers of Jesus with his whole heart. He thought he was serving God.
He was committed to himself. He was an ambitious young man, and he wanted to fulfill his ambition to be at the top.
He was a committed person, but he made a wrong commitment. If he should continue in that commitment, he would be plunged into eternal darkness and death.
You know, dear brothers and sisters, whether it is in the spiritual realm or in the physical realm, nothing can be accomplished without commitment. You cannot accomplish anything if you are not a committed person.
Saul was a committed person, and therefore you find that he had a certain degree of success in Judaism, in climbing the ladder of Judaism. Unfortunately, it was a wrong commitment—but he was a committed person.
Thank God, on the road to Damascus, the Lord arrested him.
You know, sometimes I think in the Old Testament there is a phrase called “the cords of love.” God has led us with cords of love.
You know, sometimes the cord is pretty long and a little elastic. In other words, God allows you to go as far as you can, and you can go pretty far, you know. You can go against the will of God pretty far because the cord is long and it is a little elastic.
But only so far, and no more.
God allowed Saul to go as far as he could in his own way until finally, on the road to Damascus, God stopped him and said, “That is far enough.”
He drew him back with cords of love.
The Lord of glory appeared to him. He saw the Lord.
And after he saw the Lord, he committed himself to the Lord.
To the apostle Paul, the Lord Jesus was not only his Savior. Thank God, he was saved on the road to Damascus. Actually, he was speeding unto eternal death, and there you find the Lord arrested him, turned him around, and saved him.
He said, “I am the chief of sinners,” but God, in His mercy, saved him.
But to Paul, the Lord Jesus was not merely his Savior who saved him. The Lord Jesus to him was the Lord.
You remember the first question he asked when that Man in glory appeared to him: “Who art Thou, Lord? I do not know Thee. Who art Thou, Lord?”
And immediately after he was told who He was—Jesus of Nazareth—the second question he asked was, “Lord, what shall I do?”
“I know what I did. I knew what I was doing in the past. I was very sure of myself. I had my future all mapped out. I was a committed person, and I was trying to reach my goal. But now the whole thing was smashed.”
“Since I met You, I do not know what I should do now. What next? And I am not going to decide my next step. You are my Lord. I surrender my life completely to You. Direct me. Show me what to do.”
That is commitment.
You know, Andrew Murray has a book called Absolute Surrender. This is absolute surrender. Here was a man who was master of his own life, but as he met the Lord of glory, he capitulated himself completely to Him and accepted the risen Lord as his Lord and Master.
He surrendered his life completely to Him. He would not even dare, or want, to take a step further but to wait for His order: “Lord, what shall I do?”
Through his life, as Paul received many revelations and visions, he came to know this Lord Jesus more and more. Through many trials and sufferings, he came to experience the reality of the Lord Jesus deeper and deeper.
So, toward the end of his life, when he wrote 2 Timothy, he was very close to his martyrdom. He made a declaration, a statement:
I know whom I have believed.
Dear brothers and sisters, is this our confession? Is this our declaration? We know whom we have believed. We know Him.
It is not a bookish knowledge. It is not a mental knowledge. It is a personal, intimate, experiential knowledge of our Lord Jesus. And, dear brothers and sisters, the more you know Him, the more will be your commitment to Him.
Let me underline again: commitment is not to commit to a cause. There are many people today who have committed themselves to a cause—perhaps a good cause.
But commitment, according to the Word of God, as believers, is not commitment to a cause. It is not commitment to a teaching or a doctrine. It is not commitment to an organization. It is not commitment to a group of people. It is not commitment to any other person.
Commitment is to commit to the One whom we have believed. We are committed to Him whom we believe.
And the degree of your commitment to Him is measured by the degree of your living knowledge of Him.
Oh, that we may know Him more, that we may be committed more to Him.
Secondly, Paul said:
I know whom I have believed, and I am fully persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.
First, know; then commit. You first must know Him. Now, if you know Him, can you not commit yourself to Him? That is my question.
Why is it that you do not commit yourself to Him? Why is it that your commitment is not full and complete? It is because you do not know Him. You do not know who He is. You do not know Him as fully as you should.
Dear brothers and sisters, if you know Him, can you refrain from committing yourself to Him? That is impossible.
Paul said, “I am fully persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.”
To know Him and to commit myself to Him.
You know, the deposit that Paul is talking about—in some versions it is said, “I am fully persuaded that He is able to keep that which He has deposited in me against that day.”
The deposit that Paul is talking about is all that God has done in his life.
Let me put it this way: do you want anything to be kept if it is of no value?
Many people leave their garbage can outside the door of the house. Why? Because to them it is not so valuable as to need to be kept. If anybody comes and steals your garbage, thank you—you do not need to pay for garbage collection.
But what do you keep within your house? You lock your door. Anything that you consider worth keeping, valuable, then you want to keep.
Now, brothers and sisters, what is it that needs to be kept against that day? What is that day? That day is the day of Christ.
In other words, one day we as believers will all be gathered together in the presence of the Lord, before His judgment seat, and there to have our lives examined.
Now, it is true, brothers and sisters, that we who believe in the Lord Jesus will not be judged before the great white throne.
One day the old heaven and the old earth will pass away, and all the dead will be raised and will all appear before the great white throne of God. There they will be judged according to the books—that is, according to all the deeds, the words, everything in their lives.
You know, everyone has a book. God keeps a book for every person. D. L. Moody thinks that book is memory. God has a book here. One day God will rewind it, and everything recorded in that book will come out, and we will be judged accordingly.
That will be eternal death. Who can stand before the great white throne of God? Nobody can.
But thank God, we who have believed in the Lord Jesus have passed out of death into life, because Christ has died for us. He was judged on the cross in our stead.
Therefore, we will not be judged at the great white throne. We have passed out of death into life. We will not be judged at that great throne. We are saved. Thank God for that.
But, dear brothers and sisters, that does not mean that we will not be judged. We will still be judged as members of the family of God.
But it is not a throne judgment; it is a seat judgment. There is a great difference. Throne judgment is judicial. Seat judgment is family judgment. Throne judgment concerns eternal life and eternal death. Seat judgment concerns reward or loss, but still salvation.
One day we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, and He will judge us concerning all the things that we have done after we have believed in Him, after we received Him, after He has given us so much grace and gift.
Whether we build with gold, silver, and precious stones, or build with wood, hay, and stubble, that day will reveal it.
Paul said, “I am fully persuaded that He is able to keep the deposit which I have committed to Him against that day.” In other words, in that day, when I shall appear before the judgment seat of Christ, I will find that everything God has deposited in me has been kept. Nothing is lost. Now, wonderful!
What do you commit to Him? You do not commit to Him the garbage. You commit to Him the treasure.
Now, who is the garbage? You are the garbage. I am the garbage. In other words, our old man—the old creation, Saul the Pharisee.
Saul the Pharisee had not committed himself to the Lord. Saul the Pharisee had to be dealt with and gotten rid of by the cross.
You and I—the old man, the flesh, my cleverness, my way, my opinion, my strength, my likes or dislikes—me, me, me. This needs to be set aside by the cross of Calvary. You do not keep these. These are garbage.
But thank God, He has deposited a treasure in us: Christ.
You have Christ in you, and all that is of Christ: the revelations, the visions you have received, the grace that He has given to you, the gift that He has given to you, the experience of Him, the teaching of Him.
Everything that is Christ is a deposit that God has richly deposited in your life. And these things need to be kept, brothers and sisters, or they may be lost.
If what God has given to you is being lost, who is able to keep it? You cannot keep it.
The best thing to do is let the Lord keep this for you against that day.
Fully persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.
Now, that is commitment. You do not commit the old man to Him. You commit the new man to Him.
You want Him to keep the new man, but you allow Him to get rid of the old man.
Now, this is the perseverance of the saints. Remember that our God has not only saving grace; He has keeping grace. He has saved you and He is able to keep you.
You know, this is something that sometimes makes you wonder. In this wicked, perverse generation, with all the temptations around us, are we able to keep ourselves pure for God?
Are we able to? Probably, if we look at ourselves, we say, “How can we? How can we keep our faith? How can we keep our love? How can we keep our hope? How can we?”
Brothers and sisters, we cannot—but He can.
He is able to keep that which we have committed unto Him against that day.
In Jude, verse 24, it is said:
Now unto Him that is able to keep you from stumbling, and to set you before the presence of His glory without blemish in exceeding joy,
to the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and power, before all time, and now, and for evermore. Amen.
He is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before His glorious presence blameless and with joy. He is able.
And in Psalm 116:8, it is said:
For Thou hast delivered my soul from death,
mine eyes from tears,
and my feet from falling.
He is able to keep your soul from death, your eyes from tears, and your feet from falling. He is able.
But for Him to keep you, you have to commit yourself to Him.
In other words, brothers and sisters, what is commitment? Commitment is knowing who He is; then you commit yourself, as a redeemed soul, completely to His keeping.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.
We need to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. Remember, this body is a redeemed body. After Romans 1 through 11, you find all the compassions of God, all the mercies of God that have been working in your life. Then you present this body a living sacrifice. It is the new man.
We present ourselves as a living sacrifice to Him. We commit ourselves completely to Him for Him to keep.
Why? Keeping not only that we may be kept pure and blameless before His glorious presence on that day, but that we may be kept for His sake.
Because He has a purpose in our lives. There is something that God is going to do through us. And if we are not committed to Him, and if we are not being kept by Him, then His purpose in our lives cannot be fulfilled.
Brothers and sisters, commitment is essential to God’s realization of His will in our lives. If your life is not committed to Him, He cannot fulfill His will in your life. You have to be committed.
Why? Because He never forces anybody. He respects your personality.
Paul said:
I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.
Now, after Paul had committed himself to the One whom he knew, then the third thing is this: God committed Himself to this man.
In one sense, God’s commitment is not affected by us. That is, no matter what you are, no matter what you do, it really does not matter, because He is committed to Himself, and He will do what He has purposed to do. That is true.
But in another sense, it is also true that His commitment to you is proportional to your commitment to Him.
As you are committed to Him, you will find that He will commit Himself to you.
You remember that verse in John, chapter 2. Because our Lord Jesus did many signs and wonders, many believed in Him.
And you would think that since many believed in Him, certainly the Lord would commit Himself to these believers. No.
At the end of John, chapter 2, you find that many believed in Him, but the Lord did not commit Himself to any of them because He knew what was in them.
Outwardly they believed in Him, but they believed because they saw the signs and the wonders. Inwardly, they had not really believed in Him. And the Lord knew their hearts, so the Lord did not commit Himself to them.
But you find our Lord did commit Himself to Peter, to John, to James, to those who had left all and followed Him. The Lord committed Himself to these people.
Peter said:
Thou hast the words of eternal life;
and we have believed and know that Thou art the Holy One of God.
“You have the words of life. We know that You are the Christ. Where can we go? We are stuck with You. We are committed to You.”
And, you know, to those people who are committed to Him, what a commitment the Lord gives. He commits Himself to these people.
Sometimes you wonder why the Lord is not committed to you. Sometimes you wonder why He does not back you up.
Well, the simple reason is that you are not so committed to Him.
If you are fully committed to Him, He will fully commit Himself to you. He will back you up.
Saul the Pharisee was going his own way. He was committed to Judaism. He was committed to a cause that he considered right.
But he had no revelation, no vision. He was a man given to tradition, based on tradition, but he had no revelation. God had not committed Himself to him in any way.
Yes, the Lord said, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? It is hard for thee to kick against the goad.”
You know, in the old days, a farmer farmed with an ox. Upon the neck of the ox would be the yoke, and tied to the yoke would be the plow. The farmer, with one hand upon the plow to guide it, would have in the other hand a sharp instrument called the goad.
Why? Because sometimes the ox would not follow his order. The ox has its own will and wants to go its own way. So, when this happened, the farmer would use the goad and lightly touch the leg of the ox to let him know who is master.
But unfortunately, sometimes the ox would kick back, and when you kick back, you hurt yourself. And after he hurts enough, he learns.
You know, Saul thought that he was the master of his own life. He was committed to nobody but to himself, not knowing that he had a Master.
So, the Lord said, “Well, you kick against the goads. Have you been hurt enough? Are you going to learn now who is the Master?”
Dear brothers and sisters, in a sense, there is God’s will upon every one of us. You know, you are not really free as a bird.
The Lord has His will upon you. You are an ox in His field.
You know, again I say, the cord may be long, but it is in His hand. One day He will tighten the cord, and if you do not listen, He will apply the goad.
Until you realize that He has His will upon your life, He has His purpose. You are supposed to do His will, not your own will. He is going to use you, but He cannot use you because you have not committed yourself. You are committed only to yourself and not committed to Him.
So one day He has to change your course until you are committed to Him. And when you are committed to Him, He will reveal His will to you.
Paul, after he saw the Lord, was blinded. He was led to Damascus. For three days and three nights, he was fasting and praying.
Then the Lord appeared to Ananias and said, “Ananias, go to the street called Straight. Find that man Saul and open his eyes.”
And Ananias said, “Lord, I have heard that this man came with official letters from the high authority to seize us who believe in You. How can I go to see him?”
The Lord said, “You go, because this man is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name and to suffer much for My name’s sake.”
Dear brothers and sisters, when a person is fully committed to the Lord, then you will find the Lord is fully committed to him.
This man is a chosen vessel of Mine, to bear My name.
The Lord is willing to commit His name to you—that name which is above every name, and at that name every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.
What a name! And, dear brothers and sisters, that name is committed to you. You are that vessel to bear that name. What an honor. What a privilege.
How do we know that He has committed Himself to us? There is one way to know: does He reveal His secret to you?
Does He reveal His mind to you? Does He tell His will to you? Does He open His heart to you?
If He does, He has committed Himself to you.
Remember, brothers and sisters, every revelation from God, every unveiling of His heart, every disclosing of His mind, every revealing of His secret to you, every indication of His will, every hearing of His will to you, is a sign of His commitment.
Has the Lord committed Himself to you? You just ask yourself one question: has He revealed His mind to you? How much is He able to reveal His heart to you?
That will measure your commitment.
You remember in John, chapter 15, the Lord said to His disciples:
No longer do I call you servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known unto you.
In other words, the master just tells the slave, “Do this and do that.” He will never explain why.
But the Lord said, “I treat you as friends.” That is to say, He will share with us His secret. This is commitment.
Brothers and sisters, how our God, our Lord, loves to commit Himself to His own people. But how restrained He must feel that He can only reveal a little bit, and not too much, because our commitment to Him is so inadequate.
Paul said:
I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision.
God was able to give him the heavenly vision. As a matter of fact, the whole Bible is centered upon this heavenly vision.
And Paul received this heavenly vision. That is to say, the Lord was able to commit Himself fully to this vessel. Why? Because this vessel was fully yielded to Him.
Dear brothers and sisters, do we have the heavenly vision? Is He able to tell us what is in His heart, what it is that He really wants, what is the desire of His love?
Without vision, there can be no real commitment. We need vision. As a matter of fact, vision creates commitment.
And finally, after Paul had committed himself to Christ and to the heavenly vision, then what happened? You find he labored much. He suffered much.
Commitment means involvement. Commitment means being occupied. Commitment means labor and toil. Commitment means tears. Commitment means suffering—much suffering.
In his last words to the elders in Ephesus, he said, “From the very beginning that I was in Asia, all these three years, day and night, how I labored with much tear and suffering.”
“I do not count my life as of any value. I am committed just to finish that course.”
Dear brothers and sisters, you find even so, the Lord backed him up all the way.
Do not think Paul was a superman. Yes, he was a stronger man than I, or perhaps than you; that is true. But he was a man, a mortal.
How could he be obedient to the heavenly vision to the very end, so that he could say:
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith:
henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness.
How could he do that? You find in the book of Acts, at least three times, the Lord stood by him and said, “Fear not. I am with you.”
When he was in Corinth, he was afraid, and the Lord stood by him that night and said, “Fear not. I am with you, and many people are in this city. Go on.”
And when he was being examined by the council, the Jewish Sanhedrin, he was afraid because those people were hostile to him. And the Lord stood by him and said, “Fear not. You will appear before Caesar.”
And while he was at sea, there was a great storm and almost a shipwreck. Everybody was afraid, and Paul stood up and said, “An angel of the Lord stood by me and told me, ‘Fear not.’”
“You will be saved, and all those on the boat will be saved with you.”
See, the Lord backed him up all the way.
In 2 Timothy, before his martyrdom, when everybody seemed to have left him—when all Asia had left him—what did he say? Listen to this:
But the Lord stood by me, and strengthened me; that through me the message might be fully proclaimed, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.
The Lord will deliver me from every evil work, and will save me unto His heavenly kingdom: to whom be the glory for ever and ever. Amen.
The Lord backed him up all the way.
Dear brothers and sisters, do not be afraid.
If you are committed to Him—remember, to Him—He is fully committed to you, and He will stand by you all the way until that day.
May the Lord help us. Amen.
Our Heavenly Father, how we praise and thank Thee that Thou art a God of commitment, and Thou dost desire that this character shall be upon us, that we may be a people fully committed to Thee and to Thy will.
Lord, we do pray that we may find Thyself fully committed to us. We just look to Thee for Thy grace to bring us to that point when Thou art able to commit Thyself, and Thy testimony, to Thy people.
In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.