Will you please turn to 2 Timothy, the second letter to Timothy, chapter 1, the second part of verse 12?
For I know Him whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.
And I repeat:
For I know Him whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.
May we look to the Lord in prayer.
Dear heavenly Father, our hearts do rejoice that Thou hast given us Thy beloved Son. Through Thy Son, we have ready access to Thy throne of grace. How we praise and thank Thee that we have assurance that Thou art here with us.
We ask Thee, Lord, that Thou wilt open Thy Word to us. May Thy Spirit speak to our hearts and draw us to Thyself, because without Thee, Lord, Thou knowest, we cannot say; we cannot give life. Oh, how we need Thee desperately.
So again, we commit this time into Thy hand and trust Thy Holy Spirit to do the work, to the praise of Thy glory. We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
I believe we all know that 2 Timothy was the last letter that the apostle Paul wrote before his martyrdom.
We know that after he was released from Rome, as we find in Acts 28, Paul was in Rome for two years. There he was able to preach the kingdom and teach the things concerning the Lord Jesus unhindered.
Most likely, after two years, he had a hearing with the emperor and was acquitted. After his acquittal, he was able to travel again, visiting different places for a few years.
But then the situation completely changed. In A.D. 64, Nero burned the city of Rome. After the city was burned, he put the blame upon the Christians. From that time onward, to be a Christian was considered criminal.
Because of this, Paul was arrested once again and taken back to Rome. It was not as before, because when he was in Rome previously, he was able to stay in his rented apartment, receive people, preach the gospel, and teach the Lord Jesus unhindered.
But this time, when he was taken again, he was a criminal in the eyes of the Roman Empire. He was in chains, and, knowing that his end was coming, he wrote this last letter to his son in the Lord, Timothy.
So we can say that this letter is the last will and testimony of the apostle Paul.
When you consider his situation, it was really a very painful situation. He was there in Rome as a prisoner, a criminal, and he was soon to be sentenced to death.
But when you read this second letter to Timothy, you find that his spirit was high. In spite of all the conditions surrounding him at that moment, he rose above all these conditions.
Not only was he able to stand for the Lord—you remember that in 2 Timothy he mentioned that all Asia had turned away from him. During his first defense, all deserted him. He was alone. But the Lord was with him, and he was able to stand firm for the Lord, for the testimony of Jesus, to the very end.
The gospel entrusted to him was a glorious gospel, and he was able to carry on to the very end.
My brothers and sisters, my question is: What made Paul strong and faithful to the very end? Certainly, it was not his will. Even though he did have a very strong will, no human will could stand in such situations.
We would like to discover the secret of the apostle Paul. I believe the secret is in his proclamation:
I know Him whom I have believed, and am fully persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.
Dear brothers and sisters, do you think that our time is different from the time of the apostle Paul? The world has not changed. Our enemy is still here.
Even though we are near the end of the twentieth century, and time-wise we are far removed from Paul’s day in the latter part of the first century, we are still living in very difficult days.
In many parts of the world, to be a Christian is considered criminal. Even though we who are here do not suffer physical persecution, yet we know the pressure around us. It is mounting, especially as we come to the close of this age. The pressure is very great.
We too, like the apostle Paul, have been entrusted with the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. We too are faced with the same enemy that Paul faced at this time.
How are we going to go through this life and be faithful to the Lord and for His testimony to the very end?
In Paul’s time, all Asia forsook him. At his defense, everybody deserted him. Why? Because people were afraid. People wanted to preserve their own lives.
Brothers and sisters, when we look around, we can see apostasy around us. Because the time is so difficult and the pressure is so great, many of God’s people have compromised. Many have fallen.
So our urgent question is: How can we go through triumphantly, like the apostle Paul? If we try to depend upon ourselves, we will fail. We need to find the power, the strength, the secret.
I do believe that it is very urgent for us to find, in this day, the secret of perseverance.
Now, with the apostle Paul, he said:
I know Him whom I have believed, and am fully persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.
Do we know whom we have believed? The word know here is oida, which means a personal, experiential knowledge of the One whom we know. It is not merely an objective, impersonal, historical knowledge that we accumulate. It is a personal, experiential knowledge of the Lord Jesus.
Here the apostle Paul says, “I know whom I have believed.” He does not say, “I know what I have believed.”
Of course, it is important to know what you believe. What you believe is historical, true teaching—doctrine. What you believe, to use one word, is the faith: the faith once delivered to the saints.
In other words, whatever is in this Book, in the Word of God, constitutes our faith—the faith once delivered to the saints. It is true that we have to contend for the faith that we have believed. That is true; it is important.
But, dear brothers and sisters, if all we know is what we believe, and do not come to know whom we believe, we will not be able to get through these difficult days.
I believe what we believe is essential. It is objective; it is foundational. But from what we believe, we have to enter into whom we believe. Only when we enter into whom we believe will we find the power, the strength, and the perseverance.
For instance, we believe in justification by faith. From the time of the Reformation, justification by faith has been recognized as truth, and it is a truth that has been accepted very widely.
But you can believe in justification by faith mentally, and yet not be justified.
I believe many who come from Christian families have this problem. Because we are brought up in Christian families, we believe what is written in the Bible. We have been taught from childhood, and somehow we mentally accept all the truths taught to us.
Yet, brothers and sisters, we do not experience justification until one day we come in touch with the One who is the Justifier. Not only is He the Justifier, but He is our justification.
It is true: justification is by faith. Abraham was justified; he was reckoned righteous because he believed God. He was counted righteous.
But remember, it is not his faith that made him righteous. We are justified by faith, but it is not our faith that justifies us. It is by believing in the Lord Jesus—the Person—that we are justified.
Our faith is only the means to an end. It is the hand that receives the gift of God. Faith is important, but faith is simply receiving what God has provided for us, and that is His beloved Son.
So we are justified by faith, but it is not merely a doctrine or a teaching. You may have a creed. If you are Lutheran, there is a phrase: “Justification by faith.” But you may not be justified if you do not see the Lord Jesus as the One who is your justification.
As you receive the Lord Jesus as your Savior, as your personal Savior, you know whom you believe. Then the “what” becomes effective and operative.
When you come to the truths in the Word of God, you find that every truth is like that. You may believe that when Christ died on the cross, you died with Him because you were in Him.
Christ died on the cross not only for our sins, but He died for us. He died not only as our substitute; He died as our representative.
We may have heard such teaching, and we may even have read it in the Bible. We may even receive it mentally as truth. But, brothers and sisters, you do not experience victory over the power of sin until one day you touch the Lord Jesus.
Until one day, you touch Him. When you see that you are in Him, and that when He died on the cross two thousand years ago, you were there—when you really see Him with your spiritual eyes—then you will find that the doctrine becomes living, the teaching becomes active and operative, and you begin to experience victory over the power of sin.
It is not the teaching that gives you power. It is the life, the risen life, the resurrection life of the Lord Jesus, that is the power of victory. It is whom you believe, not just what you believe.
What you believe will not carry us through when everything is smooth, when there is no test and no contest. Everything seems to be fine. But when tests come, when trials come, then, brothers and sisters, you will see the difference between what you believe and whom you believe.
The apostle Paul says, “I know whom I have believed.” That is the assurance.
Brothers and sisters, the one thing we all need is to know Him. You remember the apostle Paul says in Philippians 3:10, “That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection.”
To know Him was the passion, the one passion, of Paul’s life. How we need to have that one passion: to know Him above all things.
It is not enough simply to know certain teachings, certain doctrines, and certain truths, however important they are. They are the foundation, but just to stay on that level is not enough. We have to move into knowing Christ Himself.
We need to know Him as our Savior, know Him as our Lord, know Him as our Shepherd, know Him as our Friend. You see, God arranges the circumstances of our lives. God allows us to go through all kinds of circumstances—sometimes prosperity, sometimes adversity.
Why does God allow us to go through all these circumstances? As a matter of fact, it is the Holy Spirit who arranges all our circumstances. We believe that we belong to the Lord; even the very hairs of our head are numbered. So all our circumstances are arranged by the Holy Spirit.
Why does He arrange various circumstances in our lives? It is to bring what we believe into whom we believe, to make what we believe living, operative, life and reality to us.
It is important, therefore, brothers and sisters, that we know whom we believe. The more we know Him in a personal, experiential way, the better.
You know, in church history, we all know the man Polycarp. Polycarp was the bishop of Smyrna, and during a time of persecution he was captured.
Because of his advanced age, the proconsul wanted to save his life. So the proconsul told Polycarp, “If you only swear by the genius of Caesar, if you revile Christ, you will be released.”
Polycarp answered and said, “For eighty-six years I have served my Lord and Savior. He has done nothing but good to me, and how can I deny Him?”
And Polycarp was burned to death.
In church history, you find many stories about these martyrs—how they were tested. The only reason they were able to get through was because they knew whom they had believed.
We may not all be called to be dead martyrs—that is, to die for Christ and for His testimony—but we know that we are all called to be living martyrs.
The word martyr and the word witness are the same word. We are all called to be witnesses of Christ. We have all been entrusted with the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ.
God expects each one of us to be a living martyr. If anyone wants to live godly, he will be persecuted in this world, because the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.
Brothers and sisters, this is our calling. We are called with a holy calling. We are called to be living martyrs. We are called to live for Christ. We are called to stand for the testimony of Jesus in this world.
Because of this calling, the enemy will not leave us alone. He is the same enemy. He will try to trip us, to entrap us. He will try to make us compromise.
For this reason, it is very important that we have the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ: to know Him and to know the power of His resurrection.
So, brothers and sisters, do not be content with merely a superficial knowledge of Christ—that is to say, that we just know about Him. We may accumulate quite a lot of knowledge about Him. We may have much teaching. We may know many teachings. We may know the Word. Thank God for that; it is important.
But, brothers and sisters, we have to press on to know Him. That ought to be the one passion of our life.
In every circumstance, learn to know Him. When we are in trouble, learn to know Him who is the solution to all our problems. When we are in prosperity, learn to know Him so that we may know how to live in prosperity.
As a matter of fact, it is even more difficult to live in prosperity for Christ than in adversity. Oftentimes, when we are in adversity, we have to come to Him. We have to draw near to Him because we know there is no other way out.
But when we have prosperity—when life is peaceful and smooth, when everything is fine—we tend to drift away from Him. We tend to become contented.
We lose our eagerness and our desire to know Him. So may the Lord really stir within us a strong desire to know Him.
Brothers and sisters, the more you know Him, the more you want to know Him. The more you know that you do not know Him enough.
Whenever you feel that you have known Him quite well, that is the beginning of your fall. Because the more you know Him, the more you know you do not know Him, and you want to know Him more.
So we have to press on toward the goal: to know the Lord Jesus. Only those who know Him in a personal way, who know Christ not only as Savior but as their very life, are able to get through. History has proven this to us.
Paul said, “I am fully persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.”
These two things are closely related. If you know Him, you will be committed to Him. You cannot know Him without being committed to Him.
If there is any problem with your commitment to Him, it shows that you do not know Him as you should.
Commitment is a big thing in life, even in the secular world. If there is no commitment, you go nowhere. You have to be committed to something—perhaps to a profession, perhaps to a course, perhaps to a dream. But you have to have commitment.
If you are committed to a certain goal, then you find that your life has meaning, because you pursue that to which you are committed, and there is a possibility of success.
If you are not committed to anything, then you are a drifter. Throughout your life you are merely pushed by the forces around you, and you never accomplish anything because you are never committed.
In this world, if you want to succeed, you have to be fully committed—committed to a dream, a vision, or a goal. Otherwise, you will fail.
Now, brothers and sisters, if this is true in the world, how much truer it is in our spiritual walk. In the spiritual world, commitment is very, very essential.
But we are not committed to a cause. Many are committed to a cause, and some may even be willing to die for that cause. But, brothers and sisters, we have something far greater than a cause.
We are committed to a Person. We are committed to Him—to Christ—and to His purpose, to His will. That is what we are committed to.
Unfortunately, among God’s people, you find that this is one thing that is very much lacking.
In the world you find many people who are committed. But when you come among God’s people, it is very strange: you find very few who are truly committed. Few commit their all to the One who is their all.
Why is this? Is it because we do not know Him enough?
Let me use an illustration. You have committed yourself to Him once, at least for your salvation.
You tried to save yourself, but you could not. You came to the point where you knew you were hopeless and helpless. Then you heard the gospel: that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; that He died on the cross for your sins; that if you only believe in Him, He will forgive you and give you eternal life.
Brothers and sisters, was it not at that time that you committed yourself to Him for your salvation?
You knew you could not save yourself. He was the only One who could save you, so you committed yourself to Him and asked Him to forgive your sins and save you—and He did.
To believe is a commitment. Believing is not merely something mental; belief is a commitment. You believe, and you commit yourself to Him. To accept Him as your Savior is a commitment.
But strangely, after our initial commitment, we do not go on in this way of commitment.
Why is it so? I think there are probably two reasons.
One reason is that you know Him only as your Savior. That is all you know. Because you know Him only as your Savior, you commit only your sins to Him, and that is all.
Other than your sins, you do not commit anything to Him. You still trust yourself, and because of this, there is no further commitment. It is because that is all you know about Him.
If you know Him more, then, brothers and sisters, you will commit more. Commitment is measured by your knowledge of the Lord Jesus.
I think there is another reason why we do not commit ourselves. It is because of the fear of letting go.
You know, our flesh, our natural man, trusts only in itself. We do not trust anybody. Suspicion is an instinct in human beings.
We are afraid to trust anyone. We are afraid to commit ourselves to anybody. It is true: if you commit yourself to people, one day you may be burned. That is true, because no one is fully trustworthy.
But we treat God in the same way as we treat other people.
We feel safe holding ourselves in our own hands. We have confidence in the flesh. Even in spiritual things, we have confidence in this good flesh of ours.
Because of this, we will not let go of ourselves and commit all to Christ. We like to hold ourselves in our own hands. In other words, we like to be in control.
When we ourselves are in control, we feel secure. But one day, when testing comes, you will see how weak your flesh is.
The apostle Paul says:
We are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God, and glory in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
We ought to be people who have been circumcised—not an outward circumcision, but the circumcision of the heart. In other words, we need the cross to cut across our flesh so that we have no confidence in our flesh.
Just as Paul says in Romans 7:18:
I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing.
Brothers and sisters, that is a confession. One day you come to see that in you—that is, in your flesh, your natural man, your old flesh—there is no good thing.
You cannot trust it. It has neither wisdom, nor strength, nor power.
When you come to see this, then you are able to let go of yourself and let Christ take over.
So I think probably one reason why we dare not commit ourselves is because we still have confidence in our flesh. To the flesh, there is always that fear of letting go.
But how foolish it is if we have confidence in our flesh and no confidence in Him who loved us and gave Himself for us.
The apostle Paul says, “I know whom I have believed.” I know Him. I know who He is.
He is my King, my Lord, my all. Because He is such to me, therefore I am fully persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.
With the apostle Paul, he did not commit a little to the Lord. He committed all to the Lord.
How much, dear brothers and sisters, do we commit ourselves to the Lord?
If you read the Word of God, you find, for instance, in Psalm 37:5:
Commit thy way unto the Lord;
Trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.
And He shall make thy righteousness to go forth as the light,
And thy judgment as the noonday.
Commit thy way unto the Lord. This world is a wilderness. Just like the children of Israel, when they traveled through the wilderness, there was no way.
If they were left on their own, no doubt they would have been lost in the wilderness. But thank God, the pillar of fire and cloud led their way. The ark of God led their way.
Now we live in this world; it is a wilderness. How do we know where to go that will lead us to our home? Commit thy way unto the Lord. We do not know.
There are many ways that we think are good, but they lead to destruction. We do not know the way through this world. We have to commit our way unto the Lord and rely upon Him.
Let the Spirit of God, who dwells within us, lead us. With the children of Israel, they had the ark leading them and the pillar of fire and cloud leading them. But we have something even better, because the Holy Spirit dwells in us, and He will teach us in all things.
The life of Christ—He is the light of men—will show us the way. Rely on Him, and He will bring it to pass. In other words, He will lead us.
He will bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday. In other words, He will lead us in the right way, so that we will not turn to the right or to the left, but will go straight on.
Commit your way unto the Lord.
Then, in Proverbs 16:3:
Commit thy works unto the Lord,
And thy thoughts shall be established.
You see, not only do we need to commit our way to the Lord and let Him lead us in the way of righteousness, in the way of everlasting life, but we need to commit our works to the Lord—whatever we do.
Whether it is our job or our service to the Lord, we need to commit all our works to the Lord. Then our thoughts shall be established. In other words, we will find that it is His thought and His purpose.
So no matter what we do, commit our works to Him, and He will take care of us.
In Job 5:8:
But as for me, I would seek unto God,
And unto God would I commit my cause.
Commit your cause. Brothers and sisters, we live in this world, and this world is difficult. You find that you are faced with many problems, sometimes misunderstandings. It is quite a struggle in life.
If we commit our cause to the Lord, the Lord knows. People may misunderstand or misinterpret. Sometimes you are faced with problems that you do not know how to solve. Commit your cause to the Lord.
Just commit it, and you will find that He will be your solution. He will justify. Commit your cause to the Lord.
Again, in Psalm 31:5:
Into Thy hand I commit my spirit:
Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, Thou God of truth.
We not only commit our way, our work, and our cause to the Lord; we commit our spirit to the Lord.
Who is able to keep our spirit? If a person is able to keep his spirit, he is stronger than one who takes a city. But how can we keep our spirit in the right condition?
Sometimes our spirit is provoked. Sometimes our spirit can be defiled. That is why in 2 Corinthians 7:1 it says:
Let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
Our spirit is important because it is by our spirit that we commune with God. But sometimes our spirit can be defiled, agitated, and can lose its quietness.
How can we keep our spirit in tune with the Spirit of God? Spiritual life lies in the spirit. If there is something wrong with the spirit, then your whole spiritual life is on the wrong path.
Do not think merely, “Well, I follow my spirit,” when your spirit may be the wrong spirit.
You know the two disciples of our Lord Jesus, the sons of Zebedee, the two sons of thunder. You remember in Luke, the Samaritans did not receive our Lord Jesus. The sons of Zebedee came to the Lord and said, “Lord, they did not receive You. Do You want us to call fire from heaven to burn them up?”
Our Lord was on the way to Calvary. He had a spirit of meekness, the spirit of the Lamb. But the spirit of the two disciples was the spirit of what? The spirit of the beast.
The Lord said, “You do not know what manner of spirit ye are of.”
Brothers and sisters, our whole spiritual life depends on our spirit. But sometimes our spirit can be misled, and when our spirit is misled, the whole being is gone. That is the reason you find all these cults and things like that.
How can we keep our spirit pure? We cannot. Commit your spirit to the Lord.
Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, Thou God of truth.
Commit your spirit to Him, and He will keep you in the truth.
Not only our spirit: in 1 Peter 4:19, we need to commit our soul to the Lord.
Wherefore let them also that suffer according to the will of God commit their souls in well-doing unto a faithful Creator.
We live in a world in which, if you want to follow the Lord and do the right thing, you will meet many troubles, many oppositions, accusations, persecutions, misunderstandings—all kinds of things.
If it depends upon ourselves, we will give up. We may faint and become discouraged. We need to commit our souls to the Lord. He is faithful. He knows.
Commit your soul to the Lord—your emotions, your feelings, your thoughts, your will. Commit yourself to the Lord, and then your soul enters into rest.
He is the only One who can keep our soul. We cannot keep it ourselves. Our emotions can be very easily disturbed. A tiny little thing can disturb our emotions.
Our imagination can run wild and imagine things. Our will can sometimes be passive and sometimes hard.
Only the Lord, the Lover of our souls, is able to keep our soul in rest.
Not only our soul, but our bodies also. That is Romans 12:1:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
How can we keep this body? We cannot keep it. Commit it to the Lord. If we commit our bodies to the Lord, He will keep our bodies pure, blameless, and undefiled.
That is the only way. Brothers and sisters, if you search the Scriptures, you will find that what the Scriptures say is this: commit your all to the Lord.
Do not hold back anything from Him. If you hold back anything from Him, the enemy knows it, and that will be the area that will become the cause of your fall.
The only way that we can be kept in this world, through this world, is to commit everything to the Lord.
Dear brothers and sisters, we need to commit our spirit, our soul, our body, our work, and our cause. In other words, we need to commit everything to the Lord.
Lord, Thou hast redeemed us. We are Thine own, so Thou hast our all. If we commit our all to the Lord, you will find that He will keep us until that day.
The big problem today is this: How can we keep ourselves from being defiled and distracted? How can we keep ourselves until the day that we see His face?
We may run very well in the beginning, but then fall by the way in the middle. How can we know that we will finish the course to the very end, that we will keep the faith to the very end?
Brothers and sisters, that is a big problem. We cannot depend on ourselves. The only way is to let Him keep us. Commit yourself.
To some people, commitment is a terrible thing because it gets out of your hands. But if you know whom you have committed yourself to, it is a most peaceful and blessed thing, because you know you are in good hands.
You are in the good hands of the Lord Jesus.
Do not hold back anything, brothers and sisters. We are living in a day in which, if you hold back anything, that thing will be your downfall. You have to commit everything to the Lord, because He committed Himself wholly to you.
Paul says, “Until that day.” Now, what is that day?
The Bible has a number of days: this day and that day. What is this day? The day here may not mean merely a day of twenty-four hours. It may mean a time with certain specific features.
For instance, the Bible speaks of the day of the Lord. That is the day of judgment, a terrible day that will come one day upon this world.
But this “that day” is the day of Christ.
It is the day of Christ that the apostle Paul speaks about in Philippians. He said that you may come to the day of Christ blameless.
It is the day when we, as God’s people, will all appear before Christ. It is the day of His coming—His parousia, His presence. It is the day when we shall all gather together before Him.
It is a glorious day, but it can be a terrible day too. In what sense?
One day, when we shall all appear before Him at the judgment seat of Christ, thank God, we are saved.
Christ was judged for us on Calvary’s cross. Therefore, we will not stand before the great white throne judgment, the judicial judgment of eternal life and eternal death. Thank God, that is all settled.
But, brothers and sisters, as the family of God, when we gather together in His presence on the day of Christ, remember that it is the day of the judgment seat of Christ.
It is not a throne judgment; it is a seat judgment—the bema. It is not a judicial judgment; it is a family judgment.
When we are all together before Him, He will judge His family according to the works that we have done on earth after we entered His family.
Some may build with gold, silver, and precious stones. Some will build with wood, hay, and stubble. That day will reveal everything.
Today we do not know who is more spiritual, who is less spiritual, who is more committed, or who is less committed. Nobody knows.
We may think that some brothers and sisters are very spiritual, and yet on that day you may find it is wood, hay, and stubble. Or others may go unnoticed. We may think, “Who is that little brother or little sister?” Yet on that day, you may find that one shining. Who knows? We do not know, but the Lord knows.
On that day, fire shall appear. The Lord is the burning fire, and He will test every one of us to see how much we are committed to Him.
Brothers and sisters, whatever has been committed to Him, He keeps for that day. But all that has not been committed to Him will not be kept for that day. That is the difference.
Paul’s desire was that he might stand before the Lord without being ashamed. He might stand before the Lord holy and blameless. That was Paul’s desire.
Brothers and sisters, that is what the Lord wants us to be. He really does not want us to meet Him with shame—that we feel ashamed and He is ashamed of us. If that should be the case, woe to us.
His desire is that He may receive a glorious church, without spot or wrinkle, because that is what He is looking for.
How it should be our prayer that, when we see Him, He will not be ashamed of us, because we know whom we have believed, we have committed our all to Him, and we know that He has kept it for us.
So, brothers and sisters, the burden in my heart is this: We are living at the close of this age. Time will not become easier; it will become more and more difficult.
Testings will be more severe. Trials will be heavier. Brothers and sisters, how can we be kept pure and untouched for the Lord?
That is my burden, and I do feel, I do believe, that here is the way:
I know Him whom I have believed, and am fully persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.
So, brothers and sisters, if you have not committed yourself, your all, to the Lord, do it today. Do not wait, because we do not know what is going to happen. We do not know what will happen tomorrow.
Things are changing so fast these days. As we come to the close of the age, things are changing overnight. In a few hours, everything may be changed.
Our only assurance is in the Lord. Where is the perseverance of the saints? Not in the saints, but in the Lord. Our perseverance is in Him.
He cannot keep that which you have not committed. He does not force anything on you. Even though He loves you very much, He will not force it upon you. But neither can He keep it for you. For Him to keep it, you have to commit it.
Commitment is the most blessed thing in life. Dear brothers and sisters, do not be afraid to commit yourself to the Lord, because this is blessing.
May the Lord help us. Shall we pray?
Dear heavenly Father, how we do praise and thank Thee because Thou hast given Thy beloved Son to us, and He has given His all to us.
We do praise and thank Thee because we do know whom we have believed. We acknowledge that we do not know Thee enough, and because of that, we dare not commit enough to Thee.
Lord, we acknowledge our foolishness in keeping ourselves away from Thee, keeping things in our own hands. Lord, we do pray that Thou wilt open our understanding. We pray that Thou wilt enlarge our vision of Thyself.
Oh, we pray that we may commit all to Thee, because Thou art the only One who is able to keep us in this dark time.
So, Lord, do bless our brothers and sisters, that when we shall see Thee, we will not be ashamed; that we may hear Thy voice, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.