“For this reason I suffer these things, but I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day” (2 Timothy 1:12).

Some things you know and you know that you know them, and there is no need for anyone to say otherwise.

Try to convince me that, say, Lois Kilgore McKeever never existed. In spite of the incredible arguments you might mount and the truckloads of old records you might haul from the courthouse annex, I remain unconvinced and for a good reason.

I know her. She’s my mama.  She birthed me and did ten thousand other things for me until God called her to Heaven nearly 2 years ago.

Some things are settled forever and to debate their existence, at least for us personally, is an exercise in foolishness.

Imagine someone trying to convince a Christ-follower there is no God simply because he has never met him! Sheer foolishness.

You’ve never been to India either, but I assume you don’t doubt that it’s there.  You’ve never waded the Ganges or climbed Everest or floated in the Red Sea. And yet, you believe they are there because the evidence is overwhelming and the testimony of millions confirms it.

The only things we can be argued out of are those of which we are unsure.

Ken Chafin used to say, “The person with a testimony is never at the mercy of a man with an argument.”

Sitting there in Nero’s miserable dungeon and facing bogus charges for which he will soon be called to answer, Paul is not panicking or blaming or regretting.  In fact, quite the opposite….

“I am not ashamed,” he says.  Not ashamed of Jesus, not ashamed to have (ahem) thrown away a glorious career as a brilliant rabbi, and not ashamed to have done with his life what he did.

Paul is doing just fine, thank you.

He needs his young friend Timothy to know this, and wants him to spread the word among the churches.

Paul’s testimony lends itself to these variations which we do well to consider….

1. I know whom I have believed.

–and am persuaded (therefore) that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him (literally, what I have deposited with Him) against that day.

2. I know why I have believed.

–and am persuaded that I stand on solid footing in saying there is a God, He is alive and well, He has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ, Christ walked this earth and died in our place and rose from the dead, and the revelation about Him (the Bible) is good and true and dependable.

Many years ago, I sat in a class in which the inimitable Paul Little spoke on the subject “Know Why We Believe,” which was the title of a best-selling book he had written for Inter-Varsity.

3. I know what I still believe.

–and am persuaded that since He is trustworthy and His word is dependable, I can stand on its teachings. These involve the reality of God, the Creation of the universe, the Triune God, the Word-made-flesh Jesus, the atoning death of Jesus on Calvary, and that my sins are gone. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).  Next stop for me: Heaven.

Cocky, aren’t I?

You bet.  Not about me. Not about Baptists. Not even about the church, as much as we value it and reverence it, because it is made up of flawed individuals.  But I am cock-sure about the truth of the Gospel and the reality of Jesus Christ, and the time for reticence and silence is past.

“I know whom I have believed and am persuaded….”