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Jesmond Parish Church was consecrated 142 years ago in memory of Richard Clayton.

Who was Richard Clayton? Answer: he was a remarkable Christian leader in Newcastle in the 19th century. He was the minister at St Thomas' Haymarket where he saw the church grow to be the most influential Anglican church in the city. But he was a man who when he started out in the ministry was theologically confused.

At the funeral service a few days after his death in 1856 his friend George Fox, vicar of St Nicholas Durham, preached the sermon. And he said that it was only after Clayton was ordained and in the ministry that (I quote):

"he was brought to our blessed Saviour's feet as a repentant and forgiven sinner ... in answer to the fervent prayers of some who took an interest in him and in the spiritual welfare of this town."

Clayton was living proof that you can be church-going, church-committed, and even church-leading and yet know little or nothing of the gospel. But because people were praying for him, God opened his spiritual eyes. How important to pray for Christian leaders and teachers. I personally would like to thank all the people at JPC who have been praying for me over the years.

But when Clayton died on 8 October 1856 at the relatively young age of 54, there was, I quote (again), "a crisis in the religious history of this populous district." Almost immediately the majority of the congregation asked that Halstead, the curate - a man in Clayton's mould - become vicar in Clayton's place. The authorities, however, said "No!" and wanted to appoint someone theologically very different to Clayton. So a meeting was held on 20 November 1856 at the Assembly Rooms in Grainger Street. And a resolution was passed:

" ... to erect a church [in memory of Richard Clayton], which ... will form a central point for the maintenance and promulgation of sound scriptural and Evangelical truth in a large and populous town."

Those words are on the top of your service sheets this morning. And after a lot of opposition the church was built, consecrated and eventually began life in earnest on 14 January 1861. How we need to thank God for the vision and courage of those men and women in the middle of the 19th century.

I am sure they didn't like being attacked and opposed any more than some of us like it today. But they put "the maintenance and promulgation of sound scriptural and Evangelical truth" before their personal feelings and reputations. So how we need to copy their examples today. Will you do that as we look ahead to the future? Paul would want us to.

You see, Paul was urging Timothy to do just that in his situation in the early church. That is why I want us to look this morning at our New Testament reading - 2 Timothy 1.8-18. And I am taking the words from that JPC foundation resolution as my headings, first, "SOUND SCRIPTURAL AND EVANGELICAL TRUTH", secondly, "PROMULGATION" and, thirdly, "MAINTENANCE".

But as a preliminary word of introduction let me remind you that Paul is writing from prison. He has been up front in witnessing to Christ. So he is now in prison. Would you be willing to go to prison for Jesus Christ? I heard only this past week of people in another part of the world being imprisoned for their faith in Christ.

And Paul thinks he may soon die. It was not just prison that he was experiencing, but death row. So he is wanting to hand things over, certainly in Asia Minor, to the young Christian leader, his friend Timothy. But although in prison, Paul has lost none of his confidence in the gospel.

Yes, he is saddened and depressed by the state of the church in Asia Minor. He is not saddened by the gospel itself, or by the church of Christ elsewhere, or by some fine individual Christians. It is a situation we are familiar with in Western Europe where the church so often is depressing.

I thank God that I have been privileged to be involved in this fellowship that is anything but depressing. Here there is a great congregation of wonderful people and a great staff team. But that is not the experience everywhere.

And that was not Paul's experience of the church in Asia Minor. Alone in prison, he is being deserted by Christians in the province of Asia. Look at verse 15:

You know that everyone in the province of Asia has deserted me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes.

So in this context, almost as his last will and testament, Paul tells Timothy, in effect, to ensure: "the maintenance and promulgation of sound scriptural and evangelical truth."


First, "SOUND SCRIPTURAL AND EVANGELICAL TRUTH"

Verse 13 refers to "sound teaching". "Sound teaching" is (literally translated) "healthy teaching". Paul is saying that it is the teaching in a church that either brings spiritual health or spiritual disease. And in this letter to Timothy he makes it clear that the only sound teaching is teaching based on the Scriptures (or the Bible) - the teaching of prophets and others in the Old Testament, and the teaching of the Apostles in the New Testament. It is "Scriptural teaching" that is sound and brings spiritual health. So to neglect that teaching is to court spiritual suicide.

But you ask: "why is this biblical teaching so necessary?" Answer: it is only there that you will discover the gospel about Jesus Christ. "The gospel" is, of course, Old English for the "good news", while "the evangel" and "Evangelical" are from the Greek for "good news". But you then ask: "what exactly is the content of this gospel or good news or evangelical truth? For just to say it is about Jesus Christ can mean anything or nothing."

That is true. For the Qur'an teaches about Jesus, so do New Agers and Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons - and what they teach is contrary to the reliable teaching of the Bible. That is why Evangelical truth needs to be Scriptural and Scriptural truth needs to be Evangelical.

And for the avoidance of doubt and to remind Timothy, Paul summarizes the gospel. He tells Timothy what is at the heart of Evangelical truth. He does that here in verses 9 - 10. In verse 8 he says that he is "suffering for the gospel" and then in verse 9 he speaks of:

God, {9} who has saved us and called us to a holy life--not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, {10} but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Saviour, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

And to underline for Timothy that this is what he means when he is talking about "the gospel", Paul says in verse 11: "And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher."

Are you clear about the gospel - or evangelical truth? Richard Clayton was. It is the fundamental good news that God saves us because we need saving - verse 9, "God ... has saved us."

Since the fall of the first man, Adam, everyone by nature is born with a bias against going God's way - that is what we mean by sin. Many are respectable sinners. Others are more open sinners. From God's perspective there is little difference. But due to the influence particularly of Darwin, Marx and Freud there has been a massive denial of sin over the last 150 years. The problems of life have been put down to history and the fact that we have further to evolve; or to economics and a lack of equal wealth distribution; or to our inner psyche and our sexual, nutritional and power frustrations. Instead of seeing some of these things as the consequences of sin, they are reckoned to be ultimate causes.

But Evangelical truth says, "No!". For it begins with an acknowledgement that the ultimate cause of the human predicament is the rejection of God. And a failure to see that is not only utter folly, it is also costing us billions of pounds.

Political analyses, social analyses, economic analyses and any other analyses that don't take on board original sin are bound to fail. The consequent solutions are just sticking plaster solutions, when what is needed is major surgery. But the good news is that God provides that major surgery. He saves from sin.

Don't debase the concept of salvation. It is a great word. Don't trivialize it. It covers the whole panoply of God's purposes. First, he pardons our sins through the Cross of Christ, then he progressively transforms us by his Holy Spirit; and finally, we are made Christ like in heaven, with renewed bodies in a new world. Verse 9 says, "God saved us and called us to a holy life."

So Paul then tells Timothy two things about salvation. First what is its source and secondly what is its ground.

First, it's source: verse 9 tells us it is:

... not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time.

The source of God's saving purpose goes right back beyond time to eternity. Nor was this something arbitrary. It was all of God's "grace". It is obvious, therefore, that the source of our salvation is not "anything we have done". It is exclusively from "God's own purpose and grace". It is from his loving predestining purpose.

Do you believe that? It is a difficult doctrine - the doctrine of election. But the Bible teaches it. The great message that rings out from chapter 1 of Genesis to chapter 22 of Revelation is that God is totally sovereign. The problem is that another message also rings out - namely that men and women are totally responsible. God's sovereignty and human responsibility are taught side by side in the same Bible; sometimes even in the same verse.

The temptation, in the words of Jim Packer, is to "assert man's responsibility in a way that excludes God from being sovereign, or to affirm God's sovereignty in a way that destroys the responsibility of man". You must hold both truths in tension. Some have said it is like cog wheels in a machine that go in opposite directions but all serve the same end. Isaiah 55.8 says:

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,' declares the LORD.

Humbly you have to go with that, noting that the teaching about God's election and predestining purposes is not there to give you intellectual problems, but to encourage you to see that your salvation does not depend on you, but on God. And it destroys pride and any "holier than thou" attitudes. It also assures us of our eternal safety. For that depends on God, not us.

So Paul tells Timothy about the source of salvation. It is from God's "own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning to time."

Secondly, Paul tells Timothy about the ground or basis of salvation. Verse 10 says:

it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Saviour, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

It is all grounded or based on the incarnation - the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Salvation starts before the beginning of time, but it is grounded four square in history. This is no myth or speculation. It is centred on a real person, Jesus Christ, who lived and died and rose again on this planet.

And the gospel's great message is that Christ "destroyed death" or as the English Standard Version translates it, "he abolished death" - he nullified death. He nullified physical death, spiritual death and eternal death. His Resurrection meant that physical death was destroyed. His Cross meant that spiritual death could be exchanged for spiritual life now. And his Cross and Resurrection mean that you can have eternal life in a heavenly future instead of eternal death.

What do you want on your grave when you die? Many have R.I.P - "Rest In Peace". John Stott says Christians should have C.A.D on their tombstones - "Christ Abolished Death".

Let us move on - and more briefly.


Secondly, "PROMULGATION"

What is to be our response to that "sound scriptural and evangelical truth"?

Look at verses 11-12:

{11} And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. {12} That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.

First we are to communicate that truth, that gospel, to others. In the words of our founders, we are to "promulgate it". Paul was "a herald and an apostle and a teacher" (verse 11). None of us is called to be an apostle as he was - someone who formulated the gospel. But in various ways we can all herald and teach it.

And note that a "herald" is not someone who argues for a message - he just announces it. It is like Gerald Sinstadt with the football results on Saturday afternoon. He is a "herald" of football results. Yes, there is a place for argument. But until people know the facts - that there is a God, that Christ is Lord and Saviour - until they know the facts, there is nothing to argue about.

And as a matter of fact, the Holy Spirit uses "heralding" - which is the literal meaning of the word often translated "preaching" - to bring conviction to human hearts. Why, then, is there not more "promulgation"? Answer: because of fear, shame and the possibility of suffering. So in verse 8 Paul tells Timothy:

do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God.

It is never easy witnessing to Christ. Because of original sin it will always be going against the tide in some measure. And the more a church or a culture drifts from "sound scriptural and evangelical truth" the harder it will be to stand up for the truth. But it has always been hard. It was in Paul's day. It was hard at the Reformation and the time of our Anglican founding fathers. It was hard in the 19th century when JPC was founded. It is hard today.


Thirdly, and finally, "MAINTENANCE"

Look at verses 13 - 14:

{13} What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. {14} Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you--guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.

There needs to be not only "promulgation" but also "maintenance" or the defence of the gospel against error and false teaching. In verse 13 Paul tells Timothy to "keep" what he had heard from Paul, "as the pattern of sound teaching". In verse 14 he says Timothy is to "guard [as he, Paul himself, was being guarded by Roman soldiers] the good deposit that was entrusted to you".

But how was Timothy to guard it? The answer is in verse 13. It says, "with faith and love in Christ Jesus". And verse 14 says, "with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us." It takes strong faith in the keeping power of God to stand firm when you are being attacked as you defend that "pattern of sound teaching". But you also need to do it "with ... love in Christ Jesus" for the people who are opposing the truth and you. None of that is easy. That is why we must rely on, and pray for, the strength of "the Holy Spirit who lives in us."

I must conclude. I do so with the question? What is to be your response to "sound scriptural and evangelical truth"?

If you have never yet accepted the truth that God saves, why not do so this morning? Why not admit that you are a sinner and need Christ's forgiveness and new life by the Holy Spirit?

But many of you this morning have already accepted that truth. Well, will you play your part this year in its "promulgation" and "maintenance" in the way God calls you to, as opportunities arise? As our founders suggested and, more importantly, as Paul taught, both are necessary.