coming to you once again in dependence
upon God for all needed help. I'd like to draw your attention
to the second chapter that we read, 1 Timothy chapter 4, and
the text you'll find in verse 13. Till I come, give attendance
to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. The Apostle Paul, as you will
know, was a Pharisee. He was well established in the
truths of the Old Testament. He knew all the law of God and
he rested in that knowledge that he was a righteous man before
God. And yet the Lord saved him. broke
his heart and revealed to him the error of self-righteousness
and caused him to trust completely in the finished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And we know that the apostle
was used greatly by the Lord, by the Lord Jesus Christ to advance
his kingdom. that many came to the saving
knowledge of the truth through the proclamation of the gospel
and even today his writings are included in scripture and still
the Lord is using that spirit-inspired word for the benefit of the church
and for the benefit of people being saved. in 2nd Timothy chapter 3 as he
writes to Timothy again. In verse 15 it says, And that
from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are
able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ
Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect,
thoroughly furnished unto all the good works. And so the Lord
used this intellectual man to steer him onto that right course,
the narrow way that leads to life, and to use him as an apostle
of the Lord Jesus. as he goes preaching in various
places and establishes churches that others are brought alongside
him. As an apostle of the Lord Jesus
Christ, he is specifically gifted in a unique way other than different
to you and I. He is able to do miracles. But as you read through the book
of Acts, you see that those miracles and those specific gifts begin
to wane away. That he is still under the influence
of the Spirit. and he is still used by God mightily
to bring multitudes to salvation. And as we read the New Testament,
we see that insight that has been given to him to be able
to establish and set in order the churches of the Lord Jesus
Christ. As he writes to Timothy, he tells
him how you should behave yourself in the house of God, which is
the church of the living God. So Timothy has been left behind
at Ephesus so that he may establish churches, that he may be able
to put elders in every church, that he may teach the things
that have been passed down to him. So as Paul is believe in
prison at this time, writing to Timothy, hoping to come to
him at some point to help him in the work that has been given
to him. And so he writes to him and explains
to him, these are the things that I expect you to teach and
to set in order in the churches of the Lord Jesus Christ or the
local churches of the Lord Jesus Christ. He tells him in chapter
three about the order. of the church, that there is
to be a bishop or an overseer or a pastor or an elder or elders
in the church. And these men were to take oversight
of the church. These men were in office to feed
the sheep, to be under shepherds of the Lord Jesus Christ, to
take care of the spiritual needs of the congregation and of the
church. there is to be a certain type
of man. It cannot be just any man. It's
to have that desire to do that work. It's to have the ability
or the gifting of the Lord Jesus Christ to do that work. And as
you read through it those characteristic traits and that way in which
he lives is very challenging. that is to be blameless, the
husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, good behavior, given to
hospitality, able to teach, not given to whine, not a striker,
not greedy, not a lover of money, but patient, not a bruler, not
covetousness, one that rules his own house well, and not being
a novice left to be lifted up with pride. And so as Timothy, took over the governing or the
overseeing of these churches that as Paul had preached and
many had come to that belief in Christ, so he was to look
out for these men. Paul tells him to search out
men and to teach them these things that they may be able to teach
others also. And as it's recorded in scripture,
That means that those words that were written to Timothy were
written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And therefore,
as they are written down in the scriptures, they are profitable
for us even today. But it's not just what we feel
or what we think. It's not just what everybody
else has done. But it's what does the scripture
say? What does the scripture teach
us? You see sometimes traditions
can be a bit like Chinese whispers. They just get passed down from
generation to generation and they get altered. They get changed
a little bit and a little bit. Maybe the tradition started off
good and sensible and right, but over time it drifts away
from the truth. And so as a church, as a people
of God, we ought to always to come back to the Word of God,
the Berean church. What did they do? They searched
the scriptures to see if these things were so. what Paul taught. And so it should be with us as
we sit under the ministry of the word of God, as we hear the
preached word, we should not just accept it as truth. We should go back to the word
of God and say, well, what does the scripture say? Is this man
preaching the truth of God's word? Is he rightly dividing
the word of God or is he speaking the doctrine of devils? Is he
twisting the scriptures to itch our ears, to make us feel comfortable? And so the Apostle Paul writes
to Timothy and says, set these things in order. I want you to
have right men in the ministry, men that are grounded in the
truth, men that are not covetousness, men that are in the ministry
for the right reasons because they've been anointed by God,
chosen by God for this specific work. the spiritual oversight
of the people of God. The church does not belong to
the pastor. I know that maybe it sounds strange
to you here but in some countries the pastor owns the building.
The pastor is in control of everything and if you upset the pastor then
you're out. He's in it for the money. He's
in it for the fame, the ambition. The scripture tells us that the
true man of God, he's there because he's been called and gifted to
be there. He's been chosen by the Lord
Jesus Christ as a servant, an under-shepherd for the good of
the people of God. And so he has the spiritual work
to do amongst the people. As we read through the book of
Acts, we see that there was that need, there was that spiritual
oversight by the apostles. But then there was that practical
need of the church. You see, we are not just spiritual
beings. We are spiritual and practical,
physical. There are needs that need to
be met. And so as the apostles, as they studied the scriptures,
as they gave themselves to the ministry of the word and to prayer,
people were lacking. There were things that were not
happening in the church and there were those who were suffering.
And so they set up deacons, those who ministered for the material
needs of the congregation. They took care of the physical
needs of the congregation. And so the whole body is taken
care of. Both body and spirit is dealt
with by the order that the church has been placed in. Deacons have the same characteristics
as the pastor. The same things that apply to
the pastor are the same things that apply to the deacon. But
if we look at it, these characteristics should be the same in every single
Christian. They're just explaining how a
Christian should be, of a good report, not given to wine, not
greedy, not a lover of money, not a patient, not a fighter. And so we can't say to ourselves,
well, I'm not a pastor. I'm not a deacon. So that means
I can be a fighter. I can be a lover of money. I
can be covetousness. I don't have to be hospitable.
No. All those that are indwelt by
the Spirit of God, believers in the Lord Jesus Christ have
the Spirit of God in them and so they manifest the attributes
of that Spirit. So both pastor and deacon have
a work to do within the church, one spiritual and one physical. And so Timothy is being written,
Paul is writing to Timothy and he's being told, set these things
in order. Everything must be done decently
and in order. Our God is a God of order, is
a God of structure. Look at his creation, everything
works smoothly, everything has its place. Look at the planets,
how they all align and they move in accordance with the will of
God. Every day it is controlled by him. And so that's how he
delights to have it in his church. It is his church, the church
or the household or the house of the living God. So as Paul is not with Timothy,
he writes to him and he says, till I come. They were separated one from
another. You know that the relationship
between the two is almost as a father and son. Timothy loved
Paul and Paul loved Timothy. The Bible tells us, doesn't it?
You know when you have passed from death unto life because
you love the brethren. Love is the scent by which the church
is knit together. They love each other as Christ
has loved them. There may be times we have to
make that choice to love. You see, Christ made a choice
to love us. There was nothing in us that
was worthy of his love that he chose, our people before the
foundation of the world. And we are to love one another
as Christ loved us. So Timothy and Paul, they loved
one another. They were knit together in the
unity of the Spirit. They were knit together in the
ministry. Paul writes to Timothy in a loving way, desiring that
he will be with him soon, but also he loved the church. Paul
loved those who had come to the Lord Jesus Christ. He carried
the burden of the church in his prayers. He carried the desire
for everything to be set in order, the people of God to be taught
the scriptures and to be encouraged and ministered to both in spirit
and in body. And so he says, till I come.
It was that separation period. I was reminded, as I've said,
that you know that you've passed from death unto life because
you love the brethren. Christ loved the brethren. He loved
his people. He loved them so much. The scripture
tells us, greater love has no man than this, and a man lay
down his life for his friends. And yet he has gone away. He has left, physically left
his people to be at the right hand of God. And as he is leaving
the apostles, he seeks to encourage them, I'm going away from you,
but I'm going to give you the spirit of God, the comfort of
the Holy Ghost who will be with you. But he says, I am going
away till I come. In Luke chapter
19 the Lord Jesus uses a parable to explain the way in which the
church is to conduct itself as they wait for the coming of the
Lord Jesus Christ. In verse 12 it says, He said,
therefore, a certain noble man went into a far country to receive
for himself a kingdom and return. That noble man is the Lord Jesus
Christ. He has gone away. And he called
his ten servants and delivered unto them ten pounds and said
unto them, Occupy till I come. Occupy till I come. apostle Paul
has been given a gift of that apostleship to minister and to
establish the churches of God. He then passed on his ministry
to Timothy and others as they took on the baton and as they
ministered to the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, they were
gifted. God had anointed them and set them apart for the ministry
of the word and they served him faithfully. They used the talents,
the abilities that God had given, the calling that God had given
for the furtherance of the gospel. They didn't hide their talent
in the ground, but they used it for the advancement of the
kingdom. And the Lord Jesus uses these
words, occupy till I come, similar to Timothy, till I come. The Lord Jesus Christ is coming
again and he does not want to find his church sleeping or relaxing
or hiding their light underneath a bushel or hiding their talents
and abilities under the ground. He desires to see them using
those gifts and abilities for his honour and for his glory.
Some, yes, have been given different abilities, some more visible
abilities as in preaching and as in caring and others as in
distributing to the necessity of the saints, some in giving
of their wealth and goods, but all Believers have been gifted
to be part of that body to occupy until the Lord Jesus Christ comes
again. Occupy till I come, till I come. Give attention to reading. And so in that occupying and
in that waiting period, Timothy was not to be idle. It was not
to say, well, you know, my brother is taking some time. I'm just
going to hang about here and relax until he arrives. That waiting period
was not an idle period. but it was a time for him to
work and to trust God and to wait for the apostle to come. And the apostle then gives him
some things to occupy his time that he may be of a benefit to
the church. Give attention to. Steer your mind. The word can
be used as some as a pilot piloting a ship, giving attention to how
it is being steered and guided and directed. He tells him to
occupy your mind with something. Don't waste your time, but give
attention. Steer your mind. Exercise your
mind in beneficial ways to reading the scriptures. We know that, as I read already,
that Timothy was a boy who had been brought up under the sound
of the scriptures. His grandmother Lois and his
mother brought him up under the sound of the truth. It says,
and from a child that was known the Holy Scriptures. Just because
he knew the Scriptures from a child does not mean he had to stop
knowing the Scriptures. It was to be his daily delight,
his daily occupation, to be a studier of the Word of God, to give himself
to reading of the Word of God. God's Word that is truth. Timothy was ministering at a
time when the church was under constant attack from the Romans, from the Jews
and we can say from Satan always seeking to infiltrate and to
creep in We are told, aren't we, that the time will come when
ravenous wolves will enter. That Satan is able to be an angel
of light, a deceiver entering into the church. That there will
be those come who seek to itch the ears of the people, to preach
things that they want to hear to make them feel good. And they
are going to come with seducing spirits. and the doctrines of
devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared
with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, commanding to abstain
from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving
of them which believe and know the truth. And so it was a difficult
time for this young man. He says, let no man despise your
youth, but he was to exercise himself in the practice of reading
the Word of God and that he would be fully equipped with the truth
to be able to combat all the lies that were coming his way,
all the opposition that was coming his way. The Jews, as they sought
to steer the church back to the ceremonial law, and as they told
people, yes you can have Jesus, but you must also do this, this,
this and this. He had to know the scriptures.
He had to be fully acquainted with the word of God to be able
to combat all of this, the heresies that were taking place. And,
you know, it's no different in our day. The church from its
beginnings, as the beginnings, as we say on the day of The beginnings of we say is as
Christ came and brought about his people, as they met together,
it has been under constant attack. And today it's still under attack. Satan hates the truth. Satan hates the proclamation
of the gospel. He is the father of lies. He
would delight in the fact that someone was preaching a twisted
gospel. He would delight in the fact
that people were preaching words that itched the ears of the people. And so even today, these words
are to be sounded out to the people of God. till I come. Not to the Apostle Paul but to
the Lord Jesus Christ. To the Lord Jesus Christ comes.
Give attention to reading, the reading of the scriptures. This
reading of the scriptures comes from the Jews. As you remember
in the Old Testament with Ezekiel. And as they established the city,
as they rebuilt the city of Jerusalem, it was the reading of the scripture.
As Josiah, as he was restoring the temple and they found the
word of the Lord and they began to read it, he was convicted
of his sin. He rent his clothes. He sought
out a prophet about what should be done. It was the reading of
the scripture that brought about the transformation of his heart.
It was the reading of the scripture in the time of Ezra that caused
the people to cry out and to weep over their sin. If you think about it, the only
time that any minister is without error is when he's quoting or
reading from the word of God. No minister is infallible without
error. As I preach, I'm not an apostle. I don't preach the words of God. I may be moved and directed or
any minister may be moved and directed by the Spirit of God
but I'm not a prophet. I'm not an apostle. I don't speak
without error. I only speak without error when
I'm reading from the scripture or quoting from the scriptures. And so Timothy is told, give
attention to steer your mind in that right way and to read
from the word of God publicly and privately. If you listen to people's testimonies,
They very rarely use an illustration to say that this is what saved
me. They very rarely use a story. But it's the word of God they
quote. They would say the minister quoted
this word. and this or I read this word
and it convicted me of my sin. I was brought to the knowledge
that I've sinned against God and they quote a portion of the
scriptures. Yes a minister or somebody may
have helped enlighten but they always go back to the word. And
as you see as they come to that deliverance They tell you a word
that they heard. I was reading the scriptures
and I came across, oh, thy sins which are many are washed away.
And it struck me, it blessed me. And I felt the burden lifted. You see, it's the word of God
that is important. It's the word of God that is
a sword. The word of God that is a fire. The word of God that
is a hammer. The word of God that has an effect
upon the people. And that is why in our churches
we like to read portions or chapters of the scriptures rather than
just little bits. Because we understand that it's
the word of God that has an effect upon the people of God. It edifies
them, it pulls them down, it lifts them up. And so Paul says
to Timothy, give attention to reading. And you know he's got
to. If he's going to be a preacher
of the Word of God, if he's to rightly divide the Word of God,
if he's to preach the Word, then he has to know the Word. As the apostles said, we will
give ourselves to the ministry of the Word and to prayer. That is the lifestyle of a minister,
of a gospel minister, servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's
a man of the Word. He preaches the Word. He's instant,
in season and out of season. And he gives himself or seeks
to give himself attention to the reading of the Word of God. 2nd Timothy chapter 4. Paul gives him a charge, which
is a command. I charge thee therefore before
God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick or
the alive and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom preach
the word. be in season, be instant in season,
out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering
and doctrine. For the time will come when they
will not endure sound doctrine. But after their own lusts, they
shall heap up to themselves teachers having itching ears. And so if
it's to preach the word and nothing but the word, He is to know what
the Word of God says. It is said of John Bunyan, the
way in which he has been able to write Pilgrim's Progress and
how it is so saturated with the Word of God is because he was
filled with the Word of God. He went to prison and all he
had was his Bible and Foxe's book, Book of Martyrs. He was
there reading and reading and reading and reading until he
was like those water pots we had this morning, filled to the
brim and overflowing with the Word of God. Because he gave
himself, he gave attention to the reading of the Word. Remember
the Lord Jesus as he began his ministry and he's called
into the synagogue and he opens up the scriptures and he reads
to them Psalm 53 and he says to them, this day, this scripture
is fulfilled in your ears. It was a public reading of the
Word of God and Christ went specifically to that point to read. He knew the Word because he was
the Word but he knew the Word of God. And so Timothy and every
minister and every Christian we can say are people who give
attention, steer their minds to the reading of the Word of
God. Not just the Word of God, there
are obviously good books which help enlighten us on the scriptures. But the one book which is needful
is the Word of God. It's the Word of God that changes
people. But then he says to exhortation. You see, reading needs to produce movement. reading needs to have an effect. And as he reads the scriptures,
as he stands up to preach the word of God, he's to exhort the
people of God. By our nature, we have a tendency
to stay in a lukewarm condition. We don't like to be challenged.
We don't like to be told what to do. And part of ministry is
to challenge and to edify and to encourage and to exhort the
people of God to walk worthy of their calling and to walk
worthy of the Lord Jesus Christ as ambassadors of the Lord Jesus. And so Timothy is to exhort to
fan the flames as it were of those who were sitting under
his ministry. This is what the Word of God
says, this is what I have been reading, this is what has been
revealed to me in the Word of God and this is how we should
be living as people of God. You might say well I don't like
being told how I ought to live. scriptures, the New Testament
especially, points to the way in which a believer ought to
live. Godly, the doctrine which is
according to godliness. And Timothy is to stir up the
believers as an eagle stirs up her nest, as she puts thorns
there to make the little ones uncomfortable. So the minister
of God is to put thorns. to make the people uncomfortable
as he has also been uncomfortable himself in his meditation, in
his preparation. So he's to come from his reading
from the face of God into the face of the people to declare
the things that he has handled and felt in the word of God and
to exhort and to encourage the people of God. I saw. As we just read about preaching
the word, be in season, out of season, and here it is, reprove,
rebuke, exhort with all long suffering or patience and doctrine. Is to exhort the people of God. the believers of God, those who
are united to Christ, who have been made alive in the Spirit
of God, is to exhort them to godliness and to good works. James tells us, doesn't he, faith
without works is dead. And so if our Christianity does
not produce a Christian lifestyle or a godly lifestyle, then it's
dead. preached on Sunday evening. I'd
never preached from it before, but it's those words that Jesus
says, depart from me, for I never knew you. And they say, well,
Lord, we have done this. We have done that. We have done
this. And it's the most searching words
that you can ever read. You believe that you've lived a good Christian
life, that you come to the end of your life. And Christ says,
I don't know you. So sometimes ministry is thorny,
it's prickly. But it's done so that we may
examine ourselves, so that on that great day of judgment we
don't come and have a complete shock that we've always been
without Christ, separated from God in the world. is better to
be pricked now, to realise that you have no faith and you're
separated from Christ, to flee to him and to walk a whole lifetime
of lies, believing lies, having never known the Lord Jesus Christ
personally as your saviour. And so Timothy was to read word,
to be fully acquainted with the word of God, then to exhort the
people of God and to encourage the people of God and to teach
the people of God. I say don't you that the best
way of retaining something is to teach others. Once you have
learned something It's to teach somebody else what you have learned,
and it ingrains in your mind. And if you are reading the scriptures
and you are encouraged by the word of God, you're blessed by
the word of God. It's that desire that others
also may be blessed. They may know the blessing of
God. There's nothing greater in this world, is there, than
this world where everything is passing away, yet the word of
God does not pass away, and to be blessed by an exhortation
by the Word of God, to be challenged by the Word of God, to be rebuked
by the Word of God, to be comforted by the Word of God. It is a great
blessing for the people of God to encourage them in their trials. You know, it is through much
tribulation we enter the kingdom. and we come to the place of worship
twice a week. Our lives are varied, many different
things taking place and it's very easy to be discouraged.
And so we come to worship God and not only do we worship God
but we also benefit from worshipping God. As we sit under his word
we are reminded of his greatness, of his holiness, of his goodness,
of his love towards his people and as the word is applied to
our lives we are reminded of his favour towards us and that
he has not forgotten us, that we can continue on knowing that
the Lord is with us even in our trials. And so Timothy was to
exhort the people, being totally persecuted, others killed. He's exhorting them, encouraging
them. to press on in their persecution knowing that one day it will
all be worthwhile, one day they will be in heaven at last. Give attention to reading, to
exhortation and to doctrine or teaching. Our lives are each shaped by
what we believe. The people of the world live
out their life shaped by how they believe, their worldview.
This morning we looked at in our Bible study that the Christian,
he is no longer under the law. His life is not governed by the
law of God, but he's under grace. and his life is, as it were,
on a track. That is, he's steered by the gospel, by all that is found
in the gospel. That is his worldview. The world's
worldview is based upon all that they think they know about God. They think they know about there
being no heaven or hell. And so their life is on that
track, and that's how they live. But each of us, we are believers,
or even if we are just nominal Christians, the way that we govern
our life and the way that we live our life is based upon what
we believe. And it's based upon doctrine.
The teachings that we know. Some people dislike doctrine. We have a hymn that says dry
doctrine cannot save us. Which is true. Head knowledge
cannot save anybody. Just because dry doctrine cannot
save anybody, just because dry doctrine has a bad stigma about
it, does not mean that we throw out all doctrine. For doctrine
is good. For without doctrine we would
not know anything about God, we would not know anything about
the Bible. We would not know anything about the Lord Jesus
Christ. We would not know anything about the Holy Spirit. We would
not know anything about the church. We would not know anything about
salvation. We would not know anything about
the last things. And so everything that we know
comes from the doctrine found in the scriptures. And so the doctrine that we know,
the teachings that we know flow or should flow from the word
of God. In chapter four, sorry, in the
chapter we read, verse one, chapter four, it speaks of the doctrines
of devils. Timothy is to give himself to
reading, to exhortation and to doctrine because there are the
doctrines or the teachings of the devil which are contrary
to the word of God. In chapter 6 and verse 3 it says
if any man teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome words,
even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which
is according to godliness. There is the doctrine according
to the devil which steers people away from godliness to uncleanness. There is the doctrine which is
according to the Lord Jesus Christ which is the doctrine or the
teachings which lead to godliness. Timothy is to give himself attention
to the teaching of doctrine so that the people of God know how
to run their life upon the rails of godliness. Not upon feelings and fancies. True doctrine comes from the
Word of God. therefore it's truth and it's
profitable for our lives. 2nd Timothy Paul chapter 3 verses
10 and 11. It says, so this is Paul speaking,
but thou hast fully known my doctrine manner of life, purpose,
faith, long suffering, charity and patience, persecutions, afflictions
which come unto me at Antioch and Icaeum and Lystra. What persecutions
I endure but out of them all the Lord delivered me. And so
Paul writes, you have fully known my doctrine and manner of life.
And so doctrine and manner of life or practice go hand in hand. What you believe is how you will
live. How you have interpreted the
scripture is how you are going to govern your life. The doctrine
is the foundation of your life which you build your house upon. The foundation shapes the size
and the shape of a house. And so that's why we would say
we'd be very careful about who we have preach in the churches. Because if someone has a different
doctrine, that is going to affect the way that he interprets scripture. That is going to affect the way
that he preaches. If he believes that all men are
saved, that Christ died for all men, then he's going to preach
with that mindset. he believes something else that
is going to be the foundation that is going to be the fountain
from which he draws upon his doctrine and therefore it is
crucial that we have right doctrine that produces a right practice. They go hand in hand. And so Timothy was to give himself
to preaching doctrine, not dry doctrine, but a doctrine that
is drawn from the word of God so that the believers may be
satisfied, that the believers may grow in grace and be able
to govern their lives and govern their lives. or what is being found in the
Word of God. But from doctrine comes experience. But our experiences that we have
must be shaped or brought back to the scriptures. They must
be brought back to doctrine. The Bible tells us that there
are many spirits that have gone out into the world, seducing
spirits that seek to draw away the people of God. John tells
us. Chapter four and verse one, Beloved,
believe not every spirit, but try the spirits or test the spirits. whether they are of God, because
many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know
ye the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that
Jesus Christ has come into the world is of God. Test the spirits
to see whether they be of God or not. There are people who
have sat through a challenging sermon and they have had an emotional
response to what has been said. They have been scared about going
to hell. They've been scared about meeting
the Lord Jesus Christ at the end of their lives and they've
been overcome with emotion and they've wept. I was speaking
to one minister once and he said that he had one man who was weeping
in his arms. Where's that man now? Far as
we know, left church. He was affected, he was overcome
by emotion but he wasn't converted. He was afraid. And so the experiences that we
have must be brought back to the scripture. Is that a real
work of God in the heart? Is that really a Christian experience,
a move of the Holy Spirit or is it just an emotion? Sometimes people say, you know,
God spoke to me and told me that I'm going to marry this person
or marry that person or do this or do that. And all of these
things have to be brought back to the scripture. Maybe God does reveal to different
people that he has someone for them or he is doing this or that.
And it's very unwise to broadcast it. God sometimes works in extraordinary
ways and does unique things but his normal way of working is
to work through the Word of God, the preached Word of God, the
read Word of God and through doctrine and if something takes
place in our life that doesn't conform to the scripture then
we're to take the scripture and not the feeling We're to take
our feelings and our emotions to the Word of God or what is
taking place in our life back to the Word of God and say, does
the Word of God agree with what is taking place here? And if
it doesn't, we know that God can't lie and
God cannot go against his own word. I'm sorry to get rid of it. So our experience must be shaped
by doctrine and not doctrine, not our experience shape our
doctrine. Sometimes you hear people say
well the Lord has shown me that it's this way. Or they take the scripture and
they twist it round and they say the Lord has shown me that
this is what it means. Instead of taking the word from
the scripture, they put their own idea into the scripture. They put their own feeling into
the scripture rather than having the script to shape their mind
and their thoughts. And so that's why it's vital
for this to continue on even today, till I come, till Jesus
comes. Don't go around itching people's
ears, making themselves feel good. Give yourself to the scripture,
to the reading of the scripture, even normal believers, so that
you'll be able to respond to the preaching of the word with
an amen or with it, that's an error. You spoke wrong there. The Berean church searched the
scriptures to see if these things were so. Give ourselves to reading,
to exhortation, to encourage one another in the troubles of
life, the difficulties of life, to rejoice with one another,
to exhort one another to good works and to holiness and to
doctrine. the teachings of scripture. Neglect not the gift that is
in thee which was given thee by prophecy and the laying on
of hands of the of the presbytery. Meditate upon these things. Give thyself wholly to them that
thy profiting may appear to all. Take heed unto thyself and unto
the doctrine. Continue in them for in doing
this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear you. You see
the importance of it. We must be fully persuaded in
what we believe and what we believe must come from the Word of God
and when it comes from the Word of God we're to continue in that
doctrine because he says, in doing so you shall save yourself
and those that hear you. That's what we want isn't it?
We want people to be saved and we want the saints to be established
in the truth. We desire that the Holy Spirit
of God may move upon the congregation, move upon our neighbourhood so
that people may come to a saving knowledge of the truth. And they
can only do that when we understand the truth. My grandma used to
tell me of a car that pulled up outside a chapel And they
said, excuse me, what is grace? And the person said, oh, I don't
know. And they had to ask their friend,
what is grace? Oh, I don't know. You see, we
just preach experience, experience, experience. and you don't know
any doctrine. The doctrine is the foundation
of what we believe. What we believe must come from
doctrine. Our experiences must come from
doctrine and doctrines must come from the word of God. Everything
must be shaped and fitly framed together. And if we don't know
the basics, what is grace? And how can we experience grace? We can only experience it if
we know what it is. We can only relish in it if we
know all that Christ has done for sinners upon the cross. And
that comes from doctrine, that comes from the word of God. And
may the Lord apply our hearts give ourselves to reading,
to exhortation and to doctrine that our lives may be both doctrine
and practice and experience. We may know the things most surely
believed amongst us that we may be established in the truth and
built upon a solid foundation that cannot be moved by the tide
of error that is round about us. May the Lord help us each.
Amen. Our final hymn is 681 from Gadsby's
to the tune 369. 681. Blessed are they whose guilt
is gone, whose sins are washed away with blood, whose hope is
fixed on Christ alone, whom Christ has reconciled to God. 681. His penitence Wisdom yet appear. Can this we say freely,
merely, this wond'rous tale? May the grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ and the love of God the Father with the fellowship and
communion of the Holy Spirit to be with us each now and forevermore. Amen.