Turn with me, if you would, to
1 Timothy chapter 4. 1 Timothy 4, last Sunday we looked
at verse 12. which says, let no man despise
thy youth, but be thou an example of the believers. You be an example. In word, in life, conversation
means life, way of life. In love, charity means love. In spirit, in inner will and
desire. In faith, and in purity. You be an example in your body
before other believers in these things. You be an example. Paul
said to write the same things to you is not grievous because
it's so safe. And I want to say that to speak
the same things to you, to me, is not grievous because it's
so safe. It's just so safe. Last Sunday
morning, we began the Bible study with a recap of what Paul has
been saying to Timothy up to this point. And we saw that this
is all concerning preaching. We started back at verse one
and we went through some places and saw that Paul is instructing
Timothy on preaching. He exhorted Timothy. And he told
Timothy to exhort the other preachers to teach no other doctrine. But the doctrine that God has
given the truth concerning Christ. The truth concerning man, the
truth concerning God, the truth concerning salvation. Don't teach
anything but the truth concerning these matters. He spent the first
part of this chapter, chapter four, saying, we are not saved
by works. We're not saved by the obedience
of the law. We're saved by Christ. We're saved by faith in Christ. Look into Christ. We're saved
by the fact that God was manifest in the flesh and justified in
the spirit. We're saved by Christ's works. We are saved by Christ's obedience
to the law. Does the law have to be kept?
Absolutely it does. God gave this law. He said, if
you want to live, this has to be done. Does that have to be
done? Absolutely it has to be done. And Christ is the one who
kept that law for us and gave that keeping of the law to us. But we're not looking to the
law. We're looking to Christ. We're not looking to this flesh
at all. We are looking to Christ. We're
looking to Christ. Hold your place right here and
turn over to Galatians chapter 3. I was going to just move on from
this verse, and as I started looking at it this week, I just
felt compelled to say some of these same things again. The
same man who wrote the letter to Timothy wrote this letter
to the Galatians, the Apostle Paul. And Paul only had one message. This is so important. I can't
tell you how many times I have heard men say, well, now Paul
preached this to them and they say it in error. But he said,
Paul preached this to them, and then he said that to them. I've
heard so many people say, well, this is what Paul thought originally,
but he changed his mind and told them, no, this is not the word
of Paul. This is the word of God. This
is inspired by God's Holy Spirit. And Paul only had one message. The same thing he said to the
Galatians, that's the same thing he said to Timothy. And I want
us to see this because it will, clarify what he's saying to Timothy,
all right? Verse 1, Galatians 3, verse 1,
he said, Oh foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you? Who hath
spoken these crafty lies to you and tricked you and convinced
you to go back to what God called you out of? You remember in chapter 1, he
said, I marvel that you're so soon removed from the gospel
of Christ. Who hath bewitched you to go back to what God pulled
you out of and called you out of? Verse 1, O foolish Galatians,
who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, the
gospel, the gospel of God's free grace in Christ? as though they're
telling you it's another gospel. That's what he called it in verse
one. There's not another gospel. Verse one, O foolish Galatians,
who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before
whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified
among you? He said, you've seen Christ.
Christ has been revealed to you. Christ crucified has been revealed
to you. What Christ accomplished for
you on the cross and gave to you through the cross, you've
seen the glory of it. You've seen the completeness
of it. Verse two, this only what I learn of you, received ye the
spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith. He
said, just tell me this. Did the salvation of Christ come
to you? The knowledge of it, the quickening
of life through it. Did the salvation that has been
revealed to you through the person in the work of Christ, did that
revelation, that quickening, that turning point, did it come
through your obedience of the law? the law being exercised by you
in your flesh, or did it come through you hearing the gospel
preached and through that hearing of the word of God, receiving
the faith of God to believe and lay hold of the promise of life
through him?" He said, just tell me, which one was it? If a child
of God is a true child of God, that child will give the glory
to God. And that child will say, it did not come through my obedience
to the law. God freely gave it to me. That's
how I got it. God gave it to me. Okay. If that's established, if it
didn't come through us obeying the law, but we heard the free
gift of God in the person of the Lord, Jesus Christ, if that's
established verse three, he said, are you so foolish Gabe Stoniker? Having begun in the Spirit, are
you now made perfect by the flesh? He's saying, do you really believe
that Christ started the work of perfecting you and didn't
finish it? When he said, it is finished,
do you really believe that means it is incomplete? When the scripture says you are
complete in Him, you really think that means incomplete? You really think that means there
is still room for improvement? When the scripture says that
by one offering, He hath perfected forever Them that are sanctified. You really believe that means
not yet perfected and not yet sanctified. Why does the scripture
say concerning God's people, this is concerning God's elect
people. Why does it say that as he is,
so are we. in this world right now. Why does it say that? It's because
as he is, so are we in this world, in Christ. As he is, so are we
in this world. This thing of man being able
to do something in the flesh to increase his holiness and
his purity before God, that could be the greatest insult to Christ
and the greatest robbery of his glory that man has ever come
up with. What did he do? What did he come
to do? What did he accomplish for his
people? To believe that we can perfect or improve on Christ's
work in us, that is utter blasphemy before God. That's stealing the
glory from what He did. In order to do that, we have
to have a hand in it. To improve on His work, we have
to have a hand in it. Ask a man named Uzzah what happens
to a man when he tries to add his hand to it. You remember
the story of Uzzah? They were, he was driving the
cart that was pulling the Ark of the Covenant and the ox that
was pulling it stumbled and he thought that cart was going to
fall and he put his hand to steady it and God killed him. Somebody's going to hear this
and say, Gabe, where's all this coming from? Why are you being so firm about
this? Why are you just repeating these matters? Here's the reason
why. It's because I preach. And Paul told the Galatians in
chapter one, if a man preaches anything other than Jesus Christ
alone, that's a cursed preacher. Isn't that what he said? That's
a cursed preacher. It's critical that we truly understand
what this word is saying to us. Every verse, it's so critical.
All right, now go back to 1 Timothy 4. 1 Timothy 4, verse 12 says, let
no man despise thy youth, but be thou an example of the believers. You be an example. What does
he mean you be an example? He means you be an example. You
be an example. In word, in conversation, in
charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. I went through all
of those last week and I'm not going to go through that again.
But let me just say this. We are all examples in our flesh
of either being redeemed men and women in Christ or condemned men and women in
sin. We're all examples of either
being redeemed men and women in Christ or condemned men and
women in sin. And when you hear a man or a
woman go around with this speech, with this word, when this is
their example in word, When you hear them ask things like, have
you gotten yourself right with God? Because I've gotten myself right
with God. You're on the program. That's an example of a condemned
man or woman. I say that with a heavy heart
because I hear a lot of people say that kind of stuff. Are you
living right? You living right? You got your
life right? God's watching what you're doing
now. You doing enough to make him happy? That's an example
of a condemned man or woman. Do you love Jesus? It's on you. It's on you now. Have you made
your decision for him? Have you exercised your faith?
Are you going to exercise your faith or not? Have you cleaned yourself up
enough for Him to accept you? Have you made yourself pure enough
in Him to bless you? That's an example of a condemned
man or woman. The example of a redeemed man
or woman sounds like this. Thank God for Christ. Thank God for Christ. Thank God
Christ came into the world to save sinners. Thank God for the life of Christ. Thank God for the life of Christ. Thank God Christ came down here
and lived and walked his conversation, his walk and manner of life for
33 and a half years. Thank God for that. Mine is ruined. Mine is ruined. Thank God for the life of Christ.
Thank God for the love of Christ. Thank God he commended his love
toward us in Christ. Thank God of his own will, his
own spirit, and his own will, he begat us with the word of
truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
Thank God for his will. Thank God for the desire of his
heart. Thank God for the faith of Christ
that he gave to us and he wrought in us, causing us to believe
on him. Thank God he has caused me to believe on him. Thank God for the purity of the
Lord Jesus Christ. We are nothing but defiled in
ourselves. Thank God we are without spot
and holy and clean in Christ. Thank God. That's an example
of a redeemed man or woman. In his or her body, in the flesh,
before other believers, that's the example of a redeemed man
or woman. So here's the conclusion of all
this. Stay on Christ. I've titled this message, Keep
it on Christ. Keep it on Christ in body, in
conduct, in speech. Keep it on Christ. Stay on Christ. This right here is the example
of a true child of God in word, in conversation, in charity,
in spirit, in faith, in purity. This is the example. Turn with
me to Philippians chapter three. Philippians 3, verse 1, this
is where Paul said, Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord,
to write the same things to you. To me, indeed, is not grievous,
but for you it is safe. Beware of dogs. That means false
prophets. Every now and then I take the
time to take you to Isaiah 56 and show you all that, but suffice
it to say for now, that means beware of false prophets, false
preachers. Beware of evil workers, those
who must insist on adding their works to God's works. Beware
of the concision, those who try to divide and tear God's people,
lead God's people away from Christ alone, free grace in Christ alone. Now watch verse three. He said,
for we are the circumcision. That means God's elect people.
We are the circumcision, which three things worship God in the
spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus. and have no confidence in the
flesh. None whatsoever. That's the example. That's the example that we go
around before other brethren. God's true elect worship God? The high and holy God? The sovereign God, they rejoice
in Christ Jesus. They don't rejoice in themselves.
They don't rejoice in anything, but the work and the life and
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they have no confidence in
the flesh, none. We don't have any confidence
in our flesh, do we? Our confidence is in Christ.
Paul said, that's the example. Be that example. Be that example. Go back to first Timothy four. Verse 13, he said, till I come,
give attendance. This is how we conduct our worship
services. Till I come, give attendance
to reading the Word, to preaching, that's what exhortation means,
preaching the Word. Christ. The Word. The Word is our doctrine. Christ
is our doctrine. Christ is our doctrine. My goal
for this Bible study really is to hammer this point right here.
Keep it on Christ. Keep it on Christ. Christ is
our doctrine. When we read in our worship service,
I have a man read scripture before each message that's preached.
In a moment, we'll have a man read Scripture for us. When we
do that, these men don't read an excerpt from some book that
somebody's written on some theological subject. They read the Word. We read the
Word of Christ. We keep it on the Word of Christ.
When it's my turn to stand up and preach or any of these men
who are called on to Stand up and preach from time to time.
We don't preach through some series that some man has put
together on how to be better church members or how to get
more out of life or any of these things. We preach the word. Just glance at 2 Timothy chapter
four, verse two, just a couple of pages over. 2 Timothy four,
verse two, Paul said, Preach the Word. Preach the Word. How do we preach
the Word? By always preaching Christ in
the Word. Not man in the Word. Christ in
the Word. Paul told the Corinthians, we
preach Christ crucified. He said, I've determined to know
nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I have
determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. What he was saying in that was
Christ is my doctrine. Christ is my teaching. That's
what the word doctrine means. It means teaching. It means words. What it means
teaching. Christ is my teaching. Christ
is my doctrine. By God's grace, we'll stay on
Christ. Christ will forever be our doctrine.
We'll keep it on Christ. We will point men to Christ.
Christ is the answer to the question. You know, people have all kinds
of questions. I have all kinds of questions. Christ is the answer
to the question. Christ is the root of the matter.
Christ is the heart of the issue. Christ is our doctrine. We hold
to the doctrine of Christ. That's what 2 John, there's only
one chapter in 2 John, verse 9, calls it. John called it the
doctrine of Christ. The doctrine of Christ. This
is just something to take notice of. Every time the scripture
mentions the word doctrines, plural, It's speaking of the
Jews' error in holding to the law. Every single... Look it up. Get a concordance.
Get a Bible dictionary. Download an app on your phone.
Look it up. Every time the word doctrines is plural, it's speaking
of the Jews' error in holding to the law. The true doctrine
of life is singular. Christ. The doctrine of Christ. We hear about certain things
and we we think of them as doctrines. We hear about election. And we think of that as a doctrine,
you got the doctrine of election, and then we hear about limited
atonement. Which a better way of saying
that is particular redemption. There was nothing limited about
our Lord's atonement. I know it means for the elect,
but. They had to have that L, you know, to spell tulip. But we think about limited atonement
and think of that as a doctrine. You know, we think about irresistible
grace and think of that as a doctrine. We think of them collectively
as doctrines and they are. They are. But only in Christ. Only in Christ, only because
of Christ, only unto Christ, our election is in Christ. Our atonement, our covering is
in Christ. Our irresistible call of grace
is in Christ. It's by Christ. It's unto Christ. It doesn't matter what we're
talking about spiritually. The heart of it is Christ. Well, yeah, but what all do I
need to know? Somebody comes in and they hear these things
for the first time. What all do I need to know? Aren't there
things that we need to learn and understand? Some people go
to school for this. They get degrees in this stuff. What all do I need to know? Christ
is our wisdom. What do we need to know? We need
to know Christ. I'm telling you, that's it. Well, what about righteousness?
I hear people talk about righteousness before God. Christ is our righteousness. Christ is our sanctification.
Christ is our redemption. Christ is our doctrine. By God's
grace, Christ will stay our doctrine. So for any man who preaches and
any man or woman who listens to a preacher, keep it on Christ. This is the safest place to be.
Keep it on Christ. My prayer sincerely is that God
will allow us, I pray he will cause us and allow us to do that
the rest of our days. By his grace, we'll keep it on
Christ. All right, you're dismissed.