Alrighty, would you open your Bibles to John chapter 7? I'm sorry, 2 John. Read verses 7-11 with me if you would. We're in the book of the doctrines, the basic doctrines of the Bible. Basic Bible doctrines written by Brother Don Fortner. And we've entered into chapter 9, the doctrine of Christ he titles it. And he takes his thoughts from these words in 2 John, there's only one chapter, verses 7 through 11, where it says, for many deceivers are entered into the world who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Look to yourselves that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him good Godspeed, for he that biddeth him Godspeed is a partaker of his evil deeds.

This is right in line with what we've been looking at in the titles over the last few weeks of the basic Bible doctrine, basic Bible teachings of the titles of God. Our brother Don writes this, he says, without question, 2 John 7-11 speaks specifically of those who deny the incarnation as being Antichrist. is not to be interpreted as merely meaning that those who deny the fact of the Incarnation are into Christ. He is telling us that all preachers, all teachers, and all religious leaders who deny the eternal deity and Godhead of Christ, the necessity of His Incarnation to save fallen men, the efficacy of His redemptive work in the incarnate God, as the incarnate God and the glory of His exaltation and dominion as the God-man are deceivers and antichrists. In other words, all who teach any doctrine which in any way perverts the gospel of God's free, sovereign, effectual, and irresistible grace in Christ are deceivers and antichrists. We are to have nothing to do with them.

However, writes Don, my purpose in this study is to demonstrate the fact that the doctrine of Christ and the doctrine of the Bible are synonyms. The teachings of Holy Scripture are Christ. I do not mean to say only that the teachings of the Bible are the teachings of Christ, though that is certainly true. I mean that all the teachings of God's word are Christ himself. He is the truth of whom the scriptures speak. Christ is the living word from whom it is written the word speaks. All the doctrines, all the teachings, all the holy scriptures are designed of God to reveal and to exalt God's dear Son, our Savior, and to lead us to faith in Him.

That which separates the truth from mere religion is that truth that concerns a person, the Lord Jesus. That may appear to some to be a trite or worn-out phrase, but it is true. That salvation is a person, not a doctrine. The importance of this distinction cannot be overstated. There are many who find fault in the insistence upon this point. I am constantly told, writes Don Fortner, that it is an oversimplification. You cannot preach the Bible without preaching doctrine, teachings, different teachings, and you cannot always preach Christ and the gospel if you faithfully expound the word of God.

Well, the first part of that objection is true. We cannot preach the Bible without preaching doctrine teachings. He says, I make no apology, and I agree completely, for preaching and teaching doctrine or for being a doctrinal teacher. The word doctrine simply means teaching. Certainly, you cannot teach without teaching. To teach is to indoctrinate one. It would be impossible to preach the person or the work of Christ without preaching doctrine. However, it is quite easy. to preach doctrine and never preach Christ.

However, I take strong exception to the notion that you cannot always preach Christ and the Gospel if you faithfully expound the Word of God. To preach all the counsel of God is to preach the gospel. It is to preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I repeat, the message of the scriptures is Jesus Christ Himself.

Look over at Luke chapter 24, verse 27. Matthew, Mark, Luke, chapter 24 of Luke. Look at verse 27. This is clear as a bell. You cannot misinterpret this. And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He, the Lord Jesus, expounded, preached, taught, doctrine unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself."

Look over at verses 44 to 46 of that very same chapter. And he said unto them, unto those two men that were on the road to Emmaus, he said unto them, these are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you. that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning me."

What Don is making a point of here is that all of the Old Testament, all of the New Testament points us to Christ. It's all about Christ. So to say that you cannot preach the gospel with some parts of the Bible is not true. I don't believe that either. I don't agree with that.

Look at verse 45 and 46. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the Scripture, and he said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it is behooved, Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day.

Another verse that if you would turn over to John chapter 1. Look at verse 45. Philip findeth Nathanael. This is John chapter 1 verse 45. Philip findeth Nathanael and said unto him, We have found him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.

Another one, John chapter five. Our Lord tells us himself in John chapter five, verse 39, search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me.

One more, if you would turn to the right again, Acts chapter 10. In Acts chapter 10, verse 43, we read these words, to him give all the prophets witness, that through his name, this is Acts chapter 10, verse 43, that through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission for their sins.

So Don goes on to say this, he says, what Paul said to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20, verse 27, and that which he wrote to the saints at Corinth in 1 Corinthians 1, 23 and 22 are but two ways of stating the same thing. Christ crucified is all the counsel of God.

This fact is demonstrated in the book of Acts. In that inspired history of the church's earliest years, the words preach, preached, and preaching are used 37 times. Every time they are used, They are used. The subject preached was a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. The apostles' doctrine was not a creed, but it was a person.

Look over at Acts chapter 5, verse 42. And daily in the temple and in every house they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.

Truth, writes Don, is in some ways like a jigsaw puzzle. A jigsaw puzzle is made of many parts. Each one is important to make the whole picture. The puzzle could not be complete if any individual part was missing, yet we must realize that the value of each such a puzzle does not lie in the individual pieces, but in the image that is made when all these pieces are joined together in their proper Relationship.

Even though an unassembled jigsaw puzzle contains the very same materials and pieces as an assembled one, there is a great difference between the two. The assembled puzzle gives us an image, a picture to enjoy. An unassembled puzzle is just a box of cardboard pieces.

The Word of God is similar to that. It is made of many parts, each one important, yet the value of these parts lies not in themselves, but in the image they create when assembled. Through the preaching of the gospel, all the doctrines of the scriptures are pieces of the divine puzzle which, when assembled, provide us with an image of the Lord Jesus.

One may emphasize the various individual pieces of this puzzle and become quite expert in that and never see the image of the whole picture which they were designed to create. Our Savior said to the Pharisees, he said, search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life and they are they which testify of me.

The Pharisees were experts in the pieces that they made. Don says, I fear that most preachers of the Bible and teachers in our day are of the same like the Pharisees. Like ignorant babies playing with the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle they play with and are greatly consumed in playing with those pieces of the Holy Scripture.

If someone stands up and plainly preaches the gospel, plainly sets forth Jesus Christ and Him crucified, like babies with a puzzle, they start pulling out the pieces. Those who preach but do not preach Christ, those who teach from the Bible, but do not teach the gospel, do not understand the Word of God at all.

That doctrine, which does not have Christ crucified for its beginning, middle, and end, is a false doctrine. Be sure you understand the words of Peter in 1 Peter 1. The Word of God has not been preached unless the Gospel has been preached.

Turn over to 1 Peter 1. Look with me at a couple of verses there if you would.

1 Peter 1. Look at verses 23-25.

Being born again not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. This is verse 23 of 1 Peter 1.

For all flesh is as grass, And all the glory of man is as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower, therefore, falleth away. But the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.

" Every man sent of God to preach the gospel is in total agreement with every other man sent of God to preach the gospel, insofar as the message they preach is concerned. They all see eye to eye in this matter. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord.

When the scriptures speak of preaching Christ, this is what they mean. All preaching is to be done with the purpose of revealing Christ and making him known. So that chosen sinners may see him, believe on him, and worship him.

The goal of all the apostles and their successors has been to make Christ known in truth. To that end, preaching Christ means we must view all scripture as a revelation of Him and interpreting it according to that rule, not being satisfied with the mere pieces of truth but determined to learn and to declare how each piece fits into the puzzle. This is understanding the scriptures, and this kind of preaching will help us in seven distinct ways. I'm going to bring at least one this morning, and it's preaching Christ will deliver us from becoming a mere religious movement. By preaching Christ over and over again, it'll deliver us from becoming a mere religious moment.

Don says, someone once said that all organizations go through three stages. The man who founded it, the movement or the organization that carries it on under the movement of the man generated, and the moment and the monument. In other words, a dead organization that may bear the name of the founder but has little or no connection to him or his vision.

He gives us a couple of examples of that. Lutheranism John Luther, its founder. But few Lutherans adhere to Martin Luther's doctrine. Presbyterianism is associated with John Calvin, but few Presbyterians rejoice in Calvin's doctrine. Preachers in most Protestant and Baptist churches use the name of Charles Spurgeon and John Bunyan, but few preach the gospel those faithful men proclaim.

The only thing, writes Donna, preserves the church from such fate is that the man, in this case the man in Christ Jesus, is continually revealing himself from generation to generation. This revelation is accomplished through the preaching of Christ. When Christ is preached, the Spirit of God takes those things of Christ, shows them to his elect, and the new generation is joined to Christ.

When Christ is preached, we are never dependent upon the momentum of one generation to carry the work of the gospel into the next. When Christ is preached, every generation is a brand new work, full of the vitality and energy of the man who founds it, and that man is the Lord Jesus Christ.