I want to just deal up to deal with
in this message with up to verse 4 on this subject. Teach no other doctrine. Teach no other doctrine. That
was Paul's charge to Timothy. And really he is saying, Timothy,
you charge or command those that teach in Ephesus, that is where
Timothy was, that they teach no other doctrine. Now that word
doctrine means teaching. That is all it means. What do
you teach or preach? It means truth. It has to do
with enlightenment. It has to do with God. teaching His people through His
servants, and mainly the glorious gospel of Christ. In the Bible
we learn, and of course we learn this by experience too, that
there is true doctrine and there is false doctrine, both. Even in the Old Testament, Jeremiah
for example, we've been studying the book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah
spoke of preachers who preach what he called the doctrine of
vanities. And that's worthless doctrine
because it exalts man. It lifts man up. Christ told
his disciples, he said, beware of the leaven of the scribes
and the Pharisees. And that word leaven, as you
know, that's that element that they put in a lump of dough and
it expands. It's a type of sin. All through
the Bible, leaven was a type of sin. That's why when we take
the Lord's Supper, we take the Lord's Supper with unleavened
bread because leaven is a type of sin and that bread is a symbol
of the perfect, sinless body of Christ. And that's why we
use it. There's no power in that unleavened
bread that we take. There's no, people call it something
that has power to save or has no power to save. Christ is our
Savior. There's only power in Christ.
But that bread symbolizes Him. And we use that which does it
properly. So Christ told His disciples to beware of the leaven
of the scribes and the Pharisees and they didn't understand what
He was talking about. They thought He was talking about making bread
and then He told them He was talking about their doctrine.
Their doctrine was a doctrine of salvation by works that inspired
people to try to establish their own righteousness before God
rather than submitting to Christ and the grace of God in Him.
It's a false doctrine. And so when we look at the scriptures
here and see this, you know, the Bible makes it very clear
that truth, absolute, undeniable truth does exist and that truth
matters. You remember when the Lord was
standing before Pontius Pilate and Pontius Pilate made this
statement, it's in the form of a question but he didn't want
an answer, wouldn't want to listen to an answer. And he said this,
he said, what is truth? What is truth? And Pilate there
was expressing a general philosophy that pervades even to our day
and has filtered down into what is commonly come to know as Christianity. And what Pilate was saying there
is that really you can't know what truth is, you can't pinpoint
You can't pin it down to a definition. What might be truth for you may
not be truth for me. Now isn't that the pervading
thought and philosophy of today? And even in religion. Even in
interpretation of the Bible. Well that's the way you interpret
it. You might as well just stand right with Pontius Pilate and
say what's truth? Same thing. The Bible makes it
clear that truth does exist. And of course, we know. We know
where all truth ultimately stems from and is found and centers
around, and that is in the truth of Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
That's what He meant when He said in John 14 and verse 6,
He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father. But by me, God is the originator
of truth because he is truth and all truth comes from him.
That's why when we speak of doctrine in the scriptures as truth, we're
talking about the doctrine of God. The doctrine of God. Jesus Christ is the truth incarnate. He's the truth incarnate. In
the scripture, he's called the Word, and that Word is truth. He's the embodiment of the Word
of God. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And therefore,
he is the Word, he is the truth. He's the truth incarnate. The
Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. He's the subject of
the truth of the Bible. He said all scripture is inspired
by God. written by the hand of God. He
used men to write these words, but he's the author, he's the
inspiration, the verbally inspired word of God. And these scriptures
speak of Christ. All of the scriptures. Genesis
to Revelation. He said, Moses wrote of me. He
said, Abraham rejoiced to see my day. And he saw it and he
was glad. He sat his disciples down after his resurrection,
right before his ascension unto glory. He sat his disciples down
and he taught them the things concerning himself out of Moses,
the Psalms, and the Prophets. And I believe what he was really
teaching them was how to preach Christ from the Old Testament.
All the types and the pictures and the shadows and the prophecies,
the gospel of God in the Old Testament. You'll hear people
say today that Christianity has its roots in Judaism. Not so. That is not so. Now it is true
that the gospel was delivered to the Jew first. But it turned
the Jews' world upside down. If Christianity, the gospel,
had been rooted in Judaism, it wouldn't have turned their world
upside down. It just brought them along the way. But it turned
their world upside down. The first revelation of the truth,
the doctrine, we find in The book of Genesis, chapters 1 through
3, culminating in the revelation and proclamation of the woman
seed, the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man who'd be the Savior
of his people. That's the doctrine of Christ.
And then it's the truth, Christ said in John 8, 32, that sets
us free from sin and from bondage. You're not going to be delivered
from sin and from bondage without the truth. Without Christ who
is the truth, but without the truth being revealed and applied
to our minds and our affections and our wills, our hearts. That's
the doctrine of Christ. The gospel itself is truth. Have God's safe center. gospel
of God's free and sovereign grace in the person and finished work
of Christ, wherein the righteousness of God is revealed, the justice
of God in saving sinners like me and you, in a way that he
can remain true to himself. Mercy and truth are met together,
the scripture says. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. That's the doctrine of the gospel.
That's the blood of Christ. When we speak of his blood, we're
speaking of his death. What are we speaking of? His
redemption of us from our sins. His redemptive work. And then
believers are identified in several ways in the scripture, but one
way, in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, you don't have to turn there,
but the way that believers are identified in that passage, as
opposed to those who are deceived by false doctrine, are that they
love the truth. It's not that you just know the
truth, or give mental assent or agreement to the truth, or
have an intellectual understanding of the truth, but do you love
the truth? Do you love to hear the truth?
What are these doctrines, or this doctrine singular? What are these truths? What are they to me? When I hear
the truth, the doctrine concerning the person of Christ, who He
is, what does it do for me? What does it do for you? Take
it or leave it, some say. I don't believe that at all,
others say. I must have it, God's people say. Those are beautiful
things. They drop down as Moses spoke
in Deuteronomy chapter 32, like dew from heaven. You're talking about my Savior.
You're talking about my Lord. You're telling me more and more
the beautiful doctrine of Christ so that I can know without fail
that I'm trusting in Him and not a counterfeit. What do doctrines
do for us? How important is doctrine in
salvation? Well, look at 1 Timothy 1. Here's
Paul, the older apostle, writing to a young man named Timothy.
And he's writing to him. He'd been at the church at Ephesus. You know about the church at
Ephesus. The letter to the Ephesians was
written to them. Paul had been there several times.
In Acts chapter 20, you can read it, he met with them on his way,
I think to Macedonia, but he met with the Ephesian elders
in another place and he told them, he said now, he said, you
be careful because there's going to be false preachers who will
descend upon you and they'll teach other doctrines, they'll
teach false doctrines. And he said they'll want to put
a notch on their gun. They'll want to use you in that
way. Well, he had left Timothy there
in Ephesus to be a help. And Paul, this is one of the
pastoral letters. Paul being a pastor, he's writing
this letter to Timothy to help him along in his task at Ephesus
at that church. It was a large church. And he
says, look at verse 1, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, an
apostle's a messenger, once sent by Christ, by the commandment
of God our Savior, Paul didn't commission or send himself, Christ
sent him and commissioned him, gave him the message, preached
the gospel of God. And our Lord Jesus Christ, which
is our hope, Christ is our hope, that word hope, remember, is
not wishful thinking, that's a certain assured confidence. of future blessedness in Christ. Our confidence is Christ. That's
what that hope means. You hear me quote that song all
the time, my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood
and righteousness. That's what that's all about.
My hope's not in myself. My hope's not in you. That's
no insult to you. I hope your hope's not in me.
My hope's not in the church or the denomination or some profession
that I made. Listen, God's people make a profession
of faith, but my hope is not in my profession. God, in something
that happened to me years ago, it's not in my baptism. My hope
is in Christ today and tomorrow, God willing, by the power and
grace of God. And so he says in verse 2, unto
Timothy, my own son in the faith. This is Paul being a father,
spiritually speaking. There's only one father, and
that's God. We know that. And God is the
father of us all. But he had taken Timothy under
his wing. Timothy was not converted under
Paul's preaching. Timothy was converted under the
teaching of his mother and grandmother as they taught him out of the
scriptures in the home, teaching him as a child. Read it in 2
Timothy chapter 3. But Paul had taken Timothy as
a young minister under his wing to teach him. Just like an earthly
father brings up his son. That's what he's talking about.
Then he says grace, mercy, and peace. This is his common salutation. Salvation is by the grace of
God and the mercy of God. And we have peace with God from
God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. Peace made between
God and his people through the blood of the cross. And then
he says in verse 3, I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus.
I want you to stay at Ephesus. When I went into Macedonia, Paul
going to Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some, that is,
the other teachers and preachers, evangelists there at Ephesus.
You can read about some of them in Ephesians chapter 4. Charge
them this, that they teach no other doctrine. I want you to look at verse 4.
I want to say a word about that, and then I'll come back to this
no other doctrine. But he says here, he says, neither
give heed to fables, Don't listen to fables. That word give heed
means to listen and obey. What is he talking about fables?
Well, when we think about fables, we think about Aesop's fables,
animal stories and things like that. That's not what he means
by that. Fables here have to do with the myth of imagination
and contrived falsehoods that come from human reasoning that
go beyond the scripture. In other words, any teaching
that I bring to you That it doesn't line up with the scriptures is
a fable. You might as well be listening
to animal stories. They'll do you just about as
much, or rather, they'll do you less harm and more good. In other
words, it would be things like religious stories, religious
experiences, dreams, visions, emotionalism, which when they're
tested by the Word of God under the gospel, the doctrine of Christ,
they don't hold up. I've heard people say this, for
example, you're talking to them about the doctrine of the gospel,
the doctrine of Christ, the truth as it is in Christ. And they
say, well, I don't know about all that, but let me tell you
what happened to me. And then they jump right into a fable. They
don't know it's a fable. Let me tell you what I dreamed
last night, and it was real. You ever heard that one? It was
real. Well, yeah, it's real. Satan's
real, folks. Hell's real, but I don't want
to go there. We're not questioning the reality
of your emotion or your experience. We're questioning the validity
of it. Does it line up with the scripture? That's the key. I don't care how real it was,
how old it was, how you felt, or what a thousand people told
you. If it doesn't line up with the scriptures, classify it as
a fable. That's what it is. And so you
say, well, I'm just not going to do that. That's your choice. That's the natural man. He receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. And then he says, look
at verse 4, he says, don't give heed to fables and endless genealogies. What are these endless genealogies?
Well, I believe, you know, I heard somebody preach one time say,
well, that means it's sinful for any of us to look up our
ancestors. Well, you know that's not what it means. But if you
look at the context, you know, he says over here, he said these
false teachers who teach other doctrine, he says here in verse
7, I think it is, that they desire to be teachers of the law. They
desire to be teachers of the law. Now who was it in that day
and age who wanted to be teachers of the law? Well, it was Jews. Talking about the Jewish people
who claimed to be converts. And what were these genealogies
all about? Well, what was one of the greatest
objections to the doctrine of Christ in the New Testament? Let me show you an example of
what I'm talking about. Turn to Matthew chapter 3. Look at Matthew chapter 3. Now,
here's John the Baptist. He's out in the wilderness baptizing. Look at Matthew chapter 3, verse
7. Look at Matthew 3 and verse 7. It says, Now these are
the same fellows that Christ told his disciples to beware
of their doctrine. He says, verse 8, Now listen
to verse 9. That's my genealogy. I'm Abraham's descendant. I can
trace my roots back to Abraham. What does that mean? Well, that
means I'm saved. That means I'm justified. That means I'm blessed
of God. That means that God has favored
me highly. Is that what all that means?
Well, he says, think not to say within you, says we have Abraham
to our father, for I say unto you that God is able to of these
stones to raise up children of Abraham. In other words, being
a physical descendant of Abraham, if that's your genealogy, if
that's your pedigree, it means absolutely nothing when it comes
to a sinner being saved. It has no bearing on your justification
before God. You can trace it all the way
back to Benjamin. That's what Paul said. I'm of
the tribe of Benjamin. Saul of Tarsus, rather. He said,
I'm of the tribe of Benjamin. That's my genealogy. That was
important, you see. Over in John chapter 8, you don't
have to turn there. The Pharisees, they said, well,
when Christ said the truth will set you free, They said, wait
a minute, we weren't in bondage to any man, we're Abraham's children.
That means something. It was a big lie because they
had been in bondage. They were in bondage right then, they were
under the Roman Empire. But they said, we're Abraham's
children. That's got to mean something. But you see, Paul
and the rest of the evangelists and apostles and true gospel
preachers, what did they preach as far as pedigree is concerned?
They said that it's not of the flesh. It's not of blood. That's pedigree. It's genealogy. all wrote in Romans chapter 2.
He is not a Jew which is one outwardly, and that circumcision
which is in the flesh means nothing. He is a Jew which is one inwardly,
and circumcision is that of the heart. You want to trace your genealogy,
that's all right, but don't do it in a religious way. It means
nothing as far as your relationship with God. It means nothing as
far as you pleasing God or being accepted of God. Do you stand before God, washed
in the blood and clothed in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ? If you do, you're a spiritual
Israelite, a spiritual Jew, a spiritual child of Abraham. And that's the only thing it
means. So don't give heed to these endless genealogies. They
mean nothing. Paul writes, it may mean something
to man. It may give him something to
crow about or boast about. He thinks. Usually, that's a
big lie in most people's genealogy anyway. But it means nothing
as far as a sinner's justification before God. The only one thing
that means anything, and that's Christ and Him crucified and
risen. All of these things you see, any teaching, That's outside
any doctrine. That's outside the scriptures
or any teaching that would promote any notion that a believing Jew
was more saved or more righteous than a believing Gentile. Contrary
to the doctrine of God's grace. It means nothing. And then look
back at verse 4. He says, rather than godly edifying,
which is in the faith. Now, edifying means to build
up. Build up. Edification has to
do with establishing the hearts of God's people with grace. And
how do you do that? You preach Christ. Salvation,
all in Him, by Him, and for Him. You preach Christ. It involves
growth in grace and in knowledge of Christ. That's building up. In other words, if what I preach
to you, if it tears you down, you up, it's not the doctrine
of Christ. Most preachers are in the business
of tearing people down because they want to fell in for themselves,
splitting people up. So anything that's contrary to
this edification, don't accept. Now, what's he talking about?
Well, any doctrine that would lend itself to these things,
fables, endless genealogies, or contrary to godly edifying,
Building up the people of God. Uniting us together in growth,
in grace, and in knowledge of Christ. We're not to teach it. That's what he's saying. We're
not to deal with it. We're not to bother with it.
We're to avoid it. Well, teach no other doctrine.
Now, how important is doctrine in salvation? You know, I hear
preachers sometimes talk about dead cold doctrine. And what
they usually mean by that, you can turn to Romans chapter 6
with me. What they usually mean by that is somebody who preaches
what we might say intellectualism. In other words, it's just a system
of doctrine that there's no beauty to it. There's no Christ there. And they talk about dead cold
doctrine. But I want to tell you something.
And I want you to listen to me very carefully here. Most of
the time, if not just about all the time. The problem is not
dead cold doctrine. Most of the time, the problem
is a dead cold heart. That's the problem. Because the
doctrine now, if I'm going to tell you these things concerning
Christ, there's no way in the Bible that you can find any verse
that would describe such teaching as dead and cold. Now there's
false doctrine, yes, but these beautiful doctrines or the doctrine
as some say, and that's okay because it's all one basically.
What do they really mean? Well, look here in Romans chapter
6. How important is this doctrine in salvation? Look at verse 17. He says, but God bethink that
you were the servants of sin. Now, to be a servant of sin,
then, is to be an unbeliever, an unregenerate person. That's
what that is, not born again. And they may be religious. They
may be, in the world's eyes, a moral, dedicated, sincere person,
but they're unbelievers. They don't know Christ. They've
not been brought to saving faith in Christ, in true repentance.
And therefore, they're a servant of sin. They could be the dregs
of society, or they could be a preacher standing behind a
pulpit. It doesn't matter if they don't know Christ. They're
a servant of sin. Saul of Tarsus, in all of his
religion, was a servant of sin. And so you were that. Now, you're
no longer a servant of sin. That's Paul's point here. Now,
that doesn't mean you're not still a sinner. Because even
as saved by grace, we're still sinners, aren't we? Yes, we are.
The Bible says that. We know that. That's why we have
a struggle within. If you weren't a sinner now,
you wouldn't have a struggle within. Why would you have to
fight sin if you're no longer a sinner? So there are sinners
lost in their sins and sinners saved by grace. So as long as
we're in this body, this body of death, And we need to be delivered
in that sense from this body of death. But he says you were
the servant of sin. But now look, but you have obeyed
from the heart. This is obedience from the heart.
Now what is the obedience from the heart? That's the regenerate
heart, isn't it? We know it's not the natural heart. This is the heart. This is the
good ground. Remember Matthew 13, the parable
of the soil? This is the good ground here.
You've obeyed from the heart. The heart here is the mind, the
affections, and the will. It's not just the emotions now.
People in America today, they think of the heart, that's the
emotions. You know, you'll hear them all the time talking about
don't think with this, but think with that. You know, all that. I heard a preacher say that the
difference between saved and lost is one foot. I think it's
more than one foot on me. That's not what this book means
now. This thing right here, this heart right here, that's an organ.
And someday it's going to stop. And then you're going to die. But we use that language. You
see, the heart in the Bible is the very center of a person's
being. That's what it is. It's what we're convinced of.
It's what we know to be true because God has convinced us.
It's what drives us. It's what motivates us. It's
what we desire. All of those things. And it comes
through the mind. Don't let anybody tell you it
doesn't now. God doesn't save mindless people. If that were
the case, we'd be no better off than the animals. But it comes
through the mind. The Son of God, 1 John 5, the
Son of God hath come and given us a what? An understanding. Now that doesn't mean we understand
everything logically in our human finite minds. That doesn't mean
that at all. There are a multitude of things I don't understand
and can't grasp with my small mind. But I understand some things
as God has taught me. Certain things that He has led
us in on and that is how it comes through the mind, the affection.
You have obeyed from the heart. That is a born again person there.
That is one who has been redeemed. Those who have been ruined by
the fall, dead in trespasses, redeemed by the blood, they have
been regenerated by the Holy Spirit. And that is what this
obedience from the heart. Now, what have you obeyed from
the heart? Well, there's a lot of ways that
we could describe that. A lot of terms we could use.
But this is one of the terms that we find in the Word of God
right here. So don't argue with it and put
it down and act like it means nothing. It means something.
He says, you've obeyed from the heart, look at it, that form
of doctrine which was delivered you. Now
there's two ways of looking at that phrase, which was delivered
you. I've got my own personal opinion as to the emphasis here,
but both of them are true That form of doctrine now that that
form of dog that's the teaching of the gospel. You know that's
what it is That's what he's talking about. That's just that's his
context. He's talking about the gospel of Christ Which was delivered
you which was preached to you? It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching. So what do we preach? Somebody
says, well, I don't preach a doctrine. Well, you don't preach the Bible
then. Most preachers who say that are
lying anyway. You know that, don't you? They
do preach a doctrine. They just don't want to call
it that. And you know what the Bible calls that? Arguing over
words to no profit. That's what the Scripture Now
we can argue over words till the day is long. You've got your
way of defining a thing. Go back to Pilate. What is true?
I preach doctrine. And I'm not ashamed to say it.
Now, in doing so, I preach Christ. Yes, I preach Christ. But you
can't preach Christ without preaching doctrine. Now you can't do it. That's silliness for people to
say, well, I don't preach doctrine, I preach... No, we preach Christ
who is the subject, the author of the doctrine. I'm going to
tell you about His deity, the Son of God. That's the doctrine
of His deity. I'm going to tell you about His
perfect sinless humanity. That's the doctrine of His humanity.
I'm going to tell you about His finished work. That's the doctrine
of the atonement, reconciliation, propitiation, the blood of Christ
washes away all my sins. That's the doctrine of His finished
work. And He says that was delivered to you. But now, if you translated
this from the original, it would read like this, and you may have
this in your concordance. It says, you have obeyed from
the heart that form of doctrine whereto you were delivered. And I believe that is really
the best translation of it. Now it is true that those who
are saved, those who are regenerated by the Holy Spirit, they believe
from the heart the doctrine that is preached to them, when Christ
is preached to us. But you know what? If you obey
from the heart that doctrine, you know what? You were delivered
to it. Now you thought you'd come. Somebody
says, well, I came of my own free will. No, you were delivered
right here. God delivered you. He brought
you where you need to be under the preaching of the gospel of
His grace. And that form of doctrine What is that form? That word
form there is not like a form like an outline or like a shadow. That word form there is like
a stamp of identification. You've heard the term the die
is cast. When they make a form and they
can't change it, the die is cast. That's it. That's what this word
form is. In other words, when God, the
Holy Spirit, gives you life and brings you to believe that form
of doctrine that you were delivered to and that was preached to you,
that dies cast, it cannot be changed, that's identification
right there with the people of God. And look at verse 18. He
says, being then made free from sin, you became the servants
of righteousness. Now that word free there means
liberated. It's a different word. Look over
across the page of verse 7. It says, For he that is dead
is freed from sin. The word freed there is a different
word. There it means justified. What
is it to be justified? That means to be cleared of guilt
in the court of God's justice. That means to be declared righteous
in the sight of God. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Christ was set up to be the surety
of God's people before the foundation of the world, and He came in
time, and He went to the cross, and He paid our sin debt in full. We're justified before God by
the blood of Christ, based on His righteousness imputed, charged,
accounted to us. That's what verse 7 means. We're
justified from sin. And that's always been in the
mind and purpose of God and it was established at the cross
in Calvary. But over here in verse 18, what
happens? That's when in our hearts, in our minds, in our affections,
now we're liberated, we're set free. The truth has set you free.
That's when we see the glory of God in Christ and see our
sins forgiven by the blood of Christ. That's when we see our
justification. which was always in the mind
and purpose of God from eternity, which took place on Calvary's
cross. I'm justified. I didn't know
it before. I do now. I'm free from sin. Sin can no longer condemn me.
Sin can no longer bring me under God's wrath. I'm free. I'm liberated. Being then made liberated from
sin, what do you become? The servants of righteousness.
What is that? That's the servant of Christ. And what did it take? It took the power of the Spirit
of God in the preaching of doctrine. You say, well, you ought not
say that. Well, God did. Right there it is. Right there it is. Why should
I be ashamed of it? Sound doctrine. Look back at
1 Timothy 1. Teach no other doctrine. Sound
doctrine is vital because salvation is revealed in the doctrine of
Christ. And our faith in Him is based
on a specific message, the gospel of God's grace in Christ. And what is that doctrine? Well,
it reveals to us how Christ alone is our salvation. It's the doctrine
of Christ. John wrote, He that transgresses
and abides not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. It's
the doctrine of grace. The truth of our sin and depravity.
Do you know I didn't know and didn't believe that I was totally
depraved before a holy God until I heard the doctrine of total
depravity. And when I first heard it, I
didn't believe it. It took a while. But at some point in time, and
I don't know when, and I really don't care, God brought me to
admit, Lord, if you would mark iniquities, I would not stand.
What is the doctrine of total depravity? Total depravity does
not teach that all of us are as bad as we could be. What do
you think about that? What if all of us were as bad
as we could be? What kind of a place do you think
this would be? You don't even want to imagine
it, do you? But total depravity teaches one, that all men and
women by nature are so affected by sin in every part of their
being, fallen, that they are spiritually dead in trespasses
and sin and can do no good before a holy God, even at their best. Take the best of us and the worst
of us. Now that's the doctrine of total
depravity. When we talk about the doctrine, we talk about God's
sovereignty, God's holiness, God's justice, and the way of
salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ. The doctrine of the Holy Spirit,
the third person of the blessed Trinity who applies what God
purposed before time and what Christ purchased in time to our
persons in each successive generation. How does he do it? Brings us
under the preaching of the gospel. The doctrine of preservation,
God saves us, God keeps us and God will bring us to glory. The
doctrine of perseverance, all who truly know Christ because
they are justified, because they are redeemed, because they are
regenerated and indwelt by the Holy Spirit will never leave
Christ. The doctrine of obedience by
grace, the obedience of faith, obedience motivated by grace
and gratitude and love, not by law and legalism and mercenary
promises of earned reward. Think about it. False doctrine
exalts the works and will and the goodness of men. God's doctrine
exalts Christ and puts man in the dust where he belongs. You
know, this gospel message is a marvelous revelation of both
the wisdom and power of God in the glorious person and finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And hereby we learn the doctrine
of His person. He is God and man in one person. Isn't that beautiful to you?
It is to me. That's the kind of person we
need to save us from our sins. His name shall be called Jesus
for He shall save His people from their sins. His name shall
be called Emmanuel which being interpreted as God with us. He
is God with us. His redemptive work for by one
offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Don't
you love that? It tells us how a holy and just
and righteous God can exercise and work out grace and love and
mercy in the salvation of guilty, defiled, ill-deserving sinners
and yet remain true to Himself, a just God and a Savior. The
gospel in accordance with the law shows us how our sin and
depravity will damn us forever unless God finds a way of salvation
and he's found one that's older than creation itself. It's the
everlasting covenant of grace. Our need of salvation by grace,
our need of mercy, our need of a righteousness we cannot produce
at all times. And it reveals how God appointed
His only begotten Son to be the substitute and surety of His
chosen people. How God conditioned all of my
salvation on Christ. And how Christ came and fulfilled
all those conditions. Saved by grace. The doctrine
of grace, the doctrine of Christ, the doctrine of God. And I'm
so glad that one day it dropped down in my heart like the dew.
to bring me to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and Him crucified.