And just like Adonijah had the
will to be the king, but he didn't have the power. You know, there's not a man on
the earth that wouldn't desire to reign in his own life. Now, he might not want the responsibility
of having to deal with somebody else, you know, and be responsible
for them, but he would always want to do exactly what he wants
to do. You know, that's just the way
that men are born. Every child that's born into
the world is determined to do what they want to do. And you know, just like the Lord
shows us that it's according to his will and not ours, we
have to, in disciplining our children, teach them that they
are not the one who's in charge. And sadly today, that's a missing
element in many places. And children are growing up,
in general, in our society with very little regard to authority. And, you know, it cannot bode well for us, apart
from the grace and mercy of God, to change this. Because surely,
were it not so, that the Lord had broken our stubborn will,
we would continue right on to our destruction. Peter was a
strong man. We speak about him often and
not to be critical of Peter because Peter's just an example of what
we are by nature. Peter was a strong man and he
was sure that he would stand for the Lord when all the others
faded away. And he said, Lord, in essence,
he said, Lord, I love you more than all of these. He said, Lord, when they, all
this bunch over here, you can't count on them. I've been around
them, Lord, I know. But you can count on me. Because,
Lord, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. And I am
tough. And Lord, I, though all men,
deny you, Lord, that won't be me. And the Lord said, Simon, Simon,
Satan has desired to have you, because he's already got you
so close in his grip here, and he wants to have you. He wants
to sift you as wheat. He wants to destroy you. but
I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not. And when
thou art converted, strengthen the brethren. And Peter, he said,
nah, it won't be so, Lord. But we know what happened. The
Lord showed him, the Lord indeed let Satan sift him his wheat. but he didn't destroy him because
he loved him. And he said to Peter, remember
when the first thing he said to Peter, the first thing he
said to him on that seashore, he said, Peter, lovest thou me
more than these? Peter said, before, remember,
he said, Lord, basically, he didn't say it in so many words,
but he said, Lord, when all these others have passed aside, I'll
stand for you. The Lord said, Peter, lovest
thou me more than these? How often the Lord is pleased
to remind us how weak we are, how little control over anything
that we have in this world. And that's a good thing. You
know, a lot of people, they just feel like, buddy, if you just,
you know, stick with it and you can got the faith, you know,
I mean, you gotta have the faith and you got to believe and you
got to do all these things and you can just do anything you
set your mind to. Now there's an element of truth
in that. There's an element of truth,
but a very small one. Because apart from recognizing
who it is that gives us power, any power that we might possess,
that's a grave error. You know, for a man to think
he can do anything. Because the Lord said the very
exact opposite of that. He said, without me, ye can do
nothing. That's what he told Pilate, like
Brother Al pointed out. Pilate said, don't you know that
I have the power to take your life from you? He said, you wouldn't
have any power at all if it wasn't for me. It must have been an infuriating
thing. So may the Lord teach us. You
know what we are. And the way he teaches us what
we are is by teaching us who he is. And as he teaches us who
he is, then who we are kind of fades out. Now what happened
to Isaiah? Isaiah said, in the year the
king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. high and lifted up, and his train
filled the temple. And I said, oh, woe is me. When John saw the Lord on the
Isle of Patmos, the first part of the Revelation, he said, when
I saw him, he said, I fell at his feet as a dead man. Daniel saw him by the river Kebar. He said, all of my comeliness
was turned in me. All of my beauty, anything that
I thought in myself that was good, everything was turned in
me to corruption. He said, I saw what I was. How'd
he see it? By seeing who the Lord was. You
see, and that's why we preach the gospel. It's not to try to
get folks saved. Now, we know that it is through
the preaching of the gospel that the Lord is ordained and set
forth that the light of the truth of God might be set forth before
men as he gives men ears to hear it. It's a glorious thing. But only the Lord can save a man. Only the Lord can do that. Oh,
thank the Lord that he does do that. So we don't preach the
gospel in order to get men saved, though we know that men will
be saved by and through the preaching of the gospel. But we preach
the gospel so that men might be made aware of who God is. He came and dwelt among us. That's
who he is. He walked among us. That's what
John said here. He said, for many deceivers are
entered into the world who confess not that Jesus Christ has come
in the flesh. He came and walked among us.
The eternal God, the one who created the world out of nothing,
he came and dwelt among men. Why? That he might bring redemption
to those whom he loved. What a glorious thing. That's
why we preach the gospels, to exalt Jesus Christ. That all
things might be done to his glory. And if nobody ever, if nobody
ever hears us, And I'm talking about hears us
with the hearing of the ear. I mean, we're projecting our
sound into the world, which the Lord said, go forth and preach
the gospel. We go out and we project that
sound into the world. But I'll tell you, the gospel
will never be a failure if from this point forward nobody ever
believed it. Because the triumph of the gospel
is not in who believes it. The triumph of the gospel is
seen in the one who brought it to pass. See, that's the glory. The glory of the gospel's in
Christ. And therein's where our rejoicing
is. You know, a lot of folks, they
keep up with how many folks got saved, as if they knew. I mean, you know, they got the
statistics. Man, we baptized 200 last year
and we had this many decisions and all of that stuff. I don't
know how much of that is real or how much of it is just fake. I don't have any idea. Neither
do they. When a man walks down the aisle
and he asks to be baptized, That doesn't mean a whole lot.
Now we rejoice if a man does do that, but I don't know what's
in a man's heart. I don't know why somebody might
do that. The Lord will save his people.
He'll cause the gospel to be preached, and he'll cause the
gospel to be heard. But the gospel is the gospel
of the glory of Jesus Christ. And that's what we desire to
proclaim. And if nobody wants to hear it, we're gonna preach
it. Because our purpose is to magnify
his name. that all men might bow down before
him. Man, that would be the grandest
thing that I can imagine would be to see men genuinely falling
down and worshiping the name of Christ. Why would we not desire
that? I mean, it's hard to see men
believe the gospel. It burns in our heart for men
to receive it, but not, not. primarily for their sake, but
for the glory of Christ. See, we won't see Him magnified.
And He is magnified as He draws men to Himself. He said, if I
be lifted up, I'll draw all men to Myself. Now, we know what
the whole was there. It means all the men that He's
going to draw. They will, all of His people
will be drawn to Him. We believe that. And so we're reading here in
2 John, and it says here, whosoever transgresseth and abideth not
in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. This is verse nine.
He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father
and the Son. Imagine that. If there come any unto you and
bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither
bid him God's speed. For he that biddeth him God's
speed is partaker of his evil deeds. Having many things to
write unto you, I would not write with paper and ink, but I trust
to come unto you and speak face to face that our joy may be full. The children of thy elect sister
greet thee. Amen. And so he says, whosoever
transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath
not God. Now what he's saying there is,
whosoever abides not in the doctrine of Christ is transgressing the
doctrine. In other words, it's not whoever
transgresses and abides in the doctrine of Christ. No, it's
by not abiding in the doctrine of Christ, a man is transgressing. See, this is what we've been
sent to declare is the doctrine of Christ. And if we are outside
of that, or we have no regard to it, then we're transgressors. Because what we read earlier
as we went through the book of 1 John, he said one of the commandments
was to what? To believe in Jesus Christ, his
son. That is a commandment. The Lord
would have men to believe. And he causes men to believe,
for sure. So whosoever transgresses by
abiding not in the doctrine of Christ, he has not God. You cannot
not believe the gospel and be a believer in God. That's what he said. In other
words, all this talk, you know, people say, of all these many
faiths that we have respect unto, we respect all these different
faiths. Now I didn't, we're not going out trying to blow up,
you know, places where other folks meet and people that are
of other religions and whatnot. That's not what he's saying here.
But we recognize that there is one gospel. There's one truth. And if any man is not walking
in this truth, which is the doctrine of Christ, then he hath not God. It's as simple as that. I remember a while back there
was a controversy that arose among the Southern Baptists,
I forget which one of them it was that said it, but one of
them said that God didn't hear the prayers of the Jews. And
boy, this caused an uproar amongst the religious world that a man
would say such a thing as this. And I think he was right and
I think he was wrong. God hears whatever he wants to
hear. But I think the point that he was making is that you cannot
come unto God except through Jesus Christ. And that's true. And so if a man's over here praying,
he may be praying, and in his mind and heart, he may be sincere,
he may believe whatever he wants to believe. But according to
what the scripture says, if a man is not abiding in the doctrine
of Christ, he hath not God. He cannot approach unto God except
in and through Jesus Christ. I didn't make that up. That's
what the scripture says. And then he says, he that abideth
in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the
Son. Now how can he have the Father
and the Son? Because they're one. See, I mean that's so simple,
but yet that blows the mind of some people. They gotta have
this separated out deal here. They just can't stand it any
other way. The scripture says our God is
one God. And if a man has Christ, he has
the Father and the Son. Why? Because the Father has revealed
himself unto us in one way. There's no other way you can
know the Father except in Christ. He's the fullness of the Godhead
bodily. He's the revelation of God to
men. And if there come any to you
and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house,
neither bid him God's speed. Don't pat somebody on the back
that's telling folks there's another way to the Father except
through the Son. If you're telling them that,
you're telling them a lie. That's what he said. And he said it
even in stronger words. He said if a man comes and doesn't
have this doctrine, Don't give him the time of day. Don't encourage
him. You don't say, oh well, you're
doing a good work, keep on doing it. No. Now again, we're not
attacking somebody. We're not going out here and
actively trying to destroy somebody. We're just plainly telling the
truth that apart from being in Christ, we have no access to
the Father. And that's what the scripture
says. This is the doctrine of Christ. And if any man does not
come with this doctrine, don't let him in your house. Now, he
didn't mean that you got to screen everybody before they come to
your house. I mean, if the pest control man
comes, you don't have to question him as to what he believes in
order to let him in the door. That's not what it means. It
means don't entertain him. Don't entertain his doctrine. is basically what it's talking
about. Don't entertain his teaching. And so, you know, when false
teachers come to our door, it doesn't mean we get the gun out
and shoot them. No. We open the door, we're cordial
to men, all men, as men. You know, we're kind, we're considerate. We're not trying to embarrass
them or anything else, but we don't for one minute entertain
any notion of what they are saying that it might be true. If they
come saying something other than Jesus Christ and Him crucified,
one with the Father, the doctrine of Christ. Now, and there are
those that go around and they, you know, what they wanna do
is get you to let them come and study the Bible with you. And I've talked to a bunch of
them. And their problem is always exactly
what we're talking about right here. That Jesus Christ is God. That's the problem. Oh, they got a bunch of stuff
to say and some of it even sounds pretty good. But it's still a
lie. Some of them have headquarters
out west. And they come telling that you'll
see them riding bicycles around. And they come telling something
and it sounds good to a lot of people, but it's not the doctrine
of Christ. May the Lord deliver us from
deceptions. but not only just delivers from
deceptions, but when necessary to oppose those deceptions, to
point it out, to not be patting them on the back and saying,
y'all are doing a good job. No, deceivers are doing a terrible
job. I mean, if somebody's deceiving
somebody with something other than the doctrine of Christ,
how can we be in favor of it? We can't be. It's a lie. They may be our friends. They may be our acquaintances. They may be people in the community,
and we're not going out trying to, you know, take the air out
of their tires or do something bad to them. We just don't We
can't embrace what they believe. We can't say, well, you know,
you got your belief, I got mine, and this, that, and the other. No. We know it's a lie. And if
the opportunity presents it, we need to save what we think
about it. For he that biddeth him God's
speed is partaker of his evil deeds. You pat him on the back
and send him on his way. and say, you know, may the Lord
bless you. No, I don't want the Lord to
bless them because they can't be blessed. They can't be blessed
apart from the doctrine of Christ. Now, some people look at that
and say, oh, well, that's too narrow. Well, that's what John
said. I mean, I don't, I mean, you know, I'm
kind of a non-confrontational type person. I'm kind of like,
you know, you don't bother me, I won't bother you, and you know,
we'll just go along and we'll get along and we'll be fine.
But, this is not the time for that. See, whenever these things
are, we're faced with it, we must not, Say, well, it's all
right. No, it's not all right, it's
a lie. And while I'm not gonna go over
to their house and tell them it's a lie, if they come to mine,
that is, if they come telling me what that is, I'm gonna tell
them it's a lie. If it's not the doctrine of Christ.
That's what John said. If he that biddeth him God's
peace, protector of his evil deeds, what's his evil deeds?
Does it mean is his evil deeds going out and drinking and carousing
around? No, his evil deeds is what? Speaking
something other than the doctrine of Christ. That's the evil deeds. I mean, the Lord, he accompanied
with drunkards and tax collectors and harlots. I mean, now he condemned
the things that were unlawful and not good. But he didn't cut
off fellowship with men because of their misdeeds, but he didn't
have any time for the Pharisees, did he? Why? Because they were opposed to
the doctrine of Christ. They didn't believe that he had
come in the flesh. They say, you're just a man,
what are you doing? Trying to make yourself God.
Well, they were wrong, he was God. And he walked among them,
and they didn't know him. They didn't see him. In fact,
they were opposed to him. Having many things to write to
you, I would not write with paper and ink, but I trust to come
unto you and speak face to face, that our joy may be full. And
so John writes of his desire. to speak with either this church
or this person. I believe it was a church, but
there are reasons to think it could have been a person. But
we won't argue about that. But the point is that he desired
fellowship with either this church or this individual. He said,
I'm hoping to come to you, to speak to you. See, there's a
great bond that God's people have, one with the other. And
we delight to see one another. It's encouraging to us. The children
of thy next sister greet thee. He's speaking about the other
churches, I believe. that he said they send their
greetings where he was. And you know, it was a common
practice among churches in bygone days to send letters to their
sister, what they call sister churches to tell them, you know, greet them
in the Lord. Of course now it's become just
kind of a formality type thing, but at one time it was actually
a useful thing, whereas men desired to express their love for one
another and for other churches and brethren, you know, wherever
they are. But wherever the brethren gather,
Wherever there are those that have the doctrine of Christ, we have fellowship with them.
Now they may not dot every I and cross every T, just like we think
on every little subject matter of this, that, or the other.
But if it's the doctrine of Christ, Jesus Christ, them crucified,
not Jesus Christ, them crucified, plus something else. But if that's
their message, then we have fellowship with them. That Jesus Christ is the fullness
of the Godhead body. We have fellowship. Apart from
that, we don't. We don't have anything in common. When those that try to tell men
that it's all up to them. That's totally the opposite of
what we believe. We don't have any fellowship
with them. Again, we're not out trying to drain the gas out of
their car or blow their house up or anything like that. But
we just, we can't have fellowship with them in the things of God
if they don't believe these things. We have nothing in common with
them. Now, we may have things in common. Our kids might go
to the same school, or we might go to the same grocery store,
or we might see them, you know, there, and we might, hey, how
you doing? Might hug their neck, you know, or whatever. But we
don't have fellowship with them in the things of God. Because we don't have any place
for it. We can't. We don't bid them God's
peace.