I love that song. No heart of man can weave this
robe. The Lord alone is the one who
can supply that which men stand in need of, which is a robe of
righteousness that is perfect and without any spot. or blemish is a perfect road. Men often think that they can,
by some form of partial righteousness, approach unto the Lord. They
think that what they have is good enough. Or if they don't think that it's
good enough, they think that at least It has some usefulness. The thing that must take place
for a man to come to know the Lord is that the Lord must show
him that he has nothing. You know, as long as a man thinks
he has something, then he'll never come to the Lord because
he'll always be looking to that something. But it's when the
Lord strips a man completely bare of any thought that he has
of any righteousness or anything that he can look at or present
to the Lord without Anything in his hand,
like the old hymn writer said, nothing in my hand I bring, simply
to thy cross I cling, naked, come to thee for dress, helpless,
look to thee for grace, foul, I to the fountain fly, wash me,
Savior, or I die. And such is the case. with every
man that's born of Adam. We look around and we often grade
men. This is a good guy and this is
a bad guy. This one, surely if anybody is
gonna make it to heaven, he will. That's how men think. It's especially
true when men die. and to have what's called a funeral. You never been to very many funerals
in your life that the person being buried wasn't the finest
person you ever met. I mean, that's just the way people
think, isn't it? I mean, we don't want to tell
the truth. I don't want anybody, I don't
even want a funeral personally, But if anybody should ever stand
up to say anything, in words of praise, in my behalf, when
I'm gone, I want you to stand up and say stop. There was not
one good thing that was ever in this man. And the only reason
that he might have an entrance given to him into the kingdom
of God is because of that which Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory,
has supplied. Paul understood it. He said,
I'm the chief of sinners. That wasn't just hyperbole. You
know, a lot of people say that. They say, oh, well, I'm a sinful
man. We are indeed all sinful men,
but there's not even any place of boasting in being sinful.
Some people boast in being sinful. I've heard men spend a long period of time telling about
all the things they did in their life that was bad. You ought
to be ashamed of everything you've ever done in your life that wasn't
done under the glory of Christ, because it's not worth mentioning. May the Lord give us a mind.
to seek after the Lord and to realize that our only hope is
right in these things that's represented here before us, the
blood and the life of Jesus Christ, the righteousness of Christ demonstrated
in a fleshly body as he walked among men. We're looking in 2 John for a
few minutes. And we've been looking at this. There's so much here that each
time that I read it, I see things that I didn't see before. I'm gonna
read beginning at the beginning. The elder unto the elect lady
and her children, whom I love in the truth, and not only I
only, but all they that have known the truth. For the truth's
sake, which dwelleth in us and shall be with us forever. Grace
be with you, mercy and peace from God the Father and from
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father in truth and in
love. I rejoice greatly that I found
of thy children walking in truth, as we have received a commandment
from the Father. And now I beseech thee, lady,
not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we
had from the beginning, that we love one another. And this
is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment,
that as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in
it. For many deceivers are entered into the world who confess not
that Jesus Christ has 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 unto you any 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. Now he's writing, and we have
given our opinion about who it is he's writing to as a particular
church, and as many of the epistles were, and as we see in Paul's
writings, he addressed himself to particular people, particular
churches, and that's what John's doing here, I believe. And of
course he describes who and why he's writing to this particular
church as she is a model of all of those churches whom the Lord
is pleased to call to himself. He says here, whom I love in
the truth. Now the truth is that which binds
our hearts together. It's not our doctrine, per se,
in little, you see, there's a, when we speak about doctrine,
there is a doctrine that should be in little letters, and then
there is doctrine that should be in capital letters. And he
speaks about that. And over here, he says, he that
abideth in the doctrine of Christ. Now he didn't say the doctrines.
He didn't say plural, he said the doctrine, the teaching of
Christ. Now that is what the truth is.
The truth is found in Christ. And anything else is not the
truth. It may be true, but there's many
things we can talk about. Many subjects of songs we can
sing about. We can sing about heaven and
all of those things, and those things have a place, no doubt. But that's not what we come together
really to center our thoughts on. It's not on those things,
but it's on Christ. The doctrine of Christ. Because
there is no heaven, without Christ. Now most people, when they think
about heaven, they're thinking about something they like to
do, and something that makes them happy. You know, maybe they've
got a favorite dog, and surely their favorite dog will be in
heaven because that's what it would take to make them happy.
Or they like to fish. And they can't imagine heaven
not having places to fish. You know, whatever it is they
want to do, but they think of it in terms of those type of
terms. But that's not what heaven is
to the man who has fled Christ for refuge. But heaven is Christ
himself, because he's the one. Now when I was young, and as
a child, taught, basically, that the reason I needed to be saved
was so I wouldn't go to hell. And buddy, I didn't want to go
to hell. I mean, when I'd hear about it, it scared me. I mean,
sure, man, never want to do that, so I want to do something to
make sure that didn't happen. And they told me that if I would
just make a decision, that I could escape it, and I could get a
ticket punched to heaven, and I'd have it, and then I could
go on and live my life however I wanted to, but I'd always have
that. And I wouldn't go to hell. And
that was good. I thought, you know, in God's
mercy, he showed me that there's much
more to salvation than an escape from hell. See, God's people
have never been appointed under wrath. Those whom the Lord has
loved from the beginning have never been heirs of hell. Now
we deserve hell, just as much so as any man that ever lived,
but we've not been appointed to it. And so the Lord Jesus Christ,
while he came to deliver us from the just condemnation of the
law, under which we certainly were
born and certainly deserved the destruction that goes along with
those that transgress the law of God. Yet he came to deliver us and
to bring us into the light that we might see him, see that we
might be delivered from the darkness in which we dwell by nature. And not just simply something
that we're gonna get, but that we might come to see
what true life is. See, life is in Christ. A man's
not living unless he's in Christ. He might think that he is. He
might be having a big time. But it's Christ. And that's the
doctrine of Christ. That's the truth that he's talking
about here. When he came, he said, just like
Paul, who said, I determined to know nothing among you except
Jesus Christ and him crucified. I'm not interested in anything
else, that's it. Whom I love in the truth, we
love one another in the truth. Ain't a lot of things I don't
like about y'all. Every one of you could get on
my nerves. Huh? You know, husband and wife, they
can love each other to death. But after they spend a lot of
time together, pretty soon, you know, they get aggravated with
one another. It's just the way nature is.
It's the way we are by nature. Why? Because we like ourselves.
See, every one of us likes ourselves a whole lot more than we do anybody
else. Isn't that true? You know it is. That's why the
law of God is so condemning to us. Because he said this, he
said, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. And if that wasn't hard enough,
to even face up to, he said, thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart. And you know, if a man not slain
by that second commandment, if the
Lord gives him a heart and mind to understand, he will surely
be slain by the first. Cause even if you could entertain
the notion that you love everybody, which I, you know, it's so common
to hear people say, oh, I just love everybody. Man that says he loves everybody
really don't love anybody. Cause he doesn't understand what
love is. But John said, I love you in
the truth. He didn't say, I love everything
about you. He didn't say, I love everything
you do. But it said, I love you in the
truth. And that's the basis upon which
the love of Christ is brought into our heart and mind. Because
what were the two commandments that he gave us? He said that we believe and that
we love one another. Now, that's the same thing as
what he said, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart. To believe. See, a lot of people think that
belief is some kind of a exercise of the mind, oh, I believe in
God. I mean, most people believe in God, whether they admit it
or not. you know you get a person in a bad enough mind and you'll
find out pretty soon they do believe in God because they're
asking for help. But that's not what believing
in the Lord Jesus Christ is. It's not believing some facts,
things that he did. Although you can't believe in
him if you don't believe the facts. But it's not that. Believing in him is casting oneself
upon him. It's that you have no other hope,
no other trust. And all in all, you seek in him. And that's the love that we have,
one for the other, in the truth. And he said, this isn't just
for me, but it's all they that have known the truth. See, what
I'm telling you is the truth, and if you know the truth, you
know what I'm telling you is the truth. See, we might not
wanna face it, we might not like it from time to time, but it
is nonetheless the truth, and we love the truth. Now, I don't
like my faults being pointed out to me, but believe it or
not, by the grace of God, I'd rather somebody be honest with
me than tell me a lie about myself. Now, I might get
mad when somebody tells me about myself, see? But I still want
them to tell me because I know they're right. See, I know they're
right. When somebody criticizes us,
The reason we get angry is because we don't think they know what
they're talking about. We want to say, but really and
truly, when we get to thinking about it, we know they're right. You know, God has put us like
pebbles in a stream. And if you go up in the mountains
and you look in these streams, they'll just be smooth rocks.
in those streams. Well, those rocks didn't start
off smooth, but as they tumbled down that river, the Lord wore
the edges off of them. And that's the reason that the
Lord puts God's people together in the church. It's not because
we just like everybody so much. And we just wanna pat one another
on the back all the time. But it's that he put us together
that we might minister one to the other. And that ministry
one to the other might be painful from time to time. But it's designed
for our good, our benefit. We love one another in the truth
and we desire the truth. You know, if you belong to Christ,
you want to know the truth. Hard as it might be, it might
hit you right between the eyes. Might not be what you want to
hear at that point in time, but it's what you need to hear. And
you're glad that you did. And coming to understanding of
doctrinal issues sometimes is a painful thing. Because all
of us like to be right. Now, if we understand what Paul
said, he said, we know nothing as we ought to know. So you know,
before we get up on a high horse about doctrines that we know,
and that you ought to know, and if you don't, something wrong
with you, let's be sure that the doctrine
of Christ is what we're after. Is it Christ? You know, if it's
not Christ, then what are we, it can't be the truth, we don't
want it. May the Lord apply these things
to us. May he give us a love of the
truth as it is in Jesus. Not truth as it is in the preacher. Not truth as it is in what we've
been taught all our lives. Not even what we've come to understand
in our study. See, sometimes people get enamored
with their study. And they figure, oh man, you
know, I've studied this out and buddy, I know what this is. Do
we know the doctrine of Christ? Because whatever doctrine you
know, if you don't have the doctrine of Christ, you missed it. However,
you might think, for the truth's sake, which dwelleth in us, and
shall be with us forever. Truth of God dwells in the people
of God. Now the unfortunate thing is,
that, or I say unfortunate, it's just the way that it is, not
unfortunate, because God means all these things for our good.
You see, the Lord writes his truth on your heart long before
he gets things straight in your mind. And people know stuff in their
heart because the Spirit of God taught it to them. before they
ever understand it. The Lord's constantly opening
our understandings. I remember quite plainly when the Lord began to give me
some understandings of the holiness of God. It wasn't that I didn't believe
that God was holy. If you told me God was holy,
I would have said, yes, I know that. See, when God is pleased
to teach a man to bring the truth that he's already placed within
his heart and bring it into his mind, then it makes a circuit
and it goes back to his heart. See, the Lord teaches men things.
I believe this is a true thing. And I think it just shows the
natural rebellion of men. When the truth of God is preached,
it may be doctrinally contrary to what you believe. Somebody stands up and they're
preaching that God is a predestinating God. The natural man, that's not a
doctrine that the natural man embraces. especially in relation,
now men can believe the Lord's in control of the weather, and
he's doing all these different things out here in the world,
but when you come down to what the scripture says, and it says,
Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated, now that's getting
a little bit personal there, well wait a minute. You know,
men will say, well, men got a free will, they got a right to, I
mean, God's gotta give everybody a fair chance to square deal.
I mean, what do you mean? That doesn't sound like that
would be very fair to me. But you see, the Lord, a man
that hears that, and the Spirit of God dwells in him, he may
have an outward rebellion against that. but he knows it's the truth. And in God's own time, he'll
teach him that that's the truth. And he'll humble him before him.
But see, it doesn't always happen that a man just automatically
is willing to say that because the Lord hadn't brought him there
yet. Now, what am I saying? I'm just
saying this. The Lord is the author and the
finisher of salvation. And he is the applier in chief
of his salvation. And he brings his people by a
way that they knew not, but he opens their mind and heart to
receive it. And so it is that the Lord, I
believe, teaches his people the doctrine of Christ. And a man who hates the doctrine
of Christ hasn't been shown the truth yet. His eyes have not been opened.
He's still in the darkness. But you see, all of God's people
rejoice when Christ is exalted. A man that doesn't rejoice when
Christ is exalted does not know Christ. That's all there is to
it. That is the doctrine of Christ.
A man that doesn't rejoice when men are put down in the lowest
position before Almighty God, he doesn't know the doctrine
of Christ. Because that's what the doctrine
of Christ does. It strips a man of all pride. Of all boasting. He got nothing
left. He's like Jonah. in the belly of the fish. See, that's the man that's learned
the doctrine of Christ. Have you ever thought much about
Jonah? See, we know how it turned out, so we don't think it was
that bad of a deal. But see, Jonah lived it. He was
there. He was in the belly of the fish.
And I don't know what it was like to be in the belly of a
fish, But I've been around a place where, around an old fish house
or something where people have dressed fish and whatnot and
how it smells around there. And I, see, I can imagine in
the belly of this fish that it probably was a lot like that.
That's a pretty terrible place to be. But I say that to say
this. There wasn't a thing in the world
Jonah could do to get himself out. of that fish's belly, and
he didn't have any idea or thought that he would ever get out of
that fish's belly. I mean, that was it, as far as
he was concerned. But yet in the belly of hell,
he said, he cried out to the Lord, and he said, salvation
is of the Lord. Now that's the doctrine of Christ.
I mean, that is the doctrine of Christ. And I believe this,
every one of God's children have been taught that. And the Lord may open their eyes
to see the full ramifications of it. And they rejoice in that
as well. But may the Lord help us to love
one another in the truth. the doctrine of Christ, the glory
of Christ. There's only one gospel. It's
the doctrine of Christ. There's only one baptism, the
doctrine of Christ. I mean, you know, can you design
a baptism that is of any use whatsoever that is not the doctrine
of Christ? Do you have a faith? Can you
have, is there some faith that's valid that's not the doctrine
of Christ? Is there a hope that's not the
doctrine of Christ? Christ is all. He's that one
who we trust. We've cast ourselves upon him.
And we come here this morning to testify that we believe the
doctrine of Christ. And we may not like each other, but we love each other in the
doctrine of Christ. I mean, when we come to remember
the Lord's death and He comes again, all the distinctions that
men may come up with fade away if our thought and mind is on
that. See, we love each other because
he loved us. That's the doctrine of Christ.
What a glorious thing. Oh, that Lord might burn these
things in our heart and mind and help us you know, to abide
in his commandments. And what are his commandments?
That we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and that we love one another. And if a man's walking in that,
then he's walking in the doctrine of Christ. What a glorious thing. Oh, that the Lord might teach
us and help us today. You know, We come and we do this. Of course, the early believers,
every time they, I believe the scripture would bear this out,
each time that they came together, that they did this. In other words, they didn't do
it once a month or once a week or whatever. They did it whenever
they came together. They were breaking bread from
house to house. That doesn't mean that they went somewhere
and ate steaks with somebody. It means that they broke bread,
as the Lord said. But there's no hard, fast rule
that says you gotta do this certain times. You can do it too much,
or you can't do it, or you're not doing it enough. All of those
things are just the preferences of men. But we come together,
the purpose, here's the most important thing, is not how often
we do this, but that we do it often, and that we do it for
the purpose for which it's given. And there's only one person,
there's only one reason that the Lord gave us to do this.
He said, as often as you do this, you do it in remembrance of me. That's why we do this. To remember
him. And so, we're thankful today
that we've got the privilege to do this. Because this is not
just a ritual. It's not just a habit. It's not
just a thing that we do because we think it'd be a good thing
to do, but the Lord said to do it. And we've got this bread
and this wine, fruit of the vine. You know the scripture doesn't
ever say it was wine. Doesn't say it wasn't wine. I
believe it was wine, but some people get all worried about
that. It just says it was the cup. He gave them the cup. He said, this cup is the New
Testament in my blood. Now he wasn't talking about the
container. He was talking about what was in the container. I
believe what was in that container when he gave it to his disciples
was fermented wine. That's what we have here. But
I also understand that some people get all worried about that one
way or another. Those people that have fell out
with one another. over it. That's not the doctrine
of Christ. That's the doctrine of men. Now
what we do know is that the Lord gave his disciples a cup of the
fruit of a vine and he gave them bread. And it was unleavened
bread that they ate. And there's symbolism in the
fact of the unleavened bread. It's without sin. I understand
that. But then on the other hand, there's
nothing in the scripture that says you must use unleavened
bread. Now we use unleavened bread because we believe that's
what they used when the Lord instituted this. We see no reason
not to use unleavened bread. And we have very much reason
to do that. But again, What's important is
what we have. It's not the flower and whatever's
in there, but it's that we remember the giving of the body of the
Lord Jesus Christ for us. His body and His blood given
for us.