The sure foundation, you know when you talk about foundations in the scripture, what we're talking about as far as salvation, as far as the church, as far as the Christian life or whatever you want to call it, the total foundation for all of these things of grace is the person and work of Christ. You remember when Christ asked the disciples the question, who do men say that I am? And they came back with different answers and then he said, who do you say that I am? And Peter spoke up and he said, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. And Christ told him, he said, Peter, it's upon this rock, this foundation, of who he is and what he has accomplished, that I'll build my church. Paul spoke about planting churches through different preachers. And he'd say someone would come in first where the gospel has not preached and lay the foundation. And that's what he often did. He was a pioneer missionary. Many of the places that Paul had gone, nobody had gone before. and he preached the gospel and he laid the foundation, then he would move on to another place and some other preacher like Timothy or Epaphroditus or some of those men would come in and they'd build upon the foundation. They'd continue preaching the gospel. Well, that foundation is the gospel of Christ. It's Christ. He is the foundation. He said in the Sermon on the Mount, talking about those who build their house on sand, and when the storm comes, it's gonna sink, gonna be destroyed, but those who build their house upon the rock, and that rock is Christ Jesus, because he cannot fall. Well, here, he's talking about the sure foundation that has a seal to it. And that seal is the faith of God's elect. Now that's what we're gonna get to, but let's go back up to verse 14. Paul starts off, he says, of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers. So he starts off, of these things put them in remembrance. A lot of the gospel ministry is simply reminding us of what we already know. And that's not a bad thing. I heard a man tell another preacher one time, he says, you always preach the same thing. He said, yes, I do. I always preach the same thing. I preach the gospel. We preach it in different lights from different scriptures. We have different stories in the Bible that illustrate it. And we'll never exhaust this Bible from Genesis to Revelation. And it's different context and different ways, but it's the same way. And so we just remind each other. I'm here to remind you. I'm here to remind myself and don't think you don't never need to be reminded because you do and I do. And the reason is because we've got so many things tugging at our hearts today. We've got self. We've got the world. Sometimes we've got the devil trying to tug us away and so we need to be reminded and strengthened these things." And so Paul when he says these things he's talking about all the things that he had written up to this point concerning living a godly life, living a life of faith, living a life of repentance and perseverance in Christ by the grace of God. So he said, Timothy put them in remembrance of you, don't let them forget because we're apt to forget. And so he says, charging them. Now that's a command, all right? Therefore the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit to the subverting of the hearers. In the 40 years I've been in the ministry, I've seen this happen all too often. Somebody gets hold of a word. They may say a Hebrew word or a Greek word or an English word or whatever, and they beat it to death from every direction and end up offending people and dividing people. That's what he's talking about. Now, words mean something. They are important. These words have meanings, definitions. Grace, for example. Anybody can say grace. And I'm not talking about the prayer that we use before we eat. But anybody can say the word grace. Oh, I believe grace. Every false preacher in the New Testament began to enter into the church, the true church, by claiming to believe grace, saying they believed grace, but they didn't. They denied it. So when we defend words, their meanings. It's not necessarily what he calls here the striving about words to no profit. If you don't know the meaning of a word and it confuses you in the scripture, there's nothing wrong with me or one of the elders telling you what that word means or looking it up. But when people ride a hobby horse, that's what my old pastor used to say, they'd ride a hobby horse. They'd get on it, and they would just beat it to death, and they'd divide people over it. And that's the subverting of the hearers. So he's saying, don't get into these arguments. And even with words like grace, I'm not going to argue with people. I'm just going to tell them what it means. If they don't believe it, they don't believe it. And I can't make them believe it. The gospel, what is the gospel? I had a preacher up north tell me, he said, the gospel is any good news. I said, no, it's not. I said, if you find out you won the lottery tomorrow, that's not the gospel. You may be richer, but that's not salvation. The gospel is a specific good news concerning the salvation of sinners by God's grace through Jesus Christ our Lord. And that's what the gospel is. When we talk about sovereignty, when we talk about sin, sin means something. Sin is anything. In the Bible, we can talk about sin being immorality, insincerity, greed, all of that, hatred. We can talk about sin being all that stuff. But let me give it to you in one fell swoop. Sin is anything that falls short of the perfect righteousness of Christ that can only be found in His obedience unto death. That's what sin is. And that covers a lot of territory, doesn't it? That even covers religious sins. So understand that. So be careful with this when he says, don't strive about words to no profit. If we can understand what grace is, that's gonna profit us. And what righteousness is, all of that. So he says, put them in remembrance. And then here's how you do that. Now the next line, look at verse 15. If you're going to understand the scripture, its words, if you're going to talk to people about it, and have profit in mind, in other words, growth. That's what we want. When we talk to people about the scriptures, we want ourselves, we want the people to grow in grace and in knowledge. And of course, those who are lost, we want the Lord to bring them to salvation. That's our prayer. But he says, here's how you do it. Study to show thyself approved unto God. That is, Show thyself acceptable to God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. There's your key. Study, that means read, study the scriptures. That's what you're doing now, reading and studying the scriptures. You ought to do some on your own, but that's what you're doing now. And you don't want to be ashamed. You know, I've had Brothers in Christ tell me that they would go talk to some false religionists who knew the Bible more than them. And you're probably always going to find that. But when I had that happen to me early on, it stirred me up to study. Because I didn't want to be ashamed. I want to be able to tell them what the scriptures mean when I can. That doesn't mean, you know, I've often said, I wish I knew every perfect, right interpretation of every verse, but I don't. But I know the gist of the Bible. I know what the Bible says. I know what salvation is. I know what the gospel is. I know what grace is. Now, you may come up with a scripture somewhere out of the book of Ecclesiastes, and I don't know exactly what it means, but I'll look it up if I get the opportunity. Of course, I've preached through Ecclesiastes verse by verse, so I just might not be able to recall it sometimes. But this is what it's about. You don't want to be ashamed, and you want to rightly divide the word of truth. I wrote a book about that, Rightly Dividing the Word, which is a book of the rules of scriptural interpretation. And what got me on that years ago, you'd have people who'd come and they'd, you know how people throw verses back and forth? You know, I got my verse, you got your verse, you know, and all that. I tell them, I say, you're taking that verse out of context if you don't interpret it right. And they'd say, I'm taking it out. Of course, I'd show them where I wasn't, but that's the thing about it. You've got to rightly divide it, and there are rules of interpretation. It's not just freelance on your part. It's not, I can look at it and if I feel like it, I'll interpret it any way I want to. No, this is a book. And it was written by the God of the Holy Spirit through men whom God ordained and equipped to write these things. So what I'm looking for, when I look at a verse, I'm not going in there and say, what does it mean to me? Who cares what it means to me? What I wanna know is what does it mean? What did God intended it to mean? And the only way you're gonna know that, one of the main rules is context. In fact, I often kidded around with people on interpretation, and I'd say the number one rule is context, the number two rule is context, and the number three rule is context. It's not so, but if you don't know it, get that book, it's back here, we're giving it away free. And it's got the rules of scriptural interpretation. The number one rule is the rule of Jesus Christ crucified and risen from the dead. Because that's what this Bible's about. This Bible is about Christ. And everything that is in this Bible should be interpreted in light of Christ. I'll give you an example of this. You've heard me talk about what we call the if passages in the Bible. For example, there's one back in the book of Deuteronomy that a lot of people quote around what they call revival time. It goes something like this, and I can't remember the exact number. I think it's Deuteronomy 7, but I don't know. I have to look it up. It's if my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves, all right? And then what's the rest of it say? Yeah. Yeah, seek my favor and I'll bless them. All right, that says if, okay? Now that is a conditional if. God says, if you'll do this, I'll do that. Now, the only reason God said it that way is to prove to those people that they were sinners and could not do what the if said. But it's a conditional if. How do you know? Well, let me give you another one. Over in the book of Colossians, he talks about salvation is come to you if you continue in the faith. Now that if is not a conditional if. That if is an evidential if, it's evidence. How do you know the difference? Context.

Over in Deuteronomy, it's under the old covenant, which was a covenant of law, conditioned on the people, and they could not keep it, and that's why God gave it to them, to show them they couldn't keep it, to show them their need of a righteousness they could not produce. You say, well, if my people shall humble themselves, they never did. And somebody today might look at it and say, well, I will. Well, you're better than them. That's not the way it works.

Now over in Colossians, it was an evidential if, if you continue. The if you continue is not a condition you must meet in order to be glorified. It's an evidence that you will continue to glorify. How do you know? Because that's under the new covenant. And the new covenant is all conditioned on Christ. And that's how you tell these things. And we could go on with many examples. But he says, study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

All right, look, verse 16. But shun profane and vain babblings, for they will increase unto more ungodliness. Now, can it get any clearer? Profane, that's those things that dishonor God and dishonor everything. Vain babblings, worthless talk. Doesn't, like up in verse 14, it subverts the hearers. It's to no profit. And avoid that. I've got several people right now that I know who are engaging in stuff like that and I don't even talk to them. I don't want to talk to them. Because that's what they get on. And it's not profitable. There's no edification there. There's no growth there. There's no worship there. So shun them.

And he says in verse 17, it's even worse. Their word will eat as doth a canker. And you might have in your concordance there the word gangrene. You know what gangrene does? It spreads and kills. And that's what happens here. And he mentions two men by name, of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus, who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already, and they overthrow the faith of some.

Now you see that? They overthrow the faith of some. We don't know, some people say, well, we don't know the exact nature of their error, but I just take it as it lays. Here's two men who claim to believe the gospel, the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. But they claim that there's no future resurrection, no bodily resurrection. Now, you all know what Paul said about that in 1 Corinthians 15, don't you? If we be not risen, then Christ is not risen. I mean, he brought out all of the issues there. If you deny the future resurrection, you're denying Christ. And apparently that's what these men were doing.

There is a group of people who are called Preterists. P-R-E-T-E-R-I-S-T. And they say the resurrection was passed. But now, you know, just like any other renegade sect of what they call Christianity, which that's not, but that's what they call it. You'll have different people within that different sect who will say different things. Some say it happened in 70 A.D. when Jerusalem was destroyed. Some people say it happened at the resurrection of Christ. But they don't believe there's a future resurrection. But the Bible says there does. There is a future resurrection. And that's the product of God's power and grace and goodness towards us in Christ. We will be resurrected unto glory.

So these men were somehow denying that, and they got some people to follow him. That's what he means, overthrow the faith of some. Now, if faith, if your faith or my faith can be overthrown, what does that tell you? It tells you that we didn't have true God-given faith. It means we were never truly saved, just like 1 John 2, 19. They went out from us, they were not of us. Had they been of us, they would have stayed with us. The faith of God's elect is a sure foundation that we have in Christ.

So he says in verse 19, nevertheless, Even though these two men left, and even though they drug people away from them and overthrew their faith, nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure, steady. If God lays the foundation of faith, which is Christ in you, by his spirit and by his word, it cannot be overthrown. Do you understand that? Now, you may stray for a little while because of circumstances, but God will always bring you back. The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal. Now, look at what he says. This is important. Because he doesn't say, having this seal, you're gonna keep on keeping on. Well, if you have this seal, you're gonna keep on keeping on. But that's not what he says.

Here's the foundation of that sin. The Lord knoweth them that are his. God knows you. Now what kind of knowledge is that? Well that's more than just knowing your name. That's more than just knowing your thoughts. You know God is, you may have heard the term omniscient. That means God is all knowing. He knows everything. And the Bible, religionist will tell you that God knows everything because he can see the future. But that's not true. God knows everything because God has determined everything. And I know that's hard for some people to take because they'll come up with all kinds of questions. You know what, God does this. Why does he let this happen? That's up to him. You're not God. And you're not, as the old poet said, your arms are too short to box with God. So don't try it. When Job tried it, Job got in his little valley there. And Job started arguing, why did God do this? You know what, God told him though, he said, well, before we start this debate, Job, let me ask you, where were you when I formed the foundation of the world? Where were you when I put the whale in the sea? Because if you're not on that level, you're not equipped to argue or debate with God. The Bible says that God is the potter, and we're the clay. And all we can do is cast ourself on his mercy. Do it. And all those who do, they get mercy, they've already gotten it.

But he says, it has this seal, the Lord knoweth them, they're his. This is the kind of knowledge that issues forth in the unconditional love of God to his people whereby he saves them by his grace through the blood and righteousness of Christ. That's how he knows you if you're one of his children. It's more than just knowing your name. It's more than just knowing your thoughts. It's more than just knowing the next step you'll take, but it's an intimate knowledge. They liken it to the knowledge between a woman and a man in a marriage, but it's not a sexual knowledge, certainly not, but it's more of an intimate knowledge that God has with his elect. So it's electing love. And so he says, because the Lord knows you, you're sealed. and he won't let you go. Having this seal, the Lord knoweth him there he is. And then he says, and let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. Well, we're to fight all iniquity, all evil, but what he's talking about is stay away from these two guys who are diverting people, leading people astray. Depart from that. And then we'll pick up there next week and I'll show you some more on that. But that's what that's about. The sure foundation that God lays in the hearts of his people, which is Christ. All right.