Good morning. I'd like to open
this morning's service with a hymn from the hardback, Tim Noel.
Let's all stand together and we'll sing hymn number 37, number
37 from your hardback, How Great Thou Art. Let's all stand together. Oh Lord my God, when I in awesome
wonder consider all I see the stars, I hear the rolling
thunder Thy power throughout the universe displayed Then sings
my soul, my Savior God to Thee How great Thou art, how great
Thou art Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee, How great
Thou art! How great Thou art! When through the woods and forest
glades I wander And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees
When I look down From lofty mountain grandeur, And hear the brook,
And feel the gentle breeze, Then sings my soul, My Savior God,
to Thee, How great Thou art, How great Thou art, Then sings
my soul, my Savior God, to Thee, How great Thou art! How great Thou art! And when I think that God, His
Son not sparing, Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in. That on the cross, my burden
gladly bearing, He bled and died to take away my sin. Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee, How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee, How great Thou art! How great thou art! When Christ shall come with shout
of acclamation, And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart! Then I shall bow in humble adoration,
And there proclaim, my God, how great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee. How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee. How great Thou art! Please be seated. Good morning. Let us go before our great God
and ask him for great grace. Let's pray together. Our merciful heavenly father,
we come before thy throne of grace. In the name of thy dear
son, thanking you that as dying sinners, we have the hope of
life in him. We pray, Lord, that you would
cause him to be lifted up in this service and that our hearts
would be drawn to him, that you would do a work of grace in each
of us causing us to confess our hope and our dependence upon
him for all our righteousness, all our salvation, all our justification
before thee. Oh, Father, how we are in need
of an advocate, one who ever lives to make intercession for
sinners, one who complete our case one with whom you are pleased. I pray that you would save us by
your grace, for we ask it in Christ's name. Amen. If you'd like to find in your
Bibles the little epistle of 1 John, 1 John, we're going to
be looking at a few verses in the very end of that epistle.
But before we read those verses, let me make a few introductory
comments. I've titled this Bible study
Perfect Doctrine. I know that many of you have
had the same experience that I've had on a pretty frequent
basis of people accusing us of being arrogant, being self-righteous,
being narrow-minded, being unloving and ungracious because of our
unwillingness to compromise the truth. It happens pretty frequently
when you attempt to tell particularly religious people about Christ. And I received a couple of responses
this week that I want to quote some excerpts from in preparation
for looking at this message on perfect doctrine. I started to
call this the perfect church, but I thought that might be a
little too confusing. However, I do believe, I do believe
that there is a perfect church. and that all of God's people
are part of it. One man wrote me this week and
said, I believe people can be saved even though they do not
hold to perfect doctrine. No church carries perfect doctrine. We should afford grace to our
brethren even though they fall short in their understanding
of doctrine. I have yet to find a perfect
church. Now this is a man who is a part
of a church that believes that you keep the Sabbath by what
you do and don't do on Sundays. And in asking me about that,
I was very clear with him that you're either under the law or
you're under grace. You can't have it both ways.
And that that doctrine, by the way, the word doctrine means
teaching, that that teaching destroys the gospel of God's
grace. It doesn't just muddy the water.
It doesn't just make it more difficult to see. It destroys
it. If you go back to the law, you've
destroyed grace for it is either of grace or it's of the law.
And it's of grace it can no longer be of works. Otherwise, grace
is not grace. He goes on to say that believers
can easily fall victim to false doctrine if they are not accustomed
to the truth. As for me, this was another man,
as for me, I naturally gravitated toward a Calvinistic position
because of my normal grammatical literal hermeneutics. Now, I
don't know what that means. Actually, I do know what it means. We're not interested in gravitating
towards Calvinism because of our literal hermeneutics. We're
interested in knowing the truth. The Lord Jesus Christ said, if
you know the truth, the truth will set you free. I want to have perfect doctrine.
In short, in short, the Lord Jesus Christ himself is our doctrine. He is the one that we teach. He said, and I, if I be lifted
up, will draw all men to myself. So every teaching is to be weighed
in light of who the Lord Jesus Christ is and what it is he has
accomplished for his church. And a simple comparison of teaching
to Christ, we lay down the Lord Jesus Christ as the straight
stick, and every other stick will prove itself to be either
straight or crooked as it is compared to him. In the end of these conversations,
my experience has been that it is nothing more than a desperate
attempt for unbelievers to defend their own salvation. For these conversations usually
conclude with this statement, well, I know I'm saved. I know I'm saved. I would ask
this question, why would a person who knows that they're saved
care what I think? Why would a person who knows
that they're saved need me to agree with them? Why would a
person who knows that they're saved get angry with me when
I disagree? I don't need their approval.
I don't need their affirmation. And I certainly am not going
to get angry if they disagree with the truth. And yet, the
evidence that their desperate attempt is just that, it's nothing
more than a desperate attempt to defend their own salvation,
is proven in the way they respond. Are you saying that I'm not saved?
I can't tell you how many times I've asked that question. Let
me give you the best response to that. My responsibility is
to make righteous judgments as to what the gospel is, as to
what the truth is. It does no one any help for me
to make judgments about whether they're saved or not saved. I'm
not here to do that. It won't do you any good for
me to tell you that you are saved. The Lord's got to do that for
you. And it won't do you any good for me to tell you that
you're not. The Lord has to do that for you. That's His work.
So we're not here to make judgments about individuals. We're here
to make judgments about the truth. And the Lord said to judge righteous
judgments. And we do know the truth. We
do know the truth. And John goes on to say that
no lie is of the truth. The church that believes the
gospel of God's free grace in the glorious person and finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ has perfect doctrine. And all those churches see eye
to eye on the gospel. Christ is not divided. He's not
divided. The Lord said to try the spirits
to see whether they be of God. Now the only means that God uses
to save a sinner is the gospel. You know, the end of these conversations
always comes down to this question. It always comes down to this
question. What is the gospel? That's what it always comes back
to. All the smokescreen and all the diversions just boils right
down to what is the gospel? Because the gospel of God's free
grace is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth.
There's only one gospel. There's only one faith. There's only one Christ. So what
is the gospel? A better way to ask that question
would be simply this. Who is the gospel? Paul said, I know whom I have
believed, and I am persuaded that he is able. Now you want to know the gospel?
He is able. That's the gospel. He's able. And you're not. And I'm not.
We're completely unable to do anything to favor God's grace
in salvation. We just can't do it. We can't
bring anything to the table. We can't bring any bargaining
chips. The Lord Jesus Christ has to do it all, or He won't
do it at all. Salvation is of the Lord. It's all of Him. If you believe
that, you've got perfect doctrine. You've got perfect doctrine,
and you can judge everything that you hear by Him. By Him. Let them make their accusations
of us being unloving, of us being ungracious, of us being intolerant, The Lord said that we're to be
at peace with all men whenever possible. I'm not interested
in just being divisive. I hate conflict. I don't want
to stir it up unnecessarily. And we ought not to do that. We ought to be peacemakers when
it comes to all the issues of life that we can possibly make
a compromise on. But here's what the Lord went
on to say. Seek to be at peace with all men whenever possible. Whenever possible. When it comes
to the gospel of God's grace, when it comes to the salvation
of a sinner's soul, it's not possible to compromise the truth. Do you suppose that John's words
were offensive to some people when he wrote in 1 John chapter
5, at verse 19, and we know that we are of God and the whole world
lieth in wickedness. Boy, that's pretty arrogant,
John. Well, he goes on to say more.
And we know that the Son of God is come and has given us an understanding
that we may know Him that is true. And we are in Him. That is true. That's the gospel. Being found
in Him. Not having my own righteousness
which was of the law, but that righteousness which is by the
faith of Jesus Christ. That's my only hope. My only
hope. I started to title this message,
Christ is all. Paul uses those words in Colossians.
Christ is all and he is in all. If you believe that, if you believe
that, then you have perfect doctrine. You have the teacher. You see,
he said Come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Learn of me. Learn of me. Now he's the teacher,
and he is the teaching. Do you get that? He does, they shall
all be taught of God. Father, I thank thee that thou
hast hid these things from the wise and the prudent and revealed
them unto babes. He does all the teaching. My
words are of no benefit to you unless I'm speaking according
to the truth and the Spirit of God is pleased to make them effectual
to your heart. Otherwise, you're just going
to acquire some knowledge. And knowledge puffs up. Most
of these folks that I have conversations with, they're so puffed up with
knowledge, they just want to show you what they know and prove
themselves to be righteous. That's not what we're interested
in. That we may know Him that is
true. And we are in Him that is true,
even in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and this
is eternal life. Isn't that what the Lord said
in John chapter 17? This is life eternal. This is
life eternal. That they might know Thee, the
only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. So what
do we do? We take everything we hear and
we compare it to Christ. Does it take from Him His glory
in salvation? Does it? There's a lot of doctrine,
there's a lot of teachings out there in Christendom, and I use
that word very loosely, you know, that denies Christ His glory
and salvation. And as soon as you've done that,
a little leaven, a little leaven, leavens the whole lump. Don't
be intimidated by someone who accuses you of being arrogant
because you think you've got perfect doctrine. If you've got
Christ, you do have perfect doctrine. And if they're teaching something
that robs your Lord of His glory in salvation, then you have the
right to stand up and say, that's error. And if you believe it,
you'll rob your soul of eternal life. Christ is all. This is the true God. This is
eternal life. I want you to think a moment
about that word eternal. Eternal. Contrary to what most
folks believe, eternal life is not something that has a beginning
and has no ending. Most people think, well, eternal
life, I received eternal life when I believed on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and my hope is that that life will never end. And that's
man's concept of eternal life. That's not what the word eternal
means. Eternal means it never had a
beginning. It's eternal. God's the eternal God. He's never had a beginning and
he's never had an end, so that means that all those who are
found in Christ have always been in Christ. They've always been
in Christ. When the Lord's pleased to make
the Lord Jesus Christ known to you, all you're doing is discovering
what He's already done. Everything that happens in time
God's already accomplished it in eternity. The Lord Jesus Christ
is the lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world.
And that which is eternal can't be changed. It can't be changed. That's the only hope we have.
The Lord said, I am the Lord. I am God. And you're not. I am the Lord and I change not. All the immutability of our God
Is the only reason you sons of Jacob are not consumed? If this matter of salvation is
something that can be changed, if it's something that can be
manipulated, if it's something that depends upon you to do something
for, or that you can do something in order to lose it, what hope
do we have? This is eternal life, that we know Him. We know Him. We know who he is. We know what
he's done. We know that he's able. And look at the very, now
John, John summarizes this whole, all five chapters with this,
well, John does. You know that John was just the
penman. God. God summarizes this letter. This is God's word. This is the
Holy Spirit. Holy men of old wrote as they
were moved by the spirit of God. These are not a private interpretation.
This is the word of God. What does he say? Little children,
little children, all little children. Lest you become as a little child,
you should not enter the kingdom of heaven. And that, that doesn't
mean a four or five, six, seven year old child. That term right
there that you're looking at means a baby. An infant. What can an infant do for itself? Infants can only do two things.
Only do two things. They can cry and they can mess
themselves up. They can't eat for themselves.
They can't walk. They can't talk. They're completely
dependent. And so the Lord is speaking to
his children. He says, little children, keep thyself from idols. Don't compromise the gospel.
Don't be intimidated by those folks who would seek to call you names and say
that you're arrogant and unloving and ungracious because you hold
to the truth. You mean to tell me that you
think that you have the perfect church? We're not, but our gospel is. Our gospel's perfect. It can't
be changed. Our gospel is Christ. Listen to what our Lord said
in John chapter 7. My doctrine, my doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. Now what the Lord Jesus Christ
was saying was, I am speaking the word of God, and everything
that comes out of my mouth, every word that proceeds out of his
mouth was nothing less than the Word of God." Now listen to the
next verse. If any man, if any man will do
his will, what is it to do the will of God? What is it to do
the will of the Father? The Pharisees said, Lord, what
can we do to work the works of God? What the Lord Jesus Christ
said, this is the work of God. This is the will of God. This
is God's good pleasure that you believe on him whom he has sent. So resting on Christ, trusting
in Christ, believing that the Lord Jesus Christ is all in salvation. If any man will do his will,
he will know whether the doctrine that I teach is of God. So if you believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, you know the truth. And when someone introduces a
teaching that's contrary to the gospel of God's free and sovereign
grace in the finished, accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ,
it's another gospel. It's another gospel. You can't have the gospel without
election. There is no gospel apart from
election. There's no gospel apart from God predestinating us in
Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world. There's no gospel
outside of that. I have no hope of salvation.
apart from the truth that the Lord Jesus Christ made when he
said, you did not choose me, I chose you. If salvation is
by choice, I'm in trouble because my choices
change all the time. But if it's by his choice, if
it's by, if all, if Christ is all, if we have Pure doctrine
in Christ, if I'm chosen in Christ before the foundation of the
world, then I have hope. I have hope. He changes not. He changes not. In redemption,
in redemption, Christ is all. He paid the full and final ransom
price that God the Father required for all those that God had chosen
in the covenant of grace before the world ever began. the Lord
Jesus Christ accomplished the salvation of his elect. Not one
drop of his blood was wasted. It wasn't an offer of salvation
that he makes to the world that becomes effectual by something
you contribute to it. It was an accomplished salvation
when he said, it is finished. It's finished. He went to the
cross all by himself, and all by himself he bore in his body
the sins of his elect. All by himself he suffered the
wrath of God's justice in order to put away those sins and be
our propitiation before God. All by himself. Christ is all. He's all in redemption. So if
someone says, well, You've got to make a choice. That's not
the gospel. That's false doctrine. That's
a lie. If someone says, well, you know,
you've got to make your contribution. You've got to put your two cents
worth in. You've got to perform your work.
You've got to pray this prayer. You've got to whatever. Then
Christ is not all. He's not all. We have perfect
doctrine in election. We have perfect doctrine in redemption. We have perfect doctrine in regeneration. In regeneration. That's the new
birth. What did the Lord say to Nicodemus?
He said, Nicodemus, you can't see the kingdom of God. All of
your religious activity, all of your efforts, everything that
you've been trying to do in order to earn favor with God is doing
you no good at all. It's not, if anything it's, well,
what did Paul say? Paul was doing the same thing
Nicodemus was doing. And when the Lord was pleased
to reveal himself to the Apostle Paul, he said, those things which
I thought were gain were actually my loss. And I do now count them
as done, that I might win Christ. Christ is all in salvation. I
was trusting in what I was doing, hoping that somehow it'd be enough.
and anyone who adds anything to regeneration. Those who baptize
babies destroy Christ being all in regeneration. It doesn't just
muddy the water. It doesn't just confuse the issue.
It destroys the gospel. To say that that child is in
some way a part of the covenant of grace, that they're in the
covenant community. What does that mean? What does
that mean? You see, whatever teaching is
out there that's contrary to Christ being all. He's all in
election. He's all in redemption. He's
all in regeneration. He's the one who sent his spirit. He's the one who opens the eyes
of the blind. He's the one who makes us willing
in the day of his power. Nicodemus, you can't see the
kingdom of God unless you're born of God. Unless you're born
again, you've got to be born from above. Well, how can I do
that? You can't. You can't. It's the work of the Spirit of
God. The Spirit's like the wind. He listeth with us wherever He
wills. You can't control Him. He does what He wants with whomever
He wants, whenever He wants. He gets all the glory. He gets
all the glory. The nations are a drop in the
bucket to Him. He hath done whatsoever He wills. Whatever teaching, whatever doctrine,
does this rob from Christ His glory and salvation? Does it
rob from Christ His glory and elect in a people according to
His sovereign will and purpose? Does it rob Christ of His redemptive
work on Calvary's cross, being everything that God required?
Everything that God requires of a sinner, He looks to the
Lord Jesus Christ for. It's another gospel. Oh, I'm
so glad we've got perfect doctrine. We do. We have a perfect Savior. It's not complicated. What'd
that man say? I was persuaded to be a Calvinist
because of my hermeneutical studies or whatever. You know what? This is simple. The gospel's
simple. It's not complicated. It's not
convoluted. That's man-made religion that's
that way. They've got all the touch-not,
taste-not, handle-nots and all the ceremonies. And Christ is not everything. In sanctification, Christ is all. He that sanctifyeth and they
that are sanctified are all as one. So that as he is, how is
he? Is he sanctified? Now you know
that word means holy. He's holy. Is the Lord Jesus
Christ holy before God? Is he accepted before God? The
scripture says, John goes on to say this, as he is, so are
we, and I'm glad for these next three words, in this world, in
this world, right now, right now, perfectly holy before God,
right now, set apart in the person of my Savior. accepted in the
Beloved before God right now. If you're going to take me back
to the law, if you're going to take me back to some Old Testament
Sabbath law-keeping, and use that to monitor my salvation,
to motivate my sanctification, to measure whether or not I'm
saved or not, then Christ is not all in sanctification. He's all, and He's in all. We have perfect doctrine. What about in Revelation? What
about in this book? Is Christ all? There are those
who would study this book for its hermeneutical values. There
are those who will study this book for its historical information. They'll pride themselves in what
they know and the doctrine that they have. In the volume of the
book, it is written of me. You search the Scriptures because
you think in them you have eternal life, but these are they which
testify of me." It's all about Christ. He's all. If we're studying the Word of
God for any other thing, you know, men will Men will parse
verbs in the scriptures in order to make conclusions about their
doctrine and whether it be church government or whether it be church
discipline or whatever. They miss the gospel. Christ is the gospel. Yes. Yes, I can say with absolute
authority, we have perfect doctrine. We have a perfect savior and
he is our teaching. That's what that word means.
The word doctrine means teaching. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
is our teaching. He's the teacher and he's the
teaching. And all of scripture points to
him in preaching. What did Paul say? Paul was a
extremely well-educated, very intelligent man. Was he using
hyperbole? Was he just using a false humility
when he made this statement? I profess to know nothing among
you save Christ and Him crucified. No, he wasn't. He spoke those
words under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. We preach Christ
crucified. We're not interested in anything
else. Christ gets all the glory. From election, through all of
our teachings, right down to preaching, Christ
is all, and he is in all. All right, let's take a break. th th