If you'd like to turn with me
and your Bibles to 2 Timothy chapter 3 for our Scripture reading
tonight. 2 Timothy chapter 3 and we'll
begin reading in verse 16. All Scripture. I'm so thankful
that we have the Word of God. This is God's Word. All Scripture. is given, given by God, by inspiration,
by the inspiration of God, and is profitable. It's profitable
for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction
in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly
furnished unto all good works. You know, there was a time when
we made a God out of the Bible. As I said last Sunday, the Bible
is a means to an end, and that's Christ. And this is a revelation
of Him. And the scriptures are given
in order to lead us to Christ. And in Him we find perfection. In Him we are thoroughly furnished. I charge thee therefore before
God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and
the dead at His appearing and His kingdom, Preach the word. Preach Christ. Be instant, in
season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering
and doctrine. For the time will come when they
will not endure sound doctrine, But after their own loss they
shall heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, and they
shall turn their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto
fables. But watch thou in all things,
endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, and make full
proof of thy ministry. Let's pray together. merciful God, gracious Heavenly
Father, we come before Your throne of grace in the name of Thy dear
Son, thanking Thee that we can call You our Father and thanking
Thee that we have an advocate with Thee, one who is righteous
and one in whom we find our righteousness and our acceptance and our perfection
We ask that you would bless your word tonight, that your Holy
Spirit would open our eyes and, Lord, that you would reveal to
us the glory of Christ and cause us to find our rest and our hope
and all our salvation in His glorious person and in His accomplished
work. Oh, we ask it in His dear name. And for those that do watch online,
we are having our services next Wednesday night at 5 o'clock.
At 5 o'clock, a week from today. So... If you'd like to open your
Bibles with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter
1. We just read from Timothy that
Paul was admonishing young Timothy to preach the word in season
and out of season. The Lord Jesus Christ commissioned
the disciples to go and preach the gospel. The Lord himself
came as a preacher. we have on the front of our bulletin
1st Corinthians chapter 1 verse 23 we preach Christ crucified
we preach the Lord Jesus Christ lifted up on a cross as the sin
bearer of his people preaching is to herald it is to declare
what What great hope we have in knowing that this message
comes straight from the Word of God. We're not here to lecture,
we're not here to educate, we're not here to suppose, we're not
here to discuss, we're here to herald, to declare, thus saith
the Lord. What does God say about Christ
and about Him crucified? The truth is that you and I don't
need to be educated. We need to be saved. We need
to be saved. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
the only hope that we have for that. He is the Savior of sinners. And if we're going to be saved,
the Lord is going to do it through the foolishness of preaching. Now, to the believer, preaching
is everything but foolishness. But to the world? To the world,
it's a stumbling block to the Jews. It's foolishness to the
Greeks. But it's the power of God unto
salvation to them that believe. We're here to declare with authority
what God has to say about the Lord Jesus Christ. And we hope
that the Lord will give us grace to preach it with clarity, to
preach Him with conviction, and to preach Him with compassion. Now John tells us in 1 John chapter
4 that we are to try the spirits to see whether they be of God. Now what he's talking about is
listen to the content of the message that's being preached.
Because in the rest of that verse it says, for many false prophets
have gone out into the world. So we're to prove the message,
we're to try the message, we are to be discerning when it
comes to what's being preached. We're not to be like little children
tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine that comes along.
but neither are we to be self-righteous pharisees looking down our noses
with suspicion and condemnation thinking that you know we know
the Lord said you are to be wise as a serpent and gentle as a
dove and that's especially true when it comes to discerning preaching
I've preached I've preached on many occasions to to Calvinists
in particular, that sit there with their arms crossed, with
a scour on their face, with the attitude, see if you can teach
me something. You know, and that's not to be
our attitude. And their favorite verse is 1
John chapter 4 verse 1, try the spirits and see whether they
be of God. Boy, they're doing it too. What is preaching? What is preaching? We preach Christ crucified. What
is it? Well, I want to tell you three
or four things that preaching is not. From the scriptures. You have your Bibles open to
1 Corinthians. Look at chapter 2 at verse 1. And I, brethren,
when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or
wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God, the gospel,
For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness
and in fear and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching
was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration
of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not stand in
the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Paul mentions in
2nd Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 10 that his his enemies
said about him that he is bodily presence was weak and his speech
was contemptible now from what we know about the
Apostle Paul in the scriptures he was not an eloquent speaker yet God used him as powerfully
as any man has ever lived to preach the gospel. What preaching is not, what it
is not is style of delivery. Don't get caught up in the style
of delivery to determine whether or not preaching is taking place. Preaching has everything to do
with content. with content. The church in Corinth,
why, some of them were followers of Paul, some of them were followers
of Cephas, some of them were followers of Apollos, and they
had their favorite preacher based on which style of preacher was
more attractive to them, and the Lord rebuked them for that,
didn't he? He said, Christ is not divided. Paul didn't save
you. Cephas didn't save you. Paulus
didn't save you. These men preach Christ. They
may preach him in a different way, in a different style, with
different personalities. How different do you suppose
Peter, that rough fisherman's personality, was from gentle
spirited John? How different do you suppose
Apollos, who was a very eloquent speaker, was to Paul, who of
his own confession was weak and contemptible in his speech? Preaching
doesn't have anything to do with the style of delivery. Don't confuse delivery with doctrine. Don't confuse passion with power. Don't confuse noise with knowledge. The joke in preaching class back
many years ago was that if you had a weak point in your message,
write in the margin of your Bible, holler louder, weak point. You
know, that was, and that happens a lot. And people get enthralled
by that. Don't do it, don't. You know,
I remember watching Jimmy Swaggart preach. I mean, he could cry
alligator tears. There was no gospel in that man's
preaching. I was thumbing through the channels
the other day and came across a preacher, I think his name
is T.D. Jakes, and boy, I mean, he was
sweating up a storm and veins popping out and walking up and
down and hallelujah, and had the whole congregation in a fervor. You know he doesn't even believe
in the eternality of the Lord Jesus Christ? He's a member of a group called
Oneness Pentecostalism. And there's no gospel, no gospel
whatsoever in what he preaches. And yet, people get all caught
up with that, don't they? Don't confuse the style of preaching
with the content of the message. Is Christ being preached? Is
the truth being lifted up? Who is our model preacher? No man ever spake as this man
did. He didn't have to holler in the
streets. He didn't have to hoop and holler.
He didn't have to... No! He spoke with authority. Truth
is, you can have heat in the pulpit with no light. That's not preaching. Turn with
me to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. I want you to be discerning when
it comes to the gospel. Oh, I want to be discerning.
And, you know, Satan is so subtle. He's so subtle. The Lord said that even the elect
would be deceived if it were possible. Second Corinthians chapter 4,
look what Paul says beginning in verse 5. Here's another thing
that preaching is not. Preaching is not the style of
delivery. It's the content of the message.
Preaching is not self-promotion. A lot of that takes place in
preaching. Men promote themselves. Look
what Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 beginning in verse
5. And we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord and
ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. We're not preaching ourselves.
We're preaching the light of the glory of the gospel in the
face of the Lord Jesus Christ. For we have this treasure in
earthen vessels. that the excellency of the power
may be of God and not of us. We're not here to promote ourselves.
A lot of wood, hay and stubble going on in the name of preaching
where men are just promoting themselves rather than preaching
Christ. Third thing that preaching is
not, Galatians chapter 5. Third thing that preaching is
not. Preaching is not the style of delivery. Preaching is not
self-promotion. And preaching is not preaching
the law. Look at Galatians chapter 5.
Paul begins by telling us to stand fast in the liberty wherewith
Christ has made you free and be not entangled again with the
yoke of bondage. Don't go back to Egypt. Don't
go back to the law. Don't let anybody put you under
that. And look what he says in verse 11 of that chapter. And
I brethren if I yet preach circumcision and you understand that that
means the law. If I preach circumcision, why
do I yet suffer persecution? Then is the offense of the cross
ceased. We preach Christ what? Crucified. You preach the law. Men are attracted
to that. And there's something in you
and there's something in me that's drawn to someone giving us something
to do. He said, if I preach the law,
then why am I being persecuted? Leaving the law out of preaching
will offend men. It'll offend men. Verse 12, I would that they were
even cut off, which trouble you. Just let them, let them go all
the way. No, we don't preach the law.
The law is our schoolmaster in that we were once under its authority,
but we're not under that authority anymore. As we saw Sunday, it's
not the law that leads us to Christ. We don't have to preach
the law. Christ leads us to Christ. It's the love of God. It's the
goodness of God that leadeth to repentance. And it's the love
of Christ that constrains us. And the Lord said, if I be lifted
up, I will draw all men to myself. So, we're here to, we're here
to exalt Christ, to lift up Christ. Alright, you have your Bibles
open to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. What is this matter of preaching?
Look at verse 17. For Christ sent me not to baptize. He's not diminishing the importance
of baptism. But he's saying that, you know,
my call from God is to preach the gospel. Paul was an itinerant
preacher and the pastors and elders in the local churches
where he preached would take care of the baptizing. And he's
saying that wasn't, you know, I'm not being called a baptist.
But to preach the gospel. To preach the gospel. That's
what God's called me to do. So this matter of preaching has
to do with the good news. The good news. The gospel of
God's free grace in the accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Having an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one,
who is himself all our salvation and all our life. What glorious
news that is. Preaching the gospel. Look at
verse 18. For the preaching of the cross. So this matter of preaching is
preaching the good news and preaching the cross. Christ lifted up. Christ as our sin bearer on Calvary's
cross. Look at verse 21. For after that
in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. So preaching the gospel, preaching
the cross, and preaching are all the same thing. Look at verse
23 in that passage. But we preach Christ crucified. We preach Christ crucified. Unto
the Jews a stumbling block. Why? He was the stone which the builders
rejected, and God took and made the head of the corner. But they
didn't like that. Why? Because they didn't fit
into their rules and regulations, didn't fit into their religious
system. So it became a stumbling block.
And to the Greeks, preaching, that's just foolishness. We're
too intellectual for that. So preaching the gospel, preaching
Christ, preaching the cross, preaching. is lifting up the Lord Jesus
Christ in His glorious person and in His accomplished work.
We're here to preach Christ. We're not here to preach the
law. We're not here to preach a man. We're not here to impress
men with style of delivery. We're here to tell men about
who the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of His deity. Don't you love the story of Philip
and the Ethiopian eunuch? And the eunuch said, what doth
hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, if thou believest
with all thine heart, thou mayest. What did he say? What did he
say? I believe that Jesus you just
preached to me. You preach to me." Beginning
with that very passage of scripture in Isaiah 53 where that Ethiopian
eunuch was reading when he asked, does the prophet speak of himself
or does he speak of another? And the scripture says that Philip
got in the chariot and began to preach from that passage unto
him Jesus. And when he was finished, he
said, I believe that that Jesus you just preached to me is the
Son of God. I believe that. I'm thoroughly
convinced of it. He's made Himself known to me.
I believe that He's the second person of the triune Godhead. There's no doubt in my mind about
it. He's the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He is Emmanuel. He's God with us. I've seen Him. I've seen the Father, for He
and the Father are one. Oh, the glorious mystery of the
Trinity. But we believe. We believe who
He is. And as being God, we believe
that He is sovereign. We believe He is sovereign. We
don't say He is God and then change the definition of deity.
If He's God, then He hath done whatsoever He wills with the
armies of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth, and no man can
stay His hand or say unto Him, What doest Thou? He has mercy
on whomever He wills to have mercy, and whom He wills, He
hardens. He's God! The little Jesus that's
being preached today is not God. He's waiting for you to let him
have his way. Oh, won't you let Jesus come into your heart? There's no deity to that. That's
a God to feel sorry for. We don't feel sorry for our God.
We fear our God. we know that he holds our lives
in his hands and he does with them whatsoever he wills and
he said he said don't be afraid of those who can kill the body
but fear that one who can throw both body and soul into hell
we have some bands in death don't we? we understand that the reality
of eternal life and hell and we look to Christ as the one
who unloosed those bands for us As the sovereign, glorious God,
He has the right to foreknow, to foreknow, to predestinate,
to call, to justify, and to glorify those whom ever He wills. He said, you didn't choose me,
I chose you. And when I'm ready, I'll make
you willing. I'll make you willing. Oh, the
Jesus that's being preached today is not the sovereign God of Scripture. He's not. He's not the Word of God. Preach the Word that they may
be perfect, lacking in nothing, preach Christ he's the he's the
incarnate Word of God the Word that became flesh and dwelt among
us we beheld his glory as of the only begotten of the Father
full of grace and full of truth he is the Word of God If a text of scripture is not
understood in the light of the gospel of God's free grace in
the glorious person and accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ,
then it's not understood. It's just not. And there are
many passages of scripture I looked at and I can't find the gospel
in it. I've got to go somewhere else.
The Lord just hasn't opened that. But I know it's there. I know
it's there! And in time, we'll have all eternity
for the Lord to open the mysteries of the gospel to us, won't we? wherever we go to in the Word
of God. That's what Paul was saying to
Timothy. Timothy, preach the Word. Preach
Christ, in season, out of season, wherever you go in the Word of
God. Exalt the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what men need to hear.
Sinners need to know that there's a Savior. They need to know who
He is. They need to know something about
His power to save, His authority to save. His sovereignty and
salvation. They need to know that He is
the Word of God. And that He Himself is the Spirit
of Prophecy, as the angel told John in Revelation. What is preaching? It's preaching Christ. Preaching
Him as God, as sovereign, and as omnipotent. Omnipotent. He's all-powerful. Is anything
too hard for the Lord? Anything? Sarah laughed, didn't she? 90-year-old
woman giving birth to a baby? Yeah, you'd laugh too. What'd
God say? Is anything too hard for me?
What's impossible? with man is possible with God. You'll save yourself as easily
as you'll get a camel through the eye of a needle. It's not
going to happen. What man can't do, God does. That's what you need. That's
what I need. I need an all-powerful God. I need a God that will draw
me to himself, a God that will cause me to believe, a God that
will open the eyes of my understanding, a God that will turn me. The
prophet said, turn me, O Lord, and I shall be turned. If you
don't turn me, you're going to have to do it by your omnipotent
power. The Lord Jesus Christ is immutable. Immutable. He doesn't change. He doesn't mutate. He's not one
thing today and something else tomorrow. The only hope we have
of being saved is that He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.
He said, I change not. And it's the only reason you
sons of Jacob are not consumed. I've established a covenant. You make a covenant with me and
I'll disannul that covenant. But the covenant that I've established,
it's an everlasting covenant. It cannot change. Why? Because
I can't change. I don't change. I don't change. And it's forever. We're so prone to make God out
to be like ourselves, aren't we? You thought that I was altogether
as thyself. He's not. He's holy. He's other than we are. Isaiah saw Him high and lifted
up and he said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. Heaven
and earth is filled with His glory. That's who He is. You know, we live in this created
sphere of time and space that God has made for us to exist
in this brief life that we have, but there's an eternity outside
of that. Donny Bell and I were talking
about Monday night. He came in Monday. He's over
in Sarasota and preaching for them tonight. But you know, when
Mary took her last breath and stepped into glory, She didn't
look around and think, wow, isn't this glorious? She left time
and space and she entered into that place where she's always
been. She's always been there. You know, it's not like, well, this
is the first day of eternity. We talk like that, but we're
just foolish when we speak like that. There is no time in eternity. When you step into eternity,
you're going to be there as you've always been there. Truth is,
you have always been there in the person of your substitute,
in the heavenlies, in Christ. I'll be looking around, taking
it all in and thinking, you know, we're just going to be delivered from this time that
we know of. Caught up into the glory of His
eternal grace. Oh, what a glorious God we have. He's sovereign. He's immutable. He's holy. He's fully God. He's omniscient. Oh, what a hope we have of knowing
that He knows our thoughts before we think them. He knows more
about your sin than you know about it. There's no reason to
hide from God. He said, who's been His counselor? Who's going to instruct God in
the ways that... No, He knows everything. And
He's never learned anything. He's never had a new thought. He said, here's his name, when
he met with Moses, when he first gave his name, what did he say?
I am. I am. Not I have been, I will, no,
I just am. Jehovah God. Oh, what a glorious
Savior. This is what Paul is saying. We preach Christ. That's His person. That's who
He is. I know people call Jesus the
Christ, and then you listen to them talk about Him, and they
deny the very essence of His Messiahship, which is what Christ
means. Sent of God, in the full power
of the Spirit of God, the Anointed One, that's what Christ means,
to do what? To accomplish the salvation of
His people. They call him Christ and they
say, well he wants to save. Won't you let him? We preach Christ. Christ and
him crucified. That's his work. His person and
his work. What do we know about his work? We know that he came in order
to redeem his people. He didn't come to make an offer
of redemption, he came as the Redeemer. He said, you're not
redeemed with corruptible things such as silver and gold, but
you're redeemed with the precious blood of the lamb that is without
spot and without blemish. When the Lord Jesus Christ shed
his precious blood on Calvary's cross, he did not waste a drop
of it. He was successful. in redeeming
his people, purchasing them unto God. You've been bought with
a price. He's the Redeemer. We preach
Christ crucified. He's our surety. Judah said to Jacob about Benjamin,
he said, I'll be his surety. Of my hand shalt thou require
him, if I bring him not, let me bear the blame." Now is it
possible for the Lord Jesus Christ to come and be the surety of
his people and then go back into glory and have the Father blame
him because he didn't bring the sons of glory into the presence
of God? No! No! The Word of God did not return
void. When He ascended back into glory,
He took with Him the names of those for whom He lived and died.
He's our surety. He's our Redeemer. That's what
He accomplished. Paul said we preach Christ crucified. What you need and what I need
is not a theological education, not a feeling, Not a religious
experience. We need to be redeemed. We need
a surety with God. We need a Savior. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. The angel told Joseph, you call
him Jesus. Why? Joshua. Yahshua, Jehovah saves. That's what His name means. Salvations
of the Lord. He's going to save His people.
Without their help. Without any contribution on their
part. This Jesus is not being preached
in the world. He's not being preached in religion. Oh, some wimpy feels sorry for
Jesus is being offered up and you know and man has set himself
up on the throne of God. They've taken the very place
of God. We preach Christ and Him crucified. When the Lord Jesus Christ hung
on Calvary's cross, the scripture says that he bore in his body
all the sins of all of his people, and he put them away once and
for all. The Lord Jesus Christ, the God
of glory, the one we're talking about here from the scriptures,
the one Paul preached, the one I'm trying to preach right now,
didn't offer up his life for the sins of all men. He didn't
die for everybody. If he died for everybody, everybody
would be saved. I was standing out in the parking
lot last week. A man came by and he was thanking me, he was very
religious, and thanking me for being in the community and being
a testimony for Jesus. 15 minutes later, he stormed away
from me and said to me, you are an enemy of the gospel. In 15
minutes, he went from praising me for being a testimony for
his Jesus until he found out the Jesus that I believed in
and he stormed away from here, accusing me of being an enemy
of the gospel. He's an enemy of the gospel. And it had to do with for whom
did Jesus die? That was the conversation. For
whom did He die? Well, He died for everybody.
I'm going around preaching this to everybody because He died
for everybody. No, He didn't. No, He didn't. If He died for
everybody, everybody would be saved. Why? Because he was successful
in his death, in his crucifixion. He didn't die for some of the
sins of all men. He didn't die for all the sins
of all men. He died for all the sins of some
men. And I'm so thankful. I'm so thankful. The Lord Jesus Christ is just,
as we saw Sunday morning, and He is the justifier of them that
believe. He justifies us before God, being justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Who is He that condemneth? Who
can condemn you? It's God that justifies. God
does the justifying. And He justifies us with the
justifier, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's our reconciler. We were
at enmity with God. We didn't come into this world
reconciled to God. Until the Lord Jesus Christ reconciles
us, there's one mediator between God and man. There's one man,
one man, who's able to touch God with one hand and not be
destroyed, and able to touch sinners with the other hand and
not be defiled. He's the only one. He's the only
one that can do it. That's why He said, I am the
way, the truth, and the life. No man can come to the Father
but by Me. That's what I need. Oh, I need an advocate. My little
children, I write these things unto you that you sin not, but
if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ,
the Righteous One. He established our righteousness
for us. We don't go about ignorant of
the righteousness of God trying to establish our own righteousness. He is our atonement. Atonement. He's our covering. He's our propitiation before
God. That's what He did. a book on the language and they
said well to take the word atonement and make it to mean at-one-ment
is a fanciful interpretation of the word but it's not you
look up the word atonement in English and that's what the word
means at-one-ment Now I know in the original language
it has to do with a covering, it has to do with a propitiation, but that covering and that propitiation
makes us to be one with God. We preach Christ. Don't confuse delivery with content. God uses lots of different personalities
and different men to declare the truth and don't get caught
up in thinking because someone's... don't think because there's heat,
there's light. Look for the light. Try the Spirit,
see whether it be of God. We're not to preach ourselves,
but Christ Jesus. We're not to preach the law.
We preach Christ, who He is, in all of His glorious attributes. And He's described in so many
different types and pictures and ways in His Word. And we
preach Him from the Word, don't we? We're not going anywhere
else for our source of truth to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ
directly from His Word. and we preach him crucified.
Not that he experienced crucifixion historically and physically,
yes he did. But what Paul is talking about
there in our text when he said we preach Christ crucified unto
the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness,
look at the next verse, but unto them which are called Them which are called, have you
been called of God? Whether they be Jews or Greeks,
when the accomplished work of the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus
Christ is preached, then that message about that man becomes the power of God. unto
salvation to everyone that believeth. So that Paul said in Romans,
I'm not ashamed of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ for
it is the power of God unto salvation. Unto salvation. One thing I know for sure about
you and about me And this goes along with preaching too. I was
talking to a brother this week and he said he had a dear lady
who came out of religion and heard him preach. And she came
up to him afterwards and she said, I've never heard a preacher. She said, I've been in religion
all my life and it was always you sinners. And I've never heard
a preacher preach from the pulpit himself as a sinner. Till his
first time in my life. Now we're in this thing together,
aren't we? We don't preach ourselves. Oh, that the Lord would use the
foolishness of preaching to save us, to save us. I heard a brother say recently
he was preaching the gospel and another pastor came up to him
after he preached and he said, phew, got saved again today. He knew what he meant. I knew
what he meant. And you know what he means. Every time Christ is
lifted up, we're not looking for anything more. Lord, save
me. Save me. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful. We're thankful for giving us a book. A book that can be relied upon
word for word. believing that these scriptures
are nothing less the inspired Word of God about the Word of
God. We pray that you would be pleased
to reveal Christ to our hearts and cause us to have hope in
Him and to rest in Him, to believe Him, trust Him, Lord, you're
going to have to do that. We ask that you would. We pray
it in Christ's name. Amen. Brother Tom, in the soft
back temple number 77, let's stand together. Your word, O God, I love to hear