Tonight's message is primarily
to me, your pastor. I've been troubled this week
in my spirit, sifted as wheat. And during such times as this,
I find it best to find a passage of Scripture that most rebukes
me to the dust and instructs me. Sometimes we want to find
a passage that we feel like defends us or something of that nature,
but it's always better to find a passage that rebukes us. When we find ourselves in the
dust, we find those feet, those precious feet. And that's when we wash those
feet with our tears. That's where we need to be, where
we need to be. Well, this passage has been on
my heart, and I pray that as you hear this word of God to
me, that it'll be a benefit to you as well. Now this is the
Apostle Paul writing to Timothy who was a preacher, a young preacher.
Paul was a spiritual father in the Gospel to Timothy. And these
are needed instructions. We begin here in 2 Timothy 2
verse 22. And he says, flee also youthful
lusts. Now that word also refers back
to what Paul had just told him before this to flee. Paul had
just named two men who had erred from the truth. And we're deeply
saddened when that happens. No brethren want to see that
happen. Those that have made a profession
of faith preach the Word. These were preachers. These were
men who preached the Word. but they had fallen away. And
Paul, though he reminds Timothy not to be amazed when something
like this happens, but he instructs Timothy not to join with such
men, but to flee from them. Now look back up at verse 16. But shun profane, this is iniquity,
wicked, profane, vain babblings, for they will increase unto more
ungodliness. That's what they'll do. Their
word will eat as doth the canker of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus,
who concerning the truth have erred. Now they were using the
scriptures, they were still, but Paul said their word's going
to increase unto more ungodliness, not godliness. They're saying
that the resurrection is past already and they overthrow the
faith of some. Nevertheless, the foundation
of God standeth sure. Having this seal, the Lord knoweth
them that are His. And let everyone that nameth
the name of Christ depart from iniquity. He's talking about
these these men, these vessels, depart from iniquity. He says,
but in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and
silver, but also of wood and of earth, and some to honor and
some to dishonor. If a man therefore purge himself
from these, leave him, leave him alone. He shall be a vessel
unto honor. This is evidence He's a vessel
unto honor. He can discern it. He sees it.
He knows it. A vessel unto honor, sanctified,
meet for the Master's use, prepared unto every good work. And then
we come to this text, our text, and He says, and flee also youthful
lusts. Now, in the context, Paul's not
speaking about uncleanness, he's not talking about worldliness,
he's not talking about those profane sins of immorality and
things of that nature. We must and will, by God's grace,
flee from those things. But Paul is speaking of things
like vain glory, seeking vain glory. God has to receive all
the glory. He has to receive all the glory.
Paul said, we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the
excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. Popular
applause, you know, the praise of men. Paul said, do I now persuade
men or God? He said, or do I seek to please
men? He said, if I yet please men,
I should not be the servant of Christ. You can't seek the applause
of men. Seeking preeminence. Seeking
preeminence. Christ is the head of the body.
Christ is the head of the body. He's the head of the church.
The body is the church. He's the head. He's the beginning. He's the firstborn from the dead
that in all things He might have the preeminence. For it please
God that in Him should all fullness dwell. I ask God to help me, to keep
me ever aware and ever bowing to the fact that Christ is the
head of His church. He's the head of this church.
This is His body. And when He sent forth a pastor
to this body, He sent it forth to feed His body. You're all
members one of another of that one body. And He sent this pastor
to feed you. To feed you. But feeding you
is to declare His name. It's to declare His power. It's
to declare His glory. It's to declare Him. And wait
on Him. Just wait on Him. Wait on Him. Who is sufficient for these things?
That's what Paul said. who is sufficient for these things.
He said, we can't say our sufficiency is of ourselves. We can't speak
as if our sufficiency is of ourselves. Our sufficiency is of God. It's of God. The more we look
at this passage, the more we're going to see that it has to be.
It has to be. Verse 22. He says, but, but,
flee those youthful lusts, but follow righteousness. faith,
charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure
heart. Rather than joining with these
kinds of men, as Paul mentioned, he says, follow these things
with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Now, the Hebrew writer told us, Run
this race set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured
that shameful cross. He despised the shame, but he
sat down at the right hand of God. Consider him, lest you be
weary and faint in your minds. Consider the contradiction of
sinners that he bore against himself. I looked at Psalm 22
a few weeks ago and I preached from that text again on Sunday
over in Pennsylvania. The more I behold Christ, especially
when I behold Christ there on the cross in Psalm 22, the more
I behold the personification of these things that Paul teaches
us to follow after. You know, He's the personification
of these things, He's the fountain of all these graces, and the
more that these graces of God are going to be grown in us,
and they're going to be fed and edified the more we see Him.
You know, when He was hanging there on Calvary's tree with
His hands and His feet pierced, and He was hanging there between
heaven and hell, and He was forbid the smiles of heaven and the
smiles of earth, He was not only justifying God, declaring the
righteousness of God by burying the sin of his people in his
body on the tree, showing that God's righteousness will by no
means clear the guilty. God will not turn his back on
a sinner, or will not accept a sinner. And God rejected him
there. He turned his back on him. He
cried, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? But then he
justified God. And he said, because you're holy
and I'm a worm and no man. And yet in the midst of actually
declaring God just and justified by the act of what he was doing
in laying down his life and paying the penalty for his people, he
never ceased. to pray unto the Father and to
cast his care upon the Father. He never once spoke ill of the
Father. He never once spoke ill of his
accusers. He prayed unto God for God to
save him, for God to call him, to bring him home. Even up until
that last hour when He commended His Spirit into the hands of
the Father for the Father to raise Him from the dead. He had
the power to raise Himself from the dead. He's Son of God. But
this Son of Man commended His Spirit into the hands of the
Father in pure, holy faithfulness. Perfect righteousness. No sin
in His person. as he bore the sin of his people
in his body on the tree. What he did was righteous and
holy, even as he's paying the sin debt of God, because he's
been made sin for his people, really made sin for them. And
if he would have done everything up to that last point and not
commended his spirit into the hands of his father, everything
else would have been vain, because he hadn't trusted God to raise
him from the dead as God promised he would. Now, when I see Him
there, you know what I see? I see the righteousness of God.
You know what I see? I see the faithfulness of God.
You know what I see? I see charity. I see the love
of God. When I look there, I see the
peace of God. And if I'm going to understand
how I ought to treat you, if I'm going to pursue and follow
after that which is of faith and that which is of love and
that which is of peace, I got to do so following Him, keeping
my eye on Him, walking by faith, not by sight. That won't work. That just won't work. It will
not work. And the Spirit of God teaches
us here, brethren, that through His person, through His blood,
through His Spirit, through His Word, effectually in the heart,
he grows his people in these graces that he tells us to follow
after. That's how he's going to grow
me, your pastor, and it's through this same word of truth that
he's going to grow you, who are servants of the Lord as well.
Same way. Very same way. And he says, and
follow after these things with them that call on the Lord out
of a pure heart. Pure heart. Well, I do pray God
will make me a peacemaker. I don't want to be a stumbling
block. I just don't want to be a stumbling block. I want to
be used of God to declare the Prince of Peace. and used of
God in everything in my life in the midst of you to be a peacemaker. To point you to Christ our peace
and to say the words that need to be said of God to turn us
from ourselves and from our shortcomings for one another to Christ Jesus,
the peacemaker. That's how peace is going to
be made. Well, verse 23. He says, but foolish and unlearned
questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strife. That's
all they're going to do. That's all they're going to do.
You know, there's so much that is revealed, that's certain and
revealed in the Word of God to us, being revealed in our hearts
so we know these things are true. The difference in a man that's
been regenerated and called of God and a man that hasn't is
this. When we look into this Word, before God called us and
regenerated us, we were looking for things that would give us
some part of the glory. And we were ashamed that Christ
get all the glory. Now we're looking into these
things and we want Christ to get all the glory and we'd be
ashamed to have any of it. We want Him to have it all. Things
have been turned right side up, haven't they? And so we're looking
into these things, and when we see them, though we might not
fully understand them, though we might not fully be able to
comprehend it, we see it, and this is our touchstone. That
gives Christ my Lord, God my Father, all the glory. I rejoice
in it. Lord, thank you for that. And
there's plenty revealed in this Word. Think about things like
this that are revealed. the fullness of the Godhead. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit manifest in a body of flesh just like
you and I was. That's a good thing to think
about. That's a good thing to read about, study about this
Word. It's revealed in this Word. You think about the fullness
of the fact that God Himself was manifest in human flesh? He came to where we are and dwelt
among us. You think about things such as
the greatness of His sovereign ruling power over everything
in heaven and in earth. He is the law of gravity. God
is. He is the law of nature. It's
not mother nature. It's God. He holds the water
in the hollow of His hand. It's God. It's God. He's that power. He's that power. We have those things to think
about and to study in His Word and to see manifest clearly in
His Word. We have things such as His electing
grace. We have His predestinating grace. We have His redeeming grace. We have His irresistible calling,
keeping, preserving grace. We have this revelation made
to us that not one child whom God has everlastingly loved,
whom Christ has redeemed, shall ever perish. Nobody will be able
to pluck them out of His hand. But He will raise them all up
to be with God in glory forever. We study these things that are
revealed and we can go all our lives and at the end of our lives,
wake up in glory and say, the half has not been told. That's
so. The Scripture says the secret
things belong unto the Lord our God. But those things that belong,
that are revealed, they belong unto us and our children, that
we may do all the words of this book. Did you see what you just read
there out of Romans 4? He says, if those who are of
the law be heirs of promise, he said, then faith is made void.
But back up there to Romans 3, do you know what he said? Do
we make void the law through faith? No, we establish it. We've done all the works of God,
and we learn how all the work of God is done, that we may do
all the work of God. We learn how we do it all. How? Faith. Faith in Him who has done
it all. in Him who's done it all. We
start looking to ourselves, we make that faith void. We look
to Him by faith, we establish everything that must be done.
Isn't that right? And that's what's revealed in
this book. That's exactly what's revealed in this book. So all
the other stuff men want to talk about, all the other isms and arians
and all those ostics and ologies. Man, let them talk about it.
Let them talk about it. This right here is where the
food is. Alright, verse 24. And the servant
of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all, apt to
teach. patient in meekness, instructing
those that oppose themselves. This is where I got the title
for our message tonight. God's must not and God's must
be's. Or just simply, God's must not
and must be's. That's what this is. Let's look
at these. Now this is the word that rebuked me. This is the
word that God put me in the dust. Right here. Listen to this now.
The servant of the Lord must not strive. Must not. Just must not strive. The servant
of the Lord has absolutely no reason to. No reason to. You know, we know that. We know the doctrine that declares
that. We know that God said to Zerubbabel,
it's not by power, it's not by might, not by your power, not
by your might, but by my spirit, saith the Lord. And God's going
to bring us in into the experience of it and make us see just how
quickly we'll fail at just what He said. And we'll find ourselves
striving by our might and our power. That's right. Look over at Matthew 12. Matthew
12. You know, the Pharisees sought how they might destroy Christ
the Lord because when He walked this earth, He healed somebody
on the Sabbath. He broke the law in their eyes. And He was fulfilling the law
in what He did. The whole spirit of the law in
what He did. And He indeed is the Sabbath
rest of the believer. But to them, He had broken the
law. And so they sought counsel and they sought how they might
destroy Him. But you know, it didn't prevent
Him at all from fulfilling His will. It didn't hinder Him whatsoever. And they only served God's purpose
in doing what He was doing. Matthew 12, look at verse 14.
Then the Pharisees went out and held a council against him how
they might destroy him. But when Jesus knew it, you know
what he did? He withdrew himself from things.
He didn't fight them. He didn't battle them. He didn't
debate with them. He just withdrew from them. And
a great multitude followed him. And he healed them all. They were mad because He healed
one man on the Sabbath, and He just withdrew from them, and
this multitude followed Him, and He healed all of them. He
healed many more. But look at this. And He charged
them that they should not make Him known that it might be fulfilled. All of this occurred, that it
might be fulfilled, which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet,
saying, this is what God said to His servant Christ, from Isaiah,
Behold My servant, whom I have chosen. Behold Him, look at Him. Just look at how, look what He
did. Look at Him. This is the one
God chose. My beloved in whom my soul is
well pleased. God said, my soul is well pleased
with Him. Now look at this. He said, I will put my spirit
upon Him. See that certainty? And He shall
show judgment to the Gentiles. Is He going to come and be fighting
and battling on a big steed or warrior horse when He came and
do that? No. Look at the next verse. He shall
not strive nor cry. Neither shall any man hear his
voice in the streets." He's not standing down on the corner on
Bourbon Street in the middle of Mardi Gras, yelling at folks,
telling them to repent. That's not what he's doing. He
came forth with the word of truth. That's what he did. And look
at this word, too. A bruised reed. A little bruised
reed shall he not break. That's gentleness. and smoking flax shall he not
quench. That's a... Lord teach me that. Teach me
that. Till he send forth judgment unto
victory, and in his name shall the Gentiles trust. Do it so
gently, so easily, And this same shepherd, this same master, this
same all-victorious Redeemer, in all of this He glorified God,
wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him. And He's given Him
a name which is above every name. And He's seated at the right
hand of the Father. And all power in heaven and earth is His, just
as it was when He walked this earth, not breaking the bruised
reed or quenching the smoking flax, just as He removed Himself
from them. When we think we've got some
power, we're going to be able to overcome somebody, what we
say, here's the one who had all power in heaven and earth. And
what did He do? Just removed Himself from them. And by that
power, a great multitude followed Him and He healed them all. And he says this to us, to the
servants of the Lord. He says this, Lo, I am with you
always, even until the end of the world. That's what he said. Alright, let's look back at our
text now. 2 Timothy 2 verse 24. The servant also You must be
gentle unto all. I want you to see this too. Isaiah
40 verse 11. Isaiah 40 verse 11. This is just
a repeat of what we just looked at. This is before you ever came. Look at Isaiah 40 verse 11. Listen to this. Oh, I love this
too. Catch this now. Verse 10, Behold, the Lord God
will come with strong hand, and His arms shall rule for Him.
Behold, His reward is with Him and His work before Him. How
is He going to operate with His strong hand? He shall feed His
flock like a shepherd. That's a strong hand. He shall
feed his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs, the
little ones, the tender ones. He shall gather the lambs with
his arm. This is that strong arm that's
ruling for God. He'll gather them with his arm
and carry them in his bosom and shall gently, gently, lead those
that are with you. That's how He's going to do it.
He's going to do it. When I start trying to bear my
arm and flex my muscle, you know what He's going to do? He's going
to come to me with His strong arm. And you know what He's going
to do? He's going to feed His little lamb like a shepherd with
that strong arm. And He's going to gently lead.
You know what He's going to do by that? He's going to make me
fall down and look up at Him and say, Lord, teach me to be
more like You. Teach me to walk after You and
turn from my vain wisdom and vain strength and vain glory.
Teach me to do that. Alright, look here, 2 Timothy
2, 24. And I'll give you a passage to read tonight before you go
to bed. Read 1 Thessalonians 2 and look
at verses 1-13 and see how Paul He encountered so much trouble
at Thessalonica. He encountered so much opposition
at Thessalonica. And you know what he said? He
said, we continue to preach the Word to you. We might as well
look at it. 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse
1. For yourselves, brethren, know
our entrance in unto you, that it was not in vain. But even
after that we had suffered before and were shamefully entreated,
as you know, at Philippi. Remember they were put in prison
at Philippi, beaten and all those things. He said, even after all
that, we were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel
of God with much contention. They received much contention
from speaking the word of God. But this boldness that they used
was feeding this flock, leading them gently. Now watch. For our
exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile. We weren't using vain language,
but as we were allowed of God. He allowed us. He allowed us
of God to be put in trust with the gospel What a trust, to be
put in trust with the gospel. Even so we speak, not as pleasing
men, but God which trieth our hearts. He knows the inward desire
of our hearts. Look here, for neither at any
time use we flattering words as ye know, nor cloak of covetousness,
God's witness. He's witness of this. Nor of
men sought we glory, neither of you nor yet of others, when
we might have been burdensome as the apostles of Christ. But
we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children."
You ever notice how often the preacher, the apostles, the evangelist,
the teacher, you ever notice how often the pastor of a church
is compared to a father tending to his children? Like a nurse
that cherishes their young. Paul said, I travail in birth,
Christ be formed in you. Look, look now, so being affectionately
desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you not
the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because you were
dear unto us. For you remember, brethren, our
labor and travail, for laboring night and day, because we would
not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the
gospel of God, your witnesses, and God also, how wholly and
justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe,
as you know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one
of you as a father doth his children. that ye would walk worthy of
God, who hath called you unto His kingdom and glory. And for
this cause also, thank we God without ceasing. Because when
you received the word of God which you heard of us, you received
it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of
God which effectually worketh also." See that word also? Because
he's been saying all this that was done, was done of God in
them. And He said it worked also in
you that believe. Same grace. Same grace. We remember
that. Remember that now. We'll come
to that again in a moment. 2 Timothy 2.24, back there. The servant of the Lord must
be apt to teach. That word means capable and ready. Capable and ready. Look there,
chapter 2, verse 15, same page. Study to show thyself approved
unto God. Did you see how much Paul said
there to the Thessalonians? He said, we did this, God's our
witness. God's our witness. at your jobs. I hope you don't
do this. I hope you aren't found doing
this, but there's a such thing as purloining, where you kind
of slough off when the boss is not watching. God's servants,
his pastors, can't do that. God knows. He's always present,
continually present. Study to show thyself approved
unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing
the word of truth. He told Titus, holding fast a
faithful word, as you've been taught, that you may be able
by sound doctrine, both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.
Both of them. You men work long hours, and
you support this work by a lot of toil and a lot of work. A
lot of, and ladies too, a lot of work, hard work. Well, God
helpin' me, I'm not gonna come here and just tell a bunch of
stories and waste some time and waste your time coming here.
I'm going to study in prayer and make much preparation so
that I come here and I'm preaching this word to you in spirit and
in truth, giving you this lamb's food, this sheep food that you
need, that you need vitally to survive more than you need your
necessary food, your food of this earth. Study to show thyself
approved under God. Must be apt to teach. Alright?
Verse 24. The servant of the Lord must
be patient in meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves.
Now, once you think about this, I'm
constantly reminded that I reside And I mean I. I mean the new
man. I mean the real me. I reside
in a body of death. I reside in a body of sin and
corruption, full of the passions of sin, full of the desires of
this sinful flesh. And the Word of God that I'm
sent to preach is absolutely offensive to the pride of every
sinner that hears it. Sent to say, to declare, all
flesh is grass. Sent to declare, it's the spirit
that quickeneth, the flesh profits nothing. The words that Christ
speaks through the voice of his messengers, as he told Nicodemus,
is spirit and life. to whomsoever He'll give it,
to as many as the Father has given Him. I've sent to declare
to you, it's not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth,
but of God that showeth mercy. And here I am, a sinner like
Paul, who said, to will is present with me, but how to perform that,
I don't know how to do it. That which I would do, I don't
do, and that which I hate, that I do. And I'm sent forth to declare
this message to sinners who are going to hate the message I declare
unto them till God saves them. And it's my impulse when they
reject my father and they speak of him ill and speak lies of
him and say it's my first impulse to draw out that sword like Peter
did and try to take their head off, which is just what Peter
was trying to do. He just wasn't a good aim by God's grace. That's right. And the Lord said,
Peter, put your sword back up. Put it up. You got one sword.
It's the gospel that we preach. It's more powerful than any carnal
weapon. And in all this, I'm instructed
to be patient and do this in meekness, instructing those that
oppose themselves. Do you see? And this is the same
with you too. When you're dealing with anybody,
one on one, you see what Paul meant when he said, who is sufficient
for these things? A saver of life unto life to
some, a saver of death unto death unto others. Who's sufficient
for this? We have this treasure in earthen
vessels that the power of this patience and this meekness might
be of God, and the power of this Word going forth in effectual
grace might be of God. Not of us. Not of us. Firm in
the truth. yet tender in the spirit. That's
how it's got to be. Somebody said this. This is a
good statement. Do not build a wall so high between
you and an opponent that he is prevented from repenting and
returning without embarrassment and humiliation. Isn't the whole
point of the gospel is to wait on God to grant repentance? Do
we want to build up a wall so high Man's ashamed to repent. He won't prevent God from doing
the work. But I'm saying, God forbid that I build that wall. Yet what a charge for these hopeless
vessels to instruct those that oppose themselves. I want you
to see this. Look at Acts 26-22. This is amazing right here. Acts 26-22. We'll be back in
this, Lord willing, next time. Acts 26-22. Paul is giving his account of
how the Lord saved him. Called him by his grace and he
said, he sent me forth to preach the gospel. And he said, and
that's why these Jews caught me in the temple, that's why
they went about to kill me. But look at verse 22. Having
therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day witnessing
both the small and great saying none other things than those
which the prophets and Moses did say shall come." He said,
small in number, small in number. Sometimes he was preaching to
one, sometimes two. They're small in estimation of
men, centered, wretched, offscouring of the earth, and to great, sometimes
he's talking to great numbers of folks. Sometimes he's talking
to men who were of men's estimation, great in the estimation of men,
these kings and these governors and these rulers. In the synagogue
He did it, in private He did it, saying none other things
than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come.
What was that? Look at verse 23. That Christ
should suffer, He preached Christ and Him crucified. That He should
be the first that should rise from the dead, He preached Him
being raised again for our justification. and should show light unto the
people and to the Gentiles. He preached the irresistible,
irrefutable, sovereign grace of God through Christ's blood,
calling his people unto great light. And look at the immediate
result from that. And as he thus spoke for himself,
Festus said with a loud voice, Paul, thou art beside thyself. Much learning doth make thee
mad. Look at Paul's response. But he said, I am not mad. Look at the next word, most noble
festus. I'm not mad. He showed respect
where respect was due, but he stated the truth. I'm not mad. I speak forth the words of truth
and soberness. That's the grace of God. That's
the grace of God. That's what that is. Now, that's
why he told Timothy here, he says, preach the Word, be instant,
in season and out of season. Always know this, brethren, truth
is always in season. Always in season. Always. And he says, reprove, rebuke,
exhort with all longsuffering, Doctrine say no other things,
but that which these scriptures say but do so with all long-suffering. What am I waiting on? What am
I patiently waiting on? Why am I wanting to use just
what God says, the way God describes Himself, the way God describes
His full, complete redemption in His Son for everyone to whom
He gave His Son? Why do I want to declare these
things and say, it's not of your will, it's not of your way, it's
of God. Why do I want to set forth these
things plainly, patiently, in meekness? toward those who oppose
him. Why do I want to do that? What
am I waiting on? The next word, 2 Timothy 2.25. If God, peradventure, will give
them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, and that they may
recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken
captive by him at his will. God's glory and the salvation
of His chosen people was the joy that was set before Christ
Jesus, and it's the joy set before me, and it's the joy set before
you. What a word! Isn't this a word to strengthen
us in patience and long-suffering? A word to cause us to say nothing
but what God has given us to declare of Himself? A word to
cause us to repent from impatience and wisdom of words? Mark this word, here's the word
of assurance. You see that last phrase? Taken captive by the
devil at his will. It's not the will of the devil. This is the word of assurance.
This is, I know men hate this, some folks here don't hate this,
but this is glorious. It's not the will of the devil.
Men are taken into the snare of the devil, taken captive by
the devil only by God's permissive will. And only until God's appointed
hour. Isn't that right? Peter said the devil has a roaring
lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour. Who he has permission. The Lord told Satan, have you
considered my servant Job? The Lord told Peter, he said,
Satan has desired to have you, that he might sift you as wheat.
And he was sifted. He was sifted. Because Peter
was saying, I won't forsake you. And he was, all these apostles
were sifted. And he was saying, I won't forsake
you. I won't, I won't, I won't. And a little woman by a fire
made him turn and take off running. But he said, I've prayed for
thee, that thy faith fail not. Gonna fail? Huh? Did it ever fail? He says, when
thou art. Never any possibility that it
would. This was just God's permissive will to teach Peter something,
and when it was done with him, because of Christ's intercession
for Peter, he said, you shall be converted. Not saved, in the
beginning, but converted from this error you're in. That's
how you're going to be converted from it. And he says, and when
you are, now you go and strengthen your brethren. You go now with
that strong arm of gentleness. and feed the lambs the lamb food
that you've learned through being sifted as wheat. Now that's what
I'm trying to do for you right now. I'm trying to tell you what
God has taught me by allowing me to be sifted as wheat. And here's the word of assurance.
This is what I've learned through this. In His time, God will give
to each of His children repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.
Not just to the acknowledging of the truth in the first hour,
whereby we behold Christ Jesus and repent from every false way
and lay hold of Him who justifies the ungodly and rest in Him alone,
but in every error along the way, just like He did Peter,
He's going to grant repentance to turn to the acknowledging
of the truth, to acknowledging that There's no strength in me,
no power in me. It's by His might, by His power,
by His strength. It's to His glory, to His praise,
to His grace that He does this. Just like that prodigal son,
he says he came to himself. God's going to bring His children. In the first hour and every hour
of conversion all along, He's going to bring us to ourself
to behold. What are you doing? What have
you been trying to accomplish? Who are you opposing but yourself
in the grace of God? And when he does that, you acknowledge
the truth that there's no goodness in me and all goodness is in
Him. And that's repentance and faith. You lay hold on Him. And he says
peradventure, God keeps us in suspense. Peradventure. Peradventure, maybe this hour.
Peradventure, Maybe that most horrendous sinner that you might
entertain thoughts that are just too far gone to be saved like
that thief on the cross. Peradventure. Peradventure, that
brother or sister that's been overtaken in a fault that you've
longed for and prayed for and desired to be brought to this
acknowledging of the truth, simply to be restored back into this
spirit of peace within their own soul. Peradventure. Isn't
that a good reason to repent from all this other stuff and
trust the power and wisdom of God, trust His irresistible grace? That promotes patience and longsuffering. all these things. And you know,
it's through these things, it's through bringing us into these
things and letting us see just how frail we are, and giving
us repentance and turning us to the acknowledging of the truth
that he teaches us patience, and meekness and how to instruct
those. And we learn it as we go. Learn
as we go. Now I want to give you an application
and I want to try to have thought on this long and hard because
I want this to be as edifying to everyone that hears this message,
to you, to me, to every one of us here. I have been taught something of the
Lord this week that I needed through faithful brethren that
have talked to me. And this is what I've learned. And I want to give you something
now. I'm absolutely dependent upon God. Absolutely dependent
upon Him to give me all these things that He says He requires
of me. Every sinner saved by grace is
absolutely dependent upon God to give them everything God says
in His word that He requires of you. That's what we have come
to acknowledge. We're not going to muster these
things up ourselves. Absolutely dependent upon Him to give us
these things. And so, I'm going to make mistakes. And I'm going
to make grievous mistakes. I have and I shall. Many more. Many more. And just
as He instructs me to do here, He instructs you also. Same thing. Same word of grace. Now, he says
this, obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves
for they watch for your souls as those that must give account. He said to Ezekiel, if you don't
warn, if you don't blow the trumpet, I'm going to require their blood
at your hands. I will have to give an account here. This is
not, you know, that's why these things that when you commit error
and you don't use patience and meekness as I have done, it grieves
you, grieves you, grieves me, me and everybody involved. But
listen to this now, as those that must give account that they
may do this with joy and not with grief. for that's unprofitable
for you. Now, let me say this, I'm gonna
make mistakes, you're gonna make mistakes, but God enabling you,
just as it's gonna take God enabling me, but God enabling you, when
I do make mistakes, will you show me, as God gives you the
grace to do it, show me the same patience and meekness as God
commands me to show to you. And I'm gonna give you a word
here about that. And I want you to, this is of paramount importance. I want you to get this now. All
right, suppose one of you fathers, right here, has been speaking
to your son, in your case, Eric, your daughters, and you lose
your patience. And when you lose your patience,
and everything you said was true to him, but you've lost your
patience. And you've, you've turned from
this, you feel horrible about it. You, you might not for a
while, you might not for a while. But let's suppose then that John's
not here. So I'll use john and Scott as
an example, john comes to me. And he comes to me and he says,
he says, Mr. Clay, dad, he's just, he lost
all patience with me. He's been doing the very opposite
of what you preach and what this word states, and he's used harshness
with me. Well, how am I gonna handle that? How must I handle that? Here's
how I have to handle that. I had to say, John, what did
your dad say about Christ? What was he telling you about
Christ? Not, well, what did he do that was so harsh? Forget
that. Forget that. What did he say
to you that was true about Christ? Well, he was telling me that
God God chose a people and put them in Christ, and they're going
to be brought to repentance. They're going to be brought to
bow by His grace, and He's teaching me the truth about that. He says,
but He got harsh with me, and I... Well, let's look up the
Scriptures. Have you looked them up yet,
John? Let's look them up together. Let's see here if this is what
God says in His Word. And you look those things up
with Him, or her, whoever. And then, later when not necessary
jumping right on the horn and calling Scott and won't know
what were you doing being harsh, none of that right there. Forget
all that. Here's what, when you're talking
to him, call him and ask him how was the beach this weekend
and did y'all have fun and all that, it's probably gonna come
up. It's gonna probably come up because
it's gone in his mind, it's been on his mind ever since it happened.
And you can bring it up if you want to. John seemed to be hearing
something the other day. Came over here and talked to
me about it. What was you telling him? Well, I was trying to tell
him that God saves by His grace. That He chose a people and put
them in Christ. And when it's in His seat, He's
going to call them by His grace. And He's going to not let one
perish from out of Him. And I'm trying to teach them
just to trust God. And talk about those things. Well, that's what
we need to teach them. Talk about these glorious mysteries
of God that's revealed in the face of Christ Jesus. Talk about
this glory of God revealed in the face of Christ Jesus. And
in the midst of that, say, you know, we just always have to
be brought to do what He tells us. And just trust Him and wait
on Him. The very thing we're trying to teach our children,
just wait on Him to do it. We can't make them believe it. Now, what's happened there when that
happened? What's happened is you haven't majored on the chaff. You haven't majored on that fleshly thing that was the
offense, but you've majored on the only one in whom God's people
are going to be made one, Christ Jesus the Lord. And when God settles his heart,
when God settles each other, then they'll They can go along
and he might not, but here's what I must not, what I cannot
do. If John comes to me like that,
I can't agree with John. And I cannot say, John, your
daddy should have never talked to you like that. He should have
never lost his patience. I must not and I cannot do that. Not at all. And that holds true for a wife,
that holds true for your pastor, a wife to her husband, you to
the pastor, me to you fathers, to you who are the head of your
house, to a woman if she's the one leading the house. Same thing.
Why do you have to do it that way? Why is it paramount importance
that it be done that way? Because if I take up for John,
like that, What I'm going to do is I'm going to excuse the
needy child, whether it's a grown man, one of you, or that child,
or whoever, I'm going to excuse them from not hearing the truth
of the word that was spoken to them. We're looking for any excuse
we can to say, I'm not listening to that. It's bad enough when
we fail, when I fail and put a stumbling block in front of
somebody because of my ignorance and my dumb sinful flesh and
don't major on it. Don't bring it to the forefront
and make it the focus. We can't do that, can't do that.
We've got to keep majoring on Christ. If we're able, if we
can't, it may be that when John comes over, he's so mad he won't
listen to me, and I have to just wait for another time and talk
to him about it. Well, tell me what you did, so you cooled off
a little bit, now tell me what you did. And then go to those
scriptures. Here's the second reason I can't
do it. If I do it, I'm totally undermining the authority of
that Father. And he has the responsibility
in the office capacity God has put him in to teach that child. And if I undermine his authority
now and his credibility now, then peradventure, God brings
him back to hear what he has to say again. And now they're
going to be saying, I don't even want to listen to you anymore.
See what I'm saying? And here's the third thing. If
I do that, If it's my own child, or it's your own child, or it's
any of these brethren that I really, just like Paul said, as a nurse,
cherisheth her children. If I side with the child against
the father who's spoken the truth to him, how be it, I may be dead
certain he was wrong in how he did it, but still, here's where
I've got to keep in mind. If I side with that child and
those complaints and those things against that father, I haven't
shown that child any love. I've actually loved that child
inordinately. I've loved that child more than
God. Remember when Christ said, if
any man loved father or mother, son or daughter more than me,
he's not worthy of me. But I'm going to have to take
up the cross of Christ. That means John may get mad at
me. My daughter may get mad at me.
for saying the truth and standing for the truth and not defending
them, not defending John because his father got on to it. But
I'm still going to have to do it that way. I have to side with
the one, not because his father's God, not because your pastor's
God, but because God put him there. And if the work's going
to progress, when the family, individual family in this church,
and God's going to use it, then he's going, that man cannot be
undermined. His authority cannot be undermined.
He's got to continue. And the only way to do that is
to keep the focus on Christ. Only way. Only way. So, when
I lose my patience, And I've been saying truth to somebody,
and I've lost all patience, and I've made a total behind of myself
in what I've done. Listen. Don't start leveling charges.
You know what charges beget? Charges. Don't start striving
about words for no profit. What'd he just say? They gonna
eat and stuff a canker. Gangrene. That's what it's gonna
be like. Don't do that. I've done a bad
enough thing. Cover up my sin. Don't expose
it, don't uncover I've done a bad enough thing. Cover it up for
the same mercy and love and patience and meekness that we're trying
to promote. Cover it up for that sake, for
the glory of God and declare Christ. You know what happens
when I lose my patience? Scott's talking to his child,
Eric's talking to his child, Art. Patti you're talking any
one of these children here and you lose your patience or Melinda
any of us here lose our patience with each other and we've been
setting forth the truth and somebody says something we're just like
don't you see what and we start talking to him about what these
scriptures say you know what we really need to get us out
of that impatience and and Perpetual God will grant us repentance
to acknowledging this area where you know what we really need
and We need to hear what we're saying. We need somebody just
to say it to us. And just to, like I was talking
about, you may have to wait till everything's got good and give
it some time, you know. But then as you do it, as you
say this and you say, you know, we can't use harshness like this. And the time has come and you're
able to say that to somebody. Now that you've said it, now
that you've repeated to them the truth of the Gospel according
to Christ, now take that same thing you said and wait, because
it's going to take God granting me, your pastor, repentance to
the acknowledging of the truth, and God's going to do that in
His time, not yours. And when I've said it to you, it's gonna
take God granting you repentance in His time, not mine. So I don't
turn around and go, I want you to be patient. You should use
meekness and instructing those. Now you better get it. No, say
it, leave it alone, let it rest. Some wise men have taught me
that. Wise men still teaching me that. God using them. God
using them. It may take a little time. may
be rejected at first, we may have to bear the cross of Christ,
side with Christ, side with those God's put in authority, side
with our brethren, cover up those sins, point them to Christ, and
wait on God. Peradventure, He grant them repentance
to the acknowledging of the truth. That's our hope. That's our comfort. Amen.