Alright, we're going to be in
2 John, 2 John verse 7. 2 John verse 7 and we'll read down to
verse 11. Alright. 2 John 7-11. For many deceivers are entered
into the world who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in
the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Look to yourselves that we lose
not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive
a full reward. Whosoever transgresseth and abideth
not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. He that abideth
in the doctrine of Christ he hath both the Father and the
Son. If there come any unto you, and
bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither
bid him God's speed. For he that biddeth him God's
speed is partaker of his evil deeds. I want to talk to you
this morning about the doctrine of Christ. The doctrine of Christ. All the teaching of scripture
points to the Lord Jesus Christ. It reveals a person, and that
person is Jesus Christ. Christ is all. If you hear anything this morning,
know that Christ is all. By Him, all things were created. By Him, we have our salvation
and our life with God Almighty. By Him is our rejoicing. Christ
is all. The Bible wasn't given to us.
God didn't give us His word to teach us morality. to make us
good citizens here in this world. We're not here to solve all of
this world's problems. We're not looking to improve
upon or make Satan's kingdom great. We're not looking to improve
things necessarily here on earth for the sake of having good people
and good lives and things like that. Satan is the prince of
the power of the air and this is his kingdom. Ephesians 2.2
tells us that the course of this world is according to the prince
of the power of the air. It's the spirit that now worketh
in the children of disobedience." So we're not looking to make
ourselves part of this world's goals and the things that this
world is trying to accomplish. We're not looking to create world
peace and to solve world hunger and things like that. We're not
caught up in those things because those are the things that the
world is worried about. We're looking for Christ, and
to see Christ revealed in us, in His people, and we're pointing
people to the Lord Jesus Christ, because in Him is our safety,
in Him is our salvation. That's why God sent Him into
the world, to deliver His people from their sins. And so, it's
not a book of morality and about making this world a better place
to live in, or to be better citizens and things like that. It's about
pointing us to the Lord Jesus Christ. This world, it's condemned. condemned already. The Bible
says Babylon is fallen is fallen. So my title this morning is the
doctrine of Christ and we'll see this morning that to preach
Jesus Christ and him crucified is to preach all the counsel
of God for us. God intends for his people to
hear one word, one message, and that message is the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's his person. to reveal Christ. And we'll have three divisions.
First, the necessity of Christ to come in the flesh. Second,
the whole counsel of God. And third, we'll wrap it up briefly
with seven blessings that the church receives in preaching
Jesus Christ. All right, point one, the necessity
of Christ to come in the flesh. The apostle there in 2 John,
verse 7 through 11, he's declaring to us that spirit taught believers,
those who are born of the Spirit of God, they confess that Christ
is come in the flesh. And he's saying that those who
do not confess that Christ has come in the flesh is the spirit
of antichrist. And you think, well, that's kind
of odd, that's strange though. Doesn't everybody say that Jesus
Christ is come in the flesh? No, no they don't. Because when
we confess that Christ has come in the flesh, what we're saying
is, I'm so wicked and depraved, I cannot save myself. I cannot
fix what I've broken. I can't fix what I've destroyed,
I can't improve upon it, I can't do anything to save myself, so
that God himself, the Son of God, had to come down out of
glory, taking upon himself the likeness of my sinful flesh,
and had to fulfill all righteousness for me. doing for me what I cannot
do for myself so that he is my salvation. I'm not able to add
anything to this work of salvation. I can't save myself. That's what
we're confessing when we say Christ is come in the flesh. I desperately need a substitute
and Christ is that substitute. He's the lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. Think about it, when someone's
born, Royce was the most recently born here, Did Levi come in and
say, hey everyone, Royce is come in the flesh. All right, did
you say that? No, you didn't say that. No,
we don't talk like that. When your child is born, we're not
going to say, oh, so and so is come in the flesh. We don't speak
like that. So there's a lot more to it,
because what we're declaring is that Christ is all. All things necessary, Christ
fulfills for me. God sent his son, Jesus Christ,
to be my righteousness. Now when you hear men who don't
believe the doctrine of Christ, you'll know by what they're not
saying, that they're not confessing, right? They're not going to confess
that Christ is all. They're not going to declare
that Jesus Christ is all and that you can rest right there
in him. He has fulfilled and completed all things. He's accomplished
salvation perfectly. He's all my righteousness. They'll
speak of religious things. They'll certainly tell you about
religious things. They'll speak of God. They'll
even use the name Jesus pretty often. They'll speak about not
sinning and coming to church and reading your Bible and saying
prayers and being good about the things that you do. But they
won't give Christ all the glory for salvation. They'll leave
that part out. They'll leave you with something
to do. When you leave there, you're likely going to have something
to do or you're going to leave there looking to yourself feeling
down and distraught because you don't know how you're going to
fulfill that gap, how you're going to make up that difference
that Christ left behind for you to do according to their preaching
and what they teach. So they deny that Christ has
come in the flesh, but the doctrine of Christ declares that Christ
is all. That's really what John is saying
there in that letter. Alright, so our second point,
the whole counsel of God. Now some are going to argue,
I'm sure it's going to come, I'm a young pastor, if you will,
not young in the flesh, but I'm a young pastor and I'm sure that
Just based on a testimony that I've heard, the brethren who
are faithful preachers, is that people will come and say, you
don't preach the whole counsel of God. How can you just preach
Jesus Christ? How can you just preach the gospel
and think that you're declaring to the hearers the whole counsel
of God? But the reality is to preach
anything other than Christ is to preach the doctrine of men.
You're just preaching the doctrine of men and devils. You're not
doing any good for your hearers to preach anything other than
the Lord Jesus Christ. So we look to Him because otherwise
we're just denying the power of God to save us, to bring us
from death into life and that power of God that keeps us stayed
upon Christ, trusting in Him and not looking back to our own
works and the things that we do here in the flesh. Paul told
Timothy, they have a form of godliness but deny the power
thereof from such, turn away." So we're not to agree with them,
we're not to bid them Godspeed because then we're just partakers
with their evil deeds, even if those words don't come out of
our mouth, we're just saying, but they got a form of godliness
that's acceptable, and it's not. So to preach all the counsel
of God is to preach Jesus Christ. I'm just emphasizing that over
and over again because we're so hard of hearing it in the
flesh and it's so easy for us to forget. Paul said this to
the elders in Ephesus. If you turn to Acts 20, verse
27, it's short, but I'll read it, and then we'll go over to
1 Corinthians 2. But he said to the Ephesian elders, he's
going to Rome, and the Ephesian elders come down from Ephesus
to see him one last time before he goes off to Rome. And he says
in Acts 20, 27, for I have not shunned to declare unto you all
the counsel of God." So what was Paul saying to the churches?
What did Paul preach and teach and declare to the churches that
he went to that he could say, I've not shunned and declared
to you all the counsel of God? Well, if you look in 1 Corinthians
now, 1 Corinthians chapter 2, we'll look in verses 1 and 2,
and I would encourage you to take your Bibles and and turn
to these scriptures as we look at them so that you can see them
and be reminded when you go back later and you study these things
and look them up to see whether they're so as well. 1 Corinthians
2, Paul says it very succinctly. He says, sorry, 1 Corinthians
2 verse 1, And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with
excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony
of God. For I determined not to know
anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified." So
that when Paul says there in Acts 20, 27, and he says that
I've declared to you the whole counsel of God, it's the same
thing as when he says I'm declaring to you the testimony of God. They're the same things there,
the testimony of God, when he says that to the Corinthians.
It's to preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Paul isn't telling
one church one thing. and another church, another thing.
If he was, then to the Ephesians, he'd be guiltless. He wouldn't
be guilty of having their blood on his hands because he told
them other things. But then to the Corinthians, all he spoke
about was Jesus Christ and him crucified. He'd be guilty of
their blood if that wasn't sufficient. If that wasn't enough for the
people here, then Paul would be guilty of the blood of the
Corinthians because he spent way too much time preaching Jesus
Christ and him crucified. If that's not enough, And Paul
didn't do them any good by preaching Christ alone. But the reality
is, brethren, as the Spirit has taught us that Christ is sufficient. He is enough. That's what we
need. Because Christ and Christ alone
is who saves us. He delivers us from darkness
into the kingdom of light. He fills us with his Spirit.
He gives us all things needful and necessary for salvation so
that it is complete. It's accomplished. It's done.
There's nothing to fear or worry. Anything that's needed, Christ
has already fulfilled it. It's done in Him. All right? Let's hear the counsel of God
to us in 1 Corinthians 1 verse 22. Verse 22. But we preach Christ crucified
unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness.
But unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ
the power of God and the wisdom of God. To the one who loves
the law and thinks that there's something they can do in the
flesh, Christ isn't enough. They stumble over him because
there's something they believe that they have to do in the flesh
to prove, or to not even just prove, but to make themselves
justified or sanctified with holy God. But it's foolishness
to them. I'm sorry. It's a stumbling block
to them. They stumble over. this truth that Christ is sufficient.
He's sufficient to save. And the Greek is one who is wise,
wise to the things of the earth and wise to the ways of man,
and Christ is enough. He's not sufficient to be the
wisdom of God for them. He's not enough so that it's
just foolishness to them and they count it light bread. They
count Christ light bread. It doesn't fill them. It doesn't
tickle their ears. It's not clever enough. It's
not new enough. It's not special enough for them.
It's just light bread. So they get sick of hearing about
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Let's hear what Christ Himself
said concerning Himself in the Scriptures. If you turn over
to Luke 24. Luke 24 and we'll look in verse
27. Christ comes to the two disciples
on the road to Emmaus after his death and resurrection and he
says, beginning at Moses and all the prophets, Christ expounded
unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. Now why did Christ do that? Isn't
there more to teach the disciples? Isn't there something more that
we must hear before we can't hear it anymore? Do we need to
know more than just Jesus Christ? Well, verse 24, I'm sorry, Luke
24, verse 44, now Christ is speaking to the 11 apostles, and he says
to them, verse 44, these are the words which I spake unto
you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled
which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets
and in the Psalms concerning me. Then opened he their understanding
that they might understand the scriptures. So brethren, when
Christ opens our understanding, What is He opening our understanding
to? What is He helping us? What is He giving us to understand
and to know Him? He's giving us understanding
in the things concerning Himself, because that's who we need to
know. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. It's to know all things that
Christ has fulfilled, which were written in the Law of Moses,
that were written in the Prophets, and that were recorded in the
Psalms for us. That's what He's doing, because Christ is all
the counsel of God. God is ensuring that we know
everything that we need to know and it's the Lord Jesus Christ.
The reality is, it really is quite simple. We sinned in Adam. We broke God's law right there
in Adam. We were in Adam. When Adam sinned,
we sinned. When he disobeyed God, we disobeyed
God. We were right there with Adam
in his loins committing the very sin that Adam committed so that
we all are plunged into sin and death and darkness, we cannot
save ourselves. And the scriptures are clear
that God is going to destroy this world. He's going to come
with his wrath against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
do not know God and do not believe God and do not trust him for
their salvation. So what God did was provide His
own salvation. He provided His Son, Jesus Christ,
so that in Him, that's where we flee. That's where we have
salvation. That's where we have safety and
deliverance. God is revealing to us, I'm coming
against this world to destroy it, and I've provided salvation
for you, the salvation, Jesus Christ. Just like He said to
Noah, He said, this ark is typifying the Lord Jesus Christ, get you
in the ark to save you and your family. And so Christ now, which
is the antitype, the reality, the true ark, which was pictured
in that ark that Noah built, Christ is the ark to whom God
is saying to us, flee to the Lord Jesus Christ. It really
is that simple. We are sinners and need a salvation. Salvation is in the Son, Jesus
Christ. That's why it's revealing Christ in all the scriptures
to us, because that's the thing that we need to know. That's
the one that we need to know. We need to know the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's the whole counsel of God.
Now if you look down in verse 46, Luke 24, verses 46 through
48, Christ said unto them, Thus it
is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise
from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission
of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning
at Jerusalem. And we are witnesses of these
things." What are we witnesses of? These things concerning the
Lord Jesus Christ, so that as we're declaring the gospel, The
thing is, by nature, all of us have an understanding, or at
least what we think is an understanding, of how we are to make ourselves
just with God. How we can justify ourselves,
how we can free ourselves of the condemnation that is there
in our consciences, that we know that we've offended God, and
there's something that we have to do to make it right, through
the preaching of the Gospel. God is giving us repentance because
he's turning us to see that's darkness. Believing that there's
something I can do is wickedness, it's darkness, it's denying the
righteousness that God has provided in his son Jesus Christ. So that
through the preaching of the gospel, we hear it, when he gives
us a spirit, we hear it by the spirit and return from those
dead works that don't save us. Return from those lies, believing
that there's something we can do, and we return to the salvation
that God has provided in His Son, Jesus Christ. That's the
remission of sins. We declare that the remission
of sins, forgiveness for your sins, is not found in the things
that you do. It's found in the person of Jesus
Christ. Christ is the salvation for sinners. That's what we're declaring.
That's what we're witnesses of. That's what we're bearing witness
to when we confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. If you listen to, well, listen
to Ephesians 1, 1 verse 17 through 20, that the God of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit
of wisdom and the revelation in the knowledge of him, in the
knowledge of his Son, Jesus Christ, the eyes of your understanding
being enlightened that ye may know what is the hope of his
calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance
in the saints." It's not so that you could become better citizens
of the law and better keepers of the law. It's that we grow
and are settled and rest right there in the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's the pastor of the sheep. That's who we feed upon, is upon
the Lord Jesus Christ. And what is the exceeding greatness
of his power to us who believe according to the working of his
mighty power which he wrought in Christ. Everything God does
to us, in every way that he deals with us, he deals with us in
his son, Jesus Christ, because Christ is all. Think about what
Paul, what delighted Paul more than anything? He delighted in
the Lord Jesus Christ. If you look over in Philippians
chapter three, Philippians chapter three, verse seven, His chief desire, the chief desire
that Paul had for himself, and that should be our chief desire
above all things, is Jesus Christ. He said, but what things were
gained to me in the flesh, he's speaking of, those I counted
lost for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all
things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do
count them, but dumb, that I may win Christ. That's who Paul wants
to know. He wants to know the Lord Jesus
Christ. Christ Jesus is the chief prize. He is the greatest thing
that we could ever inherit. He is the greatest one that we
could ever know. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why it's
so precious to us to preach Jesus Christ, to exalt him before the
eyes of sinners. He goes on in verse 10 to say
that I may know him, know Christ. and the power of his resurrection
and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his
death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection
of the dead. And just because I know I used
to have trouble with that last little phrase, if by any means
I might attain unto the dead, he's not saying that there's
many ways to God and that whether it's through Christ or through
some other teaching that I might come to God. What he's saying
is, however it pleases the Lord that I should lay down this body
of flesh in the dust to be raised again to be with my Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ, whether it be by beheading, be by crucifixion,
be by getting shipwrecked and lost out in sea, or I just die
of natural causes, Whatever it is, however it pleases God to
bring me to that resurrection day, is fine with me." He's resting
in the Lord Jesus Christ. I'll just read this in John 1.45.
It's so sweet. Philip findeth Nathanael, and
saith unto him, We have found him. We've found salvation, brethren. The Lord has been gracious to
us and kind to us to reveal to us the Lord Jesus Christ. We've
found him. What more do you need to seek?
What more do you need to find and understand and learn? You
found Him who is salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ. We found Him
of whom Moses and the law and the prophets did write, Jesus
of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Rejoice, brethren, we found Him. He is the chief prize. Why do
we need something more? Why do we need to go beyond the
Lord Jesus Christ? He has made us witnesses of Him,
of His glory, of His power, and what He does in saving sinners.
God's counsel to us is to look to Christ and Christ alone for
salvation. You know you're a sinner? You
know you need salvation? Look to the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's the counsel of God to us. That's the full counsel of
God, because that's all you need to know. If you're going to be
saved and delivered from the rat, the just rat that's coming
against this world, get to Christ. Look to him and rest right there.
Ephesians 1, 11 and 12 says, In whom also we have obtained
an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him
who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will,
that we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted
in Christ. God trusted all things to Christ
the Son. shouldn't we trust all things
to Him? If it's good enough for God, if God is satisfied and
pleased, abundantly satisfied and abundantly pleased, shouldn't
we be abundantly satisfied and pleased with Christ, His Son,
whom He sent to save us and deliver us from our sins? Paul told the
Colossians in 2, 9 and 10, For in Christ dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in Him. which is the head of all principality
and power. Do you want to know the Father?
Then look to Christ. He said, He that hath seen me
hath seen the Father. All that you need to know about
God, you can find and learn through looking to the Son, Jesus Christ. As ye have therefore received
Christ, in Colossians 2.6, as you have received Christ Jesus
the Lord, so walk ye in him. He didn't say go beyond. We don't
go beyond Christ, so walk ye in Christ. We stay right there
in the Lord Jesus Christ, walking in Him. Because to go beyond
Him, where do you find yourself? Outside of Christ. And you don't
want to be outside of Christ and stand before holy God outside
of Christ. Walk ye in the Lord Jesus Christ. Colossians 2, 7. We are to be
rooted and built up in Christ and established in the faith
as ye have been taught, abounding therein. in Christ, abounding
therein in Christ with thanksgiving. Beware, though, because there's
men out there that are going to tell you that's not enough.
We're now to go on. We're to grow beyond Christ and
to learn more and to do more, you know, understand the law
better and to be better churchmen and better this and that and
to sanctify ourselves. Beware, he said, lest any man
spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition
of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. And if you read the rest of that
chapter there, that's where he talks about why do you live in
this life as though we're saved by the rudiments of this world,
touch not, taste not, handle not. All these things, he says,
are perishing. They have no value. Don't get
fixated on the things of this life and the things of this world
because they have no value. They're not adding to your salvation
and they're not taking away from your salvation. Christ alone
is our salvation. Our salvation is in a person,
the Lord Jesus Christ, so that coming to Christ we're not just
picking up a new set of teachings, or a new set of practices, or
a new set of doctrines, though there are new doctrines, though
we do believe that God has an elect people that he saved, we
hear these things and we rejoice in them as they are in the Lord
Jesus Christ, because we see how Christ is all our salvation. But it's not about you know,
doing things a little differently, it's not about changing our dress,
it's not about changing the foods that we eat and things like that.
It has no bearing on whether or not we're saved and that we're
secure in the Lord Jesus Christ. So it's not about those things.
Christ came to the Pharisees and said to them, search the
Scriptures, right? Because that's what men are looking
to. They're looking to the Scriptures. And he said, search them. Search
the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life.
They are they which testify of me. They're all speaking of the
Lord Jesus Christ, Him who is the most important and most valuable
One that we can know. Alright, so on our third point,
seven blessings in preaching Christ. Just to start, Acts 5.42
says, And daily in the temple and in every house they ceased
not to teach and to preach Jesus Christ. That's what it says.
They ceased not to teach and to preach Jesus Christ. Acts
5.42, that's a good one to remember when people are telling you there's
something more to say besides the Lord Jesus Christ. What we're
saying, what do we mean when we're saying we are to preach
Jesus Christ and Him alone? What we're saying is that all
preaching is done to reveal a person, and that person is Jesus Christ.
That's the purpose of why we gather together, that's why we
preach. When we preach, it's to preach
Jesus Christ, that He's revealed to sinners, that He is exalted
and lifted up before sinners. Because of that, the purpose
then, when we go in, because of that purpose, when we look
at the scriptures, we're to interpret them according to that rule,
believing and knowing that This word here is revealing Christ. It's speaking of Christ. So no
matter where you are, look for the Lord Jesus Christ. If you
don't know, if you don't see it, then don't speak on it in
that sense. Don't comment on anything. If
you're reading the scriptures before the men, and you don't
quite see it, but you know he's there, just read the scriptures.
And that's it. And pray. And trust that the
Spirit will lay it to our hearts. And one day maybe he'll reveal
what that is saying to us concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, and He'll
make it known as it pleases Him. Alright, so let's look at seven
blessings. Seven blessings in preaching
Christ. First, preaching Christ delivers us from being just a
mere religious movement. If you want to hear some new
thing, some clever thing, some fancy teaching and preaching,
it ain't going to come from me, I'm sorry, but There's plenty
of goat barns all around that you can go to that you can hear
some clever man who's good at speaking and declare something
fancy and that'll tickle your ears. Our purpose here is to
preach the Lord Jesus Christ, not some new doctrine and some
new thing. We're going to preach the Lord
Jesus Christ. Two, preaching Christ delivers
us from hearing dry, dead, lifeless messages. To preach anything
else is just dry and dead. Because they're separating the
Word from the vine. If Christ is the vine, don't
separate the Word from Him. As soon as you separate it from
Him, it's lifeless. It draws no more sap. There's
no more life in it. But when we see Christ in the
Word, connected to Him, it's life-giving. It's joyful. We
rejoice in seeing our Lord and Savior and how He saves sinners
over and over again. And the sheep are satisfied with
that. They're pleased. They don't need to hear anything
more. To them, they don't see it as light bread. They rejoice
in what Christ has done because they're full. They're full of
what Christ has done. Third, preaching Christ purifies
the church. You preach the Lord Jesus Christ
and He'll separate. He'll reveal who the sheep are
and who the goats are. We don't need to do anything
more. We're likely to pluck up the wheat. you know, thinking
that we're pulling up the tares and in the end all we have left
is a bunch of dead goats, you know, just a, you know, filled
church of Pharisees and things like that. We just preach the
Lord Jesus Christ because the sheep rejoice in Christ and the
goats, they're going to get tired of hearing. They might stay for
a time, you know, the Lord might even use them for scaffolding,
but for, you know, for a time, but eventually they're going
to come to the preacher and say, isn't there anything more that
you can say? I need to hear something more. I need to hear something
more practical. I need to hear something you know, more clever,
something new. Don't just preach only Christ
to me. It's light bread. And what they're saying is...
I'm just like the Jews who fell in the wilderness, who got tired
of the manna from heaven, it's like bread, where they said,
we loathe this like bread. And Christ said, I am the bread
which came down from heaven, which the Father gave you, I
am that bread. And so to be unsatisfied with
Christ is to say, like the Jews who perished in the wilderness,
I loathe this like bread. It doesn't do it for me. And
they'll get up, and eventually they'll move on and leave. Paul said to the Corinthians
117, Christ sent me not to baptize, not to do all church functions
and other things like that and just to teach the law and whatnot,
but Christ sent me to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of
words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.
For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness,
but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God. For it
is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring
to nothing the understanding of the pudding." So we're not
worried about what the goats think. They might trash us and
say, you guys, you're fools. Why do you listen to that stuff?
Why is that enough for you? You're not hearing the whole
counsel of God. We don't worry about what the goats say. The
goats are going to do what the goats are going to do and eventually
they'll move on and we'll be at peace for it. Because otherwise,
they're just a trouble, and they're just a burden to us, and they're
just trying us. But they'll move on, because
we'll just keep preaching the Lord Jesus Christ, God helping
me to just preach Him. I trust that we'll continue to
preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Fourth, preaching Christ promises
divine accomplishment. In Isaiah 55, verse 11, that
word that's being spoken up there that accomplishes God's purpose,
that word is the Lord Jesus Christ. Isaiah 55, 11 says, So shall
my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return
unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall
prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. That word spoken is
the Lord Jesus Christ. Didn't Christ say, I always do
that which pleases the Father. When Christ goes forth, he's
going to accomplish the will of the Father. Whatever that
will is, either to feed and bless the sheep and call them out of
darkness, or to send the goat packing and send them off on
their way. And we just trust. There's nothing
more to preach because we know that Christ, He corrects us where
we need correction. He heals us where we need healing.
He comforts us where we need comfort. He teaches us. He grows
us in Him. And we're satisfied with that.
We rejoice in Him. Fifth, preaching Christ delivers
the preacher and his hearers from pride and idolatry. I'm
not talking about me. I'm talking about the Lord Jesus
Christ. We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus, the Lord, so
that I trust and hope you're not looking to me and what I
do. You're looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. And when I die,
I'm gone. My ministry's gone and some other.
I pray that the Lord will bless this place with another pastor
who preaches the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not about
me. It's not about what we've done.
He delivers us from our own pride as well. Preach six. Preaching
Christ is the only message that'll do us any good. It's the only
thing that we need to hear. That's what'll do us good. Paul
told the Corinthians in 121, 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 that's
why we preach Christ, because he's the one thing that'll do
us any good. And then finally, seven. We preach
Christ and it's a blessing to the church because Christ and
Christ alone deserves all the glory for the work of salvation. He's done it all. He deserves
all the praise, the honor, and the glory. I'll close with this
verse, Philippians 2, 9 through 11. Wherefore God also hath highly
exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, that
at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven
and things in earth and things under the earth. and that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory
of God the Father. Amen.