Turn with me to 2 Timothy chapter
four. 2 Timothy chapter four. I am very
sad that this is the last chapter in 2 Timothy. I have personally benefited from
this so much. This has really been a help,
an encouragement, a benefit to me. Two of the things that I
love about going through a book, chapter by chapter and verse
by verse, like we're doing here, is number one, it causes us to
consider everything about everything that our Lord has said in his
word. When you go chapter by chapter and verse by verse, you
don't skip anything. And you don't miss anything,
like you do when you're bouncing around to different texts all
the time, which we do plenty of. I do plenty of bouncing around.
But we also go through books, chapter by chapter, verse by
verse. You don't skip anything. You don't miss anything. Number
two, it causes us to reiterate over and over again, message
after message, the things that God has inspired his writers
to reiterate over and over again. Do you notice how when we go
through these books, it's like they say the same things over
and over again? You don't hear it just once and
then move on. Paul's been stressing to Timothy
the same things over and over again. And when we hear it week
after week, Our hope is that it starts to sink into these
hard heads and hard hearts of ours. Paul has been saying to Timothy,
stay on Christ. If there's one thing that I could
really tell Kingsport, Tennessee, It would be this, stay on Christ. Get on Christ and stay on Christ. Paul has been telling Timothy
all through this, preach the word. Preach the word. Tell people what God's word says. When I first started preaching, a very dear old preacher said
to me time and time again, Tell them, show them, and then tell them
what you showed them. Don't just tell them and say,
well, now you know the Bible says, and don't show them. Prove
it. Tell them, show them, and then
tell them what you showed them. And that's what we're doing.
Tell people what God's word says. cause them to understand what
is in the book. That's the problem for all of
us, all of mankind. We don't really know what's in
the book. That's what we need to know.
That's what he's been saying for three straight chapters.
All right, guess what he's gonna say in the fourth chapter? Guess
what he's gonna say in the last chapter of the letter? Look at
chapter four, verse one. He said, 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. Be instant in season, out of
season, Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. I've titled this Preach the Word. Preach the Word. We're gonna
focus on verse two for this Bible study. We're gonna focus on verse
one for our message here in just a moment. But once again, Paul has exhorted
Timothy, preach the word. That's what he's telling him.
Preach the word. And what I want us to see in
this is preaching the word involves two things, okay? Preach the word. Preaching the
word involves two things. If we are going to truly preach
the word, then two things must take place. Two specific things
must be set forth in the message. Number one, we're going to have
to preach God's word. Okay. If we're going to preach the
word, number one, we're going to have to actually preach God's
word. And number two, we are going to have to preach Christ
in God's word. If those two things do not exist,
then we're not preaching the word. If those two things do
not exist, we're not preaching the word. If a man gets in a
pulpit and just starts rambling, You ever heard anybody do that?
They just get up and I mean, as soon as they get, you know,
they'll kind of take a minute and get cranked up. But once
it's go time, it's go time. And they're just rambling on
religious sounding things. If a man gets in a pulpit and
does that, he's not preaching the word. Just not. If a man gets in a pulpit and
gives you a history lesson, you know he's got a nice suit, maybe
a pair of glasses, talks calmly and slowly. If he gives you a
history lesson on Hebrew or Greek or Latin, he is not preaching
the word. If a man gets in a pulpit and
starts giving you encouragements, okay? If he gets up here and
he starts giving you encouragements and everything that he thinks
God is going to do for you. And he spends all his time trying
to build you up so you can leave this place on fire and walking
tall. He's not preaching the word.
He's not preaching the word. If a man is preaching the word,
it will be obvious to you because number one, you will look at
your Bible. And I know this sounds so elementary.
This is going to be a little bit elementary, but this is so
important. This is so missing. All right. If a man is preaching the word,
it's going to be obvious to you because number one, you will
look at your Bible. Religion today has left the Bible. It has left the Bible. You know,
just back 50 years ago, even false religion had some soundness
to it. It was harder to tell the difference.
It had infinitely more than false religion has today because they
did, to some degree, actually read the word. If it was false religion, they
weren't given any discernment to see the word in the word, but just because they actually
opened the book. There was some soundness to what they were saying.
Again, it wasn't saving soundness, but you understand what I'm saying. Just opening the book. Religion
today has left the Bible. It has left the Bible. Men today
do not preach the Word of God anymore. So if a man is preaching the
Word, number one, this is how you'll know. Number one, you're
going to look at your Bible, you will turn the pages, and
you will read the words. That's number one. But with number
one, there must be number two. Here is the second thing that
will take place. Turn with me over to John chapter
one. With number one, along with number
one, this second thing must take place. John 1 verse 1 says, In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Who is that? That's right, look
at verse 14. And the Word was made flesh and
dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the
only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. The Word is Jesus Christ. He is the Word. Timothy, preach
the Word. Preach the Word. The Word is
Jesus Christ, specifically. Turn with me now to 1 John 1,
just before Revelation. 1 John 1. 1st John 1 verse 1 it says that
which was from the beginning which we have heard which we
have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our hands
have handled of the word of life the word of life verse 2 says
for the life of manifested and we have seen that word it is
in italics it was added by the translators the life was manifested
and we have seen and bear witness and show unto you that eternal
life is he talking about an existence right here no he's talking about
a person He's talking about a person. Verse two, the life was manifested
and we have seen and bear witness and show unto you that eternal
life, which was with the father and was manifested unto us. The word of life himself, the
word himself. All right, look at Revelation
19. Revelation 19, and this is the
same writer. This is the Apostle John. He
wrote the Gospel of John. He wrote 1 John, 2 John, 3 John. He was the penman of the revelation
of Jesus Christ. That's what it says. Not the
revelation of Armageddon. It's not the revelation of the
end of time. Hold your place right there and
just go to Revelation 1, all right? Look at Revelation chapter
1. This is important. Revelation 1, all right, these
are the first words of the whole book, okay? Verse 1 says, the
revelation of Jesus Christ. That's what the whole book is
about. The whole book. the revelation of Jesus Christ
which God gave unto him to show unto his servants things which
must shortly come to pass and he sent and signified it by his
angel unto his servant John. who bear record of the word of
God. He bore record of the word of
God and of the testimony of Jesus Christ and of all things that
he saw. The testimony is concerning Jesus
Christ. The testimony of Jesus Christ.
Look at verse 10. He said, I was in the Spirit
on the Lord's day and heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet
saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, and what
thou seest, write in a book. What did he see? He said, what
you see, write it in a book. what you see right in the book.
And this is what John said. He went on to say, I saw Christ.
In those next verses, I saw the revelation of Jesus Christ. John is writing about Jesus Christ. All right, now, go to Revelation
19. Revelation 19. Verse 11. And I saw heaven opened, and
behold a white horse, and he that sat upon him was called
Faithful and True. And in righteousness he doth
judge and make war. Just remember that, put that
in your back pocket, hold on to that for a little while. In
righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a
flame of fire, And on his head were many crowns, and he had
a name written that no man knew but he himself. And he was clothed
with a vesture dipped in blood. Who is this? Who did John see? Who washed his own garments in
his own blood for his own people, the blood of the cross for his
people? Jesus Christ did. The Lord Jesus
Christ did. That's who John is looking at
right here. Verse 12, his eyes were as a flame of fire and on
his head were many crowns and he had a name written that no
man knew but he himself and he was clothed with a vesture dipped
in blood and his name is called the Word of God. And the armies
which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed
in fine linen, white and clean, and out of his mouth goeth a
sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations, and
he shall rule them with a rod of iron, and he treadeth the
winepress. That's the cross. of the fierceness
and wrath of Almighty God, and he hath on his vesture and on
his thigh a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. That's Jesus Christ, the Word. If we're gonna truly preach the
Word, we must preach Christ in the Word. If we preach man in
the Word, we're not truly preaching the Word. Let me repeat that. If we preach man in the word,
we're not truly preaching the word. What do I mean by that? Well, turn over to Luke 24. While you're turning, I'll give
you a hint to what that means. If we preach Christ, we will
spend our time talking about Christ. Again, I know that sounds so
simple, so elementary, but it's so true. If we preach Christ,
we're going to spend our time talking about Christ. If we preach
man, we will spend our time talking about man. The whole message
will be about man. You'll hear a man talk about
men. Luke 24, our Lord is speaking
here. This is what's going on in Luke
24. He's talking to two men on the road to Emmaus who cannot
understand why Jesus Christ was crucified. They said, we thought
he was the one who was going to redeem Israel, his people,
but they grabbed him and they nailed him to a cross and he
died. And they cannot understand why Jesus Christ died on that
cross. And I just want to say that that
is many, many people today. That's many people today. Most
people on this earth have no idea why Jesus Christ died on
a cross. They have no idea who He really
is and what He accomplished on that cross. And this is what
people say, you know, you ask them, why did Christ die on the
cross? They'll say, well, He died to save their people from
their sins. He died to save people from their
sins. Why did Christ die on the cross?
You go ask somebody, they'll say, He died to save people from
their sins. If that's the case, then why
aren't people saved from their sins? Can we think about that for just
a minute? If that's the case, then why aren't people saved
from their sins? People go around saying, now
you need to be saved. You need to get saved. If Christ died to save people
from their sins, why isn't everybody saved? Why do you still need to do something
to be saved? If he died to save, why do you still need to do something
to be saved? People say, well, all right,
let me clarify that. He died to make salvation possible for
people. If that's the case, we have no
idea who he is. And we have no idea what he accomplished
on the cross. No idea. God the Father chose
a particular people before the foundation of this world to save. All right, this is God. We're
talking about God, not talking about the way men do things. This is how God did it. He chose
a particular people before the foundation of the world to be
saved and he gave them to Christ. On the cross of Calvary, Jesus
Christ shed his blood to make a full, complete payment to God
for the sin of those people and only those people. It was a full,
complete payment. He said, Father, it is finished. He said, none of them shall be
lost. He made that payment for his
people and only his people. His blood was not wasted on a
soul who wouldn't accept it. His blood was not shed for a
soul who ended up going to hell anyway. Well, Christ died for
him, but he went to hell anyway. That doesn't sound like a very
powerful salvation, does it? Every soul that was given to
Christ by the Father, Christ paid that soul's sin debt in
full. And he saved that soul. And that soul does not have to
do anything for his or her salvation because Christ has already done
it. Christ has already finished it. That soul is saved. All of God's elect people are
saved in the blood of Jesus Christ and none of them will be lost. And it's a great insult to him
to stand up and tell people, now he tried, but he didn't do
it. It's a great insult. It's stripping all of his power
and his glory away from him, which man can't do, but that's
what he's trying to do. Every soul Christ died to save,
I'm telling you, they're saved. If Christ died for you, you don't
have to do anything. You're saved. Every soul Christ did that for
is going to be given faith. through the preaching of his
actual word. They're gonna get into this word
and start reading this, and God's gonna give them eyes to see,
ears to hear, a heart to believe. They're gonna receive faith to
say, it really does say that, doesn't it? Why didn't anybody
ever preach that to me? It really, you know, when I first
heard you say that, I thought, that's the craziest thing I've
ever heard in my life. Nobody says that. He really does actually say that,
doesn't he? Through the preaching of Christ,
the God-man, the God-man. Not this wimpy, everything I've
ever seen that a man has tried to portray Christ, you should
never make an image of Christ. Don't do it. Don't do it. If he wanted an image of himself,
he would have given one. But every time I've ever seen
a man portray an image of Christ, that is the wimpiest dude I've
ever seen in my life. That is not Jesus Christ. He's a man
with a sword. He's a piercing man that's gonna
make war. That's not Jesus Christ. The preaching of Christ, the
God, you know, Emmanuel, God with us. The preaching of Christ in the
word, not the preaching of man in the word. Well, let's look
at this and try to apply man to it and focus on man in it. Not the preaching of man's works,
but the preaching of Christ's works. Through the preaching
of the word, every saved by Christ soul is gonna be given faith
to see him in the word. and see what he's done in the
word. And that soul will believe it,
and that soul will bow to it, and that soul will rest. That
soul will rejoice. And again, I brought you here
to Luke 24. Our Lord is with two on the road
to Emmaus who can't understand why Christ died, all right? Verse
25. Then the Lord said unto them,
O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets
have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses,
that's Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, and
all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the scriptures
the things concerning Himself. Not the things concerning men
and women, the things concerning Him. He expounded that. In verse
31 says, their eyes were opened. Now listen, these are His disciples.
They had been with Him for three and a half years by this point.
They daily walked with Him, talked with Him. All right, and in that
moment, it says, their eyes were opened, and they knew him. And he vanished out of their
sight. And they said one to another, did not our heart burn within
us while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened
to us the scriptures? They said those scriptures came
alive, they opened up, I saw what they were saying. And then
it says right here that they ran to the other disciples to
tell them what happened. And when they got there, the
Lord met them all. He showed up too. And look at
verse 44. And he said unto them, 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. That's just amazing
to me, you know, these men, at that moment, after all that time,
He turned the light on and they realized this was all concerning
Christ. He said, it's all concerning
me. These words are they which testify
of Christ. Every single thing in this book,
every story, every commandment, every law, every comfort, all
of it points to Christ. And that's what all of us need
to be. pointed to Christ. We need to be pointed to Christ.
Even the law of commandments that were given. Moses gave all
these laws of commandments. They were never given for us
to keep them for satisfying and pleasing God. Never given for
that reason. The law was given, Galatians
3 says, to be our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. The law
was given to show us we can't satisfy God. This law was given
so I could read it and say, I cannot do that. I have to run to Christ. He's the only hope I'm gonna
have. I need Christ to fulfill this for me. So Paul told Timothy,
he said, point men to Christ. Point men to Christ. You preach
the word. Our responsibility in preaching
is to preach the word in the word. Preach Christ in the word,
the finished accomplishment of Christ seen throughout the entire
word. That's what we have to preach.
Now, in closing, okay, I'm done. In closing, go to 1 Corinthians
1. 1 Corinthians 1. When we were at the conference
in Georgia, Brother Britt said that he was in a store earlier
that week and was telling somebody about their conference that they
were going to have that weekend. And this person said to him,
will your conference have a theme? Is there going to be a theme
at your conference? And he said, yes, there will
be. The theme of our conference is we preach Christ crucified. That's the theme of our conference. Look at verse 17, 1 Corinthians
1 verse 17. This is the apostle Paul. He
said, for Christ sent me not to baptize. Paul, how many did
you baptize last year? I don't know. He didn't send
me to baptize. but 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." That's all you're going to talk
about? You're going to get up there and talk about the cross of Christ again? There's
other stuff in there. There's more important things
to see. There's more important things to know. 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, you know, we think
of astronomers and astrologers and, you know, scientists and
all those things. He's talking about religion,
talking about religion. I will destroy the wisdom of
the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is
the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? 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. For the Jews
require a sign. And the Greeks seek after wisdom,
but we preach Christ crucified. Unto the Jews, that's a stumbling
block. They got too many laws and ceremonies and things like
that. Unto the Jews, that's a stumbling
block. Unto the Greeks, that's foolishness. But unto them which
are called, both Jews and Greeks, God has a people out of every
tribe, nation, kindred, and tongue. Christ is the power of God and
he's the wisdom of God. That's what it is to preach the
word. It's to preach Christ crucified. Look at chapter 2 verse 2. Paul
said, I have determined not to know anything among you save
Jesus Christ and him crucified. That's it. That's it. And Paul said, Timothy, I want
you to be determined for the same thing. Preach Christ crucified. Preach Christ in his word. He said, be instant about it. That's what we read in the text
there at the beginning of this. Be instant about it. What that
means, it actually translates, assault with it. That's what
it means, assault with it. Be fervent about it, be urgent. What's with all the fervency?
Why so urgent? God said so. It's the means that
God said he's gonna use to call his saved people to himself.
I pray the Lord will call us. I pray he'll call us through
the preaching of his word. Amen.