speaks of sound doctrine. Verse 9, hold fast the faithful
word as you've been taught that you may be able by sound doctrine. Chapter 2, verse 1, speak the
things which become sound doctrine. It talks about being sound in
the faith. Qualifications of a pastor were
given here in these first few verses. Bishop, pastor, verse
7, blameless, as a steward of God's, not self-willed, that
is, not seeking his own will, but God's will according to his
word, not soon angry, compassionate, not given to wine, no striker,
a fighter, not given to filthy lucre, he's not in it for the
money, he's not a hireling, He's a lover of hospitality, enjoys
being with God's people, a lover of good men or good things, sober,
serious, just, fair, holy, consecrated, temperate at all things. Now,
verse 9 is where we left off. And he said this true pastor
and preacher is a lover of good men, And yet verse 9, he holds
fast the faithful word as he hath been taught that he may
be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince gainsayers,
backtalkers, arguers, poor. There are many unruly and vain
talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision, that
is religious people, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert
whole houses. teaching things which they ought
not for filthy lucre, for money's sake. My pastor in his commentary
on these verses said that a true preacher has two voices. He has
a voice to gather the sheep, to comfort the sheep, and yet
a voice of authority to drive away wolves. to warn the people
of thieves and robbers and wolves. Like the Scripture speaks of
two trumpets. In the Old Testament, there were
two trumpets mentioned. The sound of two trumpets. One
was to give warning and one was to gather the people. Two trumpets. A trumpet of alarm and a trumpet
of gathering. Like in the military. You were
in the military and there were two trumpets, weren't there?
One to put you to sleep. taps. You men remember that. Maybe some lady in it. But then
there was a trumpet of sound of charge. Wake up. Verse 9,
he says, holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught. The Word. Go back just a page
to 2 Timothy 4. The same instructions were given
to a young preacher named Timothy, first pastor at Ephesus. And
he charged him, verse 1, before the Lord and the Lord God and
the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead,
the living and the dead, at his appearing in his kingdom. He's
charged to a preacher, and this is not just Paul, this is the
Lord speaking. Preach the Word. Preach God's
Word. Be instant, consistent, always
doing it, in season, out of season, though not popular, though it's
not the habit of the day. Do it anyway. Because God's Word
is His power. God's Word is His glory. God's
Word is His voice. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with
all longsuffering and doctrine. Doctrine just simply means teaching. Teaching what the Scriptures
teaches, what God teaches. They shall all be taught of God,
our Lord Jesus Christ said. Doctrine, read on. The time will
come when they will not endure sound. doctrine, that to their
own lusts or desires shall they heap to themselves, or hire teachers
having itching ears, and turn away their ears from the truth
unto fables." And false religion is full of just fables and lies.
This is what he is telling us and young Titus and Timothy in
this first chapter. He says, hold fast, be unmovable. Don't move away from, but hold
firm where you stand, like Martin Luther stood that day. He said,
here I stand. I can do no other. I'm not moving.
Unmovable. Hold fast the faithful Word,
what God's Word teaches. You know, here's the truth of
God's Word in three points. The truth of God's Word. The
truth of salvation. The theme of this whole book
is, number one, election by the Father, this thing of salvation,
God's purpose to have a people, and He chose a people before
the foundation of the world. This is the theme of this book. Redemption by the Son. He gave
these people to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Lamb slain
before the foundation of the world. who would come into this
world, live as a man, and redeem God's elect from their sins by
the sacrifice of Himself. This is the story of this whole
book. Election by the Father, redemption by the Son, and regeneration
by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, all whom God
chose, all whom Christ died for, gives them new life, born of
God, born of His Spirit, born of the Word. born of the Word
of God, born again by incorruptible Word, the preaching of the truth.
And that is the truth in three points. You may remember this
story. A young girl from the church
where I grew up was in school, first or second grade, and the
teacher asked the children, this was years ago, if they knew what
the three R's were. And you people who are over,
what, 50, know what the three R's are, don't you? Reading,
writing, and arithmetic. That's basically the education
we got. Well, they asked the kids that,
and this young girl from a church where I grew up who was raised
on sound doctrine, just the things I just mentioned to you. She
spoke up and said, I know them. And the teacher said, go ahead,
Sally, or whatever her name was. She said, ruined, redeemed, and
regenerated. And that teacher didn't have
a clue what she was saying. What? Now all of God's people
do. They shall all be taught of God.
Taught what? That salvation is of the Lord. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. Salvation is by sovereign electing
grace, not of works, lest any human being should boast. It's
His work, and we're His workmanship. To the praise of the glory of
His grace. That's the reason for salvation. That's why we preach this. Number
one, it's true. And number two, it gives God
all the glory. Five points. Five points. The gospel is Calvinism. I don't apologize for that. Calvinism
is the gospel. Charles Spurgeon said that. The
only reason we call it Calvinism is because it's John Calvin,
one of the greatest theologians to ever live, broke it down into
five themes or points or basic doctrines and it was put into
an acrostic whereby we could remember it. Tulip, T-U-L-I-P.
And my father, who taught us young preachers, he said when
we began that class, he said, Tulip or terminate. Tulip or
terminate. Here's the truth. Total depravity.
Man's dead in sin. Total depravity. Unconditional
election. Since man's dead, God had to
choose somebody. He wouldn't choose him. Limited
atonement, a particular redemption. All whom God chose, Christ died
for. He didn't die for the world.
He died for God's people because the blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, puts away sin. It's not His blood and my faith.
His blood makes my faith effectual. Limited atonement, irresistible
grace. If the Holy Spirit doesn't draw
us, we won't come. And His grace is irresistible
and sovereign. Whomever God chose and whomever
Christ died for, He sends the Holy Spirit to draw them. They're
drawn with cords. Cords of love. Cords of a man. The Gospel of Christ. And they
will come. Christ said, all that My Father
giveth Me shall come unto Me. There's no ifs, ands, buts, or
maybes about it. No doubt about it. And lastly, Perseverance of the saints. Every time I think of that, I
think of Brother Bruce. These folks still know this. I do. I love teaching. I love
telling it. This is what the Lord used. Perseverance of the
saints. Everyone who God chose. Everyone
who Christ died for. Everyone the Holy Spirit draws.
They will persevere. They will be saved. You're telling
me, preacher, once in grace, always in grace. That's exactly
what I'm saying. Depends on whose grace it is.
If salvation is by God's sovereign grace, if He really saved somebody,
they are saved. I remember the story of Spurgeon,
a fellow, a drunk, came walking down the street one day. And
he accosted Spurgeon. And he said, you remember me?
Spurgeon said, don't believe a noose, sir. He said, I'm one
of your converts. Spurgeon hadn't seen him for
years. And Spurgeon said, you must be, because you're not one
of God's. God saves someone to save. The
Lord saves them. Salvation is of the Lord. This
is the gospel. This is the truth. This is the
whole truth. Nothing but the truth. Anything less, anything
more is not the truth. Any additions, any subtractions
from that is not the truth. So help me in God's Word. This is sound doctrine. Sound
means there's nothing corrupt in it, nothing unsound or nothing,
no rottenness in it, because the foundation standeth sure.
If the foundation is sound, the whole building will stand. What
is the foundation? Let me quote this word to you.
The foundation of God standeth sure, having this sealed, the
Lord knoweth them that are His. He said, they're mine. And He
gave them to Christ, and Christ said, they're mine. And mine
are thine and thine are mine, Christ said. And Christ came
to save them. He loves them. God loves them.
Christ died for them. And everyone that God loves and
everyone Christ died for is saved or shall be saved and will be
saved to the praise of God's sovereign grace. That's the truth. He said to young Titus and Timothy
both and to me and to you as a witness, as a testimony, To
everyone you speak with, be grounded and settled, unmoved, able to
exhort and convince gainsayers." He said in verse 10, there's
so many. Many unruly and vain talkers. Big talkers. Deceivers, he calls them. Especially
they of the circumcision. He says, their mouths must be
stopped. They subvert. They corrupt whole
houses. Paul said they creep into houses,
leading captive silly women. That's chapter 3, verse 6 of
2 Timothy. Whose mouths must be stopped,
unruly, unruled. God's people are under the reign
and the rule of God, of Christ and under His Word. subject to
it and believe it and submit to it and follow it and walk
by it. And he said, there are many unruly and vain talkers
and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision. Now back
then, he's talking about the Jews. The Jews, many of which supposedly converted to Christianity,
but they were mixing Christianity with Judaism. They were mixing
salvation by grace with works, and they crept into Galatia,
I remember, and they said, yes, believe Christ, yes, trust Christ,
yes, Christ is our salvation, yes, Christ is our righteousness. You still need to be circumcised,
you still need to keep the law, you still need to observe the
Sabbath, and so on and so forth. And Paul said, no sir, Christ
is all. Salvation is not by grace and
works, it's by grace, period. Yes, unto good works, but works
aren't the cause of it, they're the result of it. Salvation is
by grace. Salvation is by grace through
faith. And even that's not of yourselves,
it's the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. That's the sound doctrine of Scripture. I said there are
many, especially those of the circumcision. And in our day,
there are many, especially those who are called professing Christians.
Fundamental, the circumcision back then, the Jews back then
were orthodox Jews. were fundamental, if you will.
Fundamental. They might talk about the blood.
They would definitely talk about the Book, the Word of God. And today, you have fundamental
Christianity, fundamental religion which is the most dangerous of
all. You have so many sects, so many denominations, you have
so many different cults, faiths. When Scripture says there's one
Lord, one faith, one hope of your calling, one God, one Father,
and all of God's people believe the same way. All of God's people
believe the same God, the same things about that God, the same
way about salvation. All God's people know these things,
but yet there are many different sects and denominations and schisms,
Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons, and they all claim to believe Christianity. And I'm not careful, I'll go
into that, but Catholics, you know, they claim to be Christian.
Not Christian at all. Christ is not their hope of salvation. The church is. Mary is. Works are. It's the same with
free will Baptist religion. That's the most dangerous kind
of all. The most dangerous kind of all.
Our Lord spoke of a religion in the last days that
was so close, if it were possible, it would deceive the very elect. And this is free will, fundamental
Baptist religion. They talk about the blood, they
talk about the book, they talk about the blessed hope. Sounds
good, doesn't it? They talk about God. Some even say He's sovereign. They talk about Jesus Christ.
Let me sum up to you what they believe and what they tell everyone
without exception. This is a lie, like Brother Rolf
Barnard said years ago, and this is the truth. This is what God
used to open the eyes of so many blind religionists and blind
freewill Armenian Southern Baptist religion or Methodist or whatever.
This is the truth that God used to open the eyes of the blind.
Brother Rolf Barnard came into town in 1950. Ashland, Kentucky,
and he said, the two biggest lies ever been told. And ain't neither one of them
so. Number one, God loves everybody. And number two, Jesus Christ
died for everybody. He said, they're both lies straight
out of hell. My dad was there, a young man,
24 years old. And the whole town was there
and he said you could hear people's jaws drop. Because this is what
everybody believes. This is what the preacher is
telling everybody. This is what false preachers are telling everybody.
God loves you. Jesus died for you. God has a
wonderful plan for your life. Now, it's up to you. It's up
to you. God has done all He can do. And
it's up to you. God wants to. God tried. God's done all He can do. Now
salvation is in your hands. Make a decision. Make a choice. Come down front and be baptized and do all these
things and you'll be saved. So, what
they're saying is, God really didn't say anything about it.
Jesus Christ's blood really didn't say anything about it. But it's
your faith that saves you. It's your choice that saves you.
This is called decisional regeneration. If you make a decision, you decide
if you go to heaven or not. You decide. Salvation is not
in God's hand. Salvation is not of the Lord.
It's not His choice. It's your choice. It's not Christ's
blood. It's your faith in His blood.
It's not of the Lord at all. It's to the praise of the glory
of your faith, of your decision, of your choice. And God will
be so pleased with you if you accept His Son. He's standing
outside your heart's door. Would you please let Him in?
Oh, He wants to say He loves you so much. Poor Jesus, let
Him in. That's blasphemy of the highest
sort. And that's what's wrong with
our society today. You know why our society is so
corrupt? So perverted, so twisted, the whole head is sick, the heart
is faint. You know why all sound teaching
and doctrine and morality is gone? Because preachers have
stood up and told everybody, without exception, God loves
you. It doesn't matter what you are, who you are, God loves you.
Live like you want to, you'll go to heaven anyway. If you accepted
Jesus, it doesn't matter if it was years ago, never worshipped
God, never gave Him a thought. It doesn't matter if you call
on Him or not. He loves you. He wants to save
you. And then millions of people split
in hell wide open. And the whole world thinks, well,
God loves me. What have I got to worry about?
He won't punish sin. Preachers aren't preaching sin,
aren't preaching the punishment of sin. And they're all a bunch
of clowns and a bunch of fools for hire, for money. Religion
is all about You know their message by their
methods. It's all about spaghetti dinners,
golf tournaments, strawberry festivals, women's seminars,
singles meetings, everything but the worship of God. Everything but the preaching
of Christ and Him crucified. Where's the offense in that?
The gospel is called an offense. What's the offense? That God
is angry, God will punish sin, We aren't good people after all.
We deserve to go to hell. And Jesus Christ, the only way
God will keep us out of hell is if Jesus Christ died for our
sins. And God put His Son to death
on that cross. This is what our sins require. I asked the Lord to let me preach
the truth and love. But I tell you, if people are
hanging over hell by a shoestring, you've got to shut it out. You've
got to warn them. You can't warn people with a
smile on your face. You can still have a tear in
your eye and a frown on your face, and I do. Some people in
this room that don't know God. And I'm trying to tell you who
He is. I'm trying to tell you how a
person is saved. I'm not telling you God loves
you. I hope He does. I don't know if He does or not.
And I can tell you how you know God does love you. If you feel
like you're a rotten sinner and deserve hell, and God ought to
send you there, and there's nothing you've ever done that would cause
God to accept you or have anything to do with you, and if you ask
God for mercy, and plead with him on the merits of God's Son.
Please, Lord, have mercy on me. Let the blood of Jesus Christ,
God's Son, be propitiation on the mercy seeker of my sin. Cover
my sin. Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy
on this sinner." If you can say that, I can say, smile. God loves you. I can say that with the authority
of God's Word. But if you reject the truth, If you say there's something
you've done, that you've let God do anything, I'm telling
you, you don't know the God of the Bible. If you've made a decision
for Jesus, you've decided for the wrong one. If you've chosen
Him, you've chosen the wrong one. That's another Jesus. Every
one of God's people know the only way they're saved is if
He chose them. And because of this false teaching,
There's no fear of God. This is the beginning of wisdom.
There's no judgment, no sin, no right, no wrong, no consequences,
no holy and just and righteous God, no law. If you'll just be sincere and
somewhat religious, you're okay. Nothing could be further from
the truth. Paul called them lies, deceits, and damnable doctrine. And he said their mouths must
be stopped. They subvert whole houses, teaching things they
ought not. What's behind it all? What's behind big religion, people?
You know it, what it is. It's money. It's money. When you look around at what's
going on in religion, you see it as clear as a nose on your
face. What religion is all about is raising money to build big
buildings. And whose name is it for? Whose
name is it really about? Not God. Not God. Oh my, I had so many scriptures
I wanted us to turn to. My time's up. But like Noah,
every true preacher and every true witness, every true one
of God's people, like Noah, is a preacher of righteousness.
Telling a world that's about to be destroyed, there's one
hope, there's one way that God is holy, God is just, God will
by no means clear the guilt. God's going to destroy this world.
God doesn't love this place. He's going to destroy it. Get
in the ark. Come to Christ. Bow. Repent. Believe. Call on the
Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. If you're found in
Christ, you will be saved. That's the gospel. The Lord will
spare you when the overflowing scourge of His wrath comes through
you. It will not come nigh you. If God's wrath fell on the Lord
Jesus Christ, it will not fall on you. Well, Titus. Chapter 1, verse
12 says, one of their own prophets said of the Cretans, of their
people, they're liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. In other words,
like Paul said in another place, their God is their belly. It's
all about the flesh. Religion is all about the flesh.
Make you feel good, entertain the flesh. Barnard used to say,
entertaining sinners on the road to hell. That's what religion
is, entertainment. People, true religion is worship. And it's not with men's hands,
all this emotion and all this wildfire and all that. It's one
way. Worship God in spirit, of heart,
and in truth, through the truth of God's Word, the truth as it
is in the Lord Jesus Christ, with no fleshly props, no robes,
no choirs, no statues, no symbols, no holy water, Pictures, none
of that. Those are idols. Those are images,
graven images. Spirit. Spirit of God. Preaching the gospel. I'm doing
right now exactly what the prophets did, exactly what the apostles
did, exactly what the Church of God did. This is how you know
where God is, where the truth is, where the gospel is, where
the people of God are. They do things exactly like the
Word of God says. A man standing up with a Bible
and people sitting reverently, fearfully, carefully, prayerfully,
listening to the Word of God. And God the Holy Spirit takes
it and gives life, opens eyes, opens ears, gives a new heart. And they seek Christ, they seek
God. And they're saved from this corrupt religious generation.
This is it. This is the power of God. To
the world it's called foolishness. To the religious, it's not entertaining
enough. It's not enough. What do you
got for our kids? What do you got for our singles?
We got the Gospels what we got. We got the Word of God what we
have. We got something that is able to make them wise unto salvation
like Brother Eric preached. That's all we got. If that's
all you need, that's all we got. Verse 13, he says, this witness
is true. What he said about them is true.
What God says about them is true. Let God be true in every man
of life. Rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the
faith. Some Jehovah Witness young fellows came to my door one day
and we talked a little while. I quickly saw they weren't interested
in what I had to say. They were not interested in hearing
what the Bible said. I had a Bible and they weren't
interested. They had their own little literature and all that.
They're not interested in what God said. And I finally said,
you're of your faith with the devil and his work for you too. And it was like I shot him with
a gun. The devil. Well, God loves everybody.
No, He doesn't. He doesn't love you. I said what
our Lord said to those Pharisees. If God were your Father, you'd
love the Lord Jesus Christ and His works would you do. You'd
believe on Him and Him only. And you're going around trying
to tell everybody He's not God. Oh, if God were your Father,
you'd know that He is God because God said He was God. Unto the
Son, He saith, Thy throne, O God, is forever. Let everything that
hath breath worship Him. Not the religion of Jehovah Witness. Not Mormonism. Worship Jesus
Christ. This is Christianity. You know,
true Christianity does one thing. Worships Jesus Christ. A true preacher does this one
thing. Holds forth the Lord Jesus Christ. Read on. Not giving heed to Jewish
fables. Verse 14. Commandments of men
that turn from the truth Our Lord said this four times in
Mark 7. You can read it for yourself
sometime. Mark chapter 7. He said, full well that Isaiah
the prophet say, this people draws near to me with their lip,
but their heart is far from it. He said, they reject the commandments
of God for the tradition of man. And I can't tell you how many
times that us, our brethren, men have gone and preached the
truth in these places like Southern Baptists and whatever. And this
has happened. Brother Marvin was one of the
last. He preached to a group of people in Tennessee that were
without a pastor, and in the sovereign providence of God,
few of us were allowed to go there. I was scheduled next,
but after Marvin went, they said, no more. None of you, no more. But Marvin preached about those
whose names were written in the Lamb's Book of Life before the
foundation of the world. That's what he preached. Now
what is that? That's the truth. That's salvation. That's God's
mercy. That's God's love. That's God's
grace. That's Christ's glory. That's the gospel. It's the truth. So help me, God's Word. And they
came up to him after that. And a man came up to him and
said, We don't want to hear this anymore, this about the book
of life before the foundation of the world." And he said, well,
it's God's Word. He said, it doesn't matter if
it's God's Word or not. We don't believe that. That's
what they said. And that's what our Lord said
about them. And that's the truth. Oh, people really believe. I
don't care if it's in the Bible, we just don't bring that up. Oh, my. God's people bring it
up. It's their salvation. Our Lord said, and He rebuked
them sharply, and He said they need to be rebuked sharply. Oh
my, read on and I've got to quit. He says, don't give heed to Jewish
fables and commandments of men that turn from the truth. Verse
15, under the pure are all things pure. Under them that are defiled
and unbelieving is nothing pure. Their mind, their conscience
is defiled. You know, our Lord one time turned to all those
people who were following Him and He shocked them. Everything
He said shocked them. Everything He said was truth.
But people were so filled with lies, following these blind leaders
that are blind. They're blind. And our Lord turned
to them one day and He said, You listen to Me. You listen
to Me now. He said, There's nothing going
into the mouth that can defile a man. But I've quit this, I've quit
that. Touch not, taste not, handle not. Liquors never touch my lips. God must be pleased with me. Our Lord said of those Pharisees,
they're whited settlers. They don't touch anything on
the outside, but on the inside they're full of extortion and
excess, dead men's bones. They're like whited graves. God
looks on the heart. Nothing going in. Sin is not
what you put in. Sin is what's in there already.
Our Lord said, out of the heart proceed adulteries and evil thoughts
and fornications and theft and anger. What He's saying is, we're
corrupt already. Nothing corrupts us that we do.
We corrupt things. My preacher used to say, men
aren't drunks because they drink. They drink because they're drunks.
It's not a thing that forces you to sin. Sin within. Lust of the eyes,
lust of the flesh, the pride of life, not things, they're
principles within us. What's it going to take to save
us then? Quitting these things? A new heart given by God. Regeneration. Not reformation. Regeneration. The work of God. In verse 16 he says, "...they
profess to know God, and in works deny Him, being abominable and
disobedient, unto every good work reprobate." Reprobate. In works they deny Him. And he's
not necessarily talking about outward, immoral, wicked, evil
works. That's pretty clear in that a
murderer and a rapist and all that is an abominable person.
That's clear in what God said of those Preachers who preached
in His name and prophesied in His name and did many wonderful
works in His name, He said, you are workers of iniquity. And it is so subtle, so deceptive,
and subvert whole houses, leave captive silly women, and it is
damnable doctrine. God hates it. God hates it. It is reprobate. void of any
true spiritual, biblical understanding. The truth as it is, and the Lord
Jesus Christ. Oh, may the Lord make us sound
in the faith. Give us boldness. Give me boldness. That's what Paul told the people. Pray that the Lord We're in Acts. He said, pray that the Lord will
make us bold to tell the truth, not compromise. Hold Him fast
in the form of sound. Convince these gainsayers in
no uncertain term. Their mouths needn't be stopped. Thank you very much.