I want you to look at that verse
15 and 16 with me. I'm gonna do all of these verses
today, from verse 15 to the end of the chapter, God willing.
But it says, this is a faithful saying. Faithful saying. And it's worthy that everybody
accept it. It's worthy of all acceptation.
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom
I am chief. This brought me to tears twice
this week when I think that Christ came to save sinners. So I've been convinced beyond
a shadow of a doubt that I'm a sinner. I mean, I'm a sinner. And I'm certainly thankful that
Christ came to save sinners. And then he said, I'm chief.
How be it for this cause, I obtain mercy, that in me first, Jesus
Christ might show forth all longsuffering for a pattern to them which should
believe hereafter, believe on him to life everlasting. What
the apostle's doing here is, is in God's word, is giving us
the sum and substance of the gospel. And he exhorts Timothy
to preach the gospel. He said, holding faith, Timothy,
you hold faith. If you remember, he told him
to preach no other doctrine and charge them that they teach no
other doctrine. There's lots of false teachers
in the world, but he said, I want you He said in verse four, I
charge you not to teach. You teach no other doctrine.
Don't you dare teach another doctrine. And then remember that
he says the end of the commandment was charity out of a poor heart,
but there were some Judaizers who said they were teaching the
law, but they didn't understand a thing in the world about the
law. Didn't know anything about the law. They was teaching you
could be justified by the law, could be saved by the law, could
be sanctified by the law. And he said they swerved, became
just vain janglers. Just was a noise was all they
were. And on he defended his ministry
against false accusations. And he gave to thank the Lord
that he said, I didn't put myself in the ministry, God put me in
the ministry. And I'm thankful that God put
me in the ministry, he said, because I was a blasphemer, I
was persecutor, I was an injurious, and I obtained mercy. And then
he says there in verse 15, this a faithful saying, what is a
faithful saying? What is a faithful saying? He
said, I'll tell you this is the faithful saying, that Christ
came into the world. to save sinners. And what he's saying, this is
a true saying, not to be doubted, not to be argued over, not to
be debated, but to receive and believe. You know, you say, well, everybody
knows that that's so. No, no, no, they don't know that. They don't know that. People
are always disputing and arguing about how God saves a sinner. Why is there so many denominations? Why is there so many cults? If everybody believed this right
here. You got people who believe you're saved by your free will.
You got people who believe you're saved by your works. You got
people who believe the same because you weep a little bit and cry
a little bit. There's people who believe that
you got faith and all you got to do is exercise it. And then
there's people that believe that God's got to give you a chance.
But you have all these different denominations. There's denominations
that baptize infants and put you in the covenant. There's
people who teach that If you join a certain denomination,
you'll be saved. There's a people that teach if
you're baptized, you'll be saved. And there are cults. There was
a man named Jim Jones killed over 900 people, committed suicide
because they believed him, and they'd all go to heaven. And then there's some, beloved,
who are in doubt about their own salvation. I heard a fella
told me last week that he's never doubted his salvation, never
once. I can't say that. I can't say
that. But some are often in doubt about
their own salvation. You reckon I'm saved? How could
I be saved being such an awful person? How could I possibly
be saved being such a wretch? How could I be saved with what
goes on in my mind and in my heart and in my soul? How could
I possibly be saved? Well, Martin Luther says this,
when I look at myself, I cannot be saved. But when I look to
Christ, I cannot not be saved. That's pretty simple, isn't it? So that tells us this, don't
look at yourself. Don't look at yourself. But here's
the answer to all these people and all they say. Here's the
answer to them and to our own hearts. It's certain, it's sure,
it's reality, it's sustained, it's so. Christ Jesus came into
this world to save sinners. He is a savior alone and the
only savior. When it says he came, where was
he was before he came? Where was he at? Who was he before
he came? So he had to come. He came to
do something. He said, I didn't come to call
the righteous. I got nothing for the righteous.
People who consider themselves righteous. I got no message for
them. He said, I didn't come to call the righteous to repentance,
but sinners. Sinners. And I tell you this,
let me tell you this, the gospel is faithful. The gospel's faithful,
it must be faithful. And let me give you three things
it has to be faithful to. We're talking about this is faithful,
except that, you know, the gospel is faithful. And the first thing
it's faithful to is God's law. Now let me tell you something
about that. The law, God's law, we're talking
about the moral law, that people put in their yards and put on
their walls, and Moses come down from the mountain and has written
on stone. Stone can't give you life. And you got this moral
law, and this moral law because man cannot keep it. He cannot
love God. He cannot love his neighbor.
He cannot not lie. He cannot not steal. He cannot
not be covetous. He cannot not honor his father
and his mother. He can't do any of those things.
Because if you do, it has to be absolutely perfect. If you're
going to be saved by looking at that law that's the Ten Commandments,
then you've got to do it perfectly all the days of your life. Just
because a man can't do it, that don't mean God's going to let
bring it down here. and give us an opportunity, you
know, to lower it down for our standards. No, no, His law is
just like Himself. Oh my, we got to obey His precepts. I want you to look with me in
Isaiah 42. Get 1 Timothy now. You're going to say, why do you
preach that for? Because people are still doing it. People are still doing it. You
know how I know they do it? Because whenever they get in
some kind of trouble, whenever they do something wrong, they
run to something that they've done to try to justify themselves
or blame somebody else for it. That means that they're running
to the law for their own justification. You say, I never did. Yes, you
have. Don't tell me you ain't. Yeah, listen. Let your wife tell
you what you need to do. Your daddy used to say all the
time, he said this, he said, I used to get so mad at Ruby
because she'd tell me, you know, you're doing this wrong. This
is the way to do this. He said, I get so mad and you
want to make me so mad? Because she's right. And that's the way we are. We're
going to run and point to somebody else. It's not my fault. I'm good. I'm good. I'm right. I'm always right. It's like the fellow said, I
made two mistakes. One of them was that I thought
I was wrong. That was the first one. The second was I forgot. So that's the two mistakes. But that's how sinful we are.
And that's what God says. Look what he said here in Isaiah
42. Look at me with me now here in verse 18. Tell me who this
is talking about here. Here you deaf, how can deaf people
hear? And look you blind that you may
see. Now this is talking about Christ,
who is blind but my servant. Blind to nothing but the glory
of God. And death is my messenger. He's
going to hear nobody but me do what I tell him to do. I gave
him my messenger, my Christ, my servant, who is blind as he
that is perfect. He's blind to one thing, the
glory of God, to the will of God, completing the will of God. As blind as the Lord's servant,
seeing many things, he didn't observe it, opening the ears,
but he don't hear. Listen to this now. The Lord
is well pleased for his righteousness sake, for this servant of Christ,
this servant of God, will magnify the law and make it honorable. How did he do that? He obeyed
every precept in his own body as a man. Let me tell you something
else, not only is it faithful to the law, but it's faithful
to God's justice. Here's the situation. God's law,
as I said, the moral law, as you know, a plumb line don't
make the wall straight. It shows you how crooked it is,
and that's what the law does. It shows you how crooked you
are, how crooked your wall is. How, you know, the plumb line
don't make the great, it shows you how bad off it is. And that's
what the law does, it shows us how bad off we are. And then comes God's justice.
God's justice. He says, he that sinneth, he
must die. He that don't keep the law, he
must die. He must bear the curse. Well,
let me tell you something. Christ obeyed the law he's the
end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth he
himself as he obeyed that law he went under its curse he was
made a curse for us and God himself came down and and punished him
in our room and in our stead, in our place. And you know what? Isaiah 53 11 said, God saw the
travail of his soul, said, I'm satisfied. I'm satisfied. That's the most blessed word
to me in all the gospel. God's satisfied. Who satisfied
him? His servant did. If God's satisfied
with him, And we trust Him and believe Him, God satisfied with
us too. And I tell you, our Lord Jesus
Christ, let me tell you something. His worth, His worth was so great
that God was satisfied with all that He chose in Him. That's
how worth, that's how valuable, that's how... But our Lord Jesus
Christ, his merit was so great, his worth was so great, that
he was able, in what he did on that cross, to bear all of our
sins, he was able. God saw what he went through
and said, I'm satisfied, I'll never ask for nothing else. I'll
never ask for another payment. I'll never ask for no justice.
I'll never bring another law. I'll never bring another condemnation.
I'll never do anything but accept those that he died for. I'm satisfied
with him. Satisfied with him. Oh my. Bless his name. He suffered his
penalty. And if he suffered his penalty,
then I won't. You know where I suffered it
at? I suffered it in him. And then here's the third thing,
not only, you see, the gospel gotta be faithful to God's law,
the gospel has gotta be faithful to God's justice, and Christ
satisfied it, Christ obeyed it, Christ honored it, then it has
to be faithful to God's promises. You know, 1 Corinthians 2 says
this, all the promises of God are in him. And then you know
what he said? They're yea, Yes, yes, yes, all
the promises are yes, yes, yes. And then when you say yes, amen. In the gospel, in the gospel,
Eustace talked about this with us tonight. In the gospel, he's
talking about holding faith in a pure conscience. In the gospel
is the faithfulness of Christ revealed. Not our faithfulness,
his faithfulness. He promised God. God gave him a people. And let
me tell you something. God put every promise that he
had for every prophecy, every type, every picture, everything,
he put it in his blessed son. Every promise. God promised to
save them that believe on him. Christ came to put away the sin
of his people. Christ satisfied God. Christ
is the only Savior. Christ bore the wrath of God.
Christ satisfied God. Christ said, He's gonna come
and get us again. Christ said, He that cometh to
me, I'll never cast him out. Christ said, His grace was sufficient. So everything, beloved, all the
promises that God has, is in Him. So any promise that God's
ever made, it's in His blessed Son, and they're every one of
them yea. There's not no yea and nay. You know what nay is? I'm a good person. Nay is free will, nay is Arminianism,
nay is works, nay is law. But all the promises of God in
him are yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. And then because they're all
yes, you just say amen. But we're just talking about
this faithfulness of Christ. Talking about our faith, and
God gave us faith. But the faith we got, he gave
it to us. But you know our faith has to be perfect, just like
the law, to be accepted. When you don't get faith like
that, we're justified by the faith of Jesus Christ. His faithfulness. I want to be
faithful. God knows I want to be faithful.
And I know you want to be faithful. We want to be faithful to Christ.
We want to be faithful to His gospel. We want to be faithful
to His church. We want to be faithful to one
another. We want to be faithful husbands and wives and children. We want to be faithful people. But my faith did not die for
me. My faith did not justify me. Christ, His faithfulness, That's
what I'm trusting. I'm trusting what he did. What
I've ever done, I mean, listen. Listen, nothing. Nothing. If I had a pen, I'd show you
what nothing is. I ain't got a pen. But I tell
you, let me tell you something. He is faithful. Our Lord is faithful
to every prophecy. He is faithful to His work. He
is faithful to God Almighty. He is faithful to bring in them
that God gave Him, bring them to glory. He is faithful to save
His elect. And I tell you what, He's going
to save every single one of them. Every single one of them. And
that's what he says, this is worthy of all acceptation, back
in our text. This is worthy, this is a faithful
saying, and it's worthy, worthy of all acceptation. You can find
anything else worthy to be accepted of everything. Oh my, you know
why it's worthy? It's worthy by all, for it's
God's word, it's not man's word, this is God's word. It's perfectly,
perfectly and completely true. Let me tell you something. This
is suitable to the need of everybody that'll believe. I'm telling
you. The gospel suits me perfectly. It suits me perfectly. I mean, it suits me perfectly. Why? Because I'm a sinner. Christ came to save sinners.
That just, I need it. That suits me. Listen, take that
gospel and just wrap me up in it. Put it on my head, around
me, just wrap me up in it. Got to have it. Huh? Don't you, wouldn't you just
love to be wrapped up in the gospel, wrapped up in Christ,
and oh, just wrapped around it. You know, this is God's Word.
It's suitable. And I tell you, it glorifies
God. It's according to the glorious gospel of our blessed God. And it's, now I'll tell you something,
this gospel that we're talking about, that's worthy of all acceptation. Paul said it in Romans 1.1. He
said, this is the gospel that was promised before the world
ever began. Promised before the world ever
began. And it concerns His Son, Jesus
Christ our Lord. Oh my. And let me tell you this,
I tell you, every time I think of this, that Christ Jesus came
into the world to save sinners. A man asked a woman one time,
what's your hope? What is your hope? She's going
to die in a few weeks. Watch your hope. I'm a great, great sinner. But
Christ is a great, great Savior. Huh? Oh my. Sinners. It says Christ came
to save sinners. That word sinner is emphatic.
It's conclusive. But the natural mind has trouble
with this. They have trouble with this.
Not with Christ being the Savior. I mean, everybody know people
four and five years old accept Him as the Savior now. And let
me tell you this, if you're five years old and you're able to
be saved and a preacher tells you you're able to be saved,
you're able to go to hell. Do y'all believe that? I believe
that. If you're old enough to be saved, That's why there's
no age of accountability. If you're old enough and the
preacher tells you, come down here and accept Jesus, and you're
four, five, six, seven years old, and you come down here,
and you're supposed to get saved, the first thing God asks, where
are you saved from? What do these children need to
be saved from? The second thing is, if they're
saved, where are they saved from? And if they wasn't saved, and
they died, would they go to hell? You say, well, people just, that's
crazy. People are doing it. Ain't they,
Steve? They're doing it. Ah, but I'll tell you what, you
know, the natural man has trouble with, the natural mind has it.
Not with Christ being a Savior. But here's the problem they have,
being the Savior of sinners. You know why they have problem
with man being savior of sinners? Because they're always looking
for something worthy in man. Man is, you know, I've had folks
tell me, said, I may be, I may be bad, I may not be perfect,
but I'm not a sinner. I've had fellows get up and walk
out of service and said, I'm not a sinner, instead of them
saying, I'm not a sinner, and walk out. But oh my, they're always looking
for some worthiness in man. You got faith, come up here.
Come up here. Exercise that faith. Come to
Jesus. Come to Jesus. Oh, come up here. Listen, I know
he's saved. I've seen him crying. I've seen
tears run down his face. I know He saved, I was there
and I felt it. But Christ came to save sinners. Oh, is there a warden in this
building today? Is there a sinner here today? Black hearted? Nothing to offer, nothing to
bring, nothing to give. No prayers that would be accepted.
No tears that could be shed. If there's a sinner, I told a
man last week, if God makes a man a sinner, he's a saved man. A
sinner's a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost has made him so.
Oh my. If you're trying your best to
find something good in yourself, you're wasting your time. Because
you'll never find it. You'll never find it. Oh my. The gospel is that Christ came
and Christ lived. He lived. He lived holy, righteously. honored God all the days of his
life. And then the gospel is that Christ
came and then he died. He came, how did he die? Because he had somebody else's
sins on him. My sins, your sins, if you're
a sinner. And then bless his name, he arose
again from the dead. And stayed on this earth for
40 days and 40 nights. And appeared unto his disciples
and his people. And you know when he'd get amongst
them, you know what he'd say the first thing he'd say to them?
Peace, be still. Let your heart rest. Be still, peace, peace. I'm here. I rose again, look at my hands,
look at my feet. I rose again. Oh my, just look
with me in Matthew 9. I tell you this, every time I
start thinking about Christ dying for sinners, oh my goodness. A dear preacher friend that I've
known for a long, long time passed away yesterday. The Lord called
him home. He went home. And I'm thankful he went home.
Pastored the same church for 50-something years. Terry Worthing,
some of y'all know Terry. The Lord called him home yesterday. In verse 10, Matthew chapter
9 and verse 10. And it came to pass, as Jesus
said it meet in the house, behold, Many publicans. A publican was
a tax collector and the Jews hated him. And sinners came and
sat down with him and his disciples. You know, this is a wonderful
thing. Sinners could feel comfortable with the Lord Jesus Christ. He
could stay in his presence. They could eat with him. He'd
eat with them. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples,
What in the world is your master doing with publicans and sinners? What in the world is that man
doing, having anything to do with these awful tax collectors
and these sinners? The thing that's the gospel to
us, they hate it. And oh my, but then when our
Lord heard that, he said unto them, they that are whole, they
ain't got anything wrong with them now. They lit a hole, ain't
got a thing in the world wrong with them. They don't need a
doctor. They don't need a doctor. You
know who needs a doctor? Sick people. Sick, sin sick. Sin sick. But he said, you go
and learn what that means. You go and learn what it means.
And you know where our Lord got this verse of scripture right
out of Hosea chapter six. He said, I will have mercy. That's
what I'm going to do. It's my will to have mercy. I'm
going to show mercy. It's my will to have mercy. I
don't want your sacrifices. You got no sacrifice. You can't
got anything to sacrifice for me. I'm not come to call these
Pharisees, these righteous, but sinners to repentance. God commendeth
his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. Oh my, who in the world in this
building today could deny being a sinner? Who can deny it? God's word says we're sinners.
God's word says that we're sinners. The Holy Ghost says we're sinners. Our actions say we're sinners.
And you know what? Our conscience, our conscience
says we're sinners. And let me tell you something,
we don't know the half of it. You know what? If God let us
see sin the way he saw sin, we couldn't stand it. We couldn't
stand it. You wouldn't walk into a nest
of rattlesnakes, would you? You wouldn't do that. You just
wouldn't do it. Well, maybe when God looks at
us, he just sees a nest of rattlesnakes, yet he comes among us. You imagine
that's about the awfulest thing, but that's us. That's us. Oh my. I know this, but bless
his holy name, he died for sinners, for sinners. Our Lord Jesus,
again in Luke 15, He was sitting having a meal with a bunch of
sinners. And they come to Him and said, your master's sitting
at the table with sinners. What is He doing that? And He
looked at them and said, what man of you having 99 sheep and
one of them be lost? He don't go looking for that
one sheep. And when He hath found it, If you believe me, you'll
find it. He lays it on his shoulder and
carries it and puts it in the sheepfold. Oh my. Then look what he said here.
Not only is this faithful and worthy of all acceptation, that
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And he said,
I'm the chief. Now let me tell you something.
When Paul said he was the chief, he really, truly believed that
in his heart and in his soul. The great chief means the first,
the greatest. And this wasn't a false modesty
or false humility. He didn't say this for vainglory.
I said, oh, I'm really a sinner. I remember years ago when I was
learning the gospel, and I'd go up to Indiana and preach a
lot. And God was showing us how sinful we were. And after a while,
people started making fun of it. He said, oh, you old wicked
sinner, you. You're a wicked sinner, you make
fun of it. I went up to West Virginia to
preach one time and I was preaching on man's utter inability and
lostness and how wicked he was and how desperately deceitful
his heart was and how sinful it was. The preacher got up and
said, you're all a bunch of sinful people, ain't you? Just making
fun of it. But oh my, when Paul said, I'm
the chief, Nobody made any fun of that. And I tell you, there
ain't nobody that knows anything about sin that's going to make
fun of sin. They're not going to joke about it. No, no, no,
no. False humility keeps men from
Christ. He was the chief of sinners in
the sight of God and in his own sight. He had a real, real sense
of his sins. You know what he said about them?
They're exceeding sinful. When he was, God smote him on
the Damascus road, he was, stayed blind for three days and three
nights, and God came to a man named Ananias and said, go over
yonder to this place, and there you'll find there Saul of Tarsus,
and he's blind, I want you to go lay hands on him, so he'll
receive his sight. You know what the first thing
he said? Oh Lord, I've heard how much evil he's done against
your people. He didn't wanna go. He didn't
wanna go. Because he'd been so evil. But
listen to what he says next. Howbeit for this cause, because
I was the chief of sinners, because Christ came to save sinners, of whom I'm the worst that ever
was, and how because Christ came to save sinners, and I was the
chief, Because he came to save sinners, howbeit for this cause
I obtain mercy. Oh, I obtain mercy. Huh? Oh, I obtain mercy. God showed
me mercy, showed me mercy in Christ. And here's the reason
why. That in me first, Jesus Christ
my show forth all longsuffering, listen to this, for a pattern,
pattern to them which should have to believe on him to everlasting
life. He said, I'm a pattern for those
who would believe on me, like I have and believed on Christ.
I'm a pattern to them who should believe on him later. If God
will save the chief of sinners, he'll show mercy to any, any. Oh, he said he's a pattern of
God's long-suffering, show forth all of his long-suffering. God
is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish.
but that all should come to repentance. He's a pattern of the sovereignty
of God. He said, he himself says, the
Lord said, I'll have mercy on whom I have mercy and whom I
will, I'll have compassion. He was a pattern of the sovereignty
of God. He says, will you please God
who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace. God passed by the good, passed
by the wise, and chose the chief of sinners. I'll tell you something
else he's a pattern. He's a pattern of effectual calling.
You reckon that if it had been an evangelist, if it had been
a free will, and he'd have been one of these soul winners, they'd
have got to, Paul says, now Paul, let me tell you something. Jesus
loves you, God loves you, and I love you, Now why don't you
get down on your heads and knees and ask God to forgive you? But
you know what happened? God came to him. God. God come to him and go BAM! Where'd he hit him at? Right
dead in the heart. What happened to him? He went
blind as a bat. And he put him down, and he heard
a voice, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Who are you? And this capitalized, Lord, I
am Jesus whom thou persecutest. Oh my. You reckon he could have
said, oh listen, I don't want to be saved. I'm going to sow
some wild oats. I'm going to live a little longer.
I want to live and sin a little longer. No, no. Oh my. Here's a pattern of the effectual
call of God. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and calls to approach unto thee. In the day of his
power, In the day of his power, his people are made willing.
In the day of God's power, Paul was made willing to do anything
under God's sign that God wanted him to do, willed him to do.
And he's a pattern of a sinner justified by another, by a substitute. Oh, he said, I'm justified from
all things which the law could not do. He is justified by the
death of another, by the righteousness of another, by the faith of another. And why? For them that should
believe on him hereafter. I've got to hurry here, I'll
tell you. William J., I've got a book in there by him, a bunch
of sermons by him, a couple of them, matter of fact. Got all
the works of John Newton. But William J. Joe told John
Newton about a conversion of this man that was a notorious,
notorious rebel that lived in the village. And he come to tell
him, said, oh, this man, remember that man who was such a notorious
rebel. Said, God saved him, he was converted. And you know what Newton said?
Since the Lord saved me, I'm not despaired of anybody. If
the Lord saved me, He can save anybody. That's what He said.
And then look at the response of being saved. Look what He
says now. Verse 17. Now unto the King eternal,
immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory
forever and ever. Amen. You know, He starts, He
talked about being the chief of sinners and being saved, God
to have mercy on Him. Then He says, Now, let me tell
you about it. He began to rejoice, he began
to praise the Lord for his sovereign mission to bend under the king
eternal. Not a coming king, the king right
now, king of kings and lord of lords. He's sitting on a throne,
he sits on a throne forever. Sits on a throne of grace, sits
on a throne of judgment. And there's no end to his kingdom
and his government in this world. Then look what he says. Invisible,
or excuse me, immortal. Let's take immortal first. The
only wise God, the only immortal, the king eternal, immortal. You
know what he says about Christ? He's the alpha, the omega, the
beginning, the end, and he which was, and which is, and which
is to come. He said, I am he that was dead, but I'm alive
forevermore. And I have the keys of hell and
of death. He's immortal, and everybody believes on Him's immortal.
We're gonna put on this old flesh, gonna put on immortality one
of these days. And then He's invisible. What in the world
does that mean? The only wise God. You know,
how in the world can we see this invisible God? Huh? Look over in 1 Timothy 6 right
with me real quick, verse 15. Let me look at this with you.
Invisible, the only wise God. Oh, you know the only way you
can see Him is by revelation for Him to make Himself known.
Look what He said here in verse 15 of chapter 6. Which in His
times He shall show. He's going to reveal it. Who is the blessed and only potentate,
the King of kings and Lord of lords, who only hath immortality. dwelling in the light, which
no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen nor can see,
to whom be honor and power and glory forever lasting. How you
gonna see the invisible God? Only by revelation. And he's
the only wise God opposed to them that are false. You know,
I wanna show you this in Jude. Jude, that last little book,
that one chapter right before the revelation, Shirley tells
me that she just loves this verse, and I'll tell you what, I believe
all of us do, but listen, she said this is her favorite verse
right here. Look what it says here in verse 24. Now the King
eternal, immortal, invisible, now unto Him that is able to
keep you from falling, listen to this, to present you faultless
before the presence of His glory, with exceeding joy. The only
wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty and dominion and
power forever and ever. Oh my. Well, let me hurry on
here real quick. Verse 18, this charge I commit
unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which before
went on thee, that thou mightest by them war a good warfare. Not only teach that they charge
no other doctrine, but you preach no other doctrine, that you might
war good warfare. You know, we're in a war. We
really truly in a war. And we're not warring against
flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers of
the air. He says, you'd be a good soldier
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Be true to Christ in the midst
of a war with Satan, evil men, and all these false teachers.
Just do it, do it, do it, do it. And then holding faith and
a good conscience. When he talks about holding faith,
what that means is sound doctrine, sound doctrine, holding faith,
holding the truth of the gospel. Hold that thing, hold it. Keep
it. There are two things for a preacher
or a teacher. He's got to hold to the pure
truth of the gospel. And he's got to preach that gospel
with sincerity and honesty toward God and men. And by God's grace,
live that gospel. Live that gospel. All right,
let me hurry on here. and with a good conscience, with
some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck." Oh
my, what that mean? Their faith was put away. Their faith failed. And what
happened to them? You ever seen a shipwreck? Everything
on that ship is lost. Bang, they just, and that's what
they just tore all to pieces. And you know a ship, he's going
someplace. He starts one place and he's got to go someplace
else. But I tell you what, if your faith, if your faith is
not of Christ, if your faith is not of God, here's what's
going to happen. You're not going to make it to
that harbor. You're going to go this way, and you're going
to hit on a bunch of rocks over here, and they're going to tear
your faith all to pieces. Oh, making shipwreck of themselves?
And if we don't arrive in the harbor safely, if we are going
to, we're going to have to continue in the faith of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And men, they wreck their faith
and wreck their ships on the rocks of covetousness, compromise,
self-love. And then he said, I'm going to
give you two examples of people that may shipwreck of their faith.
Look what he says, Hymenes and Alexander. Now I'll tell you,
people say, you ought not call people by name. But he did. Oh, they made shipwreck of the faith. Hymenes and Alexander did. You
know what I did? I said, Lord, the service of
the devil, I'm going to let the devil loose on them. And they'll
learn not to blaspheme. They'll learn not to do this.
Oh, my. If we make shipwreck of the faith,
you know what would happen? We'd blaspheme God. We'd dishonor
the Lord Jesus Christ. And one of the things that I
remember as a young, young preacher years ago, I thought if I veer
from the gospel, if I veer from Christ, veer from The gospel
of the free grace of God in Christ. God's sovereignty and God's electing
grace. If I veer from that, I'm dishonoring,
first and foremost, God himself. But then, how many people would
be affected by me doing that? And then I think of all the preachers
that went before me. Brother Henry, Brother Scott,
Brother Maurice, all those who went before me, who are so faithful. What an awful, awful thing it
would be to get on them rocks of self-righteousness,
and rocks of works, and rocks of covetousness, and rocks of
self-love, and rocks of the flesh, and rocks of goodness, and rocks
of free will. Crash on them rocks. And all
we can say is, Lord have mercy on them. What else can we say? Our Father, oh, our Father, in
the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for meeting
with us today. Thank you for your gospel. Oh,
Lord, I'm so thankful. Oh, I bless your holy name that
you came to save sinners. I know I'm not chief, but I feel
like I'm the chief one here in this group, in this body of believers. I'm thankful you came. Thank
you for the blood that cleanses from all sin. We bless you and
praise you in Christ's name. Amen. Amen.