Now, back here in 1 Timothy,
I'm going to deal with these first four verses, the Lord willing,
and we'll read those first four verses again. Paul, an apostle
of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior and Lord Jesus
Christ our hope, unto Timothy, my own son in the faith, grace,
mercy, peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. I
besought thee to abide still at Ephesus when I went into Macedonia,
that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine.
Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies which minister
questions, which minister questions rather than godly edifying, so
do ye which is in faith. I get my subject out of that
third verse where it says teach no other doctrine. Teach no other
doctrine, that's what he's, Telling him to do. Now Paul wrote this
two letters to Timothy. He wrote two, 1st and 2nd Timothy. And the scriptures tell us a
lot about Timothy. Tells us a lot about him. He
knew the scriptures from a very early age and he come from a
believing family. Now turn back over to 2nd Timothy
chapter 1 with me. And let me show you what I'm
saying. You know Timothy was I grew up in a family of believers,
and he was just a child. And he said, Paul said here in
2 Timothy 1.5, when I called to remembrance the unfamed faith
that is in ye, talking about Timothy, which dwelt first in
thy grandmother Lois, your grandmother had faith, and then thy mother
Eunice, and I am persuaded that in thee also. Wherefore, I'll
put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God,
which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. So he was raised
by a grandmother and a mother that both were believers. He's
raised in the scriptures. The only scriptures they had
was the Old Testament. Now look what he said over here
now in chapter three, 2 Corinthians 3 and verse 14. Look what he says about Timothy
over here. But continue thou in the things
which thou hast learned, and hast been assured of knowing
of whom thou hast learned them. The things, oh, God taught him
some things. He said, you be assured you know
who taught you these things, and that from a child thou hast
known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto
salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. So that's
the man that he wrote to. A lot of people refer to him
as a young man, but Paul talked about him as being when he was
a child. Evidently, he knew his testimony. He knew what God had
done for him, what God done for his grandmother, and what God
done for his mother. And when he talked about the
scriptures, he's only talking about the Old Testament. That's
all they had. But Timothy was a faithful, faithful follower
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said he had faith unfeigned.
That means not hypocritical faith, true faith, believing faith,
not put on faith. And he was faithful to his brethren,
faithful to preach the gospel to his brethren. And he was faithful
to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul, you know, Timothy's
mother, was a Jew. His father was a Greek. And so
he wasn't a full-blooded Jew. But when he started going with
Paul preaching, Paul had him circumcised so that he would
be able to preach to the Jews, because they would not listen
to someone who was not circumcised. They had to be done according
to the law. So that's why he had him circumcised. He didn't
have to do it, but that's what Paul meant when he said, I'm
all things to all men. And so he did that to be able
to reach people with the gospel. But now look what he says here,
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ. Now I want you to notice something
he doesn't say. He doesn't say, I'm Saul of Tarsus. This is not Saul of Tarsus. This
is Paul, the apostle. God, when he knocked him down
on the Damascus road, made a new creature out of him. I mean all
the old things passed away. All of his old relationships,
his relation to the law, his relation to Christ, his relation
to brethren, his relations to the church, his relations changed
so much when God saved him on the Damascus Road, made him a
new creature in Christ. And I'll tell you, he was a man
that was greatly used of God. Look what he says down here in
verse 13 of chapter one. He's talking about Paul, he said,
who was before a blasphemer, a persecutor and injurious, but
I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly and unbelief. So
now he's Paul, he's not solid Tarsus. God made him a new creature
and made him a new creature in Christ. And then he says he's
an apostle of Jesus Christ. Now you could get on Sermon Audio
or get on the internet and type in apostle, and you would not
believe how many people today will claim to be an apostle.
I was in a black church one time, and they got up and they started
taking, you know, we acknowledge all the apostles. And all the
prophets, and all the teachers, and all the preachers, they went
through a whole, and our ushers, they went through a list that
long of everybody that they had to recognize in that service.
And the first one they started out with, the apostle. Our apostle. So there's lots of people claimed
to be apostles. But I tell you, listen, you know
what a real apostle is? A true apostle is one who has
seen the Lord Jesus Christ and been an eyewitness of Christ.
The only requirement to be an apostle is to be an eyewitness
of Christ. Now, if you want to look at it
in your own time, in 1 Corinthians 15, it says, Paul says, you know,
he said, Christ was seen above Peter and Cephas and them, and
then he was seen above the 12, then he was seen above 500 brethren
at one time, and then he was seen of me as one born out of
due time. Christ himself appeared to Paul. He didn't appear like that to
nobody else but his other apostles. But he appeared to him on the
Damascus road. He appeared to him when he was
in the temple in Jerusalem. So he saw Christ face to face. He saw Christ in his body. He saw Christ speaking to him. And that's the acquirement of
being an apostle. And I tell you, in their purpose,
God gave them one message. These apostles had one message.
That was to take Christ from the Old Testament and make him
known from the Old Testament scriptures. To take what Isaiah
said, what Moses said, what the prophets said, and take the Lord
Jesus Christ and take those scriptures and show from those scriptures
that this is indeed Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who came here
to die on a cross for sinners. And that's what they did. You
look at the first message on Pentecostal in Peter Priest,
I don't know, every scripture he quoted there was an Old Testament
scripture. And I believe there was about,
oh my, I'm going to say there's 25 or 30 that he used and pointed
to Christ. appointed to Christ. And that's
what the apostles were called to do. And you know our Lord
Jesus told Simon Peter, said, feed my sheep, feed my lambs. Don't beat them, don't shear
them, don't mistreat them. All I want you to do is feed
them. And feed them. And that's what they're called
to do. And that's why the scriptures tells us that our Lord Jesus
Christ, their purpose was to make Christ known. Make Christ
known. Then how, look how he's made
an apostle. He was made an apostle by the commandment of God. God
our Savior. You know how he became an apostle?
God commanded him to be an apostle. Now let me tell you something
right here. You know, when God made him an
apostle, it was by the commandment of God. God commanded him. God said, you're going to be
my servant. You're going to be my chosen. You're mine. And I'm
going to use you. And I'm going to send you to
the Gentiles. I'm going to cause you to be a light among the Gentiles. You're going to preach to kings.
You're going to preach to everybody, that's anybody, in this world.
And he was by the commandment of our Savior and Christ our
God is our Savior. God, Christ, and is God our Savior? Just as Jesus Christ is our Savior. And the father gave everything
into his son's hands and everything that we, now, if we have anything
to do with God, the father, we have to deal with our Lord Jesus
Christ, because God will not speak to nor be spoken unto by
anybody in this world except through his son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. He won't do it. And then, listen,
he said, and by the Lord Jesus Christ, Oh my, that's how he
became an apostle. He just didn't get up one day
and say, well, I'm gonna be an apostle. I'm gonna be an apostle. And another thing about apostles,
they've done miracles. They've done miracles. I'm telling
you what, they raised, Peter raised the dead, Paul raised
the dead. I mean, he was used mightily
of God. It's something to see a person
dead and see that they're dead. And you have the ability by God
Himself to walk up to that dead person and tell them to live
again and life come back into them and raise them back up.
Peter did it to Dorcas, Paul did it to Eutychus, and Paul
did it when he was on the Isle of Malta with that heathen king
over there. He did these things. I mean,
that's the thing about the apostles. You're not going, these folks,
listen, people talk about signs and wonders and all that stuff.
The greatest sign and wonder to me is that God saved me by
His grace. And I tell you, God done it,
and I've been raised from the dead. You've been raised from
the dead. You've been resurrected. And
when this body goes to the grave, we'll be resurrected again. We
was raised from death and sin, and we'll be resurrected from
the grave one of these days. But I tell you, Paul was saved
and called and commissioned by the will of God, by the commandment
of God. God didn't meet him on the Damascus
road, said, now Paul, Esau, I sure would like to save you and make
an apostle out of you if you'd let me. Oh, I usually see God
plead with, oh, please let me make an apostle out of you. Oh,
listen, if you get out and you do so much for me, then I'll
make you an apostle. No, God put him on the Damascus
road, put him down, and that's all it took. And I tell you what,
and he was saved through our Lord Jesus Christ. He wasn't
called by man or ordained by man, but he was separated under
the gospel of God Almighty to preach the gospel of Christ.
Look over with me at 1 Corinthians 1. 1 Corinthians 1. You know, Baptism is an ordinance sent
by God. It's an ordinance for, that's
how people make their confession of their faith in Christ, is
by baptism. They did it in the New Testament.
And when a man confessed faith in Christ, he was baptized. But
look what Paul said here. In verse 17. For Christ sent me not to baptize,
but to preach the gospel. Not with wisdom of words, lest
the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. Oh, I can't
use fancy words, not gonna be eloquent. God sent me to preach
the gospel. Preach the gospel. And then look
back over in our text. Oh, I love this right here. Look
what it says here about our Lord Jesus now. In verse two. No, excuse me, verse one. The
Lord Jesus Christ, our hope, our hope, Now, oh my. You know, when a believer leaves
this world, hope ceases, faith ceases. But Christ's our hope. Christ our hope. Christ in you
is the hope of glory. He's the author of our hope. Without Christ, we would have
no hope. But He's the author of our hope. He's the author
of our hope for salvation. He's the author of our hope for
eternal life. His righteousness and His sacrifice
to put away our sins is the means that God used to give us this
hope that's in Christ. And I tell you, the promise of
God in Christ is the foundation of our hope. But Christ Himself
is our hope. We don't trust a plan. We don't
trust a plan. We trust a person. That's who
we trust. And you know, right over across
the page from the first Timothy, and then look right back to your
left, there's 2 Thessalonians. Look what it says in verse 16
of 2 Thessalonians 2. If you've got a Bible like mine,
it's right, this Timothy's in front of me, look to your left
and look right there at verse 16. Now, Lord Jesus Christ himself,
and God, even our Father, which hath loved us and hath given
us everlasting consolation, and listen to this, and good hope
through grace. That means we didn't make it,
he's the author of it, his righteousness is the means to give it to us.
God promised to give us, it's the foundation of our hope, but
Christ himself is our hope. And we trust a person, not a
plan, not a plan, You hear people talking about a plan, God's plan
of salvation. Follow this plan, follow that
plan, do this plan, four easy steps, the ABCs. Oh no, we trust
a person. Christ in you, that's the hope
of glory. And then he said in verse two,
unto Timothy, my own son in the faith. He loved, oh Paul loved
Timothy. Timothy was his spiritual son.
He is his spiritual son. You know, you gotta see this.
Now in 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, I want you to see this because
this is so necessary, so needful. But in 2 Corinthians chapter
4, you know, Paul talked about Timothy
was his spiritual son. He begat him through the gospel. And it's by the will of God,
you know, that we're begotten by the truth, by the truth of
God. And look what he said here down
in verse 15, excuse me, 2 Corinthians 4, 1 Corinthians 4.15. I'm sorry, boy, I messed up again. I don't know why I've seen 2nd. 1 Corinthians 4.15. There we
go, yeah. He says in verse 15, for though
we have 10,000 instructors in Christ, lots and lots of teachers,
yet you have not many fathers. You don't have many people that
God uses to beget people in the gospel. For in Christ Jesus,
I have begotten you through the gospel. God used the gospel. That's how you was born again.
That's how you was begotten, by the gospel. by the gospel,
he told him he begot him through the gospel. And Timothy, and
he called Timothy his son, his spiritual son. The scriptures
tells us that he took him, and he took Timothy aside, and he
began to teach him. He began to, he loved him, he
loved him very, very much. Oh, how he loved him. He said
he wept over Timothy. And his tears, Timothy wept over
Paul. He took him and he taught him
and he loved him. And he washed over Timothy. He
told Timothy things to watch out for, to be careful for, to
be guard against. He really talked to Timothy like
a father would a son. Watch out for this, watch out
for that, be on guard for this. This is the kind of people you're
gonna run into. And this is the kind of things
that you're gonna have to deal with. And he went through a whole
list of things for Timothy. Because he loved him and he said
he would repair him and have him to understand what it was
like. But he washed over him and he
guarded him and he protected him as much as he possibly could.
He was his son in the faith. He was his son in the faith.
Look with me back over in Philippians chapter 2. Just go back to your
left to Philippians chapter 2. I want you to see something here
with me. Chapter 2 and verse 19. Philippians
2.19. He was his son in the faith.
Now when he talks about his son in the faith, that's a whole
nother ballgame right there, a whole nother horse of a different
color. But look what he said here in verse 19, Philippians
2. But I trust in the Lord Jesus
to send Timothy to Mothius shortly unto you, that I also may be
of good comfort when I know of your state. For I have no man,
listen to this now, I have no man like-minded who will naturally
care for your state. He said, when Timothy comes there,
he's gonna be just like I would be. That's what he said, he'd
just be just exactly what I'd be. And this is what he says,
for all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ.
But you know the proof of him that as a son with his father,
he has served with thee in the gospel. Oh my, he was his son
in the faith. You know what the faith means
when he talks about the faith? It means the body of truth, all
the things that's made known in this blessed word. It means
a revelation of the truth. It's a revelation that comes
from God. It's what the scriptures teach.
And there's a body of truth, a body of truth, and that body
of truth encompasses the gospel in Christ and all about Him. And that's why Isaiah said, you
know, if they speak not according to this law and testimony, it's
because there's no light, no light in them. And then look
what he says. So here's his son, my own son
in the faith. And then he says, grace, mercy,
and peace from God our Father and from Jesus Christ our Lord.
Oh, what a benediction, what a blessing. You know, when you
ask somebody to give the benediction, that means close the service,
give blessings, bless this thing. And I tell you, that's what he
said. He gave him a benediction, a blessing on him. And what more,
what more can we ask for for each other and for those that
we love? Who doesn't need grace? Grace be unto you. Who doesn't
need grace? Mercy. Who doesn't need mercy? Who doesn't need peace? And that's
only, look what it says, from God our Father and Jesus Christ
our Lord. There's only one place to receive
this from is God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. And let
me tell you something, wherever grace comes, mercy comes, and
peace comes. When you get one, you get all
three of them. That's the way God works. He gives you grace,
mercy, and peace, and they all come together. They don't come,
well, I got a little grace today, I can give a little mercy, no,
no. When he gives it, it's just, oh, that's what I said, it all
comes together at one time. And then in verse three, I got
to hurry. I besought thee to abide still
at Ephesus. Paul spent three years at Ephesus.
And he was called to go into Macedonia. And that was Philippi
at that particular time. That's when he went into Macedonia,
he went to Philippi. That's where it was at. That
thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine.
Paul said, I got to go to Macedonia. Silas went with him to Macedonia.
And they went into Macedonia because he had a vision, come
over to Macedonia. And he says, Timothy, I'd love
for you to go with me, but you stay right here. I need you here
at Ephesus, because there's false teachers, false prophets, there's
Judaizers here, there's lawmongers here, and I need you to stay
here, abide still at Ephesus. Abide at Ephesus. And I tell
you what, you know, Timothy had a service spirit and he had a
teachable spirit. Oh, look over here in 2 Timothy,
in chapter four. You remember, let me preface
before we go over there and read that. You remember Barnabas and
Paul went out preaching, and the man who wrote the book of
Mark, John Mark's his name, he was a nephew to the apostle Peter. He was Peter's brother's son
or sister's son, but he was a nephew to him. And Paul and Silas, they
took John Mark with them to go on preaching. When they went
preaching, I mean, they preached every day, morning, noon. I mean,
they would preach all day some days, all day long. And it was
a hard labor. It was work. I mean, you're talking
about, everywhere they went, they walked or else got on a
boat. So here they are, they're walking and they're working.
And John Mark decided, he said, listen, this is too much for
me. It's too hard for me. I'm gonna go home. I'm gonna
go back to the house. This is too hard of work for
me. Well, they was getting ready to go preaching again. And Barnabas
said, let's take John Mark with us. Paul said, nope, no, no,
we're not taking him. We're not taking him, he's not
coming with us, he forsook us once, he couldn't take it once,
he left us once, and he's not going. And that decision got
so hard between those two men who traveled together for years,
got so hard that they never fellowshiped together again. Barnabas went
his way, Paul went his way, over this man John Barth. Now watch
what he says here in Timothy chapter four and verse nine. Now watch this. Do thy diligence
to come shortly unto me. Talking to Timothy now. For Demuth
hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and departed
unto Thessalonica. Oh my. Grecians went to Galatia. Titus went to Dalmatia. Only
Luke is with me. Now listen to this. You're talking
about somebody evidently God really done something for. Take
Mark and bring him with you. Paul wouldn't let him travel
with him anymore. He said, take Mark and bring him with you.
Listen to this now, for he's profitable unto me for the ministry. Timothy, bring Mark with you.
I'm over here by myself. Luke's with me. Oh, I want you
to come. I want you to come. Bring Mark
with you. Bring Mark too. So you see, he
was an unwilling servant and then he became a willing servant.
And Peter, I mean, Timothy had a reasonable, teachable, servant
spirit, teachable. And I tell you what, and the
reason he left him there was this, in verse three, that they
might charge some that they teach no other doctrine. So there was
people there that was teaching doctrines contrary. You know,
Hymenus and Philetus said that the resurrection was passed already.
There was men that was teaching them that they had to not eat
certain meats and drink certain things and do certain, go per
certain places. But he said, I want you to charge
some that if you hear somebody teaching, you charge them. It's
no other doctrine, no other doctrine. Oh my. Charge them, teach no
other doctrine. That's why Paul, man, he says,
you know, he said, I'm marveled that you so soon removed from
the grace of Christ unto another gospel. There's not another gospel. He said, if a man come and bring
any other gospel, then I've brought to you, let him be cursed. And
Martin, he's talking about his preach, deal with the doctrine
of God. That's the first thing, who God
is. Don't you let anybody say anything about God that's not
true. Don't let them teach you that God is not sovereign, that
God is not all-powerful, that God is not immutable. I mean
you tell him, tell who he is, you tell his character that he's
infinitely and internally holy. And I tell you, if you listen
to this, don't let nobody swerve you from the doctrine of Christ.
That's the thing you got to get down, the doctrine of Christ.
How you got to tell people who He is. Who is He? Well, He was God manifest in
the flesh, but let me tell you something. The issue is this,
what Christ did stands or falls with who he is. If he was not
who he was, then there's no salvation for us. If he wasn't a man, then
he couldn't have died. If he wasn't a man, he couldn't
have bore sin. If he wasn't God, he couldn't
have satisfied God. So God himself come down, and
grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. And you take Christ out
of it, and I tell you, our salvation stands or falls with who Christ
is and what He did. What did He do? What did He do? He put away sin by the sacrifices
of Himself. Who did He do it for? I lay down
my life for the sheep. The first thing Christ did, the
first purpose of Him coming was to honor, glorify, and satisfy
His Father. And the second thing he come
to do was to be our substitute, be our sin bearer, to bear our
sin in his own body on the tree. And then you got to come to the
conclusion, where is he now? Is he in the front? Is he on
an altar? Is he somewhere you got to go
to, you got to get in touch with him? Is he in some church somewhere? The scripture says, after he
by himself purged our sins, he sat down at the right hand of
the majesty on high. At the right hand of God Almighty. And I tell you, don't let nobody
teach you any other doctrine than salvation by grace through
faith. Oh, don't talk about man's goodness.
No, no. Grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. Grace came from God's heart.
in the person of his blessed son, seen in him giving us his
blessed son. And oh my, surely, surely he
didn't know that the sinful man that he had to give his son,
oh my. The Lord Jesus Christ, this is
the doctrine we gotta teach. Don't let anybody else teach
it. The Lord Jesus Christ, as our sacrifice, he satisfied God's
justice. Christ, our righteousness, makes
us acceptable to God Almighty. And I tell you, don't, no, no,
listen to this now. And then he says, you teach no
other doctrine. Don't let him charge him. Don't
you dare teach no other doctrine around here. Give them charge,
give them commandment. Don't you dare let them do it.
And then I tell you, don't do this either. Don't give heed
to fables. You know what a fable is? Maybe
some of y'all read Aesop's Fables when you was kids. Br'er Rabbit
and all the different things. They all have some kind of a
moral aspect to them. They all have
to teach a moral lesson, a good lesson. What to do and not to
do. But he says, don't give heed,
you know, no matter, a fable is a fable. And there's no truth
in fables. And he says, you don't give heed
to fables. And this word fable means fiction. Stay with false
facts. Don't you stick to the traditions
of the elders, like the old, that they did, they had to wash
their hands and do all kinds of things. But I tell you, he
says, if a man doesn't preach the pure gospel of Christ, the
pure free grace gospel of Christ. He's preaching fables, he's preaching
fiction, he's preaching a lie. And I believe this with all my
heart because I've been there, I know what I'm talking about.
If a man cries out man's free will, give man's free will all
the power, and cries out God's will being impotent, and preaches
up and holds up that Christ died for everyone, Yet salvation is
not sure for anyone That's a fable That's a falsification of facts
Because when you preach man's free will God's impotent will
and Christ died for everyone That means that salvation is
not sure for anybody Ain't that right either he died for his
elect, or he didn't die and And then he says, endless genealogies. You know what that means? Which
minister questions. That's why Paul said, you know,
he told him in Philippians, he said, I'm a Jew. I'm a purebred
Jew of the tribe of Benjamin. He had his genealogy down pat. He knew exactly who his mother
was, his dad was, and what tribe he was from. 12 tribes in Israel. And here, and listen, this endless
genealogies is seeking to prove who's a pure Jew. Trying to trace
your genealogy back. Well, I was related to this and
my daddy was that and my father was a rabbi. And then they seeking
to prove who can be a priest, who can be in the priesthood
or not. You got to have this pedigree. And I tell you what, You know, I'm going to tell you
a true story. I was out in a meeting one time,
and there were some landmark Baptists there. You ever heard
of a landmark Baptist? Well, a landmark Baptist is that
they believe, kind of like the Church of Christ, that they're
the only church on the face of the earth. Moose Parks was a
landmark Baptist until God saved him, and then the landmarks cut
him off. Let me tell you what landmarks believe. If I decided
I wanted to join a landmark Baptist church, they trace their genealogy
back to John the Baptist. Now that's what they do. They've
got to trace their genealogy back to John the Baptist. Well,
my genealogy is in the book of Jesus Christ. My life started with Christ,
not with John the Baptist, with Christ. But they want to go back
to John the Baptist. And if I wanted to be a member,
and this guy told me one time, he said, listen, we're going
to be the ones at the marriage supper of the Lamb. All the rest
of you are just going to be friends gathering around. We're the ones
that's going to be sitting around. A fella told me that flat-footed
one day. And they believed that if I wanted
to be a Landmark Baptist, first of all, I'd have to be baptized
by a Landmark Baptist preacher. Then I'd have to be voted into
the church. And then they'd have to have a whole bunch of folks
that interrogate me to see if I could preach or not. And if
I was allowed to preach, they're Lombard Baptists. Name Wells
was a landmark Baptist when he first Henry Mahan preached and
he said I hated that man with a passion I Hated him the first
time I heard him preach because he tore my playhouse down Salvation
is not in any other church, and that's listen Presbyterians God
forgive I hope I'm not building a straw man here But Presbyterians,
they always go to the Reformed doctrine. They go to the London
Confession of Faith, and they'll teach that and preach that. That's
what they do in their sermons. They deal with the London Confession
of Faith, this article, and that article, and this other article,
and they keep talking about the Reformation doctrine, the historical
doctrine. We don't need a historical doctrine. We've got a person. We've got
a person. We've got a person who is actually
a person of history. But a person, we don't have a
doctrine, we have a person. And we want the doctrine of Christ.
And that's why Paul said if anybody, or John did, if anybody brings
any other doctrine than the doctrine of Christ, don't invite him into
your house. Don't bid him Godspeed. Don't
have anything to do with him if he brings any other doctrine
than the doctrine of Christ. And I tell you what, and they
do just the opposite of what we need. And you know what we
need? Look what he goes on to say. Charles and Matisse know
the doctrine. Don't give heed to fables and
endless genealogies. All they do is just minutes of
questions. Well, who was your daddy? Who was your mother? How
far back can you go? And then the ministry question
is written, listen to this, and this is what we need. Godly edifying,
which is in faith. Oh my. You know godly edifying,
which is in faith. Godly edifying means to build
up, build up, strengthen to establish. And what godly edifying is not.
I'll tell you, I've just took way too long, but you know, godly
edifying is, he told the Colossians this, and I, he said, who hath
bewitched you to turn you from Christ? Are you made perfect in the flesh?
After begun in the spirit, you made perfect in the flesh? That's
not godly edifying. You know, this is what preaching
the truth does. It brings faith. It establishes
and edifies the saints in the faith. And that's what we need,
established in the faith. Our Father, in the blessed name
of Christ our Lord, I thank you for allowing us to meet here
tonight. Thank you for your precious truth. Thank you for the grace
of God that you've given us. Thank you for your precious word.
And Lord, we're in our error in any way, please forgive me,
save me from it. Teach me, instruct me, and guide
me into your precious word. Give me the understanding that
only you can. And I ask this in Christ's name,
keep your dear people, bless your saints to come meet with
us in the Lord's day, for Christ's sake, amen. Amen. All right, I'll see you Sunday
morning, God willing. Don't forget that