All right, if you would, and
you wanna follow along, please turn to 1 Timothy chapter six. 1 Timothy chapter six. And for the purpose of time,
I'm going to start in verse three. If any man teach otherwise and
consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness. He is proud, knowing nothing,
but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh
envy, strife, railings, evil surmising, perverse disputings
of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth. Supposing that
gain is godliness, from such withdraw thyself. But godliness
with contentment is great gain. I'm gonna stop right there. The title of this is Doctrine
according to godliness. So, again, we're talking about
doctrine. Isn't it great? I know some people don't like
doctrine. Wait a second, let me clarify that. Some people
don't like true doctrine. Some people hate true doctrine. I've heard them say in person
and broadcasted over the radio, I don't need doctrine, or they'll
say, I don't have doctrine, I have Christ. Well, I got something
to tell you. No, you don't. Because there's
no way to separate Jesus Christ from his doctrine. And there's
no way to separate Jesus Christ's doctrine from himself. It's not possible. Because I'm
talking about his doctrine. I'm talking about true doctrine.
I'm talking about Bible doctrine. Oh, I believe Bible doctrine.
Yeah, yeah, they do. Until you read it to them. It's
the way it works. All you have to do to get anyone
to deny the Bible is read it to them. And they'll say, that
doesn't mean that. Or, I don't believe that. That's the way they are, because
that's the way I was. But I'm not talking about the
commandments of men given for doctrine. I'm not talking about
your doctrine, I'm not talking about my doctrine, unless it
agrees with this doctrine. Jesus Christ, according to the
apostles, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, you can look it up if you
want, he astonished people with what? His doctrine. That's the
word. He astonished people with his
sound teaching. Now to them, they thought it
was something new. It's not. You know, there was a fella,
one of the Jews said, what is this new doctrine? He speaks
as one having an authority. That wasn't a doctrine, that
was Christ. And his doctrine is this, he
has all power. In heaven and in earth, and even
while he was walking on this earth in that body, he was God. Paul uses the word doctrine 23
times in his epistles. I looked this up again. And there's
an amazing thing I found when I was doing this. The word doctrine, throughout
all the New Testament. Now I didn't check it too much
in the Old Testament, but I'm pretty sure it's probably true
there. But in the New Testament, every time Paul used the word
doctrine, he used it in the singular. You know why? Jesus Christ only
has one doctrine. That's an amazing thing, because
he did use it three times in the plural. Guess what? He used it once as the doctrines
of men, plural. He used it once as the doctrines
of devils. That's twice, plural. And then
he also used it in the word of diverse and strange doctrines. Guess what? He was against all
three. Because there is only one doctrine. I'll point this
out for free. Hebrews chapter, where did I
have that? Oh, I think I didn't mark it.
Oh yeah, Hebrews chapter six, that's what it was. Now, I'm
not gonna go into this verse, but when I read this, I just
marveled at it. It says, therefore, leaving the
principles of the doctrine, singular, of Christ, that's all there is.
Let us go on unto perfection, not laying again the foundation
of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the
doctrine, singular, of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection
of the dead, and of eternal judgment. But it's one doctrine. One doctrine,
singular. The doctrine of baptisms, of
laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and the eternal
judgment. That's part of the doctrine of Jesus Christ. Singular,
singular. Now I will say, just because
I read that, he's not talking about leaving them away, leaving
them behind. He's saying, leave them there
as the foundation and we're going on from there. You understand, you gotta have
milk before you have meat. You gotta have a foundation before
you can understand what's built on that foundation. Anyway. Paul uses it 23 times in his
epistle. And what I see here is that Jesus
Christ only has one doctrine. Singular. Now verse one of first
Timothy six does say this. Let as many servants as are under
the yoke count their masters worthy of all honor that the
name of God and his doctrine not be blasphemed. And they have
believing masters. Don't despise them. Why? Because
they're brethren. If you've got a believing master,
you treat him as a brethren. Guess what? That's part of the
flock. You're both parts of the same
flock. This goes for employers nowadays. Now, I'm not going
to tell you here, I don't believe Paul is endorsing slavery. but
Paul is instructing and endorsing believers. Believers. In this
letter, it's letters to Timothy. He is endorsing and instructing
Timothy on how to behave. Bond or free, slave or master,
older, young, male or female. It's important that, what? the name of God and his doctrine,
not be blasphemed. Not be blasphemed. But we come to verse three. If
any man teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome words, even
the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine which is
according to godliness. That phrase just struck me. This is where I wanna go in,
this is where I wanna, because, let me tell you what I see in
this verse overall. In this verse overall, I see a definition of
doctrine, and I also see a definition of the gospel. Because here's
something else you can't do. You can't separate the gospel
from his doctrine. And you can't separate his doctrine
from his gospel. There's one gospel, there's one
doctrine, and they are intricately concerned. In some ways, they're the same
thing. Because without doctrine, there is no gospel. And without
the gospel, doctrine's of no value. You can't preach doctrine, true
doctrine, without preaching Jesus Christ. And you can't preach
Jesus Christ without preaching true doctrine. Because the gospel is doctrine. And the doctrine is good news. The doctrine of our Lord Jesus
Christ is good news to the believer. Because the gospel is wholesome
words, The gospel are the words of Christ, Jesus himself. And the gospel is the doctrine
which is according to godliness. Now that word godliness, we'll
get to it after a bit, but what it means is piety, that's the
definition, through strong, piety toward God. There are a lot of people who
pretend to be pious. But that doesn't mean they have a piety
toward God. Because in order to have a piety
toward God, you have to know who he is. Isn't that something? Oh, there
are a lot of people who we think, you know, or they put on an air
of piety, put on an air of humility. But true humility is toward God. in Jesus Christ. But the first
thing I do want to mention here is wholesome words. Wholesome
words. Notice carefully. One doctrine,
many words. One doctrine, many words. What's
that like? Well, there's one gospel, there's
many words. All of the words of his doctrine
are wholesome. What's that mean? That means
they're whole. They are not ill. There's nothing
sick in the gospel. The gospel is what? Good news. His doctrine is good news. Now, whether or not you perceive
it as good news, That's not the question. It's good news whether
we know it or not. It's good news whether we understand
it or not. The doctrine which is according
to godliness is wholesome words. No ills. I'm gonna tell you this. The words of the Old Testament
are wholesome. And the words of the New Testament
are wholesome. And then it says the words of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, my goodness. What did our
Lord Jesus Christ say? Now if you ask that to anybody
else, they'll say, oh, I know, John 3, 16. And that's true. That's true, he said it. But
he also said John 3, 19. John 3, 18. That's one of them
things, if you read that part to them, they don't like it.
John 3, 16. It says, for God so loved the
world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish but have everlasting life. And I
believe that with all my heart. But it doesn't deal with whosoever
doesn't believe. But Christ didn't leave that
unsaid. He had a doctrine. For God sent not his son into
the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him
might be saved. And that's glorious. He that believeth on him is not
condemned. Rejoice. But he that believeth
not is condemned already. Rejoice. Rejoice. Because he hath not believed
in the name of the only begotten son. And this is the condemnation. that light is coming to the world
and men loved darkness rather than light. That's what Jesus
Christ said. And that's what Jesus Christ
meant. Why? Because their deeds were evil.
Their deeds were evil. What other things did Jesus Christ
say? John chapter four and verse 22.
He told a woman, ye worship, ye know not what. We know what
we worship for salvation is of the Jews. John chapter five,
our Lord Jesus Christ said this. And ye will not come to me that
ye might have life. I receive honor, excuse me, I
receive not honor from men. But I know These are the people he's talking
to. That ye have not the love of God in you. I see John chapter eight, I think
it was. Because this is a tough one. This is some of the stuff you
can read to people and they won't believe it. I'll tell you that
right now. What manner of saying is, oh
no, I'm sorry, that was, ye shall seek me, this is John 8, verse
34. Ye shall seek me and shall not find me where I am thither,
ye cannot come. I thought Jesus wanted everybody
to come to him. You might have thought wrong. You might have
thought wrong. Oh my. What did he tell his one fellas?
I thought I had it marked in here. I know I do somewhere,
but I'm not finding it. Oh, here it is. I'm sorry, I
wasn't far enough along. John chapter eight and verse
43. He says, why do you not understand
my speech? Even because ye cannot hear my
word. You will not come to me that
you might have light. and ye cannot hear my word. Jesus
Christ spoke both of those things and both of them are true. Ah,
but he didn't stop there. You cannot hear my word, there
was a reason why. And he said this, ye are of your
father the devil and the lust of your father ye will do. He's the father of a lie and
you lie. Wait a minute, you're just reading
the bad stuff. I am. What we think might be
bad. What people will think is bad. But listen, those words I just
read are according, the doctrine according to godliness. Because
they are the doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ. As men, natural men, we don't
like that. But here's the problem. The problem's
not that we don't like that. The problem is as natural men,
we don't like him. They tried to kill him. And you
know why? Because they wanted him dead. Oh, nobody tried to kill Christ.
Y'all ain't reading the Bible, if that's what you think. Our Lord Jesus Christ preached
the gospel and he preached doctrine. Look at, just for a second, John
chapter seven. I skipped over this on purpose
to come back to it here. John chapter seven and verse
16, Jesus Christ answered them and said, my doctrine is not
mine, but his that sent me. If any man will do his will,
he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God or whether
I speak of myself. You understand, if you want to
do the will of God, if you wanna know God, you gotta know whether
Christ was saying what God said. Well, he did. Because here's another word that
Jesus Christ said. The words of Jesus Christ. Wholesome
words. I and my Father are one. That is so true. And I'm gonna
tell you this is also true. I, my doctrine, and my Father's
doctrine are one. so perfectly one, so perfectly
one that we can't understand it. Christ's doctrine and the Father's
doctrine are exactly the same. What else? Christ's gospel and
God's gospel are exactly the same. There's only one gospel
and there's only one doctrine. And that is the doctrine which
is according to godliness. That's what it says in Timothy.
Like I said, that phrase just got a hold of me. The doctrine
according to godliness. So what is it? Well, I remembered
that I was reading 1 Timothy. So go back a page to 1 Timothy
chapter three. First Timothy chapter three and
verse 15. He says, but if I tarry long,
that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave in the house
of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and
ground of the truth. I just wanted to read that, I
love that verse. Because the house of God is built
by God. But here it tells us, the house
of God is the church. of the living God. That's what
got me thinking about that, Walter, that assembly thing. We need
to be assembled. We need it. We need it. We gather
together. Why? Because we need to. We, as believers, together, all
of us, everywhere, are the church of God. Jesus Christ is our head. We are his body. We're meant
to be together. Like I said, we need an assembly
mentality. Just like shepherd and the sheep,
doesn't matter even if you are by yourself, the sheep, that
sheep, you, me, whoever has a shepherd, has the good shepherd, but he
is also Where does the shepherd resort with his sheep? To what? To feed them in pastures of love. Say why in the valley of death. Say why. Because I'm not paying
attention to the fact that my shepherd has me exactly where
I need to be. And he's watching over me. But
we need to gather together, the church, We are the house of God. That just amazes me. The pillar
and ground of the truth. The house of God is built by
God on and by his truth. What? His doctrine and his gospel. His wholesome words. And on the
words of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because without Jesus Christ's
doctrine, without his truth, without his gospel, it's not
a church. It's not a church. But look here at verse 16. And
without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the
Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. The doctrine which is according
to godliness. The mystery of godliness is a
person. is the man Christ Jesus, is the
son of God. He's the mystery of godliness. Can I say this? He is our godliness. He is our piety toward God. It's
not my piety toward God. That's as broken as I am. It's not my piety. It's not my
godliness. It's his godliness. He's the
mystery of godliness. He is God and he is godliness
to each and every one of us. And the doctrine which is according
to godliness has got to be a doctrine which is according to Christ
Jesus, the Lord. It's his wholesome words. And
it's his exact words. The words of his prophets here
are his words. And they're wholesome. The words
he gave us himself, the words his apostles gave us in the epistles.
He himself is our Lord God was manifest in the flesh
Justified in the spirit seen of angels preached unto the Gentiles
believed on in the world received up in the glory His He is the
godliness of And this is the doctrine according
to Jesus Christ. That what? God was manifest in
the flesh. Justified in the Holy Spirit.
The gospel and the doctrine are both according to godliness because
they are Jesus Christ's gospel and they are Jesus Christ's doctrine. The doctrine of godliness is
of the Lord, the Redeemer, the Justifier, the Reconciler, the
Sanctifier, The doctrine according to godliness is according to
the power and the wisdom of God himself. He is our piety toward God. I like that. I like that thought. I worry about humility, Walter. I worry about being humble. I know I'm nothing before God,
but I don't know if I can project that. Understand? There are what is, and then there
are appearances. And we are to avoid the very
appearance of evil. I wanna do that. But here's the
thing. I want to be pious toward God. I want to reverence toward God. I want to revere God. I want
to praise God. And I can't the way I should.
But he can. He can. That's the doctrine according
to godliness. Jesus Christ not only has done
it all, he is doing it all. Salvation is of the Lord. and his is an eternal salvation. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. Why? Because of the doctrine
which is according to godliness. Because of the Christ who is
our godliness. What does it say? I mean, this
is where Paul And you understand, this is instructions to a young
preacher, but it is instructions to every believer. You understand,
this, Walter, this is one of those things I call a litany.
What happens if you don't have, or won't consent to, it says,
wholesome words, or the words of Christ, or this doctrine which
is according to Christ, according to godliness? What happens? Verse four, he is proud. He is proud, prideful, full of
pride, puffed up, blind with conceit. And guess what? You cannot tell
them any different because they're too proud. And the reason I know
this, I used to be right there. Then it says what? Knowing nothing. Understanding nothing. What don't you understand? Well,
you don't understand wholesome words, you don't understand the
words of Christ, and you don't understand the doctrine according
to godliness. I like what, I think it was Strong
said. He says, you know, nobody, no
one, and no thing. That's what that word means.
That pretty much encompasses it all. Because here's the thing,
if you don't know this, the wholesome words, the words of Christ and
the doctrine according to godliness, you don't even know yourself. I've been there. There's a picture
of ignorance right there. No one, nobody know how and nothing. You don't even know yourself.
He also, he is comprehending nothing of the true God manifest
in the flesh. And it says what? Doting about
questions and strifes of words. So I'll throw this in. Wait a
minute. We talk about questions. And we talk about words. I do
in particular. That's true. I do think of questions. But here's the thing, I love
the way that Paul wrote this. The guy's doting about questions. He's not looking for answers. Because I'm telling you this,
I've been there. They don't think there is an
answer. They get hung up on the questions. And they don't think
there is an answer. But here's the thing, we ask
questions from this pulpit, But I know the answer. The answer
is Jesus Christ. They fight about words. The word,
I did look this up, the word where it says doting about question,
they said, this is Strong's Concordance, not me. That means you got a
diseased appetite for questions. That's all they want, they want
questions. They said about the Athenians,
people from Athens, the Greeks, they love to hear and speak some
new thing. They doted about questions and
didn't care about an answer. Stripes of words whereof cometh
envy, strife, railings, evil surmising. I don't want envy, strife, railings,
or evil surmising. I'm looking for brethren. Because they're brethren. When
Paul write in verse two, it says, faithful and beloved. This man loves perverse disputings. Not just disputings, perverse
disputings. You know what that is? Useless
arguments. You understand? There is a reason
for arguments sometimes. There is a reason for polemics. But there's no reason for useless
arguments. They're perverse disputes which
are of absolutely no value. Even if you got an answer, it
wouldn't do you any good. Those without wholesome words,
without the words of Jesus Christ, and without the gospel and doctrine
which is according to godliness are without Christ. But godliness with contentment
is great gain. What's that mean? Be content
with Jesus Christ. You don't have to be content
with me. You don't have to be content
with each other. Although I would recommend it. Because trust me,
you got as many shortcomings as I got. But here, if you're content with
Christ, you will be content with his sheep. If you're content
with Christ, it makes everything better. It makes everything livable. Even in a shack, a little house
with a blue tarp over it. That's all you got. It's what
God gave you. If you're content with Christ,
you'll live there. It's tough to do some days. Godliness with contentment is
great gain. Yes, be good. Yes, avoid evil. Yes, avoid even the appearance
of evil. Yes, walk uprightly. Yes, praise
God. Rejoice in His Son, our Lord
Jesus Christ. Sing of Him, sing praises unto
Him. Love the brethren and be content. Because this is what Paul gives
us, this list, this litany here of people who will not have the
doctrine according to godliness, who won't have wholesome words,
who will not have even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ if you
read them to them. Because here it is, all they
have left is pride, uncertainty, questions without answers, strife
and envy and railings and arguments that are useless. They have corrupt
minds. What does it say? Destitute. This is the thing. If you're
destitute of the truth, Jesus Christ is the truth. If you're
destitute of the truth, you're destitute of Jesus Christ. This is all they have. What do
I do? Here's a tough one. Withdraw
thyself. That's what he said. That's what
he wrote to Timothy. He knew Timothy. He taught Timothy. He sent Timothy where he sent
him. Withdraw thyself, what's it mean?
Move away and stay away. What is it? Get out and stay
out, Walter. Don't hang out, what is it? Remember,
that pit from which you were digged, it doesn't ever say go
back there. It says remember it. What? Remember
it and stay away. And if these people are in a
pit that was right next to you, stay away. Don't worry, they'll
probably help. because they might not want you
around either. They are uncomfortable around those who know the doctrine
which is according to godliness. They're uncomfortable around
those who want to talk about Jesus Christ as he really is.
They're uncomfortable by people who want to read the Bible out
loud. They don't know Christ and they
don't wanna know Christ. And it's your job to withdraw
thyself. Come out from among them and what, be ye separate,
who? Oh ye, my people, my people. These are ungodly men. And guess
what they have? Ungodliness. There's a doctrine according
to godliness. But there is an ungodliness in
this world and it's in men. The doctrine according to godliness
is Christ Jesus. God manifest in the flesh. Because all godliness is in Christ
Jesus. All of it. And Jesus Christ satisfies. He's
our peace, he's our rest, and believers in him are to be content. Why? Because godliness with contentment
is not just gain, it's great gain. Great gain. It's so great you don't even
understand it. It's so great you can't really grasp it. But
I tell you this, it is great enough for you to enjoy, if you
will. Because he is our peace, and
he is our rest, and he is our doctrine according to godliness. Heavenly Father, thank you for
this time. Please. Be with us as we disperse
when we do. And be with us throughout the
week and gather us again later. And let us be in contact with
each other. Your sheep, we all are. Be with Walter as he comes to
preach your gospel. And we'll give you the honor
and the glory through Christ our Lord. Amen.