Thanks for those words from Brother
Al, reminding us of our need of a righteousness which is not
ours by nature. It's natural for man to think
that he has something that he can offer to God. And men do
make attempts to do that in the natural religious flesh that
we all inherited from our father Adam. And we go about thinking
that we can please him or either having no consequence of desiring
to please him at all. Now neither one of those situations
is a good one to be in. Now men can look at the man that
has no desire at all to worship the true and living God, and
he can know and understand that that man stands apart from God,
that he has no righteousness within him. He can understand
that pretty clearly. But what the difficulty that
men have is in our religious flesh, We think that if a man
has some consideration of God, that that's good enough. And
that we think that, you know, a little bit of righteousness
is better than none. But the scripture teaches otherwise.
It's the little bit of righteousness that causes men to perish. Because
the man who has no righteousness at all will not perish, because
the man who has no righteousness at all will flee to Christ, because
he is the righteousness of his people. And so it is that as
Joseph Hart has ably written, a sinner is a sacred thing, the
Holy Ghost hath made him so. A man can't understand his sinful
nature apart from the grace of God to show him such. And it
is, you know, we live in an age, as Brother Al Pably pointed out,
when men think that whatever they want to do is all right.
If it seems right to them, it's right, it's good. If it makes
them happy. But that is the pathway to hell. Because there is but one way.
And it is that way appointed by Almighty God. And it's not a way wherein men
can bring something to the Lord, add to it, but it is in Christ
and Christ alone. And only that man that comes
to Him having nothing in his hand to bring. As the top lady
wrote, nothing in my hand I bring, Simply to thy cross I cling,
naked come to thee for dress, helpless look to thee for grace. Foul I to the fountain fly, wash
me, Savior, or I die. Such is the blessing of the sons
of God to see that. Let's look in, we're looking
in 2 Timothy. 2nd Timothy, and I'll read this
chapter, 2nd Timothy chapter two, says, Thou therefore my
son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things
that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit
thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also.
Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that woreth entangleth
himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him
who hath chosen him to be a soldier. And if a man also strive for
masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully. The
husbandman that laboreth must be first partaker of the fruits. Consider what I say, and the
Lord give thee understanding in all things. Remember that
Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according
to my gospel. Wherein I suffer trouble as an
evildoer, even unto bounds, but the word of God is not bound.
Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sake, that they
may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with
eternal glory. It is a faithful saying, for
if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him. If we suffer,
we shall also reign with him. If we deny him, he also will
deny us. If we believe not, yet he abideth
faithful, he cannot deny himself. Of these things put them in remembrance,
charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words
to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers. Study to show
thyself approved unto God a workman that needeth not to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth. "'but shun profane and
vain babblings, "'for they will increase unto more ungodliness,
"'and their word will eat as doth a canker, "'of whom is Hymenaeus
and Philetus, "'who concerning the truth have erred, "'saying
that the resurrection is past already, "'and overthrow the
faith of some. "'Nevertheless the foundation
of God standeth sure, "'having this seal.'" the Lord knoweth
them that are his, and let every one that nameth the name of Christ
depart from iniquity. But in a great house there are
not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and
of earth, and some to honor and some to dishonor. If a man therefore
purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor,
sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto
every good work. Flee also youthful lusts, but
follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace with them that
call on the Lord out of a pure heart. But foolish and unlearned
questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes. And the
servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all
men, apt to teach, patient, patient. in meekness instructing those
that oppose themselves, if God, peradventure, will give them
repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, and that they may
recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken
captive by him at his will. Now of course as we've pointed
out, these letters are written to Timothy by word of exaltation
from the Lord to Timothy through Paul. And he continues on with
that and he says, Thou therefore my son be strong in the grace
that is in Christ Jesus. We see that he does not exhort
Timothy to be strong in his own power. Such would be a foolish
thing, would it not? Because we don't have any power
of our own. The best laid plans of mice and
men, as is often said, fall by the wayside. There is no strength
in men to accomplish the things that they would set out to do.
And so whenever we think we're strong, that's the point at which
we are our weakness, our weakest point. uh... whenever we know
ourselves to be weak is when we know ourselves or when we
find ourselves to be strong because it is in Christ wherein is our
strength and so when he says to Timothy be strong in the grace
that is in Christ Jesus because he knows that is the only place
where Timothy would find any strength is in the grace of Christ
not in the service of Christ You don't find strength in the
service of Christ. When I was growing up, that's
what they told us, was that, you know, the more you serve
the Lord, the stronger you'll get. But that's not true, because
you can't serve the Lord apart from the grace of God being visited
upon you. Now, you can go through a lot
of motions. You can do things that people say is serving the
Lord. You know, there's lists of things
that people come up with doing things to serve the Lord. But
that's, you know, serving the Lord is a matter which only the
Spirit of God can work in a man. And to show him, first of all,
that he has no power to perform that. And the things that thou
hast heard of me among many witnesses, that the same commit thou to
faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. It is a
needful thing that we teach one another. Now, of course, the
Lord does give different men, various men, various gifts, and
he gives some more of an ability to teach others than he does
All men are not called to be teachers, but we can all, in
some measure, teach one another, and that is by example, if not
in word. We are all called to be encouragers
of one another, to bear one another's burdens, so fulfill the law of
Christ. But we are to commit the gospel
to one another. And those who are given the ability
or the gift from God to teach other men the scriptures should
do so most assuredly. No one is prevented from doing
that. Now I know that there are some
who would like to put this into the hands of just
a few men and say, well, only you who are trained up and you
have this particular gift that we have recognized, only you
can teach. Well, those whom the Lord teaches should
teach. And if a man can teach, he should
teach. I believe that to be true. Now, let me say this. Oftentimes,
the men who think they can teach are the very ones who ought not
to be teaching. Because when the Lord gives a
man the gift of teaching, if it's from the Lord, he also teaches
him that he doesn't know much. You know, if you think you know
a lot, then you don't need to be teaching other men. When you
realize you don't know anything, except that which is of the Lord,
then perhaps the Lord may use you. But we are to commit the
Word of God, He said, to faithful men. And surely, you know, if
we would be teachers of the Word, we must be faithful. Faithful
to this Word. not what we think about it, but
what the Word is. Because there's many things in
the Word that we might like for it to say that it doesn't say.
And there's a lot of things that it says that we wish it didn't
say. But we are to be faithful to this word and not move to
the right. Remember the way that the Lord
told them they would know if a prophet was true. It says if
he speaks not according to the law and the prophets, then there's
no truth in him. And if a man comes and he's not
teaching the Word of God, not some off-the-wall idea, but something
found in the Word of God, and nothing that's found outside
of the Word of God. You know, there are many theories
and things that men come up with that may have lasted a long time
and been handed down from one generation to the next, but to
the law and to the testimony. You know, be as the Bereans who
search the Scriptures daily. Don't receive something because
somebody says it. Go to the Word of God. And we
say that to anybody, to all of God's people. You know, you don't
have to sit there like a lump on a log and believe everything
that somebody says, me or anybody else. Go to the Word. See if
it's true. Try the spirits. Test it. Look
at it. And if it is true, it will always
be true. Any way you look at it, it will
always be there. Thou therefore endure hardness
as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Now again, he's specifically
speaking to Timothy, but I believe there is an example to all of
God's people. He says, no man that woreth entangleth
himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him who
hath chosen him to be a soldier. Now I believe the Lord has called
all of his children to be warriors for Christ. Do you remember when
you see those that went behind the Lord Jesus Christ as he rode
on the white horse? It says they were all riding
and they were all clothed in linen clean and white. It was
a mighty army. And so the Lord has called God's
people to be warriors. not the war in our own. Paul
said the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. I mean, we're
not out here trying to kill people, and we're not out here trying
to convince people. I saw a video the other day of
a man making a mockery of the scriptures, and this gentleman
was trying to convince him that the scriptures were the word
of God. And I thought to myself, what a waste of time. I mean,
you can't convince somebody that this is the true word of God.
There's only one way that a man comes to know that, and that's
by the Spirit of God. And when a man's convinced of
that, there's nothing that can turn him away from it. This is
mail, if it were, that was sent from the Lord to his people. And you ought not to open other
people's mail. If it's not for you, it's not
for you. You know, if you don't believe
it, that's your business. That doesn't change it. And I
can't change you and cause you to believe it. But it is the
word of God, and I will testify that to you. And indeed, he says
here that no man that woreth entangleth himself with the affairs
of this life. Now there's a lot of ways you
can take that, and I think what Paul's basically telling to Timothy
is don't get bogged down in the world. Now obviously Paul, he
was a businessman in some sense, and I don't think that that wasn't
his primary thing, but he was a tent maker, and he did that
in order to provide for his own needs, and he said the needs
of those that were with him. And so it is, he's not telling
Timothy don't do anything, you know, in the world. Because we're
in the world, we can't help it, the Lord put us here. But we're
to use the world, but not abuse the world. We're in the world,
but not of the world. And so what he's saying here
is don't be overtaken by the world. Don't entangle yourself
with the affairs of this life. You know, it's not our business
to try to straighten Washington out, because it can't be straightened
out. The heart of the king is in the
hand of the Lord, like the rivers of water, he turneth it with
us wherever he will. Now that doesn't mean we shouldn't
vote, doesn't mean we shouldn't participate in government in
as far as we could, but we're not overwhelmed by it. It doesn't
become the thing that we spend our time, day and night, seeking
to do as the children of God, and especially those who are
called to teach. No man that woreth entangleth
himself into your hardness. Now, you know, sometimes it's
not easy to follow the Lord. Sometimes there's many sacrifices
that have to be made. Everything's not going to always
fall into your lap. It's not going to always be an
easy road to go. But he said, just like a soldier
in the battlefield many times, you know, when a man is called
into battle, He doesn't get to say, Sarge, I need to go down
to the McDonald's and get me some, a Happy Meal, or I need
to go get me something. No, he's in the trench, he's
there, he's there to fight, he's not there to be concerned about
all those things. And so as we pass and sojourn
through this world, our concern is not with the things that are
around us, but it is with those things God has called us to.
May our eyes be ever upon that prize. And if a man, and this
goes right along with that in keeping with what he says, if
a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned except
he strive lawfully. Now I think Paul's reference
here, it has to do with running in a race. The Olympics, of course,
that's been a thing that's around for a long time. Some people
think that he had reference to these contests that a man would
strive for mastery. That is, he wants to be the fastest
or he wants to be able to go the furthest or whatever. He
said, if a man strives after that but he cheats to do it,
You know, what good is it? A man's not crowned except he
do it lawfully, according to the rules. You know, a man can
cheat and thinks he is the winner, but he's not really the winner,
even though he might think so in his own mind. And so it is
that there are no shortcuts in serving the Lord. I mean, He
called us to battle. He called us to hardness. He called us to strive. That's what He said, strive to
enter in at the straight gate. Now hasn't the Lord made the
way plain for us? I mean, hasn't He gone before
us? Hasn't He brought us out of darkness
and into the light? Well, sure He has. But He also
said that we're to strive to enter in. Like Isaac Watts wrote
many years ago, must I be carried to the skies on flowery beds
of ease while others fought to win the prize and sailed through
bloody seas? Brethren, the Lord has called
us, I believe, in this day and time in which we live. We have
warfare to be entered into. and we must strive to do it. May the Lord give us such things,
because surely we'll fall by the wayside tomorrow. I'll quit. You'll read one day that I turned
aside, that I'll be like Demas, or I'll be like one of these
other guys that started off fair and turned aside and walked no
more, except that the grace of God should keep me. And now I
believe that he will. And that's my hope, that's my
confidence in him. But I know that left to myself,
I'll depart tomorrow. May the Lord give us a mind to
strive lawfully. The husbandman that laboreth
must be first partaker of the fruits. Now, you know, if a man's
gonna grow a vineyard, he needs to taste the grapes. And so he's
saying, don't say these things, but do what you say. Live according
to that thing which you profess. I mean, if I say, well, I'm,
you know, the man that boasts of how great a Christian he is
is probably not. The man that knows himself to
be a poor excuse for one probably is. But nonetheless, we are to
be those that are first protectors of the fruits. In other words,
if I say to strive, let me not be found not striving. Whatever
I tell you, I need to be doing. Whatever you would exhort somebody
else to do, they need to be doing. You need to be doing, as unto
the Lord. Must be first partaker. Consider
what I say, and the Lord give thee understanding in all things. Because if he doesn't, we won't
have any understanding. You know, these things that I'm
saying this morning will be like water off a duck's back if the
Lord doesn't give you understanding. If he doesn't give me understanding,
I won't have any concept of what it is. So our dependence is not
on the eloquence or the ability of those that would teach us,
but it's on the Lord to give us understanding. And Paul said
that to him. He said, look, may the Lord give
you understanding. Because if he doesn't, you won't
have it. Remember. And I love the writings of the
Apostle Paul because wherever he is writing, he will not be
far from the cross of Christ. I mean, in the exhortation for
men to strive, he's gonna show them why. Because it's not what
they do, but it's what Christ has done. Remember that Jesus
Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according
to my gospel. Oh, what a glorious hope we have
in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Of course, any time that
we mention the resurrection of Christ, it's needful that we
mention the fact that he died. because you can't be raised from
the dead if you're not dead. Now some say he only appeared
to die, that he didn't really. And he laid in the tomb there
and in the coldness of the tomb and everything, his spirit revived
back up. He wasn't really dead when he
went in there. The scripture says that he was dead. He was as dead as any man has
ever been dead. The natural life of the flesh
was gone. And as preposterous as it is, at the appointed time, the Spirit of God raised him from the dead. That's our hope, brethren. The
whole hope of the gospel is built around that. If you think that
you can believe in the crucifixion of Christ, that he died for sinners,
and kind of be halfway on the resurrection, maybe didn't really
rise from the dead, you don't have any hope. Because our hope
is that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. according to, Paul
says, according to my gospel. Now did he mean that he made
it up? No, he just meant that he had
taken ownership of it. He said, this is what I believe.
Now here was a man that had everything to lose and cast, or everything
to gain by continuing on in his religious way, and he threw it
all away. He said, I counted it but dung
that I might win Christ. and be found in him, not having
mine own righteousness, but the righteousness of Christ. And
he rose from the dead, and that is our hope according to the
gospel that Paul preached. Now, it's Paul's gospel, but
it's our gospel. It's Christ's gospel, because
there's only one. See, they're not more than one.
Now, you've got men coming along and they've got all kinds of
gospels. They call them gospels, but they're
not a gospel. There's one gospel, and that
is the gospel of Jesus Christ, who came into the world for the
purpose that was told to Joseph when the angel appeared to him,
when he was thinking about putting Mary away. He said, don't be
afraid to take her as a wife. He said, that holy thing which
is born in her is of God. And he said, thou shalt call
his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Jesus Christ came into the world
with a purpose. And He came into the world with
the purpose to redeem that people which were chosen in Him from
before the foundation of the world. They were in Him. He chose them unto salvation. And He came with a purpose to
redeem them from the sin wherein they had fallen in Adam. Now
did that happen by chance? Not at all. It happened according
to the purpose of God that He might manifest His grace in the
redemption of His people. Now a lot of people get all upset
because they think that they have the right to consider or
to judge what God has done and say, well, I don't like that.
I don't think that's the way it ought to be. Nay, but, O man,
who art thou that replyest against God? Shall the thing formed say
to him that formed it, why shalt thou make me thus? It pleased
God to manifest His mercy and grace in Jesus Christ as the
Redeemer of sinners. And He has Christ came into the
world and died, lived first of all a righteous life without
sin of any kind, tempted in all points like as we are yet without
sin. He lived a sinless and spotless
life. Now that's important. And the
reason that that's important is because righteousness, perfect
righteousness, is that which alone is received in the presence
of God. Partial righteousness will not
do. Men say, well, I've done my best. Well, you haven't done
anything. Because the Lord said, when you
have done all that I have required of you. Say that you're an unprofitable
servant. You haven't done anything, because
if you haven't done anything, if you've only done what the
Lord said to do, you haven't done anything that's worthy of
praise. I mean, you know when somebody
does a job and they get paid for it, are they worthy of praise? Not really, because they got
their praise in what they were paid to do. So the Lord has called
his people. But he sent Jesus Christ into
the world as that Redeemer to live for them and then ultimately
to lay down his life. And that's important. Because
had he not died as a spotless Lamb of God, as one sacrificed
unto the Lord, then there would have been no payment for our
sin. And it would not have mattered how righteous we had become if
our sin was still hanging over us. And the law said, the soul
that sinneth shall die. So Christ satisfied that hope. Now, You know, Christ's satisfaction
of the law was not necessary for the Lord to love his people.
The Lord has loved his people from the beginning. He loved
them when they fell in at him. But in order to be just and the
justifier, of his people because of the fact that he made a law
and he said, this is what you must do, then he would stand
by that law. And so it became necessary that
there be a sacrifice made to satisfy that law, which rightly
condemned every one of us. I mean, there's not one of us
that hadn't broken that law, for all of sin comes short of
the glory of God. But that sacrifice by Christ
was an atonement for our sin. Took it away, far as east is
from the west, and it's remembered no more. It's gone. Now if Christ came to save his
people, I believe he did. Now, you hear a lot of people,
and they call this the gospel, but it's not. They say that Christ
came And he died, and then he left it up to men to decide whether
or not they'd take advantage of what he did. Brethren, that's
not the gospel. That's against the gospel. Because
what Christ did, he absolutely did. When Christ paid the price
for sin, sin's price was paid. In payment, God cannot twice
demand, first at my bleeding, sure of His hand, and then again
at mine. And so what Christ has done,
He did completely. He obtained eternal redemption
for His people. And then, having died, had He
remained in the ground, then we would have no hope, because
all we'd have would be a dead Savior. But you see, he rose
that we might have eternal life. That he might show us what eternal
life is and the triumphant power that he had over the grave. He
often said, I have power to lay down my life and to take it again.
That's exactly what he did. And that's exactly what Paul
writes about here. Remember that Jesus Christ, of
the seed of David, born of a virgin, of the lineage of David, you
see Mary, she was of the lineage of David. Christ was born of Mary. Came
forth. He was raised from the dead,
according to my gospel. And because Christ is raised
from the dead, brethren, we have hope. Because Paul said, brethren,
if Christ be not raised, or he said if the dead rise not, that
is, there's no such thing as a resurrection from the dead,
then it's obvious that Christ did not rise from the dead. And
if Christ be not risen from the dead, we're of all men most miserable. Because our whole hope's been
built on the fact that Christ rose from the dead, and if He
didn't rise from the dead, we don't have any hope. Now that's
it. Are you, today does your hope
rest that Christ rose from the dead? That is our hope. We believe
that He did. We believe that He ever lives
to make intercession for them that come unto God by Him. Now
who are those for whom Christ came? We don't know who their
names are. As we read and we'll talk about
a little further when we get there, the Lord knoweth them
that are his. The Lord knows those that belong
to him, I don't. But he did, he has sent us into
the world to preach the gospel to every creature, to everyone
who would hear it. even as many as the Lord our
God shall call. And the Lord calls sinners. Now a lot of times men don't
know they're sinners until the Lord calls them. And then all
of a sudden they learn, I am a sinner. Oh, that the Lord might
call men today. Oh, that the word of God might
go forth in power. in our time that he might call
sinners unto himself. He'd say, come unto me all you
that labor and have laid, and I will give you rest. He turned
none away, but he only received sinners.