As the text we read prior to
our singing. I just wanted us to go into our
worship with that in our hearts and our heads. Primarily. Because as you'll see, Paul,
what you'll see Paul doing here is really beginning to focus
on those who steward. Who are stewards over the Church
of Jesus Christ. And their primary objective and
their primary. Job description. Is to teach
right things. That affect right things so that
they also themselves would live right things, so here we go,
we've got this right teaching produces right living, which
is what we said five weeks ago, we started this letter would
be sort of the mantra of it all. Good doctrine, good living. So if you look now, it's very
easy and I say this too much and I'm sorry, but I want you
not to forget it. It's very easy to subject our
minds to the outline approach of Scripture and that, OK, we
know what it means not to be greedy. We know what it means
not to be selfish. We know what it means to not
be quick tempered. We know what it means not be arrogant. Yada,
yada, yada. Go on. Let's get something else. Friends,
this is the foundation of this letter. And so, as Paul penned
this to Titus and as Titus read it, Titus, in the fullness of
all that the Spirit of God had done for him in salvation, Titus
received it with a lot of the things that we preach. He received
it in that way. Much like language. And I'll
talk a little bit about language. There are there is a subset of
Christian philosophers, not to talk about worldly philosophers,
but even Christian philosophers. Some would call themselves theologians
that say that language cannot give you truth, that there's
no way that that the language of humanity can actually be called
truth. And there's some grounds to the
reason they believe that. Because man inherently is flawed
and selfish and intrinsic. So therefore, even when he has
the words that he has for the best of his knowledge and the
best of his research shown to be empirically driven, that the
evidence there is coming to create the language. It doesn't mean
that there's not fault there, but there's a difference when
coming to the scripture. And we'll show you that. And so I want to point, as I
said last week, verse seven of chapter one of Titus. And specifically. This. Little phrase. As God's steward. For an overseer, as God's steward,
I want to just I will pull a Spurgeon on you will take one word, preach
an hour. You don't you don't think that exposition and Spurgeon
never exposited anything. Where is this? I did I did a
word study on it. You don't see it. Much there. In any other way, in the other
place in Scripture given this way. It's it's implied it's it's
written. We know that the Church of Jesus
Christ, you're given care for. But here there is this word steward
and this word steward is going to show you the importance of
sound leadership, the importance of sound leadership for the sake
of the purpose for the local church. We want to talk about
purpose driven church. This is it. that God has established
the church and over the church he has put his son. And then under the sun, he has
placed his word. And then he has charged men to
be stewards of what belongs to him. And I think it would be very
much a poor, poor, poor thing for me to skip it. Because this
little phrase. Is actually the position from
which the pastor does everything else he's instructed. A steward. A steward. A steward is someone
who has been given oversight of another person's property,
a steward, isn't one who does it well. A steward is one who
has possession of. So if I were to give you my infant
daughter during the service and tell you to please just look
after her, you would be the steward of that child. She's not your
child, but you are in charge of her care and her well-being
and her quietness or whatever else that might need to be seen
during our service. But she's never yours. Even if
she were given to you through legal means, she still would
not be of you. She would not be your child.
And then I would suggest, because of the way I feel about the scripture
says, though God, through me and my wife, brought our children
into this world through the DNA, they're still not ours. They
belong to him, he created them. So we are stewards in that way.
Well, OK, I get it. What's the big deal? The big
deal is I bet none of you consider your pastor a steward. And I
bet none of you consider you when you handle God's word a
steward. You consider he's a good theologian, he talks a lot, he
gets loud, you might ascribe a lot of different ways of describing
it. But do you see men of God as
stewards? Do you see you? Do you see yourself
as a steward of the things of God? These are not ours to define
the gospel, as Paul says, this is my gospel is not that he owns
it is that it has possession of him. This is the gospel that
I preach, which was given to me by Jesus Christ. I'm an apostle
because of Christ. I'm not an apostle because I
was called to the apostleship. I'm an apostle because God appointed
me as an apostle, a slave. Paul was a steward. And by the
words that God wrote through him, he still is a steward of
God's word. A steward has been given oversight
of another person's property. And in the context here, Paul
is telling Titus that a pastor, an elder, doesn't decide if he's
a steward. He is a steward. He is responsible
for the body of Jesus Christ through the commands of God the
Father, by the power of the Holy Spirit. And one day, as we see
in other epistles, he will give an account. for them. And I pray that my pastor brothers
one day would hear this, would read this letter. And they would
get off of James three one and they would understand James three
one, which says, not many of you ought to teach your brothers
for those who teach will be held to a stricter judgment. It's
not just about blah, blah, blah, says the Bible. It's about stewarding
and shepherding the body of Christ. It's a big deal. Church is in
a game. Christianity is not a game. Fellowship
is not a game. You don't have to have a casserole.
It's nice. You don't have to have a casserole fellowship.
You don't have to have liturgy. You don't have to have responsive
reading. You don't have to have music.
What do you have to have for fellowship? You have to have
the word of God. That's it. And somebody else who's in Christ. And if anything else is required
of you in order to fellowship intimately and supernaturally
with the people of God, then either you or they are not of
God. We don't need camaraderie around
the world. We need camaraderie around the
gospel. Who is Jesus, the son of God? You're learning about who Jesus
is right now, though you know that it should make you just
want to break dance up and down the highway. Do it. I won't stop you. Go. There's no old doctrine. There's no worn out theology.
There's no stale preaching, except the preaching that's not from
God's word. Stewart, what is the pastor,
the steward over what is he given care over? Well, let's just use
some of the words from the beginnings of this text. Paul, servant of
God and apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of
God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with
godliness in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies,
promised before the ages began and at the proper time, if those
of you who are in our Wednesday night study, manifested in his
word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted as
a steward, I'll put the parenthetical there, by the command of God
our Savior. So, What is a pastor a steward over?
Let's just from that that I've just read, he's a steward over
the plans of God. Hope of eternal life, the plan
of God, Ephesians 110, to unite all things in Christ and put
all things under the feet of the son to the praise of his
glorious grace. This is the purpose of God, that
there might be those who are saved by his grace through the
person of Jesus, his son, so that his glory might be praised. And a pastor is a steward of
the plans of God through the word of God. By proclaiming that,
by preaching that which was manifested, that which was from the beginning. Secondly, a pastor is a steward
over the promises of God. at the proper time. Well, God,
who never lies, promised before the ages began. Before God said,
let there be light, God promised to save the church. We really need to understand
that. When Titus read that, he thought
that. Before there was God was. Before there was, I
was saved. Before there was, Christ was.
Before there was, the Lamb of God was. You see that? Preaching should change you in
your seats, church. The word of God should tear you up and
stand you up. A pastor is a steward over God's
power, the power of God that manifested his word. that at
the appropriate time, God manifested the gospel, who is Jesus, the
fullness of God, visibly in the flesh. This is the power of God. Romans 116, For I'm not ashamed
of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God to
all who believe to salvation. To salvation for all who believe,
first the Jew, then the Greek. And in 1017 faith, that salvation
comes through the power of God, by the hearing of the word of
Christ that gives hearing that you become a child of God and
you are made the righteousness of God right then. Right there. And so as we are stewards of
God's word, we are also stewards of God's power. For God does
not go. And people driving down the road
to see a stop sign and get saved. People don't look at the vastness
of creation and go, oh, look at all that is. There's a God
and his name is Jesus. They'll say there's a God. But knowing there's a God is
not salvation, it's condemnation. You must know him. This is eternal life, Jesus says.
That they know you, the one true God and the son whom you have
sent. A steward. A pastor is a steward
over God's word. He says at the proper time in
his word, through the preaching with which I've been entrusted
by the command of God, our Savior, I preach the word of God through
the word of God, through preaching. A pastor is the steward of the
preaching of God. Jesus Christ is the one who preaches,
not the pastor. And so if I preach what the scriptures
do not say, I am ascribing as a steward, get this church, I'm
ascribing as a steward, thus say Jesus right there. If he does not say that right
there, and I say that he has, I make God a liar and I give
you a different Jesus, which is a different gospel, whether
it be good for you or not, it is not the gospel. Fifth, a pastor is a steward
over God's purpose, we see the language there, the knowledge
of the truth, which accords unto godliness, what is the purpose
of God for the church? To be holy. This is God's will
for you, your sanctification, you should be holy, you will
be holy, you are holy. This is a steward of God's people.
When you are a steward over God's purpose. Because God's people
are a reflection of God's glory. I thought Jesus was. We have
seen His glory. Glory is the only son of the
Father, full of grace and truth. Yes, but Jesus says that you
are a city on a hill. Jesus says that you are, I'm
the vine and you are the what? Branches. I am the head and you
are my body. Don't miss it. We are stewards
over God's purpose by being stewards over His people who are stewards
of the image of God. And no one has ever shown God
to be God in all of his wonder by saying, look at all these
things that I've done for you, God. People are a steward of
God's glory by saying, look at what you've done in me, God.
Look at yourself, God, look at your work, God. Thank you, God,
for having mercy on me, a sinner not worthy of your name. And
you gave me your name. You adopted me out of darkness.
You brought me from death. You made me alive in Christ Jesus.
And you set me at your side with your son that we might rule the
world forever. We forget. By the way, this is
called doctrine. Which means teaching. Is it sound? Is it here? And can you hear? We're a reflection of the work of God
as the people of God, we're a reflection of his righteousness, we are
a reflection of his son, that's just what I've all said, sort
of broken down for you. Sixthly, a pastor is a steward
over God's peace and grace. For the word alone gives peace,
the word alone gives grace, grace to you, grace be with you. The
apostles said those things in their writing because it is only
through the word of God that you have the grace of God given
to you. And it is only through the word of God that the peace
of God comes to you. And it is only through the word
of God that you can be in the darkest of darks and the depths
of depths and the hole of holes. And you can look and see nothing
but the glory of God in the face of Christ and say, wow, look
what peace I have. And someone says, explain it
to me. And you say, I cannot, for it is beyond comprehension.
It is beyond explanation. It is beyond measure. And it
is preparing me for an eternal weight of glory that is heavy
beyond all comparison. There's about nine scriptures
combined in that. So the grace of God and the peace
of God. And I've already said it, but
I'll say it again, the pastor is the steward over the people
of God. So then when we get to. Verse seven and eight. We see
what he must not be, for he's a steward, so he must not look
like the world, so that he must look like Christ. And not just
he, but those under his watch. Must also look this way. And that is what the proper teaching
of sound. Scripture of sound doctrine,
the giving of sound doctrine, that's what it does, it creates
a people who do who do persevere. And as I shared at the beginning,
what do we do with those who fall away, we pray, what does
Paul say to Timothy? Those who have fallen away specifically
names them. He says, pray that God may grant
them repentance, that they may escape the snares of the devil
and doing his bidding. We pray. Is there someone in
your life who has not escaped the snares of the devil, maybe
because you don't pray for them? Or maybe because you pray for
God to take away your burden rather than for you to live joyfully
in the burden that he gave you, your loss of burdens, are Christ
to bear and that when we live under the burdens of this world,
we live with joy because it is through those burdens that we
are sanctified. It is through those burdens that
we are proven to be the children of God. For God disciplines those
he loves. He leaves to those alone, those
who are not who are not his. That's why so many false pastors
such as Osteen and others can write books, say your best life
now and can make people think that being in Christ is about
living the good life and having it all together. Now, when there's
not one example of a together Christian in the entire Council
of God's Word, but yet for some reason, America thinks that's
what it's supposed to say. And the fullness of the redemptive
plan of God shows that it is through death and suffering that
God will bring us from death and suffering. To ultimate joy. to be complete and fulfilled
in Christ Jesus, which is ours already. So your life is really,
really good, and it's not because of Jesus. Woe be unto you. And in verse 9, a steward must
be a steward in this manner. A steward must do these things,
and this is where I want to go with what Paul is really arguing
for here, specifically over two things. Must hold firm. What is that? It's not a stubbornness. Holding firm is not an arrogance.
We've already seen that the man of God cannot be arrogant. Holding
firm is not being right. We see humility as the hallmark
of those who are in Christ. Holding firm, this is a standing,
but it's not a standing in the flesh or a standing in your resolve. It's a standing on the very nature
of God through his word. God, who never lies, promised. So therefore, stand firm. You must hold firm to what the
trustworthy word is called. You see that the word as taught. What word? The taught word. Whose
taught word? Paul's taught word. The word
that Paul taught Titus, the word that Paul taught Timothy, the
word that Paul taught the Corinthians, the word that Peter taught those
Jews that were just scattered all over Asia. That word and why that word,
because that's the only word that's trustworthy. That's the
only word that's true. Let's look at it. Hold firm.
What is holding firm mean? We sing about it in Christ alone. My hope is found. Is that just a song you just
get excited about the song to give you chills when you hear
the Star Spangled Banner gives you chills sometimes. When you
hear, when you hear Bach or some of the classical composers, but
specifically Bach, when you hear you get chills, you go, oh, that's
good stuff, especially if it's live. When you hear Italian arias
and you don't even know what they're saying, but they sound
so majestic. And you go, oh, that's chilly.
And they're just saying, you're a clown with a big old nose.
And you just, oh, that's so amazing. It's not what we're talking about.
Is that is that what the truth of the gospel does? It's not
this feeling. It's the foundation. It's a foundation
of hope. It's a foundation of life. Holding
firm means to stand in Christ alone. And you might think we
do that. Yes, but you haven't always. Neither have I. And if we're
too proud of the fact that we do, we may fall away. Do not stand so firm in your
standing, but stand firm in the God who stands, whose name is
Jesus. Holding firm stands in Christ
alone. Holding firm means to be an approved
workman. Showing yourself as a proof to
rightly divide the word of truth. You stand firm in the division
of truth given to you through the foundation of Jesus Christ,
through the apostles who say that God who never lies has said
thus. A pastor must stand firm as an
approved workman. He must spend time in the Bible.
He must spend time in prayer. You, dear brethren and dear sister,
must spend time in the Word of God and must spend time in prayer.
You can't get what I've got right now to give to you if you're
not in the Bible. You may get a chill run up your
spine or get aggravated or feel convicted, and that's good, but
it'll take you just to the threshold of that entrance if you don't
have the Word of God hidden in your soul. In Tuesday, you'll wonder where
your joy went. In Wednesday, you'll wish you
were back in church. And Friday, you might even not
even be thinking about the things of God because you've got so
much to do for the weekend. On Sunday, you barely make it
up because you're exhausted. But you come in for one quick
fix and you get it. And it's good, but it has no
foundation in you. And that's the sermon for next
week. The lazy creeps. Holding firm means to stand for
the gospel. Holding firm means to stand in
the gospel and for the gospel, the gospel, friends, is good
news. Paul levels that out. He just knocks down any opportunity
for any other fault in this particular text right there. I'm a slave
of God. I'm an apostle of Jesus Christ
by his command, and I'm here for the sake of the faith of
the church and their knowledge of the truth and their holiness
and their love for God and their hope for eternal life. And for
God's name and for God's character and for God's promises, all of
these things. Gospel is good news. Jesus Christ
is the gospel. God, the son, is the gospel. The gospel is not the story of
Jesus. The gospel is not the method
of coming to Jesus. The gospel is not a presentation
that talks about one how one might have faith in Jesus. The
gospel is Jesus. So sound doctrine is sound teaching
that stands firm on the foundation of the fullness of everything
that God is and who he is and that you might see the goodness
of the good news of the good God that saved you. And then
out of that you worship. That's the gospel. And every
jot and tittle of this text must be the gospel or it is worthless. If it doesn't teach you about
who God is or teach you how to act, how God has made you to
act so that you may worship his grace, then you haven't heard
the word of God. We can have a commentary burning
in America and have very little left at the end I like what Dr. Piper said that
I heard him say one time in a sermon. He's never read the word, oh,
in a commentary. You're not going to get it. You're
not going to feel that you're not going to be like, oh. God. Friends, the pastor holds firm
when he realizes that the gospel is not his news. The gospel is
not your news, the gospel is not your plan, the gospel is
not your power and the gospel is not your will. By the command
of Christ, apostle of Jesus Christ, a slave of God, God's elect,
his hope, his promise, his manifestation, his timing. Where in the world
do we get us in there? Where are we in that? Where are
we in the introduction to this letter? We're not there. Except
that we are the vessels of God, the objects of God's mercy. We're
the object of God's love. We're the object of God's affection
that is seen and perfectly affected in Christ coming to this world,
being a human being, living a holy life and dying a holy death as
the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. I'm forgiven,
for he was forsaken. Do you see the fullness of God,
the absolute majesty of holiness, the awesome, just treacherous
horror of God's glory being nailed to the cross and suffering as
a sinner? The gospel is the power of God
unto salvation. So we stand firm in the gospel,
we stand firm in the power of God. And the gospel, most importantly,
is the gift of God by giving the sun. Let's just take it this
way. The power of the gospel is God's and the gift of the
gospel is Jesus Christ. And Jesus is the giver of life,
he is the giver of faith, he is the resurrection, he is the
life, he is the bread of all satisfaction, he's the water
of all thirst. So that's what I believe holding
firm means. And not just that I hold firm
as an elder and the elder brothers hold firm as pastors, but that
we teach you to hold firm to the trustworthy word, that's
where we're at. Hold firm to what? To the trustworthy
word as taught. A few thoughts. As taught. As taught, what does it mean
as taught? You mean as this guy teaches
it or as that guy teaches it? How about this man? How about
that woman? How about that? How about that book I read in
1950? How about that? How about that TV show I saw
in 1990? Or last week, for those of you who weren't around then? No. How about we hold firm to
the trustworthy word as taught by the word? The Old Testament. New Testament, the apostles now
affirming and actually revealing that which the Old Testament
teaches. Old Testament interpretation is made known through New Testament. Authority. Hold firm to the trustworthy
word is taught by the scriptures themselves. Hold firm to the
trustworthy word is taught by the apostles and the antithesis
of that is the word of God, not taught by the culture, not taught
by theologians, not taught by philosophers, but taught by the
apostles. If you look at the Old Testament,
the gospel is there, but it's it's hanging in the balance.
It's promised. But it's not there. The good
news is common, but you got to wait. And then in the New Covenant,
it has come. Behold, here he is. Here is God,
Emmanuel. Confirm to the trustworthy word
as taught by the Lord, as John says, that God will teach us
all things. Friends, when we hear the right word taught to
us, we understand it is right because the Spirit of God, first
John four, teaches us to be discerning. Don't be American when you listen
to God's word taught. What I mean by that? Don't sit
there, stuff in your face with the proverbial popcorn ball.
This is good. And just soaking it in as though
it's right. Test it. Well, we know you got it right.
You better not. Because you better test it. By getting in it and
seeing what I say is the Lord. Hold firm to the trustworthy
word is taught. And this will keep some of us by the church.
Throughout history, the church has held fast to the word as
taught by the apostles, as taught by the spirit, as taught by the
word itself. And we don't come up with some new perspective
on Paul, no matter how many dots and letters we have after our
name. No matter how much writing we've done and how many theses
and dissertations or whatever, depends on what side of the pond
you're on is what you call it. No matter how many books that
have been published, no matter how many great men of God have
said, yes, that is right. No matter how many people of
the world have have drawn to what we've had to say. Is it
is it with the church that the apostles hold to it? And does
the early church hold to it? Do the reformers hold to it?
Does the history of the church, when you see the reform coming
through at every era, every era had reform. Do you see it now? You see, undenominational, non-denominational,
pseudo-denominational, Southern Baptist, Reformed Southern Baptist. This Baptist, that Baptist. What
does it mean to be Baptist? I don't know. Our pastor wears tights. What
do you believe? The trustworthy word. Do you? Do I? Let me give you some thoughts. About what happens when we don't
see the word taught as it is written. It's going to be fast. When the trustworthy word is
not taught, thankfully. We see unbelief. In the church. We see unbelief
in the pulpit. What does that look like? I mean,
people don't believe that the word is in error. They may not
say it, but they preach it that way. They teach it that way.
And if the word is not in error, then there is no gospel, there
is no hope, there's no God, there's no truth. When the word is not
taught as it is written, trustworthy word, then we see no sola scriptura. We see no Protestant foundation,
the pillars of our faith and the fact that the word of God
alone is all that is needed to understand who we are, who God
is, who salvation is, Jesus Christ and everything else in between.
And that the word of God, according to what Peter tells us in other
places, like in Timothy, It's useful for rebuke and correction
and training and righteousness. It is useful so that the man
of God may be prosperous and successful in all of his works.
It is useful because the divine power of God is all you need
for godly living. It is useful on the salvation.
It is useful in the teaching is useful in the protection.
It is useful to fight the battle of faith. How do we fight the
good fight of faith through the word of God? So if it's not taught
as it is written, it is not taught at all and it's no longer in
there. So the scripture is gone. It has no transcendence. In other
words, it is it is a document for them. It doesn't have any
bearing on us now. Not only if we say that about the document,
because the document testifies to the fullness of who God is,
if the Bible's not transcendent, neither is our God. That means way back in the day
when he said, let there be life, he sat down and rested and ain't
got his fat butt off off the couch yet. And he has no interaction
with us today. That's where you get these these
creation, I mean, these these weird theistic Oh, my gosh, these
theistic evolutionists and all these pantheists and panentheism
and all this stuff where people think that this cosmic power
put it all together and we're just here to manage it till it
rots and burns. And when we don't teach the Bible
expositionally as it was intended to be known, we are teaching
a God that is no longer transcendent. Some would say language, as I've
said, cannot reveal God. It cannot be truth. But Scripture
itself in its language testifies to a flawless argument that it
is indeed the words of God and that it is indeed absolutely
superlative to all the logic and reason of men. You cannot
win an argument through logic and reason, and I love both and
I think about things more than any of you probably would ever
care to understand. So much so that if I if I'd ever
taken psychedelic drugs in the past, that would be the reason
for these things. I am not right. In my brain. But all the conclusions that
I can come up with, they do not overpower the inherent transcendent
God of the universe. No matter how perfect the arguments
are. When the word of God is not taught
as written, the unbelief is seen because the authority of Jesus
is no longer valid. Jesus has no authority. He is
known as the living word. The word became flesh and died
and lived. If we don't teach the word, then
there is no Jesus, there is no authority of Jesus. I heard a
pastor say just months ago that He no longer believes Paul. Because
nobody can show him Paul's grave and nobody can show him James's
grave and nobody can show him Peter's grave. He stands it that Paul is mythological. So. How does that come about? not
teaching the word. There's unbelief when the word
is not taught as written, but and then the outcome of that
is that there's no truth ever. If the Bible claims to be absolute
truth, Jesus says, I am the truth and the Bible does not talk correctly,
then there is no truth. There's no truth. Because we don't we don't pull
pragmatism out of power. We don't, we don't, we don't
pull, we don't pull life lessons and life skills and life applications
out of out of the sublime. You think the burning bush, you
think there's a lesson in that in physics and chemistry? You
think there's a lesson in that in geography? Anthropology? No, Moses fell
on his face. He did not investigate through
scientific means or philosophical means. He fell on his face when
he heard the voice of God say, take off your shoes, Moses, for
you're in holiness. You're with the holy one of me. I am. That's what he said to
Moses when he said, who should I say sent me? Say, I am sent
me. What am I going to say? Don't
worry about it. I am sent you go. When we don't see the word is
taught, we see unbelief, those things that I've just said. We
also see careless ends to God sized problems. Let me tell you
what that means. That means we see people and
their problems give up because their people power can't solve
their people problems. That's right. People power have
never solved people problems. Well, look at the ark. They built
a bridge. They made a boat. They shot to the moon. So what? Still not solved any problems.
Can you change a man's heart? Can you make your spouse love
you? Can you teach her? Can you can you empower your
children to obey? Can you bring to life a dead
man? Can you salvage a destroyed relationship? No, God can. That's it. So we don't teach
the word of God. We have this careless ends to
God's problems. That means that people, it's
either Christ's power to overcome sin and overcome issues and overcome
unbelief. And people have an excuse, well,
my issue is so bad. Well, you don't understand my
wife. Well, you don't know. I pray all the time. God yet
answer my prayer. Well, you can't pray if you don't
trust the word of God is sufficient for you. And when we go to the Bible to
try to find the language to fit our circumstance so that we can
get to the gray area. We're not seeking the face of
God anyway, he's not going to show us anything. Friends, psychological answers. are oftentimes given over the
power of God in the Bible. The Bible says in Philippians
4, 13, I can do all things through Christ. So you just go right
ahead and do that because Jesus will give you power. What if
that what you're doing is a known sin against the Bible? Does that
apply? No. But what if you're playing
football? Doesn't apply either. Thirdly, we don't see the word
taught is written. We see false believers becoming the majority
in the church. If you don't believe me, let me give you the roles
of churches. And then we'll cross out everybody
who's hasn't been in a year, nor have they been anywhere,
nor does anybody know where they are. And we'll just sort of see. I'm not saying everybody who's
not in church is an unbeliever, but I'm telling you that it's
probably likely. But that'd be too easy. Why don't
we look at the ones who are there? And ask yourself, do they convey
the perfectness of the power of God in their lives? Do they
live as powerful people? Do they hold to the word as taught,
or are they just as happy-go-lucky bunch of people that just get
along with everybody? The devil himself comes for tea. And there should be pleasantries.
It should be very hospitable among the people of God. But
is that all we're known for? What about truth? What about
power? Where's God in all that? Pagans
are nice. Wicked people are nice. Some
of the nicest people I've ever met in my life were in a cult.
They went to my neighbor's house and put a new roof on for free
and told him if they'd just come join their church, he'd be a
God of his own world one day. Nicest people you'd ever meet.
I'm like, I might go for a few weeks, get me a new roof. False believers become the majority
when the Word of God is not taught. Why? Because that false believer
is either going to be saved or going to get out of there. People come for an answer. Well,
what am I going to do about this? What am I going to do? It's not
the gospel when the Word of God is not taught. People have a
new gospel who is not the God of the Bible. People desire to
have their bellies full of a dead bread, a rotting flesh. Not the
life-giving blood and body of Jesus Christ. John 6 is a prime
example of that. They could not stand under the
teaching. We want you to show us all of our legends. Where's
the manna from the Ark of the Covenant? You know, our grandparents
told us that when Messiah came, he'd bring manna. He'd also bring
the staff of Aaron, the budding staff. Where is it, Jesus? He
says, you're looking at it. That bread was fed to your forefathers,
and they died. But I'm the bread that comes
to give life to all men. Eat of my flesh, drink of my
blood, and you'll live forever, and you'll never thirst, and
you'll never hunger, and you'll never go without anything to
satisfy your soul. You will be full and overflowing,
welling up to eternal life. You will know God. And as Paul teaches Timothy,
people will ignore sound teaching and gather up teachers to scratch
their itching ears. And the way they do that is they
call pastors to maintain their status quo, to maintain their
board, to maintain their view, to maintain their public image,
to maintain their programs and everything that goes between
without usurping any authority of the longstanding community
or any authority of granddaddy's bricks or any authority of grandpa's
money. They don't they don't call a
man who preaches expositionally unless they want to see that
church shape from the foundation. So-called Christians, in response
to those who teach the sound word, will be seen. As haters and angry people, powerful,
power hungry people. They'll be known for their ministry
and their authority and their long standing in the community,
not not their humility and their love and their and their powerful
repentance and holy affections. And a steward of God's people
does not allow this to take place, a steward of God's people very
carefully and prayerfully teaches the church that this is not OK. A steward of God's word reveals
God. not himself. He doesn't reveal his world.
He doesn't reveal his culture. But he holds to the word as trustworthy. For instruction in sound doctrine,
the last thing I'm saying, I promise. Doctrine means teaching. Instruction
in this doctrine is to help understand the teaching, to teach the teaching
of the scripture. Sound teaching, true teaching,
and it's either true or it's not. There's no some of it's
true, part of it's true, half true, a little bit of true. It's
true or it's false. And so the Bible either says
it or the Bible doesn't. Scripture either teaches it or
scripture doesn't. God is either that way or he
isn't. Had a conversation with a sister
in the Lord. Thursday. who told me that she prayed and
that she has peace in doing something that the Lord told her to do.
But the scripture is explicit in seven places by name that
what she's telling me that God told her to do is sin. So I encouraged her that I loved
her and that I realized that what she was going through was
real and that what she was thinking was was understandable based
in the flesh and that I understood she was hurt, but that she should
never and please do not ever ascribe to God that which is
sin. Why instruction and sound doctrine
for the sake of the faith of God's elect? You know why so many churches
have to do a so-called gospel presentation at the end of the
sermon, because the sermon had nothing to do with Jesus. The
sermon had nothing to do with the gospel, the sermon had nothing
to do with the Bible. We could have gone to the China
wall and gotten about a half dozen fortune cookies and come
up with a better sermon. They had about as much power
and at the end of it say, but maybe you're not here today and
this is working out for you. You need to believe in Jesus.
What Jesus? You ain't told me about Jesus. How am I going to
believe in something I have never heard of? How am I going to have
faith in the invisible God? You can't. Romans one says it's
impossible. Jesus makes him known and the
text teaches Jesus. It doesn't teach us how we ought
to be nice and kind. It teaches us who the kind one
is, who the nice one is, and that when he came to bear our
sins on the cross and rose from the dead with him, our sinful
flesh died and we've been made alive. Now, maybe that isn't
working for you. You need to put your faith in
that Jesus. You know, that works. You can do it all day long if
you want to. You can't be saved with a so-called
gospel presentation because these so-called gospel presentations.
Yes, brothers, I'm talking about you. I'm going to get it for
this. I'm talking about you that are mad. Listen to this sermon.
I'm talking about you. You cannot see people come to
faith with a so-called gospel presentation when the word of
God is how one comes to faith in its teaching. Faithful stewards
of God's word give the fullness of God, who was not the neat
parts that fit within our worldview. We don't take a puzzle here and
a piece here and put him together and come up with this really
mosaic sort of weird Picasso looking something to say, look
at our pretty God. We're just being eccentric. No,
you're being wrong. We're just being culturally relevant
to whom the dying. Those who are perishing, who
cannot see the gospel because the God of this world of whom
you're doing the work for has blinded their eyes that they
may not believe in Christ. But God shines in our hearts.
To give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Christ. Faithful steward gives the fullness
of God. And it does not fit within a
man-centered, egotistical and self-willed religion. In John
1, it's very clear, those who did receive him who believed
on his name, he gave the right to become children of God, not
by choice, nor the will of the mind, nor the will of the flesh,
nor of blood, nor of genealogy, nor of practice or anything else,
but by the will of the Father. You must be born again. You must be born again. You can
confess all you want and you will be the Matthew seven. Lord,
Lord. Not everyone who says, Lord,
Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who
do the will of my father, who is in heaven, which begins with
believing in the fullness of God through Christ as taught
through the sound word of God alone, period, nada, zilch, over. No other way. but Christ through
the Word. No other way. We live in a day
and time when those types of statements that I've just made
are not just frustrating. They enrage people who claim
the banner of the gospel. How dare they spit in the face
of Jesus and tell him that his gospel is not sufficient. You
know what it's called? Spurning the Son of God. They
need to read Hebrews severely. Instruction and sound doctrine
for the sake of the faith of God's faithful stewards. If they
teach sound doctrine, they instruct with sound teaching about God,
about Christ, about the gospel, about the word, about the church,
the commands of God, the holiness of God, the judgment of God,
the power of God, the wrath of God, the glory of God, the love
of God, the peace of God, the hope of God, the wickedness of
men, the depravity of the heart, the self-sufficiency of religion.
They teach the fullness of the authority of Scripture. And they teach about all that
is good and holy. And if they don't, they make
God a liar. Do you see the word of God that way? Do you see that
God is called not just the pastors, but his people to be stewards
of such truth? How are you going to be a steward
if I'm not a steward of the right teaching? That's why I can't
fathom. How people can. I'm not talking
about sitting in even a lukewarm church and we won't even get
another sermon. But how do we sit under teaching that is wrong? Without doing something about
it. With gentleness, patience, respect,
love, prayer, kindness, humility, self-sacrifice. But when you
do that, when you love your enemy, he's not necessarily your enemy.
You may just be wrong, but he may be. You keep burning coals on their
head. Destruction sound doctor for the sake of the faith of
the church, for the sake of God's character, who never lies for
the sake of truth, for the sake of knowledge, for the sake of
holiness, for the sake of justification, redemption and hope. Because
ultimately, in the church, there's no hope, there's no hope if there's
wrong teaching. Wrong teaching isn't just messed
up theology, it's failure to be faithful to the true word.
Wrong teaching is not just. Getting it wrong, it's putting
hope in creativity and craftiness. Rather than the creator. Wrong
teaching is not just just really poor doctrine, but it's false
doctrine. And this is seen, lazy exposition,
purchasing sermons, an unbiblical view of ecclesiology, boardroom
directors in the church, holding to ignorance and traditions thereof,
ignoring absolutely clear Bible doctrines because they actually
are little divisive and you don't want to mess with your people.
Well, they're not your people and you'll give an account for
not teaching them the full counsel of God's word. And we also see
it as we've experienced as a church, people hating those who teach
otherwise. So what does the man of God do
in this Texas in the next week? Rebukes those who contradicts. You don't you don't get it, we
don't I don't get it, I say you we we don't get it, we don't
get how serious false teaching is. We don't get how serious lazy
pastors are. And we don't get how so close
we are to falling off the edge of both. Don't think we're so far from
the cliff that we got it, we got nothing. By the grace of
God, we hover over the fire. In some of these areas, what
is it, 1 Corinthians 12? So though. Though you make it
as though through fire. Everything you've done burns
up. Stewart. Is one who holds to
the right teaching, you know, what a better translation of
holding fast is. Devoted to. I waited to the end
to say that. So a good steward. Is one who
is devoted to such things, one who is. So strongly devoted to
the rightness of who God is through his word. That they do not allow
others to invade the church with such false teachings. How do you know Christ? That's
not the way you learned Christ, the sound familiar church. It's
what Paul told the church in Ephesus. So we're in love in
every way, grow up by speaking the truth and love, we grow up
into him who is the head, Jesus Christ, maturing foundationally,
standing on sound doctrine, not being tossed to and fro. Why? Because it is the life of you,
not just eternal life and hope for a tomorrow, but it's the
power of God in you today. Believe that gospel. Hold fast
to that gospel. Who is Jesus Christ the righteous?
Let's pray. Oh, dear God. You are so holy and mighty. Father, your kingdom is here. Jesus Christ is here. Your will is done here. And one
day you will make it all right. Thank you. Lord, protect us. From falling
prey to quirkiness into bad things, into false teaching, Lord, help
us and protect us from falling prey to temptation and sin. Speak
to us very boldly and loudly as we hide your word in our hearts
so that we don't sin against you. creating us an urgency to walk
wholly and to proclaim the gospel, no matter how small and quiet
our voice and how minuscule and just border our influences. Let
us proclaim the good news of Jesus. Pray for us, O Holy Spirit,
as we pray for each other, as we worship you and as we long
to see the face of Jesus Christ, our son, your son, our Savior. And until that day, Lord, preserve
us, hold us, for all that you give the Son will never be cast
away. Lord, prove in us that you've
given us to your son. by performing the works that
you prepared beforehand before us to walk in. In Jesus' name
we stand and we sing and we love and we pray. Amen, amen, and
amen.