Well, this is a message that
is sort of difficult to preach, and I've thought about this and
prayed about it. I preached it out at Louisiana two weeks ago
at Grace Baptist Church there in Ruston, and Brother Wormack
forgot to turn the recorder on, and I preached it. And so everybody
said, you need to preach this again. You need to preach this
again. You need to preach this again. So I interpret that as
the Lord speaking through them. And so I said, well, I'll preach
it at our church in Albany. I've preached this before because
we've gone through the kingdom parables several times in the
over 30 years that I've been preaching. Here in Matthew 13,
I've gone through all the kingdom parables, beginning with the
parable of the sower and the seed, which I call the parable
of the grounds or the hearts there. And so this is a difficult
message to preach, and I thought about it in this light because
it sets forth a message that people by nature do not want
to hear. And even believers, even believers,
if the Spirit of God didn't give us eyes to see and ears to hear
and the reality of what these things talk about, it's things
that, in our flesh, we would just rather be left alone. But
it's a reality. And I think about this, you know,
one of the One of the main goals in preaching on our television
program, and I tell people this, is to inspire people to do what
the scripture says. For example, I'm pretty sure
that most of our viewing audience claim to be Christian. And if
you claim to be a Christian, if you claim to be a believer,
the Bible tells you to examine yourself, 2 Corinthians 13, 5,
examine yourself whether you be in the faith. And most people
interpret scripture like that. They say, well, I've got to look
within and see if I've done enough. And that's not what that means.
Because I can tell you right now, when somebody says, well,
have I done enough? I always say, enough for what?
Have you done enough to earn your way into God's favor and
earn your way into heaven? The answer is no. You haven't. I haven't. None of us have. No
human being ever has. We're all sinners. Have you done
enough to earn God's blessing? No, we don't earn God's blessings.
We're not hirelings. We're not mercenaries. If we're
saved by the grace of God, we're willing, loving bond servants.
That's what the scripture calls us. That means we serve not motivated
by gain, we serve motivated by love. Paul said, the love of
Christ constrains me. And that's a battle, isn't it?
We have to battle our fleshly thoughts there because we think,
you know, sometimes I get to the point, I say, Lord, I deserve
better than this, you know, whatever it is I'm getting, you know,
but I don't. And I know that if God ever gave
me what I deserved or what I've earned, it would be damnation.
That's it if thou Lord should us mark iniquities Lord who would
stand Psalm 130 verse 3 So we have to be careful there but
here's what here's what a gospel preacher has to understand and
here's what a believer has to understand is that we believe
and we are assured of truths that the world hates and And we see in the Bible all the
way through. One of the passages that comes
to mind is 1 Corinthians 1. The difference as far as evidences
is concerned between those who are perishing and those who are
being saved is how do we respond to the preaching of Christ? And
what is the preaching of Christ? Well, that's what this parable's
about. The kingdom parables, that's what he's talking about
in Matthew 13. These are parables that describe the nature and
the progression of the kingdom of God here on earth, which is
the kingdom of Christ, which is his control, his sovereign
control over everything, and especially as seen through his
church, his true church. Now the word church means called
out ones. Those are people who have been
called out of the world And I always have to caution you on this now.
When you think of the world, don't just think of the immoral
segment of society. Think of the religious too. Called
out of the world's religion, even that which comes in the
name of Christ, and that's especially applicable to this parable. He told his disciples, he said,
when you go out and preach the gospel of the kingdom, people
are going to respond in different ways. Some are just going to
absolutely turn a deaf ear, they're not going to hear what you say,
they don't want to hear what you have to say, period. He says
some are going to receive it for a little while and then they'll
leave it because of persecution that comes over the word for
preaching messages like this. Or because of love of the world.
They've got better things to do. They're like the little cartoon
I saw today where a guy's running, he's got one of those sticks
that, you know, like they talk about dangling the carrot, and
there's a big wad of money out there. And he's running as fast
as he can, just got his eyes on that money, and there's an
open grave right in front of him. And some leave it because
of love of the world. But he says, there are going
to be some who are going to, by the grace of God and the power
of God and the goodness of God, they're going to latch onto this
and they'll hold on for dear life by the grace of God. Now
that's the parable of the grounds. The sower in the seed. The preacher
going out sowing the word of God. And he talks about the hearts
of men. You know, what does the Bible
say about our natural heart? It's desperately wicked. That's
what it is. If it weren't for the grace of
God, none of us would believe. Isn't that what the Bible says?
It is. No man can come to me except the Father which has sent
me to draw him. That's what he says. You will not come to me
that you might have eternal life. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them. They're
spiritually discerned. But, he said, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out." So you had the parable of the soils
there. The Word of God preached to individuals. They'll respond differently.
Those who are perishing will see the preaching of Christ,
the preaching of God's gospel, the preaching of the grace of
God as foolishness. It's not worth our time. It doesn't make
sense to us. We don't want that. It doesn't
give us any glory or any room to boast. And those who are being
saved, it's the power and the wisdom of God. So how do you
respond? That's real pretty simple to
understand. How do you respond to the preaching of the gospel?
I'll tell you, there was a time I didn't want to hear it, I hated
every moment of it, but then there's a time where God brought
me and said, I couldn't live without it. You can't live without
it if it's in your heart. That's right. It's life and death, isn't it?
It's the glory of God. Well, then he comes to the parable
of the wheat and the tares, here in Matthew 13. And what he's showing here is,
first of all, he talks about, number one, true salvation of
sinners by God's grace and God's power in Christ. Look at verse
37 of chapter 13. Now, he told them, he said, this
is the wheat and the tares, And he says, look at verse 36, Jesus
sent the multitude away, went into the house, his disciples
came to him saying, declare unto us the parable of the wheat and
of the tares of the field. Tell us what that parable means.
Now, I want you to know something about these parables. God doesn't
leave it up to us to say what they mean. He tells us what they
mean. And if you come to a parable
that he doesn't tell you what it means specifically, Go back
to the first one in that series where he told you what it means,
and it's to be interpreted in that light. That's how you know. So it's all to be interpreted.
And secondly, understand this, parables don't establish our
doctrine. Parables illustrate the doctrine. That's all they do. And as my
old pastor, Pastor Mahan, used to say, he says, don't try to
make a parable stand on all fours. In other words, don't go in there
and try to make every little element mean something to you
because that's not what it's for. And understand parables
are not children's stories. That's not why he gave the parables.
They're not children's stories. They're really not even stories
that make the gospel simpler. There's nothing that'll replace
the simple preaching of the gospel of God's grace through the glorious
person and the finished work of Christ. We're sinners. We deserve damnation. And our
only way out of this mess is God's grace, God's power, and
God's will revealed in the glorious person of Christ. Who is he?
He's God in human flesh. That's who I need for my savior. I don't need a mere man. Because
all mere men are sinners. I need the God man. I need God
manifest in the flesh. That's who he is. I need the
son given, the child born. I need the word made flesh. I
need the righteousness of God. Well, where am I going to find
the righteousness of God? In the person and the finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. I need one to take my place on
the cross and die for my sins and secure and ensure and demand
my salvation because justice is satisfied. Righteousness is
established. That's what I need. And that's
a simple message. But man comes forth and says,
but, but, you gotta do this, you gotta do that. No, no, see
now you're complicating things. Now you're interjecting man's
works, man's will. No, he's the cause, we're the
product, we're the result. And that's what he says. So these
parables, they're not just, you know, in fact, when the disciples
ask him in Matthew 13, beginning there, verse 10, why are you
speaking in parables? He said, because those who rejected the
gospel seen they see not, and hearing they hear not. He told
the disciples, but blessed are your eyes for they see, blessed
are your ears for they hear. That's a blessing, isn't it?
Well, look at verse 37. He said, he answered and said
unto them, and here's the first point. He that soweth the good
seed is the Son of Man. So the sower there is Christ. He's called the Son of Man because
that's a messianic term. In other words, that's an Old
Testament term that identified the Messiah as not just man,
and certainly not a sinful man, but God in human flesh without
sin. And He's the Son of Man. He was
born of the flesh, of the seed of David, according to the flesh.
He's truly man in every way, except for one. He's without
sin. That's our Savior. And if your
Savior is not God, then He's a false Savior. He's a counterfeit.
If your Savior is not man without sin, He's a counterfeit. Do you
understand that? I mean, there are people who
call themselves Christian now, who deny the deity of Christ.
Well, what does the Bible say? Now, I know it's something that
people don't like to hear, but the Bible says they're counterfeits,
they're false Christians. And they're people who deny his
humanity. Well, they're false Christians
too. I don't take pleasure in saying that, it's just true.
And when we say it, certainly we ought to say it in love, but
love does not issue forth in a lie, does it? Telling them
what they want to hear. You know what false Christianity
is based upon? Telling the natural man what
he wants to hear to get him into the building. And if you don't
keep on telling him what he wants to hear, he's going to leave.
I know that. I've been there. And that's false
Christianity. He's the Son of Man, and He is
the one who has saved His people from their sins. He didn't try
to save them. He's not trying to save His people
now. He did save them, and He's going to bring all of His sheep
into the kingdom. He secured their salvation by His death
on the cross. It wasn't just a historical fact
that He died. He was buried. He arose again
the third day. It's a fact, a scriptural truth
that he accomplished, and that's the key now. He accomplished
the salvation of his people. There'll be none in hell for
whom Christ died. That's the gospel. And he will,
by his power, bring them by faith, God-given faith, into the kingdom.
And if you leave out the accomplishment of his death, you've left the
gospel. His righteousness, the righteousness
of God revealed in the gospel, is justice satisfied by the death
of our surety, our substitute, our redeemer. And if God is just
to justify us in Christ, there's no possibility of entering into
eternity and damnation in that. It cannot be. What does the Bible
teach? That's what you've got to say.
Well, there's words there that men interpret. Well, that doesn't
matter. You see, what I'm concerned with
when I study the scriptures is not what it means to me or how
I interpret it. What I'm concerned with is what
does the word of God intend to say? What did God intend here?
And you've got to look at the context. So he that soweth a
good seed is the son of man. Now he says in verse 38, look
at it, the field is the world. Now God has a people all over
this world, out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation.
The word world oftentimes in the New Testament is interpreted
by people to mean every individual without exception. Very rarely,
if at all, does it mean that. Do you know that? God so loved
the world. What was he talking about there?
He's talking about his people all over the world. He gave his
only begotten son. The what? Whosoever believeth.
might not perish but have eternal life. Was that teaching that
my believing is a condition that I must meet in order to seal
the deal and make his death worth something to me? No. It just
means that if you believe, that's the evidence of God's love. That's the evidence of Christ's
death for you. That's what it says. Christ said
that in John 6, 37. He said, All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. He said, This is the will of
him that sent me, that all whom he hath given me I should lose
nothing, but raise it up again at the last day. Christ said,
Except a corn of wheat, a seed of wheat, John 12, fall into
the ground and die, there'll be no fruit. But if it dies,
there'll be much fruit. He told his disciples in John
chapter 10, he said, other sheep I have which are not of this
fold. What fold is that? The Jewish
fold. He said, them also I must bring. I must bring them. Why? Because
he's going to die for them. He's going to put away their
sins. They're righteous in him. The forgiveness of their sins
is by his blood. That's what he's talking about.
So the field is the world, verse 38. The good seed, now who are
the good seed? Now the seed back in the parable
of the soils was the gospel. But look what the seed is here.
Verse 38, the field is the world, the good seed are the children
of the kingdom. He sows good seed, Christ sows
good seed. And he says, but the tares are
the children of the wicked ones. So first of all, now Focus your
attention on true salvation of sinners by God's grace and power
in Christ, salvations of the Lord. He sows the good seed.
He's not up there begging people to do this or do that or believe
this or believe that. Our Lord is not a beggar. He's
a king. He's a sovereign. He's a savior.
He's the sower of good seed. That's what he does. Salvation
is by the merits and the power of Christ, the Son of Man, the
Son of God. And speaking of his sinless humanity
in union with his absolute deity, as being both God and man, what
did he do? The Bible says he made an end
of our sin. Let me tell you something. You
know what it is to make an end of sin? That means it's put away.
It means it's paid for. It means it cannot be charged.
He finished the transgression. That's what he said. Daniel chapter
9 verse 24. He brought in an everlasting
righteousness. Now if he did that for me, I
cannot be, I cannot remain lost and die in unbelief and go to
hell. And here's this field, the world,
he's got people all over this world. It's not just Jews, it's
not just Gentiles, it's not just Americans. It's Jew and Gentile. The good seed are the children
of the kingdom. They're not good in themselves.
Do you know that? How do you know that? Because
there's other scriptures to consider. See, that's the problem with
a lot of people. They just look at one passage. And my old pastor
used to say they get versitis. Not bursitis, versitis. They
even build a denomination on one verse. And they take it out
of context to do that. You see, The sower is the one
who sows the good seed. We're not good in ourselves.
The Bible says there's none righteous, no not one. There's none good,
no not one. I know that we, I mentioned this
in our Bible study this morning, I know that we talk about good
people, this is a good person, but we're talking about goodness
in the eyes of men. When it comes to God's standard
of goodness, what does the Bible say? There's none good, no not
one. What does that mean? That means
this, there's none of us in this fallen sinful human race who
are good enough or can be good enough to be accepted, to be
saved, to be blessed of God. No matter how good you try to
be, you cannot make it. Now if you think you can, then
just call that by what it really is, salvation by works, not grace. You see, if God owes it to you
based upon anything you do, it's not grace, folks. It's works. You go out and work a job, you
expect to be paid, don't you? Because you've earned it. Well,
that's not the kingdom of God, though. That's this world. Kingdom
of God is a kingdom of grace, and grace reigns through what? Righteousness, not our righteousness,
righteousness by Jesus Christ our Lord. Righteousness unto
eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. So this good seed,
what is the good seed? He says they're children of the
kingdom. Who are the children of the kingdom? Sinners saved
by the grace of God. Sinners who've never earned any
of the blessings and benefits of God's salvation. Our whole
reason for salvation is Christ crucified and risen from the
dead. The merits of our Savior. We
don't have anything to brag about or boast in ourselves. We do
have something to brag about. God forbid that I should boast
glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ didn't come to seek and
to save the good, did He? He came to seek and to save that
which is lost. And any goodness or any righteousness
that we have is of Him. Isn't that right? It's Christ's
righteousness imputed, charged to us. What did David say? Blessed
is the man whom the Lord imputeth, charges, accounteth righteousness
without works. In this life, think about it
this way. In this life, we will never attain
the perfection of goodness and righteousness that God requires.
In this life, we will know and attest by faith that that can
only be found in Christ, his blood and his righteousness alone.
That's faith in Christ and repentance of dead works. The Bible says,
For by grace are you saved through faith, and that's not of yourselves,
it's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto, not because
of, but unto good works, which God hath before ordained that
we should walk in them. Well, here's the second thing.
Look here, he says in verse 38, the tares, are the children of the wicked
one. Who's the wicked one? That's children of the devil.
And he says in verse 39, look at this. He says, the enemy that
sowed them is the devil. The title that Satan has as the
devil means the accuser. The enemy that sowed them is
the devil. Satan sowed. Here's what's happening. Christ
sows the good seed. That's his people. That's his
true church. Satan, the devil, sows his counterfeits. Now you think about these tares.
If you look back over in the, when he first spoke this parable,
he says in verse 25, He says, but while men slept, his enemy
came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. Now,
where did he sow? The field is the world. Some people say, well,
this is in the church. Well, he's talking about in the
world, he sows his tares. Now, what are his tares? False
believers and false churches. That's what he's doing. Did you
know that the Lord taught his disciples that the greatest sign
of the nearness of his coming was false Christianity. Did you
know that? Read it. Mark 13, Matthew 24. He said they'll come and they'll
say here's Jesus, there's Jesus. He said don't believe. Some will
even claim to be Jesus. There are false preachers who
claim to be the Messiah. They fool some people, not a
lot, but they do fool some. But the main issue is preaching
a false Christ. Counterfeit Christ Paul dealt
with that in 2nd Corinthians 11. He said for if he that comes
preaches another Jesus Whom we have not preached Back in the
early days of the New Testament Church there were Judaizers that
is Jewish men who claimed to be Christian, but who wanted
to keep people under the bondage of the law of Moses and Paul
called that in Galatians chapter one, another gospel, which is
not another. And so it would be like preachers
saying, oh, we believe salvation's by grace, but you've gotta be
baptized to be saved. You ever heard that? Or you gotta
do this in order to be more righteous. Or to stay saved. How many people
do you know that claim, oh, you can be saved one day and lost
the next if you don't do your part. Do you know that's a false
Christianity? Is that too hard? It is. What does false Christianity
say? They claim salvation by grace. They don't, you know,
Satan is a subtle devil. Paul dealt with that in 2 Corinthians.
Turn there to 2 Corinthians 11. Let me show you this. You see,
I know this is an unpopular message, and I know people say, well,
why don't you just leave that alone? But here's the thing,
folks. You know, in the Old Testament, the prophets called themselves
watchmen, like a watchtower, like a watchman on the wall.
What are they supposed to do? They're supposed to make people
aware of the dangers. that are around them, when the
enemy's coming. Well, what if the watchman falls asleep and
doesn't warn of the danger coming? Or what if he just, well, you
know, those people are asleep and I know they'll be mad at
me if I wake them up, so I'm just gonna let them sleep. Not
a very good watchman, is he? Well, look at verse two of 2
Corinthians 11. Paul writes, I'm jealous over
you with godly jealousy, for I have espoused you to one husband.
I've appointed you to one savior, one redeemer, Jesus Christ, crucified
and risen from the dead, that I may present you as a chaste
virgin to Christ. But I fear, he says, lest by
any means that the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety. Now
Satan's a subtle devil. So your mind should be corrupted
from the simplicity. I preached on that in TV this
morning, the simplicity that's in Christ. You know what that
means? That is the singularity, the
singleness, that all of our salvation is wrapped up, settled in, standing
upon this one person and his one work of righteousness. That's
what it is, simple. Satan comes along and says, now
you know there's got to be more to it than that. You know you've
got to do something. You see, Satan doesn't stand
up behind pulpits and say, I don't believe salvation by grace. It's
all of works. Let's get busy. He doesn't appear
in pulpits of America with fangs and horns and a tail and a pitchfork. He doesn't come into the pulpits
of America and say, I don't believe in Christ, throw your Bibles
away and let's write our, he doesn't do that. That wouldn't
be subtle. That wouldn't be deceptive. In
2 Thessalonians 2, when it's talking about the nearness of
the coming of the Lord, he talks about the deceivableness of unrighteousness. Well, what kind of unrighteousness
is deceptive? Religion, folks. That's right,
false religion. Think about how Christ, he told
the Pharisees, they fooled the people. He said, you appear righteous
unto men, but inwardly, what are you? He told the people,
accept your righteousness, exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and the Pharisees. You won't enter the kingdom of
heaven. And he'd already told them that he'd come to establish
that. Matthew 3, at his baptism, he said, suffered to be so for
us to fulfill all righteousness. That's what he came to do. He
didn't come to give you a jump start. He didn't come into the
world and say, now y'all, your battery's low, I gotta give you
a charge. He came to bring dead people
alive. Isn't that right? He came to
establish a righteousness that we cannot produce or have any
part in it. It's all him. But look here,
he says in verse four. He says, for if he that cometh
preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if you
receive another spirit which you have not received, or another
gospel which you have not accepted, you might well bear with. And
that's him there's in italics, means the King James translators
added it. It's an objective pronoun. Paul's
talking about bear with me. Not with false preachers. Look
over across the page at verse 13 of 2 Corinthians 11. Now look
at this. For such are false apostles,
deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles
of Christ. And no marvel, for Satan himself
is transformed into an angel of light. Do you know when Satan
was trying to tempt our Lord on the Mount of Temptation, did
you know he quoted scripture? He didn't cuss and tell dirty
jokes. He quoted the Bible. I hear people say, well, that
preacher, he says a lot of good things. So does the devil. Think
about that. Isn't that scary? But does he say the thing, the
only thing that counts? You see what I'm saying? Does
he preach the gospel? Is that his message? Day in and day out. I don't mind for people to tell
me you preach the same thing over and over again. I don't
mind that. I really don't. They may not mean it as a compliment,
but I take it as such. Some woman told me one time,
she said, all you preach is Christ and his righteousness. And I
said, put that on my tombstone, will you? Just carve it right
in there. It's the only thing we need,
the only thing worth telling. So verse 15, he says, therefore
it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers
of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works.
The point is this, the devil goes about sowing his counterfeits,
tares. You know that word tare, it's
literally, if we transliterate it into English, it'd be darnel.
If you look at it, it looks like wheat, but it's good for nothing. And so as Christ is sowing the
good seed throughout the world, Satan is sowing the tares. And somebody says, well, now
we can't recognize the tares, and so we're not to judge. Well,
now, I could spend another couple messages on that subject. But
did you notice back here, look back over Matthew 13, verse 27. It says, the servants of the
householder, that's the ministers of Christ, the people of God,
they came and said, sir, didst thou not sow good seed in thy
field? From whence then hath it tares? Where'd the tares come from?
Now, I believe what's going on here is there is a recognition
of the tares. You say, well, they could claim
to believe the true gospel, and then not really be a believer.
Well, he dealt with that back in the parable of the soils. But here's what he's talking
about. He's talking about false Christians and false Christianity.
And he said unto them, verse 28, An enemy hath done this.
The servant said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather
them up? What's our job? He said, Nay, lest while you
gather up the tares, you also root up wheat with them. What
does that mean? What is the commission that is
given to the church, the true church in this world? Well, we're
to promote and give our time to passing legislation that would
outlaw false gospels. Is that what we're to do? All
right, if we see a false church, and I'm talking about a place
where a false gospel, let's go there and tear down the building.
Let's blow it up. Let's tear it down. Is that what
we're to do? Or let's go on a crusade to Jerusalem
and win it back. Is that what we're to do? Absolutely
not. What are we to do? What's the
commission? I'll tell you what we're to do.
Simply, one thing, preach the gospel. That's it. We don't have
any mandate to take up arms, to pass laws that would eliminate
all false gospels. We don't have any mandate to
try to force people to believe what we believe. One time we were accused of being
a cult here. And I told the guy who accused
us, I said, well, here's the thing about it. If you're a cult,
that means you believe what I say because I say it. Don't believe
it because I say it. Study the word. And then if we're a cult, we'd
want to shelter you all and hide you all from everybody. Don't
talk to my people. Listen, if somebody can come
in here and talk you out of believing what I'm preaching based on God's
word, go. It'd make me sad. But I don't
have any mandate to hog-tie you and make you stand here or to
hypnotize you or to brainwash you. You believe it, and if you
don't believe it, it's a free country. That's what
the scripture says. We'll preach the gospel. I don't
like it when people preach a false gospel, when false churches come
about, and the Bible tells us there are going to be more false
churches than there are true churches. But we don't have any
mandate to go plow them up, go tear them down. No, God's gonna
take care of that end. But now here's another thing
you need to consider. We all started out as lost people. Many of us in false churches. Isn't that right? Aren't you
glad that some group of true believers didn't come over and
wipe us out? God's gonna separate the wheat
from the tares. But here's what I wanna know.
Turn to 2 John and I'll conclude with this. I've gone too long
this morning, I apologize, but I want you to hear this. Here's
what I wanna know. How do I know that I'm in a true
church and not a tare? False church. How do I know that
I'm a true believer, a true Christian and not a false Christian? Is
there any way I can know? Now it would do you good, I'll
tell you again, let me give you a little bit of advice. As a
spiritual guy. It'd do you good to read all
three little letters here of John. First John, second John,
third John. And let me tell you what's happening
in first John. First John sets the parameters
of true Christian fellowship. And those parameters can be described
in those words. Light, that means truth. Righteousness,
that's how God justifies sinners. Whose righteousness am I preaching
today? Yours? Mine? No, it's Christ. His righteousness
imputed. The righteousness of God. Then
love. And what is that love? Love in
the truth, siding with Christ and his people against the world.
There's the parameters of true Christian fellowship. It's not
just having fellowship without any truth, but it's walking in
the light, walking in righteousness, walking in love. Second John
is a little book that tells us who we cannot have fellowship
with. and upon what basis. Third John
is a book that tells us who we are to have fellowship with and
on what basis. Read them that way. We'll look
at second John and look at verse nine. He says, whosoever transgresseth
and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine
of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. And if there come
any unto you, and bringeth not this doctrine, now do you hear
this? Receive him not into your house,
neither bid him Godspeed, for he that biddeth him Godspeed
is a partaker of his evil deeds. Now the house that he's talking
about there is the church. He's not saying you can't have
unbelievers in your house. You have family members, you
have people that you work with. He's saying in the fellowship
of the house of God. And what's it based on? It's
based upon the very thing that the natural man hates. Doctrine. Any doctrine? No. The doctrine
of Christ. What is the doctrine of Christ?
It's the doctrine of His glorious person. Who is Jesus Christ? Remember in 1 John 4, He said,
don't believe every spirit. Those who come, not confessing
that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. That kind of thing. Who is Jesus? He's God in human
form. And what did He accomplish? Burn that word into your brain.
Somebody said, well, I believe he died for sinners. Well, what
did he accomplish for those sinners? That's the key to the gospel.
Not just that he died, not just that he was buried. You remember
that passage in 1 Corinthians 15? It says not just that he
died, was buried in a rosary, it said he died according to
the scriptures. What do the scriptures say about
his death? He arose again according to the scriptures. What do the
scriptures say? That's the doctrine of Christ.
And if they bringeth not the doctrine of Christ, and the issue
there is righteousness. How is a sinner made just before
a holy God? That's the issue. And if they
bring not this doctrine, this gospel, according to this word
right here, they don't have God. They're not believers. I pray
for them. I pray that God will reveal his
truth to them. How about you? Don't you? I've
got family members who don't believe this gospel. They claim
to be Christian. I pray for them. If I get the opportunity, I'll
witness to them. I've had a couple of them say,
I don't want to talk to you. You ever had that? We don't want
to hear from you. I had one of them tell me, he
said, you're welcome in my house at any time, but leave your doctrine
outside the door. That's what he told me. And I
simply told him, I said, well, let me tell you something. We'll
visit, and we'll have some good times as family members. But I said, if you ever want
to talk about it, just call me up. I'll be the happiest person
in the world to talk about the true Christ to you. That's the
way it happens, isn't it? Well, all right.