Now in that passage that Brother
Randy just read, I'm really going to focus in on the last verses
of chapter 3 of 2 Timothy concerning this subject, furnished unto
all good works. The reason I believe the Lord
laid this passage on my heart was basically two words found
in verse 17. Those two words are the word
perfect and the word, as it's said there in the translation
by the King James translators, throughly, or what we would say
today, thoroughly. Through and through. Perfect
and thoroughly. And I'll talk about that in just
a moment. But I've been thinking about
this, what would be the first message of this new year, and
I've been thinking about the terms accomplishment and beginnings. And this is the passage of scripture
that comes to mind. We think of our past, we think
of this past year and what we've accomplished and now we're beginning
a new year. Well, when it comes to salvation,
we think about the blessings of eternal life and glory that
God gives his people freely. and thoroughly through the Lord
Jesus Christ, we can also think about accomplishments and beginning.
We think about not our own accomplishment, but the accomplishments of Christ
himself as our surety who died on the cross of Calvary to accomplish
the redemption of his people. And what that does for us when
the Holy Spirit applies it to our hearts in the new birth,
It gives us a new beginning. So that how do we begin the Christian
life? We begin the Christian life based
on an accomplishment. And that's what got me to thinking
about this. But let me just give you a little bit of context on
this. The Apostle Paul is, as Randy
said, he's in prison. He's writing this to young Timothy.
Timothy was a young man who was an evangelist. Paul, he was a
companion of the apostle Paul. Paul was in his latter years,
and Timothy had traveled some with Paul, and Paul would leave
Timothy in certain places to help certain churches. For example,
I think Timothy was in Ephesus for three years, and that's probably
where he was when this letter was written. Some scholars argue
about stuff like that, but we don't need to. We just need to
get the message of the scripture. But he mentions at the beginning
of this chapter the perilous times. These perilous times are
the times of the church in the New Testament as we approach
the end of days when the Lord Jesus Christ will split the skies,
we say, break upon the scene of human history once again in
his second coming. coming back to gather his people
unto himself for our glory, that's when we'll be glorified in him,
and to judge the world in righteousness. The scripture says that God's
going to judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained,
in that he hath given assurance unto all men and that he hath
raised him from the dead. In other words, That judgment
of righteousness will be enacted with the authority of the Godhead
through Jesus Christ. Scripture says that the Father
hath committed all judgment unto the Son. And the standard of
that judgment will be righteousness, which is found only in Jesus
Christ. So that when we stand before God at the final judgment,
the issue then, as it is right now, except Only God's people
realize it, recognize it, and submit to it. But the issue then
will be this, do you have a righteousness that answers the demands of God's
law? Now, if you claim to have one,
then the next question is how did you get it? And the Bible
says that there's no man or woman born of Adam who's righteous
before God by their works. We see a scene that is described
by the Lord himself in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter
seven, of sinners standing before God pleading their works. Lord,
haven't we preached in your name? Lord, haven't we cast out demons? Lord, haven't we done many wonderful
works? Only to hear the righteous judge
say, depart from me ye that work iniquity. I never knew you. And
I've heard preachers say in the past, preaching from that passage,
it's Matthew 7, verse 21 through 23, I've heard them say, well,
they just weren't sincere. Well, the Bible doesn't say that. The Bible says is that they were
pleading their own works and not the righteousness of Christ
freely given and imputed to his people by his grace. And I say
all that to say this, Paul is encouraging Timothy to stand
fast and firm and continually preach that gospel of God's grace
in Christ. Pointing sinners to Christ, and
he says in the last days there'll be perilous times, there'll be
all kinds of sin and depravity, and a lot of it will be religious.
He speaks of those who are ever learning in verse seven and never
able to come to the knowledge of the truth. I hear preachers
preach a lot and teachers teach a lot from the scripture, they
quote scripture, they outline scripture, they do word studies,
but they never get to salvation by the grace of God in Jesus
Christ. The Lord himself spoke of the
Pharisees in his day. In John chapter 5, he says, you
do search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal
life. He said, they are they which testify of me. You can
memorize the Bible from cover to cover and still miss its message? That's an awesome thought, isn't
it? You can memorize the Bible. I know a fellow on TV, they call
him the walking Bible. And I've never heard him preach
the gospel of God's grace in Christ. It's always some other
something. numerology or some kind of a
dispensational thing about the second coming of Christ, but
never preach the sovereign mercy and grace of God to sinners in
Christ. And that's what he's talking
about here. And so he encourages Timothy, look at verse 14. He
says, but continue thou in the things which thou has learned
and has been assured of knowing of whom thou has learned them.
What he's saying here, he's talking about Timothy. Timothy is a sinner
saved by grace, one born of God, born of the spirit through the
preaching of the word, the gospel. And he's one who's been gifted
to preach that. He's learned some things. You
know when in the new birth by the Holy Spirit, that's a powerful,
invincible work of God and it involves learning. The scripture
says it in John chapter six, they shall all be taught of God.
God teaches his people. What does he teach us? He teaches
us about who he is and his holiness and his righteousness and his
justice and that he's a God who must punish sin. That he cannot
just look over sin or deny it or forget it or act like it never
existed. God must deal with sin. And he
must deal with sin in strict justice, the scripture says.
You see, people don't understand this today. And I'm not saying
that arrogantly. The moment you say God forgives
sin, you have a major problem. And here's the problem. God must
punish sin with death. The wages of sin is what? Death. So God just can't look at you
or me or any sinner and say, well, let's just forget it. I'm
a loving God. I just feel sorry for you. No,
he's got to punish sin. And the reason is not, it's not
because he's mean or unkind or, or anything like it's because
he's God. He's just, he's righteous. He's holy. That's why. And the Holy Spirit teaches us
from the word of God concerning those issues. You know, people,
they don't wanna hear about a God who hates, but I wanna tell you
something, that's the God of the Bible. But now his hatred
isn't like yours or like mine. Our hatred is sinful because
it's based on selfishness. But God's hatred is his justice. He must punish sin. And I tell
people, there's no love from God outside of Christ. I don't
care who you are. Outside of Christ, there's only
justice and judgment and condemnation. The Holy Spirit teaches us about
ourselves, who we are, that we are sinners and that we deserve
nothing but death and hell. That based on our best efforts
to keep the law, we fall short of righteousness, that we have
none of our own. There's none righteous, no, not
one. I wanna talk about this in just a moment. There's none
that doeth good, no not one. He talks about here being thoroughly
furnished unto all good works. Do you know before we can begin
to do anything or have anything about good works, we have to
be furnished first. What does that mean? Well, the
Holy Spirit also teaches us through the gospel that the only way
of salvation The only way of forgiveness of sins, the only
way of righteousness before God is the Lord Jesus Christ, the
God-man in his glorious person, who died as the substitute and
surety of his people on the cross of Calvary to put away our sins,
paid our debt in full. And that's the only way. He's
the only way. He's the truth. He's the way,
the truth, and the life. No man comes unto the Father
but by him. And that's what Timothy had learned. And Paul says, you
continue in those things because if you really learn those things,
if you really know them to be true, if you're convinced, now
you may have heard a preacher, but you were taught of God. That's
what he means there, knowing of whom thou has learned them.
And then look at verse 15, he says, and that from a child thou
hast known the holy scriptures. That's the written word of God.
That's the Bible. Now back then they only had the
Old Testament or part of the Old Testament, but it's still
the word of God, the written word of God. And he says, these
scriptures, which contain the gospel, which are the word of
God in Christ. Remember what I said in John
539, they are they which testify of me, Christ said. They're able
to make thee wise unto salvation. The wisdom of God, right here,
how God can forgive sins and still be God. How God can be
just and justify. Right here in this word, and
how do you understand that? How does a sinner come to know
that? He says, through faith which is in Christ Jesus. These
scriptures will lead you to Christ for all salvation. In the hands
of the Holy Spirit, by the power of God, the preaching of these
scriptures, this word, this Bible, will lead a sinner to have no
hope except in Christ. No righteousness except in Christ. No forgiveness except in Christ. You understand that? Now that's
what Paul called in 2 Corinthians chapter 11, that's what he called
the simplicity that is in Christ, the singleness. Somebody said,
all you do is preach Christ. Thank you. Put that on my gravestone. All
he preached was Christ. Christ and his righteousness.
I make no apologies for that and I'm not embarrassed about
it. That's what this word is about. And any scripture you
read that doesn't convict you of sin and lead you to Christ
for all salvation and lead you to obedience by way of the motives
of grace and gratitude, you haven't heard or learned what that scripture
means. Now that's it. able to make you wise unto salvation
through faith in Christ. Now look at verse 16. And that's
what he's talking about. He says, all scripture is given
by inspiration of God. That word inspiration, you know
what it means. It means God breathed. It's almost like God sighed and
this is what came out. He says this is the word of God. This is not the word of men.
This is not the opinion of men. I think Randy used to tell me
about a fellow who told you, he said he thought it was great
that everybody could read the scripture and interpret it differently. That's not great. That's why
you have so many religions. That's why you have so many denominations.
That's why you have so many people who don't know these scriptures.
This is God breathed. And so when we go to it, we want
to know what the author intended. We want to know what God means
by this, not what I see or how I interpret it or you interpret
it. Somebody says, well, you interpret it your way. No, there
are rules of interpretation. I don't have time to go into
all that. But here's the thing about it. I'll tell you what,
if it's God breathed, it's going to glorify God and not man. If it's God breathed, it's gonna
put man in the dust where he belongs. If it's God breathed,
it's gonna exalt Christ and him crucified and risen and not you
or me. If anything you read in this
book comes out causing you to exalt self or exalt man, you've
missed it. That's not the right interpretation.
You see, this is not a book about how man gets a leg up. Or a jump start on his way to
salvation. No, this is a book about how
all salvation is in Jesus Christ and him crucified and based on
his righteousness alone. That's what it's about. So it's
inspiration of God. And look here, he says it's profitable
for doctrine. Doctrine means teaching. the
truth of God in Christ, those truths that identify and distinguish
the true God from idols, the true Christ from counterfeits,
profitable for reproof, that means rebuke, that means exposing
our sin to bring about conviction, tells us what's wrong. I hear
people say, well, why don't we just speak what's right? We don't
have to deal with what's wrong. Well, the scripture here is profitable
for reproof. That means telling you what's
wrong, telling me what's wrong. And then for correction, that's
showing us what's right. Setting us straight. Here's the
wrong way, now here's the right way. The wrong way is salvation
conditioned on the sinner. The right way is all salvation
conditioned on Christ who fulfilled all conditions. The wrong way
is the works of man. The right way is the grace of
God in Christ. The wrong way is righteousness
by man's efforts. The wrong way, the right way
is righteousness by Christ. You see? And then he says it's
for instruction in righteousness, training us up in God's way.
Now when it says instruction in righteousness, understand
this, that man's standard of righteousness is always short
of what God's standard of righteousness is. Now how do you know that?
because Jesus Christ had to come and die in order to establish
righteousness. If left to ourselves, we all
go the way of Cain, trying to work our way into God's favor.
And look at verse 17, he says that the man of God, now what
is a man of God? A man of God or a woman of God
is a sinner saved by grace. That's what a man of God is.
He's not somebody who stands out from the crowd and is better
than everybody else. He's not some holier than thou.
He's not somebody who wears a funny collar or a funny hat or has
clergy on his bumper sticker so that you can know he preaches.
No, he's just a sinner saved by grace. We sing at him, only
a sinner saved by grace. This is my story, to God be the
glory. I'm only a sinner saved by grace. That's a man of God. He's one
who knows his sinfulness and his depravity. He's one who knows
he has nothing to recommend him unto God, even at his best. He's
one who knows that he has no righteousness of his own to present. to recommend him. He's one who
knows that if God were to ever give him what he deserved or
what he earned, it would be eternal death and damnation. Lord, if
thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, the psalmist said, who would
stand? He's one who knows. that his hope is built on nothing
less than Jesus' blood and righteousness, and he dares not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly leans on Jesus' name, on Christ the solid rock
he stands, and all other ground is sinking sand. That's a man
of God, that's a woman of God. Sinner saved by grace, and I'll
tell you something. If you're truly a man of God
or a woman of God, you'll never rise above that. But look here, he says that the
man of God may be perfect. Now there's that word perfect.
What does that word mean? It means complete. That he may
be complete. What is it about completeness? Well, it means there's nothing
missing. Now, if we would Observe each other's lives throughout
our everyday living throughout the week we observe If we knew
our thoughts which thank God we don't We could read each other's thoughts
we beat each other's throats wouldn't we? If we could if we could just
observe each other I'm sure that we would all come to this conclusion
that There's a whole lot missing there. That person's just not complete.
Well, turn to Colossians chapter two with me, the book of Colossians. Now this, you know, when we think
about perfection or perfect, you know, people have different
ideas of that. And you've got to look at the context. Somebody
says, well, I'm not a perfect man. Well, I'm not in myself
or a perfect woman. You're not in yourself. But look
at Colossians chapter two and verse nine. And I wanna show you the completeness,
the perfection that the Apostle Paul was talking about for the
man or the woman of God, a sinner saved by grace. And here it is
in verse nine. For in him, now that's in Jesus
Christ, You see that? In Him. He's talking about Christ
who has the preeminence. In Christ dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. Now what that's saying is this.
If you want to know God, if you want to see the glory of God,
the glory of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, look to
Jesus Christ. He is the, He bears the image,
the fullness of the Godhead bodily as God-man. You cannot know God
apart from Jesus Christ. Let me put it to you this way.
You cannot know God savingly apart from Jesus Christ. You
can know some things about God. You can know about creation and
his power and wisdom. Romans chapter one speaks of
that. But to know him savingly, as a sinner saved by grace, it
must be the revelation of God through Christ. as the one surety
who stood in the place of his people and based on sin imputed
charge to him, drank damnation dry for his people and secured
their salvation under glory. So in him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead body. And look at verse 10, and you
are what? Complete. What does it say? What's the next two words? In
him. which is the head of all principality
and power, in whom also you are circumcised with a circumcision
made without hands in putting off the body of the sins of the
flesh by the circumcision of Christ." Now what that's saying
is this. Now I'm not complete in myself. I've got a long way to go. You
do too. And many times when I get to thinking self-righteously,
I think, man, I've had a great time today. I've done well today. I've taken two steps forward.
Then I end up taking four or five steps back in my life. I am not perfect in myself. You're
not perfect in yourself. If you were, you'd never get
sick again. You'd never grow old. You'd never die. But here's what he's saying.
I am complete and perfect in Christ. I am justified in Christ. God cannot and will not charge
me with sin because my sins were charged to Christ. That's why
David, King David, you ever study the life of King David? There are parts of David's life
that you would not wanna use as an example to your children,
am I right? Follow him. Wouldn't wanna do that, would
you? David himself recognized that. He said, although my house
be not so with God. My house, my kingdom, my family's
in a mess, he said, and it was his fault. But here's what David
said in Psalm 32. He said, blessed is the man to
whom the Lord imputeth not or chargeth not iniquity. In Christ, I have a righteousness
that is perfect and complete. Now go back to 2 Timothy chapter
three. What happens here is this, when
the Holy Spirit takes the word of God, written in God's word,
preached by his servant, What does he do? He takes a sinner
and he brings that sinner not to his own perfection, not to
the perfection of that sinner, and we have done, but he brings
us to the perfection of Christ. He shows us the righteousness
of Christ. For Christ is the end, that's
the perfection, the fullness, the finishing of the law for
righteousness to everyone that believeth. And so when he says
in verse 17 that the man of God may be perfect, then he says
thoroughly furnished. In other words, when I see my
perfection in Christ, my completeness in Christ, I am fully through
and through furnished, which means to be equipped, fully equipped
and fitted unto, now you see that? Unto, not because of now,
you see that? Unto all good works. Now, having
seen my perfection in Christ and what he accomplished, I'm
ready for a new beginning. I'm furnished. If you look in
the paper and you wanna get an apartment, It'll either say furnished
or unfurnished. If it says unfurnished, you gotta
go get some furniture, don't you? You gotta go get a bed,
you gotta get a couch. But if it says furnished, you
don't have to bring anything like that. It's already there. So what he's saying is in order
for a sinner to be able to do good works, He's got to already
be perfected and furnished. And how does that happen? By
the grace of God in Christ. Our good works don't perfect
us. In fact, our good works, they themselves have to be washed
in the blood of Christ to be accepted before God. Our good
works do not furnish us. Christ already did that. Unto,
not because of good works. Look at 2 Peter chapter one. Listen to this. Now, one of the
reasons that, you know, I spent a lot of time in my life as an
unregenerate person trying to prove the Bible wrong. I've probably
mentioned, I know some of y'all know my history and I'm not gonna
give Bill's biography this morning or anything. But I spent a lot
of time trying to prove this book wrong. But when the Holy
Spirit opened my eyes and my ears to see and hear the Word,
I began to see this everywhere in Scripture and to see how great
it was that here the Apostle Paul's teaching this great truth.
The completeness of a sinner saved by grace, the completeness
of that sinner saved in Christ, being furnished. And here's Peter
saying the same thing but using different words. But listen to
what he says. Look at verse 1 of 2 Peter 1.
He says, And you might have this in your concordance, and this
is how it would literally read. in the original language, if
we just translate it exactly from the original language, it
would be, with us through the righteousness of our God and
Savior Jesus Christ. In other words, we have faith
that we obtained, not because of our goodness or our free will,
we have faith in Christ that we obtained through His righteousness. In other words, righteousness
is not the fruit of our faith. Faith is the fruit of His righteousness.
And he goes on, he says in verse two, grace and peace be multiplied
unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
That's the same thing that Paul's saying to Timothy. You've been
made wise unto salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. Look at
verse three now. According as his divine power
hath given unto us grace and peace, all things that pertain
unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him that hath
called us to glory and virtue. In other words, we have, as sinners
saved by grace, all things that pertain to life and godliness
given. That's exactly what Paul's saying
to Timothy. And then look back over at Ephesians
chapter two. This is one we, most of us can
quote, at least part of this anyway. Look at verse eight of
Ephesians chapter two. He says, for by grace are you
saved through faith. And that not of yourselves, even
that faith is not of yourself. It's the gift of God. Even faith
is a gift, freely given. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. Now look at verse 10. For we are his workmanship. In
other words, if you're saved, if you're a Christian, you're
not a self-made person. You're the workmanship of somebody
else. Well, whose workmanship are you?
You're God's workmanship. He made you what you are. That's
by grace through Christ. And you're created in Christ
Jesus. In other words, this is how God did it. He saved you
by grace through Christ. Your substitute, your surety,
the Lord, your righteousness. And listen, unto good works. There's that unto again, not
because of. You weren't saved because of
good works. You're saved by grace unto. Good works are the fruit,
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in. This
is the foreordination of God. Now look back at 2 Timothy. Let
me just give you a couple of thoughts here and then I'll close.
I'm gonna talk about in some messages here coming up about
good works. I'll give you several things
on them. But here's something we need
to understand. That by nature, as we are born
dead in trespasses and sins, ruined by the fall, In God's sight, and I want to
emphasize in God's sight, we can do no good works. In God's
sight now. I'm not talking about relativity
here, how it appears before man, all right? I'm talking about
how God sees it in this matter of a relationship with him in
salvation. In order to do good works, in
order to be a conduit of the power and grace of God in good
works, We've got to be perfected in Christ. We who are ruined
by the fall must be what? Redeemed by the blood. We must
be justified based on his righteousness imputed, charged, accounted to
us. And then thirdly, in order to
be a conduit of the power and grace of God, we've got to be
furnished by the power of the Spirit in order to glorify God
in all that we do by way of obedience. There's no other way. How can
we be furnished? How can we be made complete,
we who are sinners? Well, he's talking about good
works. And among men, there's no goodness to be found. Well,
where then am I gonna find goodness? Only in Christ. only in Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. There's no goodness for me before
God now. Again, I wanna emphasize that
I'm not talking about how we relate to one another. We're
to be good to one another according to man's goodness, charitable,
and we're gonna talk about that in other messages. Man by nature,
he can do acts of charity, he can do acts of devotion, he can
do acts of self-denial, even to the point of giving his life
for his country. And I admire that. I thank God
for it, but as far as salvation, as far as bringing forth a righteousness
that answers the demands of God's law and justice, here's what
the scripture says. There's none good, no not one.
There's none righteous, no not one. You see, this matter of
salvation begins and has its foundation in a right relationship
of a sinner with God. And the only way that relationship
can be made right is by His grace through the Lord Jesus Christ.