Turn in your Bibles this morning
to the book of Deuteronomy. The book of Deuteronomy and the
32nd chapter. I'll begin reading in verse 1
and read about the first four verses. Deuteronomy 32 and verse
1. Give ear, O ye heavens, and I
will speak, And hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the
rain, My speech shall distill as the dew, As the small rain
upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass, because
I will publish the name of the Lord. Ascribe ye greatness unto
our God. He is the Rock. His work is perfect,
for all His ways are judgment. A God of truth and without iniquity. Just and right is He. I don't know how many times that
I have heard men speak saying something like this. That is
preaching just dead, dry doctrine. And the sad thing is, sometimes
it comes from the lips of those who are supposed to believe the
gospel. To me, it is a sad thing to hear
anyone use the word doctrine as if it was a dirty word. One to be avoided. Some say things
like this. Don't preach doctrine, just preach
Jesus. But this is not what God says,
nor is it the way that He uses this word. You see, this word is used in
the Bible almost fifty times. And rather than speaking of it
in that light, he says it like this, "'Hear, ye children, the
instruction of a father, and attend to no understanding, for
I give you good doctrine.'" I give you good doctrine. And if you look here in this
second verse, you'll find out quite a bit about this doctrine
that he's speaking of. He says, My doctrine shall drop
as the rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, as the small
rain upon the tender herb and as the showers upon the grass." We would certainly at this very
hour welcome such a shower in the natural. All the blades of
grass, all the flowers and the remaining crops and all these
things, they just cry out with this kind of rank, they wouldn't
receive it as something bad. And this is how God, in His condescending
mercy to us, speaks of His doctrine so that we might have some kind
of indication as what it is to His people. What does this word doctrine
mean? Well, it simply means teaching. It has to do with that which
is taught. But not only that, it has to
do also with the reception of what is taught. The reception
of the teachings that are taught. And it is not here simply a teaching
or something that is taught that can be merely accepted if one
wills or rejected if one wills. And that is because he says it
is my doctrine. If something is only the doctrine
of a man, If it is your doctrine, or my doctrine, or the doctrine
of Dr. So-and-so, then it is always
presented as that which can be either believed or not believed,
not so with God's doctrine. His doctrine is to be received
and believed as well as it is to be taught. It is the doctrine
of God. But this is also the reason that
men by nature reject it and will not believe it of themselves. It is because the natural mind,
the carnal mind, is enmity against God. As a matter of fact, we'll
receive about any other doctrine. We'll believe about anything. I heard this week the man who
is famous and so trusted for his hurricane projections. He said this, he said, what men
are saying and believing about global warming, He said it won't
be many years before they'll look back and realize how foolish
it was. We'll believe anything. And especially
in the spiritual realm, we'll believe anything and anybody
as long as it is not actually God's doctrine. But if you notice here, his doctrine,
as it comes to his people and as it is before the world, it
comes as a sovereign doctrine. Why does he use the rain to illustrate
it? Or the dew? It is because, just
like God's doctrine, just like his doctrine, Men cannot say
whether they'll have rain or they won't have rain, whether
the dew will fall or whether it will not fall. If it was such
with men with the dew or the rain, we would have a shower
right now. But it comes from the sovereign
God who gives His doctrine just like the rain, just like the
dew that falls. It comes with a power that cannot
be stopped. And this further shows where
the problem is. It is doctrine that is like the
rain and dew which is not dead. Think about this. He said, my
doctrine shall fall as the rain, and it will appear as the dew
sent of God sovereignly. It will be like the rain which
is moist and living and refreshing. So if the rain falls on that
which is already dead, which has no life in it whatsoever,
it will be absolutely of no benefit to it. But if the rain falls
on what he describes as the living, on that plant or on that grass
to which God has given life, it is refreshment. It is life
itself. It is wonderful because it is
made alive by God. And so God's doctrine, as it
goes forth, is only received with delight and benefit by each
and every one of His people who have been made alive by the Spirit
of God and given faith of God to believe it, to rejoice in
it. And this is how he likens us
as he speaks through the Apostle Peter. He says, For all flesh
is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower
thereof falls away. So what we have here is this
reality. Those who think that this doctrine
is dry and dead are really dead themselves. Dead spiritually. If God's doctrine,
that by which He calls His own Word, his own speakings, as he
says here, give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak. Hear the words
of my mouth. He says, this is my doctrine,
and if it is received or thought of as nothing but dead, dry doctrine,
that's the testimony of death. If it comes to my ears as such. If it is in my mind such nothing
but dead, dry doctrine, then I'm dead. Dead in trespasses
and sin. And what men call dry, dead doctrine
is really the doctrine of the living God. His doctrine is the
gospel. His doctrine is the doctrine
of Christ. And according to God, this doctrine
is ordained of Him and sent of Him to a people who will receive
it wherever they are found and rejoice in it like a lost, thirsty
man in the desert. going to be rain to some herb
that He's made tender. It's going to fall as that which
is welcomed and so needed to somebody who's in this world
which is a desert place. This is what He says about it.
They also that erred in spirit shall come to understand it. And they that murmured shall
learn doctrine." Why? Because that's the will and purpose
of God. That's the means by which He
reveals His self and His salvation to His people. That's the means
of blessings, all the blessings of grace. That's the way it will
come to them. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
was here on this earth, he identified with this doctrine. Let me read
you what he says in John 7. And the Jews marvel, saying,
How knoweth this man letters, having never learned? Jesus answered them and said,
My doctrine is not mine. This is Jehovah's servant speaking. And he attributes, as Jehovah's
servant, this fact that the doctrine is not his especially, but the
Father's particularly. My doctrine is not mine, but
his that sent me. If any man will do his will,
he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether
I speak of myself. He that speaketh of himself seeketh
his own glory, but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the
same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him." He said, I'm come, and my doctrine
is the doctrine of Him that sent me. And it is a doctrine through
which He is glorified and exalted. And then he says this in Matthew
7, And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings,
The people were astonished at his doctrine. What does that
tell you and me? His doctrine is simply his sayings,
which are the sayings, which are the will, which are the doctrine
of the eternal God that sent him. For he taught them as one
having authority and not as the scribes. Turn over to John 17
for just a minute. John chapter 17, and look down
at verse 8 at what our Lord prays to the Father. He says, that the Father gave
him out of the world." Verse 8, "'For I have given unto them
the words which thou gavest me.'" His doctrine, the doctrine of
God has got something to do with words. He's called the words. And we'll never know Him who
is the living Word apart from the written Word." Listen to
what he says, "'For I have given unto them the words which thou
gavest me, and they have received them, and have known surely that
I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst
send me." And then he goes on to say this,
I pray for them, I pray not for the world, but for them which
thou hast given me, for they are thine. And then a little
later he says, Father, I pray for them that shall believe through
these words." The words, the sayings of Christ,
and furthermore, His sayings and the sayings of His Apostle
are the same, and they are set in Scripture in opposition to
every other teaching. Listen to what he says in Matthew
16. How is it that you do not understand that I spake it not
unto you concerning bread, that you should beware of the leaven
of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees? Then understood they how that
he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine
of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees." When he said to them, beware
the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, he was not talking
about bread. He was saying, beware of the
influence of, the intermingling with, and the whole of the doctrine
of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. And their doctrine was simply
the doctrine of salvation by man's works. They had all their little rituals
and ceremonies. They had their oral law and their
tradition. They had a way to dress. They
had a way to tithe. They had a way to do this and
that and the other. But when it's all boiled down
to its finest essence, they believe. that they recommended themselves
to God on the basis of something that they did, or something that
they did not do, or something that they thought, something
of their own works. And Christ said, beware of that
doctrine. Because Christ's doctrine, the
doctrine of God, is salvation by the grace of God. Works and grace will not mix. They are contradictory to one
another in the matter of salvation. God's doctrine, he says, is in
Christ through His blood and His righteousness plus Nothing. And it is still the same today. And although this has been the
doctrine of God throughout all eternity when it is preached,
and I should say even by Christ Himself, It comes to fallen man
as something absolutely new and novel and so contrary to what
we have been taught by men and taught by religion, and so contrary
to what we naturally want to believe, that it shocks us. It's easier to call it dead,
dry doctrine. And let's hear a sermon with
a lot of illustrations. And let's hear a man stand up
and tell a lot of stories. And let's hear somebody stand
up and tell us how we are to live and what we are to do and
talk about stewardship or whatever it is, anything but this doctrine. Tell us about anything or anybody
other than God. Tell us anything, any story,
give us any information, historical event, whatever it is. Do anything
but set forth the things that distinguish the Lord Jesus Christ. They thought when Christ preached,
it was some new doctrine. They thought when He spoke the
things of God, it says they were astonished at His doctrine. They were afraid of the authority
that seemed to be joined to His doctrine. But the doctrine of
God, just like the rain, comes down from heaven and has the
authority of God behind it, And it says what He commands. And it promises what He promises. And it is thus saith the Lord. Because it is God's gospel. Now, we wouldn't even have to
use terms like that if it were not, as the Apostle Paul warned
us, there are another gospels. Did you notice how that he really
doesn't say there are other gospels? And the reason why he doesn't
say there are other gospels He does say that there is really
not another gospel. There is just one gospel, one
doctrine of God. But the reason he doesn't say
that is because, put them all together, they are simply man's
way. There is a way that seemeth right
to a man. The end thereof is the way of
death. There are many ways in that way,
but regardless of what they are, they are the way of death. And that's what seems right to
us. That's what this flesh wants
to believe. That's what we want to hope in
and trust in. And apart from the grace of God,
that's exactly what we do. And this is what all God's prophets
and God's preachers mean. And this is the message that
they have to preach and must preach. God says, it's my doctrine. And that's because it glorifies
only God. If you wanted a rule of thumb,
to take and have in your mind so you'd be able to determine
what's of God and what's not of God. Just ask yourself if
you read something or hear something, does this ascribe all the glory
to God? Or does it in some way glorify
man and his ability or his will or his works or something like
that? You see, this is the only thing
that gives hope to a real sinner. And this is what it's appointed
to be to the Lord's people in every age, good news. And this is what Paul, who was
himself taken to the backside of the desert where he had to
unlearn a multitude of things that he had learned sitting at
the feet of Gamaliel. And when God Almighty taught
him the things that he himself was to know and the things that
he was to speak to others, every time he writes to Titus or Timothy,
he reminds them of this. Take your Bibles, hold your place
here And turn over to 1 Timothy. 1 Timothy and the first chapter. Look at what it says in the very
third verse. He's writing to this young preacher. And this is the instruction to
every preacher, if he be such in every age, He says in verse
3, "...as I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when
I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they
teach no other doctrine." He said, I left you behind. And
it was for this specific purpose. that you charge, that you teach,
that you instruct these left in your care, that they teach
no other doctrine. Now, rather than somebody, rather
than Paul saying, you go and be assured that you don't preach
anything but Jesus, don't preach any doctrine. No, he said, you
make sure that none preach any other doctrine. All right? Look over in 1 Timothy 4. 1 Timothy 4 and verse 6. If thou put the brethren in remembrance
of these things, Thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ,
nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto
thou hast attained." What does he say? A good minister of Jesus
Christ? A good under-shepherd of the
flock of God? What is he? He is a servant. who in his seeking out and in
his study is nourished up by the grace of God in the words
of faith and of good doctrine, and he puts the brethren in remembrance
of these things. Look down also in verse 13. He says to this preacher, till
I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine." You see, this is not something
outside of the gospel. This is the gospel. Look also
in verse 16, "...take heed unto thyself, and unto thee doctrine. Continue in them. Continue to
live a life that is consistent with what you preach. Continue
in thee doctrine, for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself
and them that hear thee." That's the gospel. That's the
doctrine. Look down in chapter 5 of 1 Timothy
and verse 17. Let the elders that rule well
be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in
the word and doctrine. Sometimes people lay to the charge
of a preacher this. Well, he's not really much of
a preacher, but he's a pretty good teacher. They don't know they paid that
man the highest compliment. Somebody's thinking of preaching
as Who can preach the loudest, or tell the best stories, or
entertain the most, or whatever it is, have the most seeming
authority behind it? I hear somebody say sometimes, that was powerful preaching.
I read that. I heard that not too long ago. He did some powerful preaching.
What does that mean? I'm asking, what does that mean? You can take about everything that is in every person you've
ever heard preach, but they didn't preach the gospel
maybe. Well, they preached the loudest. One lady said, he preached
hell so hot you could feel the fire. But he didn't have a clue
of the gospel. He didn't say what thus saith
the Lord. He went through the Bible maybe
like somebody picking strawberries, picked the ones that he liked,
thought were the rifest. Well, he had such a forceful
personality, or he had the greatest eloquence of tongue. That's not
powerful preaching. You want me to tell you what
powerful preaching is? Powerful preaching is the preaching of
the gospel. And it is only powerful preaching
if it is attended by the power and might of the Spirit of God. And otherwise, it's just words
falling off the lips of a man. That hymn writer said it right.
All is vain unless the Spirit of the Holy One come down. Unless
God, the mighty and powerful Spirit, takes the true things
of God and brings them into our heart and makes them to be like
the refreshing rain on that parched place. It may be the loudest. It may
be the most intellectual. It may be the most illustrative. It may be the most entertaining. But it's not truly powerful preaching. Look over in 2 Timothy chapter
3 and verse 16. Well, let's look back at verse
15. Paul says to Timothy, and that
from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures, which are
able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ
Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration
of God and is profitable for Doctrine. Do you see that? All Scripture. All Scripture. Look over in chapter 4 of 2 Timothy. In the second verse, he says
to this man, preach the Word. Be instant, in season, out of
season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. How are you going to reprove
the Lord's people with doctrine? How are you going to rebuke the
Lord's people with doctrine? But now listen to this. How are
you going to encourage them, exhort them with doctrine, with
the gospel? The gospel by which God reveals
his grace in Christ to us is the same gospel by which we are
reproved and rebuked and exhorted and encouraged. But sadly, Paul says, knowing
what he knows by the Spirit of God, for the time will come when
they will not endure sound doctrine. But after their own lust shall
they heap to themselves, teachers, having itching ears. And they shall turn away their
ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables, fairy
tales, stories, man's wisdom. But this doctrine is to be held
steadfastly to, it is to be believed, it is to be contended for, and
our lives are to be consistent with it. And that's the way it
was in the early church, and that's the way it's to be in
today's church. Then they that gladly received
his word, that's what Peter preached. were baptized, and the same day
there were added unto them about three thousand souls, and they
continued steadfastly, first of all, in the apostles' doctrine, and fellowship, and in breaking
of bread, and in prayers." What's the first thing he said? that
characterized the New Testament church, that church at Jerusalem,
they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine. Turn back to 1 Timothy chapter
6 again. 1 Timothy chapter 6. He closes out this first letter
here in this last chapter to Timothy. He says, "...let as
many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters
worthy of all honor." In other words, this simply means
that the Lord saves His people wherever they're at. He doesn't guarantee them civil
liberty, He guarantees them spiritual liberty. And He was saying here,
if you're a servant, if you're a slave in situation, and the
Lord in mercy reveals His salvation to you in Christ, He said, you count your masters
worthy of all honor. that the name of God and his
doctrine be not blasphemed. And they that have believing
masters, let them not despise them, because they are brethren.
but rather do them service, because they are faithful and beloved,
partakers of the benefit. These things teach and exhort,
and if any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome
words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the
doctrine which is according to godliness." That man is proud, knowing nothing. but doting about questions and
strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil
surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and
destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness, from
such withdraw thyself." You see, this doctrine, carries with it, in all those
who believe it, a life that reflects exactly the grace
that has been given. Turn over to Titus chapter 1. Look down at verse 9 as Paul
describes to Titus what a bishop is. pastor, preacher of the gospel, lover of hospitality, lover of
good men, sober, just, holy, temperate. Verse 9, holding fast
the faithful word as he hath been taught that he may be able
by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. What does he preach? What does
he teach? Sound doctrine. Chapter 2, verse
1. He said, but speak thou the things
which become sound doctrine. What's that? That the aged men
be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith and charity and patience.
The aged women likewise. that they be in behavior as becometh
holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers
of good things, that they may teach the young women to be sober,
to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet,
chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands,
that the word of God be not blasphemed. Young men likewise exhort to
be sober-minded in all things, showing thyself a pattern of
good works, in doctrine showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity,
sound speech that cannot be condemned, that he that is of the contrary
part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you. Exhort
servants to be obedient unto their own masters, and to please
them well in all things. not answering again, not purloining,
but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine
of God." The doctrine of God our Savior
in all things. Paul writes to that church at
Ephesus. And he says, be no more children
tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine
by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in
wait to deceive. Now, how important is this doctrine?
Well, like I said, when he says doctrine here in Deuteronomy
32, that means that that word has the thought not only of that
which is taught, but that which must be received. And it is so essential to and
necessary to our salvation and to God's glory that this is what
John says. He said, Whosoever transgresseth
and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. Now, that's not me making something
there. That's God making it there. Whosoever
hath not and transgresseth or abideth not in the doctrine of
Christ hath not God." I don't care how many times he or she
uses the name of Jesus, say they love Jesus, they've served Jesus,
all this. No. He that abideth in the doctrine
of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son, If there come any
unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into
your house, neither bid him Godspeed." See, that's pretty hard. That's
what God says of His doctrine, which is the doctrine of His
Christ. And all who know Christ and believe
on Him, they do so because they've been indoctrinated
by God. Why is it that some believe and
some don't believe? Is it anything of this? No. These
that believe have been literally indoctrinated by God. That's what he says. That's what
Christ says in John 6. He said, it is written in the
prophets, and they shall be all taught of God. Well, I had a funny feeling.
Well, so did I, lots of times. Well, I just think that this
is what the situation is. Well, I thought a lot of things
had been wrong. Where do you get your hope? What
is the basis of you believing you're going to go to heaven?
What is the basis of you believing that God will accept you? He said, And they shall be all
taught of God, every man therefore that hath heard, certainly by
the ear gate, but more than that, As Christ says, he that hath
an ear, let him hear. Every man therefore that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father. Christ said, comes to me. Believes on me. Believes the
doctrine of Christ. which has to do with the things
of Scripture which distinguish Him and teach us who He is and
what He's done. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Which one are you talking about? Why would just simply the name
of Jesus Why would this have any bearing on whether or not
you really had a confidence that is soundly based? This is the doctrine of God our
Savior, which is what? That salvation is of the Lord. And the truth of the matter is
we can know everything else except the doctrine of God and
really know nothing. Well, you know how to do this.
You know this about your job. You know this about what you
learn in school. You know this because you do
this. You know all these things. But what is that going to matter
when you stand before God? You know the current events.
Newspapers do all these things. I tell you, we'd best be reading
the Scriptures. You see, it's like rain. Salvation
is God's to give or to withhold. And he gives it to whom he will,
just like he gives the gospel to whom he will. Everybody hadn't
heard the gospel. Multiplied millions of people
will never hear of his doctrine. That doesn't make them any less
accountable. You see, his doctrine is the
doctrine of grace. That salvation is all of God's
grace. That means it can't be merited
or deserved or earned or in any way approved of. It's all of
grace. God's doctrine is that the gospel
is the good news that salvation is all in Christ. It's not in what he tells us
to do, it's in what he's done. It's all in Christ as the one
whom God has appointed and accepted. It's in Him as our representative
before God. It's in Him as our prophet who
speaks to us for God. It's in Him as our priest who
offers to God the sacrifice of Himself to put away our sin. And it's in Him as our King to
rule over us from His now exalted throne. Turn back to Deuteronomy 32. Look down at verse 3. He says, Because I will publish
the name of the Lord, I'll ascribe, I'll proclaim the name of the
Lord. Ascribe ye greatness unto our
God. He is the rock. His work is perfect. For all his ways are judgment,
a God of truth, and without iniquity just and right is he." I'll publish the name of the
Lord. Who's that? Jehovah. But not just Jehovah in some
abstract sense. Jehovah Jesus. I'll publish his
name. That's what the gospel does.
And that has to, his name, the name has to do with his renown
and his glory, has to do with how he has saved a people and
honored all the attributes of God. I tell you, we've never seen
God, we've never seen the Lord Jesus Christ until we have seen
Him as the One who, as God manifested in the flesh, saved all His people
from their sins. And in doing so, He glorified
and magnified the Godhead in all His attributes. We don't know anything about
the love of God, or the grace of God, or the mercy of God,
or the righteousness of God, or the holiness of God, or the
power of God, or any of His attributes, until we come to see them in
Christ crucified. That's His doctrine. As a matter
of fact, he goes on to say this, Ascribe ye greatness unto our
God. That's what the doctrine of God
does. The gospel does. He says, He is the rock. What does that mean? He is the eternal, unchanging
One. Unchanging in His everlasting
covenant. Unchanging in His purpose and
will. Unchanging in His choices, His
people. Unchanging in His looking to
Christ to provide everything necessary
for their salvation. This is the glorious truth that
God is just to justify every sinner that Christ died for. Now, you look at that fourth
verse. His work is perfect. For all His ways are judgment. All His ways are just. A God of truth and without iniquity,
just and right is He. You see, the gospel, this doctrine
of God, Paul says in Romans 1, is the gospel wherein the righteousness
of God is revealed. And if we have a gospel, if anyone
has a gospel, has a Savior, has a salvation, wherein God is not
shown to be perfect in what He does, that means accomplish exactly
what He intends to, and does it in a gloriously holy way,
but if he does not show himself as a God of truth and without
iniquity and just and right and all his ways just, that's not
the doctrine of God. Let me tell you this. This will
get most of them. Those who believe that Christ
died for all men, And yet, at the same time, we know from the
Scriptures that most of them are going to perish in hell. Well, let me tell you this. If
Christ died for them, then God would be unjust to send them
to hell. And if they are not possessors
of a perfect righteousness, He would be unjust, He would be
unholy to take the rest of them to heaven. But the Gospel declares that
Christ died for His people, and His bloodshed takes away all
their sin, makes atonement for all their sin. And His righteousness,
imputed or charged or reckoned to their account by God Himself, makes them perfectly righteous
in God's sight. Just and right is He. You see, the cross, as well as
the gospel that declares it, is a declaration of God's righteousness,
that He is right to save each and every one in Christ, and
their righteousness, which is the fact that he makes them in
Christ the very righteousness of God. And therefore, he gets all the
glory and does all the saving. It's kind of like this. We've
got a plan out here. We don't know if it's dead or
alive. We're going to put all the fertilizer we can to it,
and we're going to look at it and check it and hoe around and
all that stuff. But if the rain doesn't come, if the rain comes and nothing
happens, we'll know it was dead. If the rain comes, and it strengthens,
turns green, we'll know that God gave it life. Because that
rain was a blessing to it. And we follow the command of
Scripture, the command of our Lord. Go into all the world and
preach the gospel to every creature. Because we're looking for His
sheep. We're looking for that planting of the Lord. Because they'll be out here in
this desert, dry and parched, but He comes to them and gives
them life. And this gospel reign, this reign,
the doctrine of God, it won't be dead, dry doctrine to them. It'll be like rain. Rain, grace,
mercy. Paul said being justified freely
by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom
God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood to
declare His righteousness, for the remission of sins that are
passed through the forbearance of God, to declare, I say at
this time, his righteousness, that he might be just and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." The gospel is his doctrine. the
gospel of grace, His free and sovereign grace, the gospel of
Christ crucified, the gospel wherein He is shown to be righteous
to save all His people in the Lord Jesus Christ. Brother Tim James said in a message,
Some will say that doctrinal preaching and belief are hard
and cold and dry, but such know nothing. The doctrine of God
is the rain upon the tender earth. It is refreshing and blessed. Some may come with doting questions
such as, can you have Christ without doctrine, or can you
have doctrine without Christ? These are the playthings of infected
minds. The fact is that you and I know
nothing about Christ without doctrine, and we know nothing
about true doctrine without Christ. Christ is both the living and
the written Word. And that's what our Lord is saying.
where Joe read, if any man thirst, well, I don't like this doctor. Well, you're not thirsty. You're
still dead. But he said, if any man thirst.
They just had this big religious shindig there in Jerusalem, all
the rituals and ceremonies you can imagine, even things under
the law which were now come to an end. He said, a lot of you are leaving satisfied, but if you are still thirsty, any man thirst, let him come
unto me and drink. You tell me how a man can drink
of Christ. He's not here in body. He cannot
be seen by the natural eye or any other of our natural faculties. He can only drink of this doctrine,
believe this gospel, Partake of this Christ by the enabling
of God's Spirit. Believe on Him. What? What He's revealed of Himself
and His salvation. That's not dead, dry doctrine. He said, my doctrine is like
the rain. There are people on this earth
right now that live in such drought-plagued areas that if it were to start
right now dropping drops of rain out of the sky, they'd run out
into it and just let it fall on them. Just drink it literally
as it comes down from heaven. If it keeps on in this country,
there may be some that do that. That's the way the Lord's sheep
receive His doctrine. Living, life-giving, refreshing. Let me hear about that which
glorifies God, because that which glorifies God in Christ is my
salvation. Father, help us. Create, as we've
sung, that soul-thirst in us, that we might drink of your doctrine,
of the gospel concerning your Son, that we might know that
refreshing blessing. Help us, we pray. Grant that we never count the gospel of your Son to be
such. Grant that we never speak in such foolish terms, but give us the delight to hear
when any speak the truth as it is in Christ. We thank you and
we praise you. We give you all the glory. We are thankful for everything
that you've given us. We pray your continued mercies in the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.