In these scriptures, we're gonna look at verse 10. The Apostle Paul, again, doing his best according as the Spirit leads him to encourage Timothy as an elder and a pastor, a teacher at the church at Ephesus. And he's been talking about false preachers in the last days and how bad it will be, perilous times. dangerous times. But he tells Timothy in verse 10, he says, but thou has fully known my doctrine. Now you remember he listed all kinds of things that these false preachers and false believers and God haters would get into. Now he lists these things that by the grace of God, God had brought him into.

The right doctrine, the right teaching, You've known my doctrine, you know my gospel. Timothy knew the gospel, and he didn't first hear it from Paul, he first heard it from his mother and his grandmother. And Paul mentioned that. But he said, you fully know my doctrine, haven't held back.

You know, this idea that people have that salvation and doctrine are somehow at odds, that's crazy. That's not biblical. The doctrine of Christ is a beautiful thing. And just like I showed in 2 John last week, those who do not abide in the doctrine of Christ do not abide in Christ himself. You can't say that a person is abiding or continuing in Christ and not abiding or continuing in the doctrine of Christ. You can't see, believe, trust, know, love Christ under the preaching of a lie. Because Christ is a person who did a work, and the Bible specifically tells us who he is, and he's God manifest in the flesh. So when I hear somebody talking about, I'm gonna preach Christ to you today, if he doesn't preach the God man, If he doesn't preach Emmanuel, God with us, he's not preaching the Christ I trust.

And the only way I know that is by his doctrine. They talk about people who have a head full of knowledge, but no heart, faith. I suppose that's true. But I'm gonna tell you something, the way I feel about that. You might have a head full of knowledge, but it's not real true knowledge. Because if you really know God, That's eternal life. Isn't that what Christ said in John 17? This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. So here's the thing. This is where we have to begin.

You know, when we talk about fellowship, and I'm gonna talk about that in the message on 3 John today, we have to start with doctrine. That's the only thing we've got. You know, I mean, I may look at you and you may be a fine citizen, a good husband or a good wife, a good mother, a good father, and that's all fine. You need to be, you should be, but I can't have fellowship with you in truth based on that.

I gotta know what you believe. And that's what Paul starts with. You fully know my doctrine. You know, when he, talks about those false believers. He talks about how they'll be lovers of their own selves, proud boasters, all of that. They'll have a form of godliness, but deny the power of. That's why we have to begin with the right teaching.

And it's not just head knowledge. I mean, I wanna have a head knowledge, but I want it to reach my heart. I heard a preacher say one time, he said the difference between saved and lost is one foot from here to here. Well, that's not true. Because when the Bible speaks of the heart, it's not talking about here. That's a metaphor, you know that, don't you? The heart in the Bible is the mind, the affections, the will, the desires, the conscience. It's what you are inwardly. It's what you desire and love and live by, what motivates you, your goals. All of that's what the heart is. And the only way we can have a right heart is for God to give us one through the gospel and through the teaching of the truth.

And so Paul says, you fully know my doctrine. You know my gospel. You know I believe the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace conditioned on Christ. that he's our all in all, he fulfilled all those conditions, he satisfied law and justice, and secured the salvation of his people. He died, he was buried, he arose again the third day, he ascended unto the Father, he established the only righteousness whereby God can be just and justify the ungodly.

That's doctrine, and I love it. And why would I put it down? Years ago, I had a preacher preach here who got up in this pulpit and basically said, you don't have to know doctrine, you just have to know Christ. He said, I'm tired of cold, dead doctrine. And I asked him after the service, I said, let me ask you a question. I said, give me an example of cold, dead doctrine from the scripture.

He said, the doctrine of the Pharisees. Didn't Christ tell the disciples, beware of the doctrine of the Pharisees? Well, here's the problem with what he said. The doctrine of the Pharisees was a lie. So if your head's full of that doctrine, you're believing a lie. I said, you go through Genesis to Revelation, you won't find one negative word to describe the doctrine of Christ. It's all put in a positive.

So why should I get up here and put it down? Now, Paul says this, he goes on. He says, you fully know my doctrine, you've known my manner of life, his manner of life as a preacher of the gospel, his ministry for the glory of God, He says you know my purpose, that's to glorify God in the salvation of sinners and to edify God's people. You know my faith, that's his faithfulness, his perseverance. Paul, sitting there in jail, in change, saying God put me here and the gospel goes out further. They've chained me but they can't chain the gospel. And we know all of this is by the grace of God. This is not, Paul's not bragging on himself here.

What he's doing, he's bragging on the Lord. He said, you've known my long suffering, that's my patience. My charity, that's love, love for God, love for the truth, love for the brethren. Patience, that's endurance. And then verse 11, he says, you've known my persecutions.

Paul was persecuted sorely. Every one of those believers back then pretty much were persecuted sorely. We've been persecuted and we'll be persecuted, but thank God our persecution, as Paul called it, our light affliction, he called it light affliction in his day. I wouldn't have called that light. Now I call what we go through light.

We have the derision of people, family members. I know what it's like, folks. I'm not in some kind of aquarium. I know what it is to have mom or dad or brother or sister reject you because of the gospel you believe and because you won't speak peace to them. I know what that is. Your children? Well, every believer in every generation goes through that in some degree or another. It's just there. But I often thank God for our Constitution. You know what I'm saying, don't you?

See, back then, the Jewish Sanhedrin could go into somebody's house and take them out and put them in jail. The Roman government could do that and cut their heads off. That's how Paul died, he had his head cut off. Well, our government can't do that yet.

So, I mean, I thank God for that, that we have those freedoms. That's why I've often said that the Republic and I use the word specifically, the republic that we're in, I believe is the best form of government that natural man can form here on earth. But it ain't gonna last. It's not our salvation.

Christ is, in his righteousness. So think about those things. And then he says, you've known my afflictions, which came unto me in Antioch, at Iconium, At Lystra, what persecutions I endured, but out of them all the Lord delivered me. There you go. In other words, he's not doing this number. Look at me, Timothy, what I accomplished. No, the Lord delivered me. And that's the way it is.

Whatever successes we have in this life in the ministry, and I'm not just talking about pastors and elders, I'm talking about believers, because you do have a ministry. But whatever successes we have, it's of the Lord. We don't have anything to boast of.

What Paul is doing here, he's encouraging Timothy by setting himself apart from these false believers that Timothy was going to have to face. Here's what he says, now look at verse 12. You need to take mind of this verse. Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. And that's why I tell people, look, you don't have to go looking for it.

It comes with the territory. It's called the persecution of the cross. And the reason is, the reason it comes with the territory is because men and women by nature hate the truth. Debbie read me a quote from some, great statesman of the past, he said this, he says, as society moves away, moves further into a lie, those who tell the truth are hated even more. Now you can see that in politics today. Isn't that right? I mean, I've seen politicians, TV, just stand up and tell lies. And the ones that stand up and tell the truth are hated.

People riot on a lie and hate the ones that tell the truth. Well, how much more is it in the gospel? Christ in John 15, he said in verse 18, he said, marvel not if the world hate you. It hated me before it hated you, and the servant's not greater than the master. That's why you tell people, do you really want to follow Christ?

I've heard people say, oh, how great it would be if Jesus were alive today walking around. They'd kill him, just like they did then. We'd kill him, just like we did back then. Now we know it is second coming, we're not gonna kill him, he's gonna make it all right, justly. But they think that Christ had nothing to say but pleasant things to people.

I remember there was a couple that used to come here years and years ago And she said she believed, and the wife did most of the speaking. Go back to Timothy. She said that she believed the gospel, but she didn't like the way I presented it or we presented it, you know, telling people they're lost, that kind of thing. And she came up to me after one message, she said, look at how gently Christ dealt with the woman at the well in John chapter four. And I told her, I said, well, let's turn over there and read a little bit of that. You remember what Christ told the woman at the well?

Woman, you're lying. You've had five husbands and the one you're living with now you're not married to. He said, you don't know what you worship. You're ignorant. I mean he didn't just deal, I don't know how he said it, maybe he whispered it, maybe he shouted it, I don't know. But I know stuff she didn't wanna hear.

It was the truth. And that's all we can do. But it brings persecution. And that's what it is, the persecution of the cross. And Paul spoke of that in Galatians, as you know, and he told the Galatians, You know, if I preached what those false preachers preached, I wouldn't suffer the persecution of the cross. Everybody would be okay. You can preach doctrine as hard as you want, but just speak peace to people and they'll be all right. You know, maybe that's the kind of head knowledge, you know, without heart that people are talking about, but anyway.

Let's go on, verse 13. But evil men and seducers shall wax, that means grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. That's not a description of a sunny, bright future, is it? You think it's bad now? You think you live in the worst of all worlds in history? Well, it's not gonna get any better.

As far as religion, as far as truth is concerned. Now, how do we know all this is true? Look at verse 14. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned, and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them. Okay. Who had Timothy learn these things from? Who did Paul learn? They learned them from God. They learned them from the word of God.

This is God's teaching. This is God's word. And this is what people need to understand, and I've tried to tell people who wanna argue or debate the scripture, I say, look, first of all, understand that when I preach something that is scriptural, and you oppose me and argue with me, you're not opposing me and arguing with me, you're opposing and arguing with God. If I can show you from the scriptures, see. So continue in the things you've learned and has been assured of knowing of whom thou hast learned them. Now how do I know we learned them from God? Look at verse 15. and that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures. And you know the scripture is a way that is talking about the written word.

In the Bible you'll see several ways of expressing the term word of God. You know about the logos. In beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was with God, and the Word was made flesh. That's Christ. Now sometimes the word logos is referring to the Word of God, the truth. But a lot of times it's referring to Christ himself, who is the embodiment of the Word of God. The Word made flesh dwelling among us. He is the Word.

Christ is the expression of the truth of God. in his person as God manifests in the flesh, in his finished work, putting away our sins by the sacrifice of himself, and the righteousness of God. You wanna know the righteousness of God? Look to Christ. It's his righteousness imputed to us. That's how we stand before God, accepted, justified.

And then you'll have another word, it's rahema, We transliterate it in English as R-H-E-M-A. That's the spoken word. The preached word. That's what I'm doing. Preaching the word of God. And then we have the written word, the scriptures. So what we do is we preach Christ through the spoken word based upon the written word. And it all comes together. And it's how we know the truth. So how do I know that I'm preaching the truth?

Well, the holy scriptures. Now, you're looking at a man who as an adult, a young adult, not only didn't know the scriptures, but had actually a contempt for the scriptures, a hatred for them. And the reason I had such a contempt for it is my mother, who, read the scriptures and studied the scriptures, and she first learned the gospel from a preacher on radio. And she talked to me about it, and I'd argue with her. And her arguments were always, always scripture. And I come to a point where I had to admit, well, that's what the scripture says, I just don't believe the scriptures. And there was one time I even got so angry of her quoting scripture and reading scripture, I said, damn, the scripture I wish had never been written.

I made that statement. So you talk about a rebel, that is awful. You may even think less of me now because I said that, but I was lost. And so, I went off all kinds of ways. I went to college and I became a teacher. I went to seminary to become a missionary. Although I don't know why the heck I did that. But anyway, I quit there. I came back and got me a job teaching school.

And I started taking her to church, a church where the pastor preached the scriptures, preached the gospel. And so in my mind, and the reason I went with her is because she was going alone. My dad didn't go to church, but I'd take her and I hated to see her go alone. And so I took her and I'd argue with her about the message.

I remember one time I was going back, we're going back home. I said, mom, if what he said this morning is true, then I'm lost. And she said, well, if you don't believe this gospel, you are lost. I thought, good night. My own mama called me lost. And I wasn't that bad of a kid, I didn't think. So anyway, I set my mind to study the scriptures to prove the man wrong. And you know what happened?

The Holy Spirit intervened. And I came away with a knowledge of and a value and a preciousness of the Bible, the scriptures, that I'd never seen before. God saved this old sinner. He saved this rebel. That's right. Just like Paul on the Damascus Road maybe. I was on US 23 when I was arguing with my mother. But anyway, and that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures. Don't ever let anybody take away your value of the Word of God from Genesis to Revelation. And they'll do everything they can. They'll go into languages.

They'll talk about contradictions. And I'm telling you, they're interpreting it wrong. There are rules of interpretation. That's why I wrote that book, Rightly Dividing the Word. And there are language issues. I've often said this, the gospel is an easy message.

As far as just stating the facts of it, it's not easy to understand savingly because the natural man won't receive it. And it's not because they don't understand it mentally. They understand what you're saying. They just don't want it. And that's the problem. I know because I've been there.

And so the scriptures for the purposes, look at what he says in verse 15. Which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. There's salvation in this book. Now it takes the Spirit of God in the new birth to give us a right spiritual understanding of these things. And then it all comes crashing in. In fact, it comes in so fast a lot of times we can't even take it in. We have to go back and read it again and again and again. I remember Randy's brother, Tony.

He said, when the Lord opened his mind to understand the scriptures, he said, I see it everywhere now. From Genesis to Revelation. And it's there. This is a book of Christ. Salvation. It's able to make you wise and nothing else is. And anything anybody says that is true concerning salvation and a godly life, it comes from here. You can back it up here. That's why we know that Joseph Smith was a false prophet. He added to the scriptures. He found a new revelation. Ooh, that's dangerous. And you look at how many followers he has today in the Mormon church. It's a lie. Because Paul said, from a child thou hast known the Holy Scripture.

And look what he says in the last two verses. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. That word inspiration means breathed. And what he's saying here is the whole word of God is God breathed. This is the breath of God. and is profitable, look at number one, for doctrine. That word that some people consider dirty.

It's profitable for doctrine. Good doctrine is based on the scripture. Good doctrine is the gospel of Christ, the doctrine of Christ. It's the gospel of God's grace in Christ. And it goes through the whole, whole gamut of salvation. Everything salvation is. Doctrine. Profitable for reproof. That's for guiding us, for correction, correcting us. For instruction in righteousness.

That's how we know that salvation is based upon the righteousness of God in Christ. and that right living is walking in Christ, following Christ, looking to and resting to Christ. Resting in Him, following Him. And he says in verse 17 that the man of God, that's a sinner saved by grace, a justified person, sanctified, born again by the Spirit, may be perfect, that means complete.

You're not gonna be perfect in yourself in this life. You're perfect in Christ right now. Because you stand before God and His righteousness imputed. But you'll be complete. And so in other words, you'll understand and know that your complete salvation is fully accomplished by your Savior and your Lord. And he says next, thoroughly or throughly furnished unto all good works.

And good works, as we know, are the work that God does through his people. They're the foreordination of God. We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, not because of, but unto good works which God hath foreordained that we should walk in them. Those are the works that God accepts and is pleased with because they're, like us, covered by the blood of Christ. Okay.