If you would, open your Bibles
with me to 2 Timothy 3. 2 Timothy 3. You'll notice in the bulletin,
Eric Floyd was supposed to be preaching in San Diego this morning,
but his flight was canceled. He couldn't get there from here.
So, their loss is our gain. He's going to come read Scripture
for us and lead in prayer in a few moments. Ron is home from
the hospital, ornery as ever, I guess, and he's home. Lynn
Nybert, Lord willing, is leaving the hospital today, and she will,
they'll be staying, Todd said, in Columbus for three to four
more weeks, but she's having, you know, surgery pain, but the
organs are working well, and they're very encouraged. Lord
willing, this evening, I'll be preaching at Todd's Road, and
then in Danville on Tuesday, Covet your prayers as we travel
and preach. All right, 2 Timothy 3, begin
our reading in verse 13. But evil men and seducers shall
wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But continue
thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured
of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them. 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, for reproof, for correction, for
instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect,
throughly furnished unto all good works. All right, let's
stand together now as Isaac leads us in singing our call to worship. Precious is the name of Jesus
Who can have its worth unfold Far beyond angelic praises Sweetly
sung to harps of gold Precious when to Calvary cloning, He endured
the cursed tree. Precious when His death atoning,
Made an end of sin for me. Precious in His death victorious,
He the host of hell or throes, In His resurrection glorious,
victor crowned o'er all His foes. Precious Lord, beyond expressing
are Thy beauty, May we be seated. Turn to 125. I hear the Savior say, Thy strength
indeed is small, Child of weakness, watch and pray, Find in me thine
all in all. Jesus paid it all, All the debt
I owe, Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as
snow. Lord, now indeed I find Thy power
and Thine alone Can change the leper's spots And melt the heart
of stone. Jesus paid it all, all the debt
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. For nothing good have I, Whereby
thy grace to claim I'll wash my garments white In the blood
of Calvary's Lamb Jesus paid it all, all the debt I owe Sin
had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow, And
went before the throne. I stand in Him complete. Jesus died my soul to save. My lips shall still repeat. Jesus paid it all, all the debt
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. Let's open our Bibles to Romans
chapter 6. Romans 6, beginning in verse
1. What shall we say then? Shall
we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to
sin live any longer therein? Know ye not that so many of us
were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death?
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death. that
like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the
Father, even so we also should walk in the newness of life.
For if we've been planted together in the likeness of his death,
we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. Knowing
this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin
might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin, He that
is dead is freed from sin. Now, if we be dead with Christ,
we believe that we shall also live with him. Knowing that Christ
being raised from the dead dieth no more, death hath no more dominion
over him. For in that he died, he died
unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves
to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in
your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lusts thereof.
Neither yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness
unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive
from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness
unto God. For sin shall not have dominion
over you, For ye are not under the law, but under grace. What
then? Shall we sin because we're not
under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Know ye not that
to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are
to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto
righteousness. But God be thanked that ye were
the servants of sin, but you've obeyed from the heart that form
of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from
sin, you became the servants of righteousness. I speak after
the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh.
For as you've yielded your members' servants to uncleanness and unto
iniquity, even so now yield your members' servants to righteousness,
unto holiness. For when you were the servants
of sin, you were free from righteousness. What fruit had you then in those
things, whereof you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is
death. But now, being made free from sin and become servants
of God, you have your fruit into holiness and the end everlasting
life. For the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Let's go to our Lord in prayer. Our God and Father in heaven,
we thank you for this day. Lord, we thank you for this thy
word. We thank you for the living word.
We thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, we desire to know
more of him. Lord, as we've gathered here
this morning, Lord, as you've brought us here, we pray that
you would bless us with your presence. Lord, that you would
let us see more of the Savior, more of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And Lord, cause us to rest more and more in him. Lord, bless
our pastor as he stands in this place this morning. Lord, to
declare that which you've laid on his heart. Lord, bless him. in preaching your word. Lord,
truly, who is sufficient for these things? Lord, to declare
the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, bless him. Lord, cause
us not to hear the words of a man this morning, but that you would
be pleased to speak through your servant. And Lord, give us ears
to hear. Lord, open these ears and let
us hear of the Savior. Let us rejoice in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Lord, for those of our number
who are in a time of difficulty and trouble, Lord, for those
whom we've heard a good report, Lord, we thank you. And Lord,
we pray that you'd continue to be merciful unto your people. Lord, if you'd see fit to heal. Lord, bless and keep. Lord, so
many, so many in a time of trouble, those we know of and many who
we do not know of. But Lord, Lord, you know your
people. Lord, you know their burden.
Lord, we pray your hand upon each and every one. Lord, we
pray for our young people, Lord, these young ones, these many
young ones you've blessed us with. Lord, protect and keep
them in this world. Lord, above all things, Lord,
we pray your mercy upon them. You be merciful to our children.
Now again, we thank you for this opportunity to worship. Lord,
bless us with your presence. Set aside the thoughts and cares
of this world. Let us see Christ. In his name,
we pray and give thee thanks. God moves in a mysterious way
his wonders to perform. He plants his footsteps in the
sea and rides upon the storm. Deep in unfathomable minds of
never failing skill, he treasures up his bright designs and works
his sovereign will. Ye fearful saints, fresh courage
take, the clouds you so much dread, are big with mercy and
shall break in blessings on your head. Judge not the Lord by feeble
sense, but trust him for his grace. Behind a frowning providence,
he hides a smiling face. His purposes will ripen fast,
unfolding every hour. The bud may have a bitter taste,
but sweet will be the flower. Blind unbelief is sure to err
and scan his work in vain. God is his own interpreter and
he will make it plain. God moves in a mysterious way
his wonders to perform. He plants his footsteps in the
sea and rides upon the storm. Let's open our Bibles now again
to 2 Timothy chapter 3. I titled the message this morning,
The Importance of God's Word. Now you all know that we make
much of God's word here. We read his word aloud in every
service. When we preach, we preach verse
by verse through God's word, normally verse by verse through
a book at a time, so we've covered the whole book so that we'll
be taught the whole counsel of God. If I just bounced around
and picked passages, different passages to preach from every
service. I would trust that the Holy Spirit was leading me, but
invariably what would happen is I'd pick all my favorites
and just, you know, and much like our lesson this morning,
I would probably avoid that subject of church discipline, you know,
quite honestly, but I'm glad I didn't. I'm glad we go through
that. So we see that, that, uh, how God's church is directed
and led is, by the public worship service, by the preaching of
the word. So if we just go verse by verse through the whole word,
well, we'll cover all the counsel of God. And we make so much of
God's word because this book is no mere book. It's the word
of God. This book, I mean, it's a big
book, but relatively speaking, it's not too big, especially
when you consider this. This book contains absolutely
everything. God has to say to me, absolutely
everything. We don't have anything else to
say other than what God's word teaches. We don't have anything
to say, but God's word does. So we need to hear it. That's
why we preach it. And the last verses of this chapter, Paul
gives us seven reasons why the word of God is so important. And I want us to look at that
this morning. Number one is this, this word is so important. because
of who teaches this word, who gives us an understanding of
Christ. Verse 13, second Timothy chapter three, but evil man and
seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But, but you, Timothy, you hurricane
road, Christ church, you who believe Christ continue thou
in the things which thou has learned has been assured of knowing
of whom thou has learned them. Now, men preach and teach the
word, and we're thankful for those preachers and those teachers,
aren't we? You think of Timothy. Timothy learned the word. He
learned the gospel at the knee of his mother and his grandmother.
That's special, wasn't it? Timothy learned the gospel by
hearing the Apostle Paul preach. That's special. I would have
liked to heard him preach, wouldn't you? Timothy had some mighty
good teachers. But you know, we have two. We
have two. But you know, only God, the Holy
Spirit, can teach the word. Only God, the Holy Spirit, can
apply the word to our hearts. Now the Lord uses means, teachers,
preachers, but only God can teach the heart. And when God teaches
the heart, God, the Holy Spirit, we'll believe. We'll believe
the word, we'll believe Christ. Paul tells Timothy, you're continuing
the word. Well, the only way you're going
to continue in this word is if God's taught our heart. Now,
if a man is the one who teaches us the word and it's a man that
impresses us and we claim to have faith because we're just
impressed with the man, how well he teaches, how well he preaches.
We're impressed with his dynamic personality. I'm afraid our faith
is only going to continue until he dies. or until somebody else
comes along, you know, catches our fascination and they may
turn us and hold another direction. But if God teaches the word to
our hearts, we're going to continue in the word. We'll continue in
Christ, no matter who we hear preaching. As long as they're
preaching Christ, our hearts will be thrilled. We'll continue
in it. And Paul tells Timothy, you be assured of what you, what
you know, what you've been taught, be assured of it. But you know,
the only way we can have assurance of the message of this book is
by God-given faith. But God must teach our heart. You can't be assured of these
things that the word teaches by physically seeing things,
can you? Parts of this book over 6,000 years old. You can't go back and see any
of those things as eyewitness, can you? The newest parts of
this book are 2,000 years old. You can't go back and see those
things personally. And all of this book tells us
of eternal things. Tells us of God himself, who's
eternal. Tells us of his covenant of grace,
which is eternal. Tells us of God's purpose of
redemption in Christ, which is eternal. So how can you be assured
of these things? You can't physically see them,
can you? You can't be an eyewitness. How can you be so assured of
these things? One way, God-given faith. God's got to teach our hearts.
The only way we'll be convinced of the truth and the message
of this word is if God the Holy Spirit teaches our heart. Now, most of y'all been here
a long time, heard the gospel many times, haven't you? By this
time, aren't you convinced of some things? Aren't you convinced
of our fall in Adam? Aren't you convinced that you
came into this world dead in sin, alive physically but dead
in sin? Aren't you convinced of that?
Aren't you convinced of our desperate need of Christ? Are you convinced
of that? Are you convinced that the only
righteousness that you can have, the only way that you can be
righteous is in the righteousness of Christ? Aren't you convinced
of that? Aren't you convinced that everything you do is sinful?
Aren't you convinced that Christ is the successful Savior, that
everyone for whom he died is justified. He's the successful
Savior. His blood put their sin away.
They're justified. Aren't you convinced of that? Aren't you
convinced that absolutely everyone who comes to the Lord Jesus Christ
by faith, that he's able to save to the uttermost? Aren't you
convinced of that? Is there any doubt in your mind
that Christ can save the chief of sinners? Aren't you convinced
that the Lord is going to keep his people? He's going to preserve
them. He's going to keep them by the
power of his grace. Are you convinced of those? I
mean, convinced of those things. Can anybody talk you out of them?
Are you convinced? Well, if you're convinced of
those things, I'll tell you why. Some preacher didn't teach you
those things. God did. God taught your heart. How will
a person continue these things? You've been taught these things.
How will you continue? How will you not be carried away
by every wind of doctrine and the cunning craftiness of false
prophet? Your false prophets have always
been around, but they can't spew their message farther and faster
at any time in history than they can right now. How will you not be carried away
by that? I'll tell you how, by being taught the word of God,
by being grounded and settled in the word of God so that we
believe it and we won't be carried away by believing a lie. This
is so important. The word of God is so important
because of who teaches it. God, the Holy spirit does. Number
two, the word is so important because of its message. It teaches
us Christ. Verse 15 Paul says, and that
from a child thou has known the Holy scriptures, but you're able
to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ
Jesus. Like I said a minute ago, this
congregation is our many, many faithful, gifted men who preach
the word of God. Some of you, from a child, your
entire life, as long as you've understood language, you're like
Timothy. Your mother, your father, your
grandparents have taught you. Three years old, just three years
old, brought to Sunday school class, being taught the word,
being taught the word. So all your life long, you've
been taught the scriptures. I have a serious question. And
all that time, what have you learned? I want you to consider
that question and answer it in your heart. All this time that
you've been taught the scriptures, what have you learned? Have you
learned a bunch of true facts? Have you learned to be proud
of your knowledge and your right doctrine? You've been taught
things that are true that the whole world doesn't know. Are
you proud of it? Proud of your knowledge and your
right doctrine? Have you learned to be proud because you had the
best teacher? Yeah, I know there's other believers,
but they didn't have the pastor I had. They didn't have the teachers
I had. Are you proud of that? Have you learned to think that
your knowledge of scriptural facts, your knowledge of right
doctrine, have you learned to think that that's what saves
you? Have you? Well, I pray not. I pray not. Look at John chapter
five. What have you learned? Well, I can tell you this. If
God the Holy Spirit is your teacher, I know what you've learned. You've
learned Christ. You've learned Christ because
Christ is the message of this book. John chapter five, verse
39, our Lord here talking to the Pharisees who are proud of
their knowledge. They're proud of their knowledge
of the scriptures. They're proud of their own righteousness. And
verse 39, our Lord tells them, search the scriptures. And what
he means is you do search the scriptures. No question about
it. They searched the scriptures, the scribes, They spent so much
time in the scriptures, they're transcribing them every day,
copying this one, this one, so there's more copies of the scriptures.
You do search the scriptures, for in them, in this search of
the scriptures, in this memorizing of passages of scriptures, in
them, you think you have eternal life, but you've missed the message
of them. They are they which testify of
me, of me. These men thought the physical
act going through the word of God somehow saved them. And the
Lord says you're wrong about that. It's the message, the object
of this book who saves. The scriptures testify of Christ,
of Christ. The scriptures don't testify
of the law, the law to live by. The scriptures don't testify
of rules and regulations for you to follow. The scriptures
don't testify of morality that you're supposed to have. The
scriptures testify of Christ, of Christ. You can find lots
of books on the law. You can find lots of books on
rules and regulations. You can find lots of books on
morality. There's only one book that teaches you Christ. It's
this one, only one. This book is the only revelation
of Christ the Savior that there is. Revealing Christ is the whole
purpose of this book. And here's how you can tell if
you've learned Christ or not. Look at verse 40 of John five.
And you will not come unto me that you might have life. Now
here's how you can tell if you've learned Christ or not. If you
learn Christ, you'll come to him. You come to him for salvation. If you learn Christ, you'll come
to him begging him for mercy, for forgiveness. If you've learned
Christ, you're going to come to him and you're going to trust
him. You're gonna trust Him to do all the saving for you. You're
gonna trust Him to be all the salvation that you need. And
if you haven't learned Christ, you won't come to Him begging
for mercy. You won't come to Him begging for forgiveness.
You won't come to Him begging Him to be your righteousness,
because you're trusting all your works of religion. You're trusting
all your knowledge and all your doctrine. You're trusting something
other than Christ, so you won't come to Him. If you learn Christ,
you won't come to Him. If you haven't, you won't. Salvation, you know, it's good
for us to know the scriptures and these things that the scriptures
teach. But now scripture is not knowing
the law of God. Scripture is not knowing the
ceremonies of religion. Salvation is not knowing the
form of religion, the right form, the way you do things. Salvation is one person. Salvation
is knowing Christ. Salvation is trusting Christ.
Salvation is having Christ formed in the heart. Salvation is being
born again by the will of God. You must be born again. If you would be saved, you must
be born again. You must be. Look at James chapter
one. How's that gonna happen? If we must be born again, how
is that gonna happen? James chapter one. Verse 18. Of his own will begat he us,
caused us to be born again, begat with the word of truth. Now I can't think of a better
reason than to confine ourselves to preaching and teaching the
word of God. If God's gonna cause anybody
to be born again, it's by this book, the seed. That's the seed
he uses to give life. Look at verse 16 back in our
text, 2 Timothy 3. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God, and it's profitable. It's profitable for doctrine,
reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
All scripture is given by inspiration of God. I'll tell you what that
means. This book is not the writings
of men who knew God. And then since they knew God,
they could give us their thoughts on God. This book is the word
of God himself. Yes, men wrote it, but God spoke
it and they wrote what God, the Holy Spirit spoke to them. They
moved, the Holy Spirit moved them to write. The Holy Spirit
dictated this word of God to them, so this is not the words
of men at all. This is the word of God himself
telling us who he is, telling us what he's like, telling us
how it is that he saves sinners. Now for better or for worse,
I guess just from the area in which we live and which I grew
up, I'm a Cincinnati Reds fan. And if you're a Cincinnati Reds
fan, this is what you love. 1975 and 1976. There's really just not been
a whole lot to hoot and holler about since then. We're still
stuck back in 1975 and 1976. I just, I love the big red machine. And even when the Reds just are
not good, I just can't help it. I watch at least a little bit.
I just, but now 1975, 1976. Tony Perez played first base
for the Cincinnati Reds, and he is my all-time favorite Red. I love Tony Perez. And for Christmas
a couple years ago, or for some occasion, Holly and Doug gave
me a biography of Tony Perez. I was so excited. I started reading
that biography, and in the preface there, the author said Tony Perez
would not have anything to do with this book. He wouldn't be
interviewed. He wouldn't talk to me about
it, because he just doesn't think he's worth telling about. He
just doesn't think that. And the book was still great.
I just loved it. I just ate it up. But it did
make me wonder, how much more would I have learned about Tony
Perez if the book had been written by Tony Perez? See what I'm saying? This book's been written by God.
If you're going to know God, don't you reckon He's the one
who can tell us what He's like? Don't you think He's the one
who can tell us how it is that He saves sinners? This is the
Word of God. And the only thing I can think
of to do is to believe it. God can't lie, can He? I mentioned
earlier, you know, believers believe things in this book even
though you've never seen them. You don't have any physical evidence
that these things are true. I don't think it's all that popular
today. I don't hear about it that much anymore. But I was
a little fella. I heard about this a lot. This
fella kept going up on some mountain somewhere, utterly determined
he was going to find the Ark of Noah. And I thought, oh, that
would be fantastic. That would prove it. And my dad
told me he is never going to find that Ark. Dad said, if it's
there, he said, I don't even think it's there. Brother Fortner
said, Noah got off that boat, and he chopped that boat up for
firewood. But Dad said, even if it's there,
he's never going to find it. God won't allow it. Do you need
some explorer to find Noah's ark for you to believe that story's
true? I don't. I don't. I like what Brother Bell said.
He said, I believe Jonah swallowed the whale, if that's what the
word said. Because that's what God said. Look at 2 Peter 1. You know, we have something better.
You're holding something better in your lap right now than if
you did see all these miracles. All these wonders that you read
about in scripture, the Red Sea parting, the Lord raising the
dead. I mean, can you imagine seeing
a funeral procession and this man, this poor man, stop the
funeral procession, lay his hand on the boy in that casket and
him rising from the dead? Can you imagine such a thing?
Wouldn't you like to see that? Wouldn't you like? Do you know you're
holding in your lap something better than being an eyewitness
of that? Look at Peter's. Peter saw all that, didn't he?
Second Peter one, verse 16. For we've not followed cunningly
devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his
majesty. For he received from God the Father honor and glory.
This is, he's talking about the Mount of Transfiguration. When
there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, this
is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice
which came from heaven, we heard when we were with him in the
Holy Mount. We have also a more sure word of prophecy. Warrant
to you do well that you take heed as into a light that shineth
in a dark place until the day dawn and the day star arise in
your hearts. This more sure word of prophecy
is the Bible, the word of God. Read on verse 20 knowing this,
that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation
for the prophecy came not in old time by will of man, but
holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. So this book, this book is the
word of God and it reveals to us the Lord Jesus Christ. And since this is the word of
God, his word from God himself, it's all truth. This book is
all the words of God's, it's truth. Nothing in this book is
secondhand. It all comes to us directly from
God. And think about this book. This
is the word of God himself, and it's been preserved through the
ages. Thousands and thousands of years,
this word has been preserved in its exact wording. Now, the only way that's possible
is that this is the word of God, that God himself protected it
and preserved it through all these years. How many other books
can you say this of? The books that men have wrote,
men's words, they fall to the ground and they just are forgotten. We want to hear something new,
not the word of God. You're sitting here this morning
hearing the same word, the same gospel that Timothy heard 2000
years ago. It's exactly the same. Books
of men can be burned, they can be destroyed, they can be lost
to history. Isn't the library at Alexandria, they say, such
as catastrophe, you know, it burned down. All these books,
you know, are lost to history. Not the word of God. It was preserved. The books of men can be lost
to lack of interest. Not the word of God. This is
the children's bread. You're still as interested to
hear this today as you were years ago, aren't you? The books of
men can be lost because they've been proven wrong. There used
to be books written about how the earth is flat. Where are
those books now? Now they were proven wrong. Not
the word of God. We see it's pure, unadulterated
truth. And that means that this book
contains everything we need to know to have salvation. This
book contains everything we need to know to have eternal life
and how to live our lives, looking to and depending upon the Lord
Jesus Christ. because that is, he is eternal
life. All right, number three, this
word is so important because it teaches us true doctrine.
Verse 16 says, all scripture is given by inspiration of God
and is profitable for doctrine. Now doctrine is teaching, but
what does the Bible teach us? It's the doctrine of Christ,
the doctrine of Christ. The Bible doesn't tell us how
to live. It wasn't written for that purpose
to tell you how to live. The Bible is not written to tell
you how to be a better spouse or a better neighbor. The Bible
is not written to tell you how to get more blessings, more stuff,
more trinkets in this life. This book teaches us the doctrine
of Christ. One doctrine, the doctrine of
Christ, who he is. This book teaches us that Christ
is He's all. He's all in life. Spiritual life,
physical life, Christ is all. Christ is all in religion. Whatever
religion, religious service we have, religious stuff, things,
motions that we go through, Christ is all in it. In true religion,
now, Christ is all. Christ is all in the worship
of God. He's the only way to approach
God. Christ is all in our doctrine. He's all in our preaching because
Christ is all and in all. Christ is all in righteousness. If God would accept you and me,
we've got to be perfect. We've got to be perfectly righteous.
We've got to obey God's law perfectly. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
the only man ever lived to obey God perfectly. He's the only
one. So the only righteousness that
there is, is the righteousness of Christ, the obedience of Christ.
We can't make ourselves righteous by our works of the law, by trying
to keep the law. You know what comes from our
works of the law? Not righteousness, not life, death. Brother, any
credit for us? The wages of sin is death. That's all we can earn by our
works of the law. If you and I would be made righteous,
we must have Christ. and Christ alone, not Christ
plus our morality, not Christ plus my religious activity, not
Christ plus anything about me. We gotta give up everything about
us, everything we've done, everything about us, and we gotta throw
it away, count it but done, and trust Christ alone. That's what
this word tells us. Christ is all. He's all in righteousness.
Christ is all in salvation. You and I must be saved from
our sin. We must be saved from the wrath
of God against our sin. Well, the Lord Jesus Christ is
the only one who had a sacrifice to offer that would please God,
that would take away the sin of his people. If you and I would
be saved, Christ must be our savior. He must give himself
as a sacrifice for our sin. And we've got to know him. We've
got to trust him. We've got to be found in him.
How's that going to happen? Somebody preaching us the doctrine
of this book. Tell us who Christ is. The doctrine
of the Bible, the teaching of every verse of scripture is Christ. You search this book, and this
is what you'll find out. If God will show you the true
meaning of it, this is what God's going to show you in this book. Christ
is all. He's our wisdom. He's our righteousness. He's our sanctification. He's
our redemption. Christ is our bridegroom. Christ
is our master. He's our Lord. He's our shepherd.
He's our friend. He's our savior. Every passage,
every verse, every sentence of this book proclaims the Lord
Jesus Christ. If you read any passage of scripture
and you don't see Christ in it, I promise you, you've missed
the meaning of the verse. You go back and read it again,
praying that the Lord will reveal to you the doctrine, the teaching
of that verse of scripture. And this is what you'll find,
it's Christ. He's the meaning of every verse of scripture.
All right, number four, this word is so important. because
it gives us good reproof. Paul says it's good for profitable
for doctrine and for reproof. Now that word reproof means convincing. Now believers are convinced of
every point of doctrine, of the gospel, every point of the gospel.
I tell you how we're convinced. It's by seeing Christ, by seeing
Christ. I know I'm convinced of this. I'm convinced. I am totally depraved. I am dead in sin. There's no
goodness about me whatsoever. You know why I'm convinced of
that? I've seen Christ by faith. And like our brother, Job, Job
said, Oh, I heard about you. Now I've seen you. Wherefore
I bore myself. Oh, now I see what I am in the
light of who Christ is. I'm convinced of this. that God
must unconditionally, by no condition that they meet, unconditionally
choose a people to save, and that's the only way I can be
saved. I'm convinced of that. I've got
to be elected in Christ, because if it's dependent on anything
about me, I will be damned. I'm convinced of that. I'm convinced
in limited atonement. And limited atonement just means
this, Christ did not die for every son of Adam. He died for
his elect. and only his elect and all of
those people for whom he died shall be saved. They shall be,
they must be. I'm convinced of that. You know
why? Because by faith I've seen Christ. And this is why I'm convinced
of after I've seen him. The more I learn of him, the more convinced
of this I am. He cannot fail to do what he came to do. Whatever
it is he came to do, he did it. He did it completely. I'm convinced
that God the Holy Spirit irresistibly draws God's people to Christ. They're just drawn to Him. I'm
convinced of that because I've seen Christ by faith. And this
is why I only preach Christ as much and as clearly and as focused
as God will enable me to do it, to only preach Christ. Because
I'm convinced of this. Anybody who sees Christ in His
glory, won't be able to stay away. They'll come to Christ
and you better get out of their way, because nobody's going to
beg them to do it. They're coming to Christ if they
ever see Him. You know how they're going to
be made willing in the day of God's power? He's going to reveal his power
to them. He's going to reveal the right arm of his power, the
right arm of his glory. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. And
they'll willingly run to Christ and beg him for mercy. I'm absolutely
convinced of this, that all of God's saints are going to persevere
to the end and they will awake in Christ's likeness and glory.
I'm convinced that nothing in heaven, earth, or hell can ever
stop that from happening to even one of God's sheep. I'm convinced
of that because by faith I've seen Christ. He has the power
and the love to keep his people no matter what. He'll never cast
them out. We could go on and on and on,
but you see the point here? Everything we're convinced about
all depends on who we know. Not on what we know, on who we
know. And if we know Christ, we know
this, there's nothing impossible with him. If we've seen him by
faith, we're convinced of this, he will do all of his will. He'll fulfill every promise,
every promise of grace, every promise of justice. And that'll
cause us to rest in him because we're convinced he's all we need.
All right, number five, this word is so important because
this word corrects God's people. Paul says this word of God is
profitable for doctrine, for reproof, and for correction. Now this is one thing a believer
will find out about themselves. There's a lot we need to be corrected
about in there. And the first thing this word corrects us on
is our thoughts about ourselves and our thoughts about God. You
know, we're born with flesh that's dead. Since it's dead, this is
what our dead thinking produces. We think that we are good enough
so that God will accept us. We think we can do good enough
if we try that God will accept us. We have far too high of an
opinion about ourselves and far too low an opinion of God. And that needs to be corrected.
Well, the word of God corrects God's people and teaches us that
we're dead in sin, that we have no ability to please God. The
word teaches us that God is holy. God will by no means clear the
guilty. The word teaches us that God
is wise and he's gracious. And in that wisdom and in that
grace, he provided a substitute for his people who would take
the sin of his people away from them and make it his. And he'd
give them his righteousness. He'd make them righteous. He
put their sin away by the sacrifice of himself. See, this word corrects
us and teaches us that Christ is the Savior. Christ is the
Savior. We need him. That's what this
word teaches us. And now you believe, you believe
he's the successful Savior. He is successfully saving his
people from their sin. They cannot perish. This word
also corrects the attitude and conduct of believers. all through
our lives, over and over and over again, by one way, the doctrine
of Christ, by teaching us Christ. God saves his people, but this
flesh is still the flesh. This flesh is still dead, it's
still sinful, it's constantly trying to bring us back into
captivity to the law. It's just carrying a dead carcass
around with you. And there are times a believer
becomes hateful. You know what will correct that
attitude? Hearing of the love of Christ.
That he would sacrifice himself for the likes of you and me.
That'll soften us right up, won't it? Hearing of his love. There
are times a believer becomes unforgiving. We're just not gonna
forgive. And you know how our attitude
will be corrected? By hearing how God forgave us. for Christ's
sake. Oh, that'll fix your wagon, won't
it? There are times a believer will
become lackadaisical about the worship service, become lackadaisical
about helping our brethren, praying for them, looking out for them.
You know what would correct that attitude? Hearing about the faithfulness
of Christ. That he was faithful to do everything
it took to save his people. He's so faithful to his people,
he'll never leave them. He'll never forsake them. That'll
correct our attitude, make us faithful. There are times we
become greedy. We become stingy. We don't want
to give of our money, of our time, of our saying thank you. We become self-centered, greedy,
stingy. You know what'll correct that
attitude? The doctrine of Christ. We'll
hear how God has given his people the unspeakable gift of his son. That'll open your heart right
up on it. This word corrects us just by showing us Christ.
The same way God saved us the first time, so does Christ. It's
the way that he constantly corrects his people. It's like a, I don't
know much about planes, but this is kind of how I understand a
plane on autopilot. You know, that plane's up there
in the air and the wind and all this stuff, you know. Constantly
blowing that plane off course. And that autopilot just keeps
making corrections. Just keep making corrections. If you hadn't been able to go
to San Diego, I'm sure they'd turn that autopilot on. You'd
arrive in San Diego. You wouldn't arrive in Oregon
somewhere. You'd arrive in San Diego. Because that autopilot
just kept that thing right on course. That's what the word
of God does for His people. It just corrects us, just keeps
us looking to Christ, keeps us coming to Christ, keeps us depending
upon Christ. All right, number six. This word
is so important because it instructs us in righteousness. It's profitable
for doctrine, reproved for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
Now even believers are going to fall into this trap of thinking
There are things that I can do to add to my righteousness. Now, I know before God saved
me, before I was born again, before I was regenerated, I know
nothing I did then. But now, after God saved me,
after I've been regenerated, now there are some things that
I can do to, you know, kind of improve my standing with God,
make myself better so my brethren, because I do things that, you
know, I do this and they don't do it. Not all that is a self-righteousness. And you know why a believer,
even a believer, now somebody knows and trusts Christ will
fall into that. This flesh, it's alive and well. But you know
what will correct that attitude? It's the doctrine of Christ.
Hearing of Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord our righteousness. When
I hear of Christ and his obedience, that he freely gives his people,
my attitude will be corrected. and the only thing I will want
is the righteousness of Christ. Either Christ is all of my righteousness
or I don't have any. That's all I want. All right,
last thing. This word is so important because
it causes us to grow in grace. That the man of God may be perfect,
throughly furnished unto all good works. That word perfect
means complete, throughly furnished. That means giving everything
that you need. Just like if you would, we're
renting a house and we go to the beach this year. And you
know when we looked at all the choices and things, we looked
through the pictures. And you know one of the things
we're looking for? How well furnished is it? Does it look like it's
got stuff in the kitchen that you could actually use? Does
it look like the chairs are comfortable? There's six of us going. Is there
enough chairs for us all? Is there enough places for us
to sit? We found a house that was throughly furnished. That's
the believer. They're complete in Christ. Throughly furnished, given everything
they need for righteousness, for salvation, for eternal life,
for acceptance with God. And the only way you can find
that out is from this word. And this word causes us to grow
in grace. to grow into all good works.
And like I've told you so many times, this is what a good work
is. This is what our Lord himself defined as a good work. It's
a work done serving the body of Christ, seeking no glory and
no credit for me. Now, if I'm not going to seek
any glory or credit for me, I need to grow up a little bit. I need
to grow in grace. You know how God causes people
to grow in grace? the message of this book, which
is Christ, our savior, if he could come, the prince of glory, he could humble himself to be
made flesh and come to this earth to save the likes of me, I believe
I could humble myself to help you. The only way we're gonna
get that attitude is the teaching of this book. Christ our Savior. I want God to bless that to your
hearts. Let's bow together. Our Father, how we thank you
for your word. Oh, how we thank you that you've
given us this word, your word to your people. Father, I pray
that you would be our teacher, that you would teach it to the
hearts of each one here this morning and cause us to leave
here Believing in, rejoicing in, resting in Christ our Savior,
who is the message, the object of your book. Father, bless your
word, we pray. You promised that your word would
not return unto you void. We know it won't. We're convinced
of that. And we pray that your purpose this morning in sending
forth your word is mercy and grace to your people to reveal
Christ to our hearts. Father, bless us, we pray. It's
in Christ's name, for his sake we pray, amen. All right, Isaac,
come lead us in a psalm if you would. Stand and sing 212. You, you, you, you, you, you,
you, you What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of
Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. For my pardon this I see, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. For my cleansing this my plea,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. Nothing can for sin atone, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. Not of good that I have done,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. This is all my hope and peace,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my righteousness,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, Nothing
but the blood of Jesus.