Well, if you would open your
Bibles with me to Romans 6. As you're turning, let me give
you greetings from so many of the folks that were there at
the Millsite Conference. We just had two great days of
services. Clay Curtis is there to preach
both services today. I trust we'll continue to bless
them there. Brother Eric Floyd is preaching
at Todd's Road Grace Church today, all three services. before all
this happened, he's already scheduled to preach there Wednesday, too.
So he'll be there preaching all week this week. Lynn Nybert,
most of you all know, has had the double transplant. I talked
to, texted with Todd this morning. He said she had a very good day
yesterday. She started developing some pretty
bad itching at night after he left, and hopefully that will
go away. But right about this time yesterday,
well, anyway, yesterday, in the morning, Todd said that the doctors
told him the next 48 hours is critical. So we got about 24
more of those critical hours, but she's doing as well as she
can be after that surgery. Lord willing, Ron Meadows is
coming home today, and Aaron Simpson did have a good report
from his doctor this week, and delighted to have Michelle back
with us. It's good to see her face, even with the mask on,
you're smiling. That's good to see you. All right,
Romans chapter six, we'll read the first 18 verses. What should
we say then? Should we continue in sin that
grace may abound? God forbid. How should we that
are dead to sin live any longer therein? Know ye not that so
many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into
his death? Therefore we're buried with him
by baptism into death. that like as Christ was raised
up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also
should walk in newness of life. For if we've been planted together
in the likeness of his death, we should 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, for 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 you 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 lust thereof,
neither yield you 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 you're
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 you yield yourself servants to obey, his servants ye are
to whom you obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience
unto righteousness? But God be thanked that you 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. Thank God for
his word. All right, let's stand together
as Shawn leads us in singing our call to worship. No more, my God, I boast no more
of all the duties I have done. I quit the hopes I held before
to trust the merits of Thy Son. Now for the love I bear His name,
what was my gain? I count my loss, my former pride. I call my shame and nail my glory
to His cross. Yes, and I must and will esteem
all things but lost for Jesus' sake. O may my soul be found
in Him, and of His righteousness partake. The best obedience of my hands
dares not appear before thy throne, but faith can answer thy demands
by pleading what my Lord hath done. If you would, now turn to song
number 318, I Need Thee Every Hour. I need Thee every hour, most
gracious Lord, no tender voice like Thine can peace afford. I need Thee, O I need Thee, Every
hour I need Thee, O bless me now, my Savior, I come to Thee. I need Thee every hour. Stay Thou nearby. Temptations lose their power
when Thou art nigh. I need Thee, oh, I need Thee. Every hour I need Thee. O bless me now, my Savior, I
come to Thee. I need Thee every hour, in joy
or pain. Come quickly and abide, for life
is vain. I need thee, O I need thee, every
hour I need thee. O bless me now, my Savior, I
come to Thee. I need Thee every hour, Most
Holy One. O make me Thine indeed, Thou
blessed Son. I need Thee, O I need Thee. Every hour I need Thee. O bless me now, my Savior, I
come to Thee. Let's open our Bibles now to
the book of 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy chapter 3. This know also that in the last
days perilous times shall come for men shall be lovers of their
own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient
to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce
breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that
are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than
lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the
power thereof. From such turn away, for of this
sort are they which creep into houses and lead captive silly
women laden with sin, led away with diverse lusts, ever learning
and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as
Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist
the truth, men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith,
but they shall proceed no further, for their folly should be manifest
unto all men as theirs also was, But thou hast fully known my
doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity,
patience, persecutions and afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch
and Iconium and at Lystra, which persecutions I endured, but out
of them all the Lord delivered me. Yea, and all that will live
godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. And we'll end our
reading there. Let's bow together. Our Father, we bow at the feet
of thy throne of grace, giving thanks that you've told us in
your word that because of our Lord Jesus Christ, by coming
in him, that we can come boldly, confidently before thy throne
of grace, seeking mercy and grace to help in a time of need. Father, how we thank you for
our Lord Jesus Christ, how we thank you for your provision
of a Savior who completely saves His people from their sins, enables
sinful men and women like we are to come into Thy presence
accepted. And we freely confess it's all because of His obedience
and His righteousness and none of ours. It's all because of
His goodness and none of ours. It's all because of His precious
blood that cleanses us from all sin. Father, we're so thankful. And Father, I pray that this
morning you would enable us by thy spirit to lift up and magnify
and glorify the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that your people
might be fed and comforted and instructed, that your lost sheep
might be found and drawn to Christ the Savior. Father, in this hour,
reveal to us your glory, your redemptive glory in the person
of our Lord Jesus Christ Father, I pray that you enable me to
rightly divide the word of truth, to preach the truth and the power
of thy spirit, and to preach it in a heart of compassion for
poor, sinful men and women. And Father, give your people
an ear to hear, a heart that would believe and cling to the
Lord Jesus Christ as we hear him preached. While we pray for
ourselves, Father, we pray for all of your people who meet together
today to worship thee. Father, bless, cause your gospel
to run well. We pray a special blessing for
our brother Eric as he's preaching there in Lexington. You bless
him in preaching and give him traveling mercies to come back
home to us. Father, for your people who are in times of great
difficulty, we pray for them. We're thankful for the good reports
that we've had, but Father, we continue to pray that you Be
with Lynn and heal and touch her body, and be with her and
Todd and Aubrey in a special way. Thankful for the good reports
on our brothers Aaron and Ron, Father, that you'd continue to
be with them, heal and strengthen them. That you'd pray for Barb,
that you'd heal her body and bring them back to worship with
us soon. Father, there's so many who are
in such trouble and heartache and trial, We're thankful to
know that every case is well in hand, well in your hand, that
you can comfort and heal and be with the hearts of your people.
We pray that you would. And Father again, let us set
aside all the cares and goings on of this life and let us hear
of our Lord Jesus Christ and leave here rejoicing in him.
Of course, in his precious name, we pray and give thanks. Well, I saw the light was still
on, so I thought maybe... All right, let's open our Bibles
now to that passage we just read in 2 Timothy. Chapter three. I've entitled the message this
morning, The Doctrine of God's Preacher. In verse 10, Paul tells
Timothy that you have fully known my doctrine and that word fully
known mean you have, you fully know it, but you've all, it also
means you diligently followed my doctrine. Now, what was Paul's
doctrine? He said, you fully know my doctrine.
What is Paul's doctrine? Your Paul's doctrine is the same
doctrine of all of God's preachers. They all have the same doctrine,
the same message, the same teaching, but what is that doctrine exactly? I mean, there's lots of people
have different doctrines. They talk about different things
that they believe, but what is the doctrine singular, the doctrine
of all of God's preachers? If we would want to know Paul's
doctrine, it'd be good idea for us to look at the epistles that
he wrote under inspiration of the Holy Spirit and look at his
preaching that's recorded in the book of Acts. And I want
us to look at a few of those things this morning, because
if we can learn what Paul's doctrine was, we can learn what the doctrine
of all of God's preachers is. So first look back at Acts chapter
20. Paul's doctrine was repentance toward God. Repentance
toward God. Acts chapter 20 in verse 21,
this is where Paul is talking to the Ephesian elders. He knows
he'll see their face no more. This is his parting instruction
to them. And he tells them in verse 21,
Acts 20, testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks,
repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
And Paul's doctrine was repentance toward God. Now, what is repentance? Repentance is not just being
sorry for your sin. I mean, I guess it does involve
sorrow in some way, but repentance is not just sorrow. We have to
be careful to not make repentance something that it's not, sorrow,
and think that you've just got a sorrow over your sin, and when
is it that you've been sorry enough for your sin? Can you
ever be sorry enough for your sin? I mean, really, is it possible
to be sorry enough for our sin? Your repentance is a gift, isn't
it? A gift of God. God gives repentance
to his people. Let's be careful, don't make
a work out of a gift. You can't be sorry enough for
your sin. The only one who was sorry for
his sin You can read about that this afternoon, Psalm 38. It's
the Lord Jesus Christ. He was sorry. He was sorry. But repentance is not sorrow.
Repentance is a turning. It's repentance toward God and
faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance is turning away from
what you used to trust in and turning to Christ to trust Him. And I guess there's sorrow involved,
and I think the sorrow that is involved is this. I'm sorry I
spent so much time trusting an idol. I'm sorry for that. I wish
I had trusted Christ a whole lot sooner. I wish I had known
him a whole lot sooner. I'm sorry that for how long it
was, I trusted the idol of my own works instead of trusting
Christ. I think that's the sorrow that's
involved in repentance. But now repentance, Also, it's
not sorrow and repentance is not turning from your sin. It's
not turning from your sin in the sense that you quit sinning
and you start sinning less than you used to. Now you're going
to fight against sin and sin less than you used to. Actually, when
you repent and you trust Christ, you're going to find out I sinned
a whole lot more than I ever knew I did. Repentance is not
quitting your sin. Everybody knows they ought to
sin less. Everybody knows that. Everybody knows that. Repentance
is not turning from your sin. Repentance is turning from what
you thought was good. That's what it's returning. It's
turning away from everything that you did that you thought
was so good that it commanded you to God, made God happy with
you instead of somebody else. It's repentance is turning from
those good things, the things you thought were good and counting
those things but done. and throwing them away. So you
trust Christ. That you quit trusting those
things, the manure of your own works, and you trust Christ.
You trust him to be everything that God requires of you of salvation.
There's repentance toward God and faith in Christ. Trusting
him to be enough. You don't have to be sorry enough,
you don't have to be good enough, you don't have to be anything
enough. Just trust Christ. That's repentance. And the only
way anybody's gonna repent The only way anybody's gonna turn
to Christ from their idols is this way. If somebody dares preach
Christ to them. You can't turn to Christ if you've
never heard of Him, can you? You can't trust Christ if you
don't know Him. Somebody's gotta tell you who He is. Somebody
must preach Christ to us and tell us Christ kept the law for
His people. Quit trying to keep it yourselves, because you can't
do it. Trust Christ. He already kept the law for His
people. His obedience, the obedience of Christ, is the only obedience
that there is. Nobody else has ever had any
obedience. His obedience is the only obedience there is. It's
the only obedience we need and the only obedience God will accept.
So trust Him and quit trying to clean yourself up and keep
the law. The hearing of Christ and believing on Christ, that's
the only way anybody will turn to Him from their works. The
only way we'll quit trusting the manure of our own works is
if God lets us hear of Christ and we trust Him. And Paul's
doctrine was to compel sinners to trust Christ. He said, that
was my message. He said, he told those Ephesian
elders, you men know this, that I've testified to both Jews and
the Greeks, you turn to God. Turn from your idols and trust
Christ. And by God's grace, that's my doctrine too. And I'm gonna
tell you again this morning, right where you sit, you turn
to Christ. Right where you sit, you come
to Christ and trust him. All right, number two, Paul's
doctrine was all the counsel of God, the whole gospel. Look
at verse 26 of Acts 20. Wherefore, I take you to record
this day that I'm pure from the blood of all men, for I've not
shown to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Now, when
Paul preached all the counsel of God, did he tell them everything
that God willed, everything that God thinks? No, he didn't tell
them that. What Paul is saying here is I preached unto you all
of the counsel, all of the revealed will of God. We don't know what
all of God's will is, but we do know the revealed will of
God. We do know how it is that God saves sinners. We do know
that. We know, by God's grace, we know this. It's clearly revealed
to us in God's word. God's given us men to preach
it to us, to tell us how it is that God saves a sinner and is
still just at the same time. How can God Save a sinner and
still be holy. How can he forgive their sin
and still be holy? To preach all the counsel of
God is to tell sinners, how can God be merciful and still be
just? How is that possible? It's all
in the Lord Jesus Christ. To preach the whole counsel of
God is to preach Christ, that all the counsel, all the will
of God regarding the salvation of his people is all in one person,
in the Lord Jesus Christ. To preach all the counsel of
God is to tell that God's will of salvation began in the council
halls of eternity. And it culminates in glory in
eternity future. That's where it began, that's
where it ends. Salvation began with the electing
love of God the Father. In love, he chose a people to
redeem. And the salvation of those elect
was purchased by the redeeming love of God the Son. Salvation
for those elect is given by God the Holy Spirit in life-giving
power and love for His people. He gives them life and faith.
And if we would preach all the counsel of God, we must preach
Christ, because that's where it's all at. It's all in Him.
We must declare Christ the successful Savior. Look at verse 28. He
tells them, now you take heed therefore unto yourselves and
all the flock, over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers,
to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own
blood." The Lord Jesus Christ purchased his people. He purchased
the church with his own blood, the blood of his sacrifice that
he shed as a sacrifice for the sin of his people. Now he purchased
them. That's what Paul said, past tense,
he purchased them. The transaction was done. Then
he will have them all. He will. He paid the redemption
price in full. He's going to have them. His
blood cleansed them from all sin. There's no reason for them
to be separated from God anymore. The blood of Christ has cleansed
them from all of their sin. It's impossible that God would
condemn them. He already condemned the substitute
in their place. It's impossible that God would
condemn them. Their sin is gone. The blood of Christ got the job
done because it's the blood of God. It's the blood of God. See,
salvation from its beginning to its ending is all of the Lord. And that's what lets God's people
rest. It's all of the Lord. Salvation
is of the Lord's will. It's of the Lord's purpose. It's
of the Lord's doing. It's all been purchased by the
blood of God's son. It's all of the Lord's application.
God's got to be the one to put life and faith in our hearts,
doesn't He? I was preaching at the conference this weekend.
We were riding back to the hotel. I asked Janice, was I too intense? And she said, I don't think so.
Maybe she's just used to my intensity. I don't know. I fight the urge to do this.
Just to want to reach down and grab you. Pull your chest apart and put
it in. You don't know how bad I want
you to see Christ. I can't do it. I can't do it
for myself. I can't do it for you. It's all
of the Lord's application. When in such a mysterious way
God the Holy Spirit moves, it's suddenly there's life where there
was none before. Suddenly there's belief in Christ where there
was none before. And then it's of the Lord's keeping power.
Oh, you don't have to keep yourself. If God chose you, God the Son
died for you, God the Holy Spirit's given you life, you can bank
on this. God's gonna keep you. He's gonna keep you. But this
is also true. God's sovereign. And you know
what? Man's responsible. Man's responsible. Now, I want you to listen to
me for a minute about this matter of man's responsibility. Because
our nature is dead and fallen in sin, you and I cannot do anything. We can't do anything. We can't
do anything unless God enables us to do it. Yet we're still
responsible. And the best illustration I've
heard of that is this. Suppose somebody goes out and
drinks a great big bunch of alcohol and their blood level Alcohol
levels way higher than the limit. And they go out driving a car.
Driving a car. They cannot control it. It's
out of their ability to be able to control that vehicle. They
cannot do it. Cannot. And while they're driving
that car, Shawna hit one of your children and run over and kill
him. They can't help it. They couldn't control the vehicle.
You just don't hold them accountable? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, we will. Just because man is responsible
does not mean we can do anything to make salvation happen. Man's
responsibility just means this, God's just when he damns us,
because we didn't do what we're responsible to do. I know by
nature it's impossible for you to believe Christ. I understand
that, but we're responsible to do it. And if we don't, God's
just and damning us. That's all that all man's responsibility
means. It doesn't mean that we can save
ourselves. It all means it's God's just and He damns us. Yet
this is true. Scripture says, if you would
be saved, you must believe. You must. Nobody else can do
it for you. You must believe. But that doesn't mean that there's
a part that you can play in your salvation. There's nothing you
can do to make it happen. We must believe. But yet by our
own will, we cannot. And we will not. Only God can
give us a heart that believes Him. Only God can do that. So
a right understanding of man's responsibility is this. Man's
responsible. Yes. And a right understanding
of that man's responsibility is this. We're completely dependent
on God's grace. That is where man's responsibility
leads us. We're completely dependent on
God's grace. We just fall at His feet and
beg Him for mercy. beg Him to give it. I must believe.
Lord, give me the faith to believe. Give me the faith to believe.
I must come to Christ. Lord, draw me to Christ. Make
me come to Christ. And all of those truths must
be preached if we would preach to all the counsel of God. And
the only way we'll see all the counsel of God, the whole revealed
will of God in salvation, the salvation of His people, is to
hear Christ preached and to see Him by God's grace, see Him,
and believe him. It's all revealed in Christ. And the only way we're going
to see that is if somebody dares preach to us that Christ is all. Somebody has got to tell me I'm
nothing and Christ is all. That's the way we'll see God's
revealed will, how God saves his people. Then here's the third
thing about this doctrine. Paul taught the same doctrine
to everybody. Everybody look in verse 21, he
says, testifying both to the Jews and the Greeks, repentance
toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul preached
the same message to everybody. Jew or Greek, religious or heathen,
didn't matter. When Paul went to the synagogue,
he preached the very same message he preached on Mars Hill to a
bunch of idolaters, didn't he? Same message to everybody. Well,
that's what God's preacher will do. God's preacher preaches the
same message to everybody. You know why? Everybody has the
same need. Everybody needs Christ. We all
need to be saved by grace. We all need to be given faith.
We all do. We all need to be saved, don't
we? Well, how does that happen? It's pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them to believe. We need faith. Faith
cometh by hearing. Hearing what? Man's rambling,
man's idea about religion. No, the word of God. the Word
of God. We all need, we all have the
same need. We all need repentance. Every last one of us. Constantly. An unbeliever here, you need
repentance. And the oldest believer here
will tell you, I need repentance today. I need to be constantly
turned away from trusting myself and turn back to Christ. Turn
to trust Him. And you know how that happens?
Somebody preaching Christ to It's the same message. The same
message fits everybody's need. And a man who changes his message
depending on who the audience is, the man who changes his message
depending on what that particular audience might like or dislike
is not God's servant. You write it down. The truth
is the truth, no matter who's listening. The truth is the truth,
whether the sun's shining or the moon, or you see the moon,
it's dark. Truth is the truth. The truth does not change whether
men love it or whether they hate it. The truth, the truth and
God's servants can preach it. We've got no other message. We've
got no other hope. This doctrine, this teaching
is always the same because Christ, the truth is always the same.
I now look at Romans chapter six passage we read to. Open the service this morning,
here's the fourth thing. Paul's doctrine was salvation through
union with Christ. Romans chapter six, verse three. Know ye not that so many of us
as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Therefore we're buried with him by baptism into death. That like
as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the
Father, Even so, we also should walk in newness of life. Now,
this passage here Paul's talking about, he's not talking here
about water baptism. The word baptism means immersion.
What he's talking about is union with Christ. Union with Christ. Now, you and I can never understand
the gospel, we can never understand all the counsel of God, how it
is that God saves sinners, until we understand this doctrine,
this teaching of representation. And that is a doctrine. that
every last one of God's servants preach. All of us, this is the
doctrine of representation. All of us were in Adam. He's
our representative. We were in his loins, we're gonna
descend from him. So we all did what Adam did.
When Adam sinned, you and I sinned in him. It's just not like Adam
sinned and then God charged his sin to us. That wouldn't really
be right, would it? That wouldn't be just, no. When
Adam sinned, we sinned too, because we were in Adam. When Adam died,
God told him, Adam, the day you eat this fruit, dying thou shalt
die. You'll immediately die spiritually and you'll begin to die physically.
When Adam ate that fruit, he died. He died. We did too. We died in him. That's why we
were born into this world dead in trespasses and sins, because
we died a long time ago in Adam. That's how we were made sinners.
through representation, by doing what Adam did. And some of you
might not like that, but if you don't like it, let me ask you
this. How you doing on your own? Not too good, are you? Not too
good. I'm glad. I'm glad. I'm actually thrilled. We are made sinners in Adam. You're wondering why. Here's why. Because if I was
made a sinner by one representative man, I could be made righteous
by another, by the second Adam. And that's what this truth of
representation tells us, that all of God's elect were in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And they did what Christ did. When Christ obeyed the law, they
did too. When Christ pleased the Father,
they did too. When Christ died so that justice
is satisfied, They did too. If you believe Christ, you know
why justice isn't looking for you? You're already dead. Justice
has no more desire to have anything else from you. You already died
because you died in Christ. Now you see why I'm so thrilled
that I could be made a sinner in Adam? Because I can be made
righteous in Christ. Well, how does a sinner get in
Christ? God put them there. And that's what Paul means when
he says we're baptized into Christ. We're immersed into Christ. The
father put all of his people, he immersed them into Christ
so that when he looks at his people, all he sees is Christ. Aren't you glad? The father doesn't
look at me and say, oh, there's my son and there's Frank. No,
I couldn't find any comfort there. When the father looks at me,
all he sees is his son, because he immersed me, put me. Oh, that's
how we did everything that Christ did. It's just like a pregnant
mother. That child does everything that
mother does. It eats everything the mother
does. It goes everywhere the mother does, because that baby
is in its mama. The believer did everything that
Christ did because we're in him. So justice is satisfying. We're
made righteous in Him, and sin has no more claim on the believer.
We already died to it. We died to it in Christ. We died
to its power. Boy, we still sin. Sin is our
whole life, isn't it? It affects everything. But sin
has no more power on you if you believe Christ. And you think,
it sure seems like sin has power on me because I try not to sin,
but that's all I do. Here's how sin doesn't have power over you
anymore. If you believe Christ, you can
remember a time that you did not believe in, can't you? You
can remember a time you could not believe in. I can remember
sitting there, sitting in a big crowd, Brother Henry preaching,
looking around. These people love what this guy's saying.
I ought to love it. I ought to love it. I really
loved the man. I liked him. I wanted to love
what he was saying. I couldn't make myself do it. It was stopping me from believing
Christ and loving Christ. And one day I thought, I believe
that. I love that. I need that. I believe Christ. What happened? Christ came. Sin had no more
power to stop me from believing Christ anymore. Someone asked
Brother Fortner one time, he said, do you ever not believe?
I mean, you think of these men, you know, these giants in the
faith and they're just different from me. Brother Ford, do you
ever not believe? He said, I try to every day and
God won't let me. He won't let me. Oh, and that's
what a believer confesses in believers baptism. When we're
baptized, what we're doing is we're publicly confessing. This
is how God saved me. My only hope is Christ. I was
in him. When he died, I died in him.
When he lived, I lived in him. I obeyed. I did what he did.
And when he died, I died in him. When He rose again, when He was
buried, I was buried, put out of sight, truly dead, dead to
the law, dead to sin. And when He was raised again,
I was raised to walk in newness of life in Him. He's all my hope
of salvation. We confess that what God did
in eternity in believers' baptism, He immersed His people into Christ.
And when we're baptized, we're just confessing, this is what
God did for me. He immersed me into Christ. When
He died, I died. When He was raised, I was raised.
That is the message of every one of God's preachers. Every
last one of them. Here's the fifth thing. Look
at first Timothy chapter four. Salvation is not in the outward. Salvation is an inward work of
God. First Corinthians chapter four,
verse one. Now the spirit. speaketh expressly that in the
latter time, some should depart from the faith, giving heed to
seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. And you notice their
doctrines, plural. Doctrines, plurals, always doctrines
of devils, doctrines of false prophets. They're seducing spirit
and doctrines of devils. When it talks about the truth,
it always talks about doctrine singular. I'll come back in a
minute, but that's why I mentioned this doctrines plural, because
what he says here, the doctrines of devils. speaking lies in hypocrisy,
having their conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to
marry, commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created
to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know
the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to
be refused if it be received with thanksgiving, for it's sanctified
by the word of God in prayer. 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, singular,
good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained, but refused profane
and old wise fables, and exercised thyself rather unto godliness. For bodily exercise profiteth
little, but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise
of life that now is and that which is to come. This is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation. Now Paul draws a distinction
here between doctrines, plural and doctrine. Every single time
in scripture, you look it up, the word doctrines is used. It
talks about false doctrine, doctrines of devils, the doctrines of false
prophets. There are many false doctrines,
but only one true doctrine and that doctrine is the doctrine
of Christ. There are many ways men go wrong. There's only one way to go right
and it's in Christ. And false doctrines, whatever
heading they all come under, whatever denomination they come
under, it always has to do with the outward. Touch not, taste
not, handle not. Do not. Do this or do not do
that. It's all outward. And they say,
now, don't eat this, don't go there, don't do this, don't.
They say if you do those things, you're sinful. And if you don't
do those things, or if you do those things, you're sinful.
If you don't, you're righteous. Now that's a lie. It's a lie. And I have no problem saying
it. It's a lie. Don't you listen to it. Don't
you believe it, because anybody does will be damned. All the
outward, when Paul talks here about the bodily exercise, he's
talking about the outward bodily motions of religion. Stand up,
sit down, fight, fight, fight. You know, do this, do that, burn
candles and incense and things, you know. No profit. No spiritual profit. ever come
from that. There's no spiritual benefit
in it whatsoever. Someone told me one time, well,
yeah, there's some benefit in that people at least act right
and it makes society better. Well, it may make society better
in the sense that, you know, people act a little better, more
morally, outwardly moral. Is it really any profit to them
that's damning their souls? Is it? Come into the services. being faithful to come to the
service, never missing the service, bringing an offering, being kind,
being outwardly moral, trying to be helpful. You know, I'm
for doing all those things. And I'm not saying go out there
and, you know, be evil, but there's no spiritual profit for your
soul in those things if you're trusting in them. See, do those
things out of thanksgiving to God. Don't do those things trusting
your soul to Him. If you do, you have no benefit
to your soul. But there is spiritual. There
is eternal benefit to our souls in godliness. And you know what
godliness is? It's trusting Christ to be all
of our salvation. Be just like the Father. The
Father is the one who first trusted in Christ, isn't He? Godliness
is trusting Christ. to be everything that we need
in order to be saved. Christ is our righteousness.
Christ is our sanctification. Christ is our wisdom. Christ
is our hope. Christ is our Sabbath rest. Christ
is our life. Christ is our way to God. Christ
is our all. Every spiritual blessing that
God has for any sinner is all found in one place, in one person,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And we have it by trust in Christ. by God's free gift. Not by earning
it by what we do or what we don't do now. It's a gift of God's
grace. These blessings are ours through
vital union with Christ. Now that's the truth. And everything
else is a lie. And every last one of God's preachers
preaches that truth. That's the doctrine we preach.
That's the doctrine that we believe. Now look back in our text, 2
Timothy. That doctrine that we preach and believe will direct
the manner, the manner in which we preach. That doctrine that
we believe and that we preach will direct the way that we conduct
our ministry and that we conduct our lives. Our methods will be
directed by our doctrine, by the doctrine that we really believe,
not just the doctrine we say we believe, but whatever it is
that we believe in the heart, That's what's going to direct
our ministry, direct our lives. And that doctrine will not change
over time. Hopefully we'll preach Christ more clearly over time,
more precisely over time, but the doctrine itself will not
change. So here's how our doctrine directs
our lives and directs our ministry. Number one, God's servant, and
this is not just God's preacher, it's all God's people. You're
God's servant. They'll really live what he believes. Verse
10, Paul says, thou has fully known my doctrine and my manner
of life. God's servant is going to live
dependent on Christ. He's going to live dependent
on God's leadership. He'll live in prayer. He'll be
a loving, caring, forgiving person, and he'll do whatever it takes
to preach the gospel, whatever it takes. He'll just be dedicated
to it. He'll be watchful over the sheep,
to protect them from error, to point them to Christ, to be sure
when the sheep are fed, they're fed the green grass of God's
word, not the briars of stuff men make up. He'll be faithful. He'll be faithful to God's word,
he'll be faithful to God's people, because that's what's required
of a steward. And he'll do that because his
doctrine is gonna direct his manner of life. Number two, the
purpose of God's servant. will be to glorify God. Paul
tells Timothy, you've fully known my purpose. The purpose of God's
servant is not going to be to gain a following to himself.
The purpose of God's servant is not to try to get a bunch
of recognition and get a big congregation, you know, and just
keep everybody there, not let them do anything else, you know.
His purpose is not going to be his own self. His purpose is
going to be that God be glorified. His purpose is that people know
and see God's redemptive glory and how almighty God saves an
undeserving people by his deserving son. And his purpose will not
be himself. It'll be the glory of God. It'll
be your good. It'll be your good. He'll be dedicated to your good.
By preaching Christ to you every single time, God gives him a
chance to do it. He'll be dedicated to you. His purpose will be the
truth He can tell the truth no matter who likes it or who dislikes
it. He can preach the truth. It's the only message we got.
What good is it going to do to preach a lie to a sinner, huh?
Preach the truth. His purpose is going to be that
you know Christ. His purpose will be grace, not
law. It will be faith, not works.
His purpose will be to put the flesh in the dust every time
he preaches that Christ might be exalted. That's his purpose.
Thirdly, God's servant will live and he'll preach by faith. Verse
10, Paul says, you've fully known my faith. God's preacher's gonna,
this faith I think is twofold. He's gonna preach faith. He's
gonna preach salvation by faith in Christ alone. Never by works,
always by faith. And secondly, you'll see that
he's faithful. You'll see he's faithful. How do you know if
a man's faithful? Well, just listen to him. If
a man's faithful, he'll continue to preach nothing but Christ
alone, because that's who he trusts. That's who he trusts. I can't trust myself to do any
good for you. I can't trust myself to do any
good for me. But I trust Christ. So I'm going to keep preaching
to you. Fourthly, God's servant's going to be long-suffering and
patient. Paul said, you've seen I'm long-suffering
and patient. You've seen it. God's preacher
is not He can't be, he cannot be impatient. He can't be impatient
to get results. He's not going to try to make
results happen. He's just going to faithfully and patiently continue
to preach Christ because he's going to continue patiently because
he knows this. The Lord's going to accomplish
his will. He's going to save his people. He's going to, he's
going to feed his people. He's going to cause his people
to grow through the preaching of Christ. I can't make anybody
grow. I can't make anybody be saved.
I can't make anybody know Christ. But by God's grace, I can preach
Christ. So we'll be patient just to continue to preach Christ.
We'll be patient with those who oppose themselves, who refuse
to believe Christ, who refuse to bow by just keep preaching
Christ to them. And he'll patiently wait for
the Lord to bless his word because he promised it would. Fifth,
God's servant will be loving. Paul tells Tim, you've known,
you fully know my charity. Now God's preacher, God's servant,
loves God. We love him, don't we, because
he first loved us. And since he loves God, he will
not compromise the gospel of God. He won't do it. He's not
going to lie on God. That's not a sense of meanness. It's not a sense of just holding
the line. Everybody else out there that
won't hold the line is so awful. God's preachers are not going
to compromise the gospel because I love God. I love Him. And He'll
have a love for people. And you know how you can tell
if a man loves you or not? It's not that he's sticky sweet and
doing it on over everything. You know how you can tell a man
has love for people? He keeps preaching Christ to him. He keeps
preaching Christ. He has a love for people, so
he'll tell them the truth, even if their flesh doesn't want to
hear it, because he wants what's best for them. And then here's
the sixth thing. Persecution, hatred, and slander,
and trouble will not make God's servant quit. Verse 11, he said,
Timothy, you've fully known this, that persecutions and afflictions,
which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, and everywhere
Paul went, What persecutions I endured, but out of them all,
the Lord delivered me. Now God's servant's not gonna
change his message because of the persecution of the world.
Of course the world hates this message. Of course the world
hates the message of Christ. And you know, thankfully today,
this persecution doesn't involve what was going on in Paul's day.
All those things that Nero did just, taking believers and sticking
them, just running them through the stick, dipping their body
in tar and lighting them on fire to be streetlights. Just, you
know, for amusement. Beheadings and feeding people
to lions and all these things, you know. Beating people within
an inch of their life. I mean, that was the nicest thing
they did to them. Beating them within an inch of their life. But, you
know, putting them in prisons with horrible, horrible conditions,
pits in the ground. And Paul fake said how many times?
his companions many times without one time ever compromising the
gospel. Now I'm thankful we don't endure
that today, but boy, we still endure hatred of the world. God's
servant is going to just have to bear snide remarks. Critics means a critical, um,
Brother Clay told me yesterday about a man that had one of his
messages transcribed, and it just went through, it was critical
of everything he said, you know, it was critics. He's going to
have to bear being made fun of. He's going to have to bear being
lied on. People going around telling,
oh, he don't preach the gospel. You better not go over, he don't
preach the gospel. They probably don't know what the gospel is,
but they're going around telling everybody he don't preach it.
Lying on him. He's just gonna have to bear
that. He's gonna have to bear it. And here's how he's gonna bear
it. Not letting that affect his message. He's gonna keep preaching
nothing but Christ alone. He's not gonna try to satisfy
those critics, the itching ears of those critics. He's gonna
keep preaching Christ alone. That's the way God's servant's
gonna conduct himself. That's the evidence He really
believes the doctrine that he preaches. See, the doctrine directs
the ministry. We spent some time this weekend,
a couple of the preachers were together, talking about preachers
of the past and messages that we've heard and things that were
so helpful to us many years ago. Every one of those men we talked
about are gone. They're gone. And this is what really struck
me. I've said this before. I think
it is vitally important to us. Those men are gone. God help
us to be faithful to our generation, to preach Christ to our generation. Somebody did that for me. I sure
would like to do it for you. Wouldn't you? Somebody supported
those ministries years ago. Wouldn't you like to support
one of those? So somebody, some poor lost sheep, could be found
and saved because somebody preached Christ to them. I hope we'll
do that by God's grace. Let's bow together. Our Father, how we thank you
for your word. Father, I pray that you would not just let us
be hearers, readers of your word, but by thy grace doers, that
you might give us the heart of faith to believe, to cling to
the Lord Jesus Christ and to preach him to our generation. Father, we beg of you that you
would show us today your glory, your redemptive glory, calling
out and saving your sheep. And we'll give you the praise
and the glory for it. It's in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ we pray and give thanks. Amen. All right, Sean. If you would, please stand and
turn to song number 359, My Faith Looks Up To Thee. My faith looks up to thee, thou
Lamb of Calvary, Savior divine. Now hear me well, When I pray,
take all my sin away, O let me from this day be wholly Thine. May Thy rich grace impart strength
to my fainting heart, my zeal inspire. As Thou hast died for
me, O may my love to Thee Pure, warm, and changeless be a living
fire. While life's dark maze I tread
and griefs around me spread, be thou my guide. bid darkness turn to day, wipe
sorrow's tears away, nor let me ever stray from thee aside. When ends life, trends undreamed,
When death's cold, sullen stream Shall o'er me roll, Bless, Savior,
then in love, Fear and distrust remove, O bear me safe above
a ransomed soul.