Second Timothy chapter two, we'll
begin our reading in verse 22. Flee also youthful lust, but
follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace with them that
call on the Lord out of a pure heart. But foolish and unlearned
questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes. And a
servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all,
apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose
themselves, if God perventure will give them repentance to
the acknowledging of the truth, and that they may recover themselves
out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him
at his will. All right, let's all stand together
as Sean leads us in singing our call to worship. Now may the Lord reveal His face
and teach our stammering tongues to make His sovereign reigning
grace the subject of our songs. No sweeter subject can invite
a sinner's heart to sing. For more display the glorious
right of our exalted King. Grace reigns to pardon crims
and sins, to melt the hardest hearts. And from the work it
once begins, it never once departs. T'was grace that called our souls
at first, by grace thus far we've come. ? And grace will help us
through the worst ? ? And grace will take us home ? If you would, please turn into your
red hymnal. It's a song, or page number 56. I am his and he is mine. Loved with everlasting love,
Led by grace that loved to know, Spirit breathing from above,
Thou hast taught me it is so. O this full and perfect peace,
O this transport all divine, In a love which cannot cease,
I am His and He is mine. In a love which cannot cease,
I am His and He is mine. And above this softer blue Earth
around is sweeter green Something lives in every hue Priceless
eyes have never seen birds with gladder songs or flow, flowers
with deeper beauty shine. Since I know, as now I know,
I am His, and He is mine. Since I know, as now I know,
I am His, and He is mine. Things that once were wild alarms
cannot now disturb my rest. Closed in everlasting arms, pillowed
on the loving breast, O to lie forever near, Doubt and care
and self-resign. While he whispers in my ear,
I am his and he is mine. While he whispers in my ear,
I am his and he is mine. is forever only his, who the
Lord and me shall part. Ah, with what a rest of bliss
Christ can fill the loving heart! Heaven and earth may fade and
flee, Firstborn light in gloom decline. But while God and I
shall be, I am His and He is mine. But while God and I shall
be, I am His and He is mine. If you would please open your
Bibles to Psalm 96. Psalm 96. Oh, sing unto the Lord a new
song. Sing unto the Lord all the earth. Sing unto the Lord,
bless his name. Show forth his salvation from
day to day. Declare his glory among the heathen.
His wonders among all the people. For the Lord is great and greatly
to be praised. He is to be feared above all
gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord
made the heavens. Honor and majesty are before
him, strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. Give unto the
Lord, O ye kindreds of the people, give unto the Lord glory and
strength. Give unto the Lord the glory
due unto his name. Bring an offering and come unto
his courts. But worship the Lord in the beauty
of holiness. Fear before him all the earth.
Say among the heathen that the Lord reigneth. The world also
shall be established that it shall not be moved. He shall
judge the people righteously. Let the heavens rejoice and let
the earth be glad. Let the sea roar in the fullness
thereof. Let the field be joyful and all
that is therein. Then shall all the trees of the
wood rejoice before the Lord, for he cometh to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with
righteousness and the people with his truth. Thank God for His word and bow
in prayer, please. Our great Holy Heavenly Father,
we thank you for allowing us to be here this morning and drawing
us. Thank you for the lesson this morning. We pray that in
the next few minutes, as our pastor stands, that you be with
him and uphold him for this task of preaching the gospel to us. Thank you for him and the others,
Father, that stand here and preach to us each Sunday and Wednesday. Thank you for them. We pray for Eric this morning
as he's in Danville. Pray for others, Father, that
travel to preach your word. Give them clear message for the
people there. Let them worship in spirit and
truth and give them a safe return to travel home. For this assembly
here, Father, we pray that you Clear our minds of the concerns
and worries of this life. Let us focus on the message prepared. Teach us more of our Savior out
of the Scriptures. Show us His wonderful work and salvation.
Show us He is our only hope. Let us be found in Him, washed
by His blood. Thank you for the precious blood
that He spilled to shed His blood and atone for sin. He calls us
each day to be thankful for what He's done for sinners. We pray
for our friends and our family members and our children that,
Father, we hold them up to You and pray that You save them by
Your grace. Cause them to see their need and helplessness outside
of Him and show them that Christ is their only hope, salvation.
Again, Father, I pray for a true hour of worship this morning,
but the name and the work of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,
who spoke of and praised here in
this assembly, these things we ask and pray in his name. Jesus, the very thought of Thee
with sweetness fills my breast, but sweeter far Thy face to see,
and in Thy presence rest. nor can the memory find a sweeter
sound than thy blessed name, O Savior of mankind. O hope of every contrived heart,
O joy of all the mean, To those who fall, how kind thou art! How good to those who see! ? But what to those who find love
is ? ? Nor tongue and pen can show ? ? The love of Jesus, what
it is ? ? None but his loved ones know ? ? Jesus, our only
joy be Thou ? ? As Thou our prize will be ? Jesus be Thou our glory
now ? And through eternity All right, let's open our Bibles
again to 2 Timothy chapter two. I titled the message this morning,
Three Great Needs. Lord willing, I want us to see
what those three needs are and how the Lord supplies them. Our
text begins with verse 24. And the servant of the Lord must
not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach and patient. Paul says here, the servant of
God must not strive. Now don't take that to mean that
God's servant is some sort of milquetoast who never takes a
stand. He lets people think whatever
it is they believe about God and whatever they believe about
salvation, just, ah, it's all okay. That's not so. Look back early in the chapter
here, chapter two of second Timothy. Paul talks to us about the character
of this man who's God's servant, a preacher. He says he must be
a hardened soldier. Verse three of chapter two. Thou therefore endure hardness
as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. God's servant must be a good
soldier. He must be bold. He must be brave. He must never surrender. Then
Paul says God's preacher must strive like a Olympic athlete
strives in training and strives in competing. Verse five, he
says, if a man also strive for masteries, if he strives to win
the laurel wreath, yet is he not crowned except he strive
lawfully. God's servant must strive in
this matter of preaching, and he must work hard. He's got to
work hard. He's got to work hard in prayer
and study like a farmer who works all year long. I've got a friend
who's a farmer. He's a cattle rancher. He's in
his 70s. Every time I see him, I shake
his hand. His hand is like that pulpit. Man, he's strong. He's a worker. That's what God's
servant must be. He says in verse 6, The husbandman
that laboreth must be first partaker of the fruits. He must labor.
Scripture calls preaching an exhortation. It means an earnest
call to do something. It's an earnest call to believe
on Christ, to come to Christ. Scripture calls preaching reproving. It means to correct of sin and
to refute error. God's not serving just to allow
error to stand. He's to refute it. Chapter four,
verse one of second Timothy. I charge thee therefore before
the Lord and the Lord Jesus Christ, who should judge the quick and
the dead at his appearing in his kingdom, preach the word,
be instant, in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort
with all long suffering and doctrine. God's servant is to be serious
about this matter of approving, refuting error and teaching truth. Scripture calls preaching contending. The word means to enter into
a contest with an adversary. Jude verse three says, I exhort
you that you should earnestly contend for the faith. Enter
into this contest with an adversary and contend for the faith. So
God's preacher is to be no pushover, not where the truth of Christ,
not where his gospel is concerned, not at all. If we're understanding
what Paul is saying here about the servant of God must not strive,
we've got to look back up a couple of verses and look at this statement
in context. In verse 22, he says, flee also
youthful lusts, but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace with them
that call on the Lord out of a pure heart, but foolish and
unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes.
And what Paul is telling us here is God's preacher cannot get
his eye off the ball. And the ball is Christ. The object
of our preaching is what we're supposed to be doing. This is
what God's preacher's supposed to be doing. And that's supposed
to solve all the social issues of the day. He's to preach Christ. And God's preacher can't get
caught up striving, debating about questions to which there
is no answer in scripture. That's what a foolish and unlearned
question is. It's a question that does not
have an answer in scripture. If Lord's not been pleased to
give us a clear answer in Scripture to a question, here's a clue. We're not supposed to know the
answer. So don't debate it. Don't get caught up in it. It's a pretty thick book. God's
revealed enough in this book, plainly, for us to take up our
time. I promise you, it'll take more
than your lifetime to be taken up with what is clearly revealed,
not what is not. The job of God's preacher is
to exalt Christ. Just keep declaring Christ the
Savior. That's His job. We preach. So we preach. Since our job is
to exalt the Savior, we preach. We don't debate. Here's the difference. When a person debates, you know
what they're doing? They're attempting to get glory
for themselves. If I can debate you and win people over to What
I'm saying, instead of what you're saying, I'm getting the glory
to myself. That's debating. Preaching glorifies Christ. Somebody
who's preaching, his mission is, don't see me, see Christ. Don't come to me, go to Christ. Don't glorify me, glorify Christ.
That is the goal of preaching. If you look back at first Corinthians
chapter one, Debating is not preaching and that kind of thing,
getting caught up into that kind of thing harms God's people.
And that's the last thing we ought to want to do. 1 Corinthians
1 verse 17. For Christ sent me not to baptize,
but to preach the gospel and not with wisdom of words, not
with man's logic and man's intelligence, not with wisdom of words, lest
the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. Now we must
not strive, because if we use our wisdom, if we use our logic,
we use the strength of our debating skills, we're gonna take away
from the glory of Christ. We're gonna get the attention
off of, when we say the cross of Christ, we mean what Christ
accomplished on the cross. We're gonna get our attention
off of that onto ourselves. And that's damning to souls.
That's damning to souls. I mean, this is a very, very
serious matter. And that doesn't just apply to the preacher. Certainly
it does, but it applies to all of us. When we're talking about
religion with folks in our life, our friends, our neighbors, co-workers,
don't debate with them. Don't debate with them. And please
don't mock them. Whether you're in their face
or you're talking about them, but don't mock them. Don't make
fun of them. That's just the wrong attitude.
It's just, we've got a dog that is going blind and he will occasionally
bump into things, you know. We don't make fun of him. Pity
him. That's what we do when we mock
people. They can't help it. Of course
they don't believe. God ain't giving them faith. Just point
sinners to Christ the Savior. Don't make yourself the issue.
And God's preacher is not to get into a personal hand-to-hand
combat with a particular person. Because when we get drawn into
that, we're trying to accomplish our results, not God's. We're
just simply to keep preaching the message of Christ. Christ
and Him crucified. Christ is all you need, and to
preach that without compromise. God will take care of the results.
Just do what God's given you to do. Preach Christ. And that's
what Paul's telling Timothy to do. He said, Timothy, stick to
your business. Your business is preaching Christ
and don't get drawn into debating about these foolish questions.
Now, somebody is asking a foolish question is fool. And if you
fight with a fool, I can promise you he can drag you down to his
level and beat you with experience. Just stay out of it. Don't do
it because that's not the mission God's given us. The mission that
God has given us is to go into all the world and to preach Christ,
to preach him. And there's a manner. There's
an attitude that we're to have when we're preaching or witnessing
to people. Now it must be uncompromising.
We have to have an uncompromising attitude about the truth of Christ.
We can never, ever retreat from that. But at the same time, Paul
tells us to be gentle, be gentle with all men, be gentle with
the lost. It's like I said a second ago,
yeah, I know they're dead. They're blind in their death
and they can't help it. A dead person can't help it that
they're dead. And the deaf aren't going to
hear by us yelling at them. I tell you how they'll hear.
The Holy Spirit has given ears to hear the gospel. Maybe if we just keep preaching
Christ, the Lord will be pleased to give somebody an ear to hear
him. You reckon? Be gentle with all men. Be gentle
with the unbeliever. And be gentle with God's sheep,
too. The Lord told Peter, feed my lambs. Feed my little ones. Now the way that he says that
tells me, do it gently. When you're feeding the little
ones, do it gently. Do it gently. Handle them gently. We got a baby around here, Lynn. We handle her gently, don't we?
Handle her gently. Handle God's lambs gently. Be kind to them. Our Lord was
always gentle, always, with everybody who came to Him seeking mercy.
If somebody came to hear Him preach and desiring to hear a
word from Him, He was always gentle with them. Now, He was
harsh with the self-righteous, wasn't He? I mean, you know,
He'll deal with you on whatever ground you want to come to Him on. If
you come to Him on this ground of your own self-righteousness,
He was harsh with them. He didn't pull any punches with
them. He wasn't compromising. But He was gentle to all who
came to Him seeking mercy. We're to be gentle. And Paul
says here, be patient. Be patient. We're to patiently
teach Christ. Patiently preach him over and
over and over again. Patiently teach the scriptures to everyone.
Now God's preacher has to be apt to teach. God's got to give
him the ability to teach the scriptures. There's a lot of
people that know the scriptures that don't necessarily have the
ability to teach them. God's got to give a man the ability
to be apt to teach the scriptures, to take those scriptures and
teach Christ from them. But we also have to have the
patience to do it over and over and over again and to do it without
compromise. God's servant has to have the
patience to do it over and over and over and to only preach Christ,
to only teach the scriptures, And be patient when you think
you're not seeing results, don't change. Don't change your message
to get more results now. Be patient to only preach Christ
always. See, we must keep preaching Christ. We must keep teaching the word
so that the preaching of Christ takes center stage in absolutely
everything we do in worship, in every single service. If the
preaching of Christ is not the main event, If the preaching
of Christ is not center stage, something else is going to take
center stage. I promise you it will. And you know what? If we
don't make Christ, the preaching of him center stage, you know
what's going to become center stage? Man's ability. Man, flesh in
some way or another is going to end up taking center stage.
And what is going to happen is what Paul said there in 1 Corinthians,
the cross of Christ will be made of none effect. We took the power
out of it. So be patient and just keep preaching
Christ. Wayne prayed for our lost loved
ones. Be patient. Be patient. Keep praying for
them. Keep praying for them. Keep preaching Christ to them.
Keep bringing them. If they're your children, they're
under your roof, they're under your authority, keep bringing
them to hear the preaching of Christ. If they're not, I guess
people don't send tapes anymore, send them a link, send them something
where someday they can hear the gospel. Be patient. Keep preaching
Christ. Keep pointing them to Christ.
I'm telling you, nothing can be more important than that.
Nothing. And this matter of patience is
something that we all have need of. We all have need of patience,
don't we? But I'm telling you, God's servant is going to have
to be patient. You have to be patient. Results
do not happen on our timetable. Most people, don't believe the
gospel the first time they hear it. Most don't, most don't. Usually, they'll either be indifferent,
and that's frustrating, or they'll be mad, and that can be frustrating.
But what do you expect? They're the lost. God's preacher
should be able to be patient with the lost, shouldn't he?
We were lost one time too. Aren't you glad somebody patiently
preached Christ to you over and over and over and over and over
and over and over and over and over again? Aren't you glad?
Maybe we could do that for our generation if God let us. We
should remember what it was like to be lost, to be in darkness,
in the darkness of unbelief so that you cannot hear and you
cannot believe and you cannot love Christ. We ought to remember
what that's like. and patiently keep preaching
Christ, because the only way they're going to be given life
is through the preaching of Christ. And we're going to have to be
patient, not just with the lost, we're going to have to be patient
with God's sheep. God's sheep need constant feeding and constant
reminding. They're God's sheep. God's given
them faith, they believe Christ, they love Christ, they love the
gospel, they depend upon Him, but they're still in the flesh,
and this flesh can be a problem. and we've got to be constantly
reminded. God's servant just can't give
up easily. He just can't give up easily,
can't quit, quit reminded and just get fed up with folks. He's
a sheep too. He needs to be constantly reminded. He needs to be constantly fed
too. So he shouldn't get impatient with the rest of the sheep just
like him should he? We need reminding. Didn't our Lord, display remarkable
patience with his disciples. Didn't he? How many times did
he have to teach him? How many times? He was so patient
with sinners and he taught them. Now I know you and I can't be
perfect like our Lord was, but can't we strive? Can't we strive
to be like, be patient, be patient with foes. And Paul says in verse
25, also in meekness, in meekness, instructing those that oppose
themselves. Now that word meekness means
probably what you think it means, mildness and gentleness. But
here's the definition of the word I think fits best in this
context. It's making oneself small. That's what meekness is, making
oneself small. Now let me tell you what that
means. Make yourself small. It means
don't make yourself the issue. Don't make yourself, we're not
the issue. Make yourself small and make Christ the issue. That's
what we're to do. And do that remembering this.
When somebody opposes the gospel, Paul says that they're opposing
themselves. I know they're opposing you and they're taking it out
on you and that hurts. I mean, it just hurts. That's
the only thing you can say about it. It hurts. But don't take
it personally. Don't take it personally. It's
hard, but try not to do that. Because remember, they're not
opposing us. Look at Proverbs chapter eight. If we've preached
Christ to them, they're not opposing us. They're opposing God. And
they're opposing themselves. In Proverbs chapter eight, this
is the Savior speaking. And look what he says in verse
32. Now therefore hearken unto me,
O you children, for blessed are they that keep my ways. Hear
instruction and refuse it not. Blessed is the man that heareth
me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the post of my doors.
For whoso findeth me, findeth life, and shall obtain favor
of the Lord. But he that sinneth against me
wrongeth his own soul. All they that hate me love death. See, those that are opposing
us, they're not really opposing us. They're opposing God and
they're opposing their own selves, their own selves. Our Lord, the Prince of Preachers,
he said he's meek and lowly in heart. He is mild and gentle
with people. That's why his yoke is easy and
his burden is light. We should be too. Don't be trying
to put a burden on people. Our Lord said, I'm meek and mild
and gentle. My yoke is easy, my burden is
light. Let's make the burden light for people by preaching
Christ to them who took the burden of our sin away. See, that's
the subject of our ministry. That's the subject of our preaching.
It's Christ, isn't it? And that's also the manner in
which we're supposed to preach. To preach to people meekly, yet
truthfully and unbending. All right, now we come to these
three great needs. three great needs that all men
and all women have. And God is pleased to supply
these three great needs through the preaching of the gospel.
So the message, the content of our message must be right, it
must be true, it must be accurate. And our attitude in preaching
has got to be right and humble too. Remember this, the gospel
is offensive to the natural man. And that offense is good, it
is, the flesh has to be offended. The flesh has got to be killed
if we would ever trust Christ. The gospel is offensive, but
let's not make it our goal to offend folks. Let's not make
it our attitude that offends them. Let's not be personally
offensive ourselves. The offense of the cross is enough.
That offense is good. But us being offensive is not
good. It's not good. Us being offensive is trying
to make the wrath of man work the righteousness of God. So
let's not do that. So not only does our message
have to be true and accurate, our attitude needs to be right.
And here's the first great need that we all have. It's that God
grant us repentance. Verse 25, Paul says, in meekness,
instructing those that oppose themselves, if God prevent you,
will give them repentance. Now, repentance is not just feeling
sorry for your sin. I guess there's sorrow could
be involved in it. But that's not what repentance
is. If you're just sorry for your sin, all that is, is you're
sorry you got caught. You know, it's just, you're sorry
that God's holy and just and will punish every sin, you know.
Repentance is not just being sorry. Repentance is a radical
turning. It's a radical change of mind. It's so radical that you're given
a new mind. Repentance is turning 180 degrees
to trust in the opposite of what you used to trust in. It's turning
180 degrees to trust in and love what you used to hate. That's
what repentance is. Now, only God can make somebody
repent like that. This is the gift of God. Paul
says here, if God prevents you, we'll give them repentance. That's
the only way we're gonna repent. It's the gift of God. God's gotta
make us repent. Where does us preaching enter
into this matter of repentance then? Look at 1 Thessalonians
1. Where does us preaching enter
into this matter of God's people repenting? Well, God grants repenting. He grants us turning to Christ
through the preaching of Christ. 1 Thessalonians 1 verse 9. For they themselves show of us
what manner of entering in we had unto you and how you turned
to God from idols to serve the true and living God. Now that's
repentance. He turned to God from idols to serve the true
and living God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he
raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath
to come. Now, when did these Thessalonians, when did they
repent? When did they turn to God from
their idols? When did that happen? When Paul entered in preaching
Christ to them, and not before. See, you can't just turn to somebody
that you don't know. You can't trust somebody that
you don't know. So somebody's got to come preaching Christ
to us so that we'll turn to him from our idols. And by nature,
by our own nature, that's not going to happen. Because by nature,
we love our idols. We made up these idols and we
love them. Our idols have weakness. Our idols only help those that
help themselves. Isn't that right? Can you think
of an idol that just helps people sovereignly? They all help those
who can help themselves. Christ helps those who cannot
help themselves. That's the Savior sinner's need.
Idols only bless those that do good enough. If you do good enough,
you know, your idol will do this, that, and the other for you.
Christ blesses those who can do nothing. Who can do nothing
but trust him. Who can do nothing but beg him
for mercy. Our idols, they only love those who will sacrifice
enough to the idol, who will give enough for the idol, who
will do enough for the idol. Christ proved his love for his
people when he died for us while we were yet sinners. Christ loves
sinners who can't add one thing to them, who can't do one thing
for him. Now that's the savior we need. And the only way we'll
turn to Christ from those idols is if somebody tells us who he
is. Somebody tells us how glorious he is. Somebody tells us what
he's accomplished for his people. The only way we'll turn to Christ,
the only way we'll turn to him and see him and trust him is
the Holy Spirit gives us eyes to see him. How does the Spirit
give us eyes to see Christ? Always through the preaching
of the gospel. And here's our real problem.
When we talk about idols, here is our real problem. Idolatry,
I believe, can always be distilled down to this one thing. Our idol is ourselves. We love
ourselves awful well. Our idol is ourselves because
we think this, you may have an idol shaped like a fat fella
sitting on a bench or you may have an idol that looks like
a woman, you know, all pure and holy and, you know, Ceramic figurine
you may have an idol that looks like a little baby You know laying
in a manger or laying in this place with a halo over it or
something whatever whatever Manifestation of it. You know you think it
is what it boils down to is your idol is yourself We think that
we can save ourselves now you may say it's in service to this
ceramic statue But we think we can save ourselves that makes
us the idol Somebody's got to come and tell us you can't do
that We cannot establish righteousness. We cannot obey God's law. But
Christ did. We can't put our sin away. We
can't do one thing to put our sin away. Even suffering in hell
for an eternity won't put one sin away. We can't put our sin
away. We can't pay our sin debt. We've got a debt we cannot pay,
but Christ did. We can't do something to get
God to accept us. But we're accepted in the beloved.
If somebody will tell us that and the Spirit will give us eyes
to see Christ, we're going to quit trusting in ourselves and
start trusting in Christ. We're going to turn from ourselves
and turn to Christ if somebody will just dare preaching to us.
Of course, we're going to turn to Christ from ourselves if we
ever see our corruption, if we ever see our weakness, if we
ever see our deadness, if we ever see the glory of the Lord
Jesus Christ and his redemptive glory for his people, I promise
you we'll turn to him. And you know what we'll say?
We'll say what Job said. Oh, I heard about you with the
hearing of the ear, but now I see you. Wherefore, I abhor myself. I repent in dust and ashes. I'm not going to trust in myself
and my righteousness anymore. Why do you hate yourself now?
That thing that you used to trust in, why do you now abhor it?
Because I've seen the Savior. I've seen something better. That's
why. Now only God can grant repentance. Faith is the gift of God, and
so is repentance. They go hand in hand. And Paul
said in Romans 4.24, it's the goodness of God that leadeth
thee to repentance. It's the goodness of God. God,
in his goodness, leads you to repentance. Well, again, where
is preaching coming to this thing then? Where is preaching coming
to this thing of repentance if it's the goodness of God that
leadeth thee to repentance? Well, God's elect will turn.
They'll turn to Christ from their idols if somebody comes to us
preaching the goodness of God, how that God saves sinners in
the Lord Jesus Christ, not our works. That's God's goodness.
God's greatest goodness is his sovereign mercy to sinners. I'll
have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And every single one of
those objects of mercy is eternally saved. We'll turn to Christ if
somebody is preaching just like that. And the Spirit gives us
eyes to see. Now remember who's writing this epistle here. It's
the Apostle Paul. Paul wasn't always the Apostle
Paul, was he? Paul used to be Saul of Tarsus. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. And I really don't think, when
Paul talked about all of his past in religion, I don't really
think he was exaggerating. I think outwardly, he did all
those things perfectly. But that had to make him hard
to be around, don't you think? I mean, if he did everything
perfectly, there just couldn't have been anybody more self-righteous
and more judgmental than Saul of Tarsus. And it had to be so
hard to be around him, don't you think? I mean, you just feel
guilty about yourself being around the guy. But boy, there'd been
a big change from that fella to the guy writing this epistle
to young Timothy, wasn't he? Big change. What happened? What happened? Paul repented,
didn't he? When did he repent? Did he repent
when the Lord struck him down on the road to Damascus? Did
he repent those days sitting there in blindness, not eating
anything? Is that when he repented? Paul
repented when Ananias came and preached Christ to him. The Lord
told Ananias, I want you to go down here and preach this fellow,
Saul of Tarsus. Ananias said, I heard about him. I don't want
anything to do with him. I don't want anything to do with
him. I've heard about him. Or should she go preach? In a
meekness, that's what Ananias did. And he dared preach Christ
to that fellow. And he repeated it. He was baptized. We need somebody to do that for
us. Don't we? We need to do that for others.
God help us. God help us to do it. Because all of Adam's race
is self-righteous. We all are. Paul's soft hearts
of self-righteousness hold nothing. to ours. We're just as self-righteous
as he. We all trust in our own works.
We're so full of ourselves, we actually think something I do
is going to make God happy with me. And they just showed you
how dead we are. They just showed you how blind
we are. We got no idea how sinful we are. We got no idea how dead
we are. We got no idea how offensive
that we are. And the only way we're ever going
to repent, the only way we're going to quit trusting our own
works is if somebody dares offend our flesh by preaching Christ
to us. Somebody's got to be bold enough.
Somebody's got to be compassionate enough. Got to be both compassionate
and bold to tell us how rotten we are and how glorious Christ
is. And if the Lord will ever enable
us to see Christ is all we need. We'll run to him. We need Christ
to be our righteousness. We need his blood that cleanses
us from all sin. We need the life giving power
of Christ. We need his keeping power. We
need his love for us. If the Lord lets us see that,
we'll run to him. And that's going to take boldness.
It's going to take compassion and patience on the part of a
preacher to keep preaching Christ and keep teaching the word and
keep telling sinners, you come to Christ. You come to Christ.
The flesh is going to hate it. The flesh is going to resist
it, but that's the message that God uses to grant repentance
and call his people to Christ. Then God help us to preach it.
All right, here's a second great need. It's the love of the truth. We need the Lord to give us the
love of the truth. Verse 25, Paul says at the end
of the verse there, that God will give them repentance to
the acknowledging of the truth. Now that word acknowledging means
a correct knowledge of the truth. You can't be saved believing
a lie. You can't be saved, you know, somebody says, oh, you
just believe on the name of Jesus, you'll be saved. Well now wait
a minute. It's got to be the right Jesus.
It's got to be the right savior. It's got to be the right person
you're believing in. It's got to be a belief of the
truth. Acknowledging of the correct knowledge of the truth. And our
problem by nature is our carnal mind hates the truth and loves
lies. That's our problem. And man, by his own nature, cannot
be saved because we hate the truth. Second Thessalonians 2.10,
Paul talks about those who perish. He said they perish because they
believed not, or they received not the love of the truth that
they might be saved. It's because they hate the truth.
They love a lie. We've got to be given a new mind.
If we're going to have a mind that has a correct knowledge
of the truth, God's got to give us a new mind. And only God can
do that. Only God, the Holy Spirit, can
cause us to be born again with a brand new mind that understands
the truth, that understands the truth about how God saves sinners.
Salvation cannot be obtained by our works of the law. It can
only be through the work of Christ for us. has to be accomplished
through the work of a representative for us. See, it was a representative,
Adam, that put us in this mess. We need another representative
to save us from it. Now, that's foolishness to the
natural mind. That's foolishness to think,
well, I was made a sinner in Adam, and I'm made righteous
in Christ by what a representative did. That's foolishness to the
natural mind. The natural mind hates that truth
because it insults the ability of the flesh to establish righteousness
for ourselves. You mean you're telling me I'm
helpless before God? That's offensive. That's what
the book says. Helpless before him. The natural
mind hates the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the truth of God. That's
the very reason we crucified him. We hate him. But salvation
is knowing Christ. That's what our Lord said. Salvation,
eternal life is knowing him. But our natural mind can't know
him. So God's got to give us a new mind that does know him
and only God can give that mind. All right. Then where does us
enter into this preaching, enter into this matter of somebody
having a correct understanding, acknowledging of the truth? Where
does us preaching come into this thing? Well, if we would gain
a knowledge of Christ. Somebody's got teaching to us,
don't they? Paul says God's preacher is to instruct. He's to teach
those that oppose themselves. Somebody has got to teach us
who Christ is so that we'll know him. You can't trust in somebody
you don't know. You can't call on somebody you don't know. Somebody's
got to teach us and tell us who he is. But listen, salvation
is a whole lot more than education. Salvation is more than knowing
the right steps of salvation. Pretty much as long as As I can
remember, I was taught, I don't know how to say this, the steps
of salvation. I've always known how God saves sinners. I would
have known what the scripture says about how God saves sinners,
but I didn't always know God. Salvation is more than education.
Salvation is knowing the truth, and it's loving the truth. It's
loving the truth. And only God can create a new
man who's got a mind, a new mind to know the truth, and a new
heart that will love the truth, that will love the things of
God, that will love Christ, that will love his gospel. And God
only gives that new birth through the preaching of the word. This
word is the seed God uses to give life to his people. Somebody's
got to teach it. So we'll have this mind to be
given a new mind that knows and loves the truth of God. All right,
here's the third great need. We need the Lord to set us free
from the snare of the devil. Look here at verse 26. And that
they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who
was taken captive by him at his will. Now Paul here talks about
those taken captive by Satan's will. Now that doesn't mean they're
under the control of Satan by Satan's will that is overriding
God's will. You know, God doesn't want them
to be, but Satan by his powers, you know, got them under his
rule. That's not what that means at
all. Satan goes about seeking whom he may devour, whom he's
allowed to devour. Remember how Satan couldn't even
touch Job until God gave him permission. He could only ever
go as far as God gave him. He goes about seeking whom he
may devour. So an unbeliever is under the control of Satan
for this reason. God's allowed it. That's the only reason. Satan
can't override God's will. And if you look in Ephesians
chapter two, that describes all of us. Ephesians chapter two. Verse one. And you hath he quickened, who
were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past you walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation,
our citizenship in times past, in the lust of our flesh fulfilling
the the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by
nature the children of wrath, even as others." All of God's
elect were just that way. We walked according to the prince
of the power of the air. We were fulfilling the lusts
of our flesh and of the mind, and we were by nature children
of wrath, even as others. You know why God allowed his
elect to be under the control of Satan like that, walking after
the course of Satan's power? Why did God make it so that they
lived all that time where they could not see Christ and they
could not believe him? Why did God do that? For this
reason, so he could display his glory and his power and his sovereign
mercy when he set his people free from the power of Satan.
They could not set themselves free. Not only could they not
set themselves free, they didn't even want to. God, by his power,
set them free. And when he did it, he displayed
his glory. That's what he tells us. Read on in verse four. Oh,
but God who's rich in mercy for his great love or with he loved
us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together
with Christ. By grace, you're saved and have
raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus that in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding
riches of his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. That's why he did all of that.
So that in the ages to come, he could show his glory and how
he saved his people from their sin. But now only God can do
that. Only God can destroy the power
of Satan. Only God can do that. You and
I can never do that. Only God can do that. And I'll
tell you how he did it. Christ did it by his death. on Calvary's tree as a substitute
for his elect. When Christ died, he broke Satan's
power. He crushed his head just like
God promised Adam that he would in Genesis 3. God did that. Christ did that by his death
for his people. That power was broken, wasn't it, 2,000 years
ago when Christ died. Then where does us preaching
enter into this thing of setting God's people free from the snare
of the devil? Well, the power of Satan was destroyed when Christ
suffered and died, wasn't it? That's how he crushed Satan's
head. The power of Satan is destroyed in our hearts through the preaching
of Christ and him crucified. The power of Satan is destroyed
when God the Holy Spirit reveals Christ crucified for my sin. That's when that power was taken
away. The sacrifice of Christ has utterly destroyed Satan's
power to hold God's people captive. They're gonna be set free from
that and their experience of it through the preaching of Christ. So I keep preaching Christ to
you. I keep imploring you, come to Christ. Right now, you come
to Christ. And I understand, I'm telling
you to do the impossible. I understand. I sat where you
sat for so many years. Hearing Brother Henry and other
men say, you come to Christ, you bow, you surrender, you look
to Christ. I understand the frustration.
I would just scream in my mind if you tell me where he is. I'll
look. I just, I didn't understand. I couldn't do it. I understand. I'm telling you to do the impossible,
but you come to Christ. Right now where you sit, you
come to Christ. And I'm also going to keep preaching
to you the sufficiency and the beauty of Christ's sacrifice
to you. He's all you need. He's put away
all of the sin of all of His people. And the reason I do that
is this, if the Holy Spirit is ever pleased to make you see
Christ as the sacrifice for your sin, if you ever see His glory,
the sacrifice that put away your sin, nobody's gonna have to tell
you to look to Christ. Nobody's gonna have to tell you
to come to Christ. Nobody's gonna have to stop you from it. See,
once the Spirit lets you see Christ, you can't not see Him.
Once He gives you faith to believe Christ, you can't not believe
Him. You'll come. You'll come. So let's make it our determination
that we're going to keep preaching Christ. That we're going to keep
witnessing to people. We'll talk about our faith and
these things when they come up in your daily lives. And do it
meekly. Not making ourselves the issue. Let's preach. Let's witness to
folks. Tell them about our faith patiently,
patiently pointing them to Christ over and over and over again. Because that's the message. That's
the attitude that God will bless. That's the message that God's
going to use to call out all of his elect. And I pray that
he'll do that for every one of us this morning. That's my prayer.
Now, After Shawn leads us in singing a song, we're going to
have a church dinner celebrating the 10th birthday of Rosalie. Ten years ago, you were born.
We came up to see you just as a little baby ten years ago.
You cried and cried. We were so happy to see you.
And now you're ten years old. That's a whole decade. So we're
going to celebrate her birthday. Now, everybody watch. Everybody,
when we get done singing, the ladies will get everything ready.
Everybody watch Rosalie. And she gets to go first. Nobody
go get no food now till Rosalie goes. So get in line so we can
go. Okay, let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, oh how we thank you
for the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for the
faith that you've given to hear it and believe it. We thank you
that you've preserved it. here in our town for us to hear,
be fed by, be instructed by for all these many years. Father, how we thank you. Father, how we pray that you
would make us faithful to our generation to keep preaching
this gospel, to keep believing, to keep looking to Christ, that
you might be pleased to exalt Christ our Savior in this place.
that your sheep might be called out, called to repentance and
faith in Christ, that your sheep might be fed and comforted and
instructed by the preaching of Christ. Give us both the wisdom
and the lowliness of heart not to make ourselves the issue. But that Christ the Savior would
be the issue, the preeminent issue, in our hearts and our
minds, our preaching, in all things, in all things. Father,
we thank you for this food that we're about to have and the fellowship
we're about to have. We thank you for Rosalie. Father,
we thank you for giving her to us for this time. Father, we
pray your richest mercy, blessing be upon her. Cause us to be faithful
to her. to continue faithfully appointing
her and all of our children and loved ones to Christ the Savior. It's in his blessed name, it's
for his glory we pray. Amen. All right, Sean, come lead
us in song. If you would, turn to song number
355 and stand as we sing. From every stormy wind that blows,
From every swelling tide of woes, There is a calm, a sure retreat,
Tis found beneath the mercy seat. There is a place where Jesus
sheds the oil of gladness on our heads, a place that all besides
gore sweet. It is the blood-hot mercy seat. There is a scene where spirits
blend, Where friend holds fellowship with friend, Though sundered
far, by faith they meet, Around one common mercy seat. Ah, whither could we flee for
aid When tempted, desolate, dismayed? For how the hosts of hell defeat
At suffering saints no mercy see? Ah, there on eagle wings we soar,
and send, and send for us no more. And heaven comes down,
our souls to greet, while glory crowns the mercy seat.