If you would open your Bibles
with me, the book of 2 Timothy, chapter 2. 2 Timothy, chapter
2. Eric Floyd is preaching in Pikeville,
Kentucky this morning. We want to remember him and hope
Tyler and Bridget have a resting and relaxing vacation. 2 Timothy, chapter 2. We'll begin
our reading in verse 14. Of these things put them in remembrance,
charging them before the Lord that they strive not to words
to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers. Study to show
thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be shamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and vain
babblings, for they will increase unto more ungodliness, and their
word will eat as doth a canker, of whom is Hymenus and Philetus.
who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection
is past already, and overthrow the faith of some. Nevertheless,
the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord
knoweth them that are his. And let everyone that nameth
the name of Christ depart from iniquity." We'll end our reading
there. All right, let's stand together
as Shawn leads us in singing our call to worship. Brethren, we have met to worship
God our Father we embrace He who chose us for His purpose,
cleansed and saved us by His grace. Worship, honor, power,
and glory unto Christ the Lord belong. He is worthy of our worship. He's the subject of our song. Brethren, we have met to worship
Christ, our prophet, priest, and king. Let us bow in adoration,
let His praises loudly ring. Worship, honor, power, and glory
unto Christ the Lord belong. He is worthy of our worship,
He's the subject of our song. Brethren, we have met to worship
God, the Spirit on us flow. Even though we are but worthless,
let our praises freely flow. Worship, honor, power, and glory
unto Christ, the Lord belong. He is worthy of our worship. He's the subject of our song. Okay, if you would please turn
in your red hymnal to song number 75, Abide With Me. Abide with me, fast falls the
eventide. The darkness deepens, Lord, with
me abide. When other helpers fail and comforts
flee, Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me. Swift to its close ebbs out life's
little day. Earth's joys grow dim, its glories
pass away. Change and decay in all around
I see. O Thou who changest not, abide
with me. I need thy presence every passing
hour. What but thy grace can foil the
tempter's power? Who like thyself my guide and
stay can be? Through cloud and sunshine, O
abide with me. Hold thou thy word before my
closing eyes. Shine through the gloom and point
me to the skies. Heaven's morning breaks and earth's
vain shadows flee. In life, in death, O Lord, abide
with me. If you would please open your
Bibles to Isaiah chapter 54. Isaiah 54. Sing, O barren, thou that didst
not bear. break forth into singing and
cry aloud, thou that did not prevail a child. For more are
the children of the desolate than the children of the married
wife, saith the Lord. Enlarge the place of thy tent
and let them stretch forth the curtains of thy inhabitation.
Spare not, lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy stakes. For
there, for thou shalt break forth on the right and on the left
and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles. and make the desolate
cities to be inhabited. Fear not, for thou shalt not
be ashamed, neither be thou confounded, for thou shalt not be put to
shame, for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt
not remember the reproach of thy widowhood anymore. For thy
maker is thine husband, the Lord of hosts is his name, and thy
Redeemer the Holy One of Israel. The God of the whole earth shall
he be called. For the Lord hath called thee
as a woman forsaken and grieved in his spirit, and a wife of
youth, when thou hast refused, saith thy God. For a small moment
have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee.
In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with
everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord
thy Redeemer. For this is as the waters of
Noah unto me, For as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should
no more go over the earth, so have I sworn that I would not
be wroth with thee nor rebuke thee. For the mountains shall
depart and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart
from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed,
save the Lord that hath mercy on thee. Though thou afflicted,
tossed with tempest, and not comforted, Behold, I will lay
thy stones with fair colors and lay thy foundations with sapphires.
And I will make thy windows of agates and thy gates of carbuncles
and all thy borders of pleasant stones. And all thy children
shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace
of thy children. In righteousness shalt thou be established. Thou
shalt be far from oppression, for thou shalt not fear. and
from terror, for it shall not come near thee. Behold, they
shall surely gather together, but not by me. Whosoever shall
gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake. Behold,
I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire,
and it bringeth forth an instrument for his work, and I have created
the waster to destroy. No weapon that is formed against
thee shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against
thee in judgment Thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants
of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord. Thank God for his word, bow in
prayer. Our great God and Heavenly Father,
we thank you for this morning's service thus far and allowing
us to be here to open your word and to read it and to be taught
out of it. Thankful for your kindness and
mercy towards sinners. Your righteousness, which is
provided through the blood and sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Father, increase our faith in him. Cause him to be our only
hope each day. Cause us to be anchored on him.
Let us not be moved. What a precious sacrifice was
made to atone for sin. Help us to realize each day that
He's our only hope, and let us not look to ourselves in any
way, but only hope in Thee. Father, we ask that You be with
Frank as he comes to stand here in a moment to preach Your Word
to us. Strengthen him and give him clear
words for a simple people. Cause us to learn and worship
our Lord Jesus Christ in this hour. Show us his glory and let
us worship him as we ought. Father, we ask that you be with
Eric and other men, your servants this day and preach this morning
as well. Let the gospel run well in those places also. Father, for those that are continuing
to go through difficult times and trials and troubles, treatments,
surgeries, recovery from surgeries, be with them. We all will have
our time in a dark place, By your will these things come,
and by your will healing occurs, if it be your will. Cause us
and comfort us. Comfort us to know that these
are all by thy hand, and it's to serve a purpose, and to let
us learn from it. Continue to ask. You watch over
each one in this assembly, our families, our children. Continue
to pray for our children and family members that know not
thee. be your will father remove the blindness of their their
eyes and their heart to show them christ continue to call
your people through the preaching of the gospel again father we
seek you through our worship this morning these things we
ask and we pray in that name that's above every name the name
of our lord and savior jesus christ Bye. Break thou the bread of life,
dear Lord, to me, As thou didst break the loaves beside the sea. Beyond the sacred page I seek
thee, Lord, Thy spirit bends for thee, O living Word. Bless thou the truth, dear Lord,
to me, to me, as thou didst bless the bread by Galilee. Then shall the bondage cease,
all fetters fall, And I shall find my peace by all in all. Thou art the bread of life, O
Lord, to me. Thy holy word, the truth that
saveth me. Give me to eat and live with
thee above. Teach me to love thy truth, for
thou art love. O send thy Spirit, Lord, now unto
me, that he may touch my eyes and make me see. Show me the truth concealed within
thy word, and in thy book revealed I see the Lord. All right, let's open our Bibles
again now to 2 Timothy 2, the passage that we read open service
this morning. I titled the message, The Foundation
of God Standeth Sure. I took my title from verse 19,
which says, Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure,
having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his. Now the foundation
of God's elect The foundation of faith, the foundation of salvation
is one foundation. One foundation. It's the Lord
Jesus Christ. Just like everything concerning
salvation, the foundation of faith, the foundation that God
has laid for His people is a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Sinners
like you and me need a foundation like that. We need a foundation
that can withstand the full force of God's wrath against the sin
of His people. Look over at Isaiah chapter 28.
Isaiah 28. If the foundation of our faith
can't withstand the wrath of God against our sin, we'll perish
eternally. That's how serious this matter
of the foundation is. Isaiah chapter 28, verse 14. Wherefore, hear the word of the
Lord, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
Because you have said, we've made a covenant with death, and
with hell are we at agreement. When the overflowing scourge
shall pass through, it shall not come unto us. For we've made
lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves. That's
what you say. Therefore thus saith the Lord
God. Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone. a tried
stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believeth
shall not make haste. Judgment also will I lay to the
line, and righteousness to the plummet, and the hail shall sweep
away the refuge of lies, and the water shall overflow the
hiding place, and your covenant with death shall be disannulled,
and your agreement with hell shall not stand. When the overflowing
scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it. If the foundation of our faith,
the foundation of our salvation is our works, what we think,
what we do, what we've plotted, what we've made, our refuge will
be destroyed and our soul be destroyed with it. That's how
serious this matter is of having the right foundation, a good
foundation. But God says, if the foundation
is our stone that God laid, the Lord Jesus Christ, then your
soul is secure. Your soul is secure because your
foundation cannot be washed away. If Christ is the foundation of
your faith, if Christ is the foundation of all of your salvation,
then your soul is secure. It's safe. It can't be moved
because Christ can't be moved. See, he already bore the overflowing
scourge against the sin of his people. He already bore the wrath
of God for the sin of his people. He bore it like we saw in our
lesson this morning until that wrath was gone. There's no more
of it left. He died for sin and he rose again. You know why he rose again? Because
the sin that had been charged to him is gone. And Christ, our
foundation, was never moved by it. He was never moved by the
wrath of God. He was never moved by the fire
of God against the sin of his people. He was not swept away
by God's wrath and fury against sin. And nothing else is going
to move him either. Nothing else. He cannot be moved.
Now look at 1 Corinthians chapter 3. I want us to be absolutely certain
here that the foundation of faith is Christ alone. God talks about
laying a foundation, laying a stone. Well, how do I know that that
stone is Christ? How do I know that rock is Christ? Well, the
apostle tells us here, 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 10. According to the grace of God,
which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I've laid the
foundation. And another buildeth thereon,
but let every man take ye how he buildeth thereupon. For other
foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus
Christ. See, the foundation, the stone
that God has laid for the foundation is the Lord Jesus Christ. Now
it's Christ. It's Christ alone. It's one foundation. It's one rock. It's not Christ
plus the mortar of your works. It's not Christ plus the mortar
of your morality. It's not Christ plus the mortar
of your orthodoxy. It's not Christ plus the ceremonies.
It's Christ alone. Christ alone. The foundations
that stand sure and immovable is Christ. That's why this whole
thing of salvation can't be moved because Christ can't be moved
and it can only ever be Christ. It's only ever Christ. Now, since
that's true, the apostle, back in our text, gives us four things.
Four things to preach, to keep preaching, four things to hear,
and keep hearing as we go through this life below. Number one is
this. Since the foundation is Christ,
and we've established that, since the foundation is Christ, keep
preaching Christ. Look what Paul says in verse
14. Of these things, put them in remembrance. Keep reminding
them. Your God's servants never get
a new message. There are no new revelations. The message is always Christ. We just keep reminding people
of Christ. Our message is their spiritual
life through the death of Christ our substitute. If Christ died
for you, you must live. That's the way we have life because
he died the death we deserve. Our message is the forgiveness
of sin by the blood of Christ. God forgives what's been washed
away by the blood of Christ. It's been washed away. It's not
there. So God forgives it because it's been cleansed away in the
blood of Christ. Our message is that sinners are
made holy and righteous through the obedience of Christ our representative. It's by his obedience to the
law, not mine. It's his. It's his. He is our
righteousness. Our message is that there is
grace and mercy reserved for sinners, and it's through our
Lord Jesus Christ. God can be merciful. Christ satisfied
justice. He can only be merciful in truth.
He can only be gracious, but when justice is satisfied, God
has grace and mercy for his people because Christ satisfied justice. If you would have grace and mercy,
go to Christ. It's all in you. Our message
is that God's elect are accepted in the Beloved. In the Beloved,
in the Beloved, in the Beloved. It's not our good works, it's
not our morality. It's in the Beloved. It's all because of Him. Our
message is this, salvation from beginning to end. Whatever, if
you want to break down salvation into parts, whatever part of
it that you want to talk about, whatever facet of it you want
to talk about, from beginning to end, it's Christ. It's Christ. You know, I've been
preaching for 28 years now. Before I became a pastor, I filled
in a lot of places. It's been 28 years. I remember
my first message. I remember it vividly, don't
you? Christ was my message. It was
Christ. And I fully intend, by God's
grace, that Christ will be my final message. He's all we got. He's all I've got to tell you
about. We don't have another message of God's love other than
Christ. How do we know that God is love?
How do we know God loves his people? He sent his son to be
the propitiation person. It's all in Christ. We don't
have another message of salvation and forgiveness and eternal life
other than Christ. It's all him. We don't have another
message to guide the believers walk other than Christ. People say, how do you know how
you're supposed to live? You know how you're supposed to live.
How do I know which way I'm going to go? Just keep looking to Christ
and follow Him. You'll be just fine. I promise
you, He'll lead you the right way. The only way we have to
talk about the believer's walk is Christ. It's all Him. And
the job of God's preachers is to remind people of that over
and over and over and over again. Our job is to preach Christ again. Because maybe, this is my constant
prayer, maybe there's going to be some lost sheep here. They
didn't hear before. They didn't believe before. Maybe
today they will. I had a dear friend who had his
children in the surface. He realized what was going on.
He sent his children out of the building. He said, what if this
is the day they decide to sit up and listen? What if the day,
today is the day, somebody, God makes them sit up and listen.
Hope my message is Christ, don't you? Hope. Our job is to preach
Christ again. Because this flesh is constantly
trying to get that old believer's eye off of Christ. And we need
to be reminded. The flesh is constantly trying
to get us to trust the works of our flesh, at least just a
little bit. The flesh is constantly trying
to get us to do that. So we need to be constantly reminded
of Christ, to look to Him, to trust Him, to keep trusting Him.
Look at Philippians chapter three. Philippians chapter three. Verse 1. Finally, my brethren, rejoice
in the Lord. To write the same things to you,
to keep reminding this, to me it's not grievous, but for you
it's safe. Beware of dogs, beware of evil
workers, beware of the concision. For we are the circumcision,
which worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and
have no confidence in the flesh. Paul said it's not grievous for
me to say the same thing over and over to keep reminding you
of Christ because it's good for us. It's safe for us to be reminded
to trust Christ alone. It's safe for us to beware of
evil workers. And evil workers are not, you
know, drug peddlers and people are just all the open sin that
you think of when you think of evil workers. I tell you who
the evilest of workers are. They're very religious and they
wrap their religion in the flesh. They make it depend upon the
flesh. It's not based on, it's not founded
on the foundation on Christ alone. That's so evil. Nothing can be
more evil than that. Those who've been given a new
heart, they worship God in the spirit. And we need to be reminded
that. We're not worshiping God in form. We're not worshiping
God in the ceremony. We're not worshiping God out
of habit. We worship God in the spirit. And they rejoice in Christ
Jesus. They're not rejoicing in their
work because they have no confidence in the flesh. They rejoice in
Christ Jesus because they have confidence in Him. And our confidence
in Him is strengthened when we're reminded. Reminded. We need to
be reminded. There's a song that says, remind
me, dear Lord. Roll back the curtain of memory
now and then. Show me where you brought me
from. Where I could have been. Remember, I'm human, and humans
forget. You wouldn't think we'd forget, but we do. Humans forget.
So remind me. Remind me, dear Lord. And that's
the job of God's preachers, to constantly remind us by preaching
Christ and Christ alone, by preaching Christ and Him crucified absolutely
every time God gives us the opportunity to preach. Keep preaching Christ. Keep reminding people of Christ.
Now, a second point is closely related to the first Since Christ
is the only foundation, don't get off on a tangent. Don't get
off on a tangent. Look at what Paul says in verse
14. All these things, put them in remembrance, charging them
before the Lord, that they strive not about words to no profit,
but to the subverting of the hearers. Now since salvation
is all Christ, It's all Him. It's all founded upon Him. It's
all built upon Him. It's all held together by Him.
It's all Him. Don't get caught up looking and
studying anything else. Anything other than Christ. Since
salvation is all Christ, don't get caught up studying something
that will not lead you directly to Christ. Something that does
not lead you directly to Christ. Those are words of no profit. There's no benefit to your soul
in those things. And it's very easy for us to
do. Oftentimes people get caught up in words to no profit by trying
to find the answer to things that are not clearly revealed
in scripture. You know, it could be interesting to the flesh,
but there's no clear answer to it in scripture. Well, then why
bother studying? I'll give you an example. Trying
to figure out when Christ will return. Wouldn't it be a whole
lot better to study Christ who is returning? People wonder,
they argue about this. Is there gonna be a revival among
the Jews? Wouldn't it be a whole lot better
to study the Savior who can save any sinner, Jew or Gentile? Personally,
I hope there would be a revival among the Jews. But I tell you,
if there is, how it's gonna happen, it's gonna happen through the
preaching of Christ. I'll tell you another way people get off
on a tangent. Trying to prove how Orthodox they are. I like
to be orthodox. I like to be right in the things
that we do. But you get off on a tangent
by trying to prove how straight and how conservative your religion
is. And when you do that, you know what you end up doing to
people? You end up adding to Christ. You make up rules of
conduct. Oh, believer, this is the way
believers got to act. You know, if you don't act this
way, you're not a believer. Well, you just put a burden on somebody.
Instead of taking the burden of sin off of them by pointing
them to Christ. See that? You know a believer
believes Christ. I mean, a believer by very definition
believes, right? Well, then just keep preaching
Christ to them over and over and over and over again. You
know what believers will do? You know how the believers will
be made manifest? They'll believe. Just keep preaching
to Christ that they believe. I'll tell you another way people
get off on a tangent. It's by getting a pet doctor.
It may be a true doctrine. It could be something that's
true. It could be something that's good. But they take that doctrine
and they exalt it above every other doctrine in every other
teaching of scripture. Some is true, but they twist
it. They get it out of proportion
and give a distorted view of salvation. It doesn't give a
clear description of Christ. And if that happens, people are
hurt. Their souls are hurt. Paul says it's to their subverting. You know what that subverting
means? It doesn't just necessarily mean you're just off on a tangent.
You're just a little bit over here when you should be over
here. It means destruction. It means the destruction of their
souls. Getting off on a tangent causes
people's souls to be destroyed. Because if you're on a tangent,
you're off the foundation. You're off the mark. You're off
of Christ. Then people get off on a tangent trying to come up
with their own doctrine. And this is just human nature
manifest, right? I want to make a mark for myself.
I want to find something new. And they make up a new doctrine.
Now, it often will contradict the word God. It almost always
does. But, you know, they explain it away. They say, well, the
word doesn't really mean what it says, you know. It can't mean that
because I don't understand it, they say. What they're doing
is they're bringing their theology down to what the natural mind
can understand. and all that is is an idol. God
cannot be understood. And Paul gives us an example
of two men that did that, verse 17. He says, and their word will
eat as doth a canker, of whom is Hymenas and Philetus, who
concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection
is past already, and overthrow the faith of some. Now these
two men said, I guess they were preachers, they're getting people,
you know, getting their ear, said that the resurrection is
past already. that there is no resurrection
of the dead. And they said there can't be. They said, I've never
seen it. Have you ever seen somebody that
was dead raised back to life? Have you? Well, they say then
it can't be. I just don't understand how it
could be somebody whose body is dead and started to decay
can be raised again. Or somebody who's dead and gone
back to the dust, how can they ever be raised again in that
same body? They said, I don't understand
it. And they must have been saying this, trying to show people how
smart they were. And this is what I would ask
folks that don't believe in the resurrection. then why bother
with any kind of religion whatsoever? Whether it's true or false, why
bother with any kind of religion at all if there's no resurrection
of the dead? If this flesh is all that there
is, and when this flesh dies, it's like a dog dying, it is
no more, why bother? Just seek pleasure in the flesh
thing, you know? But these men came up with this
new doctrine in an attempt to draw people after themselves. Why don't you look at Acts chapter
20? You think, well, that can't happen to us. That can't happen
to people who are well-taught and well-grounded in the Word. Why don't you look who Paul said
would do this? And in doing this, Paul says
that they erred. They erred. It's not just, well,
they missed a question on the test. You can miss a question
on the test and still get an A if there's enough questions,
right? Good. But that's not what Paul means
here. He says they missed the mark. They've completely missed
the mark. They've missed Christ and I'll
tell you what's worse. That's bad enough. What's worse is they
cause others to miss Christ too. Look what Paul says here in Acts
20 verse 29. This is his farewell to the Ephesian
elders. I mean, this is the Ephesian
elders. I mean, these men, they've been taught, they've heard some
preaching. Look what he says here, verse 29. For I know this. that after my departing shall
grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock, also
of your own selves, shall men arise, speaking perverse things,
to draw away disciples after them." That's why they'd say
these perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. But I'm assured that's what these
two men, Hymenus and Philetus, were doing. And I point this
out just so we can beware. to be on the lookout for people
like this now. They're dangerous. They're dangerous
to our souls, even arising from the Ephesian elders. Now, be
careful. Be careful of them, because Paul says their word
does eat as a canker. And the word means a gangrene.
It just slowly eats the victim up and devours them, destroys
them. You know, you get a little gangrene
in your toe. So, I mean, it's just there on
my little toe. It's not that big a deal. eventually
eats up your foot, eats up your leg, and gets into the internal
organs. It kills you. It might not do
it today, but it's gonna. That's what their word does eat
as a gangrene eats you away from Christ. Now these are words to
no profit. They don't lead to Christ. They're not harmless curiosities. They're not harmless infatuations. They're not new things that the
church needs to be taught. These are things that kill the
souls of men and women that get caught up in. They kill them.
They kill their souls. Paul says these words overthrow
the faith of some. I know they're not going to overthrow
the faith of God's elect. We'll look at this in a minute.
That foundation stands sure, but they overthrow the faith
of some. Some who are pretenders, some who just have a curiosity,
some who just have a mental agreement, and they overthrow the faith
of some. Well, how do they do that? How do they overthrow the
faith of some? Well, these words, these words
to no profit, they make somebody depend on something, on anything
other than Christ alone. And it can be Christ plus this,
that, or the other. There were this word means they'll
destroy the faith of some. They destroy that faith. And
without faith in Christ, our souls are going to perish. That's
how serious this matter is. We need to always be reminded
of this. These words to no profit don't add to faith. These words
to profit of no profit. They don't they don't make our
religion better. They don't make our faith better. They destroy
it. They destroy it. And more than
likely, these things are not going to lead you to open sin. More than likely, they're not
going to do that. I don't think you'd be fooled by that. Religious people probably
wouldn't be fooled by that. I tell you what they're going
to do. They're going to lead to more moral living. That's
exactly what they're going to do. They're going to lead to
more moral living and make you start thinking you're better
than somebody else. Don't do it. It'll lead to more morality. And all that is, is sin and ungodliness. Look at verse 16. Paul says,
but shun profane and vain babblings, for they'll increase unto more
ungodliness. Now, these religious words to
no profit, they're vain babblings. Blah, blah, blah, like Charlie
Brown, you know, an adult. That's all they are. There's
no meaning to them. There's no truth to them. There's
no depth to them. There's nothing of Christ in
them. There's nothing helpful in them. They're vain babbles.
And they lead to more vain babbling. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Leads to more blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Leads to more words
of no meaning. And like I say, they're not going
to lead you into the bars. They're not going to lead you
into prostitution and open sin. They're going to lead you to
outward morality. More and more and more outward
morality. And buddy, I'm all for more morality. I'm all for
it. My, I know I'm getting old. I
just, oh, this society driving me batty. I long for the day that men were
men. I mean, I long for that day.
I mean, where a man's honest and upright and integrity, goes
to work every day, takes care of his family, loves his wife,
don't cheat on her, Takes care of her. Mother takes care of
her family. Takes care of her child. Long
for those days. I long for that. But listen. Outward morality
is evil if you start trusting your soul to it. If you start
thinking you're making God happy with you by what you're doing.
Because you know what you're doing? You're adding your morality
to Christ. Thinking that makes you better. I ask you now, what could be
more evil than that? What can be more evil than sinful
creatures like you and me thinking we can add something to Christ
and make ourselves better? Nothing can be more evil to that.
And Paul said, when you hear those words, you shun them. You run away from them. You shun
those words and you shun those people who say those words. Don't
tolerate it. I mean, don't tolerate it for
a second. Don't act like, well, you know, it's OK. And because
I tell you what you do when you do that. You put your seal of
approval on. You just put your seal of approval
on. Shun them to the saving of your soul. To show them, just
shun them to the saving of your soul. You're not putting your
seal of approval on this error. I've just finished reading a
book about the opioid epidemics and heroin epidemics. So my mind's
been kind of there as I've been reading this book. But I thought
of this illustration. Would you remain friends with
somebody been your lifelong friend, and then they start selling heroin. They start trying to push this
heroin on your children. Can you stay friends with them?
Of course you're not. It kills people. It ruins their
lives. Isn't Christ more important than
that? Huh? Isn't your soul more important
than that? Don't get off on a tangent now. People will perish if you
do. People will perish. Our faith,
our trust, our hope, and our confidence must always be Christ
alone. And I don't care how long we
live in the faith, we'll never grow past that. We'll never grow
past total dependence on you. So don't get off on a tangent.
All right, the third thing. Since the foundation of faith,
it's Christ. The foundation of salvation is
Christ. Then study and preach the word,
because that's where you'll find it. Verse 15. Study, to show
thyselves approved unto God, a workman that he is not to be
ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. This word study,
it means more than to look at something, to look at it repeatedly
or to memorize it. It means exert oneself. It means give diligence to it.
And it means to make haste. Make haste to it. You know, Paul,
Makes it sound like this thing of preaching the word is serious.
Well, it is. It is serious. It is a life and
death situation. It really is. And we should treat
it as such. Paul tells us work hard, work
hard in prayer, work hard in studying God's word to find Christ
in every passage. Work hard in prayer. Work hard
in study. Define God's message for the
hour. Not my message. God's message. Not to find a list of true statements. But to find God's message for
the hour. God's message for His people. Now I know that only
the Lord can give the increase. But I know this is also true.
Put your whole self into it. everything you've got into it.
Both in preaching and in hearing. Put your whole self into it now.
Give diligence to it. Make haste to it. Put prayer
to it. Because your life depends upon
it. The life of your soul depends
upon it. We're not playing games here now. We're not playing games.
We're not trying to attract followers to ourselves. We're trying to
get folks to look to Christ, to come to Christ, to believe
Him. Their soul depends upon it. Paul says, study so that
you're a workman that needeth not be ashamed. How ashamed should
we be? If I would come, how ashamed
should I be if I come up with my message instead of God's message? We should be ashamed if we care
so little for the souls of people and we care so little for the
glory of Christ that we don't preach Christ that we try to
want some glory for ourselves. And this is something we should
be reminded and warned about. I hope we don't ever become casual
about preaching. How many times I think about
when I was a child, did Brother Henry warn us about this? Don't
become casual about preaching. And nothing's changed. As a matter
of fact, we may need to say it more emphatically than ever.
Don't become casual about preaching. doing it or about hearing it. I hope we don't treat the preaching
of Christ, the preaching of his word, the teaching of God's word
as something that's common and ordinary. Just because the large
majority of this congregation has had access to such good preaching
for years and years and years and years. Shawn, your entire
life long. Cecil, your entire life. as long
as you remember of that. Well, is that just going to make
us treat it casually? That blessing is so rare. It
ought to make us hang on to it harder. It really should. This
is so important. Study the Word. Study the Word
to see Christ. Don't study it for any other
reason. Study the Word to see Christ so that you believe Him.
If you already believe Him, study the Word to see Christ so you
believe Him more. Study the Word to see Christ, because He's only
revealed in the written Word. Listen to preaching. Not to be
critical of the preacher. That's going to be easy. I mean,
the best preacher you ever heard is going to be easy to be critical
of. Listen to the Word. Study the Word. Not to see if
he's got everything down just right. Listen to preaching to
hear Christ again. To hear of Christ, so that you
trust Him, so that you believe Him more fully. Listen to that
preaching to hear of Christ again. Christ your life. Listen to that
message. Hear of Christ so you can feed
on Him. So you can be encouraged by Him. Paul says rightly divide
the word of truth. And when he says rightly divide,
you know what the word means, the phrase means? It means cut
it straight. Like the Old Testament sacrifices, cut it straight.
Don't mangle God's word. Cut it straight. And the phrase
actually means give the right meaning of it. When you're talking
about cutting the Word, cut it straight. It means give the true
meaning of the text. Well, the true meaning of the
text is Christ. Then make that plain. Don't muddy the waters. Make it plain. It's Christ. Don't
twist the Word. Don't have your doctrine and
then try to twist the Word and make the Word say what you want
it to say to match your doctrine. Cut it straight. Give the true
meaning. Give a clear view of Christ. And if your doctrine don't match
that, change your doctrine. Give a clear view of Christ.
Just say what the Word says. That's rightly dividing the Word
of truth. Vain babblings. Here's how you can identify vain
babblings. They always lead away from Christ.
A message that rightly divides the Word of truth always leads
to Christ. All right, here's the fourth
thing. since the foundation is Christ. Preach and believe Christ
with confidence. Verse 19. Nevertheless, the foundation
of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them
that are his, and let everyone that nameth the name of Christ
depart from iniquity. I want to close this message
with a word of comfort and assurance for God's people in troubled
times. There is so much trouble in our
world today, and I imagine there always has been. I know there
always will be. But I see the world that we live in now. I
see things that are happening now. And we care about people. We see suffering going on in
the world. I hate to see so much suffering going on in the world.
I hate to see ignorance. I hate to see hate causing so
much harm to people. You know, that kind of thing
is not just happening over in the Middle East. Now, excuse
me, my close poem. And I know that the future is
not uncertain. It's not uncertain at all. You
know, the Lord's ordained, what's gonna happen? He's going to carry
out his purpose. There's no uncertainty in that whatsoever. But it's
uncertain in this way. I got no idea what's gonna happen
next. I know the Lord's gonna carry out his purpose. I know
his will shall be accomplished, but I don't know what his will
is. I don't know what his purpose is gonna be. The Lord's ordained
it, but I don't know what's, so it's uncertain in that way.
And it causes some concern. Like I say, maybe I'm just getting
older, I'm getting to worry about things more, I don't know. But
I see an alarming, alarming trend for people who claim to be believers.
and maybe they are, probably they are, I don't know, but anyway,
people in the church, to make their social and political views
to be their religious views, to attach a religious fervor
to their political and social views. Now you talk about words to no
profit. There's nothing more unprofitable
to the soul of the believer than how this world's governed. but
the potsherds of the earth strive with the potsherds of the earth.
Be a good citizen and vote by all means. But don't attach your
religion to it. I don't care which party gets
elected. Neither one of them is godly. Neither one of them.
And when this world has gone off its rocker and people are
going off the deep end now, I know it's troubling. It's so troubling
to me. I was talking with two pastors
this week about this very issue. It's so troubling. But listen
to me. Listen to me. The world's always
been going to hell in a handbasket. Listen to me. Don't let that
shake your confidence in Christ. People do crazy things. People
go off the deep end. People disappoint you. Don't
let that shake your confidence in Christ. Don't let that shake
your confidence in the gospel. Don't let it subvert your faith.
Don't let it destroy your faith in Christ. The foundation of
God stands sure. The Lord Jesus Christ stands
sure. That foundation will never waver. Never. He will never, ever let
you down. Ever. And it has this seal. The Lord knows them that are
his. The word seal means the seal
in a wax seal that the king would put his ring in. The seal of
the king of kings has been sealed with his ring, sealed with his
power. The Lord knows them that are
his. He knows them. He knows where
they're at. He knows what they're going through. He knows where
they're going and he'll not lose one of them. He'll not lose one
of them. This thing is sure. You know
why it's sure? Because it's based on Christ,
not our words. It's based on Christ's character,
not our character. And I know it seems like the
waves of trouble are just rolling and crashing on our society,
on just everything. I know that. But you're the waves
crashing on the sand. can cause beach erosion. I've
been to the beach twice immediately following a hurricane. And what
do they call that mound of sand between the hotel and the beach?
You know it. It's gone. I mean, it used to
be there as far as you could see, north and south, up and
down the beach. It's gone. I've been to the beach one day,
and there was a big old party going on. There's this pier that
went way, way, way, way out in the ocean. I came back three
days later after a hurricane, And that thing was gone. There
weren't even toothpicks left. It was gone. The waves crashing
on the beach can cause beach erosion. But brother, the rock
of Gibraltar is not going to be changed. Not going to be changed. And those waves of trouble, those
waves of awfulness in our day, I can tell you this, they're
going to cause some beach erosion, but they're not going to change
Christ, the rock of ages. He's going to be there, unmovable,
Unchanged, they're all gone. And that's our confidence. That's
our confidence. And that lets us face what we
call an uncertain future with complete and utter confidence
and rest for our souls. He's not going to change. I hope
the Lord bless that too. Let's bow together. Our Father, oh how I pray you bless your
word. Father, bless it to your glory. Take this word, reveal
to the hearts of your people the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ
and cause us to rest in him. Cause us to be reminded one more
time that Christ is all we need. He's all we need since Christ
is all. He is the one sure foundation upon which our souls can be kept
safe. Father, how we thank you mercy
and your grace to your people, your love to your people in providing
such a foundation. Father, I pray you'd cause us
to rest in it, that you would be gracious to cause us to see
him and to cling to him. For it's in his blessed name
we pray, give thanks. Amen. All right, Sean. If you would, please stand and
turn to song number 511, Face to Face. Face to face with Christ my Savior,
face to face what will it be? When with rapture I behold Him,
Jesus Christ who died for me. Face to face I shall behold Him,
far beyond the starry sky. Face to face in all his glory
I shall see him by and by Only faintly now I see him With the
darkling veil between But a blessed day is coming When his glory
shines Face to face I shall behold Him
Far beyond the starry sky. Face to face in all His glory
I shall see Him by and by. Walk rejoicing in His presence
when our banished grief and pain, when the crooked ways are straightened
and the dark things shut. Face to face I shall behold Him,
far beyond the starry sky. Face to face in all His glory,
I shall see Him Face to face, oh blissful moment. Face to face, to see and know. Face to face with my Redeemer,
Jesus Christ, who loves me so. Face to face I shall behold Him,
far beyond the starry sky. Face to face in all His glory,
I shall see Him by and by.