If you would, open your Bibles
with me to the book of 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy chapter 1. Now, let me remind you that Wednesday
evening we will not have a service here in preparation for our conference,
which will begin on Friday. Friday night at 7pm, Saturday
and Sunday at 10am. And the Lord willing, we'll have
a get-together Saturday evening in Simpson Valley. So, more details
as they emerge. on that. There are sign-up sheets
out in the vestibule. I'm assuming most of you have
seen that for the food and the nursery. And also the updated
church cleaning schedule is hanging up on the bulletin. You might
want, there were some moving around, so you might want to
check and make sure your name is where you expect it to be
on that. Make sure I've got all that set up right. So, I appreciate
that. And we're just going to read
two verses and begin our service. Just I want us to to be able
to focus on just the message from these two verses beginning
in verse 13 of 2 Timothy. I don't know if I said first
or second. 2 Timothy chapter 1. Hold fast
the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me in faith
and love which is in Christ Jesus. That good thing which was committed
unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us. I look
forward to bringing a message on that in just a few minutes.
All right, let's stand together as Shawn leads us in singing
our call to worship. Ascribe to God, ye sons of men,
ascribe with one accord all praise and honor, might and strength
to him, the living Lord. Give glory to His holy name and
honor Him alone. Give worship to His majesty and
bow before His throne. The Lord doth sit upon the floods,
their fury to restrain. He reigns above both Lord and
King and evermore. The Lord shall give His people
strength and let their sorrows cease. The Lord shall bless His
chosen race with everlasting peace. If you would now please turn
to song number 176, Break Thou the Bread of Life. 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. My spirit asks for Thee, O Living
Word. Blest Thou the truth, dear Lord,
to me, to me. As thou didst rest the bread
by Galilee, then shall all 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 might touch my eyes and make me see. Show me the truth concealed within
thy word, and in thy book revealed I see If you would please open your
Bibles to Ephesians chapter 2. And you, Pathy Quicken, who were
dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past He 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
in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy
for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace
you are saved, and hath praised 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. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. not of
works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. Wherefore, remember that you
being in time past Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision
by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands, that
at that time you were without Christ being aliens from the
Commonwealth of Israel. and strangers from the covenants
that promise having no hope and without God in the world. But
now in Christ Jesus, you who were sometimes far off are made
nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace who has made
both one and has broken down the middle wall partition between
us. Having abolished in his flesh
the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, or to
make in himself between one new man. So making peace, he might. Reconcile both under God and
one body by the cross, having slain the entity thereby and
came and preached peace to you, which were far off and to them
that were not. For through him, we both have
access by one spirit under the father. Now, therefore, you are
no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the
saints and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the
chief cornerstone, in whom all the building fitly framed together
groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are
built together for inhabitation of God through the Spirit. Let's bow together in prayer,
please. Our great God and Heavenly Father,
we thank you for bringing us to this place this morning, a
place that you've set in this area for us to come and hear
the gospel preached. We're thankful for it. We pray
that you continue to allow it to be here for years to come
for us and our children and our grandchildren in this area. Continue
to let it be a place where Christ is preached and his name and
his work exalted for years to come. Continue to call your people
through the preaching of the gospel at this place. I ask that
you be with Frank as he comes here in a few moments to stand
and preach to us. Uphold him for this awesome task
of preaching your word to your people. Pray that the message he's prepared
we can receive and feed on Christ. Let us not be taken up with the
concerns of the world and tomorrow, the things we need to do or this
coming week, but let us truly focus and worship our Lord Jesus
Christ during this time. Thankful for his broken body
and shed blood to atone for sin. Cause us each day to know what
sacrifice was made to satisfy your law, and cover our sins
with His blood. Cause Him to be our peace each
and every day. Increase our faith in Christ.
Father, we pray for those that are continuing to go through
difficult times, trials, troubles, surgeries, treatments. You know
the need of all Your people. Comfort them and be with the
physicians and doctors that work to cause a remedy. works for
them to heal them and make them better. Again, Father, we ask
for a true hour of worship, and as we go back out into the world
this coming week and the days to come, guide us and direct
us. Leave us not alone, but cause us to seek your will first in
all things. Anchor us on Christ and let him
be our anchor and our peace in this world. Comfort us knowing
that You're in control of all things. These things we ask in
Christ's name. Amen. What a fellowship, what a joy
divine Leaning on the everlasting arms What a blessedness, what
a peace is mine Leaning on the everlasting arms Leaning, leaning
Safe and secure from all alone Leaning on the everlasting arms
Oh, how sweet to walk in this pilgrim way Leaning on the everlasting
arms Oh, how bright the path grows from day to day Leaning
on the everlasting Leaning, safe and secure from
all alarms. Leaning, leaning, leaning on
the everlasting arms. What have I to dread? What have I to fear? Leaning on the everlasting arms
I have blessed peace with my Lord so near Leaning on the everlasting
arms Leaning, leaning Safe and secure from all Leaning, leaning Leaning on the
everlasting arms Leaning on the everlasting arms If you would, again, open your
Bibles with me to the book of 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy chapter 1. I titled the
message this morning, Hold Fast. Read once again our text, beginning
in verse 13. Hold fast, the form of sound
words which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is
in Christ Jesus, That good thing which was committed unto thee
keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us. Now there are
three things that are very, very important to me as the pastor
here. These three things constantly
direct everything that I do. Number one is this. It's very,
very important to me that we hear the truth. Very important
to me that we hear Christ preached. every time we meet. It's so important
that we hear Christ preach. I always just insist that every
time we meet together, the focus is our Lord Jesus Christ. Number
two, it's very important to me that we hear Christ and that
we believe Him. It's so important that we believe
Christ, that we believe the truth of the gospel in our heart. I
don't want us to be guilty of having a religious sham, a fake
religious covering. It's very important to me that
God enable us to believe Christ in the heart. Number three, it's
very important to me that we continue to believe Christ all
the way to the end. Look at Hebrews chapter three
for a moment, if you would. It's so important that we persevere
to the end, that we're not like those who draw back under perdition,
but that we believe, we continue believing to the saving of the
soul. The writer to the Hebrews, It
says a few times in his epistle about holding fast. Look what
he says in Hebrews chapter 3 verse 5. And Moses verily was faithful
in all his house as a servant for testimony of those things
which were to be spoken after. But Christ, as a son over his
own house, whose house are we? This is the evidence that we're
in the house, the body of Christ. If we hold fast the confidence
and the rejoicing of the whole firm unto the end. It's so important
that we hold this thing of faith in Christ. We hold to Him fast
to the end. Look over page chapter 4 of Hebrews.
Verse 14. Seeing then that we have a great
high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of
God, let us hold fast our profession. Many of us here claim to believe
Christ. We have a profession of believing
Christ and that's good. I'm thankful. But it's very important
that we continue holding fast to Him. That we continue believing
Him. And that's what Paul is telling
Timothy and he's telling us in our text this morning. Hold fast
to Christ. Hold fast to His gospel. Stick
to it like glue. Be tenacious about this thing. Be tenacious about clinging to
Christ. Clinging to Him alone. Clinging
to His gospel alone. Clinging to faith alone. Just
be fanatical about that. That it's Christ alone. Paul
tells us to hold fast to the form. Hold fast to the pattern
of the gospel that you've heard preached. Now that doesn't mean
just repeat words that you've heard preached. You know, find
a message from the past and just repeat those words. That's not
what he's saying. But he is telling us stick to the pattern. Stick
to the pattern of the preaching. Like Paul, like these men that
you've heard preach. Stick to the pattern. And this
is the pattern of every one of God's preachers. His prophets,
his apostles, his preachers and pastors today. This is the pattern
of their message. Christ is all. Salvation's of
the Lord. Christ is all. That's the pattern.
Now preach that message. In your own words, from the text
that God gives you, from your own heart, stick to this pattern.
In every message, Christ is all. And believe it that way. Have
that be the only thing that you believe. Stick to this pattern
that Christ is all. Now Paul tells us, hold fast
to this form, this pattern of sound words. And the sound words
that he's talking about is the gospel. Sound words are words
that make the soul whole. They're words that keep to grace. That's what this phrase, sound
word, means. It means words that make you
whole and words that stick to grace. The words about the grace
of God. And avoid, if we're going to
hold fast to sound words, that means we're going to have to
avoid. We're going to have to let go of unsound words. Words that go away from grace. They're words that make the soul
sick. They had to do something. It's not Christ alone. Oh, it
could be Christ plus something that you do. But it's not words
of Christ alone, and they make the soul sick. Oh, it might start
small. But Paul said in another place,
they'll eat like a canker. They'll eat like a canker. They'll
just eat clear through you. So hold fast to sound words.
Now, what are sound words? That's what I want us to look
at this morning. What are the sound words that I'm supposed
to hold fast to? How will I know sound words when
I hear them? Well, generally speaking, sound
words are doctrines, teachings that come straight from the Word
of God. Sound words are words that always
put man in the dust and put Christ on the throne. That's always,
that's the sound words. Sound words are words that make
you depend entirely on Christ alone and depend nothing in yourself. Those are sound words. Now, the
whole Bible is sound words. The whole Bible has one doctrine,
the teaching of Christ. It's the whole Bible. And I can't
cover those words in one sitting. I can't even cover those words
in one lifetime. So I thought what we would do
is just look at the verses around our text this morning, things
that Paul has been writing to Timothy, and see examples of
sound words. And I pray God will hold fast
to them. I have seven of them. I promise I'll be brief, but
I could not leave any of these out. Number one is this. Sound words declares its salvation
is by the will and purpose of God. Look at verse one, chapter
one. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
by the will of God, according to the promise of life, which
is in Christ Jesus. Now God's will, God has a will.
He's willed, he has purpose. to save His elect people. He
chose a people to save and it's God's purpose to save those people
in His covenant of grace. Now, salvation is all. It's in the will of God. It's
in the purpose of God, which God purposed in the covenant
before He created anything. Look at verse 9. Who hath saved
us and called us with an holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to His own purpose. And grace, which was
given us in Christ Jesus, when? Before the world began. God's
covenant of grace that God purposed in himself began before the world
began. It was put in place before God
created anything. That was God's purpose. It was
God's purpose to save a people by the obedience and the sacrifice
of his son. And then God created the world,
put man on it to fulfill his purpose. Look at Isaiah chapter
14. And this covenant, this covenant
of God is entirely, entirely by the will and purpose of God. That's what makes it sure. Isaiah chapter 14 and verse 24. The Lord of hosts has sworn,
saying, surely, as I have thought, so shall it come to pass. And
as I have purposed, so shall it stand." And look over a few
pages of chapter 46 of Isaiah. Salvation is entirely by the
will and purpose of God. Isaiah 46, verse 9. Remember the former things of
old, for I am God and there is none else. I am God, and there
is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from
ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying my counsel
shall stand. I will do all my pleasure, calling
a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executes my counsel
from a far country. Yea, I have spoken it. I will
also bring it to pass. I have purposed it. I will also
do it. Hearken unto me, ye stout-hearted
that are far from righteousness, I will bring near my righteousness.
It should not be far off. And my salvation shall not tarry. And I will place salvation in
Zion for Israel, my glory." See, this is the reason that the salvation
of God's people is sure and it's certain. Almighty God purposed
it and he shall do it. God said in Jeremiah 31, you
want to know how sure God's covenant of grace is? This is how sure
it is. God said His covenant of grace, His purpose of mercy
in Christ Jesus to His people is more sure than the sun rising
in the morning and the moon rising at night. Anybody go to bed last
night worrying the sun won't come up this morning? No, you
knew it. God's covenant of grace is more sure than that. That's
what He said. It's sure. The reason God's covenant
is sure, He purposed it and He put all in Christ the surety
of the covenant. That's what he said at the end
of verse 1 back in our text, which is in Christ Jesus. God's purpose, His covenant,
it's all in Christ to fulfill. It's all up to Him to fulfill.
It's not up to you and me to fulfill it. It's up to the Son
of God to fulfill it. Well, then it's sure, because
He always does His will. Salvation is all in the will
and purpose of God. And if God has saved you, you
know that. You know that. Let me ask you
a question. Did God choose you or did you
choose God? Who chose who first? If God has
saved you, if you trust Christ, you do choose Him. But who chose
first? Your God. Who is it? Well, if
God saved you, you know this, that God chose you. You know
He saved you and then He called you to Himself. And right now,
He's the one that's keeping you. You know that if God saved you.
Now those are sound words. God chose His people. God saved
those people. God's calling those people. And
God will preserve those people. Salvation's of the Lord. It's
all of His doing. All of His will. All of His purpose.
Now those are sound words. And I charge you, hold fast to
them. Hold fast to them. Don't ever
move an inch from them. Keep believing them. Keep trusting
them. And don't trust your soul to
some fancy man-made doctrine. Because if you do that, you know
what you're going to do? In some way, you're going to make salvation
dependent on your choice and your works. And if you do that,
you've got no salvation whatsoever. Hold fast. Hold fast to these
sound words. Salvation is in the will and
purpose of God. All right, number two. Sound
words declare that salvation is by faith alone. Verse 5 in
our text, 2 Timothy 1. When I called her remembrance,
the unfamed faith that is in thee was dwelt first in thy grandmother
Lois, and thy mother Eunice, and I am persuaded that in thee
also. Saving faith. Paul said, I see
the saving faith, Timothy, in your fame. I see the evidences
of saving faith in people. And saving faith is simply this.
It's trusting Christ to provide. everything God requires of me.
It's just trusting Him to provide it all. Faith commits what is
required of me to Christ. That's what Paul says in verse
12. For the witch calls, I also suffer these things. Nevertheless,
I'm not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed. I'm persuaded
that He's able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against
that day. This, verse 12, has to be one
of the The best definitions of saving faith there is. Faith
knows whom. Whom I believe. Not what I believe.
Whom I believe. It's all in Christ. And saving
faith is persuaded. I am absolutely persuaded Christ
is all I need. And thirdly, saving faith commits.
Commits my everything to Him. If it's required of me, Christ
will do it. Christ will do it. That's saving
faith. And salvation by faith, look at Romans chapter 3. Salvation
by faith means this, that my works don't add anything to salvation
at any time in any way, before conversion or after conversion. Faith just rests in Christ who
already did the work. He's finished the work of salvation,
so I don't add anything to it. I mean, doesn't that just make
sense? Christ cried from the cross, it's finished. He finished
the work. Then there's no work left for
me to do. That's what faith says. Look at Romans 3, verse 25. Whom God set forth to be a propitiation
through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for
the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance
of God. To declare, I say at this time,
his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of
him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It's
excluded. We can't boast in anything that
we do. It's excluded. By what law? Of works? Nay, but
by the law of faith. Therefore, we conclude that a
man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. And look
again at Ephesians chapter 2. Brother Wayne read this for us
to open the service. Galatians chapter 2. Salvation
by faith means my works, your works don't enter into this thing
of salvation at all. Ephesians 2 verse 8. For by grace, by grace, by grace,
by grace are you saved through faith. And that not of yourselves,
it's the gift of God. not of works, lest any man should
boast." Salvation by faith means my works don't enter into it,
and if I'm going to boast and brag on anybody, it's not going
to be me. It's going to be the Savior,
who is everything that I need. Now, salvation by God's grace
alone, something we do not deserve. God gave it to us by His grace.
Through faith alone, which is a gift of God. Those are sound
words. Those are sound words. Now, you
believe it. You believe that. Oh, you believe
that. And I charge you to keep believing it. Keep believing
it. I'd say everybody here would say you're a sovereign gracer,
aren't you? Keep believing it. Keep believing it. Stick to it
tenaciously. I mean tenaciously. Christ did all the work. It's
health for your soul. It's health for your soul. And
you run like the wind. from anybody who's trying to
make your words, something that you do, play any part in your
salvation in getting it or keeping it. You run like the wind from
that because it'll kill your soul. Those are not sound words.
They'll damage your soul. Stick to these sound words and
they'll make your soul whole. Salvation is by grace alone through
faith alone. All right, number three. Sound words declare this. The
salvation is of the Lord. Look in our text again, verse
nine. who hath saved us. Paul wrote to Titus in chapter
3, verse 5, and he said, according to his mercy, he saved us. Now that's just two scripture
references, but that's the message of all the scriptures. God did
all of the saving of his elect. He saved us. God chose who he
would save. Not because they're any count,
not because they're any good. God freely chose who he would
save because God's good, because God's gracious to sinners. God
the Father planned and he purposed their salvation through the doing
and the dying of his son. In the fullness of time, Christ
came into flesh, the Son of God. He was made flesh and he made
his people righteous by his obedience for them. The first Adam in the
garden, he made all his race unrighteous by his disobedience.
Christ came as a second Adam, and He undid what Adam did to
Him. He made those people righteous by His obedience for them. And
God the Son, when His hour came, He purchased the salvation of
God's elect with the precious blood of His sacrifice. And His
blood fully paid the debt for all of God's people. His blood
washed all of the sin of His people, washed it away, made
them white as snow. And God the Holy Spirit comes,
He blows where He lists it. He comes when He will and He
applies that salvation to the hearts of God's people in the
new birth, giving them faith and life. And God keeps those
people. He keeps them by the power of
His grace and when He wills, He glorifies them. He brings
them home to be with Him forever. Now that salvation from beginning
to end, that covers What we call eternity past, it covers all
man's time on earth and it covers eternity future. That's salvation
from beginning to end. And I ask you, where does your
works figure in there anywhere? Nowhere. You can't wedge them
in. God did all of the saving. Salvation is of the Lord. And
since God did all the saving, Paul tells us salvation is already
accomplished. This work is already done. It's
finished. Paul says, who hath saved us? He speaks there in the past tense.
You know why? Because the work's already done.
It's already finished. Salvation is accomplished for
all of God's people. And there's one thing left for
God to do. You know what it is? Call them out. Call them out
by the preaching of these sound words. By the preaching of Christ. He calls them out through the
gospel to give them faith in Christ and someday, He's going
to glorify them all together someday. Salvation is up to the
Lord. It's already done. And since it's already done,
you can't add anything to it. And you can't take anything away
from it. Then what should we do? You and
me, what should we do? We should come and rest in Christ.
Right now, where you sit, you come to Christ. Come to Him.
And rest in Him. Because He finished the work.
Now those are sound words. You believe those words. Oh,
God helped it to believe those words. They'll give your soul
life. You believe them. And you keep believing. You hang
on to them tenaciously for dear life. If you got dumped off of
a boat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and you had a life preserver,
how hard did you cling to it? Would you think, eh, I can let
this thing go eventually. I can tread water on my own self.
Would you let it go? Or would you hang on to it tenaciously?
I bet I know the answer. Cling to Christ alone tenaciously. And you run from any preaching
that declares salvation is not yet finished. Oh, Christ did
all He can do. Now you've got to ratify it.
You've got to do something to make it effectual. By your decision
or you've got to keep it by your morality or something. You hear
that kind of preaching. You run from it. Those are unsound
words. They'll kill your soul. Not only will they disease it,
they'll kill it. Oh, you run to Christ and you
cling to this truth. Salvation is of the Lord. And you cling to that Savior.
Alright, number four. Sound words declare that God
calls His people to Christ. Verse nine in our text says,
Who hath saved us and called us with a holy calling. Now when
we say that all men died in Adam, I mean we're dead. We're spiritually
dead. Incapable of doing anything. We're dead. We can't see, we
can't hear, we can't smell, we can't talk, we can't decide to
get up and walk or roll over. We're dead. We can't do anything.
Now I can prove how spiritually dead man is. Now God is everywhere. Isn't that what the scripture
says? God's everywhere. Nature declares that God is.
I mean, all you've got to do is just look at the things that
are created. You can tell God is. Somebody made these things.
Somebody created this. This all didn't just happen,
you know, by a random happy accident. Somebody made all this stuff.
And somebody's running it. You can see God in His providence.
How He runs His creation. God is everywhere. Yet man is
so dead. We cannot see God. The light
shined in darkness. And the darkness comprehended
it not. Because we're dead. You know, we have a loved one
die. Their body's in a casket. We
have visitation. Everybody comes and walks by
the casket, hugs the family, talks to them for a minute, and
everybody goes home. And you know what they do in that funeral
parlor? They close the lid and turn out the light. In the morning
they come in, they turn on the light and open the lid. It didn't
make any difference to that corpse. Can't see. Here is the evidence
how spiritually dead we are. Christ shined in the darkness
and the darkness comprehended it not. Here in this place on
Sundays and Wednesdays, by God's grace, the light shines in darkness.
Christ is preached, the light shines in the darkness. Yet folks leave and don't believe.
You know why? They can't see. They comprehend
it did not. Man is dead so that we cannot
know God. He came into His own and His
owners said, do not. Because they didn't know Him.
The rulers of that time, they put Him to death. If they'd known
who He was, they wouldn't have done it. But they didn't know.
Man is so dead, we cannot know God. Man is so dead, we even
try to deny that God even exists. I mean, that's how dead we are.
So if anybody's going to know God, God's got to do something
for us. He's got to call us to Christ. He's got to call us to
Himself or we'll never come. See, first God saved His people.
And then He calls them. He calls them to Christ. See,
they're not saved because they decided to believe on Jesus.
They're not saved because they decided to let Jesus into their
heart and be the king of their heart. God's elect are saved
because God saved them. And then He calls them to Christ.
And He gives them life to come and faith to believe. God does
that. And he calls his elect to Christ. He calls sinners to come to Christ
through sound words, through the preaching of Christ. Look
at verse 10. But it is now made manifest by
the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who hath abolished
death and hath brought life and immortality to light through
the gospel, whereunto I am appointed a preacher and an apostle and
a teacher of the Gentiles. Now God is hidden from our eyes
because we're spiritually blind. So somebody's got to come and
tell us about Christ and point us to Him. And God gives sight,
He gives faith to the preaching of the Gospel. But until He does
that, God's hidden from our eyes. Even in the Bible. Even by reading
the Bible. I know people who read the Bible
just faithfully, just all the time. They read and they can't
see Christ. They read the Word of God and
they can't see Christ. All they can see is laws and
rules to live by and nice poems that make you feel good. God's
hidden from our eyes in the Old Testament law. We read that Old
Testament law and we are so blind, we think we can earn a righteousness
by keeping it. Now, God gave us the law to show
us how unrighteous we are, to show us how sinful we are, to
show us our deed of Christ. But we're so blind, we think
the opposite. We read God's law and we think
I can keep it and make God happy with it. God's hidden. He's hidden from our eyes in
all the Old Testament ceremonies. People read those ceremonies
and this is what we think because we're blind. We're spiritually
dead. We think we can be made righteous
by keeping a ceremony. The high priest at some point
waves some incense around, which is a picture of the intercession
of Christ, the prayers of Christ for his people. But people somehow
think you fill the room with smoke You're made holy. You're
made righteous. Why do they think that? Because
we're blind. We can't see God. But God gave
all that. He gave the law and the ceremonies.
He gave those things as a type of Christ. He gave those things
as a picture of Christ who was to come, who would fulfill them
all and make his people righteous. Not in picture, but in actuality. He saved them from their sin
by his obedience and by His sacrifice. That's the purpose of God. And
all that is made manifest. It's made obvious when Christ
appeared. It's made obvious through the
preaching of Christ. And if God the Holy Spirit ever
moves and calls you to Christ, I promise you this, you'll come
running. You'll come lovingly. You'll
come willingly without anybody begging you. You will. That's
all it takes is God the Holy Spirit to reveal Christ to you.
He opens your eyes and you see Christ and you'll say, how beautiful He is. How wonderful
He is. You can't stop me from coming
to Him. By God's grace. That's why we preach Christ.
We preach only Christ. and Him crucified, because that's
the only way God's ever going to open. He buys eyes, so the
sinner sees Christ. We preach Christ. That's how
He is revealed through preaching. Now, those are sound words. Those
sound words that will save your soul. Those words do not glorify
the preacher in any way. It's just please God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them to believe. Now, those are sound
words that will save your soul. You believe it. You believe Him.
and you keep believing Him. And you run away from any preaching
that is not Christ alone. Any kind of preaching that adds
anything to Christ, whatever it is, it might be a good thing.
You know, worldly speaking, maybe it's a good thing. But that kind
of preaching will poison your soul because that good thing
you're going to think is coming from you. That's what this flesh will think.
That kind of preaching will poison your soul by tempting you to
look somewhere other than to Christ alone. Now, you're not
going to fall for some junk that tells you to bow down to a statue
of the great big belly or bow down to a statue of a woman,
you know, that's supposed to look like a virgin. You're not going
to fall for that. But you be careful of this preaching that
combines Christ with something else. Beware of it now. The gospel
of Christ is the only message God uses to save his people.
And you hold fast to it. You hold fast to it. This is hard for me to think
about. But there's coming a day I won't be standing here anymore. And my heart's desire for you
is somebody else to preach this gospel. You hang on to it for
all you're worth. Hang on to it. All right, here's
the fifth thing. Sound words declare that life
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 10, but is now made manifest
by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who hath abolished
death. And he's brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel. Now, all life is in Christ because
Christ is our life. People who believe on Christ,
they have eternal life. Eternal life can never die. That's
what makes it eternal, I guess. Now their bodies will die, but
they will never die. No, their soul will live forever. That new man who's born of God,
he has life in Christ. He can never die. Because Paul
says here, the Lord Jesus Christ has abolished life or death. He's abolished death for his
people. The death of Christ as a sinner substitute was the death
of death. It put an end to death for his people. Christ destroyed
death in every way. and he brought in life for his
people by dying for them. The death of Christ destroyed
the law. The law demands death for sin.
Well, Christ destroyed the law by fulfilling the law and satisfying
the justice of the law. He took the law out of the way.
He obeyed it. He took it out of the way, nailing
it to his cross. He destroyed the law. so that
the law has absolutely no desire to demand the death of anyone
for whom Christ died. Because Christ satisfied the
law. He destroyed the law, which demands death. The death of Christ
destroyed sin, which is the sting of death. He took sin out of
the way. Your sin cannot kill you and give you the second death.
It cannot do it if Christ died for you. Because he took your
sin away from you. He took it into his own precious
body on the tree when he was made sin. When Christ was made
sin for his people, he took the stinger, the sting of death. It stung him. It put him to death
so it can't sting his people anymore. He took that sin out
of the way. He put it away. He abolished
death. The death of Christ destroyed
Satan, who has the power of death. The death of Christ crushed Satan's
head. It took away Satan's power so that he can't harm or deceive
God's people anymore. Scripture calls Satan the accuser
of the brethren. He's a very real enemy. Don't
go messing around with him. He's a very real enemy. He's
the accuser of the brethren. He accuses God's people of sin.
And you know what God says? God says, what sin? That sin
has been put away under the blood of my son. I see it no more.
They're not guilty. You see, Satan can't accuse innocent
people of anything before the bar of God's justice. The death
of Christ took away that power. There is no condemnation to them
which are in Christ Jesus. There's no fear of death, no
fear of punishment, no fear of the judgment. There's no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. Those are sound words. Those
are sound words. Now you cling to them. You cling
to them. Believers have no reason to fear
death. because they can't be motivated by fear. They can't
be motivated by being afraid. We're motivated by fear in the
sake of reverence, but not being afraid. God's people are motivated
by love, by thanksgiving. And you run from any preaching
that makes you afraid of death. Because they put some doubt on,
have you done enough? Now if the question to me is,
have you done enough? I'm going to be frightened to
death. Because this I know, Eric, I haven't done enough. I know
that. I know that. That's trying to motivate people
out of fear. You run from that. But sound words are words that
preach Christ alone. He is your life. And that'll
motivate you out of love and thanksgiving. Those are sound
words. Now you cling to them. Here's the sixth thing. Sound
words declare the necessity of the new birth. Verse 14. That good thing which was committed
unto thee, keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us. Now there
is no good thing of us, of us. Even the strongest of believers,
there's no good thing of us. But there is a good thing in
all of God's people. Even the newest, weakest believer,
there's a good thing in us. And you know what that is? It's
the new man, born of God, who cannot see. who believes God,
who trusts God, who loves God. Well, how'd that new man get
there? How'd this good thing get in you, you who believe?
How'd that good thing get in you? God, the Holy Spirit, caused
him to be born in the new birth. The Spirit of God, Paul says
here, dwells in the hearts of all of God's people. That's what
that says, isn't it? You read that for yourself, that's
exactly what it says. And there's no salvation without
it. Look back at John chapter 3. John chapter 3. There can be
no salvation without the new birth, the birth of a new man. John chapter 3, verse 3. Jesus answered and said unto
him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him,
How can a man be born when he's old? Can he enter the second
time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, verily,
verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of
the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is
born of the flesh is flesh. Dead, sinful flesh, it can never
be anything but. And that which is born of the
spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, you must
be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth.
Thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it
cometh and whither it goeth. So is everyone that is born of
the Spirit. Now, if we would enter the kingdom
of heaven, we must be born again by the power of the Spirit, born
again with a new nature that's born from new seed, that's got
a new nature, a new heart. It's got to be born again by
the power of the Holy Spirit, never the power of the flesh.
Because all the flesh can produce is more flesh. More dead, sinful
flesh. And God cannot accept us in our
dead, sinful flesh. And we ought not expect God to
accept us in our dead, sinful flesh. Our flesh cannot get light. Our flesh cannot start believing
God. We certainly can and we should
try to teach folks heads. We can try that. But our flesh
will never start believing God, will never start loving God.
All we are is flesh, and God will never accept that in our
sin. So you know what God does? We
can't change our flesh. We can't improve it. So you know
what God does? God makes His people to be exactly
what He'll accept. And He does it in the new birth
by causing a new righteous man to be born who loves God, who
believes Christ, who rests in Christ, And when this flesh finally
dies, we're dealing with two men here, the flesh and the spirit. When this flesh finally dies,
that new man is going to be freed from this clay prison and go
be with the Lord. You plant the body in the ground
and return back to the dust from whence it was made. But the spirit,
the person is going to be in glory. The new man will. Now those are sound words. Those
are sound words. The only way a sinner can be
made righteous, holy, and not guilty is to have a new man born
in us who cannot sin. Now those are sound words. Now
you believe those words and you keep them. You keep them like
your life depends upon it because it does. And you run from any
preaching that says God the Holy Spirit does not dwell in God's
people. If that logic, doctrine, whatever you
want to call it, that God, the Holy Spirit, does not dwell in
the hearts of God's people. If that is true, then this flesh
can get light. This flesh can get some understanding.
This flesh can get some faith. And that means this flesh is
not completely dead. If this flesh is not completely dead,
if that's true, you better start at Genesis chapter 1, go to Revelation
chapter 22 and throw it all out. Because every bit of it is a
lie. If this flesh can get some light. if this flesh can be made
to believe God. So you run from that kind of
preaching. And you hold fast to this, the necessity of the
new birth. God, the Holy Spirit, causes
a new man to be born in us. Those are sound words. Give life
to your soul. And here's the last thing. Sound
words declare the perseverance of the saints. Verse 13, Paul
says, hold fast the form of sound words which thou have heard of
me in faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus. Now, I've told
you over and over again, hold fast. Hold fast. Hold fast. And we worry, if we're honest
with ourselves, if we know ourselves, all we worry, will I hold fast? Well, God's people will. They'll
persevere in faith and love. In faith and love. Now, those
are sound words. Faith and love. Don't ever depart
from those words. You hang on to them. dogmatically, and you
insist that they be preached to you. Because listen, faith
and love. You will not depart from Christ
if you believe Him. If you're trusting Christ and
resting in Christ, you won't depart from Him. And you won't
depart from Christ if you love Him. If you love Him. Now don't ever depart from those
sound words. Those are sound words. Those are words of truth
and life. Hang on to them for all your
life. Hang on to it. Alright. I pray God bless His
Word. Let's bow together. Our Father, how we thank You
for these sound words. Sound words of our Lord Jesus
Christ that it's all in Him. Father, we thank You for preserving
these sound words, having them preached here for so many years. Many, many, many years. I'm thankful
that you've seen fit in your mercy and grace to send your
gospel here, to call out your people, to give them faith in
Christ, to give them life. Father, we thank you for your
preserving grace. You've enabled us all these years
to hang on. You kept having your word being
preached here. Father, we're overwhelmed. We're
overwhelmed with your mercy that you would be so merciful and
gracious as to give this precious gospel. to us and to keep it
here all these years. Father, I beg of you the faith
to believe. Would you give each one of us
here this morning faith to believe the Lord Jesus Christ, to trust
Him and to rest in Him. And Father, keep us. Oh, we pray
you keep us believing. Keep us trusting and resting
in Christ and Christ alone. It's for His sake and for His
glory we ask. Shawn, come lead us in a closing
hymn, if you would. If you would, please stand and
sing song number 431, I Love to Tell a Story. I love to tell the story of unseen
things above, of Jesus and His glory, of Jesus and His love. I love to tell the story because
I know it's true. It satisfies my longings as nothing
else can do. I love to tell the story. It will be my theme in glory. to tell the old, old story of
Jesus and His love. I love to tell the story, more
wonderful it seems than all the golden fancies of all our golden
dreams. I love to tell the story, it
did so much for me. And that is just the reason I
tell it now to thee. I love to tell the story, it
will be my theme in glory. tell the old, old story of Jesus
and His love. I love to tell the story, it
is pleasant to repeat. What seems each time I tell it,
more wonderfully sweet, I love to tell the story for some have
never heard. the message of salvation from
God's own Holy Word. I love to tell the story, it
will be my theme in glory, to tell the old, old story. of Jesus and His love. I love to tell the story for
those who know it best. Seem hungering and thirsty to
hear it like the rest. And when in scenes of glory I
sing the new, new song, T'will be the old, old story That I
have loved so long. I love to tell the story, T'will
be my theme in glory, to tell the old, old story of Jesus and
His love.