I took our Bibles again to the
book of 2 John. I pray that the Holy Spirit will
enable me this morning to give you the most clear declaration
of the gospel that I can possibly preach and express to you. I
want this to be such a clear declaration of the gospel. The title of the message is,
The Doctrine of Christ. Now in verse six, the apostle
tells us that we should walk, tells believers that we're to
walk in the commandments of Christ. And what he means is for us to
walk in the commandment of the gospel. He's not talking about
keeping the law, obeying the commandments of the law. He's
talking about as we go through our journey here below, we're
to walk in faith, walk in faith in Christ, walk in love for Christ
and love for one another. We're to walk looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of our faith. And that's very important
for a believer to do, because he says in verse seven, four,
you walk in these commandments, the commandment of love that
you've heard from the beginning, four, verse seven. Many deceivers
are entered into the world who confess not that Jesus Christ
has come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Now I tell each of you here this
morning who are a believer, you walk in the truth of the gospel.
You walk in, you keep walking in. You abide in it. Abide in
it and don't leave the truth of the gospel. You beware, don't
allow yourself to be drawn away from the truth of the gospel.
And you know that's possible. To be drawn away from the truth
of the gospel. Because many false prophets have
gone out into the world. And their job, their goal, their
desire is to deceive people. They're not being honest with,
they know what they're doing. They know they're deceiving people.
The way John describes a false prophet is a deceiver. That's
what a false prophet is. A false prophet tries to deceive
people with a message that kind of sort of sounds like the gospel.
They use a lot of the same terms that we use when we preach the
gospel, but they have different meanings attached to those words.
And they're very careful not to preach the gospel in its entirety
in truth. It sounds like the gospel, but
it's not. And the reason they do that is
this, they're trying to deceive you. They're trying to draw people
after themselves, not draw people to Christ. I can honestly tell
you, my heart's desire, my single heart's desire for you, for everyone
here, is that you be drawn to Christ. I really don't care if
you remember my name five minutes after you leave this building.
Oh, but how I desire for you to know Christ. I desire you
to be drawn to Christ. The false prophet has drawn man
after himself to see what he can get from him. Here's how
you can identify their message. John says they deny Jesus Christ
has come into flesh. Now, they don't deny a man named
Jesus lived, but here's what they deny. In some form or another,
they deny Jesus is God. That's what they deny. If he's
trying to do something he can't, then he's not God. All those
do it. In some form or another, they
deny that Jesus is God. Jesus of Nazareth is God. It's not like he's God. He's
not a diluted version of God. Jesus of Nazareth is God. God manifest in the flesh. The
Lord Jesus existed before he ever appeared in Bethlehem's
main John says that he entered into the world. He came into
the world. Well, if he came into the world,
he came from somewhere, didn't he? He came from somewhere else.
Where'd he come from? He came from heaven because he's
God. And he appeared on this earth
as a man. And since that man, Jesus of
Nazareth, is God, he accomplished everything he came to do. God
can't fail. So this man, Jesus of Nazareth,
did everything he came to earth to do. The Old Testament told
us what he'd do when he comes. He's going to make an end of
sin. He did. He made an end of the sin of
his people. He came to establish righteousness
for his people. That's exactly what he did. The
Old Testament told us when he comes, there's going to be a
fountain open for sin, for cleansing of sin. That's exactly what he
did. By his blood, he purchased the
eternal redemption of his people. The great transaction is done.
No one for whom he died can ever perish. Now, anybody who denies
that, I don't care who they are, anybody who denies that is an
anti-Christ. They're anti-Christ. They're
opposed to Christ. They're opposed to Christ the
Savior. And a man who opposes that, and I guess nowadays you
have to say a woman, although you ought to know a woman, right
off the bat is a false prophet, she's a preacher. The man who
denies those truths The reason they're doing it, they're trying
to deceive people. They're trying to deceive people into thinking
that salvation is something other than Christ alone. That's what
they're doing. It's Christ plus something you
do or something, you know. That man is anti-Christ. He's
opposed to Christ. He's not just uninformed. He's
not just making an honest mistake. He's anti-Christ. He is an enemy
of Christ. And he's an enemy of men's souls
because he's trying to deceive the souls of men and women into
not following Christ. And the error of a false prophet
always has something to do with the person of Christ. Their error
is not sin and righteousness, really. It's not heaven and hell.
Really, their error is not even grace and works. The foundation
of their error is the person of Christ. And that's why they
go off into all these other errors. They begin with the foundation
being wrong. The person of Christ, then they
go off into manifesting in all these other errors. That's how
you can identify them. So John tells us verse eight,
look to yourselves, that we lose not those things we have wrought,
but that we receive a full reward. Now my advice to each of us,
and I'm confident this is what this verse is teaching us, we
shouldn't go around pointing out all the false prophets, saying
everything they're doing wrong, everything they're saying wrong. We need to warn. A pastor's job,
an elder's job is to warn people of false prophets. But I tell
you what we ought to be concerned with, really. We ought to be
concerned with our own souls. We really should. We need to
be concerned with our own Paul told Timothy, Timothy, you see
to your doctrine. You see to it, Timothy. It'll
save you and it'll save those that hear you. You see to it.
You see to your doctrine. What we need to be concerned
with is this. Am I trusting Christ alone? Are we? Are we trusting
Christ alone? Are we looking to Christ alone
or are we looking to how we can help him out a little bit? That's
what we need to be concerned with. Let's make our calling
in election sure. Let's do that so we don't lose
what we wrought. Now that word wrought is gained.
Let's do that. Let's see that we're following
Christ alone, that we're trusting Christ alone so we don't lose
what we've gained. What's a believer gained? Oh, much. We've gained forgiveness of sin.
We've gained eternal life. We've gained righteousness. How
do we gain those things? We didn't gain them by working
and deserving them, did we? No, we gained them by God's grace.
Those things are a gift of God's grace. That's how we gained them.
Well, let's be sure we don't lose the full reward of grace
by trying to earn it. Let's be sure we don't lose the
full reward of grace by trying to make salvation Christ plus
something else. Now, verse nine. Whosoever transgresseth and abideth
not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. He that abideth
in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the
Son. Now John starts talking about
the doctrine of Christ. And that's what I want us to
spend our time on this morning. And I want to make this very
clear, very simple, the doctrine of Christ. And it's very important. I hope everyone will listen very
carefully. The doctrine of Christ must be very important. Because
John says, whosoever transgresses it and does not abide in the
doctrine of Christ doesn't know God. And whosoever abides in
this doctrine, this doctrine of Christ, as eternal life. Now, first, I want you to notice
this. The doctrine of Christ is singular. The doctrine of
Christ is one singular truth. The doctrine of Christ is the
gospel that declares who Christ is, that declares the truth of
the person of Christ. Remember, the false prophet,
his error concerns the person of Christ. Well, the gospel is
the truth that declares the person of Christ. Now, there are many different
aspects of the truth. In our lesson this morning, we
looked at the truth. There are many different aspects
of truth, but there's only one truth, and it's all found in
the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel is the doctrine
of Christ. It's the doctrine of Christ,
first of all, because he's the author of it. He planned it,
he purposed it in eternity. And Christ is the subject of
the gospel. The gospel is the doctrine of
Christ, because Christ is the subject of it. We preach not
ourselves, but Christ Jesus, the Lord. Now I want to give
you a few aspects of the doctrine of Christ by asking and answering
a few questions. And each of these questions and
answers has to do with the person of Christ. If the issue is the person of
Christ, the false prophet of error is the person of Christ,
then that's the issue. I want us to see something here,
and hopefully the Spirit will teach us something about the
person of Christ. If we'll learn that, we'll learn
the doctrine of Christ. My first question is this. Who
is Jesus Christ? Just who is Jesus Christ? Jesus Christ. Well, he's the
God-man. The Savior has to be the God-man. He has to be both God and man
in one person. He must be God. so he can be
holy. He must be God so he can satisfy
God. Man can't be holy, can he? Man
can't obey the law, but God can. So the Savior must be God. But
the Savior must also be a man. Only a man can be the representative
of other men. God can't be the representative
of men. We don't have the same nature as God. God has a completely
different nature than us. God can't be our representative,
but a man can. So God became a man. God can't
suffer and die as a sacrifice for sin. And we must have a sacrifice
for sin. There's got to be payment for
our sin. Well, God can't die and pay the price, but a man
can. So God became a man so he could
be sacrificed and put away the sin of his people. That's who
Jesus Christ is. The deity of Christ was very,
very, very important to the apostles because that's who the person
is. He is God. He has both the nature of God
and the nature of man in one person. He's 100% God and he's
100% man. The math of that don't add up.
Don't try to figure it out. He's both God and man. And since he's God, he cannot
fail. That's the doctrine of Christ.
All right, here's my second question. What are his offices? What is
it that Christ is qualified to do? Well, he's everything. To the believer, Christ is everything. He's prophet, priest, and king.
What does the prophet do? What's the job of the prophet?
The job of the prophet is to speak to the people for God.
The prophet would get the message from God and he would deliver
it to the people. Christ isn't that prophet. God told Moses,
Moses, I know you got this stiff neck people, this rebellious
people, I know they won't listen to you. Moses, there's coming
a day I'm gonna raise up a prophet like him. Him the people will
hear. That's Christ, he's that prophet.
His people always will hear, always. The only way we know
anything at all about God is by hearing Christ. Look at Hebrews
chapter one. Christ is that prophet. He's
the one that reveals the Father to his people, reveals God, who
God is to his people. Hebrews 1 verse 1. God, who at sundry times and
in diverse manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the
prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son,
whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made
the world. God speaks to his people through
his son. He's that part. Second, he's
the priest. What's the job of the priest?
Well, the priest speaks to God for the people. The priest offers
the sacrifice to God for the sin of the people. That's our
Lord Jesus Christ. That's who his person is. He's
the great high priest. Aaron and his sons, they offered
many, many, many thousands of sacrifices during their priesthood.
And they had to keep offering them over and over and over again
because none of those sacrifices could take away sin. The blood
of an animal can't take away the blood of a man. An animal
can't die for a man. It goes right back to what we
said earlier, it's two different natures. An animal can't die
for a man. Those animals were all pictures
of Christ our sacrifice. He would come and put the sin
of his people Those Aaron's sons, they offered so many sacrifices. Christ our great high priest
came. You know how many sacrifices he offered? Just one. He offered one sacrifice
for sins forever. And then he did something else
a priest never did. He sat down. All it took to remove the sin
of God's elect was the one sacrifice of Christ, offered by Christ
our great God. Then Christ is king. What's the
job of the king? The king's job is to rule over
the people, to protect them, to guide them, to give them safety.
Well, that's our Lord Jesus Christ. He's no mere king. He's not a
king like David. He's king of kings. He's Lord
of lords. And he rules for the good of
his people. He guarantees their salvation. You know, an earthly king can't
really guarantee his will's gonna be done. He can protect his people.
Christ is the king of kings. He rules, guaranteeing the salvation
of everybody that he died for by his sovereign grace and by
his power. Christ is the surety of the covenant
of grace. Father and the Son entered into
a covenant of grace and eternity passed. What's the surety of
it? What was the seal of it? The
blood of Christ. He's the lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. The salvation of God's elect
has eternally been upon the shoulder of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
since it's all dependent upon him, since all the weight of
our salvation is upon him, we're going to say that he's going
to hold it all up since it's all based on him. Then Christ
is the mediator of the covenant of grace. He's the surety of
it, and he's the mediator of it. If you and I are going to
come to God, we've got to come to God through a mediator. We
can only come to God through our Lord Jesus Christ. There's
just one mediator between God and man. The man, Christ Jesus. If we would come to God, it must
be in Christ. Through his sacrifice, through
his priesthood, through his righteousness, we can only be accepted, how?
If we're going to come to God, we've got to come to God in Christ.
The doctrine of Christ plainly declares Christ in all of his
glory. In short, he's everything you
need. That's the doctrine of Christ.
He's everything you need. Here's my third question. Christ
came to this earth to do something, didn't he? Did he do it? What was his work? What was the
work that he came to do? Well, the work of Christ is the
work of redemption. And he took that work very seriously. The first recorded words we have
of the Savior after he was born was this. I must be about my
father. I must be about this work. And
he never took a day off. He's always about this work of
redeeming his people. And it's some work. Now, the
work of redemption requires both the perfect life and the perfect
death of the Savior. God's elect cannot keep God's
law. God elected a people to salvation,
but they've got to be perfect. They've got to have a perfect
righteousness. They've got to have a perfect
obedience to the law if God's going to accept them. We're incapable of that. We can't
do that. That's why the Father sent the
Son into the world. Look at Galatians chapter 4. Christ came into this
world to obey the law for his people. He obeyed it for them
as their representative. Galatians chapter four, verse
four. But when the fullness of time
was come, God sent forth his son. made of a woman, made under
the law. See, he was, I should point this
out, made of a woman. Why didn't he say made of a man?
Why wasn't he born from the seed of a man? Well, if he'd been
born from Adam's seed, he'd have received Adam's nature. Well,
then he couldn't have been our savior. If he has Adam's nature,
he's got a sin nature. This was made of a woman, made
of the seed of the woman. without the seed of Adam, without
his seed that would make him a sinner. He was made of a woman
and he was made a real man. He was made under the law. Why? To redeem them that were under
the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. Christ
was made under the law so that he could obey the law as a man
and that he could freely give that obedience, his obedience,
he could give it to his people. The doctrine of Christ plainly
says this. Only obedience I have is the
obedience of Christ. His obedience is my personal
obedience before God. The work of redemption required
his perfect life, but the work of redemption also required the
perfect death of Christ. The law demands death for sin. You and I have sinned. The law
demands there be death for sin. So you know what Christ did?
He died. as a substitute for his people.
He died the death that his people deserve. But now, in order for
Christ to die, there had to be sin. There had
to be sin imputed to him. The father had to make his son
sin for his people. A holy man can't die. There's
no reason for him to die if he has no sin. And that was our
Lord Jesus. He never sinned. He knew no sin.
He was perfectly holy. Why did he die? He died because
the Father made him guilty of all the sin of his people. He
made all the sin of his people to meet on the Lord Jesus Christ
and Christ in his strength took all of that sin in his body on
the tree and he suffered and he died to pay for it and make
an end of it. Put it away forever. Christ died
to redeem his people from their sin. That's the doctrine of Christ. That's what he came to do. Here's
my fourth question. Did he get the job done? Did
he do it? Yes, he did. He got the job done. And you
know how I know he did? He died. His father raised him
from the grave. The only reason the father would
raise him from the dead is if he accepted his sacrifice. Look
at Romans chapter 4. Romans 4, verse 19. Let's hear
speaking of Abraham, how Abraham was justified. It was by faith.
And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body
now dead, when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness
of Sarah's womb. He staggered not at the promise
of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory
to God, and being fully persuaded that what God had promised He
was also able also to perform. Therefore, it was imputed to
him for righteousness. Now that's how Abraham was made
righteous. It's through faith in Christ.
The obedience of Christ was imputed to him, and the death of Christ
paid for his sin. And if you and I are gonna be
made righteous, if you and I are gonna be saved, we're gonna be
made righteous the exact same way. Read on, verse 23. Now,
it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to
him, but for us also to whom it shall be imputed if we believe
on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered
for our offenses and he was raised again for our justification.
Now, the proof that the death of Christ put away all the sin
that was laid on him and the proof of the death of Christ
satisfied the holy requirements of the father is this. After
he died, the father raised him from the dead. He accepted that
sacrifice. Christ never could have been
raised from the dead if sin was still there. If sin was still
on Him, He couldn't have been raised from the dead because
sin demands death. But the doctrine of Christ plainly
declares this. The death of Christ put away
all of the sin of God's elect. You and I cannot do one thing,
can't do anything to put our sin away. Christ already did
it. He did it by His death, by His
blood. And the doctrine of Christ plainly
declares this. God's elect can never perish.
They can never lose their salvation because when Christ died, he
got the job done. He put the sin of his people
away. He did what he came to do. He
accomplished all the work of redemption and the work's done. Well, here's my fifth question.
All right, Christ did what he came to do. He lived, he suffered,
he died, he was raised again, from the grave. Well, where is
he now? What's he doing now? Well, after
Christ arose from the dead, he spent some time here on earth
with his disciples, and then he ascended back to the Father.
Everybody knows that. He ascended back to the Father.
And when he got there, you know what he did? He sat down upon
the throne of glory. He sat down enthroned as king,
waiting till his enemies be made his footstool. As Christ the
King sits on the throne, he sovereignly rules over every minute detail
in this earth. Everything. There is nothing
that happens on this earth that does not happen by his will.
That's right. Everything that happens is his
express will. If he didn't will it, it could
not happen. He rules over everything. And you know why he does that?
You know why He takes the time to rule over the most minute
detail in His creation? You know why He does that? He
rules, guaranteeing the salvation of His people. Guaranteeing it.
He's making sure everyone He died for comes to repentance
and faith in Him. Christ the King sovereignly comes
to His people. He has a people, the Father gave,
the Father elected a people. Father gave those people to Christ.
He's the surety for those people. In the fullness of time, He came
and died for them. He shed His blood to put away
their sin. But now when they're born in this world, they're totally
depraved. Just as depraved as Hitler or
Manson or anybody else. They're just totally depraved.
Those people got to be born again. They've got to have Christ revealed
to them and in them. So Christ the King. And the person
of his spirit comes to his people and through the preaching of
the gospel, gives them life, gives them faith in Christ. And
it takes the sovereign king to do it. Only the king can give
life to the dead. Next time you have a loved one
die, try to try to make him come back to life. What an utter impossibility,
what a foolish thing to do. Christ became king. He gives
life. to the dead, spiritual life to
those who are spiritually dead. He causes a new man to be born.
And he does it through the preaching of his word, through the preaching
of the gospel, this doctrine of Christ. This word, the written
word, is the seed that God uses to give life to his people. It's
the preached word. That's what Christ does for all
of his people. If you're here this morning and
you believe this gospel, You believe Christ, you love him.
That's what he did for you. That'd be your confession. That's
exactly what he did for you. You're dead in sin, rotten, had
no interest in him, hated God, hated Christ, hated his doctrine.
But somehow, some way, you came to hear the gospel. And for reasons
that you cannot explain, suddenly you start believing it and you
start loving it. And you know who did, God did
that. God gave you life. He gave you faith. God arranged
all the events of your life so that you'd come hear the gospel.
And he gave you faith to believe. He revealed Christ to you through
the preaching of the gospel. Now I hope all of us are listening
very carefully to this message this morning. Whether you believe
the gospel or not, how did you end up in this auditorium this
morning? Huh? How did you end up here this
morning? Was it just an accident that you came here this morning
when the message God laid on the pastor's heart was the doctrine
of Christ? You know what I'm saying? How
did you come to be here this morning? Well, I promise you
it's no accident. In eternity past, Almighty God
arranged, He purposed that you'd be here this morning. This is
God's message to you. I hope we listen. Oh, and I pray
God will give us faith to believe it. This is the doctrine of Christ
that plainly declares God has purpose. He's going to do it.
He will accomplish all of his will. He's king. He cannot fail. And the only reason God keeps
this ball spinning in space right now is he's still got a people
to save. People may be born and as of
yet haven't come to Christ. More than likely, people have
not even yet been born, but they're gonna be. He keeps this ball
spinning in space till they're born, till His time comes to
reveal Christ to them. And when the last one is called
in, He's gonna wrap this thing up. There's no reason for it
to keep going after that. He's gonna wrap this thing up.
God's purpose cannot fail. He'll save His people. Not one
of them will be lost. All right, Christ is in glory
now. ruling and reigning, calling out his people. But will I ever
see him then? If he's in glory, how am I ever
gonna see him? Oh, you'll see him again. Because he's coming
back. He promised he's coming back
to gather his people to himself. And when he returns, every eye's
gonna see him. Every tongue, every knee's gonna
bow to him, and every tongue's gonna confess he's Lord. Oh,
we'll see him again. Now listen to me for a minute.
This is one of my pet peeves. Men, and by men I mean false
prophets, they try to scare people to death about the end of the
world and the second coming of Christ. All the events surrounding
the Lord's return, they try to scare people to death with it.
Brethren, don't let them deceive you. Don't let them deceive you.
People who try to scare you to death about the Lord's return
are deceivers. They're trying to scare you into
doing something. The only thing that matters about
the second coming of Christ, the only thing that matters about
the end of the world is this, this one thing, seeing Christ
in His name. That's all that matters. Look
at 1 John chapter 3. And what a blessing that is gonna
be for the believers. only thing we care about. I don't
care when he returns. I don't care about the events
surrounding it. All I care about is seeing Christ,
because look what John says. First John three verse two. Beloved,
now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we
shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be
like him. We shall see him as he is. See, the issue is Christ, isn't
it? It's seeing him As he is, the doctrine of Christ plainly
declares that Christ gets all of the glory. All that matters
is him. The glory of heaven is not going
to be streets of gold. The glory of heaven will not
be pearly gates. The glory of heaven will not
be big mansions. Yeah. I thought about this. This might make sense to you.
Makes sense to me. In glory. What do I want a big mansion
for anyway? I saw a picture of some movie
stars got this mansion for sale. You know, it's got a great big
wall all around, a great big gate. What do I want one of those
in glory for? Am I going to close the gate
and keep Eric out? You know, he's got to come and buzz and
I got to look and see if the door won't let him in? No. What
do I want that for? The glory of heaven in Christ. He is all. The joy of heaven
for a believer is Christ. Somebody tries to motivate you
if you want to go to heaven, because you walk on streets of
gold as a deceiver. That's not the motivation. The
believer's desire, singular desire, is to be made like Christ and
to one day worship him face to face with no sin. how I'd love to go through a
message just once without my mind wandering to something else,
something simple, something awful. I know when it'll happen. When
I see him face to face, I'm made like him. That's the desire of
a believer. That's the glory of heaven. That's
the doctrine of Christ. Now that's good news. Don't we
have a good gospel? Isn't that good news? But I've
got to give you a warning. because God's word gives us a
warning. Let me give you a warning. Anybody who rebels against that
doctrine of Christ is a false prophet. I said it right, they
rebel against this doctrine. John says, whosoever transgresses
this doctrine, transgression is sin, it's rebellion. It's
not that they don't understand it. Every person in this room
understands those questions that are those six questions and their
answers. regarding who Christ is. You understand that in your
mind. I mean, it's simple to understand.
The problem is not understanding it. The problem is refusing to
believe it. It's sinning and rebelling against
it, refusing to believe Christ and refusing to bow to him. Anyone
who rebels against the doctrine of Christ does not know God. I don't care what else they do,
what else they say, they're not saved. But anyone who believes
this doctrine, and abides in it, they won't leave it, they
walk in it, won't turn away from God, that's a saved person, God
saved them. Now those who are anti-Christ
will always oppose the doctrine of Christ. But if you this morning,
if you're willing to believe this, you're willing to bow to
Christ, you lovingly bow to Him and you believe Him, you know
why that is? God's already done a work of
grace in your heart. Let me give you a warning about these deceivers.
Here's a way that you can kind of recognize them and how to
deal with them. Like I told you, the doctrine of Christ is singular.
It's just one truth. It's all regarding the truth
of who Christ is. But these false prophets that
John talked about, they always have doctrines. Every single time you go and
look it up, see if I'm telling you the truth. Every single time
the word doctrines is used in scripture, Every time it refers
to a false preacher, false doctrine. Look at Matthew chapter 15. I
think it's five times it's mentioned in scripture, the word doctrines.
In Matthew 15 verse nine, Mark 7 verse seven, and Colossians
2 verse 22, the message of these false prophets are called the
doctrines of men. And I wanna show you how useless
the doctrines of men are. The doctrine of Christ, oh, that's
precious. It gives you life, it gives you
union with the father and the son. But the doctrines of men
are useless. Matthew 15, verse nine. But in
vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments
of men. The doctrines of men are useless,
they're vain. You cannot worship God with the
commandments of men, the doctrines of men. Hebrews 13 verse 9, they're
called strange doctrines. They're strange to the God of
grace. They're perversions of grace.
They're strange. And then look at 1 Timothy chapter
4. This is how serious this matter
is. 1 Timothy 4 verse 1. Now the spirits speaketh expressly
that in the latter time, some should depart from the faith,
giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. Anything
that's not the doctrine of Christ is the doctrine of devil. That's why I said these false
prophets, they're anti-Christ. They're not well-meaning. They're
not just making a mistake. They're anti-Christ. They're
preaching the doctrine of devils. Now back in our text, Second,
John, verse 10. Here's why it's so important
that we shun them. Stay away from their poison.
John says, If there come any unto you and bring not this doctrine,
receive him not into your house. Neither bid him God's speed,
for he that bid him God's speed is partaker of his evil deeds. Let me tell you what that's saying.
The doctrine of Christ is so important. The doctrine of Christ
is so vital to life. If anybody does not preach this
doctrine, if they preach a doctrine contrary to it, you stay away
from them. That's what John's saying. I
know we are to love. Absolutely we're to love, but
we're to love in truth. Loving people does not mean we're
to accept their lies and accept their errors about the Savior.
You're not to accept that. Love and truth always go together. That's what we saw in the first
verses of this epistle. Now listen. Now, if a man calls
himself a preacher, but he denies this doctrine of Christ, don't
support him in any way, in any way. If a man denies the work
of the Father in salvation, he denies the work of the Son in
salvation, he denies the work of the Holy Spirit in salvation,
do not support him in any way. If he denies that forgiveness
of sin is only in the blood of Christ, but you know, you could
do something to kind of make the debt smaller, don't support
him in any way. If he denies the necessity and
the reality of the new birth, Christ dwelling in your heart
by faith, you stay away from him. Don't support him in any
way. Now I know, does that sound hard?
I've been accused of being hard sometimes, but this is not Frank
saying that. John says that under inspiration
of the Holy Spirit, don't you bid him Godspeed. Don't you bid
him good day. Don't do it. Don't have fellowship
with him at a meal at your house. Don't do it. Don't allow him
to preach here. And don't you go listen to him
preach somewhere else. If you do that, you're supporting. You might not be giving him money,
but you're supporting. You're encouraging him. If you
say, you know, I want to, I want to appear loving. I know he doesn't
preach the truth. I know he denies, you know, some
of these things about the doctrine of Christ. But I'm going to go
see him here and preach anyway, because, you know, I want to
appear loving. If you do that, you know what you've done? You
put your seal of approval on that man, on his message and
on his methods. And John says under inspiration
of the Holy Spirit, don't do it. If you go hear someone preach
that you know denies this doctrine of Christ, I'm telling you, you're
wasting your time. You're not going to worship there.
God's not going to be there. Christ only meets where two or
three are gathered together in his name. He's not going to meet
and bless somebody denying the doctrine of Christ. Why should
we go somewhere God won't? So here's what scripture is telling
us. If you do that, you support him, you give him the kind words,
you encourage him in his error, you're just as guilty in him
deceiving souls of men as he did. That's what God's Word says. Now, how can I know if I know
the doctrine of Christ? How can I know do I believe this
doctrine of Christ? I want to believe this doctrine.
I want to have the doctrine of Christ. Because John says, if
I do, I've got eternal life. How can I know that I have this
doctrine of Christ? I believe it, so I have union
with the Father and the Son. I can tell you exactly when you
believe this doctrine. I know the precise moment when
God's plea is revealed to you. That's the doctrine of Christ.
He saves whom He will, you. Salvation is not a decision you
and I make. Salvation is a decision God's
made, and He reveals it to His people in His time. Now, you
can't make that happen. I can't make that happen. You
know, I can't, I can't make you believe by preaching harder and
preaching better. And I won't be a better preacher,
but that's not gonna make you be saved. I tell you, we can't
do anything to make it happen. I tell you what we can do. Would you believe the doctrine
of Christ? Say what I'd do if I was you, I'd be what's preached.
Isn't that a good idea? Just be there when it's preached,
because that's the means that God uses to reveal himself to
the hearts of his people. I pray he'll be pleased to do
that for us this morning. Let's bow in prayer. Our Father, how we thank you
for this doctrine of Christ. And I pray that you'd apply your
word to our hearts this morning, that you'd not let us be stony
ground hearers. Father, give us faith. Don't
let us transgress this doctrine. Don't let us rebel against the
doctrine of Christ, this doctrine, this blessed, glorious doctrine
that reveals who the Lord Jesus Christ is. Father, apply it to
our hearts. Give us faith. Give us faith
in Christ. If we look to him, how we thank
you for a Savior who puts away the sin of his How we thank You
for a Savior that provides sure, full, free salvation for His
people. Father, bless us, we pray, for
Your glory, for the good of Your people. Bless Your Word as it's
been preached to call us to Christ, to cause us to rest more in Him,
see more of His glory. It's in His precious name we
pray.