Rex is right, this always feels
like a homecoming to me. We lived in Withersburg, Ohio
much longer than we lived here in Danville, but there's always
such a homecoming for me. And I got to town a little early
tonight, and I drove by our old house. I drove by Lindsay and
Diane's house, the Poncer's house. and a lot of fond memories. And if you had told me when I was
that little fella riding my bike, I kind of drove my car around
the perimeter of where I was allowed to go on my bike, then
I'd never be standing here. I'd have said, you're crazy.
But here we are. And I trust the Lord to give
us a message tonight that we might worship him. If you would
open your Bibles with me to 2 Timothy chapter 3. 2 Timothy chapter 3. I've titled
the message tonight, The Doctrine of God's Preacher. In verse 10,
Paul tells Timothy, thou hast fully known my doctrine. You've fully known or you've
diligently followed my doctrine. I have a question. What was Paul's
doctrine? I think it's important for us
to know that because Paul's doctrine is the same doctrine of all of
God's preachers. But what is that doctrine specifically? What is it that Paul and all
of God's servants preach? Now, if we want to know Paul's
doctrine, it'd be a good idea for us to look at the epistles
that he wrote under inspiration of the Holy Spirit and some of
his preaching that is recorded for us in the book of Acts. So
if you would, let's look first at Acts chapter 20. I want to look at a few of these
things and see if we might learn what it is that God's preachers
have to teach us. Because if they're God's servant,
they're still teaching the very same doctrine that the Apostle
Paul taught. And the first thing is this.
Paul's doctrine was repentance toward God. Acts 20 verse 21.
This is when Paul's talking to the Ephesian elders. He'll leave
them. He knows, and they know, they'll see his face no more.
This is his parting words to them. He says, and you know how
I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have
showed you and taught you publicly from house to house, testifying
both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward
God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, repentance. Repentance is not just being
sorry for your sin. Repentance involves sorrow, I
suppose, but it's not just sorrow. I mean, can you really be sorry
enough ever for your sin? We can't be sorry enough. Repentance
is a whole lot more than just being sorry. Repentance is a
turning. It's a turning away from what
I used to trust in and turning to trust Christ. That's why repentance
and faith always go together. It's turning. It's turning away
from that idol that I used to trust in and turning to trust
Christ. And the sorrow that's involved
is sorrow. I'm sorry. Now that God showed
me Christ, I'm sorry. for how I used to trust the idol
of my works. That's where the sorrow is involved
there. I'm sorry I ever used to do that instead of trusting
Christ. But repentance is turning. It's turning to Christ. It's
not turning from your sin in the sense that you quit sinning.
There's no point in us going around to preach, well, you ought
to quit sinning. Everybody already knows that.
Everybody already knows I ought to not sin as much as I do. Repentance
is turning from those things that I think are good, those
things that I do. It's not just turning from my
sin, it's turning from those things that I've done that I
think are good that might recommend me to God. Repentance, true repentance
is counting those things that I've done that I used to think
make God happy with me and counting them but done. Throwing them
away so that I'll trust Christ with all of my heart. Trust Christ
for everything that God requires of me. Repentance is to quit
trusting in your works, to turn from those things. Quit that
and trust Christ. Now the only way that anybody
is going to turn from their idols to Christ, there's only one way.
The Lord's got to send them a man to tell them who Christ is. How
are they going to believe on him if they've never heard of
him? How are they going to believe if they've never heard him preached?
Somebody's got to come and tell them that the Lord Jesus Christ
was made a man. And he obeyed the law for God's
people. His obedience is their obedience.
And the obedience of Christ under the law. That's the only obedience
that we need. We don't add our obedience to
Christ's obedience. His obedience is the only obedience
we need. I'll tell you something else.
It's the only obedience God will accept. Now hearing of Christ
that way, that compels sinners to come to Christ. Hearing and
believing of Christ, that's the way we'll come to Christ and
we'll trust Him and not trust in our works anymore. And Paul's
doctrine was to compel sinners Repent and believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's my doctrine, too. Let
me tell you one more time. I try to say this in every single
message that I preach. Right where you sit, right now,
you come to Christ. You come to him. All right, number
two. Paul's doctrine was all the counsel
of God. Verse 26, that same chapter of
Acts 20. Wherefore, I take you to record
this day that I am pure from the blood of all men, for I have
not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Now,
when Paul says he preached all the counsel of God, he can't
preach all the counsels of God from eternity. We don't even
know all that. What he means is all the revealed
will of God, the revealed will of God in his word. And to preach
the revealed will of God is simply this, is to tell sinners how
it is that God saved sinners and is still God. How can God
save sinners and still satisfy his holy justice? How can God
be merciful to the guilty and still satisfy his justice? Now
to preach the whole counsel of God, is to tell of God's will
in salvation. And God willed salvation in the
council halls of what we call eternity past. And that will
is going to culminate someday in what we call glory in eternity
future. Salvation began with the electing
love of God the Father. God the Father has the capacity
I was going to say to do something. He has the capacity to do everything
we can't do. But one of the many things he has the capacity to
do that we do not have is he loves sinners. He has the capacity
to love sinners. And he chose them. Those sinners
he set his affection on. He chose them out of the lump
of Adam's fallen race. He separated them out and set
his love upon them and determined that he would redeem them. And
he gave those people his elect. He gave them to his son. and
his son agreed, Father, I'll redeem them. I'll come and purchase
their redemption with my own blood. And salvation for those
elect is applied in the life-giving love of God the Holy Spirit.
When the Holy Spirit comes, he moves. He moves in power and
gives life and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. In just a few short sentences,
that's the salvation of God's elect. It's the work of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And if we would preach the whole
counsel of God, we must do this. This is the Father's will now,
His people, the people He chose, His elect. It's His will that
those people be saved. But if we would preach the whole
counsel of God, you know what else we've got to preach? We've
got to preach Christ, the successful Savior. He came and he got the
job done. Verse 28, Paul says, take heed
therefore unto yourselves and all the flock over which the
Holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the church of God which
he hath purchased, hath purchased with his own blood. The Lord
Jesus Christ purchased his people. He purchased them with the blood
of his sacrifice that he shed to pay for their sin. He offered
that sacrifice. We say he offered that sacrifice.
Don't ever be mistaken about this. He didn't offer that sacrifice
to you and me to see if we decide to accept it. He offered that
sacrifice to the father. The blood was offered before
the father. And the father said, it's enough. It's enough. Well, since the
price has been paid, with the precious blood of God's own Son
that you can just bank on this. He will have all of his people. He will. There's nothing that
can happen in time, nothing that can happen in this creation that
can cause God to lose one of his elect. Not one. And we think this world has gone
off its rocker, don't we? I reckon If we could go back
and talk to John Gill, I bet John Gill thought the same thing.
If we go back and talk to Paul and talk to Moses, I bet they
thought the same thing. This world's gone off its rocker.
Yet not one of God's people have ever perished. Not one. You know
why? Because the blood of Jesus Christ,
God's son, has cleansed his people from all of their sins. The blood
of Christ paid the sin debt for God's elect in full, and that
makes it impossible for a holy God to condemn them. God can't
condemn them. Their sin has been purged. The
blood of Christ got the job done. He's the successful Savior. Salvation,
from its beginning to its ending, is of the Lord. It's of the Lord. It's of the Lord's will. It's
of the Lord's purpose. It's of the Lord's doing. It's
of the Lord's purchasing with his own blood. It's of the Lord's
application. And it's of the Lord's keeping
power to call and save and keep his people. God is sovereign
in salvation. Salvation is of the Lord. And
yet this is also true. Man is responsible. If somebody
says, explain that, I'm not going to bother trying to explain it.
I just know this is so. Salvation is up to the Lord.
God's offering. And man is responsible. Now, I know this about you and
me. We can't do anything unless God enables us to do it. Nothing. Not one thing. God's got it.
Yet man is still responsible. I'll use this illustration. I
heard this illustration years ago, and I'll use it. Many of
us here are parents. Suppose one of your children
was out walking on the side of the road, and a man is behind
the wheel of a vehicle coming the other way. He drank too much. I mean, he's just drunk. There's
just no other way to say this guy's drunk. It's beyond his
capacity to control that vehicle. And he runs off the road and
kills your child. He didn't have the ability to control the vehicle.
He didn't have the ability. You going to hold him responsible? You betcha, aren't you? His inability
is not going to stop you from holding him accountable, is it?
Man is responsible, but man being responsible doesn't mean that
you and I can do anything spiritual to make God accept us. Just because
we're responsible, that doesn't mean that we have the ability
to make salvation happen. Man's responsibility simply means
this. God's just when he damns somebody.
He's just because they didn't do what they were responsible
to do. Now scripture says that if you would be saved, You must
believe. You must. Nobody else can do
it for you. You must believe. But that doesn't mean that there
is some part in salvation that you have the ability to play.
You must believe. That's true. But here's what
else is true. You cannot and will not believe
by your own will, by your own nature. You cannot and you will
not. Our Lord said both. He told the
Pharisees, you cannot come unto me and you will not come unto
me. Only God can give us a heart
that believes Him. Only God can give us a heart
that will bow to Him. So I've said all that to say
this, a right understanding of man's responsibility is the complete
dependence on God's grace. A right understanding of man's
responsibility just leaves us completely dependent on God's
grace, which brings us back to what I was talking about in the
first place, salvations of the Lord. Salvations of the Lord. We are completely dependent on
God to enable us to believe and to cause us to persevere in the
faith. And if we would preach all the counsel of God, that
must be preached. And the only way that we can
see all the counsel of God, the whole revealed will of God and
the salvation of His people, the only way we can see that
is to hear Christ preached, is to hear that Christ is all. That verse we were talking about
earlier, Christ is all, that's the whole revealed will, Christ
is all. All of God's will for the salvation
of His people is revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all
in Him. It was all done by Him. And I'll
tell you when we'll see that, and when we'll believe it, and
when we'll love it, is if God ever lets us see Christ by faith. And if we see Christ by faith,
it's almost certain God's going to send us a man to preach Christ
to us. That's how we'll see Him. All right, here's the third thing. Paul taught the same doctrine
to everybody all the time, every time he preached. Notice what
he said in verse 21, testifying both to the Jews and to the Greeks.
Paul preached the same message to everybody, whether they were
Jew or Gentile, whether they were religious or whether they
were heathen, whether they were Jewish idolater or a Philistine
idolater. He preached the same message
to everybody every time. When he gathered together with
these Ephesian elders, men whom one would assume all knew the
Lord, knew the gospel, loved and believed the gospel, Paul
preached the same message to them they did to everybody else. The message never changed. You
know why we preach the same message to everybody? I mean, believer
and unbeliever alike, why we preach the same message to everybody?
Because everybody has the same need. Everybody does. Everybody has the need to be
saved by grace. Everybody needs the Lord Jesus
Christ to reach down and lay hold upon us and wash us in his
blood and keep us by his grace. We all have the same need. We
all need to be given faith. We all need our faith to be encouraged
and strengthened. You know how God does that? By
the preaching of Christ. We all need repentance. You know,
we talk about Paul preaching repentance and faith. You know,
you don't just preach that message to the unbeliever. No. We preach that message to the
believer. We constantly, constantly, constantly,
because of the depravity and sinfulness of this flesh, need
to be told, look and live. Look to Christ. We've just got
to kill this in ourselves now. us religious, Calvinist, church-going
people who don't miss a Sunday service or a midweek service
and think, look how much better we are than everybody else out
there watching the ball game tonight. We need to repent of
that, don't we? And look to Christ. Salvation
is always all in Christ. We make an idol of ourselves,
an idol of our works, just as easily as we breathe air. And
we constantly need to be reminded, look to Christ, rest in Christ,
rest. And that man, God's servant,
will preach that message over and over and over and over again. A man who changes his message,
depending on who's in the audience, that man is not acting as a servant
of God. Because everybody, no matter
who they are, they need to hear the message of the truth of Christ.
See, truth is truth. No matter who's listening, no
matter if the audience agrees or disagrees with it, truth is
truth. Whether men love it or whether
men hate it, the truth doesn't change. So the doctrine, the
teaching, the message of God's preacher is always the same. It's always Christ, the truth. Here's the fourth thing. Look
at Romans chapter 6. Paul's doctrine was salvation through union with
Christ. Romans 6 verse 3. Know ye not that so many of us
as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Therefore, we're buried with him by baptism into death, that
like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of
the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Now, Paul here talks about being
baptized into Jesus Christ. He's not talking about water
baptism. He's talking about union with Christ. He's talking about
representation. Now, we cannot, it's impossible
to understand the gospel, to understand how it is that God
saves sinners. until we understand this truth
of representation. And this truth of representation
is preached by every one of God's servants. Representation says
this, that all of us were in Adam, our representative. We
were in Adam. We were in his loins. So we did
what Adam did. And when Adam sinned, you and
I sinned in him. It's not just that God charged
his guilt to us. God charged his guilt to us because
we sinned in him. We sin in Adam. In Adam, our
representative. And when Adam spiritually died,
you and I spiritually died in him. That's why we come forth
into this world from the belly speaking lies, because we died
in Adam. That's how we were made sinners,
through representation by what Adam did. We did it in him. Well,
here's the other side of that coin. All of God's elect were
in the second Adam. the Lord Jesus Christ, and they
did what Christ did. When Christ obeyed the law, so
did they. It's not just that the Father
charged the obedience of Christ to them, they obeyed the law
in Christ their representative. And when Christ died for sin,
when he died to satisfy God's justice, so did everybody who
was in Christ. They died to satisfy God's justice
in Christ. So God's justice, if you're in
Christ, if you believe Christ, you can forget about God's justice
chasing you down and trying to punish you. God's justice is
not looking for you if you died in Christ. The law was satisfied. Justice was satisfied in Christ. Well, I want to know more about
that, don't you? How does a sinner then get in Christ? I want to
know that. Well, God put them there. That's what Paul means
when he says we are baptized, immersed into Christ. The Father
put them in Christ. Every believer is immersed in
Christ. So we did everything that Christ
did. Everywhere he went, we went.
Just like a pregnant mother, everything she does, that baby
does. Everywhere she goes, that baby
goes with her. The believer is immersed in Christ. So that when Christ died for
sin, Everybody who was in him died to sin too. And now sin
has no more claim on the believer. Because we died to sin in Christ.
Sin cannot have any more eternal effect on the believer. None.
Because we already died for sin in Christ. Just like the evening
news. The evening news cannot have
any effect on a dead man laying in a casket. He's dead. It doesn't have anything to do
with him anymore. Sin cannot have any more eternal effect
on the believer because we already died in Christ. And that's what
a believer confesses in believer's baptism. When we're baptized,
we're publicly confessing that Christ is my only hope. He's my only hope of salvation.
He's my only hope of forgiveness. He's my only hope of justification.
He's my only hope of sanctification. It's all in Christ. In baptism,
I confess. My hope is I did what he did
because I'm in him. My hope of salvation is that
when he died, I died in him. When he was buried, I was buried
in him. And when he arose again, I arose
to new life in him. In the life I now live, I live,
how? By faith in Christ, in Christ. That is the message of every
last one of God's preachers. All right, now look at 1 Timothy
chapter four. Wish I had a nickel for every
time Brother Henry said, salvation is a heart matter, a heart work,
Well, that's my fifth point. Salvation is not in the outward.
Salvation is an inward work of God. 1 Timothy 4, verse 1. Now the Spirit speaketh expressly
that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith,
giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, speaking
lies and hypocrisy. having their conscience seared
with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain
from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving
of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature
of God is good, and nothing to be refused if it be received
with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified by the word of God
in prayer. If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things,
thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up
in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou
hast attained. But refuse profane and old wise
fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness. For bodily
exercise, the bodily motions of religion, profiteth little.
But godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of
the life that now is, and that which is to come, this is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation." Now you'll notice there that
Paul uses the word doctrines. He says, some shall give heed
to seducing spirit and doctrines, doctrines of devils. You can
look this up. Every time in scripture the word
doctrines, plural, is used, every time. It refers to false teaching,
the doctrines of devils, the doctrines of false prophets.
And there are many, many false doctrines, but there's only one
true doctrine. The only one doctrine that's
true is the doctrine of Christ. There are many ways to go wrong,
but there's only one way to go right. It's in Christ. And false
doctrines always have to do with the outward. Touch not, taste
not, handle not. Do not. Don't get married, like
somehow that's gonna make you more holy. Don't eat certain
meats, like that's somehow gonna make you more holy. And they
say, now if you do these things, you're a sinner. If you don't
do these things, then you're righteous. They make it all in
an outward show. And you mark this down, that's
a lie. That's a lie, and anybody who
believes it's gonna be damned. The bodily motions of religion
profit little, and really by that Paul means they profit none,
because no spiritual profit ever comes from the motions of religion,
ever, ever. I was... Guess I was about 19
years old. And I went to my first Catholic
wedding. I had a friend from school, high
school, got married. I went to the wedding. And I reckon I lived a sheltered
life. I mean, buddy, I was shocked. I mean, just shocked out of my
gore, actually kneeling down to this. ceramic figurine of
Mary that stand up and say, I mean, I got laughing. I told my buddy,
stand up, sit down, fight, fight, fight. They're dealing with these
things. And they're walking all around holding their hands a
certain way in these candles. And I mean, I don't say that to make fun.
That breaks my heart. That breaks my heart to think
somebody, from that time till now, has gone to meet God trusting
in that. That's heartbreaking. Now, the Lord's delivered us
from that, and I'm thankful. But let's be sure we don't substitute
it for something else. Faithfully coming to the services,
bringing an offering, being kind and loving and outwardly moral,
those are all good things. And I'm all for them. I'm all
for them. But there's no spiritual profit
to our souls. If we're doing those things,
then God's going to bless me for it. Then God's going to be
more happy with me than somebody who doesn't do those things.
Trusting in those good things will damn your soul if you're
trusting in them. Salvation is not in the outward.
It's in the inward. Paul said there's no spiritual,
eternal profit to the motions, the outward bodily motions of
religion. Oh, but there's benefit for your soul in godliness. And you know what godliness is?
Godliness is trusting Christ to be all of your salvation.
I ask you, what could be more godly than trusting Christ? The Father was the first one
to trust him, wasn't he? What could be more godly than
trusting Christ? That's what godliness is. Trusting Christ
to be our righteousness. Trusting Christ to be our life.
Trusting Christ to be our Sabbath rest. Trusting Christ to be our
way. The way of salvation. The way
to God. If you trust Christ, you have
every spiritual blessing God has for a sinner. You have them
all. Every one of them. Not by what
you do or what you don't do, but by trusting Christ and resting
in Him. And those blessings are ours
through union with Christ, through what Brother Henry called so
often a vital union with Christ. And you know why that's a vital
union? Because the branch can't have
life if it's cut off from the vine. The only way the branch
can have life is to have union with the vine. That's you and
me. The only way we can have life,
the only way that we can have righteousness, the only way that
we can be accepted is through union with Christ. It's the only
way. That's why it's called a vital
union. And every last one of God's preachers
preaches that truth. Now the doctrine, the doctrine
that we believe, the doctrine that we preach, it's not just
words. Do you know that doctrine will
direct our manner, It'll direct a man who's God's servant, he
has that doctrine, if he believes it in his heart, it'll direct
the manner in which he preaches, the manner in which he conducts
his ministry and how he lives his life. And that's true for
every believer. This doctrine that we preach,
believing Christ, will direct the manner in which we live our
lives. It really will. Our methods are
gonna be directed by our doctrine. It will, the doctrine we truly
believe. And that doctrine will not change
over time. It will not. Now I hope that
we preach it more clearly, preach it more precisely, but the doctrine
itself will never change. The last time I was here, Shelby
told me she was listening to a, hope you don't mind me saying
this, it's too late, I'm gonna say it anyway, hope you don't
mind. listening to a message from somewhere in the 1980s from
Brother Don. It was a video, and she said,
I would have thought it was one of the last messages he ever
preached. If it wasn't on that video, I could tell he was younger.
That ought to be true of all God's preachers. The message
doesn't change. The truth, I hope I preach it
better. One of my daughters has told
me, she said, Daddy, when you die, I want all your notes. Yeah,
a lot of those chances she don't want those things. I hope when she looks back over
those things and she sees what they learned to preach Christ
more clearly, more clearly, but the doctrine didn't change. It
can't if it's the truth. Let me give you this briefly.
The doctrine that we believe will direct our manner First
of all, now look back, I've said all that to get here to our text,
2 Timothy chapter 3. God's servant will live what
he truly believes. In verse 10, 2 Timothy 3, Paul
says, but thou hast fully known my doctrine and my manner of
life. Paul says to Timothy, you know
my manner of life. God's servant, this is his manner
of life, he will live dependent on Christ. He will live seeking
the Lord's leadership. He'll live in prayer. He'll be
a loving, caring, forgiving man. And he'll do, this is his manner
of life, he'll do whatever it takes to preach the gospel. Whatever it takes, he's dedicated
to it. No matter how much time he has
to give to study, he'll just do whatever it takes to preach
the gospel. He'll watch over God's sheep
to protect them from error. He'll be faithful to God's word
and he'll be faithful to God's people because that's what's
required of a steward. Faithfulness. He'll live what
he really believes. And the purpose of God's preacher
will be to glorify God. Paul says, Timothy, you've known
my purpose. Now you just hang around a fellow
long enough and you'll figure out his purpose. You'll figure
out what he's trying to do. The purpose of God's servant
is not going to be to gain a following for himself. It's not going to
try to get a bunch of recognition for himself. His purpose will
be that God's glorified. His purpose will be that God's
redemptive glory in saving undeserved sinners is going to be seen and
believed. His purpose will be the truth. The truth. Doesn't matter what
happens. Doesn't matter who likes it or
doesn't. He's not going to change depending on the current political
winds that are blowing. His purpose will be the truth.
And all of that is for this purpose, so that you will know Christ. You're not gonna know Christ
by the preaching of a lie. His purpose will be that you
know Christ. And you know how you can tell
if that's his purpose? He only preaches Christ. That's how you
can tell. His purpose is for you to know
Christ. His purpose will be grace, not
law. It'll be faith, not works. It'll
be to put the flesh in the dust every time so that we're forced
to look up and trust Christ alone. Thirdly, God's servant will live
by and he'll preach by faith. Paul tells Timothy, you've known
my faith. Now God's preacher's gonna preach salvation by faith,
faith in Christ alone. Never by works, always by faith. And you'll see that he's faithful.
He's a faithful man. You'll see he's faithful. You
just hang around him long enough, you'll see this. You'll see he's
faithful because he keeps preaching nothing but Christ. And you know
why he never preaches anything but Christ? Because he trusts
God. He trusts God. He's willing to
preach Christ to you and then leave you alone with God. Not
trying to talk you into doing anything, talking a decision
or walking an aisle or doing anything, he'll preach Christ
to you and leave you alone with God. You know why? Because he trusts the Lord's
going to save his people. He's faithful. Fourth, God's servant
will be long-suffering, impatient. Paul says, you've known my long-suffering
and patience. God's preacher is not going to
get impatient waiting for results. He's not going to get impatient
in this way. He's not going to try to make results happen. He's
just going to faithfully and patiently continue to preach
Christ, knowing this, that whatever the Lord's purpose is, he's going
to accomplish it through the preaching of Christ. And God's
servant will also be patient with those who oppose themselves.
And you know how he'll show his patience? Those that oppose themselves,
they hate the gospel. They hate this message of salvation
by grace. They hate that Christ is all.
He'll be patient with those people. They oppose themselves. They're
opposing their only hope of life. He's going to be patient with
those people. And you know how he's going to show it? He's just going
to keep preaching Christ to them. And he'll patiently wait for
the Lord to bless his word. God said, my word will not return
unto me void. God's servant be patient to wait
on the Lord to bless his word. Then fifthly, God's servant will
be loving. He tells Timothy, you know my charity. The God's
preacher loves God. He does. He loves God. Not like
I wish I did. But we can all say with Peter,
Lord, you know all things. You know I love you. You know.
And since he loves God, he's just not going to compromise.
He's not going to compromise the gospel, and he's not going
to lie on God. He's not going to lie on the one that he loves.
And he'll have a love for people. He'll have a love for people,
so that he'll be faithful to keep preaching Christ to them.
He has a love for people, so he'll tell them the truth, even
when they don't want to hear it. He'll keep telling them the
truth because he loves them. And they cannot be saved by hearing
a lie. They can't have peace if he just
cries, peace, peace. Well, there's no peace. No, he'll
keep preaching Christ to those people because he loves them.
That's what they need. That's who they need to hear.
And then here's the last thing. Persecution and hatred and slander
won't make God's servant quit. Verse 11, persecutions and afflictions
which came upon me at Antioch and Iconium at Lystra, which
persecutions I endured, but out of them all the Lord delivered
me." See, God's service is not going to change his message because
of persecution from the world. Thankfully, today, that persecution
does not include being burned at the stake or being beheaded
or being whipped within an inch of your life or being put in
some horrible conditions, you know, in jail. Paul, many others
in scripture, and the martyrs, they had to face that and endure
that without compromising their message. Now, there's still that
kind of persecution thing going on today, just it's not to that
level. But God's service is still going
to have to put up with that. Bear patiently snide remarks
of critics. Bear patiently being made fun
of, being lied on. And he'll keep preaching nothing
but Christ. He's not gonna change his message
to satisfy the itching ears of the flesh. He'll keep preaching
Christ. Now that's the doctrine of God's
servant, and that's the way he'll conduct himself, because he believes
that doctrine. And that, the part about preaching
and things, that applies to preachers, but it applies to every believer. Every believer, being faithful,
being faithful, supporting the gospel, doing, I tell our folks
at home all the time, whatever it is that God's put to your
hand to do today, do it. Do it with all your might. Do
it with everything that you got. That's the way we all serve God's
church. Great prayer. You and I have
known a lot of great preachers, haven't we? Oh my goodness, the
preaching that we've heard. I'm thankful, aren't you? May
God be pleased to make us faithful to our generation. Somebody dared preach Christ
to me and to you. Somebody supported those men
when they preached Christ to us. Aren't you thankful? Can
you think of anything better than to do that to the next generation?
I can. May God be pleased to make us
faithful to serve our generation and preach Christ to them.