If you have your Bibles this
morning, I'd like for you to turn with me to Romans chapter
15. My subject this morning is things
written afortime. Afortime is not a word we use
in our vocabulary today. But it is, in fact, an old English
term that simply means before. Before. Now, just hold your place
there. I'm going to quote you some scriptures
and talk to you a minute before we read our text. In 2 Peter 1.21, this same phrase
is used, and it's interpreted in old times. There again, he's
talking about these things written before. But he doesn't use the
phrase aforetime, but in old time. But if you look it up,
it's the same language, same phrase. Then in Hebrews 1, verse
1, talking about the same thing, talking about God speaking to
our fathers through the prophets, he uses this phrase, in time
past. Peter, describing the words of
the ancient prophets, said they testified beforehand. Beforehand. But it all amounts to the same
thing, things written aforetime. I study and preach from, and
you follow along with me in a book we call the Bible. This book
right here, we call it the Bible. And certainly the Bible is in
its strictest sense the word of God. But the term Bible can
be used and is used to describe any book that is authoritative
in its field. I remember one time going into
a library and I was looking for some books on plants. I had some
plants that had things wrong with them and I couldn't find
anybody who could tell me what was wrong with the plant. And
I went in there and they had a plant bible. That's what they
called it, a plant bible. Foremost authority on plants
and trees and shrubs and that type of thing in the world. Plant
bible. I had a friend of mine went fishing
down in Florida and Neither one of us knew a whole lot about
saltwater fish. Perhaps he knew a little bit
more than I did, but we didn't really know. If we caught one,
we didn't know what we caught. We didn't know if we could eat
it or couldn't eat it or if it'd sting or bite or I didn't know
anything about it. And so he went out and he bought
what they call a fish bible. You could look in there and you
had all the different kinds of fish and if you could eat them
or if they was bad for you and all of these things. What we
have before us this morning is called the Holy Bible. It is the foremost authoritative
book about God, about Christ, about salvation and heaven and
hell in the world. They used to tell Brother Barnard,
you need to read this book, you need to read Gill, you need to
read Brooks, you need to read this one and that one and the
next one. And he said, I'll tell you what I found out after I
read them books. The Bible sheds a lot of light
on them commentaries. It is the foremost authoritative
book about God, about Christ, about salvation. You want to
know these things? Don't go to those books. Go to this book.
Find out first from this book. And then you can discern what
these men who are writing those books have to say about it. It is, in fact, the only book
that can rightly be called the Word of God. God spoke. That's what the scriptures
say. God spoke unto the fathers by
the prophets. The prophets spoke, but God spoke. The prophets wrote, but God wrote. Are you with me? It's the only
book that can rightly be called The Word of God. God spoke unto the fathers by
the prophet. Who's the fathers? Abraham, Isaac,
Jacob. All believers in all times. God
spoke to them. Fact is, this book is the only
source of information we have concerning the living God or
God's divine will, the creation of the world, the fall of man,
the salvation of sinners, and everlasting damnation of men. Only book. Only book we have. And apart from this book, there
is no viable record or testimony on which any man or any woman
might come to a saving relationship with God. And as a minister of God, I'm
not up here this morning trying to sell you on my opinions or
my interpretations of doctrine. I'm simply declaring to you what's
plainly stated in the Word of God. I tell you all the time,
turn with me to this verse. Now, I'm going to say some things,
but I don't ask any man to rest on the things that I say. I want
him to understand that what I'm saying is plainly declared in
the Word of God. If I can't do that, I can't preach.
Because that's all preaching is. I want to be as simple and plain
as I can be on everything I preach and teach. I don't ever want
somebody to come in here and after 45 minutes of preaching,
I go over there and they're standing around the corner and I hear
them talking to the neighbor and say, I don't know what he's saying. I'd rather you leave this place
mad dog angry than to leave here without any emotion, without
any reaction, because you didn't understand what I said. I labor to preach in such a way
as to shut men and women up to the Word of God. You know, I used to say, And
there's a sense in which it's true, that conviction of sin
is the first work of God in the sinner. But strictly speaking,
that's not true. The first work in a chosen sinner
is to bring that sinner to the place where he can say from his
heart, let God be true and every man alive. Because until God
brings him to that place, everything I say, everything you say is
just going to be an opinion. You're not going to convince
that man of anything until God settles him on this book, shuts
him up to this book. He's not going to be convinced
or persuaded of anything until he's brought to submit himself
and his thoughts and reasoning to the Word of God. Peter assures
the church that as in old time these holy men of God spake as
they were moved by the Holy Ghost, both he and these other apostles,
they had also a sure word of prophecy. and that they do well
to take heed to what He was telling them, take heed to what He was
writing to them, take heed to His testimony as a light that
shineth in a dark place until the day dawns and the day starts
rising in your hearts. All right. Now let's read our
text here in Romans 15, verse 4. Whatsoever things were written
aforetime, were written for our learning that we, through patience
and comfort of the scriptures, might have hope. I've got three
things this morning that just kind of fall out naturally right
out of this text. I like to preach on a natural
outline, and this verse has a natural outline. There's three things
that just fall right out when you read it. The first is the
scriptures themselves. What things were written before
time? Most men and women will take
you to task over certain doctrine. You meet with them and you begin
to talk with them. And doctrine is nothing in the
world but teaching. It's just the facts of the scripture
that we teach. And they'll take you to task.
You say something like talk to them about election or talk to
them about particular redemption or talk to them about the Holy
Spirit or whatever it is you're talking to them about, and they'll
take you to task over that doctrine and be totally ignorant of what
God has to say about the doctrine. They'll take you to task with
no knowledge at all of the Word of God. Natural men who argue
over doctrine or who go into the ministry, they don't need
a whole lot of knowledge about God. They don't need a whole lot of
basis for what they're saying because their heresies appeal
to natural men. It appeals to the nature of natural
men and the principles of fallen man. I attended churches. Before the Lord saved me, I attended
churches all over the tri-state area up there in northeastern
Kentucky. We was over in Ohio, southern Ohio at those churches,
and up in West Virginia at churches, and there in Kentucky in churches.
And we went all over the place and attended all these churches.
And they were all free will. Every one of them taught free
will. But not one of them ever gave a single verse as a basis
for what they taught. You know why? Because what they
were teaching appealed to the natural logic of men. They don't
need, really don't need a Bible. Don't need a Bible. The message was logical to the
fallen man. In 2 Peter 1, having established
the veracity of the Holy Scripture, Peter gives this warning. 2 Peter
chapter 2 verse 1. I want you to listen to this.
There were false prophets also among the people, talking about
these old prophets who wrote under the inspiration of God.
Well, there was false prophets in those days too. Even as there shall be false
teachers among you, who privily or privately, that is quietly,
unnoticed, shall bring in, now listen to this, damnable heresies,
not differences of opinion, damnable heresies, even denying the Lord
that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. Whenever God raises up a prophet,
or an apostle, or an evangelist, or a pastor teacher, a missionary,
whenever God raises up His messenger, Satan will also raise up one
of his own, maybe two or three. Wherever the man of God is that
saith, thus saith the Lord, Satan has a minister who says, hath
God surely said? Huh? 2 Peter 2.2. And many shall follow
their pernicious ways. We got a few teachers in here.
You know what pernicious means? Deadly. Deadly. Ruinous. Their ways are ruinous. They're deadly. Deadly. By reason of whom the way of
truth shall be evil spoken of. Solomon said, there's a way that
seemeth right unto man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
It's a pernicious way. Ignorant men follow their pernicious
ways. And my generation is the same
as it was then and has been in every generation from the beginning.
And then he tells us that by such men, by such men as Peter
just described, they've sold men and women on the idea that
the ancient scriptures were written for an ancient people. I have relatives who tell me
that all the time. That, we just believe that book
is a spiritual book, and I know the things that are written there,
and they dealt with that ancient age, but you can't take that
thing and make it apply to our generation. You can't take his
ideas on marriage. And his ideas on the duties of
men and duties of women and the obedience of children, you can't
take those things and try to make those things have application
to our day. They was written in an ancient
time. They've been sold on the idea
that the scriptures mean different things to different people. They
weren't written to establish doctrine, but to inspire us to
live a better life. And sold like my computer does
every so often, and I don't like it a bit. But every so often,
it'll upgrade itself. This or that, it says, just wait
a minute, it's got to upgrade. And so men, they try to upgrade
the word of God and the gospel of Christ to make it fit better
into their society. We have to rewrite the scriptures
to make them fit our concepts and modern culture. We have to
rewrite the scriptures to allow women's rights and gay marriage
and democratic government and evolution and free will. We can
no longer tolerate the King James Version of the Bible because
we can't make it fit our modern theology. Pernicious ways, deadly ways. My friend, the gifts and calling
of God are without repentance. Every good and perfect gift that
comes down from the Father of light, He has no, not even shadow
of turning. No bearableness with Him. And
all wise God and all knowing God doesn't need an upgrade.
Man has not changed. God has not changed. The law
has not changed. Judgment has not changed. And
salvation in its means and message has not changed. It's the same. And when God begins to work in
you, it will begin by shutting you up to the Word of God. The Word of God says, how shall
we escape if we neglect so great salvation, which at the first
began to be spoken by our Lord and was confirmed unto us by
them that heard Him, God also bearing them witness? both with
signs and wonders and with diverse miracles and gifts of the Holy
Ghost according to His own will. If what I believe has no root
in the Word of God, then the tree of my faith is not of God
planted." Now, you can just write that down. Speaking to His disciples
concerning the false teachers among the Pharisees, our Lord
turned to His disciples and He said, every plant that my Heavenly
Father not planted shall be rooted up. I have, and by the grace of God,
I hope to continue to show you the way of salvation, the way
of grace, eternal life, and how to walk in this present evil
world from the Word of God. I want you to read it for yourselves. I give you Scriptures all the
time. Until you go home that afternoon, read them. Read them.
The Scriptures have been fully complete for better than 1,900
years. 1,900 years. The gospel age, the appearing
of Christ, his death, burial, and resurrection, his church
is established, and the full canon of scripture complete.
1900 years. We've no longer any need. You children need to listen to
what I'm telling you because you're going to hear this from
your friends and from their daddies. We had no longer any need for
dreams and visions of divine miracles or of extraordinary
gifts of the Holy Ghost. There's no need for them. The
need has already been taken care of. We have the Word of God. It's already complete. It's already
been ratified. It's already been proven. And there's no reason to doubt
it. No reason to doubt or speculate or question the veracity of God's
book. It's been established, accepted,
and confirmed as the word of God in every assembly, in every
age since the day it began. We're not left to ourselves or
our vain traditions or our speculations or any kind of speculations of
men concerning these vital issues that we face. We have preserved for us, interpreted
into our language for us, the Word of God. Word of God. What about you? What about you this morning? You willing to submit your faith,
your profession, your concepts of God, your hope of eternal
life to the Scripture? You had a lady arguing with you.
Is she willing to submit those things? No. No. Now, here's the next thing. This is the first thing to tell
you. These things that were written before time, written by God,
inspired by God, God breathed through those men the very Word
of God. And they wrote, and their temperaments, their personalities
came through into the Word of God, and yet all scripture is
written by inspiration of God. You can tell when you're reading
John, can't you? He's different than reading Paul.
He's saying the same thing, but he's different. His personality
even comes through. Inspired by God. All right, here's
the next thing. Why were these things written?
Why did God bother to put these things in a book? Why didn't he just call men like
he does, call preachers, don't even have a book, just call preachers,
do like he did with Paul, call them up to third heaven, teaching
me things in the mouth? Because he's God, and he does
things to please himself. That's number one. But why were
these things written? Look back at our text. They were
written. These things were written aforetime
for our learning. for our learning. In 1 John chapter
5, verses 9 and 10, the apostle insists that his message is the
testimony of God, that it agrees fully with the record preserved
in heaven. It agrees fully with that which
is recorded in the very heart of God in the Trinity, in the
person of the Trinity. Well, what is the record? Verse
11, 1 John 5. This is the record. What are
we going to learn when we read the Word of God? What are we
going to learn? We're going to learn that God hath given to
us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. That's the record. He that hath the Son, that is,
has Him as God has set Him forth, has Him exactly as the record
reveals it. He that hath the Son hath life.
He that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things,
these things which we've written aforetime, these things have
I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God,
that you may know you have eternal life, and that you may believe
on the name of the Son of God. That's why they're written. Written
for our learning. Written that we might believe
on Him. Written that we know whom we believe. Now having read this to you,
and you having read it for yourself here in 1 John chapter 5, what
happens now? 1 John 5 verse 10. He that believeth
on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth
not God hath made him a liar. Are you listening? Because he
believeth not the record God gave of His Son. There's believing and not believing
and nothing in between. You hear me? I read what God says. It don't
need interpretation, does it? Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessing in heavenly places in Christ. according as He hath
chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be
holy. Huh? Before Him in love, having predestinated
us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according
to the good pleasure of His will. Do I need to interpret that?
There's not a child in here this morning that doesn't understand
what that says. Now, you believe it or you don't. Nothing in between. Nothing in
between. God says there's none righteous. God says there's none good. God
says there's none that understandeth and none that seeketh after me.
Anybody in here need an interpreter for that? You know exactly what
he's saying. There's none. You kids go get
some candy out of the bowl, and you run in there, and it was
full last time you seen it. But you run in there, and it's
empty. That's none. That's what that
is. That's none. None righteous. Huh? You either believe that or you
don't. There's nothing in between. I hear people talking about it.
Now, I put that article in there. It's such a good article. It
was in Clay's Bulletin. by J.C. Philpott, or I mean by
Charles Ferguson. You either believe this or you
don't. There's no trying. I'm trying,
but no. There ain't no trying. You believe
it or you don't. It's written for our learning,
written for our learning. We cannot call on an unrevealed
God. We cannot trust a work we don't
understand. But when it's set before you
and shown to you that it's consistent with the Word of God, then a
person either believes or he makes God a liar. One or the
other. He told his disciples. I'm talking
about The gracious God, the merciful God, the loving God told his
disciples, you go into every nation, every kingdom, every
tongue under heaven, as far as you can go, and you preach my
gospel to every Christian. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. There's no middle ground. There's no gray area to that.
We set the gospel before men, simple. Declarations pointing
them to the Word of God. Here it is. You believe it or
you make God a liar. That too hard? Lastly, what's
the goal of it all? What's accomplished? Let's say
I do read this book and I do believe this book. What's the
goal of these things? What's accomplished if I read
it and learn its message? Well, he said, whatsoever things
were written aforetime were written for our learning that we through
patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. There it is. There it is. That I might have
hope. I've never seen God. I've never
seen Christ. I've never seen heaven or hell.
I've never seen a holy angel to my knowledge. I've never seen
a fallen one. Everything I preach and all that
makes up my hope of eternal life is right here in this book. Right
here in this book. No man, to my knowledge, has
ever been diagnosed by a doctor or proven by a scientist to be
convicted or convicted under civil law of having a fallen,
depraved nature. Do you ever heard of one? I never
have. But I know it so by the Word
of God. I've never witnessed the birth
of a believer. I've never seen, heard, or felt
the Holy Spirit of God as He performed His divine work in
an object of His grace. But I know that He does. I know
that He does by the Word of God. So you see when it comes down
to these things, when it comes down to these vital issues, these
matters of life and death and eternity, you see the value of
this book. I'm not up here just trying to
sell you on a doctrine or try to build a new denomination or
try to rebuild an old denomination. I'm up here trying to point you
to the scriptures and show you Christ and set before you a good
hope through grace by the Word of God. Everything the believer knows
and sees, he knows and sees through the Word of God. I know that
God's able and does discern the thoughts and intents of men's
hearts, but that's not what the Scriptures say about it. Did
you know that? We're always telling people,
God is a discerner of the heart. That's not what the Scripture
said. He is. I'm not refuting that statement.
I'm just simply telling you that's not how it's stated in the Scripture. It says the Word of God is quick
and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing
even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the
joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart. What is? The Word of God. The Word of
God. The Word of God can accurately
expose and accurately describe what no other man can see in
me. They can lay it out. It's as though God was standing
right behind you watching you. You read the Word of God, He
exposes these things. But the greatest wonder of this
book is in its testimony of God's everlasting purpose of grace
in Christ Jesus. This book alone testifies of
the beginning. It describes and opens before
us an everlasting covenant of grace. It tells of one worthy
to take that book of God's decrees, of God's purpose and counsels
before the world began. Tells us of one who was worthy
and able to take the book and who did take the book and open
the seals. It tells of one chosen of God
and precious, one to mediate God's sovereign will, one appointed
as the representative and substitute of a people which the Father
chose and gave to Christ. One who would take on Him the
seed of Abraham, be made of a woman, made under the law to redeem
them who were under the law. One who would and did stand before
men and God as the sin-bearing substitute. bearing our sins
in His own body on the tree, one upon whom the perfect justice
was measured out. The perfect justice of God, all
the wrath of God measured out. And Christ was made to drink
it to the last dredge. One who died but was raised again
from the dead and raised up to sit at the Father's right hand,
expecting to live. How do I know those things? Written
in the book. written in the book. It tells
of his eternal appointments. It tells of his appearance. It
tells of his birth, his life, and his death, and his resurrection. It tells of his present reign
and glory and of his sure return. Whatsoever things were written
aforetime were written for our learning, that through patience,
patience, in God's own time, that's what Paul said, when it
pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb, He called
me by His grace. I went, please God, through patience
and comfort of the scriptures, we might have hope. I sometimes get this from people
who hear me preach. They say, I don't see how you
can say these things so dogmatically. I never heard a preacher talk
like that. You know, they heard Christ preach one time. They
said, we've never heard these things on that wise. I can say these things in that
fashion because they're consistent with the Word of God. I don't
have to back up. I don't have to worry about being
called down. I can say these things without
hesitation because they're consistent with the Word of God. And preaching
is not telling men and women something in addition to the
Word of God or something to aid the Word of God. It's declaring
and teaching the Word of God. I read it to you over there in
our Scripture reading a while ago. Paul told Timothy after
telling him, You've known these holy scriptures. They're able
to make you wise unto salvation. And he said, because they're
all inspired of God and they're profitable for everything. They're
profitable for reproof, for correction and righteousness, for rebuke,
for exhortation. And he said, now, he said, preach
the word. Preach what? Preach the word. Preach the word. But he said, there's coming a
time, coming a time when they will
not endure the Word of God. After their own lust shall they
heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. And they're going
to turn men from the Word of God to faith.