2nd John verse 9 is my text 2nd
John the 9th verse 2nd John verse 9 Whosoever transgresseth and abideth
not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. 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 psalm. The title of my
message, my subject, is the doctrine of Christ. The doctrine of Christ. If you've never paid any attention
to this preacher before, I highly recommend you pay attention to
what I have to say tonight. If you miss the doctrine of Christ,
you miss God's salvation. You miss heaven. You miss eternal
life. If your heart and soul are blind
to the doctrine of Christ, you will perish in your sins. This
religious world has been shot a curve and fallen for it hook,
line, and sinker. Our crafty foe, the devil, has
succeeded for the most part in taking men's hearts and minds
away from the doctrine of Christ. Satan doesn't mind. He doesn't
care at all how very religious you become, how very moral you
are. He doesn't mind whether you are
a reformed Baptist or a drunk. He doesn't really care. He doesn't
care whether you're a prostitute or a nun. He really doesn't care.
just as long he keeps you from Christ. That's his only object,
the destruction of your soul, to keep you from Christ. And
by and large, he has kept this religious generation from the
knowledge of Christ. I challenge you, when was the
last time when you read one of those little sermonettes that
appear in the newspaper, or when you listened to one of the evangelist
who preaches on radio or television, when was the last time you heard
one come close to saying anything about the doctrine of Christ?
When was the last time you heard one come close to declaring anything
about the distinguishing character of the person and work of our
Lord Jesus Christ? Why? Why don't fellows preach
different than they do? Why don't men who claim to be
preachers open this book and just tell things exactly as they
are in this book? The reason is obvious. Religious
people have no interest in hearing what this book has to say. Religious people have no interest
in hearing what this book has to say. They're not interested
in who Christ is or what he's done. They're not interested
in his glory, his redemptive accomplishments, his saving power,
and the honor which he has gained for himself and of which he is
worthy. What is it good churchgoing folks
want to hear? They want to hear about law and
works and how they measure up. They want to hear about prophecy
and future things. They want to hear about morality
and good deeds. They want to hear about ways
to happiness and health and economic prosperity. And the hucksters
who call themselves preachers are glad to oblige. I came here
34 years ago to be your pastor. I came because I was strongly
impressed of God that it was his will for me to do so. And
I came with an earnest burden, a desire, a burden, a weight,
a care that has only increased over the years. I want you. I want you to know the son of God. I don't really have Much other
than interest me. I want you to know the Lord Jesus
Christ. Morning and evening, I pour out
my heart to God, pleading that he will pour out his spirit upon
you and calls you to hear his word and see his son and trust
him. This is the burden of my soul.
I don't want to miss Christ. and I don't want you to miss
it. I want, by the grace of God, to preach the doctrine of Christ
to you and to the generation in which God has set me. I know
there are many who think the preacher has nothing to do but
open his Bible and look at a text and in an hour or so jot down
some notes and he's ready to go. And sadly, that's a pretty
good description of how most preaching is done. That's not the case here. I watch for your souls as one
that must give account to God. I seek a message from God three
times a week that will meet your soul's needs. As I do, I keep
asking God to give me direction by His Spirit as to what will
stir your hearts to devotion and consecration, what will awaken
the dead and call sinners to believe on the Son of God, what
will move you Godward to set your hearts upon Him, what will
rouse up devotion to Christ the Lord. Those things I seek for
you. How can I preach so as to most
clearly convince you of your sinfulness. I want you to know what you are.
I want you to know what you are. There's not a good thing in you,
not a good thing about you, not a good thing done by you. Nothing
good. You're nothing but sin. And until
you are made to know your sin, You'll never seek to know the
Son of God. I want to make you know your
sin, your utter corruption, your complete depravity. And I want,
by the grace of God, to preach clearly so as to make you know
the riches and the fullness and the grace and the glory of Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, the Redeemer of sinners. I ask God to give
me the message you need. That's my concern. I'm not too
interested in bringing men to know our doctrine of the church,
our peculiar brand of religion. I'm not terribly interested in
identifying the significance of the tolls on Daniel's image.
I'm not greatly concerned about indoctrinating you or anyone
else into this system of doctrine or that system of doctrine. I'm
not engaged in the work of the ministry in order to win friends
and cause you to think highly of me. But I do have this burden. I want you to know that I want
you to abide in the doctrine of Christ. While I'm here and
when I'm gone, I want you to abide in the doctrine of Christ. I have often been told by lots of people that I have
a very lopsided ministry. And I reckon they're right. Folks
say you need a balanced ministry. I've never wanted such. I've
tried my best to avoid that. People sometimes tell me that
I preach too much about Christ. They say Faulkner's gone to seed
on election and predestination and sovereignty. And whenever
somebody tells me that, I respond this way. It's high time somebody
did. High time somebody went to seed
on preaching the gospel of God's free grace in Jesus Christ the
Lord. I've been strongly encouraged
for more than 45 years to preach more about church, church history,
and church creeds, and church politic, and church discipline,
and church confessions, and all that stuff, or the millennium,
or practical duties, or laws. well-meaning friends who tried
to persuade me to enter into theological controversies or
to involve myself in denominational issues and engage in other causes. And I wouldn't do anything to
belittle those things or those areas of instruction. They may
have a place and use, but none of those things can put away
sin. None of those things will save
your soul. None of those things will give you a new heart. None
of those things will make you know the Son of God. Christ alone
will accomplish for you that which your souls need. Christ
is the mainspring of all duty and the singular subject of Holy
Scripture. I've said this to you so often,
and you repeat the words, I wonder if we know what we're saying.
Jesus Christ crucified is the message of this book. Jesus Christ
crucified is the message of this book. All duty, all duty set
before us in scripture is inspired by Jesus Christ crucified. He's
the motive for everything. He's the author and finisher
of our faith, the bishop of our souls, the foundation of our
hope, the head of the church, the king of glory, the bread
of heaven, the water of life, the rock of salvation. Christ
is everything. If you know the doctrine of Christ,
you have the sum and substance of all true religion. And if
you miss the doctrine of Christ, you miss everything, no matter
whatever else you may have. You got that? If you know by
experience the doctrine of Christ, you have the sum and substance
of all true religion, true godliness is yours. If you miss the doctrine
of Christ, you have nothing, no matter what you may think
you have. All right, now let's look at this subject in three
ways. First, I want you to understand the doctrine of Christ as John
speaks of it here. Second, I want you to experience
it. And third, I want you to abide
in it. And I want to encourage you to
do so. Here's the first thing. Understand the doctrine of Christ. I can't make you believe on the
son of God. I can't make you believe the
doctrine of Christ, but it is my task as a preacher. to preach
clearly the doctrine of Christ, so clearly the doctrine of Christ,
that you cannot misunderstand what I've said. If we would understand
the doctrine of Christ, we must search the scriptures. It doesn't matter what anyone
else says, what does the book say? Now, I read Books all the
time. I study books all the time. I
have thousands of volumes back there in my library and I use
them every day. I don't undervalue study and
reading and education. I appreciate what other men say,
but everything, everything we believe must be found in this
book. And we believe it only because
it's found in this book. Only because it is written in
Holy Scripture. I have been reading in recent
months a good bit of church history. And I have been, as I said a
little bit ago, encouraged by lots of people to be involved
in writing creeds and join together to start new denominations and
so forth. And they tell us we ought to
be confessional Christians. By that, we ought to have a confession
of faith. And I wrote in back of one of the history books I
was reading just recently, all this arguing first about confessions.
Everybody got confessions. That's the way to keep folks
solid in the truth. Sadly, but the fact remains,
sadly it remains, but it remains, all those folks who through history
have had a good, solid, true doctrinal confession, hold to
the confession, and ignore it. Ignore it. Just walk away from
it. This will help to hold the church
straight. If you're willing to ignore this
book, you're sure enough willing to ignore what I say. If you're
willing to ignore this book, you're sure enough willing to
ignore what any group of men get together and say. No, our
faith doesn't rest in anybody's confession. It rests in this
book and this book alone. The doctrine of Christ you must
know. Search the scripture, the Savior
said, for in them you think you have eternal life, and they are
they which testify of me. Much importance is placed on
the doctrine of Christ for this reason. Before you can have a
saving union of faith with Christ, you must have knowledge of him. Faith in Christ is not a leap
in the dark. Faith in Christ is not a leap
in the dark. I hear folks talk, and it's utter
nonsense. If people would just listen to
what they say. I hear preachers say things like this. Well, God
saved me, then I found out who Christ was. What? How was it God saved you if you
didn't know who He was? Faith in Christ is not a leap
in the dark. Faith in Christ is walking in
the light, and Christ is the light. Knowledge of the doctrine
of Christ is the foundation of faith. Apart from the doctrine
of Christ, there is no certain knowledge of Christ. The reason
for preaching the gospel is to teach you the doctrine of Christ. These young people, I encourage
those who teach them, Teach plainly and clearly the doctrine of Christ. Teach the doctrines of the gospel.
From the very earliest ages, we try to instruct the children
to understand terms we use, terms used in the scripture, to understand
the meaning of those things, because it is by the instruction
in the gospel that God gives sinners faith in Jesus Christ.
So to that end, let me raise an answer from scripture. Five
very plain, simple questions. Five questions that just flat
need to be answered. That may at first seem to be
trite and insignificant to you, but they are anything but trite
and insignificant. Who is Jesus Christ? Who is he really? Who is he? Mean everywhere talk about him.
They write songs about him. They make movies about it It's
just seems like every little bit now folks are coming out
with some movie or advertising a movie I've never watched one
and I highly recommend that you don't Now I don't watch documentaries
about him. I highly recommend that you don't
I highly recommend it. Mr O'Reilly advertises his book
on the killing of Jesus and To him, it's like killing a Lincoln,
or killing a Kennedy, or killing somebody else. It's a matter
of history. And every now and then, somebody
will write to him. I'll watch O'Reilly at night
a little bit, not too much, but I'll watch him a little bit.
And somebody's always writing in, what about this? What about
that? And he says, that's not part of the history. It doesn't
matter what the history books say. It doesn't matter what the
documentaries say. It doesn't matter what men have
said. What does this book say? Who is Jesus Christ? You won't
find out in any history book. You won't find out in any television
documentary. You won't find out in any movie.
So these things are good in their place. No, they're not good.
They're only detrimental to the knowledge of Christ. Stay away
from that nonsense. Just stay away from it and find
out what this book says. Who is Jesus Christ? Let me tell
you plainly who he is. Jesus Christ is himself God,
the Eternal Son. The man Jesus is God. Jesus of Nazareth is God. Not a God, not a representative
of God, not a likeness of God. Jesus is God, our Savior. Throughout the Old Testament
scriptures as well as the New, our Lord Jesus is referred to
in exactly this character as God. Perfectly God. You read
the Old Testament and the New, you see plainly that the prophets
and the apostles often referred to him as God. When our Savior
walked on this earth, he claimed to be God. He claimed in John
chapter 5, the Jews were going to kill him. And what was the
reason? Because he, being a man, made
himself God. In John chapter 10, he said,
I have my father I want, and the Jews picked up their rocks
and wanted to stone him to death. How come? Not because of some
good work. He said, for what work do you
stone me? He said, not because of work, but because you, being
a man, make yourself God. That's exactly what he said.
I'm God. I'm God. The apostles worshiped
him as God. And that one who died in our
womb instead at Calvary is himself God. He must be God, else we
have no Savior and no salvation. He is that one who is called
both by Jeremiah and by the Apostle Paul, Jehovah sent Kenya, the
Lord, our righteousness. He is that one, both John and
Isaiah declared to be the first and the last. He is that one
that Zechariah and the Apostle both declared to be equal with
God, the man who is God's own fellow. Yes, it is an essential
point of divine truth. that Jesus Christ is the second
person of the Blessed Trinity in all things one with the Father
and the Spirit. I want to be as charitable as
possible. I recall my dear friend, Brother
Harry Grave, one time he and I were in a meeting with some
preachers and folks who tried their best to, well, all day
long. I've been talking about the subject
was charismatic movement and all day long preachers been get
up one after the other and talk about our Pentecostal brethren,
our Pentecostal brethren, our Pentecostal brethren. And Brother
Harry Graham got up and he said, I don't have any Pentecostal
brethren. And folks were just shocked.
And they said, I know you think we ought to be so loving and
gracious. You will just love yourself right out of the kingdom
of God. Yes, we want to be as charitable as possible. but you're
not being charitable when you lie to men. You're not being
charitable when you deceive men. The word of God makes it very
plain. Jesus Christ is God and anyone who in any way denies
that does not know God. He has neither the father nor
the son. While our Lord Jesus was in this
flesh, he claimed to be God. Men worshiped him as God. More
than that, all the works of the Father are ascribed to the Son
in this book. He's the creator. He's the sustainer. He's the upholder of all things.
We know by experience that our Savior is God. Who else? Who else could put away sin but
God? Who else could forgive sin but
God? Who else could make us new creatures
but God? Who else could speak peace to
our souls but God? Who is Christ? He is God, and
He's a perfect man. He is the perfect man, the man
Christ Jesus. Wherefore in all things it behooved
Him to be made like unto His brethren, He might be a merciful
and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation
for the sins of the people. It behooved him. The word is
it was necessary for him. Alan, it was absolutely necessary
for God to become a man if he would make reconciliation for
our sins. That's what Paul tells us in
Hebrews chapter 2. It behooved him. to become one of us if you
make reconciliation for our sins. I don't pretend to understand
the mystery of the incarnation, but I know this. Only one who
is both God and man can be our Redeemer. A man must suffer,
but no man could satisfy the justice of God. The God-man did. Only a man could bear our sins
in his own body on the tree. Only God could bear them away.
Only a man could be a substitute for sinners. Only God could be
an effectual substitute. Here's another question. Why
did Christ come here to this earth? He came here to save His
people from their sins. Who is He? He's God. He's the
perfect God-man. Why did He come here? He came
here to save His people from their sins. Our Lord Jesus did not come here so that the
Jews would take Him and make Him their king over Israel. That wasn't His purpose. When I was in Bible college,
both the schools I attended, and it was common in most conservative
schools in this country, taught us that God had plan A and plan
B. Plan A was that the Jews would
accept Jesus as their king, and he'd be king over in Israel,
and he'd sit upon his throne, on the throne of David, and everything
would be fine. But since the Jews wouldn't let
Jesus pretty please be their king, Then God had to change
gears, and he went to plan B, and he crucified his son. They
would put it, let his son be crucified. That's not what the
Savior said. In Matthew chapter 28, the Son
of God says, the Son of Man came to give his life a ransom for
many. While he walked on this earth
continually, he told his disciples, I must go to Jerusalem. There
I must suffer many things at the hands of the Jews and the
Gentiles and be put to death, and I will rise again the third
day. He told them over and over and
over again. This is why he came. He came
to die in the room instead of chosen sinners for the saving
of our souls by the satisfaction of divine justice. That's why
Christ came into this world. That's what he came here to do.
And he has fully accomplished what he came here to do. Our
Lord Jesus, by his obedience on earth, fulfilled all righteousness. The theologians like to talk
about Christ's active obedience and his passive obedience. What
absurd words. They say his active obedience
was his obedience while he was living on the earth. His passive
obedience was in the time of what's called his passion, his
sufferings, and his death. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Everything
about his obedience was active. The Lord Jesus did not passively
die at Calvary any more than he passively obeyed the will
of God walking on this earth. But rather he walked on this
earth saying, I must always do my father's will. I must be about
the business of him that sent me. And when he went to Calvary,
he said plainly, no man takes my life from me. I actively lay
it down of myself. I had the power to lay it down.
and I have power to take it again. Our Lord Jesus came here to save
his people by righteous obedience as our substitute under the full
satisfaction of divine justice by his death at Calvary. And
save them he did. He justified us and sanctified
us with his blood and we died with him, rose with him, and
entered into heaven with him. Well, what is it that our Lord
Jesus doing now. Where is it? What's he doing?
The Son of God is seated yonder on the throne of glory. A man
in our nature to whom the triune God has given the reigns of universal
monarchy as the reward of his obedience. And Christ sits on
his throne. Isn't that wonderful, bro? He
sits on his throne. The only time we have an indication
of him not sitting on his throne since he went back to glory was
when his servant Stephen was being stoned to death. He was
standing to receive him. Nothing on this earth disturbs
the Son of God. He sits on his throne and rules
the universe for this purpose, to give eternal life to as many
as the Father has given him. That's his purpose. That's what
he's doing. We meet back here in the office and invariably,
I or one of the men will say something to get our minds on
the stuff. that we read in the newspapers.
And I apologize to you men for doing so. We get talking about
Mr. Obama. What a horrible subject to talk
about. We could be talking about Christ on his throne. You see, Mr. Obama is where he
is, whether he's on the golf course or whether he's sitting
in the Oval Office. He's where he is because Christ
sits on his throne. and he sits on his throne ruling
the universe to save his people from their sins. Let us walk
before God with peace and contentment. He who loved me and gave himself
for me sits on the throne of God ruling the universe on my
behalf to do me good. And he who rules the universe
is my advocate with the Father. making intercession for his people
at the right hand of the majesty on high. Well, what's the Lord
Jesus going to do? He rules the world for the saving
of his people. What's he going to do? He's ascended
up into glory, seated on the throne of his father David. What's
he going to do there? He will continue to plead our
cause day and night relentlessly as our mediator. our substitute
and our advocate. And he is gathering his elect
from the four corners of the earth. We read in Acts chapter
2, the Lord added daily to the church such as should be saved.
Folks say, boy, I sure wish God would do that now. Mark, the
Lord is still adding to his church daily such as should be saved. Everything's moving exactly according
to his purpose for the saving of his people and the glory of
his name. Soon our Lord Jesus is coming
again and he will make restitution of all things to God and all
things will bow to his feet and proclaim his glory as God our
Savior. This is who Christ is. This is
who the Son of Man is. He is Jesus Christ, our God,
the God-Man who died in our stead, who sits in heaven, who reigns
for us, intercedes for us, who's coming again to bring all things
in subjection to the Father. Now, second, I want you to experience
the doctrine of Christ. And this is where the rubber
hits the road. This is a place where most folks
stop short. There's more to knowing Christ
than knowing his doctrine. I'm not looking for something
to say. I want you to hear every word I have to say now. There's
more to knowing Christ than knowing his doctrine. Tom Bryce, I can teach you his
doctrine. I've been doing it now since
1993 or 94, somewhere in there. I can teach you his doctrine.
But I can't make you know him. I can't do that. And I won't
try. I'm not going to lead you down
some deceitful primrose path and tell you if you'll repeat
after me and say this prayer, or repeat this thing, or repeat
that, or sign a decision card, or get baptized, or join this
church, or turn over a new leaf, or start doing this, or start
doing that. Then you'll know God. No, sir. I'm not going to destroy your
soul by such practices. No. You're going to have to experience
the knowledge of Christ. And that comes only by divine
revelation. That comes only when it pleases
God to reveal His Son in you. In you. No man can do that. No man can do that. It's one
thing to know about Christ. It's something else to know Christ. Let me tell you what I know concerning
I can say of the Lord Jesus, that which the Queen of Sheba
said about Solomon, it was a true report that I heard in my own
land of thy acts and of thy wisdom. Howbeit, I believed not the words
until I came, and mine eyes had seen it, and behold, the half
was not told me. I heard about Christ. I heard
about him. I had Sunday school teachers,
Brother Leroy Pack, Brother Lloyd Moore, men who taught the gospel
of God's free grace. I heard about him. I heard wonderful
things about him. I heard about his election and
his accomplished redemption, his eternal purpose. I heard
about him. And then I met him. And the half hadn't been told
me. of the time that Davis used to preach and he'd preach about
the redemptive work of Christ and his sufferings and death
and all what wondrous things he'd tell. But the half wasn't
told me until I came to know him. To know Christ is to know
that he's your only hope of acceptance with God. If I'm clean, it's because I'm
washed in his blood. If I'm righteous, it's because
He's my righteousness. If I'm sanctified, it's because
Christ is my sanctification. If I'm accepted, it's because
Christ is my substitute. If I'm saved, it's because Christ
is my salvation. To know Him is to know that He's
precious and worship Him as such. Knowing Christ, we're constrained
to worship, honor, adore, praise and extol him. To know him truly
is to love him. To know him truly is to love
him. If any man love not the Lord
Jesus Christ, is that what the apostle said? If any man love
not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be damned, the Lord's coming.
Let him be damned. To know Christ is to love him.
No, we don't love him as we should. We don't love him as we wish
we did. We don't love him as we would. We don't love him as we soon
shall. But love him. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. All who know him love him. And knowing him is something
that continually grows and increases. How many of you knew your wives
as well the day you married them as you know them now? Anybody? Anybody? I did. You ladies are usually
smarter. How many of y'all knew your husbands
like you know... Sam, did you know Bob when you
first met him like you know him now? Now I won't ask you whether
or not that changed anything. I'm just saying, did you know
him? No. No. No, you know somebody, and
as you know them, and you live with them, and you walk with
them, and love, and enjoy, and fellowship, you grow to know
them. You grow to know them. Brother Lindsey read back in
the office, 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 24, I recall very well
the first time that text of scripture spoke to me. I was a 16-year-old,
17-year-old boy, and my eyes fell on that passage of scripture.
Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it. I remember
it well. I was going through terrible,
terrible difficulty. Now, I'm 64 years old now. What kind of difficulties can
a 17-year-old high school boy be going through? Well, nothing. Nothing. Ask the 17-year-old
high school boy. It was a terrible trouble, but
it was nothing. It was nothing. And my eyes fell
on that text of scripture, and God gave me just what I needed. Faithful is he that calleth you,
who also will do it. I recall not too long after that,
trying to address that subject in a sermon. And I read good
stuff on it, and it was all accurate. I could preach the same words
exactly as I preached them then and have nothing to change, nothing
at all. But I didn't know anything about
God's faithfulness. You see, you can't know what
you haven't experienced. Now, oh my. Let me tell you something
about my God. He's faithful. He's faithful. If you know Christ, you grow
in knowing Him. Grow in love to Him, grow in
faith to Him, and you'll long to know more of Him. All that
I may know Him. In the power of His resurrection,
in the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His
death. One more thing. I want you to
abide in the doctrine of Christ. Many have known the doctrine
of Christ theoretically, who didn't abide in it, and they
perished in their sins. Judas knew it as well as you
do, theoretically. Ananias and Sapphira knew it
as well as I do, theoretically. Simon Magus knew it as well as
Peter did, theoretically. Demas knew it as well as Paul
did, theoretically. Diotrephes knew it as well as
John did, theoretically. But Judas and Ananias and Sapphira
and Simon Magnus and Demas and Diotrephes are all in hell. I want you to know the doctrine
of Christ and abide in it. I offer these few suggestions. Keep your heart. full of the
cross. Keep your mind fixed on Christ. Let nothing turn you away from
the Son of God, from the hope of the gospel, from the simplicity
that's in Christ. Ask God continually to give you
grace to trust Christ for everything, in everything. Let me ask one more question.
Perhaps you're asking, Father Don, how can I know the doctrine
of Christ? How can I know the doctrine of
Christ? Well, there's some things you
can and should do. If you ever come to know Christ,
you're going to know it through the preaching of the word. If
you ever come to know Christ and His doctrine, you're going
to believe on Him. You're going to surrender to
Him. No question about that. No question about that. The fact is, when all is said and done, I
want to tell you what you won't hear one preacher in a hundred
thousand tell you. You will know Christ. when Christ
is pleased to reveal Himself in you. You mean, Brother Don, I'm shut
up to His will? You mean it all depends on Him? You mean everything depends on
Him? That's the doctrine of Christ. That's the doctrine of Christ.
Amen.