As your pastor, I have four things which lay heavy on my heart as
I study, read the Word of God, and seek these things to say
to you. These are four things that I
strive to do and pray that God will allow me to do. The first thing is this, and
this is foremost, is to be faithful to the stewardship of this pastor. I want to be faithful to that.
Not all men are called to be pastors. Not all men are called
to be preachers. But those who are, are given
a stewardship, and they're held accountable. He said, obey them
which have the rule over you. For they watch for your souls
as they that must give account. There's a day coming I have to
give an account for the souls who sit under my voice and the
things that I've said to them. I don't want to bring shame or
reproach on my Lord by disgracing the ministry or bringing some
undue contempt due to my behavior, my attitude, or my preaching.
I want to be true to that. True to that. And then secondly, I want to
be faithful to your souls. I recognize that those of you
who come in this place have an eternal soul. You have a soul. And I don't know if you know
it or not, but the destiny of that soul depends on your hearing. Did you know that? Well, you
say, God has predestinated men. Yes, but He's chosen men through
means. And one of those means is hearing.
Hearing. They hear. They're taught. That's
what it says in the Scripture, isn't it? They shall all be taught
of God. There's nobody coming to Christ who isn't taught. They
don't just wander in there aimlessly. They hear from God, and they're
taught. And I want to be faithful to
your souls and the souls of those who hear me wherever they are.
Preaching to me is not some cold, calculated duty I perform with
total indifference to those. You're not just numbers to me.
You know, I go past churches and I see all the time, 12. We
had 12 souls saved. Don't put 12 up there. Put their
names up there if they would have been saved of God. Put their
names up. You're not just numbers to me. Folks ask me, I go, where
do you preach? And I tell them, how many people
you got? I don't know. I don't count them. I don't count
them. But I can close my eyes and see
your faces. And when I'm in my study and
calling your name out before God, I see your faces. I recognize
you as people, as individuals. You all have souls. And I know your names, and I
know your children. And I care about your welfare
and your health and your spiritual standing and your eternal destiny
before God. I might not always say what you
want to hear. Usually I don't. I might not
always say what you want to hear. And I may not always send you
away from here smiling. But what I do say, I say to be
faithful to your soul. I know what kind of reaction
it will provoke. I know that. It's not my first
time. I've been doing this for a while.
But I say what I believe in my heart you need to hear. You know
how hard that is? Huh? Do you really know how hard
that is to do? To say what you need to hear? Don't you expect the last thing
The prophet wanted to do was stick his finger in the face
of David and say, Thou art the man. It's not easy to tell men what's
best for them. It's not easy. And then thirdly,
I want to be faithful to the Word of God. I've got no denominational
ties. I don't believe in them. I don't
believe the Scriptures teach them. And I can't find a single
example of them anywhere between the covers of this book. If I
did, we'd have a denomination. But I don't. I don't see that
at all. I see individual churches with
individual pastors, and Christ is their head. He walks among
the candlesticks. And the stars, He holds the stars
in His hands. And I don't answer to committees,
deacons' boards. I have nobody to impress. I have
the Word of God as my guide. If what I say is not according
to the Word of God, don't have it. Don't take it. That's my
guide. He tells Timothy in this very
book right here, in his second letter, he tells Timothy that
all Scripture, he tells him to preach the Word. Now he said,
all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and it's profitable for
doctrine. The Scripture. Nothing else is
profitable for doctrine. The preaching of the Scripture,
the preaching of the Word of God. I see these men on TV shaking
that Bible all around. They carry it, but they don't
read it. And when they do, it's just a portion. All Scripture is given by inspiration
of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness that the man of God might be
complete, perfect, throughly furnished unto all good work.
And when I prepare God's message to you, I don't dwell on whether
or not this is going to offend you. I don't dwell on whether
or not this is going to clash what somebody in my congregation
may believe. I don't sit around and wonder,
boy, this is going to run contrary to him. If I did that, I couldn't
say nothing. I might as well just get up here
and read Little Bo Peep or something. I have to preach the Word of
God, and I have to preach it from my heart in sincerity and
in understanding of what it says. And I stand right there. I stand
there. I can't even consider it. And
if the Word of God be not the foundation and basis of all that
we preach, then we're no different from this deceived religious
world, we can preach opinions, and preach feelings, and preach
all these type of things, and everybody has an opinion. So
what's the point in that? We've got to have a basis. We
have to have a foundation for what we say. I can't look to
denominations. Where do I look? I look to the
Word of God. Look to the Word of God. And then, fourthly, I
want to be faithful to the gospel of Christ. Now, this gospel is
a person. William, you remember asking
me that question? What is the gospel? I said, the
gospel is not a what, it's a who. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
a person. Now, you can forget preaching
anything in this Bible affectionately to anyone unless you preach it
in its connection to Christ. Well, you go over there, all
that man preaches. That's what a woman told Scott one time.
She throwed her hands up. She said, Christ, Christ, Christ.
She said, that's all you ever preach. He said, well, you put
that on my tombstone. Just going to write that on my
tombstone. There's nothing else to preach. There's nothing else
to preach. He's the truth. Isn't that what
he said? I am the way, the truth. Would
you know the truth? Study him. Would you know the
way? How am I to know the way? This
man said here's the way. This man said here's the way.
How am I to know the way? He is the way. Lord, we don't know the way.
We don't know the Father. We don't know where You're going.
He said, I am the way. God hath made Him to be unto
us wisdom. Would you have wisdom? God hath
made Him to be unto us wisdom. Righteousness. Do you thirst
for righteousness? God hath made Him to be unto
us righteousness. And here's one. Boy, this turns
people upside down. Sanctification. God had made
him to be unto us sanctification and redemption. Well, what about
other things? What about the church? Aren't
we to preach and describe things about the church? What the church
is and the order of the church and the authority in the church?
Aren't we to preach about these things? The ordinances? Should we just forget them, throw
them out the door? Godliness? Am I to ignore those
things? Or giving? Am I never to say
anything at all about men giving when there's so much in the Scriptures
about it? Am I just to ignore that? Or serving the Lord? What
about that? Do we talk about that, serving
the Lord? What about the family? Have I got nothing to say about
the family? Well, of course. Of course, I'm not to ignore
these things, and I don't ignore these things. We deal with these
things. I have two verse-by-verse studies, one on Wednesday night
and one on Sunday morning. And we deal with those things
verse-by-verse. I went all the way through the
book of Ephesians, talked about the husbands and the wives and
our duties to our employers and all of those things. We deal
with those things. But I don't deal with them apart from Christ. to reform a man and train him
how to live apart from Christ is simply to make a proselyte
of religion. That's what the Jews did. They
brought men in conformity with their ideas of the law and of
their ideas of morality and all of these things according to
the law. And they brought them in. And
the Lord said, you come to sea and earth to make one proselyte
like unto yourself. And when you made him, you made
him twofold more the child of hell than you are. You've revealed
both yourself to be a false prophet, and you've made Him one. You've
made Him one. Saved men and women are taught
of God. And all those taught of God are
brought by the Father to the Son. Did you hear me? Every man taught of God is brought
first to the Son. Listen to this. John 6, verse
45. They were angry at him. They
didn't understand his speech. They didn't understand what he
was talking about. Listen to what he said in verse 45, John
chapter 6. He said, it's written in the
prophets, and they shall all be taught of God. Every man,
therefore, that hath heard and hath learned of the Father does
what? Cometh unto me. That's where
he learned. That's where he learned of the
Father. And that's where you learn from the Father. You learn
it in Christ. This is where we go. Paul said,
I'm determined to know nothing among you, nothing, save Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. Wouldn't Paul say he didn't preach
on the church? Well, absolutely he preached on the church. How
did he preach it? Christ and Him crucified. That's
right. Where would be the prophet in
a church with no head, no king, no priest? What kind of church
would that be? That would be like a wife with
no husband, wouldn't it? Be talking about a marriage but
no husband. What kind of marriage would that
be? No one to teach her and care for her and see to her needs
and protect her and love her. Take Christ's preeminence out
of the church and all you have left is a cold, ignorant, indifferent
organization that represents itself in its own glory. I challenge
you, just listen to it. Listen to their preaching. Listen
to what they're saying. What about the ordinances? Take
the wisdom and glory of Christ out of the ordinances and what's
left? Just a meaningless ceremony that doesn't have anything to
confess or remember. What of godliness? What do we
know about God-likeness? Can you learn that looking at
the law? Thou shalt not steal. Does that tell you something
about the righteousness of God? I can't understand what that
means. They said, where in have we robbed thee? We didn't rob
God. We didn't steal from God. Where in have we robbed thee?
He said, you robbed me of my glory. We don't know anything at all
about God-likeness. I'll tell you who's God-likeness.
In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. You want
to know what God is in man? In man. Godliness. God-likeness. There it is. He is the express
image of God. How should I act? There it is. Study Him. Study Him. And then what about
giving? Don't we need to set some kind
of a standard, a percentage, something to guarantee results?
No, sir. Christ is the standard. If you
need a standard, He gave all. Huh? We don't want that standard,
do we? He gave everything. He gave His
time. He gave His body. He gave His energy. He gave up
His family. What all did He give? He gave
all. He had nowhere to lay His head. He gave Himself, His time,
His money, His body, His family, His freedom, His back, and His
blood. Here's the standard. Give what
you can. Huh? Give what you can. And then what about service?
The Bible said reasonable service. What's that mean? Reasonable
service. Our service to Him can be learned
best in Christ. And here's what I gather from
all this. I mean, we could go into details from now on, but
here's what I... Our service is learned in Him.
Now, what did He know? He knew that He was here to do
the will of His Father, and He knew what that will was. And
He did it. He did it. Now, I can't write
scripture. I can't cast out demons. I can't
walk on water. I can't take a few fishes and
loaves and feed the multitude. I couldn't feed this congregation. But I do know the will of God concerning me. Huh? I know the will of God concerning
me. I know why we're left on this earth. He said to his disciples
before he left, he said, all power is given unto me in heaven
and earth. Now you go preach. That's why
we're here. We're involved in the calling
out of God's elect. We're fellow laborers. That's
what Paul said with God. Fellow laborers with him. We've
been left here in charge with the stewardship of preaching,
preaching the gospel. That's why we're here. And also,
we have a stewardship of the grace of God, and we must strive
to walk in such a way as not to bring shame and reproach upon
our God in our lives. We have a stewardship of the
grace of God which was given to us. That's why we're here. And knowing this to be the will
of God, we're to do all that we can possibly do to achieve
that end. Isn't that what it's all about? Well, I can't do these great
things. You're not called on to do great
things. We're called on to do what we can. Do we do what we
can? Well, that's what we strive to
do. That's why I use that word strive.
And none of us does what we can. This is our reasonable service.
And we do all these things reasoning of the grace and mercy and love
of God toward us. And then what about our families?
Am I to ignore my family? I don't believe that's taught
in the scripture to ignore your family. I don't believe it teaches
us to ignore our family. I think we're obligated both
by our parentage and by our gratitude toward Christ for the grace of
God that He's shown us to see to it that our children hear
the gospel and that they're instructed in the gospel. That's our charge. Bring a child up in the way it
should go. Teach it the way. See to it they
hear the gospel. They're not going to like it.
I don't know any children that sit at home and say, it's Sunday.
I'm ready to go. No. Uh-uh. I think I'm sick. All of a sudden,
it comes up about 9 o'clock. I can't hardly walk. I've been
there and done that. I know exactly how a child feels.
But it's your obligation to bring them. And not just bring them
over here and then go back home and go about your business. Teach
them. Teach them by example. Teach
them by example. Do we believe that we really
need to assemble together and hear the gospel? Do you teach
your children that? Then do it. Set the example for
them. Teach them by example. And teach
them from the Word of God. And again, I tell you, this is
best learned in Christ. Husbands and wives have an obligation
to one another to love and to give themselves to one another.
We learn that in Christ. And what of our brotherly and
sisterly duties spiritually? We're to love one another. Isn't
that what He just over and over and over He tells us? To love
one another. Watch for one another's needs. Keep your finger on the
pulse of your brothers and sisters. Do they have a need? Are they
hurting? Then try to take care of it.
Try to see to it. You know, in the early church,
when the Spirit of God was poured out in such abundance on the
early church, they sold their homes. They sold everything they
had and brought it into the church. Here it is. You divide it up. You see the need more than we
do. Here it is. You divide it up. Boy, I ain't seen that, and
I haven't read about it either in 2,000 years. But what an example
they left. Listen to the Apostle John. He
said, if we walk in the light as Christ is the light, if we
walk in that, walk in the light of our families, our fellowship,
the church, Our baptism, the ordinances, all of these things. If we walk in the light as He
is the light, seeing His connection to it, seeing with His light,
we will have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus
Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin. Now listen to my text, 2 Timothy
1.13. Hold fast. the form, the pattern of sound
words which thou hast heard of me in faith and love which is
in Christ Jesus. Hold them fast. Now, I have a two-fold goal as
I preach to you over the Internet, and that is to teach and preach
sound words, sound wisdom, sound words. I want you to know and
understand the grace of God. I want you to understand that
salvation is in Christ. Redemption is in Christ. Sanctification
is in Christ. Wisdom is in Christ. And I do
my best to present that to you when I stand up here to preach
to you. I don't worry so much about the order of the words.
I write them down because my mind is so wandering, my memory
is so bad, I can't even remember what I studied. So I write it
down. But when I present it to you, it's not my presentation. I want the material there. I
want the foundation there. And I study hard for that and
ask God to bless it when I bring it to you. I want to preach sound
words, sound doctrines. doctrine true to the scriptures
and true to my own experience of grace and true to the principles
of faith set forth in the early church demonstrated. I look at
them. I look at their lives. And I
look at their records. And I look at their writings.
And I see these things established. And those who are taught of God
by God's pastors are, according to 2 Corinthians 3, 3, won't
you listen to this, they're manifestly Manifestly declared to be the
letters or writings or epistles of Christ. Ministered by chosen
men such as Paul and Timothy and so on. Written not with ink
but with the spirit of the living God and not on tables of stone
but in the fleshly tables of the heart. A man taught of God
is not just a man who can recite doctrine. You can teach a polyparrot
how to recite doctrine. We used to have minor birds.
In the little town I was in up north, they had a minor bird
up there. And he got loose and he'd fly around town and he looked
just like a crow. And that thing came out and lit
on the truck. And I thought it was a crow,
but I was amazed it didn't fly off. And I walked up there where
it was and looked up and this thing started talking. This old
bird. And he took up residence on top
of my dad's old 51 Ford truck. And he'd ride around town sitting
up on that tire up on the roof of that old truck. A minor bird. And he's just talk up a storm.
You can teach a bird how to talk. You can teach anybody how to
talk. You can teach anybody how to recite doctrine. But that's
not what this is about. These sound words, this sound
doctrine that Paul's talking about, he's talking about something
taught of God. Taught of God. What God teaches,
He reveals in you, John. Not just to you. It's revealed
to you, but it's revealed in you. Paul said, when it pleased
God who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by
His grace to reveal His Son in me, then I went and preached. That's what's called for. That's
where those sound words come from. It's what's revealed in
you. Do you have grace in you? Have you got mercy in you? Then
you won't have no problem being gracious and merciful. Sound
words. This is what confirms the calling
of true pastors and teachers. And Paul goes on in 2 Corinthians
4 to say that he had renounced those hidden things of dishonesty,
not walking in craftiness nor handling the Word of God deceitfully.
He wasn't out there with his broad phylacteries and things
on anymore, going out there with all of his conformations from
the priesthood and all that type of thing, bringing bearing down
on the people that he was somebody. He didn't do that anymore. He
renounced all those things. But by manifestation of the truth,
he said, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in
the sight of God. He left it all up to God. It's
between God and you. You figure it out. And my sin
of God, I'm not going to stand up here and start rolling out
all my credentials to you. I leave it between you and God.
That's what Paul said. You listen to what I have to
say and then you take it up with God. You take it up with Him. Hold fast the form of sound words
which thou hast heard of me, Paul said. Faith cometh by hearing. And I tell you this, there is
nothing more exciting to the soul of a needy man than to hear
the message sent from God to his soul. Nothing. Nothing can cheer him up. Nothing
can comfort him. Nothing can bring the love of
God to him like that message that he longs for, he's empty
and cries out for, and God gives it to him. When he does, the
tears just fly. When he does, he just shakes
all over. When he does, his heart is filled
before God. Faith cometh by hearing. Oh,
I tell you, to have the love of God made known to you, to
have the blood of Christ applied to that guilty conscience, applying
it to it. Guilt's gone. Guilt's gone. Oh, that guilt, it weighs you
down to hell. It's gone under the blood. You can't do that. God has to
do that. And to have the mercy of God shown to me, pressed upon
my heart, I feel it down to my toes. Oh, I tell you, when He does
that, then your soul will sing with, O Isaiah, how beautiful
upon the mountains are the feet of Him that bringeth good tidings
and publisheth peace. This is how these sound words
of the Gospel are received and how the children of God are taught.
Brother Todd Nybert wrote this. He's a pastor up in Lexington,
Kentucky. I read this in an article of
his recently. He said, the only way I can hear
the gospel is as poor and needy. That's how I have to hear it.
Ten times David, the man after God's own heart, described himself
as poor and needy. When that leaves, can you hear
me? When I'm no longer poor and needy,
when that leaves, then I begin to analyze. I sit back there and pick. I
pick. Your wife picks this big old
dessert up, and you eat it, and you're hungry, and it's good.
Next time you sit down to eat it, you ain't quite as hungry.
And you say, man, I could have stood a little bit more sugar.
Huh? You could put a little bit more
lemon in that, make that a little more tart. Huh? When a man's
not poor and needy, he begins to analyze. He begins to pick. He starts to pick. Oh, begin to critique. Teaching and preaching are heart
works. Those who had no heart for it
receive no benefit. That's just the truth. hungry
souls benefit. They benefit. Everything, now
won't you hear me, everything in God's new covenant, He writes
on the heart. Isn't that what that says over
in Hebrews chapter 10? The Holy Spirit Himself also
witnessed us to these things. He writes these things on our
hearts. Everything in the new covenant
is written on the heart. Oh, what a miracle of grace it
is to hear and to know that what you hear is of God. That's a
miracle of grace. A miracle of grace. How sweet
is this experience of grace that makes what we're taught to perfectly
suit our needs. Perfectly suit your needs. I
need a righteousness. Oh, I preach on Christ's righteousness,
and you just drink it up. Suit your need on it, down to
a tee. And that man who'd been taught
doctrine in his head, he can be persuaded to change his mind.
But that man who knows Him in his heart cannot be moved. David
said, my heart is fixed, oh God, my heart is fixed. There's no
moving his heart. No movement. This is my goal,
not just to indoctrinate you in a creed, but to see Christ
formed in you. That's what Paul said. He wanted
to see Christ formed in them. That's what he talked about when
he wrote to them. You read through those epistles
that he wrote to the churches. Oh, he said, when I listen to
this here in our text, He said, I thank God whom I served from
my forefathers with pure conscience that without ceasing I have remembrance
of thee in my prayers day and night, greatly desiring to see
thee, being mindful of thy tears. Mindful of Timothy's tears, somebody
told him. Somebody told him. And he goes
on and he tells them he's told the Thessalonians, I know your
election of God. You become examples to all those
who believe. I have you as an example of patience
that's waiting for His return and so on. Having taught these things by
the grace of God's Holy Spirit, I want to see you hold them fast.
How precious are the things we know in our hearts, huh? I mean
what you know down here, what you know, huh? You ain't going
to turn it loose, are you? We're not of them that draw back,
but unto them which believe to the saving of the soul. We don't
turn them loose. They're precious things. Precious
things. Can you lead the fellowship of
the saints? Can you do that? Can you just
bow up and walk out the door and not come back? Can you do
that? Can you lead the worship of God? Just say, I just don't
think I'm going to go to worship anymore. Huh? Take about six months off and
go somewhere. Can you leave the hearing of
the gospel? Can you find as much pleasure in the woods as you
do in the church? Can you find as much benefit
from being with your friends as you do with being with your
brothers and sisters in Christ? No, you can't. These things are
precious to the believer. They're precious. He knows these
things. They are sound things. He doesn't
turn these things loose. You can't force them loose from
you. These things are not optional to those who have been taught
of God. They are things they cherish and hold fast and suffer
for. And that's what Paul says, I'm
down here in prison suffering for these things. These things
are real to me. I cherish these things. I'll
die for these things. And then listen to this. were
to hold these things fast in faith and love. I've been doing
my best here lately to make you see that faith is a present,
active, and continual work of God in the heart. It's a living, vital principle
of the heart. I don't know how to teach that.
That's something God and the Holy Spirit has to teach. But
faith lives. It's got a heartbeat. It's got
a heartbeat. It's got a pulse. It breathes
in the spiritual air of His new environment. Faith is likened
to the new man. He just over and over, Paul calls
it a new man. Another whole person living in
me took up residence. Another man. A new man. And it
feeds and it drinks and it walks and thinks and looks and hears
and serves in the Kingdom of God. He tells us in the Scriptures
to put off concerning the old man. All those old habits and
old ideas and old principles and old doctrines and old traditions,
put off that old man. Take him off. Put him off. And be renewed in the spirit
of my mind and put on the new man which after God is created
in righteousness and true holiness. Am I talking to you this morning
in an unknown tongue? Or do you know these things? Is my language just boring altogether
to you, or do you know these things in your heart? I don't
want to just preach to your head, I want to preach to your heart. What goes in the head can be
changed. What goes in the heart is fixed.
It's fixed. Does your faith rest in some
old experience, or does it have a pulse? Did you pray something
said a long ago, or is it something you know right now today? Isn't
that what Paul said, don't you know? He said, don't you know? You reckon Lazarus knew if he
was alive or not when God called him out of town? I think he knew. Sure he did. Sound words can only be held
fast as they're understood, received, and believed. He said you hold
them fast in faith. And then watch this, and love. Wherever you find faith, you
find love inseparably connected to it. Everything faith receives
of God creates love in the heart. That's where it's headed. That's
where it's headed. If there's love in a marriage,
there'd be no obstacle too great to overcome it, no crisis too
difficult to bear, and no service too great to render if there's
love. If not love as it is in the order
of the law, the same in order in the kingdom of grace, it's
number one, wasn't it? Number one. It's always been
number one. First and foremost, sound words
are held fast in faith and love because all sound doctrine generates
true love. If it don't generate love, there's
a problem. There's a problem. And if God
has revealed His love for such a one as me, will I have difficulty
loving you? I don't think so. I've never
got over the fact, John, God loved me. Huh? Have you ever got over that? If God pays 5,000 better than
me to choose me, save me, and show me mercy, is love going
to be a hard thing for me to do? No. No. True faith and true love are
inseparable. Paul said, we can speak with
the tongue of men and angels, but if I have not love, I'm sounding
brass. I'm on cymbals. I'm beating on
the cymbals. Sounding brass and tinkling cymbals. Don't matter how many mysteries
I can solve or knowledge I gain, without love, he said, I'm nothing.
No matter how much I give, even to the giving of myself to be
burned and martyred, without love, it'll profit me nothing.
Love beareth all things. I just can't bear it. You could
if you had love. Love beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth
all things, and endureth all things. Love never faileth. That's what he said. May God
be pleased through me to teach you sound words, sound doctrine,
and do for you and do in you what I could never do, and that
is to press those things upon your hearts and minds forever.
And we'll give Him the glory and the praise for Christ's sake. Amen. Thank you.