your Bibles this morning to the
book of 2nd Timothy, the book of 2nd Timothy chapter 3 I want to begin my reading this
morning with verse 10 and we will continue the message that
we had begun last Sunday morning So we read beginning with verse
10 of 2 Timothy chapter 3. But thou hast fully known my
doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity,
patience, persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch,
at Iconium, at Lystra, what persecutions I endured, but out of them all
the Lord delivered me. Yea, and all that will live godly
in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution, but evil men and
seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But continue thou in the things
which thou hast learned, and hast been assured of, knowing
of whom thou hast learned them, and that from a child thou hast
known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto
salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 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 may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all
good works. Now those of you that did not
hear what we had to say this last week, I would tell you to
get you a tape of the service of last week and listen to the
message and you'll be able to put together the things that
we will say this morning with that message and I'm sure that
the Lord will give you an understanding of what we're talking about.
We were talking last week about things that we've learned in
over forty years in preaching the gospel. Some of the things
that the Lord has been pleased to reveal to us and to make known
to us through the years that we have preached the gospel unto
men. And I will not go over those
things and say anything about the things that we talked about
last week. But when we finished the message last week, we were
talking about the fact that the true preacher is in the heart
business. that the true preacher is not
so much interested in entertaining people as he is in instructing
them in the gospel of God's grace. He's interested in preaching
what matters to the Lord's people. He's not interested in just taking
up their time. He's interested in preaching
the message of the gospel because it's like Mike was reading this
morning, it's really Jesus Christ that matters when you come down
to die. It's Christ that matters. The
scripture says that we're complete in Him. The scripture says it
is Christ in you that is the hope of glory. Jesus Christ must
abide in our hearts by faith or else we're not children of
God. So the true preacher is in the heart business. Now the
next thing and the last thing that I want to deal with, and
it'll take us all this morning service to deal with this, is
this, that I have learned as I went along in the ministry
and as I have observed and talked to various preachers and as I
have just noticed what is going on around me, I have noticed
and have learned that a man's motive, that a preacher's motive,
a preacher's motive or his purpose always determines the direction
of his ministry. that a man's motive will determine
always the direction that his ministry goes. What is it that
causes men to compromise what they know to be right? And what
is it that would cause a man to deny doctrines that he knows
is plainly true, plainly taught in the Word of God? What is it?
What causes a man to willfully alter the message that he preaches
and to use methods as a preacher that is contrary to the plain
teachings of the Word of God? What is it that would cause a
man to do this? Now these are questions that
I've asked myself a thousand times over through the years,
but I just keep coming up with the very same answer. I keep
coming up with the very same answer, and that is that a man's
motive, his motive will always determine the direction of his
ministry. What is he about? What is the
preacher about? Now Paul here in verse 10 of
2 Timothy 3 says, Timothy, he said, you've fully known my doctrine.
You fully knowing my doctrine. Now the reason that you fully
know my doctrine is, is that I revealed it to you. I preached
it to you. I explained to you over and over
what I believe in order that you might fully know my doctrine. But there's something else that
you know also. You know my manner of life. You
know what I'm about. And also, he said, you know my
purpose. You know my purpose. You know
what I'm about in the ministry. You know what it is that I attempt
to accomplish. What it is that I'm pressing
toward in my ministry. And he said also, you've known
something about my faith. You know something about my long
suffering, my long patience. and my charity, my love for the
Lord's people, my love for God, my love for the truth, and he
said, you know something about my patience, how that I've endured,
how that I have stayed under the load, and when persecutions
come, afflictions have come, he said, I endured these things,
I stayed under these things, I stayed under the load, and
I went on, and he said, out of them all, the Lord delivered
me. But you've known these things about me. Now, what is the preacher
about? What is his purpose? Is he out
to make a name for himself? Is he out to get a following?
Is he out to become wealthy in the ministry as some of the radio
evangelists or the television evangelists in our time? What
is the preacher about? Well, let me tell you that a
man's motive will always determine the direction that he goes. And
if you go listen to a man preach, and he'll not preach the truth,
if you hear what he has to say, he'll never touch on the main
doctrines of the Word of God. If he's not clear on the message
of God's grace, if he's not clear on the doctrines of sovereignty,
if he's not clear on the doctrines of God's elective grace in Jesus
Christ, then, beloved, you might ask yourself, what is this man
about? What is this man about? What
is his motive? Well, a man's motive will determine
what he preaches. Now then, let me say that the
only thing that will preserve us as preachers of the gospel,
and this church needs to be aware of this, This is something that
you need to be established in. You need to know this, that the
only thing that will preserve us from compromise is having
for our solitary motive in all things the glory of God. Now that, let me say that again,
the only thing that will preserve us from compromise is having
for our motive the solitary motive of just living for the glory
of God. Whatever we do, we do it for
God's glory, for God's praise. We want to do what honors God.
We want to exalt the Lord. Now let me say this, brethren,
that we cannot There is no way that I or any other preacher
can exalt God higher than He is. It cannot be done. There
is no way that I can lift Him up higher than what He is. But
I'll tell you this, There is many, many ways in which preachers
can bring God down, bring Him down. Some bring Him down just
one step, two steps. Others bring Him down to the
level of a man. And some even have Him on a level
below man. Somehow the free will of man
controlling the God of the Bible. But I'll tell you this, we're
going to preach Him up. We're going to exalt Him as the
Word of God does. We will not bring Him down, not
one iota. I can't preach Him higher than
He is, but I will not bring Him down. And anytime you hear a
man bringing down God Almighty and bringing Him down to the
level of a man, or lower than a man, listen to me, that man
has a motive in doing that. People will listen when you talk
about a God that you can control. If you will preach to them a
God that can be controlled by them, they'll listen to you,
and they want to hear that. Because every man has the desire
to be God himself. And don't you ever forget that.
There's not a person in this building this morning who by
in their flesh nature don't want to be God. Everybody wants to
be a little God and wants to run their life. And so, if a
preacher tells them that there are little gods, and that they
can do whatever they want to, and that God can't do anything
unless they let Him do it, then of course they love to hear that.
They just love to hear that. And you can get a crowd. I mean,
you can get a crowd today. The less you say about God Almighty,
and the more you say about human people, or about people, about
humankind, Why, listen, the more humanist you are, the bigger
crowd you can get. And I think that's clear and
evident by what we observe in our day. Now listen to me, Paul
said to Timothy, he said, you've fully known my doctrine. You
have fully known my doctrine. Now Paul's doctrine was not stated
ever in ambiguous terms, it was not hidden, his doctrine was
not hidden under high-sounding phrases, and his doctrine was
not subject to change according to the company that he just happened
to be around. Now we know that a lot of preachers,
rather they can preach one thing in one place and another thing
in another place. And they can, when they're with
you, they can tell you how much they agree with you about the
grace of God. But then when they get up to
preach, then their preaching is altogether different than
what they said when they were talking to you in private. Well, beloved, Paul was not that
way. What Paul believed, he preached,
and he preached it in clear words. He preached it because he believed
it. When he was about to leave this
world, as he was here in this chapter, he said to Timothy,
You've known my doctrine. You've fully known it. You've
fully known it. I haven't kept back anything
that was profitable for you. And I have preached to you the
gospel. You've known my manner of life.
You've known my purpose and faith, long-suffering charity and patience. And I this morning want to adopt
Paul's words and make them my own here in this place this morning. I'm no novice. I've been about
this preaching business for, like we've said, over 40 years.
And I want to use these words of Paul because I want to adopt
them my own. Because there's no man living
that has heard me preach through the years, since I was 19 or
20 years old, who has not heard my doctrine plainly set forth. the doctrine that I have held
to, and I say this in order that you might understand something
about the motive of a man, something about what it is that drives
a man, what it is that makes a man kick, what it is that causes
him to preach what he preaches. You've got to know this, you've
got to understand this. Now listen to me. In private
conversation, I have set forth my doctrine. I have set forth
what I believe the Word of God to teach about the Gospel. And
in my preaching from the pulpit, I don't think there's anybody
that's listened to me over a number of years and paid half attention
to what I preach that don't know something about what this preacher
believes. That if somebody walked up to
you and said, do you know that that John Mitchell believes this
and that and something else, you'd say, now wait a minute,
wait just a minute, I know what that man believes. I know what
he believes. How do you know? Well, because
he has fully revealed what he believes by what he's preached. And I've heard him preach it
over and over. And when I'm dead and gone, or
if somebody wants to see them before time, you can take a look
at the multitude of sermon notes that I have, that I've made over
the years, and you would know, by reading those sermon notes,
you would know what my doctrine is, what I stand for, and what
I preach. But for any who may not have
been listening to what I've been saying through the years, I'd
like to make this morning some emphatic statements by which
you may know precisely what my doctrine really is. I want you
to listen. I want you to carefully listen
to what I say. Some of these things are familiar,
but some of them may not be. And I want you to hear what I'm
saying. Now listen to me. There are some
things that are plainly revealed in the Word of God. There are
some things that you can find. We talked last week about the
need to study. about the need for you to read
your Bible, about the need for you to open the Word of God and
to look into the Scriptures to find out whether or not what
the preacher is saying, whether it's biblical or not, whether
he's telling you the truth, or whether he's lying on God, whether
he's telling you exactly what inspiration reveals. And so I
say that there are some things that are plainly revealed in
the word of God that are vital to the faith of the gospel and
these things have been burned into our souls and upon these
things we must stand with unbending and absolute firmness even if
we have to stand alone. Even if we don't have anybody
else to fellowship with. Even if everybody else turns
up their nose and says, you're wasting your time, preacher,
and this will never, never work, it'll never build a church. We
have got to stand. These things with us are not
debatable. Now hear me out, these things
are not debatable. There may be some things that
we could debate about. There may be some things people
from other churches might want to debate with me about, and
I would debate with them about certain things. But these things
that I'm about to state to you in these emphatic statements
are not debatable. They are not. And we're not going
to change these things. These are plainly taught in the
Word of God. Because the Bible says that Timothy,
from a child, knew the Holy Scriptures. contend that it is God's right
to govern his own creation The breath they breathe and that
men live by the goodness of God and that God Now that's exactly what we mean. Now listen, he is sovereign in
all things in creation and in providence and in salvation. Now this we want to make that
clear that we believe in the absolute sovereignty of God. The second thing Paul said thou
hast fully known my doctrine. I've set it forth to you. He
said in verse 19 of the second chapter, he said the foundation
of God stand is sure. What he meant by that was, I
believe in the sovereignty of God, that God has always been
from everlasting and to everlasting, God will be God. He'll never
change. The foundation of God stands
sure. He's God and He's always been
God and He always will be God. He'll never change. He is absolutely
sovereign. Number two, the Bible is the
Word of God. In 2 Timothy 3, And in verse
16, look at it, he says this, he said in 2 Timothy 3 and 16,
all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. Holy men of God spake as they
were moved by the Holy Spirit. The Bible in its entirety is
inspired by the Holy Spirit. The Bible is none other than
the voice of Him that sitteth upon that eternal throne. Every book in the Bible, every
chapter of the Bible, every syllable of the Bible, every letter found
in the Bible is a direct utterance of the Most High God. We believe
that this Bible is the Word of God. That's what we believe.
That's what I believe. That's what this preacher before
you this morning believes, and that the Bible alone has divine
authority. in matters relating to God, in
matters relating to eternity, in matters relating to the salvation
of men's souls, this Bible is the authority. In matters pertaining
to the walk of life, this Bible is the authority. And whatever
you might say, you say, well I got something to say, you may
have it, but this Bible is the divine authority. It's got God,
listen, it's got the authority of God behind it. It's our own
rule of faith and practice. Now that's the second thing.
The third thing that I'd like to say, these are emphatic statements,
and like I said earlier, they are not debatable. We are not
gonna debate it. Hear me, all men are by nature,
D-E-A-D, what does that spell? D-E-A-D. What does it spell? Well, nobody's answered. I know that you all know how
to spell. Most of you do. But that word is dead. It says all men are by nature
dead in sin. That means as men are born into
this world, as babies come into this world, they're born spiritually
without life. They're born spiritually dead. And until one is quickened by
the Spirit of God, they are dead. Now one of the reasons why we're
so emphatic about the doctrines of grace is because we believe
this doctrine that all men are by nature dead in sin. That everybody comes into this
world dead spiritually. with inability, they have not
the ability to love God, not the ability, spiritual ability
to seek God, find God, walk with God, do the will of God from
their hearts. They are dead in sin. Now the fall of Adam brought
about the total ruin of our race and by the imputation of his
sin all the race of Adam is hopelessly helplessly as they stand in the
state of nature condemned. Everybody, as they come forth
from the first Adam, they are dead and helplessly, hopelessly
condemned apart from spiritual life being given, imparted to
them by a gift of God. God, listen to me now. God has
made this clear in the Word. Now there's great debate on this
in many circles. The fundamentalists, they try
to tell you that a man must be born again. They'll tell you
that he must be born again. They quote that verse, they use
that in their preaching a great deal. A man must be born again. But then when you pin them down
on whether or not a man was totally and utterly ruined at the fall,
and whether or not a man is really true, sure enough, spiritually
dead when he's born into this world, every time they will go
back, they'll try to explain away, they will not say, yes,
that's true. Yes, that's true. They won't
do it. Because they believe that a man can get up when he wants
to and come to Jesus. That a man can, that he can will
to do something contrary to his dead nature. That he can will
to love God when his whole nature is against him. They think that
his will is some way or another free. When he himself is in bondage
from the hour of his birth, from the hour of his conception, he
is in bondage to sin. Now the next thing is this, and
it's in harmony with what we've said. The number four emphatic
statement that I want to make, seeing that God is absolutely
sovereign, seeing that the sinner is dead, God has a people whom
he chose in Christ before the world began. God Almighty is
the God of election. He is a God who has chosen his
people in Christ before the world began. Now you can define election
and every preacher's got to define it because it's in the Bible. You define it in whatever way
you will, but the fact is that the Bible teaches a divine, eternal,
immutable election and this cannot be denied by any preacher. Cannot be denied. It's in the
Word of God, and if you're going to know the doctrine of the Bible,
you've got to know that the God of the Bible is a God of election.
That He chose a people in Christ. He set His love upon those people,
and He said, these are mine. They're mine, and I give them
to you, He said to the Lord Jesus. And Jesus said, I'll die for
them. And the Holy Spirit said, I'll go work the salvation that
Jesus bought. I'll work it in their hearts.
God has a chosen people. You have not chosen me. I have
chosen you. That's the doctrine of the scripture. Now number five, I want to say
that Jesus Christ redeemed all of his people. He redeemed all
of his people. The death of Jesus Christ left
nothing to chance or to man's free will. It left absolutely
nothing to chance. Now listen to me now. Listen
carefully. To suggest that Jesus Christ
will not have the fruit of his death is intolerable. It's intolerable to suggest such
a thing. I want you to listen to a statement
made by A.W. Pink. Listen to this. Few seem
to realize the fearful implications which necessarily follow the
principles they hold and advocate. To predicate an atonement which
fails to atone, a redemption which does not redeem, a sacrifice
which secures not the actual remission of sins, is a horrible
reflection upon all the attributes of God. to make the efficacy
or success of the greatest of all God's works dependent upon
the choice of fallen and depraved creatures is to magnify man at
the cost of dethroning his maker. Now, beloved, I say to you this
morning that I contend and have contended through the years that
to suggest in any way that Jesus Christ will not see the fruit
or see the travail of his soul is absolutely intolerable and
that is to dethrone God and to bring him down to where that
he no longer is the sovereign God that he says he is. By one
sacrifice, the Bible says, that He has perfected forever His
people. He's made a full and perfect
and complete atonement for all His elect. I rejoice in this,
that as the children of Israel came out of Egypt, it is said
that there was not a hoof, not a hoof that was left behind.
That God delivered them all. He brought them all out. And
every one of his people have been brought out, and every one
of his people have been... Jesus died their death to sin. And that's my only hope of not
dying and going to hell, is that Jesus died for me. He died in my room and stood
in place. And the song, that moment by
moment that we sung, that last song, It says so in the very
first verse of that song. It teaches this very thing that
I'm preaching to you right now. That I'm telling you that Jesus
Christ, His death was reckoned mine. It was reckoned mine! Now look here in this scripture,
in the 2nd chapter of 2nd Timothy. I want you to see something here.
In verse 11, look at it. It is a faithful saying, for
if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him. Now I want
you to understand what that means. This is a faithful saying. This
is a saying that you can drive an alien, put it up on a wall,
on a plaque, This is a faithful saying. You can lay down when
you're ill, sick, when you're dying. This is a faithful saying. This is a faithful saying. When
you know that you're about to leave this world, this is a faithful
saying. That if we be dead with Him,
well, when did He die? Well, He died on the cross. Now,
all His people died in Him. We were all in Him when He died. and everybody that was in him
when he died will live with him because he said it's a faithful
saying for if we be dead with him And that's the only way you're
gonna miss the, listen to me, miss the death that never dies
is to have died with Him. That's the only way you can miss
it. You've got to die in a substitute or die yourself and go to hell. You can only miss everlasting
burnings and eternal death by dying in Jesus. and when he died
on that cross God had put all of his people in him the scripture
says in Ephesians that God had chosen us in him we were chosen
in him and when he died God put him to death on the cross and
when he put him to death he put me to death and his death was
the death of my sin and because my sin died as I died in him
then when he lived and Paul said remember in verse 8 that Jesus
Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according
to my gospel. Remember this Jesus, he died,
but remember he was raised from the dead. He's alive. He that
was dead is alive forevermore. He's alive! Now listen to what
it says, we shall also live with him. Isn't that wonderful? Isn't
that wonderful? He died, we died in him, he lives
and we live in him. Now what that teaches is that
Jesus Christ will have the fruit of his death. Everybody died
in him will live because he lives. And God raised him from the dead
and the reason he did was because he was satisfied on the behalf
of everybody for whom he died. God was completely satisfied.
And so when he raised up Jesus out of the grave, God was saying,
I've accepted what he did for you. I've accepted what he did
for all my people. All those who are able to believe
on me. I've accepted what he did. Now
listen to me. Somebody said, oh, I don't think
that's necessary to preach a definite effectual atonement. I think
you can preach a general atonement. Well, I don't believe in any
general atonement, and I could tell you why, but I'm not going
to get off my subject this morning. I'm not going to get off my subject.
I'm going to tell you that a general atonement is no atonement whatsoever. And a general atonement, listen
to me now, is for nobody! Nobody! Because if it's for everybody
that will join their fallen, depraved wills to God's will,
there'll never be anybody saved. Never be anybody. Well, listen,
let me go on. Next thing I'd like to say is,
I'm telling you my doctrine so you can say, or so I can say
concerning you, you've fully known my doctrine. You've fully
known it. I want to say that the Spirit
of God affectionately calls all of God's elect to faith in Christ.
Now I've preached through the years, and there's some people
that said, I've heard them say it, I've read it, were that they
have said that if I believe what you believe, I'd never preach.
I wouldn't preach if I believe what you preach. Well, I have
preached for over 40 years only because I believe what I have
preached. I believe what I preach. Listen
to me, the Spirit of God effectually, that means that He calls irresistibly
His people. God is saving His people from
their sins. God is doing something. His Word
will not return unto Him void. It will accomplish that whereunto
He sends it. God will accomplish His purpose. The promise of God secures the
salvation of His people because it draws His people to Himself. It's a divine operation of grace
on the soul which produces salvation and brings eternal life and faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ through regeneration in the soul. Now
then, the next thing, and like I say, these things are not debatable,
not with me. There are many, many places trampled
underfoot. Many people will tell you, I
don't believe that. I don't believe that. But I'm
telling you this morning what the Word of God says. And I'm
a man that has, listen to me, I'm a man who's paid the price
for preaching these things. And I'm not up here just wasting
my time. I'm telling you, I paid a price
for believing these things and preaching these things. All of
God's elect will persevere unto eternal glory. 2nd Timothy 2
and 11 we read that verse a few minutes ago but it said we're
going to live with him and where's he at? well he's seated at the
right hand of God and Paul tells us in Ephesians that we are also
seated in him that's what it says that you're seated at the
right hand of God you're going to live with him you're going
to live. That means that you're going
to persevere unto eternal glory and not one of those whom he
chose, whom he redeemed, whom he's effectually called, is going
to perish. Will ever, ever perish. Now the next emphatic statement
and the last one is this. I want to make this statement
that Jesus Christ, according to what the Bible teaches, is
all. He is all, A-double-L, in all. Christ is the sum and substance. Christ is the essence and the
end of all revealed truth. He said, I am the truth. I am the truth. Listen to me.
Apart from Him, there is no truth. There is no truth apart from
Him. Christ is all in the covenant
of grace from eternity. Everything. Now hear me. Hear
me carefully. Everything. This is what the
Word of God teaches. This is what I stand for. This
is what I preach. Everything in the covenant of
grace. is conditioned upon number one,
determined in number two, and given to the Lord Jesus Christ. Simply put, that means this,
that Jesus Christ is the surety of the everlasting covenant.
And it means that the Father is not looking to me to meet
the demands that He has placed upon men. He is not looking to
me to meet those demands. He is looking to my surety. He's looking to my substitute
and the life that Jesus lived. Now you hear me because God's
not going to accept anything less than the life that His Son
lived. Jesus lived perfect. He lived
a perfect life. He did. Now, the reason why God
don't look to Carl, and read why He don't look to me, and
to Conrad, and brother over here on the end, forgot his name already,
Chris. The reason why the Lord don't
look to us is because, is it okay if I say it, brother? We're
failures. We're failures. We're all failures. And that's really why he's not
looking at me. Now you may not get happy about
this, but see, I can get happy with this. Now listen to me now. He's not looking to me to meet
all the demands that he's made of a man. He is looking to our
surety And he is the one that's met all the demands that God
has ever made of a man. Now if anybody ever gets up and
preaches to you and tell you that God's looking to you to
meet all those demands, that man is lying to you. He's lying
to you. You've already failed. You're
out of business. Hang a shingle up. You're out
of business. You're bankrupt. You can't meet
it. But He's looking to our surety. I'm telling you, my doctrine
is that Christ is all in all. And if you're going to go to
heaven, you're going to go because of Him. You ain't going to go
because of who you are. You're not going to go because
of your worth, because of your merit. You're going because of
who He is! And God has hid you in Him. And when He looks at you, He
doesn't look at you. He doesn't see you. He sees your
surety. He sees that glorious one, that
holy one, that righteous one. That's the only way I'm getting
to heaven. That's the only way I'm going to get to heaven. Christ
is all. In redemption, righteousness, all our hope, Christ is all in
the eternal inheritance of God's saints in glory. Christ is all
now. Christ is all forever. And here
I stand, and I can do no more, and God help us never to be moved
from this. This is the gospel. Now, Paul said up here, and I'm
going to get done this morning, so you bear with me. Took a little
flack last week because I didn't keep you longer and didn't preach
to the end. But now, just bear with me. I'm
going to let you go here in a little bit, but listen to what this
verse said. In verse 8, I read part of it. Paul said that, remember
that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the
dead according, what's that next little word there? According
to my, my. according to my gospel now Paul
here says that he's got a gospel he said that gospel is my gospel
now beloved without question there's only one true gospel
every other gospel is a false gospel amen? is that right? every
other gospel is a false gospel those who preach a false gospel
or false prophets regardless of their motives their false
prophets regardless of their motives and sad to say this is
sad but you have to say it that those who believe a false gospel
are lost those many myriads of souls out here in the world who
is crying today to meet the demands placed upon men by a holy God
are lost. They're lost. You say, well,
Preacher, don't you think a man ought to keep the golden rule?
Keep the golden rule. Absolutely, keep it. Do it to
others. You'd have them do it to you.
But that's not the gospel. That's not going to save you.
That'll never keep you out of hell. You can do that the rest
of your life. You say, Preacher, don't you think you ought to
love everybody? Well, love as many people as you can. And love
them just as enthusiastically as you can. Go ahead and do whatever
you can in that area. But that's not the gospel. That's
not going to save you. It's not going to save you. Listen
to me. It's sad to say that those who believe a false gospel are
yet lost under the wrath of God and the curse of God Almighty. You can read that in Galatians
1 verses 6 through 8. Now this charge is very serious
and it cannot be ignored. It cannot be denied. The question,
listen, is this. Paul said, according to my gospel. There's another place where he
uses this in Romans 2 and 16. But listen to me, the question
is sometimes asked, and I've had it asked of me, and other
preachers have had it asked of them, how can I be sure, preacher,
that the gospel that you preach is the only true gospel? How can I be sure of that? Well,
let me say, this is a question that you would be wise to ask,
and it's a question that every preacher should, listen, should
be required to answer. Every preacher ought to be required
to answer that for the people that he preaches to. Preacher,
how can I be sure that you are preaching Paul's gospel? He said, this is my gospel. How
can I be sure of that? Well, this is a very fair and
it's a very reasonable and honest question. It's a question that
as you ask it, you're going to be listening for the answer.
And you ought to be listening for the answer. What's the preacher
going to say? What's he going to say? Well,
this is my answer. Listen to me. I know that the
gospel of salvation by the grace of God through faith alone in
Jesus Christ is the only true gospel because, let me give you
some reasons, and we'll be done. Bear with me, but this is my
answer. You've got to give me an opportunity
to give you the answer why it is that I believe that the gospel
I preach is the only true gospel. Number one, This is the only
gospel, and I make bold to say, that's revealed in the Holy Scriptures. It is the only gospel that is
revealed in the Bible. You can write down these verses,
we don't have time to turn to them. Luke 24, 44 through 47.
Luke 24, 44 through 47, and Acts chapter 13, verse 38 and 39. Number two, this is the only
gospel, hear me, that glorifies God in all of His holy attributes. It's the only gospel. Romans 3 verse 24 through 26
and Psalm 85 verses 10 and 11. I say this is the only gospel
that glorifies God in all of His holy attributes. Number three,
this is the only gospel that honors and magnifies and satisfies
all the demands of God's holy law. This gospel does that. The gospel that I preach, Romans
3 and verse 31. You can write it down, you can
read it later. Number four, This is the only gospel that offers
real hope to helpless, guilty sinners who can do nothing for
themselves. They're absolutely unable to
do anything. And that is the way, that is the picture the
Bible presents to us of every sinner. Paul said in Ephesians
2 verses 1 through 5, he spells it out. that we're dead, and
a dead man can't do anything for himself. When a man dies,
everything's got to be done. His eyelids have even got to
be closed. A man don't die with his eyes
closed most of the time. That's got to be done. And he's generally dressed up.
Sometimes he is, sometimes he's not, in a pair of pants that
doesn't have any pockets in them at all. Got no place to put anything
to his soul. He's dead. A sinner, he's dead
in sin and he doesn't have, hear me, he doesn't have anything
in his pockets. He doesn't have anything to help
himself. He can't buy his way to God.
There's nothing he can do. He doesn't have anything. He's
helpless, hopelessly lost. He can do nothing for himself.
Ephesians 2, 1 through 5 will tell you what God has done for
people that can't do anything for themselves. Read it. Read
it and meditate upon it. You have he made alive who were
dead in your sin. God made you alive. By grace
are you saved. Number five, this is the only
gospel that gives all the glory of salvation to God alone. The only gospel that gives all
the glory, not just, you know, part of it, but all of it, to
God alone. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 29 through
31. You can look at it. You can read
it. You can see it. Number six, this
is the only gospel that completely forbids the boasting of the flesh. Psalm 115 verse 1, Not unto us,
not unto us give glory, but unto thine own name for your mercy
and your truth. Not unto us, not unto us. The
glory belongs to God, the boasting forever cease. Nobody can boast
and believe the gospel that I believe. You can't do that. You're a bankrupt,
dead sinner, lost, condemned to die, deader than a doornail,
nothing you can boast about. You're worthless and God's got
to look at somebody else and put you in Him to be able to
tolerate you. Now you face it. The boasting
is over. God, oh God, Look on Jesus and
then on me. Look on Jesus and then on me
as I stand in him. All right, number seven, this
is the only gospel that compels saved sinners. This is the last
statement. This is the only gospel, the
one that we preach, that compels saved sinners to consecrate themselves
to God with grateful and devoted hearts. The Bible says that the
motive for serving God is our love to God. And in 1 Corinthians
chapter 6 you can read verses 9 through 11 and verses 19 and
20. Let me try to explain what I mean
by this. The only motive for serving God
is that you love Him. That's the only motive. Now,
if God has done for you what I know He has done for me and
for you if you're in Christ and if you're saved, if you're in
Him. If we see things right, and there
are some days that we're kind of messed up, we don't see things
always as clear as we ought to. If we see things right, we'll
love Him. And we'll love Him to the point that we'll do whatever
it is He asks us to do. We'll obey Him. We'll follow
Him. We'll do His will. Whatever it costs us, we'll do
it. And I'll tell you something. Whenever He lays hold of you
and He saves you, makes you His own, the Lord may very well ask you
to do something that's contrary to your nature, contrary to you
altogether, crosses your path in a very, very unusual way.
And it may be very difficult for you to do what the Lord asks
you to do. And when you do that thing, it
may cost you in your pocketbook. It may cost you dearly in your
relationships. It may make it real hard for
you. But you're doing it for Christ's sake. You're doing it
for His sake. for his sake. I have in my life,
and I don't preach myself and I'm not going to, but there are
things that I do that I do only for Christ's sake. Only for Christ's
sake would I do some of the things that I do. I left Indiana and
came up here in 1970. And the first three years I was
here, left my business and left the church there and a small
farm that we had and come up here. The first three years I
was here, I fought with this flesh every day. Every day I fought with this
flesh Why? Why would you do something like
this? Why would you do that? Why would
you do that? The only answer I can give to
this good hour is for Christ's sake. For Christ's sake. For the gospel's sake. And when
I preach these things to you today, I told you earlier I mean, I think you can see what
my motive is. I'm not here trying to build
a following after my own self or in any way, shape, or form
trying to get well off by preaching or in any way, shape, or form. I'm preaching the gospel. I'm
interested in one thing, the glory of God. That's what I'm
interested in. And that's what you're interested in or you wouldn't
be sitting down here in this old basement this morning. That's
what you're interested in. And I know that. But you ask
yourself, and if you've never had to say, what I'm doing, I'm
doing for Christ's sake. Then, down the road somewhere,
one of these days, it'll cross your path. And you'll have to
say, well, do I love the Lord enough to do that? Do I love
the Lord enough to let this old world go by? Do I love the Lord
enough to take a stand with His gospel? Do I love the Lord? To listen to the ridicule of
people. People think I'm half out of my mind and saying, well,
I don't know that preacher. He must, he must been this or
that or something else. Why is he in the place he's in?
And why is all this? And why is that? And all such
and so on and so forth. Well, they just don't understand.
That's all. They just don't understand. They
don't understand. What we do, we do for Christ's
sake, and we do for the gospel's sake. And this gospel that I'm
preaching to you is the only gospel I would do that for. There ain't another gospel worth
all of that. This gospel is worth it. Father, in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ, we thank you for the gospel that is worth dying
for, and the gospel that is worth dying out for, And Lord, we failed
in many ways in our effort to live just for the glory of God.
But Father, forgive us wherein we failed. But do Thou strengthen
us that we might be able to go forward. And I do pray that this
church may get a clear picture and a clear view of what it means
to stand unbending with the doctrines of the Word of God and with the
truth of Your grace. Have mercy, Lord, upon this church
and upon this preacher and give us help in our afflictions and
deliver us out of all of our afflictions. We pray it in Jesus'
name and for His sake. Amen.