Tonight we're going to observe
the Lord's table in obedience to the Lord's command, this do
in remembrance of me. And I'm going to be preaching
from Acts chapter 24 on this subject, righteousness,
temperance, and judgment to come. I've entitled the message for
this morning, No Other Doctrine. No Other Doctrine. I want to attempt to preach from
what are known as the pastoral epistles for the next several
weeks. First and second Timothy, Titus,
and Philemon, they are letters not addressed to churches, but
to three men, Timothy, Titus, and Philemon. And I want to bring
one message out of each of them. I don't know if I'll do it in
consecutive services. We have done that with, with,
with regard to his epistles, but Paul expresses to Timothy
in this passage of scripture, this is why I left you at Ephesus
that you may teach. No, that you would command those. with whom you are responsible
for to teach no other doctrine. Now I wanna read a passage from
Deuteronomy 32. I'd like for you to turn there
with me and read these words together. Deuteronomy chapter
32. Give ear, O ye heavens, and I
will speak, and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the rain. My speech
shall distill as the dew. as the small rain upon the tender
herb and as the showers upon the grass, because I will publish
the name of the Lord. Ascribe ye greatness unto our
God. He is the rock. His work is perfect, for all his ways
are judgment, a God of truth, and without iniquity, just and
right is he." Now there we have the doctrine of God. No other doctrine. Now, what is God's doctrine? What is doctrine? Well, everything
said in this book. You can't preach without preaching
doctrine. This is the doctrine of God.
This is the doctrine of Jesus Christ. Whenever we say something with
regard to God's doctrine in a negative context, we're wrong. Somebody
says, I don't want to hear doctrine. I want to hear of Jesus Christ. That's impossible. That's impossible. Anything I say concerning the
person of Christ or the word of God is the doctrine of God. Never speak of doctrine in a
negative light. It's God's doctrine. Somebody
says, well, it's dry doctrine. Well, the problem's not the doctrine,
the problem's with your dry heart, every time. It's not dry doctrine,
it's the doctrine of God. Now, I think it's interesting,
every time in the Bible, the word doctrines is used in the
plural, It's always with that exception, a reference to false
doctrines, but the doctrine is the doctrine of God, the doctrine
of Christ. And here Paul says to Timothy,
this is why I wanted you to abide in Ephesus in verse three. that
thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine. Now, the great end of Satan is
to influence people to teach other doctrine. And Paul says,
no, you say there to preach the doctrine of Christ and to charge
others that they preach no other doctrine. Now let's look at this
chapter. Paul, verse one, 1 Timothy chapter
one. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ
by the commandment of God, our savior and Lord Jesus Christ,
our hope. Now Paul lets us know, here's
my authority, the command of God. That's why I'm an apostle. And I love the way he says the
Lord Jesus Christ, our hope, our hope. I have a hope, a confident
expectation that I will stand before God justified. I have
a hope that everything that takes place in my life is working together
for my good and his glory. And it's because my hope is this
person. the Lord Jesus Christ. Now he's speaking to Timothy
and to Timothy, my own son, in the faith. Grace, mercy, and
peace from God, our Father, and Jesus Christ, our Lord. Now,
as I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, don't leave there,
but stay there, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest
charge some, that you give them this commandment, that they teach
no other doctrine. Neither give heed to fables,
human fabrications that are not true, nor endless genealogies
which minister questions rather than godly edifying which is
in faith. So do. Now the end, the goal,
the purpose of the commandment, Now the word commandment there
is not the word that is used with regard to the 10 commandments. The word commandment is actually
the declaration. The end of the proclamation. What we're doing right now. The
proclamation of the gospel, the proclamation of the doctrine
of God. Here's its end. Here's its purpose. The end of the commandment is
charity out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith
unfeigned. Now that's the purpose of the
proclamation of the doctrine of God. First, charity out of
a pure heart. You know, the law can't produce
that. First of all, the law can't produce
pure heart. The pure heart is the new heart given in the new
birth through the preaching of the gospel. That's what our Lord
was talking about when he says, blessed are the pure in heart.
That's talking about the new heart he gives. That's talking
about the new birth. And what comes out of this new
heart? Charity. Love to God. Love to men. Now the law never,
listen carefully, the law never produced charity toward God or
toward men. Never did it. Never did it. All
it does, when you hear about how you don't measure up, and
that's all the law's gonna say to you. You don't measure up. All that produces is resentment. Resentment. Resentment toward
God. It doesn't produce love to men.
It produces either I don't measure up to them or I'm better than
they are. Just comparison among men. But the gospel, the commandment
produces charity out of a pure heart. And the second end of
the commandment is a good conscience. A good conscience. Now somebody
says my conscience is clear. No, it's seared. It's seared. It doesn't work. You got the
conscience of a sociopath is what you have. I've got a clear
conscience. If you knew anything about sin,
what it is and who you are, you wouldn't talk like that. What is a good conscience? A
good conscience is a conscience that has nothing to feel guilty
about. And if God justified me, I don't
have any sin to feel guilty about. I have no sin. I stand before
God without guilt. Now that's the purpose of the
commandment. A clear, a good conscience that
has nothing to feel guilty about because of what Christ accomplished
in my behalf. Really, he is my righteousness
before God. If he has no sin, you know who else has no sin?
Me. Every believer. And the end of
the commandment is faith unfeigned, unfaked. I am not faking. When I say Jesus
Christ is all I have before God. I really believe that. I'm looking
nowhere else. I'm looking to nothing else but
who he is and what he did. That's not a fake. That's all
I've got. That's faith unthanked. It's not just what I'm talking
about. The only hope I have is that when Jesus Christ died,
he put away my sin and made me acceptable before God. Now let's
go on reading. Verse six, from which this great
end I've been talking about, from which some having swerved
have turned aside unto vain jangling, empty words contrary to the faith. Now they seem to be going toward
the end of the commandment, but they swerved, they erred, they
turned back, they turned away. At one time we would have said,
yeah, they're the real deal, but evidently they're not because
they swerved. and turned aside into vain, jangling,
empty words, desiring to be teachers. I have always loved one thing,
well, a lot of things Henry Mahan said, but I've always loved this.
He said, if you put a man in the pool, but quite often you
ruin him. He desires to be a teacher all of a sudden. He desires,
well, that's what these people were. desiring to be teachers. We want to be teachers. We want
some respect. We want some people to look at
us as wise, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither
what they say nor whereof they affirm. They don't understand
what they're saying nor the implications of what they're saying. These
men who desire to be teachers. Now, Paul makes this statement
that I hope we can all learn. Verse eight, we know that the
law is good if a man use it lawfully. The law is good if a man use
it lawfully. Very few do. Knowing this, verse nine, that
the law is not made for a righteous man. If you're a righteous man,
you do not need law. Now, do you hear that? If you're
a righteous man, you do not need law. You know, we don't put locks
on our doors to keep honest people out, do we? Thieves, robbers. What would happen if there were
no law? Well, if everybody was good,
nothing. What if everybody's bad? You
couldn't go out your door. And you'd be one of the people
they gotta lock the doors against, too. I'm not just talking about
everybody's bad. No, I'm bad, too. The law was made for evil
people. Look what he goes on to say.
Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man,
here's who the law is made for, but for the lawless and disobedient,
for the ungodly, those who cannot worship, and for sinners The
one who commits the sins for unholy and profane. That word
profane means you can be bought. If the price is high enough,
you can be bought. For murderers of fathers and
murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that
defile themselves with mankind, homosexuals, for men stealers,
human traffickers, for liars, For perjured persons, people
who will lie even under oath. And if there'd be any other thing
that is contrary to sound doctrine. I remember he said, preach no
other doctrine. And the other doctrine is opposed to sound
doctrine, which he's getting ready to state once again. And don't miss this, all these
sins that I've just mentioned, they're opposed to sound doctrine.
Now, when a man desires to be under law, don't trust him. He may sound very religious and
very good, but a man that desires to be under law cannot be trusted. He's a crook. He is a lawless, disobedient,
ungodly, sinful, unholy, profane, murdering, sex pervert, human
trafficking, trafficking liar who will lie under oath. That describes the man who wants
to be under the law. The law was not made for a righteous
man, but for the lawless and the disobedient. If you understood
that. Now look what he says in the
last phrase of verse 10. If there be any other thing that
is contrary to sound doctrine, and here's sound doctrine, according
to the glorious gospel of the blessed God. Now that is literally
according to the glory the gospel of the glory of the blessed God. Here is sound doctrine. The gospel of the glory of the
blessed God. Now all God does, he has this
singular motive. His own glory. That's why God does what He does. His own glory. Why did He create the world?
His own glory. Why did Adam fall? For the glory of God. For the
display of His glory. Why does he save sinners? For his own glory. What is the highest motive a
man can have? The glory of God. The gospel of the glory of the
blessed God. Hold your finger there and turn
with me to Exodus chapter 33. Moses asks for the highest thing that
he could ask in verse 18, and he's speaking to God, Jehovah,
and he says, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. What a request. Can you make that request? I
wanna know what you say your glory is. Not what men say, but
what you say your glory is. Now remember, there's nothing,
this is God's great chief end, his own glory. And it's right
that it should be so. What is your glory? And the Lord grants Moses his
request in verse 19. And he said, I will make all
my goodness pass before the God's glory is his goodness. You see everything with regard
to God is good. It's all good. His love is a
good love. His wrath is a good wrath because
it's his. Only he is good and everything
with regard to him is good. Men sit in judgment on him and
disagree with what he does. They're disagreeing with his
goodness. You only bad people do that.
Disagreeing with his Goodness. Look what he goes on to say.
He said, I'll make all my goodness pass before thee. I'll proclaim
the name of the Lord before thee. Now his name is not just Jehovah. I don't want to say just Jehovah.
That's the most glorious name there is. But when he's talking
about his name, he's talking about the person behind the name. Any person that you know, There
are attributes with regard to that person you think of as soon
as you hear the name, because you know, he's talking about
his attributes, the person behind the name, his holiness, his sovereignty,
his justice, his grace, his immutability, his independence, his eternality. That's his name. That's who he
is. And look what he says next. I
will be gracious. Maybe I've said this, I've heard
preachers say this. He must be just, he may be gracious. No, he must be gracious, because
that's who he is. He delights in mercy, he delights in grace,
he delights in saving sinners by his grace. Do you want to
be saved by his grace? Do you know he delights in saving
sinners by his grace? That's who he is. And notice
he said, I'll be gracious to whom I will be gracious. His
grace is sovereign grace. He is gracious to whom he will
be gracious. Let me remind you, he'll meet
you on the ground you want to come. You want to come on grace,
he'll meet you there. You want to come on the ground of your
works, he'll meet you there too. But thank God, his glory is I will
be gracious to whom I will be gracious. He's the blessed God. Now go back to first Timothy. According to the glorious gospel,
the gospel of the glory of the blessed God, which was committed
to my trust. Now, God's glory is the doctrine of God. Amen? God's glory is the doctrine of
God. Jesus Christ is the doctrine
of God. God has spoken by His Son. He is the word. He is the doctrine
of God. And this is the gospel, God's
glory. This is the gospel. And let me
tell you why it's the gospel. This is the only place a sinner
can find hope, in a salvation where he gets all the glory.
Because if he doesn't get all the glory, that means something's
expected for you to do in order to please him. And there is no
gospel in that message. Not to this sinner, not to any
sinner. But oh, what glory is in this message that gives him
all the glory where he does all in salvation. Now if you and I believe this
gospel's committed to our trust as well, oh for grace to be faithful
to this trust. Now he says in verse 12, I thank
Christ Jesus our Lord. Very important. You know, the
average person would say, they wouldn't say this, but this is
their doctrine. I thank my free will that I made
a difference. I'd be just like everybody else
if it wasn't for my free will, but because I made the right
decision, look at me. Now they won't say that, but
it's in their doctrine. It's in their doctrine, but not
Paul. He said, I thank Christ Jesus,
our Lord, who hath enabled me for that he counted me faithful. He enabled me to be faithful.
If I'm faithful, there's only one reason. He enabled me to
be faithful. And then he counted me faithful.
His grace is so glorious. He enables me to be something
and then counts me, that's him. That's his grace. Putting me
into the ministry. Who was before? Now, don't miss
this. Who was before? Paul had a before.
Do you have a before? Somebody says, I've always been
saved. That's way too long. Before? What about your before?
Here's Paul's before. Who was before a blasphemer. Everything that came out of my
mouth religiously was blasphemy. Everything. I was a blasphemer
and I didn't know it. I was a Pharisee, the son of
a Pharisee. I thought I had it all together. But I didn't know
that everything that came out of my mouth was blasphemy. And a persecutor. I persecuted this way unto death,
binding and delivering into prisons both men and women. Such was
my hatred for the gospel." I was a persecutor. And I was injurious. You know what that means? I was arrogant and insolent,
uplifted with pride. using nothing but insulting speech. Now that was Paul's before. Do you have a before? But, verse 13, but. There's what grace is, but. But. But I obtained mercy. Now there the word is in the
passive voice. I obtained mercy. Not I earned it. Not I did something
to give it so God would respond to what I did. No, I just obtained
it. Now what Paul's saying is I was
so blasphemous, I was so injurious, I was so evil that the only way
I could be saved is for God to just have mercy on me. How about
you? Do you fit that? I mean, I was
so sinful that the only way I could be saved is for God to just simply
show me mercy for Christ's sake. No reason in me. He said, I was a blasphemer,
a persecutor, an injurious, but I obtained mercy because I did
it ignorantly in unbelief. Now is he saying there's some
of a less intensity to my crime because I was ignorant, I just
didn't know any better? No, he said I was so ignorant
and I was so unbelieving that the only way I could be saved
is for God to just show me mercy. I hope somebody's saying that's
me too. That's me too. Verse 14, and the grace of our
Lord was exceeding abundant. With faith and love, his gifts,
he gave me faith. He gave me love, which is in
Christ Jesus, our Lord. Now the grace of our Lord superabounded,
overflowed with excess to me, giving me faith. You know, faith
is not a choice, it's the gift of God. And you find yourself
believing. You don't say, well, I'm gonna
believe. No, you know, you can believe and then all of a sudden
you find yourself believing because he called you to believe. And
you have now love to Christ. You see him as altogether lovely
and glorious. The gift of his grace. It's not
the product of you. It's the gift of his grace. And
if you have it, you know it. I don't have to convince you
of that. If you have it, you know what I'm saying. So. Verse 15. Now, let me say at the outset
of this verse, if this verse is not your favorite verse in
the scripture, it ought to be. It ought to be. And I pray that
this verse of scripture will be the favorite verse of everybody
in this room. Now let's read it. This is a
faithful saying. Now, the first thing that I would
point out about that is it had reached the status of a saying
in the early church. Believers walked around saying
this. I mean if you were random very long you'd hear this saying
This was a saying in the early church and it was a faithful
saying This is utterly reliable And it's worthy of all Acceptation
you know what that means that means you are ought to receive
this as the best news that you have ever heard. What an introduction to this
statement. A faithful saying, worthy of all acceptation. And here it is, that Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief. Christ, God's prophet, God's
priest, God's king. Jesus, the savior. He came into the world He was
before He came. He's eternal God. He never had
a beginning. God the Son. But He came into
the world. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. Great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh. He came in the world. Why did
He come? Did he come to make salvation
possible? It's not what it says. Did he
come to condemn? We were already condemned. He
didn't have to come to condemn us. We're already condemned.
He came to save. He came to save. That was his purpose. in coming. He came into the world to save. Now let me ask you a real simple
question. Is it possible for him to fail
in his intention? No. He's Christ Jesus. If he came to save you and he
did, he saved. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. He came to save. He came to save His people from
their sins. What's that mean? Well, my sins have separated
me from my God. If He saved me from my sins,
He saved me from the penalty of that sin. I'll never have
to give account for it, because He did. I'm saved from the power
of sin. He gave me a new nature. There
was a time when I couldn't believe. I do now. I'm saved from the
presence of sin. I'm already in heaven in Christ
Jesus. That's what the scripture says. And one of these days I'll
experience that in the fullness of it. Saved from the very presence
of sin. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save who? Sinners. Sinners. Now it's very important
that we understand what that means. The sinner is the one
who commits the sins. I've heard people say, God loves
the sinner, but he hates the sin. That's not in the Bible.
God doesn't put sins into hell either. He puts the ones who
committed them into hell. Sinners, that's the one who commits the
sin. What is a sinner? It's the one who commits the
sin. What is a sinner? A sinner is somebody who all they do is
sin. How about you? Would that describe
you? if you even think it is sin, because of who you are. That's what a sinner is. All
they do is sin, they cannot not sin. If I said, give me five
seconds with an absolutely pure mind that is without sin, you
couldn't come up with the goods, neither could I. We cannot not
sin. What is a sinner? A sinner is
somebody who their sin's all their fault. You're not a victim
in this thing. It's your fault. You can't blame
God. You can't blame God's sovereignty. You can't blame your circumstances.
You can't blame your environment. Your sin is all your fault. You're responsible for it. And
because of that, because of your sinfulness, you can't sit in
judgment on anybody for anything. You can't look down your nose
at anybody and say, well, at least I wouldn't do that. Yeah,
you would. Yeah, you would. Matter of fact,
you've done worse. A sinner is someone who has no
claims on God at all. If God passed me by and refused
to save me, just, holy, and righteous is his name. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. And I'm so thankful for the absence
of an adjective Doesn't say believing sinners or repentant sinners
or good sinners or sensible sinners. Somebody said to me recently,
there's no such thing as a good sinner. Right about that. Right
about that. I'm so thankful that it just
says he came to save sinners because I'm in that demographic. He came to save sinners. And look what Paul says next,
of whom I am chief. Now that is spoken in the present
tense, the active voice. I would be so discouraged if
he would have said, I used to be the chief of sinners. You
all hate ex-sinners, don't you? Ex any, I'm an ex. Well, yeah, ex you out then.
He didn't come to save X sinners. He came to save, as Paul said,
the chief of sinners, of whom I am, present tense, right now,
the chief. Now listen to me. If that describes
you, I guarantee you Jesus Christ died for you. No question about
it. That's the only people he came
to save. Somebody says, that's not me.
Well, I can't give you any hope then. But if that describes you,
Christ Jesus came to save you. And you know what? He did it. When he said, it is finished,
sinner, you were saved. Verse 16, albeit for this cause,
I obtain mercy. Me being the chief of sinners,
albeit for this cause, I obtain mercy that in me first, Jesus
Christ might show forth all longsuffering for a pattern to them, me and
you. which should hereafter believe
on Him to life everlasting. Why did Christ save the chief
of sinners? That's the way He saves every
sinner, same way. He's the pattern. He is the pattern. You see, His longsuffering is
salvation. If He's longsuffering to you,
He saves you. The suffering of the Lord is
salvation, Peter said. A pattern to them which should
hereafter believe on him to life everlasting. And here's the only
response, now unto the king. The response of praise. Now unto
the king, the king of kings, the Lord of lords, eternal, having
no beginning and no end, immortal, incorruptible, not subject to
corruption or decay, immutable, invisible. The only wise God
be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. Don't you love the
way Paul states this and just praise comes out down to the
King eternal. Now this charge, verse 18, I
commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which
went out before on thee. You know there's prophecies that
have gone out before on you too. God made them. Everything about
you, he's already determined. I love that way. I wouldn't want
it to be any other way. That by them thou mightest war
a good warfare, which is this, holding faith and a good conscience.
Holding faith alone, looking to Christ alone, and that good
conscience because of his justifying righteousness, I've got nothing
to feel guilty about. Hold on to faith, looking to
Christ only. Nothing more, nothing less, nothing
else. You look to Christ only, and
that's the only thing that's gonna give you a good conscience.
If you look to Christ and, your conscience will become defiled
quick enough. You'll see how lacking you are, but if you look
to Christ only, you'll have a good conscience. You'll know you stand
just before God. Holding faith in a good conscience,
would some, having put away concerning faith, have made shipwreck. And
he names two of these people, of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander,
whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme."
Now, somebody says, what in the world does that mean? I'm not
real sure, but I know Paul had some apostolic authority where
he could do things like this. I'm glad nobody in this room
has that kind of authority, aren't you? What if I had some kind
of authority like that? You made me mad. You'd be in
trouble, wouldn't you? And if I made you mad, I'd be in trouble.
But they did have that then, and he named those two people. No other doctrine. The only doctrine that's true
is the doctrine of the glory of the blessed God. Jesus Christ,
all in salvation. Let's pray. Lord, we ask by your spirit,
you would be our teacher. We ask that we might be of that
number that you came to save. We're so thankful that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And Lord, give
each of us the grace to say with just as much sincerity as Paul
when he said this, inspired by the Holy Spirit, of whom I am
the chief. Lord, give us grace to rest in
thy son. In his name we pray, amen.