Jane Bonar wrote that hymn, Fade,
fade each earthly joy, Jesus is mine, when her husband died. I think that makes that very
special. What a response. Would you turn back to 1 Timothy,
chapter 4. I've entitled this message, Yourself,
and the doctrine. Take heed, verse 16, unto thyself
and unto the doctrine. Continuing then, for in doing
this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee. Now
we know that that does not mean that a man can be saved by his
works. We know that. We know that from the light of
other Scripture. Whenever you read a Scripture, throw the whole
book at it. See what it means. So we know
that does not mean that a man can be saved by his works, but
we will not be saved apart from this. Take heed to yourself. May God give me the grace to
do that even now. examine ourselves in the light
of the Word. And the reason I say that, it
is easy to lie to ourselves and say everything is alright, when
it's not. And we can fall into a bad way
through the deceitfulness of sin. Take heed to yourself. Watch out for yourself. Beware. And take heed to the doctrine.
The doctrine of Christ. The doctrine of God, divine truth,
is not something you learn in a lecture and get a handle on
and get a grasp of it like some other discipline. The doctrine
of God is spiritual. It's divine. It's not something
you can figure out. It's alive. The Lord said, the
words that I speak unto you are spirit and life. And because
it is spiritual, through our sin, we can become deadened to
be able to hear and discern. Beware lest ye be hardened to
the deceitfulness of sin. You see, the doctrine of God
is not something you can take a refresher course on and get
back up to snuff. You know, you go bad and then
all of a sudden you... No. This is spiritual. Take heed
to yourself and unto the doctrine. Now look at the language in this
passage of Scripture. We looked at this passage in preacher's
classes last week. This is not the same thing I
said to them, but I'll be saying some of the same things. He says
in verse 13, Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation,
and to doctrine. Now that's a reference to public
worship. That's what's going on right
now. We read the Word of God. There's exhortation going on.
He's calling upon someone to do something. Calling upon men
to believe, to repent, to love Christ, to turn. Exhortation,
encouragement. And doctrine. The teaching of
what is said. And He says, give attendance
to this. I like that word. Give attendance
to this. Not only does it mean give it
all your effort. And indeed, how I ought to be careful in
this thing, whether I'm hearing or preaching. Let me say this,
let me say this. It takes just as much grace to hear as it does
to preach. It really does. He says to Timothy, you be careful
about the public reading of God's Word and the exhortation and
the doctrine that comes from that Word. And you give attendance
to listening to what is said. I love this statement, give attendance. I didn't even think about this
when we were dealing with this in the preacher's class. What says more about the state
of our heart than anything else is how we view and attend public
worship. The Lord said, where two or three
are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them. Now, he didn't say, maybe I'll
be there. He said, there I am. Do you know
the Lord's here right now? My spirit, His presence. He's promised
that. I don't feel it. Well, it doesn't
matter whether you feel it or not. He's still here. He's promised. We believe
His Word. Now, I don't need to be at every
service. He's here. He's here. What does that say? He's here.
If He's here, why would I want to be anywhere else? Give attendance. Give attendance to reading, to
exhortation, to doctrine. Look what he says in verse 14.
Neglect not the gift that is in thee. How shall we escape
if we neglect so great a salvation? Neglect. What does neglect mean?
What happens when we neglect? Well, you neglect your wife and
you find out what happens. It's going to make things bad. What happens when you neglect
your home? What happens when you neglect your car? What happens
when you neglect any kind of relationship? Neglect speaks
of two things. It speaks of ungratefulness and
it speaks of laziness. Those two things. Laziness and
ungratefulness. That's what causes us to neglect
something. He says, neglect not the gift
that God has given you. Look what he says in verse 15.
Meditate upon these things. reading, exhortation, and doctrine. Meditate upon these things, ponder
them, and put them into practice. And then he also says in verse
15, give thyself wholly to them. I like that. Give yourself wholly. I never will forget this statement
I read by somebody. He said, the gospel, if true,
is of infinite importance. If false, it's of no importance. But the one thing it cannot be
is moderately important. Give yourself wholly to these
things. Ecclesiastes 9.10 says, Whatsoever
thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might. I think of
what Elijah said, how long halt ye between two opinions? If the
Lord be God, serve Him. If Baal be God, serve him. But
don't straddle the fence. Give yourself wholly to these
things. And then he says in verse 16,
take heed. Take heed unto thyself and unto
the doctrine. Continue in them. Don't be fatalistic. Don't be presumptuous. We can
easily go bad in either place, ourselves or the doctrine. Now remember, the doctrine of
Christ, the doctrine of God, is not some kind of a thing that
if you're smart enough to figure it out and you hear good preaching,
you'll get it down. No. This is spiritual. And it's so
easy for us to go bad either way. Take heed to yourselves
and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing
this thou shalt save both thyself and them that hear thee. That's a powerful statement isn't
it? Now let's look at this whole
passage of Scripture together. Beginning in verse 13, he said, till I
come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Now, what's the most important
part of this public worship service? The reading of God's Word. You know, here's the one time
you can be sure it's true. No error in this. The reading
of God's Word. When you men get up and read
the scripture publicly, read well. Read well. Enter into it. Give the story
of it. This is the reading of God's Word. It's not just talking
about reading the Bible privately, although it maybe should, but
it's talking about the public reading of the Scripture. We
read the Word of God and everything comes from that Word. Public
reading. Reading the Scripture. The Bible
is our only rule of faith and practice, the inspired Word of
God. And then he says, give attendance
to exhortation. That word means to appeal to
a course of action. Now, when we're preaching, if
I'm preaching, and if I'm not doing this, all I'm doing is
giving a lecture. But if I'm preaching, I'm calling upon men
to believe. Believe the gospel. God commands
you to believe. I'm calling upon men to repent.
It may be I'm calling on you to do nothing. Do nothing. Don't move. Do nothing. Rest
in Christ. Look to Him. But in true preaching,
there's an appeal to do something, to change, to never be the same
after you heard that message. That's exhortation. It means
encouragement too and consolation. You know, whenever I hear the
Gospel, Even if I'm being rebuked by it, it still encourages me. I'm encouraged by the Gospel.
And the Gospel is so comforting to hear that everything that
God requires of me, I have in Christ. That I can't make myself
any more pleasing to God, I can't make myself any more saved, I'm
accepted in the Beloved. That's so encouraging. Give attendance
to reading, to exhortation, and to doctrine, the doctrine, the
teaching of what is actually being said. I love when Philip
came up to the Ethiopian eunuch, he said, do you understand what
you're reading? And he said, how can I? Except some man should
guide me. Don't you look at me that way. You know, most people can say,
you know, understand what you're reading? Of course I do. Here's
what I think of this, you know, but not this fella. He's just, how
can I? Except some man should guide
me. Verse 14, neglect not. The gift. That word gift is literally
the gift of grace. It's a gracious gift that you
can't be proud of. Now, if God has called me to
preach, He's gifted me to preach. He's gifted me to read. He's
gifted me to exhort. He's gifted me to understand. It's a gift. It's a gift of the
ministry. It's a gift. But you can't be proud of it.
You can't say, well, I thought that was a gift. No. He gave it to
the greatest church. But any gift we have is a gift
of His grace. What do you have that you didn't receive? Now
if you received it, why do you glory as if you didn't receive
it? That this is a gift? to exhort
and teach. Now look what it says, Nebrek,
knock the gift that's in thee, which was given thee by prophecy.
It was prophesied that you'd have this gift. This shows how
it's a gift of God. It was prophesied that he would have this gift
with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. Now all the
word presbytery means is elders. That's all it is, elders. What
this means is, is if somebody is preaching the gospel, God's
people who have any maturity at all will be able to see it.
And they'll lay their hands on, not literally laying on their
hands, maybe they did, I don't know. But they'll recognize it,
this gift. But I think this shows sovereignty
and responsibility. You're given a gift that was
prophesied. Now, don't you neglect it. There's sovereignty. You've
been given a gift. It's been prophesied that you'd
have this gift. You're going to have it. God decreed it. God
determined it. Now, don't you dare neglect it. You give yourself wholly to these
things. As a matter of fact, in 2 Timothy
chapter 1 verse 7, Paul said to Timothy, stir up the gift
of God, which is in you. Fan the flame is what that means,
literally. Stir it up. Now, this thing of
neglecting. How many times, and if you're
sports fans, how many times have you seen people, and you can
appreciate this even if you're not a sports fan, there's some
people that are much more gifted in athletics than others. I mean,
there's some, there's kids, man, when they're six or seven years
old, they just rise above the top. They're gifted, more so
than others, but what happens if they don't practice? What
about a gifted musician? There are people who are gifted
in music. You can read music. I mean, you can even play music
without even reading it by ear. That's a gift. That's a gift. What if
you don't practice? That gift won't be any good,
will it? Neglect not the gift of God that's
in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, by the laying on
of the hands of the elders of Presbyteria. He says in verse
15, Meditate upon these things. That means more than ponder over,
but put them into practice. What kind of doctor would you
have if he didn't practice medicine? You would have a position of
no value. Meditate upon these things, give yourself holy to
them, that thy profiting, thy benefit might appear to all.
Now what that says is, if I do this, this is going to be obvious,
this is going to leak out on me. If I give myself to these things,
if I give myself holy to these things, this is going to leak
out on me. If someone is earnestly seeking the glory of Christ,
this is going to leak out on them. It always will. Give yourself
to these things that you're profiting, that your benefit might appear
to all. Now here's the main verse, verse
16. Take heed unto thyself and unto
the doctrine. Continue in them. For doing this
thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee. Take heed to yourself. If my doctrine is accurate and
orthodox, and right down the line, I mean, I got a damn patent. If my doctrine is accurate and
orthodox, it will be meaningless if I do not live what I believe. As a matter of fact, it's irritating
to hear someone speak of doctrine or the doctrine when obviously
it doesn't want to mean anything to anybody. I've said this several
times in the last year. What do I need in hearing a man?
For me to hear a man, first, he's got to be God's messenger,
sent of God with God's message. He's got to be called of God
to preach. That's the first thing I want to hear. I'm not interested
in hearing anybody else. But secondly, that man has to
live what he believes. And if he doesn't live what he
believes, I don't have any interest in hearing him. I don't care
how accurate he is. It's meaningless. All the power
is gone. And thirdly, he's got to have my best interest at heart.
He's got to love me and want me to know the Lord. That's not
be part of his program or part of his ministry, but he's got
to love me and want me to actually know the living God and believe
the gospel. Now he said to Timothy, take
heed to yourself. And there's a couple of scriptures
that came to my mind in this thing, taking heed to yourself.
One from the Old Testament, one from the New Testament. Old Testament,
Micah chapter 6, where God says, where Micah says, what does God
require of you? And there's three things. To
do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God. Now that's what God requires
of you. Take heed. To do justly. Now,
first of all, I've done justly. That's what justification means.
I have done justly. I've always done that which is
right, and I've never done that which is wrong. That's what justification
means. Being justified. Having been
justified. That's what Christ did for us. He justified us. I have kept the law. That's why
I don't try to keep it. I've kept it. Do justly. Do the right thing. Do the right
thing. Love mercy. And I'll tell you
what, I do love mercy. I love being saved by the free
mercy and the sovereign mercy of God, don't you? I love mercy. And I love to be merciful. That's
the rule of our life, being merciful. Love mercy. Do you love mercy?
And to walk humbly with thy God. Now, how do you walk humbly with
your God? At no time can I see myself as
anything before him but the chief of sinners, meaning with mercy
and with grace. Paul didn't say, I used to be
the chief of sinners. He said, I am the chief of sinners.
He didn't say, oh, wretched man that I was. He said, oh, wretched
man that I am. You walk humbly in grave immunity
of your sin. Now, take heed. Oh may God enable
us to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God.
The other scripture I thought of was James chapter 3, if you
turn there. Verse 13. Who is a wise man? and endued
with knowledge among you, let him show out of a good conversation
his works." with meekness of wisdom. That's what shows true
wisdom, your works, with meekness of wisdom. But, if you have bitter
inbeing and strife in your hearts, glory not, lie not against the
truth. This wisdom descended not from
above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where inbeing and
strife is, there's confusion and every evil work, but the
wisdom that's from above. That's the wisdom I want. It's first pure. It's purely
the Word of God. And this is, I want to make sure,
I'm one of these people with a pure heart. Blessed are the
pure in heart. That's the new nature. Every
believer has a pure heart. The wisdom that's from above
is first pure. It's true, it's not error, then
peaceable. Blessed are the peacemakers.
It's looking to make peace. Gentle. It doesn't hold people's
feet to the fire. It's kind and humane and merciful. Gentle and easy to be entreated. It's so approachable. And it's
full of mercy and good fruits without partiality or without
uncertainty. Now, I'm certain. I'm preaching
the truth. I'm certain I'm by nature dead in sins. I'm certain
salvation is of the Lord. The wisdom that's from above
is without partiality and it's without hypocrisy. It's not an
act. Now take heed to yourself. Let me read what I have here.
Take heed to yourself. Don't be deceitful. Be honest. Pay your bills. I remember one time reading where
there was a conference on Christian economics. Well, I know the answer
to that. You said, pay your bills. Keep your word. Keep a confidence. Be a true friend. Always take
the lowest seat. Don't toot your own horn. Don't
be judgmental and critical. Be approachable. Be humble. Be lowly. Be disciplined. Be able to receive rebuke and
correction. Be quick to forgive. Be quick
to cover the faults of others. Be a man or woman of prayer and
a student of the Scripture. Don't abuse freedom. Stay hungry
and full at the same time. The wise man said, keep your
heart with all diligence, for out of it flows the issues of
life. You take heed to yourself. Take heed to yourself. And then
he says, take heed to THE doctrine. Look back in our text. Notice
the definite article THE. Take heed to THE doctrine. Turn with me for a moment. Hold
your finger there and turn to Deuteronomy chapter 32. I remember when Danny Blair was
being tried at a Southern Baptist Church for what he was preaching. And they were going to fire him.
They did it. They did fire him. But one individual stood up and
said, I don't want to hear any doctrine. All I want to hear
about is Jesus. You can't even say anything about
Him without doctrine. It's the doctrine of God. Look
in Deuteronomy 32 verse 1, Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will
speak. And hear, O earth, the words of my mouth, my doctrine. Isn't that beautiful? That's
God speaking. My doctrine shall drop as the
rain, it's life-giving. My speech shall distill as the
dew, as the small rain under the tender herb and as the showers
upon the grass, because I will publish the name of the Lord."
That's the doctrine. His name. Who He is. His attributes. 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. That's the doctrine of God. That's
the doctrine of Christ. That's the doctrine of the Word
that tells who He is, who we are, and how He's saved by His
free and sovereign grace. Now, the doctrine is made of
many doctrines. There's a lot of different doctrines
in the Bible. You know that. Justification, how God actually
takes a sinner and makes him a judge. Election, God choosing
who would be saved before time began. Atonement and redemption,
Christ actually paying for sins. Regeneration, Him giving a new
birth. Adoption, just go on. There's
so many different doctrines in the Bible, all of which make
the one doctrine of Christ. And if you leave one of them
out, You no longer have the doctrine of Christ. His THE doctrine. Now, I looked at this Word in
the Scriptures. Because Paul said, take heed
to yourself and to THE doctrine. I looked at the way the Word
was used in the Scriptures. And the first thing that I came across
was in Matthew chapter 7, verse 28, where it says, that they were astonished at
his doctrine, for he taught as one having authority. Not like
the scribes. What he said recommended itself
as nothing less than the truth of God. That's what authority
means. It's not up for debate. It's not, no negotiations. This is God's Word. He spake
as one having authority and not like the scribes. You know, I
listen to preaching and no authority there. No authority. I mean,
it's man's Word. You can tell it's not God's Word. Then turn with me to Acts chapter
13. verse 12 let's begin in verse 10 This
is Paul speaking to this man. He said, O fool of all subtlety
and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all
righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways
of the Lord? And now, behold, the hand of
the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the
sun for a season. And immediately there fell on
him a mist and a darkness, and he went about seeking some to
lead him by the hand. Now, I've got to admit, I'd like to have
that power. Strike somebody blind. Don't believe. It's a good thing
I don't though. Aren't you thankful I don't?
I bet you're all glad I don't. Then, verse 12, then the deputy,
when he saw what was done, believed being blown away by Paul blinding
that man? No. He believed being astonished
at the doctrine of the Lord. Now the doctrine of the Lord
is astonishing. It's not so much understood and
grasped, but believed and vouchsafed. That's the doctrine of the Lord. Can you understand the Trinity?
How God is one God and three separate persons? No, you just believe and vouchsafe.
That's who He is. The doctrine of the Lord is transcendent.
It's astonishing. God becoming a man? That's astonishing! The God-man dying? That's astonishing! Me being without sin before God
to where it's not just talk, but I really am without sin before
God. That's astonishing. Oh, the doctrine of God is transcendent
and glorious and astonishing. Look in John chapter 7. Now, the doctrine of God, it
doesn't take intellect to be able to understand it and believe
it. That's not what the doctrine of God is about. The doctrine
of God has something to do with, well, let me show you. Look in
verse 14. John chapter 7. Now, about the midst of the feast,
Jesus went up into the temple and taught, and the Jews marveled,
saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned? Jesus answered him and said,
My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man
will do his will. He shall know of the doctrine,
whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself." You see what
is necessary to understand doctrine? A willingness to do His will. You see, receiving the doctrine
has something to do with obedience. It's not just an intellectual
grasp of things. It's bowing and receiving what
He says. And notice, go on reading in
that. It says, verse 18, "...he that speaketh of himself seeketh
his own glory." that he that seeketh his glory that sent him,
the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him." Now, here's the great
error detector. Whose glory is being sought?
When you hear what's being preached, whose glory is being sought? He that speaks of himself, seeking
his own glory, God's not in that. Does God get all the glory? It's
of God. Does none go to man? It's of
God. Turn to Romans chapter 6. Verse 17, but God be thanked
that you were the slaves of sin, but have obeyed from the heart
that form of doctrine which was delivered you, or by which you
were delivered. The doctrine of God is saving,
delivering doctrine. The doctrine that delivers. Timothy
1.3, Paul said, "...Charge some that they teach no other doctrine."
It's the doctrine, the doctrine of God is the doctrine that excludes
all others. If it can bring two together,
error and something right together, and they can co-exist, neither
one of them will lie. The doctrine of God excludes all others. What
I got to think about, I got to think about when Grace Chapel,
when we first started this church, I remember Henry Mahan coming
up and bringing a message. He and I were six stubborn faithful. God is either absolutely sovereign
or He's not. Men are either dead in sin or
they have the ability to take it back. God either chose who would be
saved, or man is the one who gets to choose. Christ either
actually accomplished salvation for the elect, or salvation's
up to the man. God's grace can either be resisted,
or it can't be resisted. And God's people will either
persevere, or they won't. Now, I remember that sermon.
You know, that particular sermon is the longest sermon I've ever
heard. You could've said 945 minutes. Anybody remember that? It was great. It was one of those
special times. But God's doctrine excludes all
other doctrine. It's called in 1st Timothy 1g
in sound doctrine. Healthy to the soul. That's dangerous. Not if it's true, it's not. God's
doctrine is healthy to the soul. Anything in the Bible, anything
God teaches is good for you. It's sound doctrine. It's called
in 1 Timothy 4, 6, good doctrine, as opposed to the doctrines of
men. Every time the word doctrines
is used in the plural, it's always the doctrines of devils or the
doctrines of men. It's called in 1 Timothy 6.3,
the doctrine which is according to godliness. God's doctrine
is always according to godliness. True devotion to God. Now, I want to read one other,
Acts chapter 5. I'd like you to look at this. I love this. Verse 26, "'Then went the captain
with the officers and brought them without violence, for they
feared the people, lest they should have been stoned. And
when they had brought them, they set them before the council,
and the high priest asked them, saying, Did we not straightly
command you that you should not teach in this name? And behold,
you filled Jerusalem with your doctrine.'" And you intend to
bring this man's blood upon us. Oh, may God enable us to fill
Lexington with our doctrine. Now, Paul says, continue. Take
heed to yourself and to your doctrine. Continue in them. Don't leave. Don't presume. Don't
live in the past. I think of the church at Sardis. He said, you've got a name that
you live, but you're dead. Don't live in past experience.
Don't live in past learning something. Oh, yesterday's manna, what's
it do? It breathes worms and sticks. Don't live in the past. Don't be like the church of Laodicea.
rich and increased with goods and yet we don't know that we're
naked and wretched and miserable and poor and blind. Don't live
in the past. Continue in taking heed to yourself
and continue in taking heed to the doctrine and in doing this
you'll save both yourself and them that hear you. Now, salvation
is by grace. Grace is not an offer. Grace
saves. Grace is not something you use.
Grace is not something you either accept or reject. God's grace
is saving grace, and it will cause a man to take heed to himself
and the doctrine. And he'll do so with fear and
trembling, not with presumption. but with fear and trembling.
And when someone does not do this, grace just isn't in operation. It's just not in operation. That man's on his own. So may
God enable you and I, truly, to take heed to ourselves and
to the doctrine, the doctrine of God. Continue in doing this. In doing this, you'll save yourself
and in the future. Let's pray together.