Would you turn back to first
Timothy chapter one? Like to read verse five once
again. Now, the end of the commandment. Is charity. out of a pure heart
and of a good conscience and a faith unthanked. You could just as easily call
that unthanked. Unthanked. Non-hypocritical. The real thing. I've entitled
this message, The Three-Fold Goal of the Commandment. Charity out of a pure heart,
a good conscience, and faith unfeigned or unfaked. Now, here's what I want for myself
and for you. Charity out of a pure heart. and a good conscience and faith
unfeigned, genuine. Wouldn't it be something if you
and I walked out of this room with in our breast charity from
a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned? Wouldn't that be a great blessing?
if we left this room with those things in our breast. Now, what does Paul mean by the
word commandment, the end or the goal of the commandment? Well, he could mean God's holy
law. The end of the goal of God's
holy law. Turn with me for a moment to
Matthew chapter 22. Matthew chapter 22, beginning
in verse 34. But when the Pharisees had heard
that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered
together. Then one of them, which was a
lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him and saying, Master,
which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him,
Thou shalt love. the Lord thy God, with all thy
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is
the first and great commandment, and the second is likened to
it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments
hang all the law and prophets." a good conscience. Now, how can you have a good
conscience before the law? There's only one way. You've
got to keep it. You've got to have kept it perfectly. That's the only way you can have
a good conscience before God's holy law. You have to keep it. Faith unfeigned. How does the
law produce faith unfeigned? Well, if I see the meaning of
the law, how it condemns me, it forces me to faith. I've got nowhere else to go.
I have no other options. It must be by faith. Because
if it's not, if it's of works, I've had it. There's no hope
for me. By the commandment, he could
have meant the gospel message, because the gospel message is
a command. Now, when the Lord said, believe,
or when Paul said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou
shalt be saved, this was not a suggestion. It was not good
advice. It was a command. Believe. Believe. on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Now, believing the gospel is
the only way I can really love. There's no love in the law. All
the law does is create resentment. If I put you under law, it's
not going to create a drop of love. If I'm put under law, there's
no love there. The only way I can love is if
I see that God has nothing against me. If I see he's perfectly satisfied
with me. If I see that all that he requires
of me he has, then I can love him. But if I don't see that,
all there is is fear, a slavish fear and resentment. It's only
the gospel that produces this love. And a good conscience. What's a good conscience? Well,
a good conscience is a conscience that doesn't have anything to
feel guilty about. Now, you may not feel guilty, but it may be
that's just a shared conscience. You say, I don't feel guilty.
Well, maybe your conscience just isn't working, because you ought
to feel guilty. You ought to feel guilty all the time. As
a matter of fact, I do. I do. There's not a time when I don't
feel guilty. I wish it wasn't like that, but I do. I do. But a good conscience is a conscience
that doesn't have anything to feel guilty about. And the gospel
makes it to where I have nothing to feel guilty about. My sin
has been put away. I have no sin. I'm not conscious
of sin before God through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, that's a good conscience. And the gospel creates faith
unfeigned, real faith. It's the real thing. I really
do believe that Christ is my only hope before God. Now, the
commandment. We can see where it could mean
law, it could mean the gospel message, but in the context,
look back in 1 Timothy chapter 1, verse 3. That is the same word translated
commandment in verse five, the end of the commandment. If you
could just as easily call it the end of the charge. The end
of the charge, this charge I'm giving you, I'm giving you this
charge that you might charge some that they teach no other
doctrine, neither give heed to fables and endless genealogy,
which minister questions rather than godly edifying, which is
in faith. So do now the end of the charge. This charge I've
just given you that they preach no other doctrine. The end of
this charge is charity out of a pure heart and a good conscience
and faith unfeigned. Now, notice in verse three, he
says, I want you to charge some that they teach no other doctrine. And notice the word is singular,
no other doctrine. He doesn't say no other doctrines. You see, every time in the New
Testament the word doctrine is in the plural, it's always with
reference to false doctrines. The doctrines of devils. The doctrines and commandments
of men. Every time we read of doctrines
in the plural, it's always referring to false doctrine. He says, I charge, you charge
them that they teach no other doctrine, singular. The doctrine of Christ, the doctrine
of the Bible. Now listen to me real carefully
about doctrine. Doctrine's a good thing. Somebody says, I don't
like dry, dead doctrine. Well, neither do I. But it could
be that it's a dry, dead heart that makes that You see, the
doctrine of God is not dry and dead. It's as alive as God himself. It's the doctrine of God. It's
the doctrine of Christ. And it's one unified whole. If you take away something from
it or add something to it, you no longer have the truth. If you omit one doctrine, you
no longer have the doctrine of Christ. A half gospel is no gospel. A 99% gospel is no gospel. There's no doctrine of which
it's okay to admit. What could you admit? The authority
of scripture? Creation? Is that okay to just pass that
by? Election? Well, we'll just keep our mouth
shut about election. That doesn't need to be brought out. We don't
need to speak of justification or Christ's effectual redemption
for the elect. We don't need to speak of Human
depravity and total depravity. What doctrine in the scriptures
is it okay to omit? How much do you have to believe
to be saved? How much do I have to believe to be saved? Now listen,
I'm telling you the truth. Everything God says. Everything God says. That is the doctrine of Christ. Now turn to 2 John. 2 John. Remember, he's giving the charge
that they teach no other doctrine. Whosoever transgresseth, 2 John,
verse 9, whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine
of Christ. What about this person? He hath
not God. How many different ways are there
to take that? That's very simple, isn't it? He hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine
of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any
unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into
your house, neither bid him Godspeed. Don't wish him well, for he that
biddeth him Godspeed is a partaker of his evil deeds. Turn to 1 John, chapter 4. Now
here's the doctrine of Christ. Beloved, believe not every spirit,
but try. Test the spirits. Test me. I want you to test me to see
if what I'm saying is according to the Word of God. Don't ever
believe anything because I said it. Never believe anything because
I said it. You test me to see if what I'm
saying is according to the infallible Word of God. Now, beloved, believe
not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they are of
God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
Hereby know ye the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesseth
That's a public proclamation. What a man believes is what he
preaches publicly. Nothing more, nothing less. If
he doesn't preach it publicly, he does not believe it. This
is talking about a public confession. Every spirit that confesses that
Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. Now, when I make that
confession, there's three things I say. He was before he came. He's the eternal Son of God,
the uncreated, eternal, immutable Son of God. I confess He was
before it came. And I confess He came in the
flesh. God became flesh. God was manifest in the flesh.
Jesus Christ took upon Him the form of a servant. He came in
the flesh And he did what he came to do. What did he come
to do? He came, according to Matthew
121, to save his people from their sins. And you know what?
He did it. He did it. It's already accomplished. When he said, it is finished,
I was saved. Jesus Christ was manifest in
the flesh. Verse 3, And every spirit that
confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of
God. And this is that spirit of antichrist where, if you've
heard that it should come, and even now already, it is in the
world. Now, if I willfully leave out
any aspect of the doctrine of Christ, I am a false prophet. A servant of the devil. That's what a false prophet is.
The doctrine of Christ. I charge them that they teach
no other doctrine. Now, the doctrine of Christ is
authoritative. They were astonished at his doctrine,
the scripture says, for he spake as one having authority. Now, the doctrine of Christ,
when you hear it, you know it's the doctrine of God. You know,
it's not a man when you hear the truth. You know, it's not
man's word. It's not man's concoction. It's
of God. It's authoritative. He's fake
as one having authority, not like the scribes. Now, the doctrine
of Christ always has something to do with God's glory. Look in first Timothy once again. Verse five. Now the end of the commandment
is charity out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and
a faith unfeigned, from which some, having swerved, they've
no longer made this the end of the commandment. They've turned
aside unto empty words, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding
neither what they say nor whereof they affirm. But we know that
the law is good if a man use it lawfully. Knowing this, that
the law was not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and
disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and
profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for
manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves
with mankind, for men-stealers, for liars, for perjured persons,
and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine,
according to the glorious gospel, or it could just as easily read,
the gospel of the glory of the blessed God. Now, any doctrine
that does not give God all the glory is false doctrine. God's doctrine is authoritative.
It gives God all the glory. Now, this is the doctrine that
is to be obeyed. Paul said you've obeyed from
the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered to you. And
beloved, it's saving doctrine. Remember when Paul said, take
heed to thyself and to thy doctrine. Continue in me, for in doing
so thou shalt save both thyself and them that hear thee. Now,
your understanding of doctrine doesn't save you. You know that. It's what the doctrine declares
that saves you. And you understand that. You
continue in the doctrine of Christ. And it's, according to 1 Timothy
6, 3, is the doctrine which is according to godliness. It's
always, God's doctrine is always according to godliness. Did you
notice that big list of sins he mentioned in 1 Timothy? And
he said if anything else is contrary to sound doctrine, all sin. is
contrary to sound doctrine. Now, this charge. You charge
them that they teach no other doctrine. And here's the goal. Here's the purpose. Here's the
end of this. These three things. Charity out of a pure heart and
a good conscience and faith unthinked. Now, this goal Here's the first
goal of sound doctrine, and listen to the words. Charity out of
a pure heart. Charity, genuine love, real love,
God-given love that flows from a pure heart. Now, this goal
cannot be realized in the natural realm. Men love themselves, but
they don't have this love, the scripture speaking of, because
they have defiled evil hearts. Charity out of a pure heart is
beyond the ability of the natural man. So this pure heart he's
speaking of is the heart that's given to the believer in the
new birth. Let me show you something about
this pure heart. charity out of a pure heart.
Would you turn to Matthew chapter 5? You know, this beatitude used
to trouble me greatly before I understood it. Verse 8, blessed are the pure
in heart. Now, that's what it says, and
I had to think about myself. My heart sure doesn't seem very
pure. As a matter of fact, it seems like a volcano of iniquity
spewing out sin. And how can I call my heart a
pure heart? And yet the Lord says, blessed
are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Now, the heart
he's speaking of is that heart that God gives when he said,
a new heart. Also will I give thee a new heart,
one that was not there before. That's what David was praying
for when he said, create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew
a right spirit within me. Oh, this pure heart. Now, do
I have it? Well, I can tell you how you can know if you have
a pure heart. Look in verse three. Blessed
are the poor. in spirit, for theirs is the
kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven. The pure heart is poor
in spirit. That means it has nothing with
which it can recommend itself to God. It's poor, having nothing. Verse 3, blessed are they that
mourn The pure heart is the heart that
mourns. It mourns over sin. And understand
this about mourning. Mourning isn't just frustration.
Mourning isn't just upset because things didn't go your way. You
know when you mourn? You mourn when somebody dies.
That's when you mourn. You mourn when somebody dies
and there's not a thing you can do to bring them back. You mourn
over your sin. When you see your sin is such
that there's nothing you can do about it. You're helpless
before it, and you mourn. You don't use this as an excuse
to go ahead and continue in sin. You mourn over your sin. My sin is ever before me. Verse 5, the pure heart is the
meek heart. Blessed are the meek. Who are
the meek? Meekness means it's an attitude
toward God that really believes that whatever he does is right,
whatever he sends my way is right, and I bow because he sent it.
I may not understand it, but I know if he sent it, its best. A pure heart is a meek heart. He says in verse 6, blessed are
they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they
shall be filled. Now this pure heart hungers and
thirsts for righteousness because it knows it doesn't have any
of its own. You hunger and thirst for something that must come
from outside of you and come into you. I hunger for His righteousness. I hunger to be found in Him.
I hunger to have nothing but His righteousness so I can stand
before God. That's a pure heart. A pure heart
hungers and thirsts after righteousness. Verse 7, Blessed are the merciful,
for they shall obtain mercy. I tell you what, if you know
anything about the mercy of God, you will be merciful. And if
you're not merciful, you're a stranger to God's mercy. Remember, this
is what a believer is. This is what comes from the pure
in heart. Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they shall see God. Now, out of this pure heart comes
love. Now, the heart I love God with
is the heart He's given to me, and I love God out of this pure
heart. Let me tell you how much I love
God. I'm not talking about the greatness of my love for God,
but I am saying this. I love God to this extent. I
love everything about him. I love every one of his attributes.
I love his sovereignty. I love his justice. I love his
holiness. I love his mercy. I love his infinity. I love his
immutability. Every attribute of God, everything
there is about. I love him. I wouldn't change
him. And God is my witness. I wouldn't change him if I could. And I believe that I would rather
go to hell than God change. That's how important he is. I love God. I do. I love his way of saving. I love His way of saving by grace.
I love His way of saving by the righteousness of Christ. I love
being saved by His righteousness. I love being saved by His precious
blood. Every aspect of His salvation,
I love. I love His people. You know,
anybody who loves Jesus Christ, I love that person. I mean, I'm
all for them. I want to be their servant. That's
how I feel. Anybody that loves Christ, man,
they're my favorites. I love folks who love Jesus Christ.
And I love men. I care about their well-being,
but I most especially love men. I mean, I want them to hear the
gospel. And I preach the gospel to them. I prove I love men when
I preach the gospel to them. Charity out of a pure heart. Isn't charity out of a pure heart
beautiful? Read 1 Corinthians 13 and you learn something about
charity out of a pure heart. Now, that's the end. That's the
end. That's the goal. That's the purpose
of the charge. No other doctrine. The doctrine
of Christ. The gospel. Only the gospel produces
charity. True love, love to God, love
to his son, love to his people, love to men out of a pure heart,
that heart that God gives. Here's the second goal of the
charge to preach no other doctrine, the doctrine of Christ. A good
conscience. A good conscience. Now the conscience is the part
of man that distinguishes between right and wrong. It's the seat
of moral reflection and understanding. There is a right and wrong. There
are moral absolutes that are non-negotiable. God does not
negotiate with sinners. He just doesn't do it. Now, the fall has affected the
conscience of man. No doubt about that. The conscience
was not delivered from the fall. We still have a conscience. And
here's what the conscience of the natural man does, according
to Romans 2. It either accuses or excuses. That's all it does. It either accuses and makes you
feel guilty or you look for some kind of excuse to justify your
behavior. That's all a fallen conscience does. It's called
in Hebrews 10, 22, an evil conscience. That's that guilty, accusing
conscience, an evil conscience. And then we read in First Timothy
four of the seared conscience, the seared conscience, the conscience
that doesn't work. And what I think is interesting about that particular
passage is we'll turn one thing here. First Timothy, chapter
four. I want you to see this. Now the Spirit speaketh expressly
that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith,
giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines, there's the word
in the plural, doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having
their conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry. and commanding to abstain from
meat. Now here's what that seared conscience
does. It says you'll be better off
if you're celibate. If you forbid to marry and stay
away from that, and if you stay away from certain foods and live
a life of asceticism and beat yourself, you'll be better off. You know, a seared conscience,
a conscience that doesn't work, a conscience that's ungodly comes
up with something like that. It may seem righteous and holy
and so on, but not so. It's unrighteous and unholy. That is a seared conscience. It doesn't know the difference
between good and bad. We read in 1 Corinthians 8 of
a weak conscience. That's of a weak believer. It's
the product of weak faith where there's certain scruples. And
it's called a weak conscience. And then we read in Hebrews 9,
14 of a purged conscience. Purge your conscience from dead
works. to serve the living God. If I
believe any of my works have anything to do with my salvation, I've never had my conscience
purged of dead works. I think they're living works,
when in fact they're nothing but dead works. And then we read
of a pure conscience in 1 Timothy 3.9, which is pretty much the
same thing as a good conscience. Now, a good conscience is a conscience
that has nothing to feel guilty about. Now, if I'm a believer, even
if I feel guilty, and I do all the time, you do too, feel guilty
about something, I can't say regarding anything I've ever
done, I can't say regarding this sermon, I can't say regarding
any prayer I preached, I can't say regarding any motive I've
ever had of any action I've ever done, that was good. No, can't
do it. Not honestly. I always feel guilty.
But I have nothing to feel guilty about. Because my sin became
the sin of the Lord Jesus Christ. And He put it away. And it is gone. And I stand before
God's holy law with nothing to feel guilty about. I stand before
God's holy law perfectly righteous. Now that's a good conscience.
You know, the only thing that satisfies my conscience is the
gospel. It's not anything I did. Here's what satisfies me. Here's
what satisfies me. When Christ was raised from the
dead, God said, I'm satisfied with what he did. And you know
what? I am too. I am too. I'm perfectly satisfied
with what he did. I need no other argument. I need
no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died. and that he died for me." Does
that satisfy your conscience? It does. And then he says, the
goal, the end, the purpose of the charge of preaching no other
doctrine but preaching the gospel first, of charity out of the pure heart,
secondly, of a good conscience, and thirdly, of faith Unfamed. I like that faith unfaked. It's not fake faith. It's not
pretend faith. It's not acted out faith. The word unfamed is literally
non hypocritical. Now, what the word hypocrite
means when the Greeks talked about their movie stars, they
were called hypocrites. They were actors. I mean, it
was not at first used as a term of derision. It's the fellas
who were in the plays. They were hypocrites. They were
actors. But it came on to mean you're acting out something rather
than really doing it. Now, unveiled faith, unfaked
faith, what is it? Well, I know this. I'm no fake sinner. I'm the real
deal. I'm the real deal. And I know this. The only hope
that I have is that Christ stood in my place. And it wasn't feigned. He wasn't treated as if he had
my sin. He actually had my sin. My sin became His sin. And I'm not treated as if I were
righteous. That's acting. That's all that
is. I am righteous. Righteous before God. I really believe That Jesus Christ
is my only righteousness before God. I'm not pretending that.
I'm really not. Unfeigned. Unfaked. Unacted out faith. Now that's the end. That's the goal of the commandment
of the charge to preach no other doctrine. Charity out of a pure
heart. and a good conscience. I can
face death with this good conscience. I can face death with no fear,
because I really believe. I can face death not because
I really believe, but because Christ is my salvation. Actually,
it's not because my assurance is not my faith. My assurance
is His faithfulness. And I rest that. I've got nothing
to feel guilty about. Watch in! There is no sin. It's been put away. And faith,
unfamed. The real deal. The end. The goal of the gospel. The goal
of the commandment. May we cook on this. Simmer on this. Think about it.
Charity. Out of a pure heart. And a good
conscience. and faith unveiled.