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As part of this chapter and next reading tomorrow, Lord willing to perhaps look at the 4th chapter.
Second Timothy, chapter 3, verse 10.
But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, 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 the yay. 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, and to 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 and righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
Well, we spoke at some length yesterday of what characterizes the Christian profession in what are referred to as the last days. And I suppose it's right to say that really the last days began with the departure of the apostles, as we noticed in passing, Paul said to the Ephesian elders after my departure. And then he went on to speak of a condition of things that would come in.
And so we see it back then, developing back then. And this brings us right down to, to the end. And so we, ha, we spoke at great lengths of that. And, uh, it's a solemn thing to realize, brethren, that we are in the last days and that these things have developed. If they were the last days in the early days of the church after the departure of the apostles and even Paul seeing the seeds of it begin prior to his departure, how much more do we have to admit that those are the days we're in?
Just before the Lord Jesus comes, the church age is just about to finish.
We're just about to hear the shout and be called safe home, and it's good to have discernment of the times and realize where we are.
In our history. But as we mentioned in the end of this chapter, now we have resources to go on even in a day of ruin because, brethren, everything has been provided for us. All the tools have been provided for us to go on even in the days in which we live. When I was in business, I often used to send men out on jobs. And what would you think of me sending a man out on a certain job?
And not providing the proper tools. Now we had to keep several sets of tools in the back of the shop. And the person I sent out on the job, they were told to take a certain set of tools that they were going to need for the job. And when they got to the job, if they hadn't taken the tools or utilized the tools, they really had no excuse as to why the job hadn't been completed. Satisfactory. And brethren, when we stand at the judgment seat of Christ.
Are we going to be able to say we didn't have the tools to stand in the last days? Are we going to say we have to be able to say to the Lord Jesus that we didn't have the resources that were needed to live in days of darkness and days of of ruin? No, we'll have no excuse because as we're going to notice in these verses, everything has been provided for us. But the the question, brethren, that comes home to our souls this afternoon is.
Are we, so to speak, opening the toolbox and utilizing the tools and resources that God has given us? If we are, then we're able to going to be able to go on in the various spheres of life and walk in moral piety and practical Christianity for God's glory and the blessing of others right up until the end.
So Paul says to Timothy.
Now it's fully known my doctrine.
You also said to him in chapter 2.
Umm, beginning of chapter 2, we said to Timothy, Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou unto faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.
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We recognize that what Paul speaks of is my doctrine, was not his own idea, was not his own opinion about how God's people should walk or act or what they should believe or stand for. But he had received it.
From the Lord.
And he passed it on, and he passed it on not in a corner, not privately As for some little group, but he had done it in Timothy's president presence multiple times in the presence of witnesses. And in fact, in the case in Corinth where some of them were seeking to take away the truth of what he had to say. He had to stand for its source.
And say, brethren, you've got to accept it. It comes from the Lord. And so it is today. We're not trying to find something new and something different and something that, umm, the world would be satisfied with or our natural flesh would be satisfied with, but what's been given to us was given to the apostles.
Through the Lord Jesus 2000 years ago and God gave it a sufficient and accurate and for us to live by today. And so Paul says to Timothy, you know it. It wasn't a question of knowledge with Timothy, but it was living it. And today for us, as we're little and young, we gradually lo learn and none of us know it all and none of us will know it all in our lifetimes.
But what we have learned?
We need to walk in and it's not.
Lust or the thirst for something new and different, because if we loathe what God has given, we will soon be lost in our own imaginations and far from the knowledge, the true knowledge, of God.
The apostle doctrine is going back to the first principle back in Acts 2 on the day of Pentecost. It says they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine. That was the basis of the beginning of the work in that, on that at that time. And it's interesting how the sequence follows through the book of Acts. Uh, at the very end of the book you have Paul, umm, going up to Rome on the ship.
And he exhorts them that they're not to depart from that place, Fair Havens, and they don't heed his warning. And as a result they have a disaster and the ship is in a storm and broken up. And that has been used, and rightly so, I believe, as a picture of what happens when the Christian testimony gives up the apostles doctrine. When you get up, give up the apostles doctrine.
Then there's the breakup of the Christian testimony and we've seen that happen. And so here in this book, when Paul writes about order, when things are broken up, this is the first thing he mentioned off the dock. We can go back to that. Uh, there is one body and and so forth. And that's the basis upon which the, uh, men began breaking bread in separation from denominations gathered to the Lord's name was.
Really a return to the apostles doctrine as the only creed and only doctrine that we hold today and not, uh, supplementing it with human, uh, organization and order, uh, by me. And all of that is, uh, has, has led to the breakup of the Christian testimony.
In his public testimony there still is one church and one truth, one body, but there the testimony of it is broken up. So it's nice to see that we can always go back, brethren, no matter how bad things get around us, to the original principles upon which the church was founded. And we see that in the Old Testament too, when there were days of revival in Israel.
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It wasn't that they came up with some new doctrine or spin on the truth, if I can put it that way, for our purposes this afternoon, but it was to go back to that which was established by God at the beginning. A copy of the law was found in the trash of the temple, or it was brought in red in the ears of the king or something of that nature, and they went back. They realized that they had departed from what God had set down at the beginning. And so we find that God never gives new revelation.
During a dispensation, it's a principle with God that He gives light at the beginning of a dispensation, usually then brings in judgment at the end when man fail, fails in connection with the light and the responsibility connected with it. And so it's true in this dispensation, the dispensation of the grace of God, as you say, that when there was a revival in the 1800s, it was going back to what had been lost.
But it wasn't something something new. And I think what you say, Doug, is important to stress in connection with it being the first thing here. It's the first thing in Acts 2. I know it wasn't Paul's doctrine there, of course, but they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine. And it was the basis for everything else. It was the basis for fellowship. It was the basis for breaking bread and it was the basis for prayers, that is collectively.
Here we find that the apostle Paul lists nine things in connection with his ministry and his life. Seven in the, in the, uh, tenth verse and two at the beginning of the 11Th verse, nine things that he mentioned. And he doesn't begin with a manner of life or a purpose or is persecution and afflictions. No, he begins with that which was the foundation. He begins with his doctrine. Thou is fully known my doctrine.
And I believe this is important because I think especially perhaps those who are younger, they're bombarded today by those who say, well, doctrine really isn't important. You know, it's a pious life and getting out the gospel and getting together for Bible study and that kind of thing. All those things are wonderful. All those things are good wood, that our manner of life was more godly and pious.
But it must start with the apostles doctrine. It must start with the foundation. Paul spoke of the foundation being the apostles and prophets. So that is those principles that they lay down by inspiration at the beginning. And that foundation, those principles don't change. And it's not just enough to have a pious life. It's not just enough to get out the gospel and encourage our fellow believers.
But we must go back to the to the fundamental doctrines of the word of God and what is it that's going to preserve us from that which is error in a day of ruin, to be occupied with the error to study up on all the false teaching that's been propagated and is propagated in Christendom. No, I'm not saying there aren't times we shouldn't be aware of certain things if we're dealing with a specific situation and so on, but generally speaking.
What is going to preserve us in a day of ruin and a day when there's a subverting of the souls of the Saints and an undermining of the truth is to be well rooted and grounded in the fundamental doctrines of the Word of God. And what's going to preserve us in connection with the collective side of things, the and, and the Church of God in that way and so on. It's Paul's doctrine. Why is there so much confusion about how Christians should meet and and function as in the assembly and so on collectively?
Because to a large degree, Hall's ministry, Paul's teaching, in other words, for doctrine, Paul's teaching, has been given up. We need to be grounded in it, perhaps more than ever.
I think it's helpful to see that there's three women in the New Testament who give us figures of the decline of Christendom, aren't there? Uh, the first woman, of course, is found in Matthew 13. She's the woman that hits 11 in three measures of meal until the whole was 11. And that's a picture of what happened after the apostles were gone, wasn't it? It's called the fall of the church. If we look at the 2nd chapter of Revelation, we see the address to the Church of Ephesus.
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And they're warned there to take heed how thou hast fallen and repent. So there was the fall of the church, as the expression is often used. There was still the possibility of the recovery of the whole church back to the original days. But the apostles were gone. The leaven had had was in the three meals of measure, and it was starting its leaveness work. Levin, of course, commonly speaks of evil. And then if we turn again to the second chapter of Revelation, don't have to do it, but the figure there is of the second woman.
And that's the, uh, woman Jezebel, who we well know from first Kings, and that woman, uh, we have at the end of the second chapter of Revelation during the church period of Thyatira. And this speaks of what's commonly called the ruin of the general Christian testimony. There is a difference between the fall. The fall came after the Christendom had been established.
And then it began its decline after the apostles went off the scene. But then this second woman speaks of something which happened many years later, perhaps, uh, historically about the time of the, of the, uh, 15th and 16th century, or perhaps we should say the, the 14th and 15th century. And this is when the testimony, the general Christian testimony became so corrupt that the Lord could no longer recognize it as representing him in this world. And as I say, it's not a scriptural term.
But it's a term commonly used by the writers, which is called the ruin of the church. Well, what happened at that point? At that point, there was no possibility of the return of the whole testimony being restored to that initial testimony of the first days. What did God do then? Well, if we look at Revelation chapter 2, it mentions about Jezebel and it says in verse 21 of Revelation 2. And I gave her space to repent.
Of her fornication.
And she repented not. There's no longer a possibility of the general Christian testimony returning to the happy, uh, state of the first days of the church. This is the ruin of the church. What does that mean? Does that mean the corporate testimony is gone? Of course not. Does it mean that Christendom is gone, Christianity is gone? Of course not. Well, what does it mean then? Well, if we read carefully, we see that the Lord then begins to separate a remnant.
And so in Revelation 2, again it says in verse 24, but unto you I say, and the next verse, Mr. Kelly translates it, the next part of the verse, the remnant in Thyatira, he begins to separate a remnant. Brethren, it's important to understand that the, the, the unity of the, of the church today is held in a remnant form. And so this is the recovery we were speaking about during the 19th century.
You say, well, they went back to first principles. Well, they did generally, but there was number miracles. They didn't go back to Pentecost. They did go back to the apostles doctrine and that was helpful. That was vital. But it was not then the return to recognizing the Christian testimony as a whole expressing the unity of the one body, but rather the unity of the one body then is expressed in remnant. And we, uh, as we read these now.
We see, for instance, that for the rest of the churches, beginning with Thyatira, the message to the overcomer is only addressed to the overcomers. Uh, verse, umm, uh, verse, uh, 27 for instance, or verse 26 of chapter 2 of Revelation. He that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end to him will I give power over the nations. And uh, verse 28 and I will give him the morning star.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. You notice in the three previous churches, the message of the Spirit was written to the whole church. But now with Payatyra, a remnant is separated out. And uh, for the rest of the churches, the, the, the Spirit speaks only to the overcomers. So we speak about return to the first principles, but it's based on a remnant testimony, isn't it? And then the third woman that we have, if we turn over to the 17th and 18th chapters of Revelation.
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We see it's the great harlot. Now this is what's happening in our day is we're going to the final apostasy of Christendom. We know it'll get much, much worse after the true believers are taken home at the rapture. And then during the first half of the Tribulation, there'll be that absolute apostasy where Christendom has given up. Even in profession, you say, well, all the true Christians are gone. That's true. But nonetheless as an outward profession in this world.
Chrysanthemum has given up and the harlot is destroyed in the middle of the tribulation period. So there's three women that speak of the, uh, decline of the Christian testimony. And there is a difference. As I say, the first time, with the fall of the church, there was a possibility of a return to the happy early days. But then with the ruin of the church, there was no longer that possibility. And the unity of the body is.
Maintained in a remnant testimony. Now that's an important principle because we're commonly taught that.
The unity of the body must be expressed in the ecumenical movement. But that's not true, is it? It's maintained in a remnant testimony till the Lord come and takes us home to be with Himself.
Connection with my doctrine. I'd like to have us look ahead a little bit toward the end of the chapter, Uh.
Where it says in verse.
14.
Continue thou and the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of knowing of whom thou hast learned them. And then in verse 16 all Scripture is given by inspiration of God.
It's extremely, vitally important.
To know where what you believe comes from.
And every one of us, even in natural things, most of the things that we believe, we believe because someone said it.
Things that we think are true, we think are true because someone has said it and passed it on to us. There's not a single person in this room that knows that Abraham Lincoln ever existed by personal experience. You only know it because someone has said it and passed it on to you. There's really only two ways of knowing anything. One is by your own personal experience.
The other is by someone's testimony to you, and consequently in the world, man's beliefs of what's true is constantly changing. He passes on something from himself to somebody else to somebody else, and it becomes the commonly understood belief. And then someone, by personal experience, learns that it's not exactly true, and so something else becomes the the thought of truth.
But, brethren, it's a wonderful, blessed thing for us.
To sit here and have in our hand.
That which God Himself has chosen to give to us.
That's where we had it. And unlike fellow man, unlike ourselves, who can never come to a full understanding of truth by our own effort, experience, or listening to all the voices of mankind on every subject, God can and does make known His thoughts, which are absolutely, perfectly always true, because He's never ignorant of anything.
And secondly, because he never lied, and much of what man believes or thinks is true sometimes has deceit or a lie connected with it, because Satan is often behind some of it, and so he's often deceived into believing what's not true at all. But with God, it starts with one who knows everything and who always tells the truth and what God chose to do.
Was perfectly expressed his own thoughts in our case, in the doctrine that we're talking about this afternoon to people.
The apostles, particularly in the New Testament part, and it's called a revelation because God alone could make it known. Man couldn't discover it. So God says, I'm going to tell you what you never know for yourself about myself. And in fact, I'm going to give you that truth and the perfect expression of it in my Son. And so the Lord Jesus comes into the world.
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And he in perfection brings around himself these men, to walk with him.
And to make known his thoughts in the heart of God. And so some of the New Testament was given to us through them. And God by the Spirit has assured us that what we have in our hands to live by and walk by is not the latest view of man, which will be different next week or next year. That is the inspired revelation of God, word by word to our souls to live.
Our lives to put our faith in knowing of whom it comes from.
It's incredibly important and wonderful that we can live by something that is unlike all the natural things we tend to live by, which are constantly changing. And we may believe them absolutely. But if we stop and think, where did I come to believe that's true in most even natural things, it's not because we know it ourselves, it's because we've chosen to believe what someone else says on the subject.
But in this vital area of life, we have the absolute confidence, confidence confirmed in our souls by the Spirit of God too. It's not that just God says it to us, but he then confirms it in us through the Spirit so that we can say we know, we know, and we live by what we know.
In this list of things that follow the doctrine here we have a list of things that are show the reality of what Paul conveyed. There have been many attempts to stamp out all the Bibles in the Word. The fact that we're sitting here reading the complete word of God has been preserved to us is a miracle and proves in itself that God is behind this book.
All many converts were made.
When martyrs were threatened with their lives to renounce their faith, and the fact that they persisted in faith in spite of persecution was a tremendous evidence to the reality of the power behind the Christian testimony.
We have this, brethren, to help us in these days that we live in.
Paul lived practically what he preached. It wasn't just a doctrinal, it wasn't just a doctrinal argument between who was the smartest.
But Paul taught.
And live, and God preserved him, and he was successful in that measure.
And it says out of them all, the Lord delivered me who was on the winning side.
All was.
And that's, that's the FA that's put here for us to have confidence in what we believe in today in a day of brewing when Christianity is attacked on all sides and in many ways.
We have here the example that shows how Paul lived and so on, and what he went through, rather than proving him a liar, has all that he went through, has more than ever proved the reality of what he believed in and taught.
Its consistent Christian living that we have in this list of things, isn't it? And Paul was a consistent Christian, as you say. And so sound doctrine or sound teaching leads to sound practices or sound living. But in that connection and in regard with what Don said, I want to just make a very, very practical comment to all of our hearts. And that is we'll never know what sound doctrine is.
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Nor will we know what sound practice is unless we read, then search the word of God.
Now it's wonderful, as Dawn said, to come to meetings like this and we have the Word of God before us and we trust, give the Spirit of God liberty to minister Christ to us from the pages of this blessed book.
And it's vital and important that we avail ourselves of ministry in the assembly as God has given it to us. But I believe too that that in a sense is not enough. We need to open our Bibles in our own closets and we need to search out and confirm these things for ourselves. Because as Brother Dawn said, we tend to believe what we hear. We know what we we have knowledge because of what we hear, and we tend to believe it.
Especially if we hear it from somebody who usually is sound in what they tell us usually is truthful. Someone that we have confidence in. But brethren, it is important to make sure that what we hear in meetings like this is based on the word of God. Sometimes we may run a lot of things.
By us in a meeting like this or in a conference over the weekend, is everything we say accurate? We want to go home and confirm it by the word of God.
I think there's a nice example in the book of the Acts with the Bereans. You know, they listen to the ministry of the Apostle Paul.
And you might say of anybody's word for it, couldn't they have taken Paul's word for it? Well, they listened to what Paul said and then it says, and they searched the Scriptures daily to see if these things notice that expression, these things were. So what things, the things they heard from the apostle Paul, they wanted to make sure that what they heard orally could be confirmed by whatever portions of the word of God they would have had at that time.
And as a result, they are given a commendation. They were more noble than those of Thessalonica. Now, those of Thessalonica were noble, and they listened to the ministry of the apostle Paul. But the Bereans were more noble because they searched the Scriptures individually to get these things directly from the Word of God. And we need to, after these meetings are over, to take what we've heard.
And we need to go home and we need to get our Bibles out and we need to search the Scriptures to see if the things we have heard in these meetings are so. And if we are willing to do that, brethren, then as a result, that's going to be the springboard for for sound living, for sound practice. Again, sound teaching, sound principles are going to lead to sound practice.
And we can walk with sound practices even in the day we live. We won't turn to it. I'll just quote you the verse we often have referred to in Titus where it speaks of grace there being the teacher. And then it says that grace teaches us to live soberly, righteously, godly when in this present age. That's right where we are now. Because you might sit here and say, well, Jim, that's all right for you to talk about.
Living a consistent Christian life today, but you don't understand what it's like out there. You don't go to school today.
You don't operate in the business world today. You, you just don't know what it's like out there. It's pretty dark. And sometimes we have to kind of live on the Gray side to get along and survive in school and business and so on. But in this present age, right where we are, we can live a pious, consistent Christian life, just as Timothy was exhorted to do in his day, just as our grandfathers did in their day.
Just as our fathers did in their day, there are no less resources. Are the days darker today? Yes, they are. Are they getting worse, morally and spiritually? In every other way, yes, they are. But again, we can.
Take up the characteristics, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, love, and then endurance, patience or if you notice Mr. Darby's often rendered endurance and that's often the thought in patience. Does it take endurance to Live Today? The Christian race is not the 100 yard dash and we're to run with endurance. Paul who endured more than Paul.
00:35:02
Day after day after day.
And then let me just say this to persecutions and afflictions. And then he lists a few places. But do you realize in Acts 20, he said in every city, bonds and afflictions, not just the few that are listed here, but in every city. Now, in coming to Mayfield this weekend, if I knew I was going to have bonds and afflictions, would I have come? I'd want to be pretty sure I had the Lord's mind. But what I have come if I'd known that was the result, Paul said in every city.
You know, it's never been easy to live for the Lord. It's never been easy to stand for the truth and to walk as a consistent Christian. Did Paul find it easy? No. Are we going to sit here today and tell you it's going to be easy if you follow through on these things? No. But Paul finished his course with joy.
We've looked at a few viewpoints here. Uh, yesterday I read chapter 4, verse 3, just the first part of it together again for the time will come when they will in not endure sound doctrine. I stopped on sound doctrine and they said, remember this because it'll, it'll bring up a point when I look at. And when we started this afternoon, umm, we started on my doctrine and I, and I wanted to note that over there in verse three, it was the first thing.
To go.
The first thing to go for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. When I look at verse 10 and I see the words hast fully known. Uh, Paul's writing to Timothy and he's saying, Timothy, you're different than what I've written about in all these other verses before. You're different. You have fully known. And so he says to him, he's saying you've been with me.
You've been taught, you've seen this, this life and all of this. And when you look at it, it says my doctrine. You could put the word my before my manner of lies. You could put for my purpose before my faith, before my long-suffering and etcetera. Write down the line through all nine of them. And so he says, you have seen it and you fully know then you are different. And so when you move down to three, it comes back. It says, but evil men and seducers shall wax.
That word wax means to become.
I took piano lessons as a child, and one of the things in piano lessons was a little arrow that got larger this way, or it went the other way and it decreased, and when it got larger it was called a crescendo.
And that means that when you played it, you played it at one volume starting, and as you played along, it got louder and louder and louder. That was a crescendo. And what we have here is but evil men and seducers shall become. It's going to increase and increase and increase in the last days.
Paul knows that he's going to be leaving Timothy soon and he's saying, Timothy, you're going to be standing alone.
And this is going to be happening to you in these last days. It's going to grow worse and worse and worse in a crescendo and.
You're going to have to stand out there without me.
Now where are you grounded at in sound doctrine? He starts at and he goes down through the nine of them, testing.
And when you look down here, but continue the little work, continue means to abide.
It's used in God's work quite often to abide.
To continue in that faith, to abide in it.
In the things which thou hast learned and of whom you have learned been taught by the schoolmasters and we've heard that we need to read and make sure that's correct and quite often it may just be fundamentals and it doesn't hurt to check back on the fundamentals, does it been taught by the school masters at thou was a child has known the Holy Scriptures when a Jewish child can barely start talking, they have to start memorizing versus of the Old Testament.
They have to start memorizing them right away.
Which thou art able to make thee wise. Now that doesn't say sell, uh, knowledge, does it?
The Jewish child learns by knowledge and the quote of those scriptures.
Here we have wise wisdom unto salvation and we're moving into the New Testament now. Salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. So he's telling it to him different. It's not exactly like when I was a child and learned the knowledge by being able to say them Old Testament scriptures. It's made you wise under salvation through Christ Jesus. See. And then we go into the park where all scripture is God breathed.
00:40:27
I'd like to just say a word too, in connection with some of the things that are listed in this, uh, list of things that Paul gives. And he, as I say, he ends with, uh, persecutions and afflictions. He talks about endurance, as Doug mentioned, he endured them all and so on. I'd just like to say this, that Paul never looked for the easy life. He never looked for the easy pathway. And I think rather sometimes we get caught up in a spirit of things.
That teaches us to look for the easy way down here. Paul never did. Paul was willing to make sacrifices in his service for Christ and the people of God. And some of the things that he suffered were persecutions. We know that he suffered much from the Jews, from the Gentiles. Some there was, there was plenty of persecution, but it wasn't all persecution. Some were affliction.
Might say what? What is the difference between persecutions and afflictions? Sometimes we tend to use the word interchangeably, but if we were to go back and to read, in fact, let's just take time to do it. In Second Corinthians Chapter 11, he gives a little sample list here of some of the things that he had suffered in the path of faith and service. Maybe I can just say this too, that Paul was often forced by inspiration.
To say things that he really didn't want, wouldn't have said otherwise, and really weren't according to his natural character. I suppose even the list of things that he gives Timothy, he perhaps wouldn't have if he had, if it hadn't been by inspiration. But Paul was a pattern St. raised up at the beginning to be an example to those who would hereafter follow, and as such, he says, be followers of me, even as I am also of Christ.
Paul wouldn't have said that if it wasn't by inspiration. Would any of us here dare say that? No. But Paul says this. And so this is perhaps true of some of this list or this list that we'll just read very quickly here in First Corinthians 11.
He says beginning at verse 23. Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool. I am more in laborers, more abundant in stripes above measure.
In prisons more frequent. In death off of the Jews. Five times received by 40 stripes, save 1. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck. A night and a day. I have been in the deep and journeyings. Often in perils of water, in perils of robbers, in perils of mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils by the and perils in the city, and perils in the wilderness, In perils in the sea, and perils among false brethren. In weariness and painfulness, in watching so often in hunger.
And thirst in fastings, often in cold and nakedness. Besides those things which are without that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. Tremendous list, the list of which most of us have never been called on to suffer in the path of faith and service. The reason I read this list is there are two things that are brought before us in this list. There are persecutions and there are afflictions, and they're not always the same thing.
That is, there were persecutions that he received. He was beaten, and we know he was in prison and he was stoned and so on. But there were other things like the nakedness and the coldness and the hunger and the shipwreck and so on. And they weren't necessarily persecutions. That is, they weren't inflicted by any certain people. They were things that he suffered as he traveled about and ministered the gospel and ministered to the Lord's people.
And I only point this out to show that Paul neither avoided persecutions or afflictions. Now. He didn't go out and look for them. He didn't get up in the morning and say, how can I suffer for Christ today? No, he was faithful in the past that was set before him, and he found plenty of opportunities to suffer both in persecutions and in afflictions. And I don't believe, as some have taught, that we need to go out and purposely look for suffering.
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Or look for persecution. But if we're faithful, we're going to find because our next verse is all they that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But I just say that because if you and I are willing to walk in the truth and serve the Lord and the people of God, we we can't expect it to be easy. We're not taught to make sacrifices in the day in which we live. We're not taught to make personal sacrifice.
But are you and I willing? Like the apostle Paul? We may never be called on to suffer many of these things, or in the extreme that Paul did. But are you and I willing to lay down our lives for our brethren? Are we willing to give our bodies as a living sacrifice? Did Paul regret it at the end of his life? Was he sorry that he had given up so much and suffered so much in these two different ways? No, he rejoiced that he was able to do it.
And rather, any little thing we may feel that we give up for Christ down here and to serve His people, What is it going to be in relationship to eternity? Why, it's going to seem as nothing. And we're only going to wonder why we didn't give more for His glory, for the truth, and for His own.
When I was in high school.
I had a geometry teacher that was of the old school. She was an older lady. She was a good teacher but a bit old fashioned. She used to line this up on the blackboard both sides of the room and give us geometry problems to solve on the blackboard and keep watch.
And of course there would be a race to see who could get the answer quickest. Whoever did turn around and looked at her. And once in a while you'd get the wrong answer and turn around and and you'd be disqualified.
But she had a saying that I that I still remember and maybe it didn't originate with her, but she said be sure you're right and then go ahead.
She'd watch us solving a problem and she'd see us getting halfway through us and then we kind of become bewildered whether we should go up, go ahead or not and and solve it.
And, uh, that was her advice to us.
I believe that's a little bit like what our chapter is saying here. Be sure you're right and then go ahead. That is your, the doctrine is right that the truth that you believe in is correct. And then if their opposition and problems come along, don't get flustered and worried about it and, and question your beliefs, go ahead. And I believe that's the world that we live in.
Be sure you're right, you're on the apostles doctrine, and that you know the truth that you believe in. And then don't let the hindrances, the persecution and an affliction stop you.
From persisting in the Christian path.
I'd like to add a principle umm to that, however, and say that God's truth is moral truth in contrast to school book truth.
Uh, could you turn with me to John's Gospel Chapter 7?
Something I think that's very important in connection with truth and doctrine as it relates to the apostles doctrine in our lives.
Umm John Chapter 7 and.
Verse uh 16 Jesus answered them and said, My doctrine is not of mine, but his. That sense made. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.
We're dealing with things that are moral. We're dealing with things that have to do with our relationship with God.
And they can't be learned.
By the mind alone.
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God's way with us is through our consciences and into our hearts and to know the truth of God. Even the doctrine that we are to walk in, God puts before us. The knowledge of it is connected with obedience and submission to His will. God never promises that we will know the doctrine.
Simply because we read our Bible.
Simply because we have a good mind.
Many people with great minds read the word of God and don't have a clue what it means.
In fact, their thoughts about it are totally wrong.
Sometimes, just to try to make the point, someone says to us, will you do something for me?
Our tendency is to say, not sure what is it, but what is it? And then we decide if we want to do it. We don't typically commit ourselves to doing something without knowing what it is, even if it's somebody that we know.
But that isn't the right way with God. God wants us to come before him with a willing.
Heart and then he presents to us, can I say at the doctrine, and we walk in it.
The difficulty is that we, the Lord Jesus, is going to use the Lord Jesus. He's the perfect example of it. The Lord Jesus is a man.
That, if you will, morning by morning, to hear the word from the Father.
With a perfect sense in his own heart, I delight to do thy will, Oh my God. And so morning by morning, you might say, He got the instruction of the day, and He lived that day according to what was said to him, which was the will of the Father for the living out that day. And we need to approach even the knowledge of truth.
We don't. It's all there, it's all in our hands, but our understanding and knowledge of it grows little by little. We start out as babies and we're not limited by our minds. We're limited by whether or not we're submitted, submissive by whether we are sometimes. And consequently, as it says in this chapter and the principle of it, as has already been brought out in the next verse when Mann says I don't want it.
He turns from truth, the measure of truth that he understands at that point, and he says I don't want it. And then he completely opens himself up to fable.
The imagination of the human mind replaces the truth of God. Man lives by that imagination and he ends up in the dictionary. He ends up in destruction. So, brethren, it's the doctrine comes first and the conduct comes after it, but they can't be really separated. You're not going to be able to even know the doctrine unless there is the willingness to walk in it.
As God gives it to us.
And if there is that willingness, then there's the promise. And only then he says, if any man will to do his will, he shall know. He shall know. It's a promise of God. If there is a submissive heart, then there will be the knowledge. So may the Lord help us in a practical sense. And the apostle Paul's life showed that willingness.
One other comment too, on persecution. Why is there persecution? Because the truth of God is opposed by the will of man. And if I'm going to walk in the truth of God, it's going to be with man's opposition because man in the flesh or the flesh in the Christian who doesn't want to walk in it is going to oppose it. And so there's a persecution connected with it. So if any.
We'll live godly, He will suffer persecution because what he lives for is that which Satan is opposing and which man in the flesh will always oppose. And so it has to have connected with it, going against the current of the will of man and.
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Consequently, the opposition to it.
But perhaps we say, well, we don't suffer persecution in a country like this. Here we sit today. We didn't have to lock and shutter the doors or meet in secret to have a Bible meeting. And we don't, because we give out a tract. We don't expect to get thrown in prison or stoned or shot like some of our brethren do in other countries right at this very time.
We don't suffer, shall I say, physical persecution, but the verse in our chapter says all day that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. So you say what is what? What what about us? What about people in countries like this? Are they not living godly? No, there's persecution in different ways. Perhaps we can break it down into two UH-22 distinct forms.
There is, as we've been saying, physical persecution, and that's the way we often think of it.
But while we don't suffer in that way here, there will always be a reproach in the measure in which we walk in faithfulness to the truth and to Christ. And so it says, if we in connection with going forth unto Him without the camp, is it that we might have reproach? No bearing his reproach. Now, if you give a gospel trap to someone on the street of Mayfield, you're not going to probably suffer physical persecution.
But there'll be a reproach connected with it if you open your Bible on the airplane and read it. They're not going to come along and, uh, handcuff you and arrest you when the plane lands, uh, for, for reading your Bible on a flight from LA to Toronto. But there is a reproach connected with it. Just look at people around you, the sneer, the thoughts that go through people's minds. You feel yourself isolated all of a sudden.
I say in the measure in which you and I are faithful to Christ and exhibit moral piety and godliness in our lives, we will suffer in one of two ways, physical persecution.
Or a reproach. There's no as the world would say, if ands or buts about it, it is a fact. And if we're not feeling a reproach today, brethren, for our testimony that I just suggest that we need to examine our manner of life.
For the gym, I gave out of track to the lady at the store.
She knew he was a gospel tract about the Lord Jesus.
And she says He's by Lord and my Savior.
That's the reward, yeah. Very nice, very nice.
Our time is slipping away and I'd like to just make a comment or two in connection with the scriptures the way they're brought before us. In this end of this chapter there are really 3 aspects of things that are brought before us. First of all, in verse 14 he says, but continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and been assured of knowing of whom thou hast learned them. Just go back to the second chapter and we find out who Paul or who Timothy had learned these things from and what they were.
Chapter 2 and verse two and the things that thou hast heard of Maine among many witnesses the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also Timothy, as we've been saying, he had heard Paul's doctrine from the lips of Paul. Paul had conveyed these things to him and of course Paul's exercise was or desire was that Timothy then would continue in those things.
And as we've noticed in the second chapter, commit them, pass them on, not just to anybody.
But the faithful men who would be able to teach others also. Just a little parenthesis, but I I never knew. Chapter Brown, But he made a comment on the a tape one time that his exercise was to pass the truth on to the next generation with the same purity in which he himself had received it. I thought that was a very nice exercise. And that's what Paul's desire was, that he would pass on the truth to Timothy.
And that Timothy would pass it on, not watered down or adjusted or changed, but that he would pass it on with the same purity in which he had received it to faithful men, who would in turn be exercised to do the same thing.
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But be that as it may, just to point out that Timothy had received Paul's doctrine from the appall himself and he was to continue in it, to go on in that. And rather that's a good word for us. We don't have Paul physically to convey the truth to us, but we have his writings preserved to us. That which he recorded, those foundation crews that he recorded by inspiration and then.
Then he says something else in verse 15.
And that from a child thou hast fully known the Holy Scriptures. Now what is he referring to here? These are the Old Testament scriptures, that which Timothy would have heard, no doubt from his grandmother and mother. We know from the first part of this epistle that Paul had reminded Timothy that he had a godly heritage. He heard the truth from a God fearing grandmother and a godly mother.
Many of us have had such a such a heritage as that. I realize that there are perhaps some here today who were not brought up in a Christian home and the Lord has saved you and gathered you to his precious name and brought you into the truth and so on. And that's marvelous. That's wonderful. But many like myself have had a godly heritage. And can I just say this in my own personal experience of late, Sometimes we don't value that heritage until we go through some experiences and our mothers and grandmothers.
Have gone on to glory. I just want to say to the young people here and the children, learn to value. I didn't value a godly mother when I was growing up. A mother who sometimes in the absence of my father being at work, read the scriptures to us every day, made sure that there was a prayer time with us every day, be it morning or evening. Learn to value mothers and grandmothers who bring the word of God and the truth before us.
Timothy had such a heritage and Paul reminded him of this. But this is the Old Testament scriptures.
You know, we need the Old Testament. We've been stressing Paul's doctrine and that's we don't want to take away from what we've said. It's vital. But you know, we need the Old Testament illustrations too. Familiarize yourself with those Old Testament stories, children. Listen to them from your parents need when your mother tells you in Old Testament story, listen to it as you get a little older, read those stories, familiarize yourself with them. Maybe they won't mean a whole lot to you at the time.
But later on, as you learn the New Testament doctrines, you realize that those Old Testament stories and illustrations, they help to illustrate New Testament truth and make it very clear. But then there's something else too. In the 16th verse, he says, all Scripture. That's all inclusive, isn't it? That's Paul's doctrine, that's the Old Testament. That's the other New Testament writers, the Gospels.
What the other New Testament prophets and apostles have recorded by inspiration. We need all Scripture, and I believe that when we take up the Word of God in that way, we get a proper balance. If we just if we just concentrate on the Old Testament, we're never gonna understand the doctrines and principles of Christianity. If we just concentrate on the Gospels, yes, we get the perfect example, but we never get the truth developed if we just concentrate on prophecy.
We never know what our present position and responsibility is. We need to take up the whole word of God that we might be balanced Christians.
It's already been said, but I'd like to re give emphasis to it.
It's important when it's a matter of truth to know whom you're getting it from.
It's important to know where you're getting it.
Go back to the Garden of Eden.
God says to the man concerning the tree, the knowledge of good and evil.
Thou shalt not eat their uh, he says. You'll surely die.
Another voice comes in.
A voice of deception, just like we have in our chapter.
There's seducers deceiving and being deceived. The source of all things really are either God or Satan. The source of all man's thoughts either come from God or they come from Satan and.
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And those thoughts come, God says, in that instance in the Garden of Eden to the man and the woman, Thou shalt surely die. Satan comes in and produces a spirit of unbelief by deception, he says. Has God said in other words, raises the question of the source? Is the source good? Is it accurate?
As God really said it. And then the deception goes on until there's the outright lie.
Thou shalt not surely die.
And Nan is faced with the choice.
God has spoken, the deceiver has spoken, and he makes his choice to believe the deceiver, and he dies.
Here we have that principle embedded in what Paul is saying here and what is important for us to put it this way when we open this book.
Our hearts should open it.
With the sense of God is now going to speak to me.
God, all scriptures given. The source of it is the inspiration of God. When I pray, I talk to God. When I open this volume, God is speaking to me and I want to take it with all the authority of the giver of it, the source of it. It's God speaking to me personally. And as a consequence, we need to be careful who we listen to.
We so easily pick up a book.
Of any sort, and we give it some authority or some according to what our hearts respond to it or think about it, that sometimes elevate it in terms of even questioning God, speaking as God said, and so on. And so, brethren, there's a simplicity to these things, but we're often deceived by the enemy of our souls into listening to voices which the source of which is not God.
And, uh, thank God that, as Jim said, a Christian heritage, because in that way, the source is the heart, even if it's not perfect in understanding a heart that longs for us to have the truth of God and points us to that which will never deceive us as well, teaches us to receive from this book. This is God speaking to us.
Inspiration is a word that we use, and perhaps there are some here that wonder exactly what does in inspiration mean. And I've sometimes used a little illustration that perhaps gives us at least part of the thought That is that when my girls were little, they would take a pencil in their hand and they would want to write something, but they hadn't really learned to write yet. And so I would put my hand over their hand in the pencil.
And I would guide their hand to write their name or whatever word or word.
They wanted to write and maybe after they were done, they would take the paper and they'd go to my wife and they'd say, mom, look what I wrote. Now, who really wrote it? Did they write it or did I? Well, it's true. They held the pencil in their hand, but my hand was over their hand and guided exactly what they wrote. Every stroke they made was guided by my hand. Now, maybe that helps us to understand a little bit what inspiration is.
Inspiration. These men wrote by inspiration. Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. That is, they took up the pen physically in their hand, but it's just as if God put his hand over their hand and guided that pen to write. They did not write their own opinions. They did not write their own views. They did not write what they thought was the truth or appropriate for the day in which they live.
No, every word they wrote was God breathed, directed by God. And that's why it's so important that Dawn has been stressing that we open this book and when we read it, we read it without question. You know, if I write something or anybody else in this room or any writer in this world writes something, we have every right to question what they write, to read it with a somewhat critical attitude, and to question whether it's really.
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Fact or fiction, or whether it's relevant or not.
But we have no right to read the Word of God like that. If we pick up the Word of God and we read it without faith, or we read it with a questioning, reasoning mind, we're not going to know what God is saying to us. And Don spoke of the submission of our will in reading the Word of God. And so often I believe people miss the mark because they pick it up and they bring their own.
Thoughts are preconceived notions to the Word of God, and they try to make it fit what they think is best, or they question it, they reason it out. Are we going to learn the truth that way? Is that what's going to bring before us the doctrines of Scripture? No, I say, we're going to miss the mark entirely. God.
'Cause these men to write what he had for them. That's the truth of God.
And we need to look at it in that way.
Because of a divine guidance and divine inspiration, they wrote with authority. Oftentimes they would say Thus saith the Lord.
Jesus himself.
Would prove.
Certain portions of the Old Testament.
And it's beautiful to see these teachings that we see here. We do have to be careful of some of the modern translations. Some translations in verse 16 instead of all have every every scripture. And Scripture here is singular without an S where in 15 is plural. And so they get you looking at individual verses and where it says and profitable, they use the words also in there.
We noticed that is is between and and is italicized has been added in there. But when we see all Scripture, we look from the very beginning to the end of God's Word. Every bit of it has been inspired and God breathed divinely and profitable that that that's the way to look at it and profitable and etcetera down the line.
It's beautiful to see that now.
I would like to ask a question. Holy Scriptures, the Old Testament Hebrew text.
For instance, we have reference to our Bible of the Book of Enoch.
Is there any other scriptures anywhere that are considered holy?
Or is it only the Old Testament text, Hebrew text that we have?
I know there's portions of the books of the universities quoted.
Holy in certain senses, in that it.
Got three? And nothing that is not consistent with the character of God can be expressed from God's own heart. It's wholly in contrast to man's books in the sense that God has given us something that never not one word of it, not one principle of it, is going to produce a lust in us to thin.
At the same time, God records what He has for us in such a way that yes, Scripture contains lies.
That is, God has recorded for us people lying and what their lie was. It records for us deception and evil and so on. But unlike books of men.
Man brings things before us, which produces a lust in us when we read it and when we occupy with us. But God gives us a revelation from himself that takes up evil, but it takes it up in a way that never produces.
Anything that is unholy.
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Inside of us, but it always takes it up in a way that would produce a proper response in us if there's not a will against him. I don't know if that fully answers the question, but there is. There is a certain sense in which we want to be sure to give the Word of God, the reverence of the perfection of it as being inspired by God. It has to be consistent with what God is as light.
It can't be less than that to us.
Uh, what we may give.
Of our own thoughts can often have mixed with it something I'll say that's Gray or less than the way God imperfection alone can give us truth. This is all the holy scriptures, but it's only the Old Testament that's referred to here because that's all Timothy would have had as a child what his mother and grandmother would have brought before him were the Old Testament Scriptures. And so it's referred to in that way and I know it's not specific, but in John the Lord said if they didn't believe Moses the Holy Scriptures.
That they had in the Old Testament. How would they believe His words? But it's all the Holy Scriptures in that sense. I would like to make one other comment on the last verse of this chapter before we close. And that is, He brings before us the man of God. And there are two things in Timothy that make a man of God furnished unto all good work. If you just go back to the previous chapter, you find that in verse 21.
If a man therefore purged himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the masters use and prepared unto every good work. Now what prepares a man unto every good work in the second chapter is separation from that which is unholy, separation from evil. If you and I are going to be prepared for by God, not just to some good works, but to every good work, we must separate from that which is evil. And that's the subject that you have.
In the second chapter, if a man therefore purged himself from these, so that's the first thing, but then we have that's the negative, we might say, but here we have the positive. What else is it that that goes with that coupled with that to prepare a man of God unto every good work? It's the truth of God. It's walking in the truth of God. It's to be rooted and grounded, as we have been stressing in this meeting in the fundamental principles of Scripture. It's to be going on in the truth.
How can we be furnished unto all good work if we're not walking in the truth? I heard of a young man one time and he exercised some others as to the need to be baptized, but in the end they were turned aside because they found out he'd never been baptized himself. And they said, well, how can he talk about the need to be baptized when he's never been baptized himself? He wasn't thoroughly furnished unto every good work.
Not to be what's going on with something evil associated with something evil, but he wasn't going on in the truth of God. He wasn't walking a consistent Christian life as Paul was, as we spoke of earlier. So these two things are vital. In the next chapter. Tomorrow we're going to notice he takes up the resources for Christian service in a day of ruin. How are we going to be, uh, effective in our service in a day of ruin before he takes up those resources? He tells us we need to separate from that which is unholy.
And then go on in the truth of the Holy Scriptures, and we'll be prepared, I say, not just to some or a few good works, but to every good work.
Just like to comment to that connection with scriptures. I believe that Romans chapter 16 verses 25 and 26 take in include the New Testament as we call it scripture.
The apartment, the calls that they're my gospel, but he talks about the.
Profits and I believe their New Testament prophets. What we have in our hands today is included in Romans last chapter and verses 25 and six.
We sing hymn #22 in the appendix.
Hymn #22 in the appendix.