Address—C. Brown
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This is the early church.
And.
We're back at the Pentecostal beginning.
So Peter preaches a wonderful sermon.
The first verse says that they were added unto them about 3000 souls. I don't know that that's ever been duplicated in the history of Christianity. 1 Sermon 3000 people saved.
But the 42nd verse.
They continued steadfastly and the apostles doctrine and fellowship.
And in the breaking of bread and prayers.
Those are four things that characterize the Apostolic Church.
The Apostles doctrine the apostles fellowship for in the original.
The apostrophe here after apostles.
Belongs equally to the Fellowship.
It isn't just the Apostles doctrine, but it's the Apostles fellowship.
And in breaking of bread and in prayer.
Now one has just thought in a general way something like this.
We might say, well the apostles doctrine that would be comparable to.
A meeting such as we're having tonight. Reading meeting.
Or an address on the scriptures.
And then the Apostles Fellowship would be our association together as members of Christ.
Perhaps coming out in a very special way and some of our get togethers and conferences and times of that kind where scholarship is emphasized.
And then the breaking of bread is.
Are coming together to remember the Lord and His death.
And then it's no puzzle as to what's referred to in the prayers.
Prayer meeting.
So there is scripture for all these activities that have to do with the Church of God.
But I hope to confine myself largely to the first one of the four tonight.
They continued steadfastly in the apostle's doctrine.
It's a great thing to continue steadfastly.
Not by starts and jerks and jumps, but steadfastly.
You know, every meeting.
Has connected with it.
Two kinds of.
Of Saints or believers?
Those that you just know are going to be there unless something is diametrically wrong.
They're just going to be at meeting you. Call them the regulars.
And there are some that.
Oh, they come generally to the breaking bread. You might see them once in a while at a reading meeting.
They are the irregulars.
Well, they're all equally saved.
But could you say that the class of irregulars would answer to this verse? They continued steadfastly.
It's a great thing to go on.
I got that thing from Walter Potter.
It's a great thing to go on.
You saying, well, I couldn't be at meeting tonight, I was ill, You weren't meeting. Who were there? Well, the regulars were all there and then besides so and so, so and so.
Well, after the meeting.
Someone said, well what's the matter with the brother so and so tonight?
What's the matter? Not here. Empty seat.
But there also might be a conversation after meeting something like this. Say, did you notice that song so much to the reading meeting tonight? That is something wonderful. Now which do we choose to be one of the regulars or one of the irregular which would suit this verse? They continued steadfastly.
00:05:10
And the Apostles, Doctrine and fellowship. Britain and Breton prayers.
Well, I've just a little word of exhortation cause us to stop and think.
But the first thing on the list is Doctrine.
Now we're living in a day when doctrine is being minimized.
It's.
Not very polite to bring forth doctrine today.
It's a day of tolerance.
So don't emphasize doctrine. People say just.
Every man for himself. You believe the way you want to, and I believe the way I want to.
You hear people say, well, I think every man has a right to believe as he pleases.
So I let the other man believe as he pleases, and I have my belief.
And they say it doesn't make any difference. Just so you're sincere. That's all it takes, Sincerity.
Well.
Beloved Saints of God, you and I know, do we not?
That sincerity is no Savior.
Sincerity is no sin.
Now you can't get saved without sincerity.
But sincerity itself is no savior.
Because you can be sincerely wrong, 100% wrong and be sincere.
I don't suppose there's anybody mature years sitting in this room.
That has improved that.
I remember being with brother Patrick and driving from Chicago to Grand Rapids.
And.
He said this road doesn't look familiar to me. I've traveled many times if it doesn't look familiar.
So he stopped in the filling station.
And said I'm on my way to Grand Rapids but the road doesn't look right.
And the man said you're not on your way to Grand Rapids, you're on your way to Chicago.
We had just left Chicago that morning.
What? We stopped at this little station along the way and when we came out on the road we headed the wrong way.
Now we were 15 miles back over the same Rd. We traveled well, we certainly were sincere, as sincere as we ever were. But we were sincerely wrong.
Doctrine does make a difference.
And the Spirit of God.
Would have you and me instructed from the word of God as to the truth of God.
And here's the only place that we can find the truth and be absolutely sure that we're right is in the Word of God.
Now, I'm not discounting written ministry.
If that written ministry is based on the word, fine.
But the test of any written ministry is the word.
Just because Mr. Darby says the thing doesn't make it true, No. Or Mr. Kelly, or Mr. MacIntyre, because they put it in their books doesn't make it true. No. I have great confidence in those men. I value their works very highly. But just because they say a thing isn't the answer. The answer is the word of God.
Test everything by the word.
Now return to Timothy, First Timothy.
We'll see how important Paul, the great apostle, greatest of all the apostles, the cheapest of all the apostles.
The one that gave us the truth of the Church.
I say the one that gave us the truth of the Church.
You'll never get the truth of the church from from Peter.
You'll never get the truth of the church from John.
Think of John. He wrote all the Gospel and three epistles and all the revelation, but you'll never get the truth of the Church from John.
Or Peter. Or Jude. Or James. You have to go to Paul to get the truth of the church.
Well, in the first Epistle of Timothy.
00:10:00
Paul had great confidence in Timothy. Timothy was one of his converts.
Second verse of the first chapter.
On to Timothy, my own son in the faith.
Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.
As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus.
When I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine.
Now Ephesus, you know, is the first of the seven churches in Revelation.
And it's a church that was highly blessed with truth. Highly blessed with truth.
But there is one thing no matter at Ephesus What was it?
Matter of that system.
Yeah, they left their first love.
They hadn't ceased to love, but they left their first love. They weren't so happy as they once were.
So he said Timothy.
I'm going to leave you behind at Ephesus.
I'm going over into Macedonia, but you stay at Ephesus.
And you charge some that they teach no other doctrine.
What does that mean? No other doctor?
What does that mean? What did you say to that brother? Crazy, yes.
And it's a It's a strict charge, no other doctrine.
It isn't just a generality that.
Or you can you can teach some things on your own if you want to.
It's strict. It's it's binding. No other doctrine.
Don't go beyond scripture when you go to teach doctrine.
Neither give heed to fables, an endless genealogy.
See Adding to the word you know there are.
Volumes and volumes of the what we call the Writings of the Fathers.
You can go to any theological library and you'll find these big fat volumes filled with writings of the Fathers.
But all their most untrustworthy, unstable.
Rice with error of all kinds.
Not, well, what? There's some lovely ministry there, but oh, you have to pick your way through so carefully. They're filled with blunders.
Well, early in the church's history.
They began bringing in the idea that.
There are certain teachings or dogmas.
That the Fathers put out that are going to have equal authority with the scripture.
Not all that was a step backward.
And these things are fables.
And what's the result? Fourth verse?
Minister questions rather than godly edifying, which is in faith.
They minister questions.
Have you and I any right to go exploring?
In a certain realms.
That are not touched by scripture. I'm speaking, of course, of moral and spiritual things. I'm not.
Speaking about how to make automobiles or computer machines and things like that, I'm talking about moral and spiritual questions.
Do we have any right to go exploring in the realms beyond what God has been pleased to tell us?
I believe not, brethren. I believe it's dangerous business.
There's everything in that realm that you and I need to know right here in the Word of God.
But we're we're living in days when men are bound to have what they call a breakthrough. When you read that expression over and over again.
We're just on the point of a breakthrough.
And they would like to breakthrough into that spiritual realm, that realm that has to do with God and heaven and the and the life beyond death. All her men would love to breakthrough.
But God doesn't allow us that.
He's told us all we need to know.
00:15:00
I remember that Paul at one time had a trip to heaven.
Remember that, brother Jacobson?
What did he tell us that he saw when he's up there?
He didn't tell us one thing that he saw up there.
Said I heard unspeakable things, not I heard unspeakable means that it's no use trying to tell you because you don't have the vocabulary. It doesn't fit the senior in.
I've used this illustration.
If I were to go on and listen.
Well, we're just saying that Einstein was still living. We know he isn't, but supposing I'd gone to one of his lectures on relativity?
And sat there and listened to him.
Well, I wouldn't have the faintest idea what the man was talking about.
Yet he'd be using the English language.
But I wouldn't know what he was talking about because I haven't any background.
I don't have that vocabulary. My thinking processes haven't been developed along that line.
Well, Paul was translated.
Perhaps for only a short time.
Maybe when he was stoned.
Supposedly to death that time. Chronologically, it seemed to happen about then. But he had that trip to heaven and he heard unspeakable things. Things I can't tell you, but it made him homesick for heaven ever afterwards.
Made him homesick for heaven, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.
How do you know why he'd been there? He'd seen it.
Well, these these teachers here.
They're raising questions, Minister questions.
Rather than godly edifying witches and faith.
What good does it do to keep raising questions all the time?
Now the end of the commandment is love out of a pure heart and of a good conscience.
And of faith unseen, from which some, having swerved aside, were turned a vain jangling.
Brethren, if you don't submit to the Word of God in simplicity.
Just submit when God speaks, believe it and let that be the end of it. What do you have?
Vain jangling and you can just keep it up endlessly. Endlessly.
That's the reason that it's so unprofitable.
When these false cops come peddling their poison around, so unprofitable.
To try to convince them of their being wrong and debate with them and all that. It's just wasted breath, vain jangling. They will not have the truth.
You read them a simple plain scripture and they immediately launch out into some sort.
Of a a contradiction or an explanation or an evasion and you haven't gotten anywhere they gently.
Well, he speaks in the end of the tenth verse.
If there be any other thing that's contrary to sound doctrine.
Now in the third verse that they teach no other doctrine.
In the end of the tenth verse that that is contrary to sound doctrine.
Old doctrine is so important.
Now look at the 2nd chapter.
I exert, therefore, that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving a thanks be made for all men, for kings, and for all that in authority.
That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life.
Not make the headlines.
No lead a quiet feasible life in all godliness and honesty.
For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior.
Now the fourth verse is the one I have in mind.
Who will have that? Is he wills to have. That's his will of desire.
Who will have all men to be saved?
That is, John 316 says that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that.
Whosoever.
00:20:02
Well, that's an all inclusive word, isn't it?
So God's will of desire is that every human being be saved.
There will never be a soul among the damned that will be able to say, well, you never gave me a chance.
Never, never.
God will have all to be saved.
But that isn't all the story.
Having to be saved, then what else but beside that?
What did you want beside that?
I can't hear anybody speaking up.
Yes.
That's the other half of it. It isn't enough to get saved.
You know we're living.
In Strange Days, we're living in high pressured evangelistic days.
And evangelism has become patterned in some areas.
It's become patterned after an automobile assembly line idea.
We just start the machinery rolling.
And the folks come in here and then they're turned out. Here's the finished product.
They go into this campaign and they come out saved and they're stamped saved.
Finished product.
But you know that you'll never get that idea in Scripture.
While when you get saved.
You, just as it were, entered the elementary class. You become a child of God.
For instance that.
I'm so glad to see these dear little children around here.
You have a nice little baby born into your family circle.
Oh, you're so happy you show that baby to everyone.
You want them to rejoice with you.
Well, is that the end of the story?
Supposing I come around a year later.
And there's the same baby. It doesn't weigh any more than it did.
It doesn't know any more than it did.
It's still just in the same condition.
And I come around two years later, you still have your baby, hasn't gained any weight, doesn't know any more than it did.
Oh, I would find a sad father and mother.
You would have been taking that child to all the specialists in the country.
You would be heartbroken.
You got that baby into your family because you wanted to enjoy its companionship and see it grow up in the family circle and enjoy watching its development, enjoy its companionship and fellowship.
Well, God is like that with his family. He has children.
And we're born into his family.
Were saved and then.
He wants us to come under the knowledge of the truth.
Well, that is a lifetime assignment.
Some of us have been Christians a long time.
I've been a Christian for 60 years.
But I surmise there may be some present here tonight that have been Christians longer than that.
Aren't we still learning?
Still learning prices. Truth. Why surely we are.
So let's not just be satisfied with being saved. Let's come to the knowledge of the truth.
It's right here in the book.
But it's a lifetime assignment.
And the deeper we go into it, the more we enjoy it.
But then in the 4th chapter.
Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times.
Some shall depart from the faith.
Giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils or demons.
Speaking lies in hypocrisy.
Having their conscience seared with a hot iron.
Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created, to be received with Thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.
00:25:09
For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received the Thanksgiving for the sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
Now there's a description.
Of seductive evils of a satanic character.
That have come into the Church of God down through its history.
And we're living in days when this kind of thing thrives.
The weather conditions are very favorable to the development of just such as we have here.
We have seducing spirits and doctrines of demons, and all these things that follow here are found in religious.
Our groups today is nothing too atrocious or ridiculous.
Are inconsistent.
To be found under the name of religion.
You can go to any extreme in religion and you'll find somebody to follow you.
There's a man down in Los Angeles.
His name is Jaggers.
And he's on the radio and television, and he's actually promising his followers of his cult that they follow him, they'll never die.
Well, of course he can teach them that and and get followers and they'll believe it and they give him their money and he's getting rich. That'll work till he dies. But then that part doesn't bother him. He's interested in what he's getting now, what he's alive.
Well, these these kind of cults are growing, increasing in number and getting followings.
We have some rare ones down around where we live. We can see them going up and down the streets there and they're weird costumes.
I just act as though they belong to another world.
They're queer. They're weird.
Well, they didn't get that from the Word of God.
The Word of God doesn't end in our being ridiculous.
God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
God had not given us a spirit of love, a spirit of fear, but of love and of power and a sound mind.
The Word of God, rightly interpreted, believed in by the power of the Spirit of God, never made a fanatic in the history of the Church of God.
But the misunderstanding of it and the misapplication of it and the torturing and twisting of it.
Has made thousands of fanatics and put many people in mental institutions.
But that's because we don't submit to the leading of the Spirit of God.
And simplicity.
But then verse 6.
If thou put the bread on and remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ.
Nourished up in words of faith or that should read words of the faith.
And of the good doctrine for unto thou hast attained.
A good minister of Jesus Christ. Now that word minister means servant.
Don't ever attach to it that word, minister. Don't ever attach to it some ecclesiastical ritualistic significance. It doesn't mean that it's just a word for servant, that's all.
Well, the apostle exhorts Timothy.
That he's to be a good servant of Jesus Christ, nourished up in thee were and the words of the thing.
And of the good doctrine, when do thou hast attained? Now where to get that good doctor?
Where'd you get it?
Well, he didn't have.
What you and I are reading here tonight, he certainly didn't have that yet until he got this letter.
00:30:02
He he didn't have his New Testament and his best pocket.
He had the Old Testament scriptures and he had a good upbringing, his mother and his grandmother. He'd known the Holy Scriptures, the Old Testament scriptures.
But he'd been a close companion of the Apostle Paul, who spoke with authority as an apostle, and he'd given him a deposit of good doctrine.
And now Timothy was responsible to maintain it and to pass it on to others, if we desire to help our brethren.
Shunden exercises that.
The truth that we give them.
Shall be the truth that we have received from the Word itself and the power of the Spirit of God, not notions, not clear freakish ideas that that we've dugout and imagined that.
We're in the scriptures.
But be sure.
If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God.
And in other words, if you can't speak that way, he better keep still. If any man speak, let him speak as the articles of God.
Let him be sure that what he is giving out is the mind of God is found in the Word.
Not Minister in terms of I think and and maybe and.
Uncertainty never coming to any definite decision about things, just leaving them up in the air all the time. If any man speak, let him speak as the articles of God.
Well then, in verse 13.
Till I come.
Give attendance to reading. You know that was.
Public reading, because remember, they didn't have any Bibles.
Might be an individual here that might have a role of papyrus.
Uh, or apartment with the book of Isaiah on it. Something like that. They found one here not too long ago.
Found, I think it was a parchment. I'm not sure it was a parchment or papers of the book of Isaiah, 1000 years older than any other part of the Bible they'd ever found. And by the way, they didn't have to write rewrite Isaiah after they found it, same old Isaiah.
They didn't.
But they didn't have Bibles. You couldn't have found a meeting like this. Everybody sitting with a Bible on his lap. And Paul's day, No.
If you possess 11 role of one Booker, 1/2 a dozen books, or perhaps a role of the Psalms, you were fortunate.
So they were satisfied to have a reader in the church get up and read the scriptures to them, whatever they get hold of.
So Timothy is told to give attention to reading, public reading.
And to exhortation, we need to be stirred up, brethren.
Don't criticize the brother. If he gives you a good warm stirring up, thank God for it. If you need it, accept it. Exhortation.
Till now come give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.
Don't neglect doctrine, Timothy. Don't get so occupied with stirring people up, getting them all excited about service and gospel meetings and tent meetings and St. meetings and all this, that you forget to instruct them in doctrine.
Don't minimize doctrine.
Now the 16th verse, the last verse of the 4th chapter.
Take heed to thyself and unto the doctrine.
Continue in them.
For in doing this, thou shall both save thyself and them that hear thee.
Now that's not saving himself in the sense of the salvation of his soul.
But that's bringing himself through the various difficulties in crises that beset the Christian along the road.
Take heed to thyself. Oh, let's start there.
00:35:01
Let's start with number one. Take heed to thyself.
And under the doctrine.
Be sure that thyself and the doctrine are in agreement.
Continue in them.
For in doing this, thou shall both save thyself and them that hear thee.
Do you want to be used to deliver your brethren, that is, to help them through the difficulties of the wilderness journey?
Give them the truth of God.
Don't water it down.
No.
Don't weaken it, give it to them poor, a pure and straight.
For in doing this, thou shall both save thyself and them that hear thee.
As I look back on my own life and think of the dear faithful men of God and sisters too.
That have helped me in my Christian life.
I thank God for them.
Oh, how many blunders they've saved me from.
That that I learned sitting at their feet.
What a boon it's been to my soul through the years of my life.
That truths that they taught me.
Well, why have they helped me? Because those men of God got those truths from the Word of God, and they passed them on to me in the power of the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God made them good to my soul.
Oh, what a blessing it's been to me through the years.
Well, shouldn't we be jealous to pass the truth on as pure as we received it?
Do you want to be guilty?
Of receiving good, pure truth.
And then say, now I'm going to hand this on to somebody.
But I'm going to weaken it down a little. I think that's a little too strong. So I'm going to put a few drops of human thinking, human wisdom into it. I'm going to weaken it down a little before I pass it on. Is that faithfulness?
You're not going to save your brother that way.
You're jeopardizing him. You're not helping him.
Now look at the 5th chapter.
And the 17th verse.
Let the elders that rule well or take the lead that word rule is. I think Mr. Garvey translates to take the lead.
Well be counted worthy of double honor as factually, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine.
Oh what a high value God puts on the Word and doctrine.
Why we instinctively instinctively might say.
Well, the words, the ones that you ought to honor these, these live wire evangelists that really get something accomplished.
These men that are full of enthusiasm and they're bringing people up, what we used to call the sawdust trail and getting decisions, those are the men that are building us up.
Well, is that what this verse says? No, it's the elders.
That take the lead well be counted of double honor, especially those that labor in the word and doctrine, instruction, teaching, grounding, settling.
God wants us to be immature.
What was the burden on Paul's heart that he might present every man? What?
5.
When you want to present every man.
Perfect, perfect in Christ Jesus. That was a burden on Paul's heart, that I must present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. What do you mean by that?
Oh, he didn't want the mall to continue like a lot of children.
Being bottle fed.
No.
Remember Mr. Potter saying that some Saints seem to want to be bottle fed in that once a week?
Paul didn't want that.
Why? He was rebuking those Corinthians, he said.
00:40:01
Well, I hear you again. I have to feed you with milk. I can't give you any meat. You're not able to bear it yet. You're going on like a lot of children.
Oh brethren, God wants maturity, but there's only one way to get it, and that's applying ourselves to the Word of God and learning the mind of God in the Scriptures.
Well then in the next chapter and the third verse.
If any man, teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And to the doctrine that's according to godliness, he's proud, knowing nothing.
But doting about questions and stripes of words, wherever cometh enemy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse, disputing some men of corrupt minds, destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness from such, withdraw thyself.
Don't continue.
To listen to these men that are leading you away from Christ and His truth.
Just don't read their literature. Don't listen to them.
They're going to poison your souls.
Consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, even the words.
All beloved, every word of God is pure.
God spoke by inspiration, and holy men of God speak as they are removed by the Holy Spirit.
And we can depend on this word of God.
Now I know that we've had to have it translated, and I know it's passed through the hands of various copies.
But I'm Speaking of the Word as originally given to those that penned it for us. Every word was God breathed.
That's the literal of that word. All scripture is given by inspiration of God. The literal of that is every all scripture. Every scripture is God breathed.
Now as such.
Where to receive it? The words of our Lord Jesus Christ.
But the one that won't receive it, what about him? He's proud, knowing nothing.
KN just put that after his name knowing nothing.
So we don't have to waste our time listening to men that refuse to submit to sound doctor.
Don't bother turning on the radio and listening to them. Wasting your time Worse than wasting your time.
You're throwing open your mind to pick up erroneous ideas that will only be a hindrance to you.
And it may take you years to get rid of them.
Just don't do it.
Listen to ministry that you know is dependable.
Get the truth of God pure and straight. Don't waste your energies on.
Feeding on that that you know is contaminated.
Why, certainly.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, those remains the words that he spoke when he was here on earth, no.
It's a general term because.
He spoke when he was here on earth.
Well, now he speaks from heaven. He is speaking from heaven now.
He's he's gone on high, but he's still speaking from heaven. So we mustn't confine it just to what he said when he was here on earth.
Yes, daily boss. That's where he got it.
Well, in Second Timothy.
The first chapter and the 13th verse.
Hold fast the form of sound words which thou has heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
It's better to state the truths of Scripture and the words of Scripture.
You can improve on it.
Hold fast the form of sound words.
Which thou hast heard of me in faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus, that good thing that was committed thee by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in US.
00:45:01
Chief. Well, what was that good thing? It was the deposit of the truth that he had received.
Now the third chapter.
And the tenth verse.
But thou hast fully known my doctrine.
And what was coupled with it manner of life?
All brethren, what God has joined together, let not man put asunder.
Don't divorce good doctrine from manner of life.
Oh, don't be guilty of getting the reputation for being a brilliant student of the word or a brilliant teacher of the word.
And yet your friends and those that know you intimately know that you're not living in a consistent Christian life.
If you're not living with a measure of consistency and a good conscience before God.
You just better keep still.
Because what you are, your personality and your life speak so loud, people are not going to hear what you're saying.
So Paul can put it before Timothy.
You know my doctrine, but you know my manner of life that goes with it. I know how important that is. Purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity, patience. Indeed, Timothy knew all those things.
And then the 16th verse.
All scriptures given by inspiration of God or as God breathed.
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.
Don't discount doctrine.
It's profitable for all these things.
Now the 4th chapter and the third verse.
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.
Well, that's certainly here.
But after their own lust shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. That is, the people have the itching ears, and so they get the kind of teachers they want.
And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and be turned on the fables.
Or the countries full of them.
Terrible man, they think nothing of teaching blasphemies.
From the pulpit.
And they're paid so many, $1000 a year to do it. Why? Oh, that's what the people want to hear.
They say the most awful things about the Lord Jesus, about his deity and about his humanity and about blood atonement, about the resurrection and the virgin blood. All these things are minimized. They're ridicule, they're blasphemed.
And yet these men have a DD after their name and a Reverend in the front.
We are living in terrible days.
Now Titus, the 1St chapter.
And the ninth verse.
Holding fast the faithful Word as he had been taught.
That they may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the game stayers. For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially the day of the circumcision.
Whose mouths must be stopped? Who subvert whole houses, teaching things they ought not for filthy lookers sake?
Isn't that a description of what we have around us today?
Now the second chapter.
And the first verse.
Speak thou the things that become sound doctrine.
And the seventh verse.
In all things, showing thyself a pattern of good works.
In doctrine showing uncorruptness.
Gravity. Sincerity.
Sound speech.
That cannot be condemned, that he that is of the contrary partner, be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you.
00:50:05
10th verse not purlining but showing all good fidelity.
That they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. Well, beloved.
Is your life, is my life adorning the doctrine of God our Savior? Is it?
Oh, I trust it is how exercise we ought to be.
That our lives are adorning the doctrine of God our Savior. Does doctrine count? Can you doubt it after what we've been seeing in the Word of God?
All let's contend for it. Let's be an earnest about it. The Lord will soon be here, and we'll need sound doctrine to keep us the rest of the journey.