Again, just by review, we've been reminded that Paul has left Timothy and Ephesus because they weren't these teachers who were disturbing them, paying attention to the myths and endless genealogies, and that word paying attention to plays into our text. They were distorting the law of God, disrupting entire families in terms of right doctrine, but also the gospel. And in chapter two and three, he's laid out instructions for how the church is to conduct itself in prayer and in relationships to the roles of men and women, to the officers and overseers or pastors, elders and deacons. And in this chapter, he's returned to Timothy and specifically in what he wants him to do. And we've seen that in the opening five verses, there is a spirit warning. And we've stressed that on several weeks now, that in latter times, there will be those who will fall away from literally the faith, not the subjective faith, they probably fall from that as well, but they depart from the faith that has been delivered once and for all. And those things are true, even in our age, and they come to us, one, through two sources, one by doctrines of demons and deceitful spirits. We must understand that we live in a world that has a duality to it. It's a physical world and a spiritual world. The modern man thinks of it only as in terms of the physical world. And you see that in so many ways. Even when you watch the local news for the weather, The weather is always tied to some low or some high, the wind or whatever. And it is. Science is good. Science is real. But science is only recording the laws of nature and physics that were created by God. God created the heavens and the earth and all that is in them. And we live in this dualistic world that is the most spiritual and physical. In the spiritual world, there are deceitful spirits. There are doctrines that come from demons. And there are those inside the church of Jesus Christ who will pay attention to them more than to the word of God. That's just a fact. Two plus two equals four. I'm 68 years old. and there are doctrines of demons. It's just the way the world is. And the second way in which they come is through teachers, not spiritual demonic teachers, men and sometimes women who have flesh and blood like you and I, who gladly will teach the lie. They are hypocrites in the many cases because they know what they're teaching is false, and they're quite happy to teach that. They gladly, and I know conservatives, people who stand on the title of being reformed or evangelical or believe in the sufficiency of the Bible and all that, who totally ignore what it has to say. Men who on their own without any ecclesiastical authority go and start churches. Women with no ecclesiastical authority go out and start teaching. People who have no ecclesiastical authority willingly divide churches up because they don't like something and they feel justified and right in doing these things. And they're those who will come and forbid marriage and teach that certain things cannot be eaten so that you can be truly glorified and glorify God. But these things are ultimately a denial of God and his goodness and his creation. Notice it even tells us, reminds us. Verse four, everything created by God is good. The world was made by God. It didn't come by accident. didn't come by random chance, and it most certainly did not come by a government executive order or law, nor will it be sustained by such. And then as we've seen, as Paul moves to wanting to instruct Timothy, he says in verse six, pointing these things out to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Jesus Christ. The minister needs to constantly be reminding his congregation that we live in a dualistic world created by God, both heaven and earth, that there are demons, there are false teachers, there are those who will manipulate the truth and lead people in the church astray. Reminded of the words of the Lord Jesus Christ on the Mount of Olives, who will talk about as one of the signs of the last days that many will come in his name as false Christs, and they will do all manner of things, and it says, even to mislead the elect if the end does not come. And so we need to be reminded of these things. They're easy to forget. and I've told you on other occasions. I find in my library every so often, I'll take a book off the shelf thinking, you know, I really need to get around to reading this book. I've told you these things. Oh, I've had that book on my shelf for so long, I need to read that book. And I open up the book and I find that I already read it. It's all highlighted and underlined and notes in the margins, totally devaluing the book for anybody else's use because it's so messed up with my stuff. And I don't remember it. And I'm pretty confident I'm not the only guy in the room who will have that experience in life. We need to be reminded. And we saw that Paul wants Timothy to be constantly nourished on the words of faith and sound doctrine. And the word sound doctrine throughout the pastoral epistles, first, second, Timothy and Titus, It's sometimes translated doctrine, sometimes translated teachings. We are to teach our doctrine. Doctrine is not simply something for the pastor, the elders, or for that narrow group of guys who like to read really old books like Owen or whoever. Doctrine is something that all of us need to be involved in for it is the source of our spiritual nourishment. Remember, Jesus tells us that a man does not live by bread alone, but by what? His vitamin pills and his coffee, right? No, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. As someone once said, someone much smarter than me, says that everyone is a theologian. There are not theologians, there's people who have made that their career, but in reality there aren't a class of just theologians. We all are theologians. The question is, are you a good one or are you a bad one? But we are nourished. There's a spiritual nourishment that can only come from the Word of truth, from the teachings of the Scripture, from sound doctrine. is a quote Victor Matthews often in this one statement he writes in an introduction of his book, Growth and Grace, where he says that there are many Christians who never really enjoy the benefits of the Christian life because they don't know the truth of the Christian life. And then he makes this comment, he says, the hard thing about truth is that truth must be learned. It must be learned. So the good teacher must continue to point these things out. He himself must be nourished on the words of the faith and sound doctrine, and he must teach these things, and not give himself to worldly fables, but to discipline himself, not with physical discipline, though there's nothing wrong with being in good shape, but to discipline himself for godliness. The hardest things that you will ever do in your life is pray. The hardest thing you will ever do in your life is read your Bible. The hardest thing you will ever do in this life is to take what you've prayed for and what you've read about and apply it into the daily life. It's difficult. Very few people I've known in my life, there's a couple, but very few people I've known in my life has said, I pray enough. Very few people that I've known have said, you know, I know the Bible well enough. I do know one guy who said it, and oddly enough, he didn't know it at all. And so we must discipline ourselves to pray, to read the word, to live it out. Why, he says in verse eight, since it holds the promise for this present life and the life to come. It's so funny how we have the words of life, for this life and the life to come, and how little we know of it, how little we engage it. Verse 10, for this is we labor and strive. We mentioned last week, the word for labor is the word for just total fatigue and wearing out, and strive, the Greek word for strive is where we get our English word, agonize. The work of the Christian life and the work of the minister in specific is a hard work. It wears you out. In fact, Paul will say in the book of Colossians, where he uses very similar language, especially with the word translated agony, he says in Colossians 1.28, for we proclaim him admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom that we may present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose, I labor, striving," same words, according to his power, which mightily works within me. The ministry requires a power that is beyond the physical strength of any man. Hence one reason, another reason why physical discipline is not all that helpful. It's not without its benefit in terms of the ministry. It is, it has some value. But what we need, the minister needs, is the power that mightily works within him that comes from God alone. It's the only way you can wear yourself out, striving with the things of the gospel. Paul will say to the Corinthians, talking about these ministers who have the ministry of the new covenant, he says, who's adequate for these things? Implied answer, no one. but praise be to God for he, our adequacy is of him. And that's one reason why it's so important for you all to be praying for your officers and especially for your elders. It is a hard, hard work. It cannot be taken lightly. It's something if done correctly will wear you out. But thanks be to God, we think of Isaiah about, you know, He'll cause you to have eagle's wings and rise up and continue. And there's days I know when I am really discouraged, I think, I'm done, I can't do it another day. And then the new day comes and the strength of God is there and I think, okay, Lord, let's go, this is the opportunity. Because what are we doing? What are we laboring and striving for? Because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who's the savior of all men, especially believers. We have fixed our hope. Our hope is not on Tuesday, November 5th. Our hope is not in Washington. Our hope is not in the Republican or the Democratic Party. Everybody knows it's the Green Party. Not even them, of course. Our hope is in Christ and the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Our hope is that this is not the best world or the best life now, as some have written books about. We look for that which will come in which there will be a new heavens and a new earth. The dead will be raised in Christ and we'll meet him in the air. and we will live with him forever and dwell with him forever, and there will be no more sickness, no more sorrow, no more pain, no more death, no more liars, no more adulterers, no more blasphemers, no more sinners. They will be excluded. And in that great time, God will set a table for us in the presence of those enemies who will look on and have no part in it. He will set a table there for us. He will cause our cups to be overflowing with whatever he has for us. He will anoint our heads with oil. We will realize the greatness of the goodness and mercy that has pursued after us each and every day of this life. And we will know something of the great mystery that we are at the beginning of living in this house forever. And that's what we fix our hope on. Not in how well things are going in the moment. Because the moment is just a moment. This moment will soon be gone. Our lives are but a breath, a flicker of a flame. And when you're young and you hear that, you have no idea what that means. But when you pass a certain age, you think, yeah, I get it. This moment that we're in will soon be gone. But eternity is forever. And that is where we have fixed our hope. Because there is a living God who is the Savior especially those of believers. We focused on that briefly last week, that the death of Christ is sufficient for all. You can share the gospel with anyone. You don't have to worry about whether or not they're the elect or anything. You can share the gospel. You can tell with anyone, with authority, the authority of God, with the power of the gospel. You can tell anyone. that if you will repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, your sins shall surely be forgiven. And with the same authority and same dogmatism, you can say to them, and if you refuse to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you will perish forever in your sins. And the way Paul puts this, he says, especially the believers, the salvation that Christ has won for us is especially for those who believe. In other words, it is only for those who believe. Jesus didn't come to save in some type of milquetoast, purple haze sort of way that just kind of filters out and blesses all sorts of people. God is redeeming his people. Christ is calling out of the world those the Father has given to him. And while the death of Christ is of infinite value and magnitude, it's been uniquely designed to redeem those who God has chosen and called from before the foundation of the world. And what is the evidence of that? But the fact that you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. The evidence of your election is your faith. Sometimes people will say to me, oh, pastor, I don't know, I believe on Jesus, but I don't know if I'm the chosen one. And I simply ask, do you believe? Again, you said you believe on Christ. Yes, why do you believe on Christ? Because he's such a wonderful Savior. But how do I know he saved me? Do you believe that he died for a sinner just like you? Yes, I believe. Well, then you're one of the elect because what we're told in Romans 8, the unbeliever does not believe in God, suppresses the truth of God, is at enmity with God at his very core. If you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, then that is evidence of God working in you the grace of eternal life, grounded in his eternal decree, and that everything he has designed from the foundation of the world to the consummation of the world, Everything he has designed in the coming and the life and death and resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ has been absolutely designed for the salvation of those who will believe and call upon the name of the Lord and you don't have to worry about it. Most of you know that at least when it comes to certain things, I like a lot of what Steve Jobs had to say. Not so much how he lived, but he talks about design and something that is designed well is designed to do exactly what it was intended to do. And all of you have bought products in your life, whether they be computer or some car or lawnmower or whatever, and you look at that and it's designed so poorly. One of my favorite design flaws ever happens to be in the car. one of the two cars I would love to own, and that is the Corvette. Where is the gas tank lid for a Corvette? It's on the back, kind of like where you might think a trunk lid is, but there's no trunk. You lift this little lid and you pour gas in. Great, easy to get to, right? But General Motors sells an option for your Corvette called a luggage rack. Where does the luggage rack go? Right over the top of the gas lid. So you get your honey and you go, let's go on a day trip with our new Corvette. And you climb into the Corvette and you put all the luggage on that, on that, luggage rack, and you drive off into down Route 66 into the sunset, having a gay old time, and you've gone 10 miles, and you realize we've got to get gas, because we drank up all the gas in 10 miles, and you go over, and then you have to take all the luggage off the luggage rack in order to fill it up, and then put all the luggage back on. That is a terrible design. And you've all experienced it in one form or another. But God has designed that everything that happens, even the bird that falls to the ground, even the hair that falls from your head, down to the smallest detail, the smallest atom, everything that exists, exists for His glory and for the salvation of His church. to the honor and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is designed flawlessly. There's no extraneous parts. There's no parts that just don't work. There's no parts that are just not needed. It is flawless. And Paul says in our last part, of the good minister, he's to point these things out, he's to preach this gospel, and lastly, he is to prescribe and teach these things. He is to give himself to teaching. We've seen in our study of the keys of the kingdom by John Cotton that the elders have been given the key of authority to teach with authority, and that is a double-edged sword. The pastor who's teaching is not free to teach whatever he wants. I remember telling you that I used to have this little thing when I printed off in one of the very first computers I had, back in the dot matrix printers. Some of you have no idea what that is. But a dot matrix printer, and it printed off this quote from R.C. Sproul, I am not free to teach what I want the Bible to say, what I hope the Bible will say, I'm only free to teach what the Bible actually does say. And that's a hard job. But when the man of God is teaching, he is to teach in such a way as he teaches with authority. Remember how the Sermon on the Mount ends, that they're all marveling at Jesus because he was speaking as one who has authority. And throughout the years of my life, I've watched men walk into a pulpit, and they have lots of things to say, and some of them say it really wonderfully. And some will say it so doctrinally true and precisely, but they teach with no authority. Preaching is to bind the conscience of people. It's to show you the way of wisdom and call you to repentance and faith in those things. And so the man of God as he prescribes and teaches these things is not to add or subtract, teaches his opinion or his perspective. He better be pretty careful in what he does. And yet every pastor fails at that. But he's not free to do so. Because you are depending upon what goes on to know the truth. Because you will breathe your last. You will pass from this life and this age to the age to come. And I think we all would agree that as you're breathing your last, you don't wanna be saying, oh, I hope this is okay. I hope this is true. I hope pastor was right. We're to prescribe and to teach these things, not other things. Then it says, then he gives a lot of direction to Timothy, giving a list of things that he is to consider. And the first is, let no one look down on your youthfulness. Well, how young was Timothy? Well, we don't know exactly, but we know that the word youth here in the Greek could apply to anybody 40 or younger. So at 40 years of age, you could still be called a young man, right? And we know from the book of Acts that Timothy had already been converted and been with Paul for at this particular moment for at least 15 years. 15 years of traveling with the apostle Paul. One writer says that the young associate, after considering the biblical data, says he probably was at least 30, probably closer to 35. And there are certain people who will still look down on him as a youthful guy. Well, what's he know? He's only 35. But Paul says, let no one look down on your youthfulness. How? How was he not to allow that? Rather, by speech and conduct, love, faith, and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe. He must have a life worthy of imitation. Paul will say, imitate me even as I have imitated Christ. The man of God must not only be able to prescribe and teach certain things, he is to live what he teaches. He is to be an embodiment of his doctrine. I showed you some verses last week from Titus, which reminds us that we are to adorn sound doctrine. We're not to be what a friend of mine used to say in seminary, Bill Neal, he used to say to me, oh yeah, that guy, he's just a Bible breath. They can tell you all about the Bible, and they can spew out all their doctrine, but they don't live it. They breathe out Scripture, but it has not had any impact on their life. And so he is to be an example. Not perfect. None of us are perfect. But in how he speaks, in how he conducts himself, his love, his faith, his purity, Show yourself as an example. And until I come, verse 13, give yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching. If you have a New American Standard or a study Bible such as that, you might notice that the word public and of Scripture is in italics, which means in the New American Standard, those words are not in the text. The words actually are simply give your attention to reading, to exhortation, and to teaching. So why did they add those words? Well, because the word for reading is the same word used throughout the New Testament for public readings. For like in Luke 4, chapter, Luke 4, 16. Remember when Jesus goes into the synagogue in, in Nazareth and he's handed the scripture. He stands and he reads. This word is used to describe that public reading of scripture. It's used that way in Acts 13 of Paul in one of his missionary trials. We know from the Old Testament, the great revival that comes in the book of Nehemiah is when Ezra stood and opened up the books of the law and began to read from them. There's something about the public reading of scripture And that's why we try to read so much scripture here, whether it be like this morning, not just looking at a few verses, but reading the entire chapter, or the evening service, the reading of an entire chapter as we work our way through the Bible. There's something sacred about that. It's interesting, I think, in that even in the book of Revelation, we're reminded in the very opening verses of the sacredness of reading and hearing the word of God. The apostle John, writes for us that the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him to show to his bondservants, the things which must soon take place. And he sent and communicated to his angel, to his bondservant, John, who testifies to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Verse three, blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy. and heed the things that are written in it, for the time is near." This promise blessing in the public reading and the hearing of the word of God. And it's interesting that you can go to churches, I know this is happening, because some of you have said you visited other churches, maybe on holiday or family relatives, and you say, you know, they never opened up the Bible at all. What is that? I remember hearing a very famous preacher, very famous preacher, and not probably who you're thinking of, but very famous, considered to be a great exegete. And he would preach for about an hour. This is not a West Coast guy, in case you're thinking of that. And he'd read one verse, one verse, preach for an hour, and never explain the verse. He would spend the whole time looking at all sorts of other verses, which may or may not support the verse that was the one he read. And this man's held up as an example of a great expositor. I thought, really? So until I come give the attention to the public reading of the scriptures, to exhortation, The word exhortation, as I think most of you know, comes from the Greek word parakaleo, paraclete, if you will. And it's one of the early Greek words I had to learn in my Greek lessons. And parakaleo is a combination of two words, para, where we get our word parallel, and kaleo, to call, to call alongside. And the Holy Spirit is called the paraclete, because he's called alongside of believers. But here the word of God and the public reading of the word of God and the exhortation is to call us to come alongside the word, to hear the word, to believe the word, to understand the word and to go live the word. We're not reading just to fulfill some empty religious exercise. We're reading for that blessing that comes when the word of God comes alongside of the believers, and to hear, and to believe. In part because the ministry of this particular church, there is a growing interest in psalm singing amongst Reformed Baptist churches. In fact, I've been told by people involved with the publishing of the Psalter, particular Psalter that we use, that the leading denomination of church purchasers from them of psalters are Baptists, for which I am very thankful. And I think that's a no small part because of this church and the ministry that we have had all the way back in 2018 or whatever it is, then we hosted the General Assembly. But the question will always come, And I get it from several guys, they say, how do you get your church to sing Psalms? You know, I said, well, don't tell them they have to. Just pick one, start singing it. And when they've learned that one, add another one. Because one of the things that is true of believers is they love the word of God. It's not to say there aren't other good things, but the Word of God has a unique role in the life of the believer, a role that it doesn't play in the life of anyone else. And when Christians hear the Word of God, they love the Word of God. They naturally respond to the Word of God. And then to know that as you sing, you have the very words of God on your lips, And you know the very things that you sing are approved of God because he gave them to us. And they reveal to us so much about the life of our most wonderful Savior, his mind, his thoughts, his prayers, his struggles, his praises, his victories, his defeats. And as a true man, the infinite God-man who came and was a real man to see that his struggles sound an awful lot like ours, and to know here is how a godly man responds to life in a fallen world, and to be able to sing these words back, it doesn't take long for people to start asking, as happened here, can we sing more? Can we sing more? And as a preacher's role is to not only read the word, but to call people alongside, to bring the word of God alongside in such a way that people have the opportunity to engage the word, not just intellectually, but holistically in their mind, their heart, their mouth, their souls. That's what to do. and to teach, and don't stop reading, don't stop exhorting, and do not stop teaching. Do not neglect, he goes on to say, the spiritual gift within you, which was bestowed on you through the prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the presbytery. Understand that verse 14, I think, and we might stumble in terms of the word presbytery. This is not the function of a presbytery outside the local church, but the elders in agreement with the congregation that a man has been set apart by the Holy Spirit with a spiritual gift, and the church formally sets this man apart with the declaration that this man has been gifted by the work of God, the spirit of God, for being a teacher to the people of God, is recognized formally and publicly, including the elders, the presbytery, laying hands on this man in the midst of the congregation. So the man is not free to just make himself a teacher, he's not free to simply say, well, I'll sign up, I'll do that, I'll volunteer. Now the congregation and the elders together must recognize this man as being gifted and called. And when a man has been recognized as gifted and called, he is then obligated to fulfill that obligation. striving and laboring hard for these things, teaching and admonishing these things, living these things. And the congregation, having recognized him, must respond in like saying, we have seen and so have declared this man has been set apart by God, that we must honor that and respond accordingly. Unless the man has become unfaithful in doctrine or life, And he says to Timothy, take pains in these things, be absorbed in them in such a way that the congregation will see progress and will be evident to all. When you start out preaching, you don't do a good job at it. Just like everything else in life. First time you try a new sport, First time you try a new program on your computer. First time you try to remodel in your house. It's not going to be as good as when you've done it for a long time. It's just the way it is. Sometimes it would be nice if when you're young, you started with all the wisdom and talent of an old man and lose it because you don't need it when you get old because you can't do anything. I remember reading Cicero on getting old. I've told you that before. It's a wonderful book. And Cicero laughed at, Cicero caused me to laugh because he's writing about 44 BC and the issues haven't changed. The same complaints and gripes of old age weren't there in the Roman Empire and you become useless. And he talks about generals and how generals get old and they can't fight anymore and nobody cares and yet they still wanna go out and fight. And his exhortation and encouragement to them is as an old man, Don't worry about fighting anymore, but teach the younger generals who are gonna fight all the great wisdom and insight you have of having won and lost battles. And so the pastor is to be absorbed in these things. So when he is older, he has something to teach the younger. And the improvement of the younger should be evident. I don't have it anymore, but I remember having a cassette tape of one of the very first messages I ever preached. And I had it in the glove box of my car back when cars had cassette players, right? If you don't know what a cassette player is, ask your parents later. And I remember several years, multiple years later, slipping that cassette tape in. I was so pleased with that message. It was quite blessed of the Lord in terms of its delivery. but I listened to that thing and I buried it. I disposed of that thing. I didn't want anybody to ever hear that thing. There's progress. And the congregation needs to allow for that progress, but the man of God must pursue that progress and be absorbed in making that progress. And how will he do that? By paying close attention to himself. It's very important that we start with the fact that I am the problem. I, meaning not me personally, I have to start that way, but that I is your I. The problem is, as I think the cartoon Id said, we've met the enemy and it is us. Before you start laying criticism under people, understand you are the problem. You are the one with the beam in the eye. You are the one who is judgmental. You are the one who is sinful. Before you start casting any stones, stop and consider. I think I read that somewhere. Oh yes, I did. The gospel of John and the Lord Jesus Christ. And so to this good minister, he's got to pay close attention to himself. How does he respond? How does he relate? Because we're all sinful, we all struggle, we all have weaknesses. And it's not a problem, we're human, it's okay to be human. It is perfectly okay not to be perfect. Because there is nobody who is perfect. And if you think you are perfect, you just proved you're not perfect. Because there's a major flaw in your thinking. You don't have to hide. We can be real with one another, and we need to be real with one another. But we need to have the love of God and the forgiveness of God towards one another. But to be honest and be open and to be encouraging, but to be honest with ourselves. Because how we act has an impact on other people. And what we teach has an impact on what other people believe. I remember listening in chapel one day in seminary, and Chuck Swindoll was the speaker. I don't know if you know who he is or was or really care much about what he might have to say, but he made this one comment that has stayed with me for these 40, 50 years. He said, it's a fearful thing to know that as you're preaching, that someone in your congregation's entire systematic theology hangs upon the very next word that you say. How many times have you heard somebody say, but my pastor says this? Or some pastor they don't even know, and he doesn't know them, but he's a national. But pastor so-and-so says this. As you teach, you better pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching, and persevere in these things. I don't get guys. who tell me, especially when they are 25 years younger than me, that they're burned out. I don't get that. I really don't get that. Because by nature, remember, we saw already that it's a labor and a striving. And there will come a time when a man will wear out. That does happen. But the understanding of the job is you have to persevere in these things. It's not something you've done over a weekend, or for a month, or for a couple years. But the striving, the labor, the prescribing, the teaching, the reading, the exhortation, the self-reflection, being absorbed and advancing in these things so that others might notice. These are the things you persevere in one day after another, week after another. I used to know this guy named Don Trudy. He was on my swim team. He was a butterflyer. Don Trudy used to swim the entire two-hour workout doing butterfly, something that I have no... When I was a swimmer, I couldn't understand how he would do that. If you've ever tried to do butterfly, I think you'll know what I mean. But he would go a step further. He used to have these little inner tubes, tiny little inner tubes that you would wrap around your ankles in order to isolate your feet so he can only use your upper body. And he would swim the entire workout with pretty much his legs bound that way. And I remember asking him, how in the world do you do that? And he says, it's pure mechanics. It's one stroke after another stroke after another stroke. That's perseverance. If it's easy, it's not perseverance. It's when it's hard. It's when you're tired. It's when you're exhausted, and you're breathing hard, and your legs are worn out, and you don't think you can take another step, but you do. And when you've taken that step, you take the next one. This is what a good minister does. He must do this in paying attention to himself and his teaching. He must persevere in these things. For as you do this, you will ensure the salvation both of yourself and for those who hear you. The good minister is a key way in which God will bring about salvation to other people. Why? Because the gospel is ordinarily a message that is heard. It must be taught, it must be proclaimed, it must be announced. It's news that comes from outside of us. The gospel is not native to who you are. The law is native to you. It was written upon your law and heart the moment you were conceived. But the gospel comes from outside of you. And you must preach the gospel to yourself every day. You must remind yourself every day that there's the sufficiency of Christ, the sufficiency of His grace, the abounding nature of His grace, the love of God, which is so wonderful that it gave us His only begotten Son, that all would believe in Him, would not perish. You must proclaim these things to yourself every day. And the good and faithful preacher is one who is giving you the right things to preach to yourself. And he himself is preaching these things to you and teaching you these things over and over and over again. It's like making your bed. You get up in the morning and you make the bed. I'm married to a woman who loves to have that bed made. on holiday and we're in a hotel and she wants us to make the bed. I'm going, honey, they pay somebody to come and do that for us. No, we need to make the bed. All right? And there's something about it. Why make the bed? Because tonight we're just going to get back in and mess it all up again, right? It seems pointless. Guys are probably understanding what I'm saying. Women are going, what? What are you talking about? but preaching to yourself, but in this context, the good minister has to make the bed every day. The sheets need to be cleaned, they need to be changed, the blanket needs to be tucked in. The pillowcases need to be changed. New ones need to be purchased. And on and on, every day, every week, every month, every year, you're doing the same thing over and over and over again. And this is the primary means by which God will assure, ensure the salvation both of the minister and those who hear it. You should never come to church at Community Baptist Church and not hear the words of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. You should not ever come feeling shorted or slighted by the reading and the hearing of the word, the explaining of the word and the application of the word. And I was accused of that once. Young lady back there in third row from the back in the blue sweater, Clara Tellinghues, and came up to me. I preached a sermon. Some people say, well, how long do you preach? I don't know. I have something I want to say. I say it, and when I'm done, I'm done. And sometimes it takes a long time, as you all know. But one Sunday, it took about 30 minutes. That's all I had. And Clara came up to me, and she said to me, I feel cheated. What do you mean you feel cheated? I only got half a sermon. Do you remember saying that to me? And she's nodding, yeah. She wanted more. Oh, that was a wonderful rebuke. Oh, may I be rebuked more like that. But that's what you should expect. I've had friends who've come and visit us and they say, your service is so long. Really? You'll watch a two or three hour movie. You'll watch a three hour football game. Really? We're to be absorbed in these things, pay close attention to these things, persevere in these things. For to do this, you will ensure the salvation both of yourself and those who hear you. Community Baptist Church should have nothing or very little left to offer you other than the things that attend to the salvation of you and your family in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. because that's all we have to offer. In doing these things, in the pointing out of the things that are true about the age in which we live, in the preaching of that gospel, and in taking time to consider the living out of this truth, and the reading, and the teaching, and the exhorting, and being absorbed and persevering of these things, the grace of God flows to the salvation of sinners such as you and me. May God bless us with the reading and the hearing of God's word to the salvation of our souls. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much. Our hope is not in men. Our hope is not in the perfections of men. Our hope is in Christ and his most wonderful gospel. We pray, Lord, that you would help us to hear, to believe. Give us the grace to persevere in the things that we've heard, both in the delivering and in the receiving. And grant, Lord, that we might all the more grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, in whom we pray. Amen.