The phrase sound doctrine doesn't give the same impression to everyone. That has to be said. While there are people who hear the phrase sound doctrine and are immediately energized because of it, that's not the case for everyone. The word doctrine has connotations in the evangelical sphere and has for some time connotations of dryness or boredom. I think Dorothy Sayers' words are right. She's a British author and scholar from the early 1900s, and she wrote a series of essays in a book called Letters to a Diminished Church. She said, official Christianity of late has been having what's known as bad press. We're constantly assured that the churches are empty because preachers insist too much upon doctrine. Dull dogma, as people call it. The fact is the precise opposite, she says. It is the neglect of dogma that makes for dullness. The Christian faith is the most exciting drama that has ever staggered the imagination of man. The dogma is the drama, she says, and she's right. What Sayers is pushing back against is the notion that in order for churches to grow and for Christianity to be appealing, we must minimize what the church believes. That is a horrific strategy, and it comes from hell. The result would be many people professing to be Christians while not believing in anything in particular. The Bible, to the contrary, reveals God to us. God himself has been pleased to make himself known in the truth of scripture. So our need is to know the God of the Bible, for he is the living God, the maker of heaven and earth, one transcendent above the false idols of the age. When you read through the letters of the apostles written to the churches of Christ, a major takeaway from them. is the teaching and understanding the gospel is absolutely vital for the health of a local church. Absolutely vital. Paul writes to Timothy with this on his heart. He writes to Timothy in a letter that over six chapters, this proves to be a very dominant concern. Timothy's in Ephesus. Because in the Ephesian church there were needs and Paul had sent Timothy there and told Timothy to remain there. Paul, he tells us in verse three, was on his way to Macedonia, he had told Timothy to stay. And it tells us in this letter that there were false teachers who've arisen out of the ranks of the Ephesian church. In Acts chapter 20, Paul warned that this was going to happen. This should not have taken anybody in Ephesus by surprise. When Paul was departing in Acts chapter 20, he'd gathered the leaders of the Ephesus church. And he said that when I leave, there will be wolves from among you that are going to rise and seek to prevail over the flock. He writes to Timothy because Paul saw down the road what was coming in Ephesus. This was a major city, a metropolis of a quarter million people, a massive place of idol worship. and commerce and tourism and travel. And in the heart of this city is a church that needs to hold fast to sound doctrine. And yet there are influencers in their midst who are not keeping the gospel clear or guarding it from error. There are people who are teaching error and in doing so, they're obscuring the gospel. So here's what he says to Timothy in verse three, I need you to stop them. I need you to stop them, command them, charge them not to teach any different doctrine. That assumes an objective apostolic tradition or set of teachings and confessions about who Jesus is, what the gospel is, what is identifying a Christian and what would identify someone not a Christian if it's rejected. And here, after the doctrine of the apostles, which is the doctrine of Christ, is proclaimed and taught in churches like Ephesus, there are those who arise who want to teach something different from what has been taught as the sound doctrine of the apostles. So Paul says, I need you to charge them not to do that. Now, that's a heavy assignment, must have been filled with the potentialities of awkward conversations in store. But the stakes are high. And that's because false gospels don't save sinners and false theology hurts people. And Paul knows this. Timothy knows this. So they're going to have to do hard things for the sake of the spiritual well-being of people. People need to be taught who God is and why the problem of sin exists and what the rescue plan for sinners involves, which must involve talking about who Jesus is and what Jesus has done, his person and his work. It must involve what that means for the world and what our proper response is, what we've been made for, and what living as a Christian means. We could say the people of God, therefore, need sound doctrine. They're gonna be taught. You don't get converted and simply know everything you need to know. We have to learn. By the word sound, in the phrase sound doctrine, I mean sound as in healthy. Not sound as in something you hear audibly. We're familiar with sounds like that. But if you're feeling unwell or you're feeling unsound, it's a way of talking about something physically being off. And by analogy, doctrine that is sound is doctrine that is not only clear, but healthy. Healthy doctrine. Healthy churches don't result from unhealthy doctrine. Healthy doctrine, sound doctrine, is vital for a healthy church. Healthy churches are downstream from sound doctrine that is held to, defended, confessed, and loved. Sound doctrine produces sound disciples. This is why Paul says to Timothy with some urgency the things he says here. He doesn't open the letter shooting the breeze. Timothy, let me tell you about how the weather in Macedonia was and what we've been doing. Instead, there's not even a paragraph of thanksgiving, which would have been quite normal for many of Paul's letters. He just gets right to business. And he's going to authorize Timothy. Because he, Paul, is an apostle of the Lord Jesus. And his authority is not something to be seen as trivial, to be trifled with in the churches in the ancient Near East. In fact, when he as an apostle gives an instruction to Timothy, Timothy should be obeyed in the church in Ephesus because it ultimately comes from Paul, I say ultimately, ultimately from Christ, who through the authority of Paul is authorizing Timothy for this difficult work. So he said in verse three, as I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that's by faith. So what's happened is, within the ranks of the Ephesian church, people are starting to teach things, or have been teaching things, that are obscuring the gospel, and these are not the kind of leaders and teachers needed in the flock. Paul writes to Timothy, you must stop this. Because this is not a peripheral issue. This is something that is undermining sound doctrine and obscuring the gospel, and that means if it is not dealt with, people's souls will be harmed by this. It is that serious. Let's look at the aim of the charge in verse 5. We're going to spend the majority of our time this morning on verse 5. And then I'll make some comments about verses 6 and 7 as well. But thinking on verse 5 for a bit, the aim of the charge. The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. He refers to a charge. I read through, including verse three just now, because in verse three he said, I charge you. charging certain persons not to teach any different doctrine. That word charge in verse three is the same idea here in verse five. He has that earlier command, charge them not to teach any different doctrine. He has that in view in verse five. Remain in Ephesus for this charge. He calls it our charge. Because Paul's giving a directive, but he says to Timothy, now you're to give this directive. I'm giving you a command, and you're to give this charge. There is a succession here that we can notice. Paul's an apostle of Jesus. Paul is gonna write to Timothy. Timothy's to charge those certain people not to teach any different doctrine. There's a succession of expectation here, and that's why it's not just Paul's charge, it becomes Timothy's when Timothy gives it. It's our charge, Paul says. These false teachers need to be concerned because not just Timothy is up in arms about something. What's Timothy got going on? What's his problem? No, Timothy's charge is coming from Paul, the apostle, and to defy an apostolic charge is to put yourself against the one the apostle represents, the Lord Jesus. Now, this charge has a goal. Well, how could it not? Paul doesn't give random instructions, unnecessary commands. Paul's letters have reasons. He's got things that he's trying to accomplish when he writes. Same thing with any of his imperatives. Paul's letters, whether to churches or whether to individuals, they're written in response to something. They're not just mere inquiries. How are things going? Signed, Paul. You know, it's not anything like that. Instead, there's something that needs to be addressed. Something that needs to be corrected. Maybe something that needs to be advanced and cultivated ever more. But he's got a goal. So the question is, what's the goal of this charge? The charge, the goal, is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. So he wants to see sound doctrine flourish and false doctrine purged for love. You should think through this for a moment. He's not just saying this is my motive, I'm writing to you out of love. That's no doubt true, of course he loves them. Over and over in his letters, he will say to his people, oh, when I think of you and I remember you in prayer, I hold you with such affection in my heart. Oh, he loves them, but love is not the motive identified here, it's the goal. The goal of his instruction, which no doubt was motivated by love, the goal is to accomplish something he calls love. Paul's desire is to see sound doctrine flourish and false teaching purged for the sake of love. He doesn't just say, our aim is to make you really smart. Our aim is to make you really acceptable and cool. Our aim is love. That's the goal, to form disciples marked by Christian love. This is a goal of Paul's elsewhere. You see this in Romans 13, verse eight. He says, the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. That means love sounds really important. If it can be said as fulfilling the law, the law was a large body of commands. Love fulfills the law. Well, then love must be a major main thing. In Romans 13, 10, love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. He says in Romans 13, 9, the commandments are summed up in this. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. But it's not just Paul. This is Jesus. They said to Jesus, what's the greatest commandment? He said, well, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. You didn't ask about a second one, but I'll give it to you for free. The second is love your neighbor as yourself. And they said, OK, just gave us two. A greatest commandment, Deuteronomy 6, love God. Leviticus 19, love your neighbor. Love is the idea. What does Paul want? Paul wants to see local churches brimming with people of love. And you know what gets in the way of that? Unhealthy doctrine. You know what helps cultivate and produce that? Sound doctrine. So in 1 Timothy, Paul does not separate being a loving person from what that person believes. He writes 1 Timothy because he's very concerned about what people believe. And he knows that what people believe is shaping the kind of people they're becoming. This is why it does no good to think and say the nonsensical things that sound like this. Well, let's focus less on what we believe and more on loving others well. Sound doctrine is not just informational. the kind of thing to be either added or taken away, and it's like we could keep it, we could leave it, you know, it's extraneous. Sound doctrine is not just informational, it is transformational. Because sound doctrine roots us in truth and grows us in wisdom and directs us to Christ. We behold him in the truth and revelation of the Holy Scripture. And when people are saying what Christians say and confess what Christians confess, we aren't left unchanged. So, do you want to become a person of Christ-like love and character? Then be unashamedly committed to the Bible. Be present where the Bible is taught. Come prayerfully, humbly, openheartedly to receive the truth of scripture, to fill your soul with the gospel and the doctrine of the word. Do not believe the idea floating around in our culture that Christians need to be less confessional, less convictional, so they can be more loving and more accepting. That is not from the Bible. Our culture defines love as acceptance and affirmation. But I want you to ask yourself whether those notions of love resonate with the Jesus who confronts us in Holy Scripture. Is our culture's view of love the same as the Bible's view of love? It is not. The culture's view of love is very diluted when it comes to comparing it with the Bible's teaching. The idea is very prevalent around us that if someone really loves you, they're gonna accept you as you are and expect no change from you, that you should just be you and your authentic self should be celebrated. But what if your authentic self is a sinful self? What if what we are understanding to be true of our problem in human nature is not something the culture can give us words and remedies for? Slogans and mantras that actually don't change the heart. What if we need the gospel? What if we need a savior outside of ourselves? And indeed, this is the proclamation of scripture. Friends, there is no one more loving than Jesus. And Jesus said, the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. No one is more loving than Jesus, and he said, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. No one is more loving than Jesus, and he says in Luke 14, 27, whoever doesn't bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. Here's what I think we can conclude. Describing love as merely acceptance and affirmation is a failure to see love in the scope of scripture itself. How convenient, actually, for sinners that we would think of love as something that would require no repentance or obedience. It's much more in line with the world. If our authentic self is a sinful self, then we need salvation, not affirmation. We need deliverance from condemnation. We need to become new in Christ. Because what if our temporary acceptance and affirmation of others still leads to destruction and condemnation in the end? How helpful are we to our neighbor in that case? Biblical love takes into account the whole of your life. Biblical love takes into account the whole of your life, which includes this life and the one that comes next. Biblical love aims to serve your soul's deepest good. Biblical love produces human flourishing by rightly ordering our words and actions toward our neighbor, because sin brings disorder. What you need and what your neighbor needs is real love, biblical love, the love and grace of Christ. And Paul's aim of this charge is love. This is what he's after. But not some kind of squishy, undefinable love. Love that is anchored in truth and shaped by the scriptures, the God who's made himself known in the word. There's a threefold source he wants this love to flow from. This love, he says, flows from three things. A pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. We need to know what those three phrases mean because if love is really that important and love is what the aim of this charge is, well it flows from these three things. This is not trivial stuff. This is the stuff of the Christian life, of sanctification, of the pursuit of holiness. What are we talking about when he says pure heart? The pure heart is a phrase trying to sum up what it is for a sinner to encounter the changing grace of God. A pure heart, this is not to say, well, wait a second, I thought that we were corrupt in body and soul and that we needed salvation in a holistic sense to be redeemed, not just spiritually, but risen from the dead to glory. A pure heart is not to deny our need. A pure heart is the result of a sinner encountering the life-giving grace of God. A pure heart is not what you are born with. It's what you are granted by Christ. A pure heart doesn't mean a heart that has no sin. It means a heart that has Christ. That's a pure heart. It's been cleansed. Pure is a ceremonial adjective. It reminds us of the Old Testament where a sacrifice had to be a certain way. It had to be pure, unblemished. It had to have a certain quality to it because of God's worth. And now we're falling short of the glory of God. And here, the good news for sinners is that we in Christ Jesus have what are called here a pure heart in the sense that we've been forgiven and cleansed because our sin defiles us and God forgives us. And that shame of sin and corruption is not greater than the mercy of God that invades the sinner's heart with power and life. And so love issues from what he calls here a pure heart. The second phrase, love comes from a good conscience. That word conscience, what does this mean in general, this word conscience? It's the inner faculty that evaluates right and wrong. It's your place of moral reason. Everybody has a conscience. There's an adjective though in this phrase, do you see it? A good conscience. Paul recognizes that while everybody has a conscience, his other letters tell us someone's conscience could be weak, in 1 Corinthians 8, or defiled, Titus 1.15, or seared, 1 Timothy 4, verse 2. So we can't assume that the presence of a conscience means that that conscience is good. What would make a conscience not good or faulty? If a conscience does not properly distinguish between what is right and wrong, that conscience would not be good. There is an objective standard, therefore, by which a conscience is measured. It's not up to someone subjectively to say, well, I think my conscience is just fine. Paul recognizes there can be said that this conscience is good or this conscience isn't. Being a sinner in a fallen world means sin has affected our conscience. My and your judgment is not 100% reliable. That's because our moral instincts can be corrupted. We can be self-deceived. Our affections can be disordered. So one way to describe Christian discipleship is the long pursuit of trying to love what God loves and trying to hate what God hates that our hearts and affections, our lives and our thoughts, our words and our deeds would be brought into conformity to the word. Amen. Christian discipleship is learning to love what God loves and hate what God hates. So a good conscience is the result over time of the Spirit's work in the heart through the Word of God. The good conscience is the result over time of the Spirit's work in the heart through the Word. We hear scripture being taught, and you know what happens over time as we submit our hearts and minds to the Word of God? The Lord conforms us. The Lord instructs our hearts. We learn, and you know what we also, sometimes we unlearn. Discipleship involves learning, but we also come to Christianity with certain preconceived ideas, maybe about human life, about meaning and things in the world, about God and the life to come. We might have certain ideas that we realize, okay, over time, I'm gonna have to unlearn what I thought was true. Because it turns out that what I thought was true isn't true, and the Word of God is bringing correction to me, not only giving me the right truth, but bringing truth to my erroneous belief. So discipleship involves learning and unlearning, and the Spirit of God is gracious to persuade our hearts of what is good and wise, what is honorable and true. Love issues from a pure heart, and a good conscience, and a sincere faith. That phrase, sincere faith, it means a genuine faith. The word faith there is being used synonymous with trust. The word trust, or faith in Christ, what the sinner has in Christ, believing Him, confessing Him, A genuine, sincere faith. This means a genuine trust in Christ or real faith leads to something. And Paul says one of the things issuing from a sincere faith is love. Now Paul's not the only one that says that. Isn't that what 1 John teaches? Isn't this what James teaches? Faith without works is dead, James 2.17. First John 3.10, by this it's evident who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil. Whoever doesn't practice righteousness is not of God, nor is someone who doesn't love his brother. First John 4.8, whoever doesn't love doesn't know God, because God is love. When Paul's telling you love comes from a sincere faith, he's saying what 1 John does and James does, just in different language, that faith without works is dead, and the regenerating power of the heart, regenerating power of the spirit upon the human heart results in the kind of change that makes outward conformity to the words of God, a life of love that is being produced. Think about the opposite qualities of the three in verse five. If love, the kind of love we want, the kind of love we need, the kind of love we are desperate as human beings for, if it comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith, you know what doesn't produce love? A rebellious heart. A heart in defiance of God and his word. What we need is a pure heart because from that issues forth love. What doesn't produce love is a rebellious heart. What doesn't produce love is a wicked conscience. If we need a good conscience, a conscience being taught and informed and shaped and tweaked by the word of God over time by the spirit, then what doesn't produce love is a wicked conscience, seared and weak, faulty and rebellious. If a sincere faith is what we need to issue forth in love, then an insincere faith, also known as hypocrisy, that does not produce love. False teaching doesn't produce biblical love. Sound doctrine has a goal, love. The goal that Paul has to charge Timothy, you command them to stop this false doctrine so that sound doctrine will flourish. The gospel will not be obscured because as the gospel is cherished and truth is loved, people are changed. But people don't change quickly. All of us could look at our lives and maybe wish from day to day even that we were more sanctified than we presently are. We can be so aware of our shortcomings, very keenly aware of our sin and how much it can simply aggravate us and it certainly doesn't make life with others easier. And yet, at the same time, we are truly changed by the power of the gospel. and are truly taught the word of God, and in his long-suffering, patient grace at work in us, he employs sound doctrine to cultivate not only a love for truth, but a people formed and becoming loving people in his grace. His mercy is that powerful. A rebellious heart, a wicked conscience, an insincere faith, that's not what produces this. If we want to be formed as people of love, you know what we need? We need sound doctrine. because the people we're becoming is influenced by what we believe, and we need to therefore be taught. Sound doctrine helps people, false doctrine hurts people, and Paul wants false teaching confronted and sound doctrine taught and spread, and the goal is to form a people of love for the glory of Christ Jesus, that their consciences would be good, their hearts would be pure and cleansed, and that their faith would be sincere and genuine. Now in verses six and seven, he gives a description of these false teachers. What we're gonna introduce with these false teachers in verses six and seven, we'll pick up more with next week in verses eight and following. Because verses eight and following, you're gonna pick up on this idea of what they're doing wrong, some specifics there about their wrongful use of the law. And we're gonna try to introduce the description of these teachers here, but he'll have more to say. So there might be lingering questions on our minds that we would love for these verses to have addressed, but they will come later in the letter. In verses six and seven, Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered in a way into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law without understanding either what they're saying or the things about which they make confident assertions. So Paul has just said, here's what we need, this goal of this charge being love to pull from a pure heart or issue from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. He says certain persons have wandered away from these. They've swerved, I should use the verbs as he's using them, swerving from these and wandered into something else. The word swerve sounds hasty, sounds rather scary. If you've been in a car and you're driving along and you have to swerve, that's not exactly what you want to characterize your driving, swerving here and swerving there. You want a more stable direction and that's exactly what is not happening due to these certain persons. because they are swerving from these. What are the these they're swerving from? I think it's what was immediately identified in verse five. Verse five, a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. Swerving from these, Certain persons have wandered away into vain discussion. So I think we can identify the these that they're swerving from. They have departed from the wrong thing, and they have wandered into the wrong thing. They've departed from what they shouldn't, I should say. They've departed from the right thing. I just mean they've departed wrongly. The right thing of the gospel, they've departed from. They've swerved, and they're wandering into something else. If you depart or swerve from one set of things, you will be left to wander into something else. How could it not be true? We're not stoic. We're formed and malleable and we take in and we internalize and we're influenced and he says here, okay, they've swerved from these. Well, it's no surprise then that they're wandering into this. And these certain persons he doesn't identify here, though I do think later in verses 18 to 20, people like what he calls in verse 20, Hymenaeus and Alexander, are a couple illustrations among a larger body or group, a faction of false teachers. These certain persons, by swerving from these, have wanders. That's his main point here, is that they've wandered into vain discussion. They are consumed with what is undermining sound doctrine and obscuring the gospel. And so the danger is, when you start teaching what is different from the doctrine Paul has taught, is that you leave orthodoxy and you depart into the opposite, which is heterodoxy, something other than. You leave orthodoxy into heterodoxy, and I think Phil Riken is correct when he says, teaching heterodoxy is perhaps the most unloving thing a person can do. Is any sin greater than the murder of a soul? Think about that. Ryken says, teaching heterodoxy is perhaps the most unloving thing a person can do. Why would he say how unloving that must be toward a neighbor? And that is because the state of their soul is the most important thing about them before God. And if what they are spending their time thinking about and believing are things that have nothing to do and actually depart from and undermine the doctrines of the church and the soundness of the gospel, then we are hurting, not helping people. wandering away, sounds a little less aggressive, swerving, and then wandering. Now, it doesn't say at the pace, which they wandered, but people have observed that when people depart sound doctrine, depart from the soundness of the gospel and the truth about Christ, they don't often do it hastily. You could put it this way, that people don't normally leave Christianity in leaps and bounds, they drift. They slowly, step by step. Move. And when you're doing things slowly, if you just took an inch step here, and one 12-inch step here, and then another inch, and then 12, and then an inch, you would, over time, taking shorter and longer steps and strides, be able to look back and realize, okay, I wasn't jumping like a track athlete every step, but enough time has passed that there is distance now between my life and what I once believed. There's drift. Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered into vain discussion. The things that occupy them are called vain. Now the word vain there means empty, lacking substance, lacking value. It is the language of futility. He's saying here, what have they become preoccupied with? Futility. What does not matter. That's what they think about, that's what they talk about, that's what they're centered on, that's what they teach. They're teaching what is de-centered. And not only are they de-centered from it, what's gonna happen to the people influenced by them? This is Paul's concern. If certain persons have swerved and then wandered, well, people are following them. And those people are gonna swerve, and those people are gonna wander. What's going on with these teachers? What's motivating this? In verse seven, he identifies a desire. They desire to be teachers of the law without understanding either what they're saying or the things about which they make confident assertions. So it's a drive they have to be teachers of the law. They wanted followers, they want influence, they wanna be in a position to teach and they wanna be teachers of the law in particular. Now the word law here is the idea of the Old Testament law. That's what they want to teach. They want to teach the Old Testament law and they're using the law wrongfully. This is going to be true for what we see later in the letter. The law is the Old Testament law. We're going to talk more about that next week. But for now, he does say something ironic about the situation. They desire to be teachers, but they don't understand either what they're saying or the things about which they make confident assertions. You ever been in a conversation with someone and you thought, I am not sure what in the world we are talking about. I'm going to have to fake it or I'm going to feel real dumb. And so you're in a conversation about some kind of matter, and someone's making a statement, and you're like, oh, yeah, you know, and you're making a, and then they're like, oh, tell me more about that, and you're thinking, I can't, though. I can't, like, I don't even know what I'm talking about, okay? I don't know what I'm talking about. And that kind of frank admission can be healthy, because, you know, truthfully, they might not know what they're talking about either. But here, the irony is, these people are full of hot air. They're talking, they're doing a lot of talking. But do they really understand what they're talking about? They don't. They don't understand the words that they mean. If somebody pressed them and asked to explain, they can't do it. And if they pressed in on the subjects themselves, a level of ignorance is present. Well, this is very awkward. These people are ignorant and very confident. That's a dangerous combination. They're making claims, but they lack understanding about the things they're trying to teach. That is unhelpful. It is reckless and dangerous. However, There is a difficulty in this. Because they're so confident in what they're saying, they're gonna be less prone to be corrected. The more confident they are in what they're saying, the less likely they are to reconsider their positions. When you mix together incompetence and overconfidence, you are dealing with a terrible concoction. That's Timothy's problem here. This is what he's dealing with. Incompetence and overconfidence in the midst of the Ephesian church These people are causing such havoc. Timothy's task is not an easy one, but it is a worthy one. After all, how many things in life are worth doing that are always easy? Things worth doing are difficult. Things that can have the most lasting impact in our lives and in the generations to come can be notoriously taxing, but altogether worth it. So he's not called to an easy task, he's called to a worthy one, even if it's hard. The people in Ephesus are important. That's why that matters. Their spiritual lives are of value. The well-being of their souls matters more than the awkwardness of dealing with the false teachers. So like Timothy, we must keep the goal of healthy instruction in mind. Healthy instruction produces spiritually healthy people, people marked by love. The fruit of this endeavor is clear in verse five. The aim of our charge is love. We need a pure heart. We need a good conscience. We need a sincere faith. And one of the things that God is gracious to work out in our lives is that we become disciples who are growing and loving God and loving one another well. And we can rejoice in the faithfulness of God who does this work. Praise be to God. He will complete the work he has begun in us. By God's grace, we will not swerve from these things. By God's grace, we will not depart and wander into vanities. Rather, we will devote ourselves to the glory of the gospel and the sound doctrine of the Holy Scripture. That year by year, as God grants us breath and energy, this will be our focus. Dorothy Sayers is right. The Christian faith is the most exciting drama that ever staggered the imagination of man. The dogma is the drama, and we are not helped by notions that in order to be more loving, we need to minimize what we believe. Paul doesn't think that's true. Consider how this truth connects to what's going on this time of year. What are Christians around the world taking special effort to remember and celebrate? We are remembering the incarnation of the Son of God. who for our salvation became man. The eternal son takes to himself a human nature. The son is born of the Virgin Mary, the Lord Jesus, truly God, truly man, born that he might deliver us. He comes to subdue demons and disease. He comes to subdue sin and death. He comes to live without sin, that he might take our sins upon himself. He comes to be a new Adam, where his death on the cross is the fulfillment of why the manger ever happened. There's nothing in the history of the universe more staggering and glorious than the good news of the incarnation. This is part of the sound doctrine we confess. So when we tell people to rejoice, and we say that we want to be people characterized by the joy of the season, we want that to be most deeply rooted in what we believe. And what is it that we believe? What is this doctrine we confess? What is this healthy and sound teaching about the person and work of Christ? that the eternal Son of God is the incarnate Son of God, and that that staggering news calls upon sinners to turn to Him with faith, that in coming to know Christ, they would be delivered from their sin and know life eternal in His blessed union and forgiving mercy. We echo the words, therefore, of Paul in verse 17. To the king of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. Let's pray.