Dr. Clarence Sexton was here two or three years ago for a Bible conference. And ever since then, people have been wanting to know, when can we have this man of God back again? He's a very busy man, but he has graciously carved out time for us. And I say that literally, carved out time for us. I don't know how he has it all in a day that he does. He's just returned, he and his wife, Eben, from some time in the British Isles where they have an adjunct school and some ministries there with some of their graduates in England, Wales, and Scotland. He's just returned and he's come here to be with us again. You all know him as the founder and president of Crown College, a sister institution we love very, very much and recommend very highly. You know him as the pastor of Temple Baptist Church in Powell, Tennessee, a suburb of Knoxville. He founded that church, I believe, in the late 80s. He began his ministry years ago in Tennessee For seven years he was pastor, and then for, I believe, five years he was an associate at Highland Park Baptist Church in Chattanooga. Then he went to New Jersey, real nearby, Brother Brown, just 11 miles west of New York City, and pastored there for some eight years, and then went to his present location as founder. I love this man because he loves Jesus Christ, And He loves the people of God, wherever they may be. I love Him because He has good sense. Practical, common, good sense Christianity. I love Him because He is filled with the Holy Ghost, but He is also a good man. That's a Bible criteria for a servant of Christ. His personal integrity, his straightforward truthfulness, his willingness to be the friend of the people of God. He is the kind of fundamentalist that I want to be like. He has a ministry with the sort of breadth and loving practicality that is akin to what we would hope to have here at BJU. I just can't tell you how thrilled I am that he is here with us. He is a friend of the Lord and the Lord's people. And I personally treasure his friendship. And I love his ministry, and I thank God from the depth of my soul for what the Lord is doing through this man and those who have come alongside of him in the ministry of the church and college. I would like you to take the Word of God, please, and turn with me to the New Testament book of 2 Timothy chapter 3, and we'll begin with verse 14. 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 14. I thank God for every kindness shown me in this place and for the friendship the Lord's allowed. It's been tremendously encouraging to me, and I hope all of you are truly grateful to God for the Lord allowing you to be in this place. I am happy, happy to be identified with the cause of Christ in this place and what you're doing. God bless you for it, and may God keep you moving forward. 2 Timothy chapter 3. The Apostle Paul with pen in hand is sending, of course, this final letter to his son in the ministry. And we have, as some Southern boy might say, all of it in a nutshell here. in the third chapter in the 14th verse. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them. And I call your attention to one word, and if you're in the habit of marking things in your Bible, I want you to mark this word, would you please? It is the word continue. And may I say that everything in your life is wrapped into this verse. Everything that you enjoy at this moment is in this verse of Scripture. Everything about the past, the present, and, God willing, the future of this university is in this verse of Scripture. You and I are enjoying the blessed benefits of those who continue. And they are those who will come after us, who'll be able to know the way, and enjoy the blessed benefits that we enjoy only if we continue. No doubt in my mind about that. When I was just a young fellow starting out, I'd pastored a little over seven years, and I came to a fork in the road. I'd finished college at the University of Tennessee with a degree in education, and frankly, I'd gone to school, got a degree just to go to seminary. And I was headed off to Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, A battle royal erupted in the denomination I was a part of over the inerrancy of Scripture. And the Lord had made the choice for me, and I chose His way, and that is to stay with the Word and to stand where I believe God's people ought to stand with the inerrancy of the Scriptures. It changed my plans. I was trying to find a way to further education that God had called me to prepare with. And I wrote some people, one of which was a man by the name of Dr. R.G. Lee. R.G. Lee was a prince of preachers and a man who loved this institution greatly. When he wrote back to me to give me advice and counsel about where I could go to school, knowing I was so disturbed about the battle in the seminaries where I'd been headed, he said, there are two schools I want to recommend to you. One was Bob Jones University and the other was Tennessee Temple in Dr. Lee Roberson. As a boy, I had been in Chattanooga, had an affinity for Dr. Roberson's ministry and chose to go there to seminary. When I arrived, shortly after that, he gave me responsibility to work at the church. I came into his office one day and I said, I want to do anything imaginable to help you. Just tell me what it is. Let me have something new to do. Anything you've dreamed of doing or have on your heart and mind, give me the task. I have energy and I want to work at it and just turn me loose. Let me do it. Dr. Robertson sat there for just a moment and said, all I want Clarence is more of the same. I want you to remember that expression, more of the same. I was 26 or 27 years old. And frankly, I was disappointed what he said because I wanted to do something that hasn't hadn't been done before. But he said, all I want to do is more of the same. There's wisdom in that. I didn't understand it like I should have understood it at the time, but he said more of the same. And I want you to know that's what's in this verse. Paul is about to go out and meet God. His race is finished. Heaven is before him. He knows for certain As he pins this letter, he's bidding farewell to his precious son in the ministry. This is the counsel that he gives him. More of the same, son. More of the same. And I want you to know that in all of our natures, there's a resistance to that. We're like the Athenians and strangers meeting with Paul on Mars Hill. We want to hear about some new thing. But I want you to know, if we don't continue to do more of the same, we will cease to be doing anything that will please the Lord. Look at the verse again, would you please? But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and has been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them." There's a great deal of talk in many circles today about critical thinking. And of course, I think you know what we mean by that. Coming to the conclusions the right way. This verse is about that type of thinking. Notice, I could read it, but continue down the things which thou hast learned. and leave out the expression, and has been assured of, and just go right on. Continue thou in the things which thou hast learned, knowing of whom thou hast learned them. But it doesn't read that way. It reads, but continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and has been assured of. Do you know what your time here is all about? This is a special day to recognize the alumni. And I'm grateful for you. Aren't you thankful to God you can still be thankful to God that you can be identified with an institution that stood its ground and advanced with the Lord? Aren't you grateful for that? Well, do you know why? Because you're here to come to this expression. Continuing down the things which thou hast learned, and has been assured of. There's a process that goes on. God created us to be instructed and to be able to take this information through the gates that He's given into our lives. He made us spirit, soul, and body. In our spirit, we have a conscience. In our spirit, the Lord dwells if we've been born again. In our soul, we have intellect, emotion, and will. In our body, we have five senses, our gates. And we receive information through those gates and we process that information. As David was being instructed to go out to meet Goliath and Saul just happened to offer him armor like the rest of the soldiers in the army of Israel. And David said, no, I hesitate here. I'm starting to go, but I'm hesitating because I haven't proved this. I'm not assured of this. You're here. to develop strong, rock-ribbed, mild, deep convictions that will guide you all of your life and enable you to encourage others to find the truth also. Continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of. Can you say? I have learned these things, and I have been assured of these things, knowing of whom I've learned them." That's the conviction we need. The process, don't get too alarmed when someone is in the middle of the process, and they may say something strange about, I don't know if I really think this way or believe this way, or maybe it's okay. I'd be very careful about talking too much when you're in the process of being assured of. Come to your conclusions. There may be some very close, personal, understanding friends and faculty members and instructors with whom you can talk and come to your convictions, but come to your convictions. Continue. I want you to write a few things down, would you please? I sat among you last evening and I was so impressed at the way you listened and the attentiveness you gave to the speaker. I was encouraged by all of that. You've won me over. Thank you. Would you write this down? If we're going to continue, we must deal with what is perilous. Notice what the Bible says, this nor so than the last days perilous times, risky, dangerous times, perilous times shall come. I want you to know I'm not afraid of the truth. I don't want you to be afraid of the truth. God goes on to describe these perilous times. Listen to his description. He says, for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. And then he comes to verse five, having a form of godliness. but denying the power thereof. From such, turn away. Turn away. My wife's granddaddy was a Baptist deacon for 60 years. His motto was, plain talk is easily understood. Let's say that together. Plain talk is easily understood. Let's try it again. Plain talk is easily understood. The Bible says there's some things we have to turn away from. just turn away. Look at this list again. Men shall be lovers of their own selves. All that matters is me, they say. Covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents. Think about what we're living in today. If 15 women conceived today, the USA Today reported, and some things you might believe statistically that you read in that paper, but they said five of them will immediately get an abortion. Four of them will conceive and continue to carry the baby, but have no husband, and no intention of ever having a husband. The other six will have their babies, with a husband, but half of them will get a divorce before the child ever goes to school. Now that's the generation in which you're living. God has chosen, in His wisdom, to put you in this perilous time. And people in this perilous time need an answer. They need certainty. They need to meet someone, man or woman, who's assured of some things, who can tell them the truth. This is what the Bible says. It is timeless. It comes from God. All truth proceeds from Him that way because He's before all things. And so, when we're dealing with what's wrong in the home, The Bible says disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despised for those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. But the most dangerous thing in these perilous times is in verse 5, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof from such turn away. In other words, it's religion with a powerless form, going through the motions. You see, it's not enough just to get the training. You have to have the Lord with the training. It's not enough just to go in motion with something. The greatest stranger to Christians today is the one who indwells us, the Holy Spirit. Not only are we indwelt by Him, God's commanded us to be filled with His Spirit, to labor in His Spirit. I remember meeting the pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London for the first time. This had been many years ago. And I began to share with him the burden of my heart for that part of the world. And he said to me, now wait just a minute. And I looked at Dr. Masters and he said, we don't need another strategy from some American. I was just sort of stopped by that. And he continued and said, we must have the power of God's Holy Spirit in this land. And I think you and I need to come to the same conclusion. We don't need just another strategy in America. We must have the power of God's Holy Spirit. And I ask you, my friend, have you had your personal experience with God? Have you had your personal experience with God? Not what you think about everyone else's experience or what you think might work, but have you had your personal experience with God? Have you been born of His Spirit? Is your life given to Him? Have you abandoned yourself to the Lord God Almighty? Are you filled with His Spirit? May the Lord help us to take the axe, the sword, the blade, whatever it is, to our own selfish desires and lust before we start taking it to everyone else. and everything else in this world. You're one of those and I'm one of those in good places like this, great places like you're in, that can learn to live in a powerless form and accept it as a way of life. As far as I'm concerned, I face no greater peril in my life than to have learned how to do things on my own and how to get things done that are called God's work without the power of God's Spirit. And the Lord gives an example of this. He says, having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof, from such turn away of this sort of they which creep into houses and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with diver's lust, ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Why can't they come to the knowledge of the truth? Why? They labor. They learn. Notice the next verse. Now as Janice and Jambres withstood Moses, so these also resist the truth. I ask you this question, and I love speaking to people who are preparing, and many of you are here as guests to those who are preparing for the Lord's work, and you say, the Lord's work, I'm not gonna be a preacher or a missionary. Listen, every child of the Lord is in the Lord's work. We have His work to do, right? And so I ask you, are you open to the truth of God's word? These people named from the Old Testament, who are not named in the Old Testament, challenged Moses when he came to the court of Pharaoh, the most powerful place men knew to resist the Lord. And they started mimicking the miracles that God was performing on that occasion. And they came, as you remember, they came to the dust. Remember the dust being turned to lice? And they tried it. They couldn't make dirt live. God made dirt live. They could not make dirt live. They were so frustrated because God made the dust in the lice. They'd mimicked everything so far, but they couldn't make dirt live. Now let's have a little break. Look beside you. Behind you. in front of you. Look here. We have a God who's made dirt live. He's the almighty God who can take nothing and make something out of it. You and I ought to be brought to the place in our lives in these perilous times where we recognize our greatest need is our need for Him, Him. The peril is to try to do it without Him. Then I want you to notice, if you're going to continue, it's a personal matter. Look at it, please. The Bible says in verse 10, but thou has fully known my doctrine. And he goes on with a list of nine things. He's speaking to Timothy and he says in verse 10, thou has fully known my doctrine, matter of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, what persecutions I endured, but out of them all, out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. Somebody said, it's an awful bad time we're in, isn't it? Yes, but the bad thing is it's gonna get worse. evil men and seducers wax worse and worse. What you're here for is to learn something. As morals change and drift and laws adjust to those moral changes, we still are trying to live life of biblical authority by Bible standards. And we're attempting to teach families to raise their children by Bible standards and to live our lives by Bible standards. It must always be a personal thing. And notice where the Apostle starts here. This is very important. Somebody says, I'm so impressed with this fellow's life, or I'm so impressed with what this lady did, or I'm so impressed with how this person can speak. Look where Paul started. Thou hast fully known my, let's say it together, my what? It's all right, let's say it together, my doctrine. My doctrine. Beloved, if the doctrine is not right, then it doesn't make any difference how pitiful everything else is, how much it seems like it needs our attention. You run from it and turn from it if it's not right doctrinally. That's the structure of all of it. That's our belief in teaching. And then he goes, Thou hast fully known my doctrine, and then banner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions, which came to him at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra. Remember, Lystra was stoned and left for dead. Can you imagine looking at this poor fella? He's out there under a rubble of stones and suddenly they're ready to bury him and then they turn around and there's a little movement on the rocks and whether he died or not, I don't know. I don't care about arguing with somebody about whether he died or not and God brought him back. Let somebody else figure that out. I'll get all those answers when I get to heaven. I got other things to deal with down here. But anyway, he got up and got at it again and he pressed on. Serving God and continuing is always a personal matter, a personal matter. You may have a friend that's, as we say, thrown in the towel, turned their back on the Lord, benedemous and forsaken God. You may have someone you know and love, and they may want to blame everyone in the world for their failure. And there's rightly so encouragement that we can give to people. But in the end, God has created us so that we make decisions and we live with the consequences of those decisions. May God help us to continue. It is always a personal matter. Then I want you to write a third thing down, would you please? Perilous, personal. It is powerful. It is powerful. We heard a little while ago about Generous John. I don't know the man, but his testimony, his example was powerful. Powerful. We saw this young lady and someone says, how does she do all that? I leaned over and said to Dr. Bob, the truth of the matter is, if she was running and walking all the way to India, it'd still be an amazing thing that she's doing, working with that class of people in that part of the world. It's amazing. It's not amazing about physical ability. It's amazing that she has a heart for it. That's what God is after. Did you know you could walk across a platform in a graduation exercise and receive awards and diplomas and still not have a heart for God's work and for the Lord? God's after your heart! This lost world needs your heart! 21-year-old girl met us in Edinburgh the other day and she said, I'd like to have breakfast with you if it's possible at the hotel. I heard you say at the church service you were going to be here. She said, I'm looking for a church. A church like the one in which I was raised in Singapore. By the way, some of your folks have influenced her there. I'm here as a medical student and I need to worship with God's people. She got something. Her life had been touched. But notice, please, he says, but continue thou, verse 14, continue thou, and the things which thou hast learned and has been assured of, knowing of whom thou'st learned them. You don't have to raise your hand, but how many of you understand that there's this process, as I said earlier, that's going on where you hear something and you choose, am I gonna believe this? Am I going to make this my own? Am I going to receive this? Is it something that I'm just going to hear casually, or is this going to become a part of my existence? Continue thou in the things which thou hast learned, yes, and has been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them. Isn't it wonderful when you see the process taking place and people come to you as a student and they have been led around in youth groups and organized in singing choirs and all this kind of thing, you know, taken on youth activities, but they leave a place like this organizing the choirs and conducting the classrooms and establishing the schools. and planting the churches like the one they just once just attended. What happened? What happened? They continued in an unbroken line, continuing the things which thou hast learned, and the process took place, and has been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them. The only way we're ever going to have that kind of power, that kind of authority to speak in the power of God's Holy Spirit is to go through that refining process where these have become my convictions from God's eternal Word. This is what I believe. And everyone who loves you and wants to instruct you, and everybody that's ever had a part in the founding of an institution like this, everyone who's ever paid a price, and many have, on whose shoulders we're all standing, desires for you what happened to them. They came to their own conviction and decided by God's grace, I'm going to continue in the things that I've learned. And I've been assured of knowing of whom I've learned them. Notice, please, he says, that from a child that's known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise in the salvation. We must place a great emphasis on children. If this student body would just say, by God's grace, we're going after children. Half the children in America have never been inside a church. Only two out of every 10 teenagers in America have been inside a church. There are more than 60 million school-aged children in America Most of whom will live and die and never hear a clear presentation of the gospel. Even the United States Supreme Court's ruled that we could have a Bible club in every public school in America. There are 14,000 school districts in America. There's not one school district in America where we can't go into every school and have a Bible club by the rule of the Supreme Court of the United States. The harvest is great. It's the labors that are few. In Knox County, we said, God help us. And now we're in 42 schools, our church in 42 schools, and every high school, every middle school, it's possible, you can do it. You can train others to do it. And that from a child that's known the Holy Scriptures, which able to make thee wise in the salvation. Notice, please, he says, this is the work of the word of God. This is the power. I once asked a graduate of Bob Jones University. I said, I admire, I admire your loyalty. I admire it. tell me what is it?" And he said, it's what they teach. It's the truth. I got in a little talk one day with Peter Masters at the Metropolitan Tabernacle. I've been a student of Charles Spurgeon since I was about 18 years old when God called me to the ministry. And I said, I finally got to London to see the Metropolitan Tabernacle, the porticos out there like it was when he was the pastor, you know, everything else was bombed and burned and destroyed. And I said to Dr. Masters and the crowd there, I said, would you just show me anything here? Tell me anything here that's like it was in Spurgeon's day. I'd like to see it. They said, nothing. Well, I wouldn't let up. I just pressed the matter and I said, well, would you think again? There's bound to be something around here that's like it was when he was here. And they just paused and spoke just like one of those English men could speak and said, you want to know what's just like it was when he was here? I said, yes, that's it, that's it. He said, our doctrine. It's just like it was when he was here. And when the travelers come through, when the graduates who were here 50 years ago stand, don't you know it's thrilling? When they can look admiringly on and say, the truth is still here. That's powerful. The Holy Scriptures make us wise in salvation. They teach us doctrine. They reprove us. They correct us. They instruct us in righteousness. Paul said, I've got one word for you, son. One word. I'm going out, leaving this world. I've got one word for you. Don't play the silly games the rest of the world plays, constantly looking for some new thing, some latest, greatest, biggest way to do it, making anything less than God the goal of your life. You just continue in the things that thou hast learned and has been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them. Beloved, perilous? Yes. The great peril I remind you? A powerless form. Don't get into it. Personal? Yes. Stop pointing the finger at everyone else. Point it to yourself and say, Am I? Am I what God wants me to be? Powerful? Listen, I want to hear somebody. I want to listen to somebody. I want to follow somebody who believes this blessed book with conviction and stays with it.