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Well, I know most of us in here
know that there are many false Gospels. in the world today. And I know some think, if you
go out into the world, that the gospel is about religious rituals
that will somehow make us pleasing to God if we do them. And others
think that the gospel is really about helping people make better
lives here and now. But today we're going to learn
afresh that the greatest threat humanity faces is not global
warming or some man-made crisis. But the greatest threat every
human faces is being under the wrath of God because of our sin.
So today we're going to learn afresh that the gospel is the
only remedy. The gospel, the good news, is
centered, we're going to learn today, on the person and work
of Jesus Christ. Because it is only through His
person and His work that we can have atonement for sin and the
promise of everlasting life. Now I want to begin, because
I know it's been some time since we've been in 2 Timothy, to give
you a little reminder of where we've come from. Remember the
last section in 2 Timothy, we saw Paul tell Timothy that he
had an obligation to be disciplined all for the sake of the gospel,
because he was going to have to endure persecution. Now as
we get to verse 8, He commands him to remember and therefore
always be one who proclaims the gospel. That's where we pick
it up here, 2 Timothy 2.8, he says, Remember Jesus Christ,
risen from the dead, descendant of David, according to my gospel. Now, dear ones, I'm doing something
a little unusual today. I'm just going to be focusing
on this one verse, and I'm going to keep showing you slides and
handling different aspects of that verse. So, I want to begin
at the very beginning where you see the verb, remember. That's
a command by Paul to Timothy. Now, the Greek term, menumenao,
literally has to do with recalling something that you haven't necessarily
forgotten. And you might be thinking, well,
how does that work? Well, think of it this way. Think of you
with your spouse, whether you're a husband or wife. When it comes
to your anniversary and you remember your spouse, it's not that you've
forgotten your spouse prior, but you're remembering the significance
of your spouse on that particular day. In the same way, Timothy
is to always recall the significance of the gospel, but there is a
nuance to this verb that also implies not only recalling for
Timothy himself, but the fact that he would also be one who
remembers and proclaims. And we see that nuance to the
verb, again, meinu meneo, in Hebrews 11.22. Notice here, the
same verb I have highlighted red, It says, ìBy faith, Joseph,
when he was dying, made mention of the exodus of the sons of
Israel and gave orders concerning his bones.î So notice here, Joseph
was remembering and therefore speaking forth of the great event
that made Israel a people, namely the exodus. In the same way,
Paul wants Timothy to remember and therefore always proclaim
Jesus Christ. It's not just to remember for
himself, he has to always make mention in his ministry of Jesus
Christ. In fact, notice here again the
verb remember, it's in the present tense. I don't mean to be too
nerdy, but in the present tense in the Greek, language, it doesn't
accentuate the idea it's happening now, although that can be true,
but it's accentuating the fact that this is continuous or ongoing. In other words, it's not sufficient
for Timothy to remember last Wednesday Jesus Christ and he
did that and then move on. Or I made mention in my sermon
of the gospel a few weeks ago and we can move on from that.
He's to continuously do it over and over and over and over. That's the idea. always remembering
and making mention of the Lord Jesus Christ. Dear ones, the
gospel of Jesus Christ isn't something that we preach once
in a while. It's not something that we say,
well, we did that, now we're moving on to more relevant things.
No, it is always going to be our main mission. It must be
our main mission because it is only through the gospel that
souls are saved. It is only through the gospel
of Jesus Christ that the saints are edified. Now, let me give
you an illustration of this from a little story. Back in the 1920s,
there was a lifeguard station that had begun training in order
to save victims that were drowning or victims of shipwrecks. And
so, on the East Coast, this lifeguard station was disciplining themselves
and dedicating themselves to saving people who were drowning.
And they did a wonderful job for many, many years. They saved
literally hundreds of people. But as time went on, and you
had new people come into the organization, They decided, this
is a little difficult, all this training. Let's do a little something
else. And finally, they said, let's
start having suppers and dinners. Well, lo and behold, by the 1980s,
the lifeguard station was a restaurant. In fact, it was a supper club.
And oh yeah, you could get a great cup of clam chowder there. But
they weren't saving anybody. That's the significance of remembering
your mission. Dear ones, if we as the church
don't remember the gospel, our main mission, we're gonna be
no different than the lifeguard station that just became a supper
club. That's what Paul is doing for
Timothy and by extension every Christian by commanding to remember
the gospel. Now, we move here from the importance
of remembering the gospel of Jesus Christ to explaining what
the gospel is. Again, he says, remember Jesus
Christ, risen from the dead, descendant of David. Now, dear
ones, I know I've told you many times that the gospel is the
person and work of Jesus Christ. Bob has taught you that, Adam,
Dana, our elders, the teachers, that's what we believe. What
is the good news of the gospel? It is centered on the person
and work of Christ. And we see that here. Notice,
let me just point it out on the screen. Notice, risen from the
dead, his work, descendant of David, his person, person and
work of Christ. Okay, but let's focus on his
person as is explained here. Jesus Christ, what does Jesus'
name mean? It's Yeshua in Hebrew and it
means Yahweh is salvation. And if there was ever a name
that was given to a man that was apropos, it was that one. Remember in antiquity they didn't
name their children just merely out of happenstance. but the
name was to reflect the character and something of the mission
of the child. And that's the way it is for Jesus. Remember
in 1 Timothy 1 15. Remember Paul says there that
this is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance that
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of which I'm
the foremost. Why did Jesus come to save sinners?
And his name means that. Also remember in Isaiah 43, 11,
the Lord says, I am Yahweh, and there is no savior besides me. So if Jesus saves us from his
sins, our sins, excuse me, let's make sure it's our sins, not
his, he's sinless. If he saves us from our sins,
then who must he be? He must be God. because only
God can save you from your sins, Isaiah 43, 11. So his name itself
gives us a hint into his person and his work. Notice also he's
called the Christ, that is not his last name. That's not the
last name, that's the title of Jesus. He's the Christos, means
the anointed one, synonymous with the Mashiach or the Messiah
in the Old Testament. Now, the anointing in the Old
Testament was often done with oil, specifically olive oil. Now, what was the purpose? Two-fold.
They would anoint someone in order to show that they had God's
favor, but also that they were chosen for a task. So, in the
Old Testament, you typically had three different groups that
were anointed by oil. First of all, you had the kings
of Israel. So, for example, Saul, David, Solomon, Jehu, I'm probably
forgetting many of them, but they were anointed with oil.
Why? to show that they were chosen
by God for the task of leading the people of God. But what's
interesting is when you unpack all of the data of the Old Testament
you see sometimes God chose kings that weren't even Israelites
for His purposes. For example Isaiah 45.1 if you
look up that verse tonight before you go to bed you'll see that
God calls Cyrus His anointed one. Now implied there is not
that Cyrus is a believer But this Medo-Persian king was chosen
by God for the task of bringing the Israelites out of Babylonian
captivity back into their home. So he was a Mashiach, an anointed
one. All right, so again, the kings
typically though that were anointed were those in Israel. Think sometimes
the priests were anointed, especially the high priest. You see that
in Zechariah 4.14, where both Zerubbabel, the governor, but
also Joshua, the high priest was anointed of the Lord, showing
that they had the favor of the Lord. showing that they were
chosen to represent and intercede for the people of God. Think
about the prophets. Sometimes we had prophets that
were anointed. In fact, you see that in Elisha in 1 Kings 19.16. So, think about in the Old Testament,
we have prophets, priests, and kings that are anointed, and
lo and behold, Jesus Christ comes on the scene of history, and
He's all three. He's a prophet in the order of
Moses that was prophesied in Deuteronomy 18.15. He's a priest
in the order of Melchizedek without beginning and without end who
lives forevermore to make intercession for his people. And he is the
king par excellence of David. He is the Davidic king. And therefore
this is why he is the anointed one. In fact he is the one who
is most favored of God. In fact he's God himself. And
he comes into the world with the mission of saving God's people. And this is why Isaiah 61.1 says
that he's anointed. He is the anointed one given
the favor of God. So again, Oops, I hit the wrong
button there, sorry about that. We see that in Jesus Christ we
have his person delineated here. Now, notice here, risen from
the dead. Let's move from his person to
the idea that he is risen from the dead. One of the questions
this kind of raised in my mind, no pun intended, is the idea
of why didn't Paul say that he was crucified on the cross? or
that he lived the perfect life. Why does he select the resurrection?
Well, what I believe, and here's what I want to put up now, I
believe risen from the dead is the synecdoche of all of Christ's
work. Now remember, a synecdoche is
a figure of speech where a part refers to the whole. So let's
say you buy a brand new vehicle and you come rolling into the
parking lot and someone says, nice wheels. They're not just
referring to the wheels, that's a part, they're really referring
to the whole vehicle. In the same way, the resurrection
of Christ is a summary of all that He has done. In fact, turn
your Bibles, if you will, to 1 Peter 3.21. Please turn your
Bibles to 1 Peter 3.21. I want you to turn there because in 1 Peter
3.21 you will see clearly that the biblical writers use
the resurrection as a summary of all of Christ's work. That's
what you're going to see Peter do. Now, as you're turning again
to 1 Peter 3, verse 21, remember the context here is about Noah
and his family going through the floodwaters. Well, Peter
likens this to a form of baptism. It is a type of baptism. So,
1 Peter 3, verse 21, notice he says, corresponding to that,
baptism now saves you. Now, stop there. He's not saying
baptism in and of itself saves you because he says right after,
not the removal of dirt from the flesh, so not by the act
done, but what? But an appeal to God for a good
conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now, let's think
about this for just a moment. What does it mean to have a good
conscience before God? It means you're no longer guilty.
Your sins have been removed. But if I were to write this,
the Eric Dalma version, again, not inspired by the Spirit, I
would have linked our good conscience, our lack of guilt, to the atoning
work on the cross. Why does Peter say, through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ? Because it is a summary that
assumes all that Jesus has done. His incarnation through the virgin
birth. his perfect life lived, the miraculous
deeds that he did, the preaching that he did, his substitutionary
death on the cross, and pinnacled was the resurrection. It is a
summary of all that he has done, and so when Paul says, risen
from the dead, it is a summary of the work of Christ. Again,
we really do have in this text the person and the work of Christ. Okay, now, notice he goes on
to say the descendant of David. He's coming back to the person
of Christ. He's coming back to describe
him even more. Now, when we see the term descendant
of David, he's accentuating, of course, the human lineage
of the Messiah. Now, the term descendant that
you see in blue on the screen, in the Greek, it's literally
sperma, which means seed. It's the seed of David. And the
only reason I want you to have that in your mind is it should
bring the careful reader of Scripture back to a very important verse.
The very first gospel in your entire Bible is found in Genesis
3.15. Remember the context, Adam and
Eve had sinned, but right away God gives the promise that the
seed of the woman would one day come and crush the serpent's
head. Oh yes, the serpent would bruise him on the heel, a superficial
wound, But the serpent is going to crush, excuse me, the seed
of the woman is going to crush the serpent. That's what's going
to happen. And by the way, in the context
of that passage, we know it has to be one man eventually. Because
who is used? A third person masculine singular
pronoun in the Hebrew. By the way, who is he? Do you
know what she is? He. He is she and who is he? In Hebrew, isn't that great?
It's like Abbott and Costello who's on first routine when you're
trying to learn this in seminary. But that pronoun is used showing
us one man is gonna come and he's gonna crush the work of
the serpent. And so the rest of the Bible
is what? It's details. You get to Genesis 9, you see
the seed of the woman, this Messiah, is going to come from Noah and
from Shem. You go to Genesis 12 all the
way through 35, this seed of the woman is going to come from
Abraham, from Isaac, and from Jacob. And what is Jacob renamed?
Israel. How many sons does he have? Twelve.
What are they? The twelve tribes of Israel. And then you get to
Genesis 49.10, and you see of all the tribes of Israel, the
seed of the woman is going to come from Judah. Well, then it
waits till you get to 2 Samuel 7, because when you get to 2
Samuel 7, you see that of all of the families of the tribe
of Judah, the one family from whom the Messiah comes, the seed
of the woman is David. And so again, the seed of David
is a summary of who Christ is, a summary of his person. And
what's so beautiful then is you have a summary of the person
and work of Christ. And what does Paul say that this
is? It's the gospel. It's the gospel. The gospel isn't
about redistribution of wealth. It's not about making a better
place here and now. It's about the person and work
of Jesus Christ. And what's so beautiful as we
unpack the Old Testament is that this coming Messiah, the one
who would come from David, is depicted as being both truly
God and truly man. So let me give you an example
of this. This is all wrapped into the idea that He is the
seed of David. Who is the seed of David going to be according
to the Old Testament? Truly man, truly God. And you say, well
where do you see that? Isaiah tells us that. Written
700 years prior to the first coming of Christ. This is great
prophecy that proves who Christ is. Notice what it says in Isaiah
11.1. Isaiah 11.1, it says, Now, this
is a beautiful passage. Let me explain a little bit of
the imagery. Notice the reference to the shoot,
the stem, and the branch. Here's the imagery that you have
to have in your mind to understand what Isaiah is saying. The Davidic
kingdom was to be like a mighty oak tree, one godly king after
another, and one day it would blossom into the kingdom of God.
But instead, because of sin, and God knew this would happen,
is the tree was fallen. And so the imagery is that all
seems to be lost, but notice there's a new beginning that's
going to occur from this righteous one, the stem. The tree has fallen. but the Davidic promises are
still there. The stem is going to come, and notice he's called
a shoot. The term shoot there, which is koter, means someone
who comes from someone else. So what's being accentuated here
is the humanity of the Messiah. Now, why does it say he's a shoot
of Jesse? Well, Jesse was the father of
David. Now, again, this begs the question, well, why not just
say the shoot of David? Well, listen to the great scholar
in the book of Isaiah, he's a British scholar actually, J. L. Akhmatir.
He says it this way, and I think this is astute. He says, quote,
the reference to the Jesse, rather than just David, indicates that
the shoot is not just another king in David's line, but rather
another David himself. This is David par excellence,
and he's going to come from the lineage of Jesse. He's going
to be a man. He's the shoot of Jesse. That
we know. But what's so interesting, and
this is an inclusio, nine verses later, it talks about his divinity. It says, then in that day, the
nations will resort to the root of Jesse. who will stand as a
signal for the peoples, and his resting place will be glorious."
By the way, this occurs in the Millennial Kingdom. Notice here
he was called the shoot of Jesse, but now he's called the root
of Jesse, Shoresh. In other words, here, the shoot
of Jesse, he is one who comes from Jesse, from David. He is
a physical descendant, but here, as the root of Jesse, he is the
originator of Jesse. He is the originator of David.
Well, how can he be both? the God-man. This coming Messiah
would be truly man, truly God, in one person. And we're not
reading into the text that. That's what the text is saying.
In fact, two chapters earlier, isn't that what we read at Christmas
time in Isaiah 9, 6? Unto us a Son is born. He'll
be called Wonderful Counselor. What else? Mighty God. How can
you have a Son and yet Mighty God in one person? That's what
the Messiah is. Dear ones, why is that important?
The good news, dear ones, of the gospel is not that God would
send some religious figure down through history that would come
to us to give us greater wisdom so that we could save ourselves.
No. He had to send the God-man who
could do for us what we couldn't do for ourselves. Who could live
the perfect life as a man to be our new representative. the
new Adam. He had to be truly man to represent
us in order to save us. Our first man, our first representative
sinned, brought us sin, death, and hell. But the new man who
represents us can bring us righteousness and eternal life. He also had
to be God. Why? Because salvation is only
of God. Isaiah 43, 11, there's no Savior
besides me. Brothers and sisters, being the
descendant of David meant he had to be the God man. The person
and work of Christ is the focus of the gospel. So, dear ones,
that's the focus of the gospel. Now we're going to see Paul say
that this is his gospel. He's going to take ownership
of it here. In 2 Timothy 2, he says, Remember Jesus Christ,
risen from the dead, descendant of David, according to my gospel. Why is that significant? Because
Paul is an apostolos. He is a sent one who has the
very authority of Christ himself. So we're going to see later in
our application, if anyone has a different gospel than Paul,
they have a different gospel than God, and they're accursed. Why? Because the apostles speak
for God. That's what we see, for example,
in Matthew 10, 40, where Jesus says, whoever receives you, the
apostles, receives me. The idea is if you reject the
apostles, you're rejecting the very words of Christ Himself. Now dear ones, I want you to
remember though that Paul wasn't the originator of this gospel
and we see evidence of that here in 2 Timothy 1.11. If you recall,
the previous verse talked about the gospel and then Paul says
what? For which I was appointed preacher
and an apostle and a teacher. What this points out, notice
in blue, dear ones, he was appointed. This is a divine passive, meaning
this gospel didn't originate with Paul. He was appointed to
preach the gospel that came from God, as a preacher, as a teacher,
and the apostle. Dear ones, the reason this is
important, because we have to understand that Paul's gospel
was in fact God's gospel. There's no distance between Jesus
and Paul. So today you have some will say,
well, I'm a red letter Christian. I'll follow Jesus, but I don't
like Paul. You don't get that option. Jesus himself said you
don't. If you reject the apostles, you're
rejecting Christ himself. Dear ones, this is important
because there are so many false gospels that differ from what
Paul said today. I want you to think about the
word of faith movement. in America that's devastated
so many churches. The Word of Faith movement says
that your faith is not directed towards the object of Jesus,
who He is and what He's done, but rather you have faith in
your own ability. Your faith is like a force so
that you can speak things. If you don't have a Cadillac,
well, just keep saying you will. And voila, one day you're gonna have
a Cadillac. Now, is that faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness
of sins? No. Think about the cults when
they come to your door, the Jehovah Witnesses and the Mormons. They're
bringing a different Jesus. The Jehovah Witnesses Jesus is
a created being. They believe that he's Michael
the archangel. The Mormon's Jesus is a created being, the spirit
brother to Lucifer. So when they come to your doorstep,
they have the different person of Christ, and therefore they
have a different gospel. Roman Catholics, by the way,
I have a lot of Roman Catholics I adore in my own life, friends
that I work out with. I love these guys. I just want
to say, as I say this to you, there's no disrespect intended.
But the gospel of the Roman Catholic Church is not the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because the Christ of the
Roman Catholic Church isn't sufficient to save. Doesn't Jesus say on
the cross in John 19.30, it is finished? So then why do you
need purgatory if it was finished by Christ? Why do you need penance? Why do you need the meritorious
works of the saints and all of the other works that the Roman
Catholic Church puts upon you? You see, the Roman Catholic Church
has a Jesus they can't save you and literally say it is finished
and therefore they have a different Jesus and they have a different
gospel than the one that comes from God and the Apostle Paul.
Think about the social justice gospel, wanting to make followers
not of Christ, but of Karl Marx. And sadly, those that we see
teaching this doctrine never apologize when their followers
throw chairs at people who are having dinner at a restaurant.
They never apologize when they loot and burn. And the sad irony
is they don't know what justice is. I showed that some months
ago in a message called, What is Racism? No, they accuse a
whole group of people of being racist when they can't even know
the heart. And so they condemn themselves as those who bear
false witness, violating the commandments of God. And the
irony is they shouldn't want social justice, they should want
mercy. And the irony is the police that
they spit in the face of, they're vessels of mercy because men
and women born dead sinners in Adam need mercy. They need restraint
and that's what the police are designed to do. But these moral
fools have a different gospel. and many are following it. But
brothers and sisters, what this means for us is that if we as
a church don't remember and therefore don't proclaim the true gospel,
how is the dying and decaying world ever going to hear it?
Because they're not going to hear it from these other sources
and the risk for us is that we're going to be no different than
the old lifeguard station. Oh yeah, they began saving, but
they forgot their mission and they became a supper club. Dear
ones, I love supper. My waistline will attest to that.
I love a good clam chowder like anyone else. But we're not a
supper club. Let's always remember the gospel.
The gospel saves souls and edifies the saints. Okay, I have three
applications for you here this morning. Number one, We have
to know that any distortion of Christ's person or work is what?
It's a different gospel. That's what we learned today.
Number two, we must contend against false gospels that lead people
to hell. And I'm gonna show you three
ways that we're to do it, not just by remembering and preaching
and teaching, that's most important, but three other things I'll lay
out for us. Number three, believers must
always remember the gospel, again, is central to our mission. If
we don't, again, we're just a supper club. Okay, let's begin with
this first one. We have to know that any distortion
of Christ's gospel is a different gospel, so says the Apostle Paul
himself. Listen to what he says, Galatians
1, 8-9. He says, But even if we, or an
angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what
we have preached to you, he is to be accursed. As we have said
before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a
gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed. Now, what
was the situation that was going on in Galatia? Well, many of
these Judaizers that Paul is refuting in Galatia, they began
with Jesus, but it soon became apparent that their Jesus wasn't
the Jesus of the Bible. Because the Jesus of the Bible
saves you once and for all, alone. But the Judaizers in Galatia
said, no, you actually need something in addition to Jesus, you need
circumcision too. So Jesus alone doesn't save,
and therefore Paul can say, you've fallen from grace. As he says
in 2 Corinthians 11, you have a different Jesus, a different
spirit, and a different gospel. That's what was going on there.
But notice the significance of what Paul says here. He says,
but even if we, in other words, if Paul changed his mind, he's
wrong. The gospel has been set forth
once and for all. Notice what he says, if an angel...
Can you imagine how powerful it would be to have a majestic
angel come down and speak to you? I'd be tempted to believe
what he says. But if it has a different message
than what Paul preached, what? Anathema. That's literally what
it is in the Greek. Notice in the boxes, cursed of
hell. Cursed of hell. So, what we're learning here
today is if the gospel is the person and work of Christ, Any
distortion of his person or his work curses people. God doesn't look at sincerity.
He doesn't say, well, yeah, they have a different Jesus, but I'll
let it slide. So it's not loving to allow people
to have a different Jesus and a different gospel. Now, what
do we do about it? Well, we're called to preach
and teach the truth, but there's three other things that I think
we see in the scriptures. One of them is that we are to
break fellowship, number one, with those who have a different
gospel. Number two, we are called not to give aid and comfort to
those who have a different gospel. And number three, we are to contend
for the true gospel against false gospels. Let me lay each one,
one by one, out for you. Let's begin with the first one.
There are times where we have to break fellowship with people
who have a different gospel, meaning we can't do church with
them. We see this in 1 John 2.19 where John says they went out
from us because they were really never of us. There was a breaking
of fellowship because the heretics in John's day were saying Jesus
only seemed to be human, he really wasn't truly human. It's called
docetism. So they had a different Jesus.
Now, this is not always easy if you have to break fellowship,
but you do. In fact, listen to what Paul says. Don't turn to
it, but just jot it down. Romans 16, 17. Paul says, Now
I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions
and hindrances, contrary to the teaching which would be the gospel
which you learned, and turn away from them. Now, how does this
practically work out in your life? Does this mean you're driving
to your favorite gas station, and you find out that the owner
of the gas station is a Hindu? And you say, that's it, different
gospel, I'm boycotting. No, that's not what this text
means. In fact, Paul says if that's your attitude, you'd have
to go outside of the world to live, 1 Corinthians chapter 5.
No, the idea of not having fellowship with those who have a different
gospel means we can't be in a church setting under the means of grace
and share the means of grace with those who have a different
Jesus and distort His work. It has to do with the way you
do church. Okay, so don't stop contending
for the gospel and giving the gospel to those who don't know
it. Now, the second issue that we
have to, I think, follow in Paul's and the apostles' commands when
it comes to other gospels is you and I have to make sure we
don't aid those and give aid and comfort to false gospels. Now we see that in 2 John 10-11. Don't turn to it, just listen.
2 John 10-11, John says, if anyone comes to you and does not bring
this teaching, what teaching? The gospel. Do not receive him
into your house. Do not give him a greeting, for
the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.
Now, does this mean when a Jehovah Witness comes to your doorstep
and you happen to engage in evangelizing the Jehovah Witness that you're
somehow sinning? No. In antiquity, what they would do to give a
greeting and taking someone in their house meant that they were
taking someone in to give them food and shelter. Okay, why? Because itinerant preachers relied
upon the hospitality of people who would house them. So, if
I could put in my own words what John is saying, is he's saying,
don't give aid and comfort to the enemy. Now, you're not doing
that if you're merely witnessing to the Jehovah Witness. But if
you give the Jehovah Witness $500 and say, I hope this helps
with the watchtower reading, that would be a problem. Okay,
so yes, still witness to the Jehovah Witness or the Mormon,
whomever. but don't give aid and comfort to those who have
a different gospel. Third thing, we are to contend
for the gospel. We see this in Jude 3, we're
to contend earnestly for the faith once and for all handed
down to the saints. But it's in 1 Peter 3.15 that we're instructed
how to do this. Remember in 1 Peter 3.15, the
first task in apologetics, as Peter says, is to sanctify Jesus
as Lord in your heart. Now, why is that the first task?
Because it means that we're gonna only be concerned what Jesus
thinks and no one else. If I set apart Jesus as Lord,
it means no one else is Lord. And the same with you. So you're
gonna be concerned what Jesus thinks, not what the world thinks. Second part of the apologetic
task is to give the truth. He says, always be prepared to
give an apologia, a defense, of the hope that lies within
you to all who ask, and do it with gentleness and respect.
The apologia is a rational defense. Dear ones, we're not asking people
to believe myths and fairy tales, but to believe, as Bob often
teaches us, cold, sober truth. That's what Paul said before
Agrippa. We have the facts on our side. And so we can give
a rational defense of the gospel through the scriptures. And notice
we're to do it, what? In gentleness and love. The wrath
of man will never bring about the righteousness of God, as
it says in the book of James. So we give the truth and love
and let God do His work. So again, three things. What
does it mean not to tolerate the false Gospels? Number one,
you can't always fellowship with some people because they have
a different Gospel. You can't fellowship with them. Number
two, don't give aid and comfort to those who have a different
Gospel. Don't support them financially. You can debate with them lovingly,
but don't give them aid and comfort. And third, always be prepared.
Be prepared to give a rational defense for the reason you believe
Jesus Christ is who He is and He did what He did. That's what
we're called to do. Now, I want to talk about what
motivates the heretics that you'll come across in your life. Heretics
are always motivated to destroy and to distort the person and
work of Christ. Let's begin with Jesus' person.
What I want to do first of all is lay out who Jesus is from
the Scriptures. So let's back up and just for
a moment talk about God and then put the Son in the mix. Remember,
we as Christians believe that there is one God in three persons. This is not a contradiction.
A contradiction would be we believe in one God and three gods at
the same time and in the same relationship. We are not saying
that. Just as we have one government with three branches, it's not
a contradiction. Okay, so one God in three persons,
each person, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, co-eternal, co-essential,
co-equal. Now, of the threefold Trinity,
the three persons, we're talking about the Son. That's who Jesus
is. And as the Son, we have one person,
Jesus, who exists with two natures, truly God and truly man. And he can operate and does operate
through either nature. The natures are not mixed, nor
are the natures divorced, They are united to one person. Jesus
can operate out of either nature. Sometimes he operates out of
the human nature, limited, learning, local. Sometimes he operates
out of his divine nature, omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. the truth revealed in the Scriptures.
And by the way, Jesus will forever be the God-man, the hypostatic
union. Now, let's look at how the heretics
over time have distorted this. Let's look at Arianism. And by
the way, Arianism is still with us today. I'll show you why later.
Arianism says Jesus is not God. Arius was an Alexandrian priest
who taught in the 4th century that Jesus was a created being.
I remember Bob and I did some radio one time, and Bob talked
about a fancy jingle that this Arius came up with, and he's
exactly right. Arius came up with a jingle that said there
was a time when he was not. There was a time when he was
not. And he taught all these people to be heretics because
he had a great jingle. And truth be told, if you went
into what was called Christendom in Arius' day, the vast majority
had bought into the lie. And that's one thing we have
to come to grips with is that when it comes to truth, it's
never determined by the masses. It's never determined by popular
opinion. It's determined by what's revealed
by the Word of God. No, Arius was wrong. Jesus was
not a created being. Now, when the Jehovah Witnesses
come to your doorstep, that's what they believe. They believe
that Jesus was a created being. In fact, they believe that He's
Michael the Archangel. How can we refute that when they
come to our door? Let me have you turn your Bibles
to Colossians 1.16. I'll do it with one verse. Make it really
simple. In fact, I have the whole verse
listed, but for the sake of time, just look at Colossians 1.16a. Colossians 1.16a, the very first
part of it. Again, the Jehovah Witness comes
to your door. This is the first passage I would go to. Colossians
1.16a. Notice it says, for by Him all
things were created. Who's the Him? That's Jesus.
What did He do? He created all things. Now, what
you want to be sure to do is when the Jehovah Witness comes
to your door, turn to that passage and say, let me see your Bible,
if I may. And you'll notice in their New
World Translation, they'll have an other in brackets next to
that verse. In fact, they have several through
this entire section. The reason the other is there
is they interject that word where it says, all things. They have
all other things were created. So what you ask is say, well,
why is the other in brackets? And they'll have to admit because
it's not original to the Greek text. They could not handle the
fact that the scriptures say Jesus created all things because
if Jesus created all things, then he is the creator of Genesis
1.1 who created the heavens and the earth. And so they have to
insert all other things. But the term other isn't original
to the text and point that out to them. Brothers and sisters,
Colossians 1.16 shows Jesus is the creator of all things, not
all other things. He is the creator. He is God.
The next heresy that we saw in history was Sabellianism. Sabellius
was an elder in Rome, greatly influenced by Gnosticism. And
what he taught is something often called modalistic monarchism.
Big fancy word, but think of the monarch, the king. Modalistic
means he changed modes. So, in Sabellianism, modalistic
monarchism, you have one God and one person. And all He does
is He changes costumes. Sometimes He has the Father's
costume on, and then sometimes He goes and gets the Son's costume
on, and sometimes He puts the Holy Spirit's costume on. Well,
how do we refute that? Well, a good way of doing it
is go to the baptism of Jesus. And what do you have at the baptism
of Jesus? You have Jesus, the Son of God, being baptized. You
have the Holy Spirit descending like a dove, not a dove. Similarly,
like a dove. And you have God the Father saying
from on high, this is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.
There is a subject-object distinction between God the Father and the
Son. All three persons of the Trinity there in one passage.
No, He's not just changing costumes. There really is one God in three
persons. Sabellianism isn't right. Now,
you think, well who cares? Sabellius isn't on the scene
of history. Oh yes, but oneness Pentecostals are. You can go
online and find their websites, and they will browbeat you, say,
no, there's only one God in one person. No, that's not what the
scriptures teach. One God in three persons. Co-essential, co-equal, co-eternal. Okay, third point, Eutychianism,
and I'll have to summarize some of these other ones, but Eutychianism
came from a man named Eutychius, the little rascal. Fourth and
fifth century, he taught that Christ's divine nature had swallowed
up his human nature. And so there was a mixture, there
wasn't two natures. Think of the paints, if you take
yellow and green, don't you get blue? Or is it yellow and blue
and you get green? I'm not much of a painter or
an artist, but you know what I mean? You get a mixture, right? That was
the idea with Jesus' two natures. Okay, now what's the problem
with that? Well, then Jesus isn't truly God and truly man. He's
just kind of a mixture of both. The problem with that is in the
scriptures, we see Jesus operate from either nature. So here's
how you get it right. You have to distinguish the natures
of Christ, but don't separate them. Don't mix them. Don't separate
them. Distinguish them. If I distinguish
between your body and soul, I've made a right distinction about
your constituent makeup. If you die, your body goes into
the ground, your soul goes to the Lord, right? But if I separate
those two things, I've just killed you. Are you with me? In the
same way, don't separate Jesus' natures, distinguish them, but
don't mix them. Where do we see this in scripture?
Think about in Mark chapter four. Mark chapter four, remember the
terrible storm comes upon the disciples, they're in the boat,
and they're really somewhat upset because Jesus is sawing logs,
he's sleeping in the back of the boat. And they say, aren't
you concerned for us? Well, Jesus, why is he sleeping?
Does God get tired? Does God need to sleep? I know
I like the nap, but does God need a nap? No, he's operating
truly from his human nature. But in the next moment, this
man who's asleep in the back of the boat can stand up and
he says, peace be still. And he calms the storm miraculously.
So powerful is it that the disciples in the text are more afraid of
Jesus than they are of the storm that just happened. Because they're
in the presence of the Holy One of Israel, who created all things. Jesus, truly man, truly God,
operates through either nature. Right now, for the sake of time,
I'll move on here. Nestorianism. Nestorianism is something that
said, no, we don't have one Jesus with two natures. We have two
Jesuses with each a nature. Well, the problem with that is
which Jesus died on the cross? The God Jesus or the human Jesus? So again, we believe in one Jesus,
one person with two natures. Nestorianism has two Jesus, two
persons, each with a nature. If Jesus isn't truly human who
died, he doesn't represent you. If he's not truly God, he can't
save you. No, it's two natures in one person. Docetism, Jesus
only seemed to be human, he really wasn't. That's probably what
John was facing in Asia Minor when he wrote his epistles. Now,
remember, what's the test of orthodoxy according to John in
1 John 4, 2? He says this, "...by this you
know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that
Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God." That's the
test of orthodoxy. Christ come in the flesh. Yes,
truly God, but He's in the flesh. He's truly man. He didn't just
seem to be human. One final heresy, Apollinarianism. Jesus had a human body, but a
divine mind and soul. In other words, He really wasn't
truly human. There was more of the divine
nature than the human nature. Dear ones, if He's not truly
human, He's not your new representative. And doesn't the writer of Hebrews
say in Hebrews 4.15, that He was tempted in all things as
we are, yet without sin. Oh yes, He had to be tempted
as a man to be your new representative. to be truly man, to be a representative,
and truly God, to save you. Dear ones, why does this matter?
Because a different Jesus than the one revealed in the Scriptures
can't save you. Think about it, down the road
from me there was a man named Jesus, a Mexican fellow. If I trusted in him, could he
save me? Nice guy. Will that Jesus save? Can you
just trust in any Jesus and you're automatically saved? Is there
somehow magical power in merely the name? No. It's Jesus of the
Bible that saves. All right, now, another way that
the heretics like to distort the gospel is by attacking the
work of Christ. One of the problems that I had
is when I went to seminary, this was at Bethel some years ago
in the early 2000s, they would have professors who really didn't
understand, in my opinion, who were teaching systematic theology,
the biblical categories. They didn't have the biblical
data. And so when it came to teaching about the atonement
of Christ, they would say, oh, this evangelical belief in the
penal substitutionary atonement, that's just one view among many
other theories of the atonement. But what I want to show you is
that is precisely what the Bible teaches. So either these men
didn't know the data of the Scriptures, in which they shouldn't be, therefore,
professors, or they knew it and they were lying. So what I want
to lay out for you is the core of the Gospel. What did Jesus
do for us on the cross? I'm going to show you that the
penal substitutionary atonement is taught in Scripture. Let's
begin by each term. Penal means that there has to
be a punishment poured upon offenders in a legal system. Now, some
will say, well, God doesn't operate like in a legal system. Oh, yes,
He does. Because God is just, He must punish sinners. Why? Because as it says in Psalm 89,
14, righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne.
it's inherent to who he is he must punish sinners so absolutely
there is a legal setting in God's economy and that's why we see
in Romans 326 it says that God the father is both the just and
the justifier of the one who is faith in Jesus meaning he's
the one who demands justice but He's also the one who paid it
through the blood of His Son. So yes, a legal courtroom setting
is being talked about in the Scriptures. What about substitution? Is that part of the Scriptures?
Should we have anticipated a Messiah from the Old Testament who would
be a substitute for His people? Oh yes, Isaiah 53. In fact, let
me read to you how in Isaiah 53, five through six, just two
verses, the doctrine of substitution happens how many times? Five
times. Listen to this, I'll just read the relevant portions. He
was pierced through for our transgression, substitution number one. He was
crushed for our iniquities, substitution number two. The chastening of
our well-being fell upon Him, substitution number three. By
His scourging we are healed, substitution number four. The
Lord caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. Substitution
reference number five, in just two verses. Again, all written
700 years prior to the first coming of Christ. Amazing. Yes, substitution is exactly
what Jesus had to do. What about atonement? What does
atonement mean? It means two things. Our sins
are covered and removed, and God's wrath is appeased. The
removal of our sins is man-centered. It's called expiation. The appeasement
of God and His wrath is God-centered. It's called propitiation. And
Jesus' work on the cross does both. Do you remember in Leviticus
16 you had two goats that were to be sacrificed? The one goat,
the scapegoat, led the sins of the people away, expiation. The
other goat was brought into the Holy of Holies and the blood
was put on the hysteria, on the propitiation seat, that appeased
the wrath of God. That's exactly what Jesus did
once and for all when He said, it is finished and died. He does
both. Yes, this is exactly what the
Bible teaches. In fact, look at the data. Mark 10, 45, Jesus
himself says as much. He says, for even the Son of
Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his
life a ransom for many. What did Jesus do? He gave a
price. He paid something. What was it? His life. In fact,
the term ransom, lutruo, has to do with paying a payment to
purchase something back. typically to purchase someone
who was a slave. You and I were slaves to sin,
death, and hell, and He purchased us back. Notice the substitutionary
language for the many. You could literally render the
preposition onto here, on behalf of. He gave His life as a ransom
on behalf of the many. Substitutionary atonement. This
is what Paul taught, Galatians 3.13. Christ redeemed us from
the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. for it
is written, Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree." What did
Jesus become for us? A curse. Notice, huper, substitution. Literally, He's a curse on our
behalf. The substitutionary language, dear ones, is all over the Bible. Think about this, 2 Corinthians
5.21, God the Father made Jesus, who knew no sin, to become sin
on our behalf. so that we might become the righteousness
of God in Him. It's found again in Romans 3.25.
It's found in 1 Corinthians 15.3. It's found in 1 John 2.2 where
John says, he died not only for our sins, but he was a propitiation
for the whole world. Substitution all over the place. So why did the professors deny
it? Why did they say it's only one theory among many? Either
they were ignorant of the data or they were lying. Either way,
it doesn't look good. Either they're incompetent, they
don't know what they're talking about, like a doctor who misdiagnoses
you, it's malpractice, or they're lying. Now, I want you to think
about this, and I want you to think about the importance of
remembering the Gospel. I want you to see how prevalent
the attack on the substitutionary atonement is. This comes from
a man named Stephen Chalk and another man, Alan Mann. In 2003,
they wrote a book called The Lost Message of Jesus. In other
words, nobody had the right message until they wrote about it in
2003. Now listen to what they say. Page 182 of their book,
they say, how then have we come to believe that at the cross
this God of love suddenly decides to vent his anger and wrath on
his own son? The reason we've come to believe
that is because that's what the Bible teaches. That's what Jesus
and his apostles teach. But notice how he denigrates
it. The fact is that the cross isn't a form of cosmic child
abuse, a vengeful father punishing his son for an offense he has
not even committed. Understandably, both people inside
and outside of the church have found this twisted version of
events morally dubious and a huge barrier to faith. He's attacking
the cornerstone of the gospel itself, revealed by Jesus Christ
And what's so sad is I remember when this book came out there
were men who endorsed it and they went on a speaking tour
endorsing what this man was saying in supposedly evangelical churches
in the Twin Cities. Now remember what does evangelical
mean? Evangelion means gospel. So at
gospel churches in 2000 America in the Twin Cities a man who
attacks the core of the gospel is being received in church after
church. Why? Because sadly, those churches
became much like the old lifeguard station. They began with a mission,
but at some point in their life, they left it. They became more,
quote unquote, relevant to the culture. And they lost the gospel. So much so that when a man attacked
the core of the gospel in their very church, they couldn't even
see it. Because they knew no longer what
the gospel was. Dear ones, that's why we can
never forget, we always have to be those who remember the
gospel. Meaning, yes, we teach the doctrine, we understand the
doctrine, but we also always have it upon our lips. This is
why Paul said in Romans 1 16-17, For I am not ashamed of the gospel,
for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes,
to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness
of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, But
the righteous man shall live by faith. Dear ones, if we are
ashamed of the gospel, what are we really ashamed of? What did
we learn today? We're ashamed of the person and work of Christ.
Dear ones, if we're ashamed of the Gospel, we're not going to
go out with the Gospel upon our lips. But I know better of you. As we go out the door today,
let's be reminded of the necessity to have the Gospel upon our lips.
To have the Gospel understood in our minds. To always be prepared.
Because how else is the culture going to hear? By the way, when
you give the gospel, let me give you a little tip on how I do
it. I think of four questions that are answered in the gospel.
What's the gospel of the person and work of Christ? The first
thing I answer, I don't do this in order, let me lay it out.
Who is Jesus? What did He do? Why do we need
Him? How do we receive Him? Who is
Jesus? What did he do? Why do we need
him? How do we receive him? So what
I always do is I begin with the third one. Why do we need him?
Because people are dead sinners. People are under the wrath of
God. If I tell someone that and they're not convicted, I go on. I don't cast my pearls before
swine. But if they're saying, you know what, that concerns
me. I want to hear more about this. I tell them about who Jesus
is and what he's done. And at the very end, I say, how
do you receive them? It's by faith alone. Today, if you'll trust
upon Jesus Christ, you'll have the forgiveness of sins and everlasting
life. That's the gospel, who He is,
what He's done, why do we need Him, and how do we receive Him.
Dear ones, if you and I don't have the gospel upon our lips,
if we don't study the gospel, if we're not enthralled with
the gospel, if we're not those who proclaim the gospel, the dying culture
isn't going to hear it. And you and I are going to be
no different than the lifeguard station, a supper club, that
no longer saves anybody. Let's pray. Heavenly Father,
Lord, we do thank you for the truths that you revealed to us
in Scripture. We thank you for sending your
Son, who would become truly man for us to represent us. He'd
be God to save us. We thank you for the God-man,
Lord. We thank you what he did for us on the cross, that through
his death, we'd have a substitute who pays the penalty that we
deserve. We thank you for this, Lord.
We pray, Heavenly Father, if there's anyone here that today
would be their day to trust upon you, trust upon the Lord Jesus
for the forgiveness of sins. We do pray, Heavenly Father,
that the gospel would be upon our lips, that we would be concerned
and consumed with the gospel and your doctrines. We pray these
things in Jesus' name. Amen.
What Is the Gospel?
Series 2 Timothy
| Sermon ID | 816215145043 |
| Duration | 58:00 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | 2 Timothy 2:8 |
| Language | English |
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