my gratefulness for this opportunity to dive in together with all of you over these next five weeks. I am very thankful for the ministry of this church and the ministry of Brother Harold Smith. I've been immensely blessed by all of you. In the early days of knowing that I was called to the ministry, I heard that there was a church in Van Buren who believes the doctrines of grace and who preaches verse by verse expositionally through the Bible. And that is something of a rare discovery for this area and so I am very grateful for that. And because of certain ministry endeavors, I've only been able to come here a few times in some of your events, but I've been able to listen to Brother Harold over sermon audio and I've just been very, very grateful for his consistent rightly handling the word of God. And I am definitely praying for you as you go through this season of looking for a new pastor who can step in and rightly handle the word of truth and shepherd you with the love of Jesus Christ. I want to use these five weeks to cover five somewhat separate doctrines that I think that the church, the modern church, needs to clarify. We need to be clear on these points biblically, and we need to understand them from the Scripture. Tonight we are going to be looking at the doctrine of Scripture itself. with a specific emphasis upon the sufficiency of the Word of God. We are going to dive into Paul's teachings to his young son in the faith. Primarily diving into 2 Timothy 3.16 through 4.2. Next week, Lord willing, we will examine the Lordship of Christ and His headship over the body of Christ, the Church. and then we'll examine the unchanging nature of God. After that, the doctrine of suffering, and then finally, the responsibility of created humanity. Because of the fact that you have had a faithful pastor preaching the word of God to you for 14 years, I don't expect to step up here and to tell you anything that you don't already know. But what I hope to do is to pour steel into a foundation that has already been laid and to provide biblical clarity as we examine all of these issues together. And so, would you bow with me in a word of prayer one more time? Father, I ask your blessing upon this time tonight that you would guide us into your word, that you would build up your church, Lord Jesus, through the truth of your word, that you would grow us all in you and bring us to a greater degree of knowledge in you and maturity as we apply all of these things together. Help me to faithfully preach your word tonight. And it's in Jesus' name I pray. Amen. So why start the series by examining the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture? Well, for two simple reasons. First of all, if we as the church are not clear on this doctrine, if we're not clear on the doctrine of Scripture, then everything else will crumble. If you reject the inerrancy and the infallibility of the Word of God, then you have no true foundation for doctrine left. If you deny the inspiration of the Scripture, then you are going to go looking for the message of God everywhere except for where He put it, which is in His Word. If you cast aside the sufficiency of the Scripture, then you're going to be constantly trying to add to the message. Add to the message from a wide variety of sources instead of trusting in what God has given to us as his church. If you don't understand this point, then you won't rightly understand the rest of the doctrines of Christianity. And the second reason here that I want us to begin by examining the doctrine of scripture. is that most of the Christian heresy, most of the heresies in the history of the Christian church have arisen over this point. Has anybody here ever heard of the Gnostics in the early church? Anybody have heard of them, a few of you? The Gnostics, as their primary belief, they asserted that only a few individuals possess truth. That only a few individuals can ultimately know truth, and the way that you know truth is by a mystical experience. And so the foundation for you to know truth is that you have to have this experience or know somebody else who already has and go learn it from them. That is a rejection of the doctrine of Scripture. That is a rejection of the sufficiency of the Word of God. And that's why the Gnostics went awry and much else in their theology. That's why they denied the body, that Jesus Christ actually had a body when he walked on earth. That's why they denied the doctrine of salvation. Do you see the issues here? Fast forward to the 16th century. The Protestant Reformation is about to dawn onto the scene. and the heretical Roman Catholic Church has rejected that man is saved by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone. And they have rejected that we are bound to the Word of God alone. They believe that the Pope has binding authority, and they elevate church tradition to an authoritative level. As opposed to this view, a fiery monk by the name of Martin Luther arose and declared that our conscience is bound by the Word of God and the Word of God alone. And John Calvin, the theologian of the Reformation, rose up and echoed that truth. Ulrich Zwingli and John Knox and William Tyndale and all of them rose up with a unified voice and said, Scripture alone is the authority. The attack was on the sufficiency and the authority of the Word of God and the true church had to stand up and say that we submit to Scripture. And then came the 19th century. The 19th century when liberal theology arose. What a train wreck liberal theology is. That it came up and it sought to try to undermine the scripture. It started talking about all the errors in the Bible. What errors in the Bible? They haven't demonstrated one and they never will. And men like Charles Spurgeon and J. Gresham Machen had to stand up and to say that this is the word of God and they had to defend it. However, the liberals, they continued their attack. Now enter the 21st century, the modern day. We don't have any attacks upon the sufficiency of the scripture today, do we? It's not a matter of where do we have any, it's a matter of which one do you want to start with, right? I'll give you one example here before we dive into our text. On July 24th, 2020, Dr. John McArthur and the Elders of Grace Community Church issued a statement. They took a heroic stand and defied the unjust mandates of the civil government. They released a document entitled, Christ Not Caesar is the Head of the Church. I want to read you the opening paragraph of that document. Christ is Lord of all. He is the one true head of the Church. He is also King of Kings, sovereign over every earthly authority. Grace Community Church has always stood immovably on those biblical principles. As His people, we are subject to His wills and commands as revealed in Scripture. Therefore, we cannot and will not acquiesce to a government-imposed moratorium on our weekly congregational worship. or other regular corporate gatherings. Compliance would be disobedience to our Lord's clear commands. Again, it comes down to the Bible. That Jesus Christ is head of the church and he rules his church through the word of God and the word of God alone. Not through Caesar, not through Gavin Newsom, not through Joe Biden, not through any government, through scripture alone. Now, have I managed to convince you of the importance of this doctrine as we go into it? Does everybody see the importance of this doctrine here tonight, the doctrine of the Scripture? I want to start off by reading 2 Timothy 3.16-4.2. And then what we're going to do is we're going to dive into the context of this passage, probably more so than we will any other evening together. because we need to see the context that Paul is writing this in if we're going to understand the full weight of this text. So read it with me, 2 Timothy 3.16-4.2. All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is the judge, the living and the dead, and by his appearing in his kingdom, preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching. What we see in this passage is primarily two driving themes. The first is the sufficiency of scripture for all of life and godliness. And the second is the charge of the minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ. But before we can dive into that, like I said, we need to examine the context. So I want to turn back to 1 Timothy, and then we'll go through a little bit of 2 Timothy. And we really need to start by answering the question, where was Timothy when Paul is writing these epistles to him? And what was the situation that he was in? So turn over to 1 Timothy 1. Verses three through four. 1 Timothy 1, verse three. As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, 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 is by faith. So we see here that Timothy is in Ephesus whenever Paul is writing this letter. And I want you to notice that he was urged to remain there because of the false teachers that had arisen and were raising their heresies against the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Now all of these falsehoods and Timothy was going to have to face them with a certainty of sound doctrine, with a certainty of biblical truth. There were individuals at the church in Ephesus who were proclaiming falsehoods. And so Paul left Timothy there to defend the true gospel of Jesus Christ. And there is no reason to doubt that Timothy is anywhere else than Ephesus whenever we come over to 2 Timothy. In fact, there is a strong reason to believe that he is in Ephesus still, because Paul mentions Onesiphorus in 2 Timothy 1, verse 16. And we know that he likely served in Ephesus because of how Paul ties him to Priscilla and Aquila in chapter 4, verse 19. And what I want you to notice specifically though is that Timothy is in a bit of a topsy-turvy situation here, right? He's not in smooth water. He has to stand up and fight the good fight. This is going to be a difficult scenario that he is in. In fact, it's actually interesting to note the purpose for which Paul wrote 1 Timothy. Now look at 1 Timothy 3 verses 14-15. Why is Paul writing this letter? So that Timothy can know how Christ has commanded him to conduct himself in the household of God. That we are to be regulated by God in our worship. That we're not free to come here and to just reinvent the wheel. That to just do whatever we want to do. That we have specific commands in the word of God given to us by the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is what Paul is getting at in this verse. That he wants the young preacher to know how things ought to be done. And I want you to notice that last phrase at the end of verse 15, the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth. The church is where the truth is found and the truth must be protected. The truth must be defended. The truth must be proclaimed and it must be heralded by the true saints of Jesus Christ. And that is why Paul left Timothy in Ephesus to begin with. So he would stand strong and strengthen the church in true doctrine. Now with that foundation, I want us to turn over to 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy chapter 1. We've established that Timothy is in Ephesus. We've seen his fight for the truth. But the question is, is he still having to put up this fight in 2 Timothy? is he still having to refute false doctrine in this epistle as well. Look at chapter 1 of 2 Timothy in verse 8. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God. And so we see here that Paul calls himself a prisoner. The apostle is in prison for preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, for holding to the true faith The two primary themes of 2 Timothy are right here in this verse. Number one, don't be ashamed of the truth. Number two, suffer well for the sake of Jesus Christ. And I want to point out to you verses 13 and 14 of chapter one. I want you to notice something here. Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us. Guard the good deposit entrusted to you. So we see here that Timothy is supposed to follow a certain pattern. That he is to follow the pattern of the sound words. He is told here to follow the example of the Apostle Paul. And notice that last part of verse 14. Guard the good deposit entrusted to you. Here we see a reference to the fact that Timothy is going to have to put up a fight. Timothy is going to have to put up a fight to guard his ministry, to guard biblical truth. He is going to have to be at war against the false ideologies of the world, against the false teachings of the heretics. But do we have anything in this letter that indicates that Paul isn't just reminding Timothy of this, but that Timothy is actually still in a dire situation, that he is still battling these false teachers? Turn one chapter over with me, the chapter two, verses 14 through 19. Remind them of these things and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. but avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some, but God's firm foundation stands. Bearing this seal, the Lord knows those who are his, and let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity." So we see it here as well, don't we? that Paul reminds Timothy of some who have swerved from the truth, that Timothy is still needing to charge others to before God to be obedient, to hold to the truth. They are to stand on the firm foundation, the Lord Jesus Christ. Come what may, the Lord will continue to build His church. No matter what false doctrines Timothy would have to fight, Jesus Christ would still continue to build the church. That was a certainty. That is something that will continue until the Lord comes back. In 2 Timothy 4 verses 14-15, Paul tells Timothy to beware of Alexander the coppersmith. So here we have a specific reference to someone who is distorting the truth that Timothy has to be aware of. He is going to have to be alert in this instance. I want to show you what is right before our primary text here this evening. Look at chapter 3 verses 6-9. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. Just as Janus and Janvirus opposed Moses, so these men also opposed the truth. Men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith, for they will not get very far, for their father will be plain to all, as was that of these two men." So we see here, again, another reminder, Timothy is still dealing with those who oppose the truth. And I promise I'm being redundant on that point for an actual reason. But these men are perverting the truth of God and it's young Timothy's job to uphold it. And listen, we need to comprehend that Timothy, he is in a difficult situation. And so as we walk into this passage regarding the sufficiency of the scripture, Paul is not writing this in the midst of a time when Timothy is on smooth waters. He's writing this when Timothy is dealing with all kinds of heresy and all kinds of false teaching, when he's having to face all kinds of problems and difficulties within the church. And Paul's reminder is that the scripture is sufficient, that your job is to preach the text of the Word of God. Another thing here. The Apostle Paul is getting ready to die as he writes this epistle. Chapter four, verse six. For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. Paul has been abandoned by many of those who were with him. Chapter four, verse 11 says, Luke alone is with me. And in chapter four, verse 16, he says, in my first offense, no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them. Paul knows the urgency of this moment. And that is why he wants Timothy to come to him soon, according to chapter 4, verse 9. Paul has fulfilled his ministry. He has fought the good fight of the faith and has finished the race. And he is passing on the baton to Timothy to carry it and to continue to preach the word. And so he writes to his young son in the faith to instruct him of how to carry on. It's in that backdrop that we come to our text. And really, in my estimation, chapter 3 verse 16 through chapter 4 verse 2 is the climax of this entire epistle. Paul is building up to this point where he is going to discuss the scripture and call Timothy to herald it. He is going to charge And Timothy was in unique times. Timothy was in perilous times. And I think that it is safe to say that we today are in unique times as well. That over the last two years, things have changed rapidly in our society. That we see false teachers everywhere. That the culture is reaping the fruit of abandoning the ways of God. And we need to be locked in to what the Apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, we need to be locked into what he has to say. So does everybody understand the context of the passage here as we get ready to walk into it? Are there any questions on the context here? All right. The very first thing that we see in our text is the inspiration and the sufficiency of Scripture. Chapter 3, verse 16. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. Paul is setting up the charge that he is going to give to Timothy. He is closing his final letter that he will write in the canon of Scripture. He is going to charge Timothy to preach the Word. And he lays down this foundation. all a scripture is breathed out by God. That whenever we read our Bibles, we're not just reading another book. We're reading the revelation of Almighty God Himself. And notice that first part of the verse. It says that all scripture is breathed out by God. All scripture. Not just the letters in red. Not just the Gospels. not just the New Testament, not just the letters of Paul or Peter, all of Scripture, every single word of it. The Holy Word of God, it is inerrant, it is inspired, it is infallible, and it is sufficient. And we see that it is inspired by this phrase, breathed out by God. And I want to break down these four terms, inerrancy, inspiration, infallibility, and sufficiency. Whenever we talk about inspiration, We are saying that the Bible is inspired by God Himself. That He is the offer of Holy Scripture through the means of human writers. The writers, they either heard what God said, for example you have the Gospel writers writing down the actual words of Jesus as they heard Him in many instances when He is preaching and teaching. Or they were inspired to pin what they wrote, such as in the epistles and all the other biblical letters and books. And of course, whenever we say that it was inspired by God, that doesn't take away the personality of each biblical offer. If you read Paul, he has a different tone than whenever you read Peter. All the different Gospels record slightly different things. They're all consistent, but they all record different facets of the life and the ministry of Jesus. Now God used every single writer to pin the exact words that he wanted them to. That is the inspiration of the text. And the next thing is the inerrancy of the Word of God. And by that we mean that it contains no error. And many folks have difficulty on this particular point because we have differences in translations I'm reading out of the English Standard Version. Some of you are probably reading out of the King James Version. Other of you may be out of the New American Standard Bible. We go back through the history of the church and we see different manuscripts, some of which are much more complete than others, some of which are much more accurate in terms of being copied than others are. But the people who have a problem with the inerrancy of the scripture, because of those things, have no idea how accurate the actual manuscripts are. I can't cover all of that in one sermon here tonight, unless we want to be here until this time tomorrow. But just to give you an idea, 23,000 archaeological digs have been done to try to disprove the Bible. Not one of them has ever been able to do it. The Word of God contains no errors. 23,000. Yeah. 23,000. That's a lot. Not one of them has ever done it. And we can have 100% confidence in the Word of God. But not only that, the Word of God is not only inerrant, it is infallible. That means that it's not capable of erring. See, whenever we mention that something is inerrant, an example of that would be that if I took a quiz and by a miracle got 100% on that quiz. I was inerrant on that particular exam. But believe me, I have not always gotten 100% on every single exam that I have ever taken in my life. I am not infallible. I am very capable of erring. But the Bible is not that way because it comes from God who is 100% truth. And so his word contains no errors because it is inspired by him. So do you see what we're talking about by these three terms? Does that make sense? All right. Now we come to that last word. The sufficiency of scripture. We saw the inspiration of the word when we looked at verse 16, when we discussed it being breathed out by God. Now I want us to look at the end of verse 16 through verse 17, and we will see the sufficiency of Scripture. And profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. The Word completely trains us. The Word is what we need to grow in the Lord. It rebukes our error. It shows us the truth of God and how to live righteously for His glory. It equips us to be useful for His service and to accomplish all that He has called us to do. In other words, we don't need tools outside of the Bible to go and learn from in order to be able to fulfill the mission that Christ has given to His church. In verse 17, it just builds on that. The argument amplifies and it strengthens and it continues. The verse says that the man of God may be complete and equipped for every good work. So the man of God is able to be equipped by the word of God for every good thing that he is called to do. He lacks nothing for the fulfillment of his task. That is a clear description of the sufficiency of scripture. The man of God is not going to have to obtain all kinds of worldly wisdom. No, he must run to the word and he must trust in the word and preach the word and he must be obedient to the word. But we need to briefly pause and address one question about this text. And it is who is the man of God mentioned in this verse? There are really only two options here. Every man who is a Christian, Or it references specifically the minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And looking at how this phrase is used over the scripture helps us to understand what specifically is meant here. In the New Testament, this phrase, man of God, is used only in reference to Timothy. We see it here in 2 Timothy. 1 Timothy 6, verse 11 also uses it. It says, But as for you, O man of God, flee these things, pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. So Paul in this text calls Timothy again the man of God. In the Old Testament, if you trace the usage of this term, you find that it is used to refer to someone who officially speaks for God. For example, Deuteronomy chapter 33 verse 1. This is the blessing with which Moses, the man of God, blessed the people of Israel before his death. The phrase is always used, without exception, to refer to someone who is a herald of divine truth, who proclaims the message of God. And so what Paul is telling Timothy, in 2 Timothy 3, verse 17, is that the Word of God is able to equip those who spend their lives, who use their lives proclaiming the truth of God. There's no need for them to go into secular society and learn what the culture says, to seek out worldly wisdom. They must come to the Scripture. And since we know the Word can equip the one who spends their life ministering the Word, we can certainly say that it is able to equip all of us. It is able to equip every single Christian for service to Christ. The Bible is sufficient to arm us to live pleasing before God. Let me apply that for a second. The minister doesn't go to the world for worldly wisdom. We don't go to the culture and try to be like them. Listen, we're here to engage the culture with the truth of Scripture. We're not here to be infiltrated by the culture and by the ideas of the false world system. We don't want to give in to the pagan world. No, we want to stand on the scripture and proclaim it to them, that they may be saved and that they may know the gospel of Jesus Christ. They're lost sinners on their way to hell and they need to hear the truth of scripture. But what do we see so often today? We see that pastors and churches reject this doctrine of the sufficiency of scripture. Maybe they don't say that, but they do it in application. And they seek to be more like the world. They seek to go out, and their idea is to be like the world in order to reach the world, instead of being firmly planted in the Scripture. And that's because they don't believe that the Word of God is sufficient. They believe that they have to go out and copy the culture. That is not our goal. That is not what the Lord Jesus Christ did when He was on earth. That is not what He proclaimed. That is not what the apostles proclaimed. That is not what the early church proclaimed. What we need to do is to come to the Scripture. Everything that the church does must have a biblical basis. We must go to the Scripture and to search out the truth. That is our calling. We have to remember what Paul has done here. He has just told Timothy about the Scripture and the fact that it is sufficient for the herald of God's truth. And now we turn to that part of this passage where Paul is going to charge this young man. And let me remind you one last time that we are nearing the close of this letter. That Paul knows that his time on earth is shortening. That he has only a few more words that he is going to write. Only 22 more verses. And what we are going to see is that he is not going to tell Timothy to come up with a new church growth strategy. He's not going to tell Timothy to go sit under worldly teachers and imitate them. He's not going to tell Timothy to come up with his own ideas and to try to come up with his own ideas and strange interpretations of the Scripture. He's not going to tell him to undertake grand programs so that people may be drawn to Christ. He's not going to tell him to conduct opinion polls as to what is true and what is false. He's not going to tell him to teach what is tickling to the ears of his congregation. He's not going to tell him to preach what is popular in the eyes of the world. The apostle is clear. The command is clear. The Lord Jesus Christ is clear. That Timothy is to preach the Word of God. That he is called to strap himself into the pulpit and declare, Thus saith the Lord. That his message is to come from the text. And that his weapon is the text of Scripture. Come what may. Whether it be martyrdom, whether it be persecution, or false teachers of any and every kind, Timothy was to preach the Word of God. Look at Paul, verses 1 and 2 of chapter 4. Paul here, I want you to notice that he is charging Timothy before God. That he is charging Timothy before the Lord Jesus Christ. Timothy is to fulfill this charge knowing that he will be judged by the Lord. That his ministry, that his preaching, that his entire life will be judged by Christ. That he is going to be held to account that he is called to serve faithfully and Christ will judge that. And Paul also mentions here his appearing and his kingdom. Timothy was to fulfill his ministry knowing that he was working for Christ and that the Lord is coming back. That he is working for the eternal everlasting kingdom and that when the Lord Jesus comes back he will not do so as the land to be slain. but as the conquering king to crush all who oppose him. Timothy needed to remember that. He was a minister of the kingdom of God that will be eternally established. This is a privilege. This is a joy to serve as a herald of the truth of God in his eternal kingdom. and to get to sing glorious praise to his name for all of eternity, to spend your life pouring it out in service to Christ. And he tells them to preach the word, to do it in season and out of season. There's only two times, in season, out of season. In other words, you're to do this all the time, Timothy. You're to do this when it's popular. You're to do this whenever somebody is chasing you around with a sword trying to kill you for preaching the truth. You're to do this no matter the circumstance. You're to do this no matter what issues you're facing, in season, out of season, all the time. And notice that he is to reprove, that he is to rebuke, and that he is to exhort. Reprove and rebuke here, they indicate standing against error, right? They indicate refuting false doctrine, that you're to come up against those who are teaching falsely. and to expose their error. You're opposing those who oppose the gospel of Jesus Christ. And the primary way that Timothy was to do that was in his preaching. But he is also to exhort, as we see in this passage. So don't just refute error, also proclaim the truth. It's not just enough to proclaim the truth, you have to actually refute error. But you can't just always be refuting error all the time. You have to actually proclaim the truth of the Scripture. It takes both. You have to refute falsehood and proclaim the truth. That is the calling of the pastor. And exhorting. The old Puritans used to say that exhorting means that the minister is to strike a fire with the Word of God. And that fire gives light. And that light is the truth of the Scripture, giving us the ability to see rightly. And that fire also gives off heat. And that heat is causing the congregation to be set aflame with passion because of the scripture. And the Word of God is completely sufficient for both of these tasks. Timothy is to do all this with complete patience. He's to do all this with teaching. It's hard to be patient sometimes, isn't it? Especially whenever you see all the errors and the falsehood around us. It's hard to be patient. But thank God Christ was patient with us. And so we should be patient. We should teach rightly. Just because you're patient doesn't mean you're not bold. Just because you're patient doesn't mean that you're not courageous. But it does mean that you handle the situation rightly, that you will the sword or the word of God precisely, and that you bring it to bear on the issue at hand. So does anybody have any questions here about the sufficiency of scripture as seen in this text? Any questions on that? Not that I have any answers necessarily, but are there any questions? All right. So let's apply this to today. What are we to do today? What are we being taught to do in this passage? We're to do the same thing. The mandate has not changed. There's not a 21st century way to preach and a 1st century way to preach. It's the same text and it's the same command. That we are to train up others in the word of God in every area of their life. That we are to live faithfully to the scripture ourselves. And that we are to take this gospel, this message to the ends of the earth. That we are to declare it that God may save, that He may bring salvation. That is our charge. That is our duty. And the Word of God is sufficient for this. And this is for all of us. That it is for men to train up other men, to lead their homes. And it is for women to train up other women and to declare to others. And listen, we will certainly face difficulty of various kinds in the coming days. We have already seen the world, as we mentioned earlier, change drastically over the last couple of years. And yet the commands of Christ have not changed. The Bible hasn't changed. God hasn't changed. We're still to obey the same command. We are still to live steadfastly for his sake. We see Paul's high view of scripture. It is inerrant, it is infallible, it is inspired, and it is sufficient. In 1887, it was in 1887, a little while ago, a preacher made a decision to stand upon the scripture. And that decision would be highly controversial in his day. It actually caused him to go from literally being the most popular preacher in the world to being censured by the Baptist Union. This pastor had seen that liberalism was creeping into the church, and he was willing to fight to the death for the truth of Jesus Christ. And so he took his stand. In fact, he fought so hard that his wife would write that this fight, this battle cost him his life. You see, Charles Spurgeon, the prince of preachers, was willing to pay the price to stand upon the Bible. When the controversy reached its peak, Charles Spurgeon was still doing what Charles Spurgeon did best, which was preaching the word. And two weeks after being censured by the Baptist Union, he preached a message titled, Holding Fast to Faith. And the thing that you got to love about Spurgeon is he doesn't mince words. He just comes out and he just plainly says it. He just plainly says what the text means. And so in that sermon, let me summarize some of it for you. I don't think we have time to read all of it here tonight. He discusses the fact that everyone admires and they respect the great men of the faith. He gives the examples of Martin Luther, of Ulrich Zwingli, and of John Calvin. And he says that no one today wants to be like them anymore. Because, and I quote him, such a man today is a nuisance and must be put down. That's the goal of Satan, isn't it? That's the goal of our enemy. If he can cause the pastors to be quiet, if he can cause the church to be quiet, then he's won. Because the truth is not being proclaimed. But that is not our calling. Our charge is to declare the truth with all of our might, all of our strength, all of our passion, and all of the courage and clarity that we can muster. And Spurgeon understood that fact. And so did Calvin, so did Luther, so did the Apostle Paul, and many others. They stood for the truth of Christ in the face of all kinds of false teaching, all kinds of persecution, and all kinds of suffering. They stood on the word, and Spurgeon continues in that sermon, he says this. He says, these men loved the faith in the name of Jesus too well to see them trampled on. Note what we owe them, and let us pay to our sons the debt we owe our fathers. Notice that last phrase. Let us pay to our sons the debt we owe our fathers. Do you notice what Spurgeon is doing here? He is tying the past, the present, and the future together in this sermon. That we serve, remembering the faithful Christians who have come behind us. Remembering the faithful Christians who have counted the cost, who have given their life for the sake of the gospel. We serve knowing the reality of the battle in the present, seeing clearly the fight that God has called us to undertake. And we serve with the goal of leaving a faithful heritage to those who will come after us once we die. in Spurgeon. He then goes on to say this. It's almost like he's preaching this right now in the 21st century. But he goes on and he says, We have come to a turning point in the road. If we turn to the right, mayhap our children and our grandchildren's children will go that way. But if we turn to the left, generations yet unborn will curse our names for having been unfaithful to God and His word. I charge you, not only by your ancestry, but by your posterity, that you seek to win the commendation of your master, that though you dwell where Satan's seat is, you yet hold fast his name and do not deny his faith. That is exactly what we must do. We must hold fast to the name of Jesus Christ. We must stand on the sufficiency of the scripture which he has given to us. We must remember all those who will come after us, our sons and our daughters and our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren, but not only our families, all the Christians who will come after us. all of our brothers and sisters in the faith. And we must champion the name of Christ to leave them a faithful heritage, to leave them a faithful witness. And so today, what is the church to do in the midst of confusing and often even perilous times? We're to continue to stand firm. We're to boldly declare the truth of the word of God, and we're to live it out faithfully in our lives. That is the mandate, that is the charge, that is our responsibility. And we fulfill that duty remembering the Lord Jesus Christ who gave his life for us. Remembering the faithful men and women who have come before us and remembering those to whom we will pass the baton to. So let us be faithful to our Lord and let us live for his glory and stand on the sufficiency of his word. Are there any questions before I turn it over for the prayer time here this evening? All right. Well, I shall turn it over for the prayer time then. Thank you all so much. It was great to have this time together for sure.