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Brian will be preaching on today. It's in 2 Timothy chapter 1 verses 13 through 18. Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me in the faith and love which are in Jesus in Christ Jesus. Guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us the treasure which has been entrusted to you. You are aware of the fact that all who are in Asia turned away from me, among whom are Fagellus and Ezra Manes. The Lord grant mercy to the house of Onesaphormas, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains. But when he was in Rome, he eagerly searched for me and found me. The Lord grant to him to find mercy from the Lord on that day, and he know very well what services he rendered at Ephesus. You may be seated. Pastor Brian, would you come?

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Thank you, brother. What a joy it is again to be here with you. As the word is open, as the word is proclaimed, as the word is uh sung and prayed, all the things that we do as a church, it is such a gift to have the word. Uh let us praise him for it and beg him for his guidance now. Father, we thank you again for the privilege of uh having the very words of our great God, the God of the universe, the God of all creation, to be before us and with us now. And Father, we ask you that, as Larry's already prayed, that you would impact us with your word, that you would uh cause it to sink down deep within us, that you would uh allow our minds to engage in such a way uh that it brings transformation. That uh, since we are all sinners and in need of grace, we are also in need of growth. And so, Father, we ask you that that would transpire in this time. Give us wisdom, give us clarity, and uh most importantly, Father, that you would be honored and glorified. Guard my my voice, my mouth, my my my my very brain to be able to engage with what you would have for me, Father, and for all of us. And that my heart would be in tune with your word and that all of us uh would uh come to a greater love and worship of Jesus Christ through this time. We pray this in your name. Amen. Well, as you know, there are a lot of things that you can call the Christian man or woman. The world has their share of names and phrases, don't they? The world has their share of things that are not sh that they're not shy of when speaking of the Christian. Maybe you've heard something like you just believe a fairy tale, you're a fairy tale believer. You're narrow-minded, you're a bigot, a homophobe. And all of it goes with that. Uh you're foolish, you're naive. And the list is long, isn't it? What I find kind of comical about some of these names that they call us can actually be used of the believer to then speak of what we call each other as Christians. Here's what I mean. We believe by faith in a tale, if you will, of redemption that may seem like a fairy tale to some because it's so fantastic, it's so amazing, but we know it to be true by the grace of God through his word. Narrow-minded? Sure. I will take that all day long, if by that they mean that the Bible is my sole source of absolute truth and it's the authority over all of my life. Call me narrow-minded. Bigots and homophobes? Well, here's a funny thing. I'd actually say that that constitutes the world's character in the broader sense. Christians who hold to the Bible's teaching are really the single most loving and diverse people in the world. Can you say that about those communities that attack us? That they're welcoming, that they're they're engaging, that they're fine with, you know, others coming to see who they are and what they believe. Of course not. You can't say that. There's a big difference. It's just the difference really is that we as Christians actually care enough about other people to tell what is true with conviction and passion, not just what others want to hear. Foolish. How about foolish? You ever been called foolish for being a Christian? If by that they they mean that we believe in the gospel, then yeah, by the world's standards, I'm a fool. I'm a fool for Christ and his truth. The Bible says that the gospel is foolishness to those who are perishing. Think about that to the homosexual community mentioned. The gospel is foolishness to them who are perishing eternally because of their life. But the Bible actually goes on to say the Christian is wise if we fear the Lord. The gospel may seem foolish to the world standards, and they call us foolish, but the Bible says you're wise if you follow after him. You're wise if you believe him. And that's where we get our identity. There are so many things a Christian is called and can be called, some of which we're not going to talk about. But there's another one that I think we in the church actually kind of shy away from, interestingly, and it's really something we should all be embracing and calling ourselves. And that's this word, theologian. You and I, if you're a Christian, you're a theologian. In fact, even if you're not, to some extent, based on how the wording is, you're a theologian. But for the sake of our purposes today, all of the Christians, all of the people who have who have come to know Christ are theological. They are theologians, because the word theology simply refers to the study of God. If you're a Christian and you don't seek to understand who God is, that's problematic to say the least. Okay, so the word, if you break it down, theos is God, that's Greek for God. Ology is a study of God. Actually, the word is logos or logic, it's a study of God. So you and I are all theologians in some respects, right? At different levels and different maturity and different uh veracity in that, but all theological students of the Bible soldiering for Christ, if you're a Christian. And so what that means then is that we are called, commanded, to study, know, and apply the truth of that theology. And what that necessitates is a weapon in our arsenal. Again, back to where we're on week number three of the weapons of a Christian soldier. And so we've looked at the bellows and how we fan the flame of who we are and what we come to know and how we live in faith. And then last week we looked at courage, how we are called to be a courageous Christian, not a cowardly Christian. And so this week we have a different one in the arsenal, and it's vital in its importance, especially if we ever want to live for Christ as good soldiers. And that, in light of theology, in light of understanding who God is, we need a weapon that divides truth from error. And that weapon is called right doctrine. Right doctrine. And I think that's what we see in our passage. Again, we're we're looking at these weapons because that's what Paul speaks of specifically in chapter 2. Be a good soldier of Christ, he says to Timothy, on down to us today, of course, because of that. And really, I think that one of the themes we get is to be unashamed as a soldier for Christ from this book, 2 Timothy. Right doctrine. So let's spend some time diving into this passage, uh, see why we need it and what it is. We're gonna do this by asking three questions or three points in our passage uh about the the weapon of right doctrine. I hope it brings clarity and aids us in, therefore, implementing this needed weapon on a daily basis. Again, at the front end, I remind us uh that I want to understand something really important about these weapons that we're looking at. And that is that not all weapons seek to kill and destroy. In this case, it is a weapon that actually saves lives. Eternal lives. That's a pretty awesome weapon. Right doctrine can and will save people's souls from that which is false. It's that important. And so wielding this weapon rightly is vital to all of us in all of our lives. Not saying, please don't hear me wrong, not saying that we actually do the work of saving souls based on our doctrine. No. Only God saves by his grace. But he uses us and his truth to do it. Simply speaking, doctrine is a set of beliefs. What do we believe about this certain thing? And so we're gonna get into that more. But first, so here's our first thing, first point. I want us to try to answer the question: what is the weapon of right doctrine? Just basically speaking, look again at verse 13. He says, retain the standard of what? Sound words. That's where we're drawing that from. Sound words which you have heard from me in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. Sound words. Paul says, retain that, guard that, he goes on to say in verse 14. And that's really the message today is 13 and 14, and we'll we'll talk about 15 through 18, and because Paul's just giving us examples there, and we'll talk about that later. But 13 and 14 is where we're gonna land because this is his admonition to Timothy. Retain, work hard, stand firm as a soldier. About what? Sound words, right words, right doctrine, right truth. Only truth, I should say. So sound words for the Christian means a right understanding of God, what he has done, who he is, what the gospel is, and what that means for the world or creation, and of course for us as the Christian. I want to give you this. Bobby Jameson, in his little book titled Sound Doctrine, subtitled How a Church Grows in Love and the Holiness of God, he says this in that book. He says, God has given us a roadmap for living the Christian life. And that map is sound doctrine. Again, for us, right doctrine. Yeah, I know, I know, I get it. Pretty much every guy in here, we don't need directions, right? Just don't look at your wife right now, okay? I mean, think about it. You know, the guys in here, we can just hold up our finger, get it wet, hold it up in the air, and say, it's that way, with absolute confidence and boldness, right? You've done that. And when asked how that helped you conclude to find a particular address that you've never been to, and you just simply point out the fact that, you know what? I'm male. God has done great things. We don't need directions, right? You just need a full tank of gas to get that mile and a half. I'm with you. As we drive in circles. It's all kidding aside. I have to tell you, all Christians, all soldiers for Christ, male and female alike, we all need a map to walk in faithfulness on this one. So if you are to know, if you are to understand and therefore live out that which is true, right doctrine, you gotta know the word of God. The place where we get doctrine about Christ. You and I are not born with some inner knowing of God's word. We need to go to it and study it. And so to have it, again, to have right doctrine, we all need it. We will all need to, therefore, read, study, and be taught the word of God. Read, study, and be taught by a faithful church and apply. It's like that rinse, what it would it, wash, rinse, repeat, you know, that kind of thing. That's us. Read, study, come together as a church like we're doing now, be taught the word of God, apply. Don't forget apply. It's really important. Or else you're saying you don't have right doctrine if you don't apply. So that's what it is, essentially. That's right doctrine. And so as we open up the word, as we read through it, and we come to find out what its meaning is and what the author is trying to intend for us to understand, and we we figure that out, and we're taught some things, especially those things that maybe aren't obvious right off the bat. That's getting right doctrine by the Spirit within us, illuminating the word to us. Because, and we have to understand that there's an active work in this and in the study, because the inner knowing part that seems so prevalent in our day actually ends up leading us astray and therefore off the map completely. It doesn't just start in here, it starts here. And the Spirit of the Lord illuminates that. That's why there's so many false teachers and just heretical doctrines out there, and there have been since the beginning. But if if today you turn on, let's say, TBN for five minutes and you see Benny Him slay somebody to the ground, or you hear Joel Osteen tell you that you're great within yourself, like some 1980s self-esteem coach tickling your ears, or or you hear that your ability to sow the seed and yeah, I'm gonna need that other jet, you know, that kind of thing that we hear. That's just that's not that's false doctrine, that's garbage. Okay? We've got to be aware of those things, but the only way to be aware of those things is to know the truth. It's like when you go to the store and you hand that person the $100 bill at the cash register, and you kind of get a little bit like, wow, they don't trust me because they get the counterfeit pin out, right? And they they mark up. We have to know the truth. That's our counterfeit pin, if you will, is knowing the word. We have to know the word. That's why Paul says, retain the standard. How can he do that if he doesn't know it and study it? You see, right doctrine would actually tell you your best life is in heaven, not now. That's where we store up treasure. That's your best life. That's to live for Christ. And what did Christ's life look like, by the way? When we look at this prosperity stuff that's so prevalent in our day, what's how does that contradict the life of Christ? Was the life that Jesus lived on this earth all comfort and riches? It was tough, wasn't it? It was painful. I don't even have a place to lay my head, Jesus says. And yet it was still eternally abundant and fruitful. That's just one reason, that's just one example of why it's so important to grab the weapon of right doctrine and just slay that ear-tickling rubbish that sounds nice, but ends up, we find out, is a doctrine of demons, the likes of which I am gonna say is far more dangerous than the things that the world throws out at us. So Paul is saying to Timothy, keep, retain what is true, retain it, no matter what, keep your statement of faith pure according to the scriptures. So here at Prairie Baptist Church, we have what's called a declaration of faith. You'll see it in the documents of our church. What that is, by and large, is just really a summary of what the Bible teaches in essential and important areas. Okay, that's similar to what Paul is telling Timothy here. Keep your statement, your declaration, your confession of faith. Don't waver. Don't cut out things because the world doesn't like you to, or because the other church down the street is. Don't let it be tainted by those things. Do not go on changing the constitution of your life without knowing what the Bible teaches and knowing that it is teaching that, and it agrees with what is taught from the authoritative voices like Paul's. You see, Paul again is using his apostolic authority to remind Timothy what is right and true. I mean, Paul has poured into Timothy so much truth, so much disciple-making gospel-centered truth, and he wants to make sure that Timothy isn't going to be timid and allow the sharp edges of the gospel and the word of God as a whole to be softened because the world or even some in the church can't stomach what God has said. Essentially, I would say, my paraphrase would be, Paul's kind of saying, I don't care what other people say. What does God say? That's it. So retain sound words. And so I'm encouraging us today, as fellow soldiers of Christ, to wield the weapon of right doctrine. Display it proudly. Do not be shy in proclaiming biblical truth and love as a shepherd of his people, those close to you. Do not be shy in living out what is being retained in you through faith. This mighty and important weapon that we're all to have and wield is none other than truth. What does our world say about truth right now? There's a question there, isn't there? Similar to maybe what Pilate said. What is truth? What other people have said along the way, what is truth? And today we go, dah, nothing. That's what our world does. And that's what many churches fall into. As they set aside right doctrine to capitulate. We cannot do that. We have to wield the weapon. One of the saddest things to see in the church is a deterioration of right doctrine as the waves of the world come crashing against it. I am proud to be called a fundamentalist Christian, if by that you mean that I'm not going to wave or cave to the pressures of a different worldview as the Lord strengthens me and I trust in him. Last week we talked about courage. Well, one way to be courageous is to stand, not sit, not lie down, stand on the battlefield of this life, following after your general, and refuse to drop the weapon of your right doctrine, no matter how many or how big the flaming arrows of evil doctrine that come your way. Hold to the standard of right doctrine. God's word is the standard. His law is the standard of our morality, isn't it? His gospel is the standard as what is true about salvation with all its sharp edges. And his son is the standard of holiness and faithfulness. So again, allow this weapon of right doctrine that you bear to lead you to worship, to lead you to steadfast obedience as you retain what is true. Have a confession of faith that doesn't get changed because of any outside influence. This is what I love about Martin Luther. You may have heard of the great reformer from the 1500s. What he said before the, it's called the Diet of Worms, it's basically a council of at the time Roman Catholics leaders, and so the church at that time, he had to stand before them, and they're trying to force him to recant some things that he said. And here's this quote of how he responds, and I love this because it encourages me to think the same way, outside of the first portion, where he says, Since quote, since your most serene majesty and your lordships, I'm not going there, but that's what he did, require of me a simple, clear, and direct answer. He says, I will give one, and it is this. Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the scriptures and by clear reason, for I do not trust in the Pope or councils alone, since it is well known they have often erred in contradicting themselves. He says, I am bound, think about that word bound, it's like straitjacket, I am bound by the scriptures I have quoted. My conscience is captive to the word of God. And he goes on to say, I cannot and I will not retract anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against God and conscience. Here I stand, you probably have heard this portion, here I stand, I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen. His life's on the line right there. Burning at the stake was the flavor of the day for the martyrs, for the Christians. He knew what could be coming. But yet he responds in respectful, yet unwavering commitment to what is true. He wielded the weapon of right doctrine, refused to take one step off of scripture alone, and so we say the Latin phrase is sola scriptura, scripture alone, that's his battle cry. Is that yours? Retain the standard. That's what we're called to. Second, what is the nature of this weapon? Look again at verses 13 and 14 with me. So we've seen the need for the importance. Now I want to dive in a little bit more to the nature. Look at verse 13 again. Many times in reading the Bible, we come up with two wonderful words, don't we? Two wonderful words found in this verse, verse 13. And those wonderful words are faith and love. And when we come to them, we are always gladly overwhelmed at the love of God and the gift of faith to know that love. And we're also excited about the faith and love that we share together as Christians, praise God. Faith and love, along with, what's the other one? Hope. They're abundant and wonderful biblical truths. And they're so often in the New Testament, like 1 Corinthians 13, that chapter of love. Faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is love. And we talk about those things and it's beautiful biblical truth. Of course, they speak first and foremost of Christ and his nature and how we're to emulate that. Well, we see them here again today, except what we find is something interesting. What we find is that they are in the context of Paul using them in such a way that leads us to think and to see that this isn't directly and primarily speaking of what we might assume at first place, or like what I said. What we see is that it is those two wonderful attributes of truth, faith and love, that then frame how we wield this weapon of right doctrine. Here's what I mean faith is belief, an assurance that God's word, his truth, right doctrine is what is accurate, what is true. And it's a gift of God, the Bible says. And we are to wield that as we live out our faith in light of that right truth. And that is also the love that Paul is speaking of here. You see, it is intensely loving to yourself, even, and to others, to wield the weapon of right doctrine, right truth, as you teach and live by it. You see, it doesn't simply cut it to believe the words of doctrinal truth, to simply hear and understand. You are in fact called to love with those words. In the context, Paul is saying that the sound words that they have been taught and heard and therefore received were spoken and taught in faith and love. And therefore, for anybody to receive them, they also must be received in the same way. And so as we wield our weapon of right doctrine, we're not going to do it as obstinate, arrogant, mean-spirited. We're going to do it with that same kind of conviction and countenance, faith and love. Paul says in Ephesians, truth and love. Speak the truth in love. See, if we're to wield it as heavy-handed, you know, without love, then we're just going to be abusive in our wielding. And if we do it without faith, realizing the incredible humility of the gospel and of teaching and proclaiming the word, then we're doing it in our own strength. And guess what that leads to? Failure. And so those two core interwoven strands of the weapon of right doctrine that we wield have to be faith and love. We have right doctrine by the love of Christ shown to us by the gift of faith, you could say. And we then show that to others in love through faith. And even as we stand firm against the forces of darkness that would proclaim another gospel, we do so from those same two things: faith and love. Our conviction and our atimacy of truth, or for truth, begins and is spurned on by those two things. Now that doesn't mean that we shrink back because we're loving. The loving person stands forward and says no and says, here's what's true. And that's what Paul gave to Timothy, as he taught him, and that's the standard for us is how we will end up standing firm from the attack on the gospel from the world, the devil, and even the flesh, with those arrogant false teachers. Those charlatans that you hear speak against God and his word, with, again, maybe it's the health and wealth nonsense. And they end up proving to be puppets for Satan with false teachings. Now that sounds harsh, and I may sound a bit angry toward them today. That's because I am. I hope righteous anger. They're dragging the name of Christ through the mud before the world as they're making money in a hustle called the prosperity gospel. They're exactly who Peter is speaking about in his second letter. In 2 Peter chapter 2, we see many charges and claims about false teachers, and so I'm not alone in doing this. And he says that it is relevant to many false teachers of our day, the same kind of thing in verse 14, and he accurately says this phrase for those who would teach a money-making gospel or a gospel that's all about us. He says, You're trained in greed. Think about that, trained in greed, Peter says. That's why we all need to take Paul's word seriously in verse 14 and guard. Guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. Guard the treasure that has been entrusted to us. If you know Christ and you understand the gospel, you've been given that treasure. What are you gonna do with it? Dump it out and put some gravel in there? That's what you do when you trade the gospel for a different one. We've got to guard it. We've got to guard the truth. Again, the best way to do that is to have right doctrine. And to know the word in such a way that allows you to see error and paganism when it comes. In fact, I would say that we cannot guard that which we do not know. Is that important? If there weren't Christians today that knew the truth, and we would all fall for the doctrines of demons that tell us that we're little gods who are to have our best life now. And so you and I are guardians. How does that sit with you? That sounds good, doesn't it? Does that resonate? Guardians of the gospel? They should make a movie about that. We're to pick up the sword of truth and slay the enemy of false teachings by boldly proclaiming the eternally good news, the truth of Jesus Christ. That's what Paul's aiming at here. Retain it. Guard it. Guard the truth with the faith that you have, loving others enough to tell them that there is one gospel. Not many. There's not even deviations. There is one gospel, one truth, one God, one savior, one way to eternal life. Anything different than that, anything different than what the Bible teaches comes from the pit of hell. It's just what it is. And as Paul says in Galatians, is anathema, or condemned eternally. And so I encourage us all to have enough faith, to have enough love, to stand for truth. Refuse to let yourself be moved by anything that would tickle our ears. This sounds better than the actual gospel to our flesh. Maybe that's money. Maybe it's health. Maybe it's earthly pleasure. Maybe it's something our culture is pushing. But earthly pleasure is not what this life is all about, is it? That's not what Jesus prays for us in John 17 in his high priestly prayer. And there are even subtler versions of this doctrine of demons that tell you that maybe another one there where we have to guard against is it's gaining popularity, unfortunately, again today, is that hell isn't real or hell isn't permanent. I don't like that. Or maybe again another cultural wind that says homosexuality is actually acceptable before God. They're born that way. No. Not at all. It's not how God has established creation. Or identifying yourself as another gender is permissible. There are two genders, brothers and sisters, just to make sure we're on the same page. Each has a God-given role in the home and in the church. We cannot blur those lines. We have to stand for truth if we're ever going to be loving. We have to tell them the truth. Because if we're not going to do it, who will? Somebody who's angry? Have the faith and love that it takes to tell someone the truth, to live for truth, wield the weapon of truth. And tells them that there's this great and loving God. He sent his only son. And he came to live the perfect life, to die on the cross in the place of the condemned, to defeat sin and death, to absorb the very wrath of his father. Tell them that old, old story that is still true and still vibrant even for the modern man? Do we really think that Jesus came so that you and I can have more money? Or a healthy body? I miss the boat. Do we really think that Jesus would come to save you from a temporary hell or no hell at all? What did he save you from? Do we really think that Jesus came and suffered for what our sin brought and then change his mind to say that the sexual perversion of homosexuality is actually okay? Oh, it's too bad I had to pay for what they would come to find out in the 21st century. Dang it. Does that sound like God? What a convincing lie of the evil one. Those are just some of our modern false teachings. Paul and Timothy had similar ones. Either way, it's scripture alone. Stand for the biblical truth of living for Christ that includes suffering in this fallen world. Use the weapon of right doctrine to persuade people that they need Christ in far greater ways than what the false teachers will tout. Show them what love and faith is as you speak forth truth. Now, before we move on to our third point, I've got to reiterate something that if you're struggling right now, I get it, and here's why. This is always true, it's always of vital importance for the Christian. And that's this. We cannot, I repeat, cannot, do all of this on our own strength. We need the power of God in us. We need the indwelling presence and power of the Holy Spirit to allow us to accomplish any of this. We cannot have right and pure doctrine without the Spirit of God in us. And we cannot live outrightly if we are not relying on His strength and His grace, readily supplied in abundance. There are pagan professors who have memorized large portions of the New Testament who hate God. It's not just knowing and even understanding some of the things of the Bible, it's cherishing them, living them out, clinging to Christ, the author of it. Because in and of ourselves, in and of myself, I would do what I want. Which is not going to be loving to anybody else. I need the grace of Christ in me to show those who are false in their error and their way of sinful lives. I need, I do this with the Word of God and His Spirit in me. I don't just attack. I know it's hard to hear about all those who deny the sufficiency of the scriptures and end up teaching a false gospel or false way of living, but it must be called out. It has to be spoken of. The darkness needs light shined upon it. And we have to be those bold and loving enough to do it. Third, I want us to just reiterate again in this point how important this weapon is. How important is the weapon of red doctrine? I hope you've already seen to some extent as we've gone through it, but let's look at the examples in verses 15 to 18. That's really what Paul's doing here in speaking to these men. He's giving examples of what he has been speaking about with what Timothy is to guard and retain. Here's the two. Here's the dichotomy. In verse 15, Paul says, all those who are in Asia, he's referring to the area of probably modern-day Turkey when he says that, but they've all turned away from him. He says, only Onisophorus has remained faithful. Why? Well, I think what we can deduce from this passage is fear. I think we can draw from what's going on here, they had a fear of persecution. Remember, in this time, prisoners are at the mercy of family and friends. As they're sat in their jail cells or their dungeons. They didn't have three square meals a day. They didn't have, you know, weightlifting equipment and toothbrushes and movie night. They had what was charitably given to them that they knew. And so we see that Philus and Hermogenes have forsaken him and fled in fear. Why did they fear? Why would they fear man and abandon Paul when he needed them most? They suffered from a right understanding of what we call theology proper. Their doctrine of who God is is insufficient. Their fear stemmed from a lack of trust in the Lord, which comes from an inability to live out the truth that they had heard. You see, bad doctrine, it's not just, you know, I got this fear, I believe everything about Scripture, and I've applied it all to my life, I just have this fear. It doesn't work that way. Bad doctrine will cause people to fall aware to what to have what we saw in the first portion of 2 Timothy, and that's timidity. Oneisiphorus had right doctrine. He had the power, the love, and the discipline it took to stand by Paul's side no matter what would come his way from the powers of the world. Because guess what? If you are a friend of Paul's and he's in a dungeon, who are you then? An enemy of who put him in the dungeon. And so wielding a weapon for the Christian isn't just swinging it at the enemy, it's eagerly loving and caring for each other in the faith. It's refreshing each other. Here's the thing. When I hear you, as my fellow church members, when I hear you speaking of the wonders of Christ and his gospel, when I hear you tell me about how the Lord opened your blind eyes and your testimony, or even a blind spot in your life, when I hear you speak of the doctrines of grace and of your trust in the Lord and how the Lord is gonna, he's just gonna carry me through and the Lord is growing me in the word. You know how refreshing that is? I hope the same is true for you, with the people of God as he grows us together. We need each other desperately. We will never stand on our own. Not for truth, not for persecution. I'm gonna tell you a story from many years ago that I love to tell. I love to challenge myself with this story of these 40 soldiers who stood firm for Christ in Rome many years ago. They did this because they knew God and they believed God. They knew God through the indwelling presence of the Spirit, and his truth had been illuminated to them by him, as verse 14 reminds us of. In the winter of 320 AD, Emperor Licinius, who was Emperor of the East, he broke his agreement with Constantine, who was Emperor of the West, and what is the Edict of Milan to end the persecution of Christians. So Licinius breaks away from that and he orders all Roman soldiers to renounce Christianity and to offer a sacrifice to the Roman gods. Remember, it's legal before that. What this meant was that Christians were about to have their brief period of rest and persecutions just completely undone in that area. And the persecution started very close to home for this emperor. It started within his own military and even his elite military group. Quickly, his edict of worshiping the Roman gods only reached what is called the thundering legion of Sebastian. Most were more than happy to obey the edict because they weren't Christians. But there were forty Christians in the legion who would refuse. They began to withstand threats, beatings, and torture as they refused to obey this edict, choosing instead to obey a higher authority. They said, You shall have no other gods before me, they quote. You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything or in heaven above, or that is on the earth below, or that is in the water under the earth, you shall not bow down to them or worship them. That's their theme as they're being persecuted. In retaliation for their defiance, the rest of the legion marched those forty Christian men to a frozen lake, where they were ordered to remove their armor and their clothing and stand naked as a form of torture to death on that frozen lake. The Legion was then instructed to light a large fire on the shore with a warm bath and food to tempt them. To tempt them to come and just quickly make the pagan sacrifice, put your clothes back on, renounce Christianity, and save your life. The commander said, You may come ashore when you are ready to deny that faith. Kind of sounds like the prosperity gospel peddlers of our day, right? Here's all the good stuff. Leave that hard gospel. The men out on the ice began to pray, and this is what they said together, O Lord, forty wrestlers have come to fight for thee. Grant that forty wrestlers may gain the victory. The mother of the youngest legionnaire was present, and she enticed her son to abandon the others, leaving only 39 on that frozen lake. Well, at this time there was a centurion named Sempronius on the shore at the warming house watching the event. On the ice, the remaining Christian legionnaires continued to crowd, O Lord, forty wrestlers have come to fight for thee. Grant that forty wrestlers may gain the victory. In response, and moved by this stance, Sempronius confessed Jesus' Christ, removed his armor, removed his weapons, removed his clothing, and joined the other 39 Christians on the lake. That's right, doctrine. The next morning, the bodies of these 40 martyrs of Sebastia were taken off the ice and forever recorded their faithful resistance to worship a false god in the annals of history. This man, Sempronias, I like to say, went immediately from pagan to pure in the presence of God Almighty in just a matter of hours. He went from taking part and even leading in the persecution of God's people to then being one of them. He went from wielding the sword of man's wars and man's worship to wielding the faithfulness of right doctrine as he proclaims Christ and lived it out in proclamation immediately. And the prayer of the men on the ice was answered, wasn't it? It was answered in the form of another human being being received into eternal life and saying it with them. Now our world looks at that and says, the prosperity teachers look at that and say, that the false churches, the false gospel presenters look at that and say, what a waste of a life. But the Christian looks at that and says, Wow. Praise God. God is so good. That's a life worth living. That's beautiful suffering for God. And the only way that anything like that can happen is that God has given them the strength they needed to do this. Sempronius was only able to do that because the strength and power of Christ in him, by the indwelling presence of the Spirit, gave him a right understanding of what life is in that moment. Eternal life. You see, you will never trade the moments of this life for the eternal life of the next until you have come to understand the redemption that comes through the gospel. The soldier, that day out on the ice, these two men listed here by Paul, they fled because they didn't believe God. They didn't have right doctrine framing their decision making. They let the false teachings of the fear of man or poverty and unhealth, they let that frame their decision making, their worldview, if you will. You see how important it is that we wield the faith and love of the truth of his word. Bad doctrine leads to weak faith at best and downright heresy at worst. But right doctrine, retaining sound words, now that can cause a man to throw off everything of the world and run to stand with his brothers who are all facing death. Whether or not Christ saves their lives temporarily in that moment. It leads them to Sephorus to stand with Paul with faith and love, refreshing him and caring for him courageously, refusing to be ashamed of the chains of the gospel. It led him to have faith in the Lord's promises and to love his word above himself and his comforts. Brothers and sisters, right doctrine is literally a treasure. It is a treasure that you're storing up for that day. It says that Onisaphorus will be granted by God abundant mercy on when? That day. That day, meaning the day in which the Lord comes for his bride.

unknown 44:23

April.

SPEAKER_00 44:24

And it is only a right understanding of Jesus and a right understanding of the gospel and how the end is going to play out, a right understanding of him returning for his bride that will lead to joy as his return appears. For those touting a false gospel or following after that, we as Christians resound with those in Revelation 18, may justice be done on that day. Because the smoke of their garbage that they taught will rise up forever like the fires of Gehenna, that garbage dump outside of Jerusalem. But for those who have had their eyes opened, for those who have heard the gospel, for those who have retained the sound word, the treasure of right doctrine, to those who have been entrusted with the ESV calls it the good deposit, that day will consist of joy and tears, of wonders, and even reward. If you read, study, and live with the truth of the word of God, then you are wielding the weapon of right doctrine. Do you know that? And you will slay the enemies. You will encourage the faithful, and you will be happy and free to worship on that day. You don't have to fear that day, the day of the Lord. Think of it this way: as Paul is writing this, what's going on in his life? He's looking at death square in the face, isn't he? Yet, he writes with joy. He writes with trust in the Lord, and he ends up being the guy to say, Timothy, stand firm. Encouraging others. How can he do that? I mean, his time on earth is almost at an end. Isn't that what it's all about? Day to day, don't we need our next day? He's about to have his head cut off. How can he be an encourager? Right doctrine. He knew God. He knew the truth of God's word and his promises, and he had applied it to his life. Even if all the others fall away, even if all the others forsake him, even if he's in chains near death and suffering, a right doctrine tells him it's okay. He's soon going to be with the Lord. And as Philippians 1.23 says, that's so much better. Brothers and sisters, we have a treasure both now and for eternity. That's how important it is to know the Bible. I mean, we have the Bible, the Word of God, and more specifically, we have the gospel in it. And Paul says, that's a treasure. Guard it with your life, your soul, everything you are. Do you see it as such? Do you see it as an absolute gift and privilege of your life to know and live out this right doctrine in light of the treasure you've been given? I mean, for all of eternity you're going to be rejoicing over the gospel of Jesus Christ. Do you know that? That good deposit, that treasure. So you've got to guard it. Guard the truth with your life. The lives of others will depend on your ability to stand firm and reject that which is false. Again, God is sovereign. God will save that which he chooses. But it's up to us to stand firm, as so many have down through the years. You don't need money to know Christ. You don't need health to live for Christ. You don't need some inner knowing and revelation to be wise in Christ. Retain the standard of sound words. Glue your hands to that. Glue your eyes to it. Not literally. Shield yourself, therefore, from false teaching by clinging to that which is true and probably unpopular. Because if you read the Bible in faith, you're going to see that suffering for Christ is the norm. That's just the norm. If you read the Bible in faith, you're going to see repentance is actually not recommended, but commanded. If you read the Bible in faith, you will see that Jesus is literally the only way, and all other roads lead to death eternally. If you read the Bible in faith, you'll see that salvation comes as a gift through the grace of Christ, and we can only know it by his word. If you read the Bible in faith, your heresy radar will perk up when you hear a doctrine of demons as you are led by the Spirit. If you read the Bible in faith, you will see the necessity of a gospel-centered local church in your life week in and week out. If you read the Bible in faith, you will come to trust in the Lord's provision in all things because you love him. And we may have a few negligible differences, what we call tertiary differences, but when it comes to the core doctrines of the Scripture, we have to be like-minded. There is no room for error, no room for disagreement. There's only truth and fallacy, and we have to guard together what is true. I can't do it alone, and neither can you. Wield the treasure that you hold so dear, brothers and sisters. And hold fast until the day when our faith becomes sight and our weapon of right doctrine is validated, and his love just comes pouring out on us as we go to be with him. When he comes, it will be those who have studied his word and lived it out that will find themselves lower on their faces than others, and they will find themselves overjoyed and undone. Why? Because we believed God. We came to know him more every single day as we studied his word and the Spirit illuminated that truth to our lives, and we did it together, refreshing one another with the truth. Let that be who we are known to be. Right, doctrine, is that important? Let's pray. Father, we thank you again that we are not left on our own, to our own devices. We have your very word to us, the eternal, inerrant word of a perfect and holy God of all. We thank you that we have one another, to hold each other accountable to these truths, to love one another in this way. And we thank you that our witness is even shaped and molded by that which is true in your word. You have not left anything for us to figure out on our own. You have given us everything. Father, we ask you that we would be the church that has boldness and passion, courageous passion to study your word. To apply your word. Give us boldness, broken hearted boldness for those who do not know you as we proclaim the truth. We pray this all in Christ's name. Amen.