Doctrine is essential for Christian life, serving as both fundamental beliefs and the foundation upon which spiritual health, testimony, and ministry are built. The sermon outlines four reasons to appreciate Bible teaching: it is fundamental, foundational, fascinating in its solemnity, simplicity, and scope, and functional in its power to transform lives. By embracing sound doctrine, believers are equipped to live godly lives, bear witness to Christ, and effectively minister to others. Ultimately, engaging with God's word leads to true freedom and Christ-likeness.
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I'm looking into the faces of a congregation of very puzzling people. I don't know whether you realize how big a puzzle you are to a lot of other folks. In fact, to quote Mr. Winston Churchill, you're something of a puzzle inside an enigma, inside a mystery. People look at you and say, I don't understand you, people. you go on holiday, you go on vacation, what do you do? You pay to go to a Bible conference and you sit and listen to the preachers night after night and the people who live at Parker the Ponce. That's on what he said to me. Don't your preachers just say the same things over and over and over again? I said, yes, they do. But they have some wonderfully different ways of saying these things and these are the things we want to hear anyway because we need to be constantly reminded about the things that we know.
Christians down through the ages have hazarded their lives to come together to hear the Word of God. I looked over my books just this morning, just glanced across them by way of illustration, to see what I could find on doctrine. You know, that's a very dry word. Doctrine, why you wouldn't even have come this morning if you'd known I was going to talk about doctrine, would you? However, I found a book there by Lewis Barry Schaefer, and it was called Major Bible Themes. That's doctrine, of course. Another one, an older book by Tari called God Have Spoken. That's doctrine, too.
And then Robert Lee was a little more explicit. His book is called Doctrinal Outlines. And then I saw six books side by side on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, five side by side on the fatherhood of God, and so it is. These things are so important for us to learn and to know and to constantly go over. So I don't have anything new for you this week. We're just going to cover old ground that other preachers undoubtedly in the course of your life have brought before you. But because we need to be reminded of them, we're going to go over them. Let's read from chapter four of first Timothy.
and notice the references to the word doctrine. And by the way, in the original language, the word that Paul uses on every occasion except one is not the passive word but the active word he believes in preaching a busy doctrine, a busy teaching, a teaching that is in itself a reminder that we need to be up and doing. verse six of chapter four, and I'm going to read verse six, you read verse seven, and we'll read through to the end of the chapter. First Timothy chapter four, and verse six.
If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ. nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained. For bodily exercise profiteth little, or for little time, but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, especially of those that believe.
Let no man despise thy youth, but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Neglect not the gift that is in thee which was given thee by prophecy with the laying of the hands of the presbytery. Neglect not the gift that is in thee which was given thee by prophecy with the laying of the presbytery. Take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that heal thee.
Now I'm going to read a couple of verses more in chapter six to you. The third verse says, If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strife of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmising, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness, from such withdraw thyself.
But godliness with contentment, is great gain. Shall we pray? Our Heavenly Father, because we have thy word in our hands and thy spirit among us this morning, we pray that no voice but his shall be heard, that this word shall become powerful in our hearing, and that we shall go away knowing that God has spoken to us, that we might go away blessed and to be a blessing. Prepare our hearts for what thou hast for us. In these days that lie ahead, we pray in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.
I suppose these should begin by saying concerning doctrine that there are two kinds. There is sound doctrine and there is false doctrine. And there's plenty of the latter going around in these days. There are also certain levels of doctrine. There are doctrines that we call primary doctrines, and among them there's the deity of Christ, the virgin birth of Christ, things that, if we haven't these in common with those to whom we are talking, then we have no ground upon which we can stand together. Departure from primary doctrines introduces heresy.
So we have to know them, we have to cling to them, hold them and appreciate them. Primary doctrines, and we must brook no argument against them. But then there are secondary doctrines, and these do not necessarily shut us off from other believers, but they will, of course, create a certain measure of reserve. I'm thinking about the doctrine of healing, the doctrine of tongues, our millennialism, things like this. These are secondary doctrines and they do not necessarily separate one Christian from another, though they do introduce a definite reservation on the part of believers one toward the other.
But there are levels of doctrines as well as there are kinds of doctrine. And then there are appreciations of doctrine. There are lots of people who just love to know precisely what the Bible says about this and that and the other. And mark you, doctrine simply means teaching. That's all it means. So you don't have to be afraid of the word teaching. And it's a wonderful thing when our Court of Appeal constantly is to the Scripture. What does God say about this? What does God teach us about that? What would the Holy Spirit have to lay before us about this given thing or the other?
Doctrine in the Word of God teaching is very, very important, and it's something that we should certainly appreciate today. from the bottom of our heart. I'm going to give you four reasons this morning why you should appreciate doctrine. Why you should appreciate what the Bible teaches. Why you should appreciate Bible teaching. And the first is this. Doctrine is that which is fundamental. It's very necessary to know what God says. These then are the things in which we believe.
There are those who would criticize us because we constantly come back to this word. This is what the Bible says. This is what the Bible says. This is what I read in the Word of God. This is how I find the sacred scriptures deal with this thing. They lose patience with us because we are constantly talking about what the Bible says. I suppose that one of the most famous sayings in the world today is Billy Graham's The Bible Says, and he doesn't apologize for that, and no man ever need apologize for speaking after the Bible, because the things contained herein are the things which are fundamental, the things in which we believe.
Now as you read the Bible it becomes very apparent that these are varied in character. The Bible talks about things that concern the terrestrial, the celestial, the infernal. It talks about the present, it talks about the past, it talks about the future. It talks about heaven and it talks about earth, it talks about time, it talks about eternity. The Bible has a lot to say about what we possess, what we practice and what we are promised. These are the things we believe and we find them very clearly stated in the Word of God. They are varied in character.
That's one of the reasons why the Bible really shouldn't be a dry book to you. It is so varied. It covers such a wide area. But these things we find from God's point of view are all vested in one person. and that person is the Lord Jesus. Then we read another verse to you in First Timothy. It's the last verse, one of those three sixteenths that we hear about. And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world and received up into glory and there you have the doctrines of the Bible all wrapped up in one small parcel and vested in the person of the Lord Jesus.
That's why he is called the Word of God. But again these things that are fundamental, the things in which we believe that are varied in their character and vested in one person are vital to our lives. They are vital to our salvation, and they are vital to our fellowship with other believers. Again, let me read a scripture to you, this time from the second epistle of John. It says here, Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. So your salvation depends upon your abiding in the doctrine that is taught in the Word of God.
And it goes on to say, He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If we are going to be saved, it's because we accept what the Bible says. And if we are going to be able to fellowship with other believers, it is again because we believe the doctrines that are taught here in the Scripture. There can be no doubt about the fact that they are fundamental. A second reason why I believe it is so important for you to know and to study, to accept and to live by the doctrines in the Word of God is this.
Doctrine is not only that which is fundamental, it is that which is foundational. Not only are these the things that we believe, these are the things upon which we build. Did you notice this word, if thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine. Now here, of course, is the building of spiritual health. And the foundation is Bible doctrine. We are to be nourished up in Bible doctrine so that we can, upon that foundation, build sound spiritual health.
I have a colleague in the old country I haven't seen for many years. but whenever he used to write a letter to me he always used to put a text at the bottom that made me tremble a little bit. I didn't need to look it up, I knew it well, and this was the Scripture. Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health even as thy soul prospereth. I used to tremble when I read it, because I feel that sometimes If my body was only as well as my soul, then I would be in trouble physically.
Sometimes we let the ritual things go. He's a wonderfully blessed man to whom this word can come appropriately, beloved. I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. Our souls only prosper. as we build our spiritual health upon what the Bible teaches, what the Bible says. Doctrine is the foundation upon which we build spiritual health, and we do it by nourishing ourselves in the Word of God. Again it's same chapter four, and we read these words, Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.
Give thyself holy to them, that thy profiting may appear to all. Take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine. Now this is not only the foundation upon which we build spiritual health. This is the foundation upon which we build a bright spiritual testimony. Give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Meditate on these things. Give thyself holy to them that thy profiting may appear to all. If you want to build a bright spiritual testimony as well as good spiritual health, then you've got to read and digest and love and live by the doctrine of the Word of God.
If your profiting is going to appear to all, if looking at you, men are going to see the Lord Jesus and be drawn to him, it will be because you're bathing yourself constantly in the Word of God. Verse sixteen in that chapter four goes on to say, Meditate upon these things, give thyself holy to them, that by profiting may appear to all, take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine, continue in them. For in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that fearfully.
Bible doctrine is foundational because upon it we not only build good spiritual health and a bright spiritual testimony but also a sound spiritual ministry. It's only as we digest and in turn deliver the Word of God to others that our ministry can be sound and successful. I remember the days when at the Mission we were ministering to hundreds of runaways over the weeks and the months from Greenwich Village.
They would come in at our invitation for we'd invite Christian young people from the suburbs to come in on a Friday night and go down into the village and distribute free buffet supper tickets for Saturday. and that's what we'd do up and down the streets there. Then on Saturday that same group of young people, sometimes as many as eighty of them, would come down to the mission on Saturday afternoon at two o'clock and we'd sit down with the Word of God and have a Bible study together. Then we'd have a briefing session. Then back they'd go into the village, come back again to the mission at five ready for the buffet supper.
Then we would strategically place them around in the dining room with their meal so that as the other kids came in from the village and found their places, they would be found among the Christians and they were there just to talk to them about the Lord Jesus. We had no meeting on Saturday nights, just one long wrap session. but you know in our brief in our briefing sessions with these Christian young people we used to remind them constantly and continually when you sit beside these young people don't give them your opinions don't give them your ideas don't give them what you think give to them the word of God because it's only the word of God that's quick and powerful and sharper than a two-edged sword.
And so we have to learn it's upon this foundation and this foundation alone that one can build a good spiritual ministry. So, Bible doctrine is both fundamental and foundational. These are the things in which we believe, and these are the things upon which we build. But there's a third reason why Bible doctrine, teaching should be precious to you, and that is, it's not only fundamental and foundational, it's also fascinating.
These are not only the things in which we believe, and the things upon which we build, these are the things about which we boast, because there is no word like the word of God that we have in our hands. It is fascinating. We cannot read very much of what the Bible teaches without realizing the doctrine is striking. in its solemnity. The word of God is very solemn. God forbid that we should ever handle it lightly.
God forbid that we should ever treat it with familiarity. Its word is a very solemn word. And it is striking in its solemnity. The word of God, you see, doesn't bend. And the Word of God does not putty foot. And the Word of God does not apologize. Because the Word of God does not change. It is straight up and down. Oh, I can remember the time not so very long ago when many, many thousands and thousands of religious people very very carefully abstained from meat on Fridays.
But the day came when it was no longer sinful to eat meat on Friday. I think there were some of them that still abstained, but the experience must have been dramatic, you know. There have been many of these devout people who have hung around their necks a little silver medal of St. Christopher year after year after year after year to find only three or four years ago the Pope demoted him and he's no longer a saint.
Now we smile, but the fact is these things are traumatic. change like that is something that strikes at the heart of these devout and pious and religious people I'm glad we have a standard that doesn't alter the word of God is straight up and down and doesn't change that's why it doesn't bend and that's why it doesn't pussyfoot and that's the reason why it doesn't apologize it is striking in its solemnity. In a word there is about it an absence of fluctuation.
It doesn't go up and come down and go up and come down. It stays absolutely as straight and level as a die. Again it's fascinating. because it is startling in its simplicity. Here is a word that not only knows no fluctuation, it knows no complication. Listen to the Gospel in one syllable words. The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lust.
Not even a double-syllable word in that verse, and yet there's the gospel as clear as can be, and in a nutshell, and it couldn't be simpler. Why, the Bible says concerning its own message, the wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err therein. You read the word of God, the truth is simply stated, and God stating it expects you to accept it. Doctrine is startling in its simplicity.
It's also surprising in its scope. There is not only about it, an absence of fluctuation and an absence of complication that's also about it an absence of limitation. Here is a word that goes on and on and on and on further than any other word taking in more than anything else. This is the word that teaches about God. This is the word that teaches about Christ. This is the word that speaks about the Spirit of God.
This is the word that talks about itself. This is the word that tells us all we need to know about man, everything we need to learn about sin, all that needs to be brought before us about heaven and hell. Here is a book. A word, a teaching that is absolutely surprising in its scope. It covers everything that is necessary. And the Bible leaves out nothing. The book that you have in your hand is absolutely complete. God in his wisdom and wonderful power has brought together these books.
written so far apart by so many different individuals and different kinds of individuals, knit them together in one and given to your word that covers every angle, every area that needs to be covered, that can bring you finally to put your faith in the Lord Jesus and to be able to say with certainty the torment and the fire, mine eyes shall never see. My sins deserved eternal death, but Jesus died for me. Doctrine also, which is striking in its solemnity and startling in its simplicity and surprising in its scope, is searching in its substance.
The kind of God that is presented here in this book is a God who must be faced. That's very clear. And since he is a holy God and will not eat of two holy eyes to look upon sin, that should strike terror at the hearts of some of us. A God who is so described has eventually to be faced. A Christ who is so presented as one who lived in the glory, in the bosom of the Father, enjoyed the revolving of all heaven around him, laid it aside, came bound to walk a stranger in the world his hands had made, finally climbed a hill called Calvary and died in shame on its summit.
a Christ who is so presented, whom death couldn't hold, but who tore the bars of death asunder and rose in triumph and is coming again, is one whom God expects you should make Lord of your life. And the Spirit of God who is so portrayed in this book, as one who cares about you, one who pleads with you, one who brings this word, this teaching with power to your heart and makes it a challenge in your existence, he is the one whom God expects you to own and to receive into your heart.
A Bible that is so outlined as being without error, the Word of God entirely and completely is a word that God expects because of its accuracy you should accept and believe and man as he is depicted in the word of God in his lost and undone condition is a person that God expects to be changed and he makes it possible for that change to come about And this is the book that tells us about a grace and extols it so much that God says it is there to be received by you.
Yes, the doctrine that is fundamental and foundational is fascinating. I hope you find it that way. There's one last thing about it. It is very functional. The Bible really works. I remember the day when Alcoholics Anonymous sent to the Macaulay Water Street Mission a doctor. He had lost his wife, he'd lost his family, he'd lost his practice. Strangely enough, he hadn't lost his license. He was an alcoholic.
He was in grave trouble. They said, we've tried to help him. We can't help him. Can you do anything for him? We took him in and for eight months he lived with us. We put him in our clinics there and he sort of indexed our drugs and that was a therapy. He worked in and out of the clinic there. doing the things that were as big a help to him as to us, until one day the Word of God breached his heart. And what happened? He became a changed man. The moment he accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior and manifested that this was real in his life, we put him in charge of our Saturday clinic, which incidentally was a venereal disease clinic.
and he did such a wonderful job that in a matter of just a few months the city of New York came in and said we would like you to take charge of a city clinic and so that man took a suite of rooms in a little hotel in New York City and the last months of his life were lived so fruitfully ministering to others Where did the change come about? It came about in his heart and through the teaching of the Word of God. They found him eventually dead on the sitting room floor in his suite of hotel rooms.
But he had gone to be with Christ, which is far better, after having proved that what all these other things and people couldn't do The Word of God and the Christ of which it speaks could do and did do for him. Yes, the Word of God can change the life. I know there may be someone here and you're not an alcoholic. Your life is moral and good and you're kind and people look up to you. But again, if I am going to be faithful to this book and faithful to you, I have to remind you that even the best man is a sinner.
It only takes one murder to make a man a murderer. It only takes one theft to make a man a thief. It only takes one sin to make a man a sinner. And no man can ever get to heaven with one sin to his discredit. And let's be honest about it. There are so many, many sins in our lives that we try to excuse by saying they are really not as bad as the sins of other people. But they are enough to shut you out eternally from God.
and God doesn't want that and we don't want that and deep down in your heart you don't want that either but the next move is yours God has given his son he's given his word it's been put into your hands and upon my lips and the next move is yours you're the one who determine whether or not this wonderful word has an impact on your heart whether you're going to receive the one of whom the word speaks. Yes, it's very functional. It really works. In chapter six of first Timothy, I read this to you.
If any men teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome words, Even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and of the doctrine, which is according to godliness, notice that word wholesome. What a lovely word. Now very inappropriate for most things that surround us today. Really and truly in your life, you're not in contact outside of Christian things. with very much that is wholesome, are you? This is a very unwholesome world.
You pick the best slice of it you can, and it's still extremely unwholesome. But you take the word of God, you take the teaching of the Scripture, you take this thing called doctrine, and you'll find that these are wholesome words. They are life-giving. healthgiving salvation bringing words they are wholesome words but also they're very powerful things powerful truths because the word of God says that they lead a man to godliness godliness you know is godlikeness and somebody has aptly said that God loved his son so much he wanted many many more like him so having saved us he is attempting to change us into his likeness it's going to happen one day we're going to be made like the Lord Jesus but my what a change that'll be for some
of us I used to travel with the pilgrim preachers in England many many years ago And one of the two men under God who was used to start that work was a man by the name of Ernest Lough. As long as I knew him, he had a little white beard and a very special look about him. He loved everybody and it was obvious as he moved around and everybody seemed to love him in their own way. One day, as pilgrim preachers, we were going to visit a certain town, and a little girl in a home where one of the preachers was to stay heard that a pilgrim preacher was going to come and stay overnight in the home.
She said, Mommy, can I stay up until he comes? Her mommy said, no, you cannot. why the pilgrim preachers are going to have an open-air service in the center of town and then they'll be staying there talking to the people it'll probably be eleven o'clock before he gets here and you'll be in bed long before that I want to see this pilgrim preacher she said I don't know what she conjured up in her mind but however at five o'clock in the morning She got out of bed and she tiptoed past the open door, it was only open just a little bit, of the guest room and into her mother's room and gently shook her mother, said, Mommy, her mother looked up with surprises.
She wakened, What do you want? She said, Mommy, did he come yet? Who did who come? Did the pilgrim preacher come? Yes, he came. He'll sleep in the guest room. Can I go in and see him? No, you'll wake him. I won't wake him. Mommy, I'll be very, very quiet. Please let me go see him. It was Mr. Lough in that bedroom. And when she pushed open the door and went to his bedside, she gave one glance at him. ran back into her mother's bedroom and said, Mommy, Mommy, it's Jesus. It's Jesus.
Now, it wasn't the little white beard. It was something about the look on his face. All too few of us in time developed that likeness, which is just an evidence of the fact that we are missing the boat. Doctrine is that which tends to godliness, God-likeness, Christ-likeness. And the Word of God is meant to produce in our hearts that which makes us more and more and more like the Lord Jesus as the days come and go.
So these are wholesome words and they are powerful truths. They are also challenging words because you'll find that the writer says in our epistle here, I charge you and make sure that you charge them. There's a challenge in the word of God to our every heart this morning, to those of us who are not born again, not saved, no matter how good we may seem to be, how moral our lives are. How commendable the way that we act. If we are not born again, we are shut out from God.
Our sins have separated between us and Him, and we need to be born again. But it's written to as many as received the Lord Jesus, to them gave He power to become the sons of God. Now that's the challenge to any heart that has not yet yielded to Christ. is described and please don't think me unkind when I say this as an unbelieving heart. Oh, you may believe much about the Bible, but if you haven't believed it above everything else, you need the Lord Jesus. In your heart as your Savior, yours remains an unbelieving heart.
And the challenge is to receive Christ. and let him begin a change in your life begin to bring the secret of true living into your experience and if you are born again if you are a Christian the challenge to you is you shall know the truth that's the doctrine the teaching and the truth shall make you free I wonder how free a man you are this morning I wonder how free a woman you are this morning. Don't mistake license for liberty, will you?
I've quoted one of your own poets before this, Robert Frost, who said that liberty, freedom is feeling comfortable in your harness. That's true freedom. Yes, the Word of God provides a discipline for your life. The Word of God provides an harness for you. But true freedom is slipping into that harness and living according to the precepts and the words that are written herein. This then is doctrine. It's not such a dry topic after all.
But it is a challenging one, and God expects you to take this word and to think about it. And as we meet together in the days that lie before us, these practical truths are going to be borne in upon our hearts. Now this is the reason why we don't find it a hardship to come together. This is the reason why though the conference goes on week after week and week after week we still come and we sit and we listen. Because the Word of God is quick that is living and it is powerful and it does affect our lives and our lives need to be affected.
Shall we pray? Our Heavenly Father, we commend to thee what we have said this morning, asking that we might have an appreciation for thy word that will cause us to read it in preparation for our days together. to seek the mind of thy spirit in our reading of it, and to earnestly pray that these will be days when God will reveal himself in a new way through a very old word, but a word that does not change and whose power does not diminish.
We commend ourselves to thee then as a congregation, and ask, Lord, that by thy Spirit thou would sort us out, that our needs might become apparent to us, and that we might realize that in the Lord Jesus there is surely a meeting of those needs. We commend us to thee in his name. Amen. I'd like to commend to you the reading of the first chapter of Philippians, ready for the service tonight.
At some time during the day read it, maybe read it a couple of times, and the early verses we'll deal with if the Lord will this evening. Now we're going to quietly listen to the organ and meditate for a moment.