Spiritual Doctrines

We have a doctrine of the Trinity. We have a doctrine of Christ. We have a doctrine of man. We have doctrines of salvation, all aspects of it. We have a doctrine of Scripture. We have many doctrines concerning the nature of God. We talk about God as omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent. We talk about God as immutable, meaning He doesn’t change. There’s such a doctrine as the essayity of God, the nature of God. There’s the doctrine of the impassibility of God, that is that God doesn’t alter Himself based upon His passions, but is consistent.

These are doctrines that have been affirmed, clarified in Scripture, assembled together in a systematic way. Every believer should have a systematic theology. Go to the bookstore when you come in to go to the Grace Grill this week and get yourself a theology. Get a systematic theology. There’s some good, basic systematic theologies, and you will love that. I read systematic theology all the time. I have a stack by one of the chairs at home. I have books by all the chairs. This particular chair has a stack of big, fat theology books, some of them as much as two and a half or three inches thick.

And I read theology. I love to read theology, the systematization of everything that the Bible teaches, and we’re committed to that. Now, I don’t need to beg the point any further, except to say that when you get into the pastoral epistles, if I took the time, 1st Timothy, 2nd Timothy, Titus, right? Pastoral epistles written from Paul to pastor telling him about the church. Time after time after time, 1st Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, you hear this. Sound doctrine, sound doctrine, sound doctrine, sound doctrine. And doctrine is kind of a heady word, simply means teaching, but it speaks off of propositional truth, not about a style.

It’s about propositional truth. Sound doctrine, sound doctrine. You get to Titus chapter 2 and we’re instructed as those who have been given on the pages of Holy Scripture sound doctrine to teach it. But as for you, Titus 2, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine. The chapter ends, these things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority and let no one disregard you. Once you know truth, once you know propositional truth, once you know doctrine, you teach it with authority and you let no one disregard you. What is the word disregard? It’s a word that simply means evade, get around you, wiggle out.

You have sound doctrine, you teach sound doctrine and you let no one evade sound doctrine. The church then is, and this builds on point one from last week, the pillar and ground of the truth in which there is clarity about doctrine. You say, well, why does that matter? I’ll tell you why it matters, because you will live your life based on doctrinal conviction. Let me tell you what I mean by that. Many, many Christians throw Bible verses around and they throw Bible verses around. When they get in stress, they pull out a Bible verse, probably most commonly used, Romans 828, for all things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to his purpose.

Now, a Christian might say, well, I, I have that verse, it’s all going to work together for good. But a Christian who has that verse and not a doctrine of the sovereignty of God has a weak position. How do you know that that verse is true? How do you know that the outcome is good? If you have a doctrine of the sovereignty of God and all the doctrines that go with his sovereign grace extended to his people and his purpose fulfilled for his people, then that one verse is tied to something that is firm and immovable.

You can say, well, John 3 16, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes, so forth. If that’s all you know, you can hope that that’s true. But if you have a doctrine of salvation and a doctrine of regeneration, in other words, every verse is embedded or related to a doctrine. And when all you know is the verses, they kind of fly around loose. But when you know the verses take on their full meaning. All right, there’s a fourth thing and this is tied into it that when you look at the life of the church, this is what you see or should see.

A commitment to the absolute authority of scripture, commitment to worship, doctrinal clarity. And I just need to say, give a footnote to that. Every great ministry in the history of the church was founded on sound doctrine, not on experiences, not on feelings, not on emotions, not on sort of floating Bible verses, but sound doctrine. And here’s why, because the fourth element of life in the church is spiritual discernment, spiritual discernment. The only people who are really discerning are people who have sound doctrine. The uniqueness of the church is that because we know what the Bible teaches, because we have doctrine that is sound, we can discern.

We know how to measure everything. We know how to test everything. This is, of course, a principle that appears in many places, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament. We don’t have time to go back into the Old Testament. But listen, for example, to Colossians 1.9. For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. Spiritual wisdom and understanding is discernment. And when you’re filled with the knowledge of sound doctrine, you have discernment.

You can sort out the things that are going on in the world. Turn to 1 Thessalonians 5. This one will get a direct focus on the issue at hand. And we’ll just look at verse 20. Do not despise prophetic utterances. And again, this is prophetic, not in the sense of predicting the future, but like a prophet, one who spoke for God. Don’t despise those who speak for God. They’re going to be out there. Don’t despise them. However, verse 21, but examine everything and hold fast to that which is good. And literally, shun evil, no matter what form it comes in, what form, what scheme, what system, that’s a call for discernment.

Be able to separate error from truth. Now, we’ve talked about this a lot. 1 John 2. John says, I write unto you, young men, because you have overcome the wicked one. How have you overcome the wicked one? Wicked one, Satan, how have you overcome him? You’re strong in the word and you’ve overcome the wicked one. When you’re strong in the word, you overcome the wicked one in this sense. He is disguised as an angel of what? Of light. Satan operates in false religion. You will overcome all the deceptions, all the seductions of false religion when you’re strong in the word.

Why? Because you have discernment. You have discernment. When people ask me, what is the biggest problem in the church today? I will say that the biggest manifest problem is the utter lack of discernment. And it backs up to not having clear doctrine, which backs up to not submitting to the authoritative word of God. It’s like spiritual aids. Thank you for joining us in this exploration of spiritual doctrines. Until next time, remember to keep the faith, stay strong, and continue to shine your light in the world. To hear these daily devotions of your daily bread, please log on to goddessgovernment.com.

Goodbye, and may your faith always lead the way. [tr:trw].