Next PageWhat Is Sound Doctrine?
In both the Old and New Testaments, all references to doctrine mean: “something received that is instruction or learning.” It is the thinking of God, found in God’s Word that has been taught by many different people at different times throughout His Word but all divinely inspired by God. Thus, we see that it is what God thinks and expects, not man! What doctrine are we to preach and teach? The thinking of God in regards to every aspect of our life. God has left us the Old Testament to teach us how He thinks and feels about certain subjects. Galatians 3:24 tells us that the law from the Old Testament was our “schoolmaster” that brought us to Christ, because it taught us how God felt about sin. By knowing the doctrine or teaching of God’s dealings with sin, we can understand that just because we are under “grace,” does not mean that God does not still feel the same way about sin. Romans 6:1 says, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” I Corinthians 10:1-12 teaches us why God left us the Old Testament, (vs. 6), “Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters…Neither let us commit fornication… Neither let us tempt Christ… Neither murmur ye… Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.” These are written so that we could see God’s feelings about sin, and how He judged and punished it. This teaching is God’s doctrine or teaching about sin.
Thus we start to see one of the foundational doctrines or teachings for all of Christianity, the doctrine of God, Who He is, what He thinks, how He handles or deals with others, and how He feels about sin! This is not the doctrine of the liberals, who believe that God is “love.” This is not the “God on a pull chain” seeking to give you everything you want so that you can be healthy, wealthy, and wise, and yet live your life as you please and put jobs, people, finances, and everything else in front of Him. This is the God of the Bible Who created us to serve Him, not He to serve us. This is the God that desires for you to completely trust, honor, love, and obey Him. Yes, God is love! Let us explore in Scripture the “love” of God.
A God of love cast Lucifer from heaven condemning him for all eternity (Isaiah 14:12); a God of love put “letter-of-the-law” rules upon Adam and Eve and then removed them from the Garden of Eden, pronouncing curses upon them (Genesis 2:16,17); a God of love destroyed the world by a flood (Genesis 6:17); a God of love confused the languages at Babel and scattered people around the world, bringing division (Genesis 11:7,8); a God of love destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for the same sins that are being practiced in our country and even in most churches (Genesis 19:24); a God of love loved Jacob and hated Esau (Romans 9:13); a God of love wrestled with Jacob and crippled him (Genesis 32:25); a God of love brought plagues upon Egypt, even slaughtering all the first born (Exodus 7-12); a God of love drowned the Egyptian army in the Red sea (Exodus 14:28); a God of love had 3,000 of His people killed for dancing naked in front of the calf (Exodus 32:28); a God of love sent fire from heaven and killed His own people (Numbers 11:1-3); a God of love sent fiery serpents to kill His people, because they spoke against Moses and God (Numbers 21:6); a God of love allowed His people to wander around accomplishing nothing for forty years in the wilderness (Numbers 14:29); a God of love throughout the book of Judges allowed Israel’s enemies to rise up against them and slaughter them, as Israel turned their backs upon God (Judges 10:6-9); a God of love smote Nabal (I Samuel 25:38); a God of love killed David’s baby (II Samuel 12:15); a God of love allowed Solomon’s enemies to rise up against him for Solomon’s turning away from God (I Kings 11:9, 10, 14, 23, 26); a God of love allowed Israel to be taken into captivity in 721 BC (II Kings 17:22, 23); in 606 BC, a God of love allowed Judah to also be taken captive by their enemies (II Chronicles 36:18,19); a God of love allowed His Son to be born, rejected, mocked, tortured, and crucified (John 3:16); a God of love killed Ananias and Sapphira for one lie (Acts 5:5-10); a God of love allowed many of His closest disciples, apostles, and followers to be beaten, whipped, burned, eaten alive, and tortured; having the power to stop every single act of cruelty, yet doing “nothing” to prevent it (Hebrews 11); a God of love warned the seven churches in the book of Revelation with threatening because of their cold hearts, idolatrous acts, and lack of “true love” (Revelation 2:5, 16, 20-23; 3:2, 3, 15-19); and a God of love will destroy the entire world by fire, very slowly, methodically, and premeditatedly (Revelation chapters 6, 15, 16). Finally, a God of love will say to every unsaved person, dying in their sins after rejecting His free gift of salvation, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41).
These references that outline God’s dealings with man throughout the Scriptures give us a Biblical view of God not taught by the “one-sided, prosperity preachers.” Sound Doctrine is the offensive, convicting truth that gives us the guidelines that we need to live our lives as Jesus commanded us. It is right from the mouth of God called the Word of God (Jesus Christ and the Scriptures), which is Truth and the basis (foundation) for all truth. It is understanding the grace of God that has saved us, which develops into a love for God, after seeing what He has spared us from. When Sound Doctrine from God’s Word is preached, it arms the Holy Spirit that is within us with the tools necessary to convict us of the sin that we have in our lives as we were enlightened by the “foolishness of preaching.” If preaching does not convict, it is not preaching, but philosophy and reasoning.
God’s salvation is also termed deliverance, which comes with salvation as we are filled with the Holy Spirit of God. This deliverance is from sin and our own selves as we become new creatures (creations) and all things are become new. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (II Corinthians 5:17 ). What is changed? Our thinking, as Scriptures says, “And be renewed in the spirit of your mind” (Ephesians 4:23); “And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him” (Colossians 3:10); our goals (James 4:15); our plans (Luke 22:42); our desires (I Corinthians 9:27); and our meaning for living (Luke 19:10), change as we hear the Word and repent.
Sound Doctrine is not a cold, hard, theological approach to God, but a personal relationship as we understand our loving and merciful God, yet do not “…continue in sin that grace might abound.” Sound Doctrine is how God expects us to live our everyday lives. It is life! John 10:10 tells us, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy (Satan stealing our blessings, rewards, and peace): I am come that they might have life (by living your life in the guidelines of God’s Word), and that they might have it more abundantly.”
This “life more abundantly” is both physical and spiritual as Jesus makes us new creatures that are not enslaved to the things of the world. Titus 2:11,12 say, “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.” Is Sound Doctrine enslavement? Ask yourself, can you live without your television? Would you still go to church and “live for the Lord,” if your church did not have all the worldly entertainment? Is going to work more important than going to church? Do you faithfully give to the church tithes and offerings joyfully? Who is enslaved? If you answered no to any of these questions, you are enslaved to the world, the flesh, and the devil. Balance with the world is enslavement to it! Sound Doctrine teaches freedom from the enslavement of the world - freedom to put Christ first in your life, completely trusting, relying, and depending upon Him! I Peter 1:13-17 teach us freedom and how to have it. “Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear.” It is the thinking of God applied to what we do every day. Sound Doctrine is the teaching of Jesus as He spoke to His disciples. Are you a disciple? Read Luke 14:25-35.