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Who Is Sound Doctrine For?
Sound Doctrine is 180 degrees the opposite of how we think, as God told us in Isaiah 55:8-11, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”
I have children that I love very much!! Because I love them, I tell them things that they do not like to hear such as: Do not play in the street. Now, do I tell them not to play in the street because I hate them?? No, I tell them this because I love them, and I want THEM to be safe from any harm. God has done the same thing for His children. He gave us teachings and guidelines that are expressed in His Word for our good to keep us serving and loving Him. These Sound Doctrines keep us close to the Lord by keeping us from sin. Many times, I am surprised at how many people wander around asking for some form of direction in their lives. They trust the Lord to save their souls, but do not trust Him in their everyday life. Hebrews 11 tells of those who walked by faith. Their faith not only saved their souls, but also guided them throughout their lives to perform God’s commands and will for their lives. They showed their faith not only by believing in their hearts what God told them but also by showing their faith by their actions. Abraham for example showed us in Hebrews 11:8-10 that he conducted his life by faith as we see that he “obeyed… went out… sojourned… dwelling… looked for a city…whose builder and maker is God.” Every aspect of his life he conducted by faith, and God honored him. Of course, when he lacked faith and gave in to his wife, thinking and acting in the flesh and not by the “Word of God,” he found his life in confusion with the wages of his sin causing division and the temporary removal of God’s blessings. He realized that following God’s commands was what was best for him. These commands did not enslave him, but they kept him close to the Lord and out of the flesh. Galatians 4:22 , 23 say, “For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.” One was born because Abraham looked at circumstances and did not get God’s direction for his life, and the other was born because he repented of his own thinking and yielded to God and His Word. How do you make your decisions? Do you look around at the circumstances or do you ask the Lord and seek His will that can only be found in His Word? Psalm 119:133a says, “Order my steps in thy word.” Do you even read it, let alone live by it? Judges 21:25 says, “In those days there was no king in Israel : every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” God gives perfect direction to anyone who will ask for His direction and perfect will. Have you asked Him lately?
My children can look at the rules that I give them a few ways. They can get a bad attitude and complain, they can rebel against them, or they can do them knowing that I have their best interest at heart to keep them safe. If you are saved, you are a child of God. God has outlined His commands and teachings, which are sound or healthy doctrine that He laid out for us from the foundation of the earth. These teachings tell men how to live and what God expects from a man that loves the Lord and desires to please Him. They outline the woman’s role that not only benefits her and her husband, but helps to raise the next generation of boys and girls, who are also being taught by the example and teachings of their parents how to live, what to do, how to act, how to pray, what to love, priorities in life, what to stay away from, and what pleases and displeases God.
This Sound Doctrine or teaching includes every question that we could ever have and covers every aspect of our life from birth to death. Everything that our loving Heavenly Father desires for us to know and do is found in His Word. It is up to us to seek for it and to search for it with all our heart as for hid treasure. Proverbs 2:1-6 tell us, “My son, if thou wilt receive (accept) my words, and hide my commandments with thee; So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.” For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.” Notice all the action that must by done by the person who desires to have the wisdom of God that is found in the Bible! This is what James 1:22 is talking about. “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” Far too many Christians do not understand that the Bible is the Word of God; God has given it to us to put into practice for our own good! A doer of the Word will make sure that he or she is fulfilling their God-given roles no matter what the world is doing, what it thinks, or what it says. That’s it!! That is your problem! You are telling God what you are going to do and how you are going to serve Him and what sacrifices you are going to make or not make. You are telling Him what the circumstances are instead of receiving His words, hiding His commandments, inclining thine ear, applying thine heart, crying after God’s knowledge, lifting up thy voice for understanding, and searching.
Another description of Sound Doctrine is found in Proverbs 2:10-16. As you read this portion of Scripture, look to see how much sin can be avoided by allowing wisdom and knowledge to enter your heart and be pleasant unto thy soul. Notice there is no mention of justification of questionable practices or condoning of sin. “When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant (delightful, agreeable) unto thy soul; Discretion (discernment, proper judgment) shall preserve thee (maintain your relationship with God), understanding (acute perception) shall keep thee: To deliver (save, spare) thee from the way (lifestyle, wicked thinking), of the evil man, from the man that speaketh froward (perverse or fraudulent) things; Who leave the paths (narrow path) of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness (broad path); Who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the frowardness of the wicked; Whose ways are crooked, and they froward in their paths: To deliver (save, spare) thee from the strange woman (unsaved, whorish, secular-minded), even from the stranger which flattereth with her words.” Notice that if wisdom and knowledge of God is not pleasant to you, you will not be delivered from those who rejoice and delight to disobey God!!!! Why are Christians falling away? Why are there so much carnality, immorality, and divorce?? God’s Sound Doctrine has not entered into their heart nor has His knowledge been pleasant to their soul. They enjoy their own thinking and reasoning, and do not love the law or Sound Doctrine of the Lord. Psalms 19:7-11 are the words of David as he describes his relationship with God and what he thought about God’s Sound Doctrine. Read this passage and ask yourself in all sincerity: Is this how I feel about God’s commands? Is God’s Word to me more desired than gold and sweeter than honey, or do I look for every way possible to do “that which is right in my own eyes?” The bitter end of those who do not love and apply God’s Word as David did is worldliness, carnality, liberalism, selfishness, divorce, immorality, adultery, fornication, compromise, no Holy Ghost power, and a life that can be described in eternity as a useless waste of time. I Corinthians 3:15 tells us, “If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.”
Thus we know since God has said it, that we do not think as He does, nor are we anywhere closer to knowing His way in ourselves. Jeremiah 10:23 tells us, “O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.” Solomon tells us in Proverbs 20:24, “Man's goings are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?” Thus Sound Doctrine is for anyone that is seeking for the truth and wants to know God (Philippians 3:10 ). How can we understand God and know the thinking of God? Well, the thinking of God is the very basis of the doctrines of the Word of God.