Doctrine Is Crucial

"You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine." Titus 2:1

"They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer." Acts 2:42

I remember hearing the late Ravi Zacharias saying a few years ago that one of the crucial things missing in Christianity today is expository teaching from the puplit. It seems that we've adopted a pragmatic approach that says if you teach doctrine you won't win people for Christ. You may have heard the Expression, "Doctrine divides, but Christ unifies."

Many have lamented that the modern church lacks the powerful working of the Holy Spirit that was present in the early church. Perhaps before we mourn too much we should take a look at what the early church was like and what the apostles really taught the early church.

A Quick Primer on the New Testament

I remember years ago my pastor was teaching on the sufficiency of scripture. He referenced 2 Timothy 3:16:

"All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness."

He pointed out that at the time Paul wrote this to Timothy there was no New Testament. There was more to the canon than existed at the time. Then he made the following statement:

"The Bible is completely consistent throughout. The reality is everything is in the first 5 books. It is all there! The rest of the Old Testament, in many ways, is really a commentary on the first 5 books. And in many ways the New Testament is a commentary on the Old Testament."

Now this does not mean that we look to the Old Testament as the foundation of our doctrine. The Old Testament was looking forward to the New Testament and the New Covenant. To properly understand the thread of the Bible you must study the Old Testament from the perspective of the New. Many in the Hebrew Roots movement get that backwards. Paul had to spend a lot of time dealing with that in the early church. But more on that later.

The new Testament begins with the 4 gospels. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called the 'synoptic gospels' because they basically cover the same information but they fill in details the others leave out. Their purpose is to give you the general history of Jesus Christ on earth and a brief overview of the gospel message. John has a different focus. While he also writes about Jesus's time on earth, he focuses more on his deity and his purpose in coming to save his people. John spends 5 chapters just on the night before Jesus was crucified. (Chs 13-17) 

Acts is the history of the early church and introduces us to the apostle Paul who would write 13 books of the New Testament.

Then comes the 13 epistles of Paul, the 'mysterious' epistle to the Hebrews, and then the general epistles. These are where the doctrines of the New Covenant are expounded on. In the gospels we get an introduction into the doctrines of the New Covenant from Jesus's own lips. The exposition and explanations are left up to the writers of the epistles.

Much of the Epistles Are Correcting Bad Doctrine

Of the epistles, 2 of them are primarily on the doctrines of the New Covenant. Romans deals with the theme of justification by grace through faith (Ephesians does too) . Hebrews deals with the priesthood of Jesus Christ; Different and far superior than the Levitical priesthood. (Ps 110:4 ...After the order of Melchizidek). Much of what we find in the rest of Paul's epistles and the general epistles is correcting bad doctrine. 1 Corinthians deals with blatant immorality. Galations deals with legalistic lawkeeping. Without going on too much more on specifics. Here is the point.

If there was so much doctrinal error back when there were still eye-witnesses to the man, Jesus Christ still living, how far have we fallen today? Especially when doctrine has become almost heresy? Jude says it very well in verses 3 & 4:

"Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord."

It seems today that the focus is on all being in unity. That is a noble goal. Jesus intended for his bride to be unified. 

BUT HE NEVER INTENDED TO UNIFY BELIEVERS AND UNBELIEVERS. (Sheep and goats)

2 Timothy 4:3-4:

"For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths."

As Charles H. Spurgeon said:

"The time will come when instead of shepherds feeding the sheep, the church will have clowns entertaining the goats."

There was never a time in church history when Spurgeon's sentiments were more true than they are today. Much of what passes off as Christianity is simply pandering to those who are not true followers of Christ.

Separation of Sheep and Goats

One of the motives for avoiding the deep doctrines of the gospel and preaching a shallow message is to cast as big a net as possible in order to get as many people 'saved' as possible. But did Jesus or the apostles ever taylor the message of the gospel in order to attract more converts? NO!! Instead they confronted false teaching AND false teachers. They called them out by name. John called out Diotrephes in 2 John 9. Paul called out Alexander and warned people about him in 2 Timothy 4:14. We need to call out the false teachers of our time as well in order to protect the flock.

We also need to understand that often sheep and goats all appear to be sheep until times of testing come upon us. We have been dealing with a 'pandemic' in our country since early this spring. Many have lamented the division it has caused even in the church. Yes it is lamentable..., but maybe the division is necessary. Times of crisis are often revealing. It is easy to appear as a sheep when things are going along smoothly. When crisis hits, the true colors come out and we see what we are made of. 

Another thing people lament is the division politics has caused even in the church.

There was a time when political divisions revolved around general philosophies on the role of government and how our country should be run. Today the divisions are on deep moral issues. 

THERE MUST BE DIVISIONS ALONG POLITICAL LINES TODAY!!!

I don't believe that any political party is going to save America or "Reclaim America for Christ." But if God's people cannot see that the democrat party has embraced all manner of what God's word calls evil, then the church is no different than the rest of the world and we have become completely irrelevant. "The salt has lost its flavor."

I realize that often going to the polls feels like having to choose the lesser of two evils. I've often said you have to 'hold your nose at the polls.' If the choice is the lesser of two evils then we choose the lesser of the two evils. Remember we will be called into account for what we did during our time here on earth.

Search the Scriptures

Acts 17:11:

"Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true."

If you are not searching the scriptures regularly on your own, it is not a question of, 'will you be deceived', but when and to what extent. Jesus warned that there would be MANY false teachers, not few. So it is imperative that we who are followers of Christ need to be in the word ourselves and make sure that what we are being taught is in line with what Jesus and the apostles taught.

Now you may be saying, "But I'm not a Bible scholar." You don't have to be. You can take notes during the sermon and look up the scriptures later and see if what was preached is really what the Word teaches. A pastor worthy of his calling will encourage you to do that.

Conclusion

We are entering difficult days on our country. it is going to be ever more crucial that we be strong in our faith. It is also going to be crucial that we unsterstand what the gospel does teach and what it doesn't teach. The false teachers will very likely become more prominent and prevelant. We need to be like the Bereans and constantly be in the word...not just so we can feel good, but so we can truly grow into the followers of Christ that He desires.

May God bless you richly.