More about Jesus in His Word,
holding communion with my Lord, hearing His voice in every line,
making each faithful saying mine." Isn't that so true? Isn't that
so true of our great heart's desire? Now, I want to remind
you before we continue in this chapter one of Don's book, Basic
Bible Doctrine, Before we continue, next, what our brother Todd Nyberg
said. He said, the Bible has only one
doctrine, the doctrine, the teaching. Now remember, that's what the
word doctrine means. It means teaching. There's all
kinds of different doctrines in scripture. The doctrine of
election, the doctrine of total depravity, the doctrine of irresistible
grace, the doctrine of God's sovereignty, the doctrine of
God becoming a man. There's all kinds of different
doctrines, but they all point to one teaching. And this is
important. This is what Todd and I were
just saying. Listen to this. He says the Bible has one doctrine,
one teaching, and that is the teaching of Christ. The doctrine
of Christ consists of many doctrines, which stand together as the doctrine
of Christ, the doctrine of truth. And all these doctrines are essential,
and if any of these doctrines are omitted, if you take out
election, you take out the doctrine of Christ. That's part of the
doctrine of Christ. That's part of God's Word in
teaching election. So you see the importance here
of us studying and taking on this book that Don has written
titled, The Basic Doctrines of the Bible. Now, last week, we
considered what he bases this first chapter on, which is titled,
Why Study Doctrine? Why study the teachings of the
Bible? And in Psalms 11 verse 3, he
refers to these words, he says, if the foundations, now this
is important, the foundations, if the foundations be destroyed,
what can the righteous do? And so that's why it's important
for us to study the teachings of the scriptures. teachings of depravity, the teachings
of grace, all these different teachings that point us to the
doctrine, to the teaching of Christ. And I want to make sure
that we understand it, that that's what we're looking at here. Don went on to take us through,
as we went through last week, we considered different things
in one of the scriptures that we referred to. For whatsoever
things were written aforetime were written for our hearing.
that we, through patience and comfort in scriptures, might
have hope. Or how about this, from Psalms
119, verse 18. Forever, O Lord, thy word is
settled in heaven. Or the grass withereth, the flower
fadeth, but the word of God shall stand forever. These are things
that we looked at last week. Now this morning, I want to pick
up the second half of chapter one, and it's titled, and he
asks this question, what is the source of true doctrine? What is the source of true doctrine? Don writes, to those who read
these pages, that question may at first appear to be redundant,
perhaps even silly. But it is not, writes Don. The
fact is, in the minds of most men, there are many sources,
many sources for true doctrine. There are people who would say
that we're using Don as a source of true doctrine. That's not
true at all. We're as the Bereans. We're checking the scriptures
to see if what Don says is correct. The fact is, the minds of most
men, there's many sources of true doctrine. None other than
the most outlandish ignorant would suggest that the Bible
is not a source of doctrine. Most would assert that it is
the primary source, however, very few look upon the Word of
God as the only source of doctrine. Even among those who say they
do, very few truly look upon the Scriptures alone. Many, like
the Pharisees, build their doctrine upon the Bible and tradition. Those who do so, by their tradition,
make void the Word of God. Whenever people attempt to build
their doctrine on both the Word of God and tradition, They soon
prefer tradition to the Word, and they make the Word of God
of non-effect, and I want to show you that. Turn over to Matthew,
chapter 15. Matthew, chapter 15. Look at
verse 6. Matthew 15, verse 6, we read,
and honor not his father or mother, he shall be free. Thus have you
made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition. Look at verse 7, ye hypocrites,
well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, this people draw nigh
unto me with their mouth, and honoreth me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me. This is the description of man's
religion. Works religion. They take the
grace of God and turn it into lasciviousness. Isn't that what
we read in the book of Jude? Let's go on verse 9 there. But
in vain they do worship, be teaching for doctrines, the commandments
of men. That would be like saying those
who say, look, you got to get into the waters of baptism. I
actually read from an article from A man that I consider a
brother who erred and said that those who... I want to make sure
I quote it correctly. The gist of his word in his article
was that you must get baptized. Why are you waiting? What makes
you to wait? You must get baptized. And I
thought to myself, now wait a minute. That's taking on the traditions
of men. The Lord tells us to get baptized. I encourage you,
if you have not been baptized with believers, baptism, I encourage
you to do what the Lord has instructed us to do, and that's to get baptized.
But that's not what saves you. And the way it was put in the
article is that those who are saved will get baptized. to the Lord Jesus Christ on that
cross right next to him was never baptized, yet he was saved that
very day. Today you will be with me in
paradise." So we must be very, very careful what Don is telling
us here and what the Scriptures tell us. Be very careful not to add doctrine or traditions
of men to the doctrines of the Bible. Even among those who say
they do, very few truly look upon the Scriptures alone. Many,
like the Pharisees, build their doctrine upon the Bible and tradition. That's exactly what the Pharisees
did. That's exactly what they did. Whenever people attempt
to build their doctrine on both the Word of God and the traditions
of men, they soon prefer traditions. And we just read that. Look at
another one over verse, chapter 16. Go over to Matthew chapter
16. And look at one verse over there,
verse 12. Then understood they how they
had bade him not beware of the leaven of bread, but the doctrine
of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees." One more, if you would, turn
over to Mark chapter 7. Go to the right to Matthew, Mark,
and Luke. Go over to Mark chapter 7. And look at 7, verse 7. We're talking about how the Lord
warns us against the doctrines of men, the commandments of men,
the teachings of men, the traditions of men. Look at verse 7. teaching for doctrines the commandments
of men. For laying aside the commandment
of God, ye hold the tradition of men as the washing of pots
and cups and many other such things ye do. And he said unto
them, full well ye reject the commandments of God, that ye
may keep your own traditions." See how their traditions of men
can work out? And they do the same thing with
baptism. They do the same thing with baptism. That's what they've
done with Seventh-day Adventists. They've made the traditions of
men, of worshiping on a Saturday, the main point of salvation.
They make the getting into the waters of baptism the main part
of tradition. They make the coming down to
the front of the church and praying the prayer, man's tradition. Others will build their doctrine
on the Word of God and the creeds of the Church. While there may
be a proper place and use for creeds, writes Don, while there
may be a proper place for them and confessions of faith, our
faith must not be determined by the creeds of even the best
of men. Our faith must stand Bible doctrine is the teaching
of Holy Scriptures. Dogma is the teaching that is
laid down and imposed by men on churches. Whenever a church's
dogma contradicts the Bible's doctrine or adds anything to
it, it must be rejected as false. Many build their doctrine upon
the plain statements of Holy Scripture and those things which
may be reasonably inferred to from the Scriptures. There is among Protestants a
commonly accepted doctrine called the Doctrine of Necessary Consequence,
which is largely responsible for much of the heresy that we
deal with today. When men attempt to build doctrine
upon both the plain statements of Scripture and what they think
must be necessarily deduced from Scripture, they try to build
upon two foundations. One of sand and one of the other
rock. And the result of that is destruction.
When sinful men make their reasons the basis for believing something,
there is no limit to the nonsense that will be passed off as Bible
teaching. In this day of charismatic nonsense,
multitudes build their doctrine upon the Word of God and upon
their experiences. Experience is no basis for faith. We can take experiences and say,
ooh, look at that, instead of saying, ooh, look at this. Look what God has done. Instead
of that, we say, well, look what God has done. Look what happened
to me. Look at this experience, or look
at that experience. is no basis for faith. Saul had
a real experience in the house of a witch at Endor, but that
experience is not a basis for our doctrine. Neither are our
own experiences, good or bad. Martin Luther was exactly right
when he said, any teaching which does not square with the scriptures
is to be rejected even if it snows miracles every day. the only basis for doctrine,
the only source of divine truth is the Word of God. When we talk
about doctrine, the teaching of Holy Scripture, we have no
right to even entertain our own thoughts and opinions, much less
express them. In these matters we dare not
speak either more or less than that which is expressly written
in the Word of God. Look over at Isaiah chapter 20,
or chapter 8. Turn over to Isaiah chapter 8. In Isaiah chapter 8, we read
in verse 20, to the law and to the testimony If they speak not
according to this word, it is because there is no light in
them. Look again now to another one,
if you would, over to 2 Timothy. Go over to 2 Timothy in the New
Testament. Come to Philippians, and then
you got the three Ts, Thessalonians, Timothy. Go to 2 Timothy, chapter
3. 2 Timothy chapter 3 and look at
two verses with me at the last two verses of that scripture.
All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for
what? For doctrine. For teaching. For
reproof. For correction. for instruction
and righteousness that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly
furnished unto all good works." All true doctrine, writes Don,
is the doctrine of the apostles and the prophets. Faithful men
teach exactly what they are taught. Ours is the doctrine of the Bible,
the Old and the New Testaments. We do not simply hold to the
doctrine of the New Testament. Our doctrine is the doctrine
of the Bible. We recognize that the Bible is one book with one
message, total uniformity of teachings. The Old Testament
teaches exactly the same things as the New Testament, only with
less clarity and less fullness. The Old Testament is the shadow.
The New Testament is the substance. The Old Testament is the type.
The New Testament is the anti-type. The Old Testament is the promise
and prophecy. The New Testament is the fulfillment.
Someone once said this, the Old Testament is the New Testament
concealed, the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed.
I say amen. The book of Acts is an inspired
history of the ministry of the New Testament church. for the
first 30 years after our Lord's ascension and exaltation in that
inspired history, we are giving a running narrative of the apostolic
doctrine, the apostolic teaching and preaching. Now listen to
this. Every time, writes Don, we read
about the preaching of the apostles in the Book of Acts, and there
are 37 references, and all 37 references, the subject preached
was Jesus Christ and the Resurrection. Every summary of the Gospel doctrine
given in the Book of Acts, indeed in the entire New Testament,
reveal an inspired system of teaching, an inspired system
of doctrine centering around the accomplishment of redemption
by the death of Christ, and the verification of its accomplishment
by his resurrection from the dead. The Apostles' Doctrine,
that which they preached everywhere, had five basic points, and I'm
going to give you those five, and there's some scriptures,
so if you've got a pen, you might want to write these down. Every
single part of the teachings of the apostles. Everywhere they
preached it had five basic essential points. The first one was the
total sovereignty of God over all things. And here's some verses
for you to read on that. Acts 2, 23. Acts 4, 26 through
28. And Acts 13, 26 through 30. All of those verses are the preaching
of God's apostles, and they point to the very same thing, the total
sovereignty of God over all things. Secondly, they all point to this,
the fact that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ. And here's a verse
for you for that one. Acts chapter three, verses 13 through 18. Thirdly, the accomplishment of
redemption for God's elect by the death of Christ, verified
by His resurrection from the dead. And you can read that in
Acts 1.22, Acts 2.24, and Acts 2.32. Fourthly, we see the salvation
of grace alone through faith alone without works. And you
can see that in Acts 2.38. 3, 16, 4, 12, 5, 11, and 16, 31. Lastly, the believer's
freedom from the law in Christ. These are five points that you
can find in all of the teachings of the apostles in the book of
Acts. Listen to the, here's some verses for you for there. Acts
15, 10 through 11. And then after you looked at
all of those, I encourage you to look up Hebrews 8 and Romans
chapter 10. 8, 1 through 2, and Hebrews and
Romans 10 verse 4. Now, I want to continue on because
there's not enough time for us to stop and look at those verses
together this morning. I hope you were able to write
those down and able to come to look at those at some point.
How should we study Bible doctrine? There's two more points I want
to get to before we close up this morning. I will not attempt, writes Don,
to lay down any absolute rules as to the best method of Bible
study. Many do things in different ways
and seem to get along just fine, so I will not suggest that you
should change their method of study. However, No matter what
method of study we use, there are some rules and guidelines
that need to be followed in the study of doctrine, in the study
of teachings. And that first one is this, study all doctrines
contextually. That means just take it in context,
read before and read after. Nothing is more dishonest than
the study of the Word of God by looking for proof index. In
other words, if you want to go find something in the Bible,
you can find anything you want. That's how all these different
religions come together. People go looking for anything
they want in the Scriptures, they'll find it. If you want
to study believers' baptism, you go to Romans 6, not Genesis
17. Secondly, study the Word of God submissively. May God
give us grace to bring all things to the touchstone of Holy Scriptures. Let us bow to His Word. Always
be prepared to give up any teaching or practice that is not found
in Holy Scriptures, and to embrace the things that are revealed
in the Book of God. no matter what the sacrifice,
no matter what the consequence. Thirdly, to the degree that it
is possible, we ought to state our doctrine in the very language
of the Bible. Don writes this, he says, I realize
that for the sake of clarification and faithful exposition, we sometimes
use terms that are not specifically used in the Bible, such as sovereignty. That's not used. But we understand
that we use that word. Sanctification. Trinity, substitution,
etc. We must not allow ourselves to
get caught in the trap of either requiring others or being required
by others to say things in a specific way. Fourthly, give no doctrine
greater or less prominent or importance than it is given in
scriptures. Fifthly, adorn the doctrine of
God our Savior in all things. That's what it says in Titus
2.10. Don says this, he says, let us
take great care to conform our lives to our doctrine. Doctrine and duty cannot be separated. Every truth discovered in the
word of God ought to be applied to our lives. If our character
and conduct does not reflect the grace and the glory of God
revealed in the gospel, then our doctrine is utterly meaningless.
Test all doctrines by two things, two simple questions. First,
who gets the glory? God or man? Secondly, does the
doctrine lead you to cause you to rest in Christ? All true doctrine gives glory
to God and abases man and directs the sinner to Christ to find
rest for their souls in Him. Look with me at one last verse
if you would, Jeremiah chapter 6. Verse 16, Thus saith the Lord, Stand in
the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths