The Things That Become Sound Doctrine

Let's turn back to Titus the
second chapter Now three times in this chapter Paul refers to
our doctrine In verse 1 of chapter 2 he says speak now the things
which become sound doctrine In verse 7, he said, "...in all
things showing thyself a pattern of good works, in doctrine showing
uncorruptness." In verse 10, "...not forlorning,
stealing, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn
the doctrine of God our Savior in all things." The two dangers
to be avoided. There are two ruts, one on each
side of the road, of which I'm afraid. One is making too much
of doctrine, the other is making too little of doctrine. I received a letter this week,
just answered it yesterday. from a man who listens to our
television program. I appreciated the letters. I
wrote him back. It showed some time spent in
study on his part. It showed an awareness of the
liberalism and eras of what we call fundamentalism
today. It showed quite a bit of study. It showed some knowledge of the
scripture. But he started the letter off
in this vein. I was his favorite television
preacher, but yet he couldn't quite put me in a category as
to doctrine. He couldn't figure out my doctrine. Now you may think this is not
a compliment, but to me, Jack, it is a compliment. Now this
is the reason. Mr. Spurgeon could never be typed. The Calvinists called him an
Arminian, the Arminian called him a Calvinist. The Holiness
called him an Antinomian, and the Antinomians called him a
Holiness. They couldn't put him in a pigeonhole,
they couldn't put him in a slot. And the reason was this, he wasn't
afraid to command men to repent. But he wasn't afraid, on the
other hand, to tell men without the aid of the Holy Spirit they
couldn't repent. He wasn't afraid to command sinners to come to
Christ. He wasn't afraid to command men to bow in the presence of
a sovereign Redeemer and kiss the sun. And yet he wasn't afraid
to tell men that without the aid of the Holy Spirit, no man
can come to Christ. He wasn't afraid to command men
to live holy and godly and righteous in this present world. And yet
he told the same congregation that Christ is our holiness.
Christ is our sanctification. Now, the believer understands
those things. The natural man cannot understand
them. He cannot put them together.
That's the reason the gospel is called a mystery, and it must
be revealed. A believer is the richest, poorest
man on earth. A believer is the emptiest, fullest
man on earth. A believer is the holiest wretch
on earth. A believer is the saddest happy
man on earth. He understands that. But the
natural man doesn't understand that you either gotta be full
or empty. You can't be both to the natural man. It's unexplainable. The natural man, to him, you're
either rich or poor. You can't be both. You're either
dead or alive. You're either holy or you're
unholy. You cannot be both to the natural man. I'm going to use this for an
example. Joe Wilson was telling me about it today. He preached
over North Carolina last Sunday. And in the course of the message,
Joe has a message, as I try to preach, a message of inviting
men to Christ and yet giving God the glory and salvation.
And during his message, he mentioned Christ was offered, used the
word offered. After the service, one of the
men came to him, one of the, I'm sure, doctrinalists, and
as you'll see in a moment, doctrine must have its proper place, but
it must not have the place of preeminence, that Christ place.
And one of the men came to him and said, I liked your message,
etc., etc., but I didn't understand the word offer. How Christ can
be an offer and yet a gift, but he is both. He is both. Christ is the gift of God. He's
the unspeakable gift. He is the richest treasure, as
Don Fortner preached here. He's the gift of God, and yet
at the same time, the natural man rejects Christ. I know a
lot of people don't like the word reject Christ, but it's
in the scripture, he despised and rejected of men. That's what
the Bible says. And when Christ is preached and
a man does not receive him, he rejected him. When a man does
not receive Christ or close with Christ or embrace Christ, he's
denying Christ, he's refusing Christ, he's rejecting Christ,
and he will be judged for that very reason. Christ said of sin,
because they believe not on me. But if we're not careful, it's
so dangerous to be so doctrinally minded and have our theology
so systematized that when a man preaches, if he doesn't fit in
that particular creed or catechism or confession of faith, if he
doesn't use the words we use and the phrases we use, then
he's in trouble. It may be that we're in trouble
and not him. He may be delivering God's message.
Our Lord Jesus Christ stood before the multitude and he said, you
come to me and I'll give you rest. Do you think he had his
hand behind his back when he said that? He certainly did not.
He said, you come. It was a sincere invitation. You come. Oh, everyone that thirsted,
come to the water. Do you think our Lord had a closed
fist or his hand behind his back? He meant every word of it. If
they had come, they would have drunk. He said, though your sins
be a scarlet, I'll make them white as snow. Come, come, come,
let's reason together. And yet, he said to Nicodemus,
Nicodemus, you must be born again. There's no way that you can see
or grasp or understand or enter into the things of the kingdom
of God unless you are born again. He said to that group of people
in John 6, they despised him and would have nothing to do
with him and walked off. He said, no man can come to me
except my Father which sent me to draw him. And they shall all
be taught of God. He that hath learned of the Father
will come unto me." And the Apostle Paul exhorted
us to holiness, and yet he said, I'm the chief of sinners. The
Apostle Paul said, I'm not one whit behind the chief apostle,
but he said, I'm nothing. Paul tells us in all things to
live godly and soberly and righteously in this present world. And yet
he said, when I would do good, evil is present with me. It's so dangerous, it's so deadly,
to try to make God's Word fit into our logic patterns of doctrine. And we'll get in trouble if we
try to do that, all doctrine, doctrine, doctrine. It's popular
in religion today to omit doctrine. It's popular. They're professing
Christians today who despise doctrine. If you announced a
message, if you were going to preach a message on the perseverance
of the saints, or if you were to announce you were going to
preach a message on what is Bible sanctification, Or if you were
going to preach a message on the sovereignty of God in election,
or predestination, or for whom did Christ die, or something
of this sort, the work of the Holy Spirit in redemption, reconciling
sinners, they'd run from it, they'd want nothing to do with
it. They'd say, don't preach doctrine, preach Jesus. Don't
preach doctrine. Let's don't get into the deep
doctrines of the Bible. Just preach Jesus. Now, I don't
understand that kind of talk. I'll be honest with you. The
teacher without his teachings? How can we have Christ the teacher
without his teachings? How can we have the Lord without
his commandments? That'd be like tables of stone
with nothing written on them. How can you have the priest without
his atonement? How can you have the tabernacle
without its furnishings? Without the altar, the showbread,
the candlestick, the Ark of the Covenant, the mercy seat? What
good would the tabernacle do without any of the furnishings?
How would you have God without his attributes? You can't have
preaching without doctrine. You can't have the Word of God
without doctrine. That's what he's talking about
here. Sound doctrine. Adorn the doctrine. In doctrine
showing uncorruptness, we've got to have it. It must not sit
on the throne. Christ is on the throne. It must
not have the place of preeminence. It must not be the sword that
divides the fellowship. It must not be the rule we run
around with to measure other people's professions or their
faith or their lives. Let doctrine have its proper
place and Christ have the preeminence. Doctrine is to the believer what
a foundation is to the building. Now get these three things. What
is a foundation to a building? Just about everybody here can
understand now what I'm saying. Three things. Doctrine is to
me and to you what the foundation is to a building. First of all,
it supports the building. It supports the building. Without
a foundation, you wouldn't even have a building. You could not
have a building without some kind of foundation, whether it's
Whether it's a proper foundation or improper foundation, you can't
have a building without, first of all, having a foundation.
You don't start building up here, you start building down here.
And you can't have a building without a foundation. Now here,
turn to Romans 7, verse 7. And I'm saying that we cannot
have a religious profession, a religious building, a religious
hope, without a foundation. Doctrine is to the believer what
the foundation is to the building in that it supports it. Without
the foundation, the building wouldn't even exist. That's where
you start. Paul said in Romans 7, verse 7, what shall we say
then? Is the law sin? God forbid. I would not have
known sin but by the law. That's how I came to the knowledge
of sin. Now, your knowledge of sin is
determined by what you learn from the law. You see that? Paul said, I wouldn't have had
any knowledge of sin at all. That part of the building would
not even have come into existence without the law. Now, those who
have a proper building have a proper understanding of the law. Our
Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 5. Turn over there just a moment.
And this is important here. Our Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew
5 says this, verse 21. Matthew 5, 21. You have heard
that it was said by them of old times, thou shalt not kill, and
whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. Now,
these religious leaders, these religious Pharisees, they read
that. They read that law. And every one of them could say
this, I've never killed anyone. These men, their hands had never
been stained by the blood of another person. That was their
conception of the law. That was their foundation. That's
what they were building on. They didn't need a Savior. They'd
never killed anybody. They didn't need a Savior. They'd
never bowed before an idol. They didn't need a Savior. They'd
never committed adultery. They didn't need a Savior. They
had never taken God's name in vain. They didn't need a Savior. That's the Apostle Paul. He didn't
need a Savior. He said, I was alive without
the law. I was blameless. I would not
have known sin had not the law said," now watch this, turn back
to Romans 7 verse 7, except the law said, "...thou shalt not
covet." And then I learned, L-U-S-T, lust. That's when it came home. He got the right foundation.
He got the right understanding of the law. Christ said, now
Matthew 5 again, Verse 22, but I say unto you, Matthew 5, 22,
now I say this, whosoever is angry with his brother without
a cause is in danger of judgment. Look down at verse 27, you've
heard it said by them of old times, thou shalt not commit
adultery. They never had. But I say unto you, whosoever
looketh and lusteth and desireth is guilty already. You've heard
it said by them of old time, verse 43, Thou shalt love thy
neighbor, hate thine enemy. That's exactly what they did.
That's what it said, that's what they did. But I say unto you,
love your enemies, bless them that curse you. Oh! Oh, that's different. That's
different. You see, without the proper foundation,
you don't have a building. These Pharisees had no building.
of eternal life, no building of hope, no building of God,
because they didn't have a foundation. And that's where the doctrine
is so important. If you're going to have a building, you've got
to have a foundation. And our foundation, the knowledge
of sin, is this, sin is not just an act, it's an attitude. It's
not just a deed, it's a motive. It's a desire. It's not just
a deed, it's a desire. It's not just an outward act,
it's an inward thought. My sin against God does not consist
only in what I do, it's what I am. What I do is motivated
by what I am. God looks not on the outward
countenance, he looks on the heart. God does not judge me
only by what they do, but by what they want to do. All right, Job 25. Let's turn
over there a moment. This foundation is so important.
Job 25, Job asked this question, Job 25, verse 4, How? How can
man be justified with God? How can man be justified with
God? How can God be just and justify
man? How can a holy righteous God
Accept into his affection, kingdom, fellowship, an unholy creature,
and be a just God. How can he be clean that's born
of a woman? Look at the moon. It's shiny.
It's not the stars that are not pure in God's sight. How much
less is man? How much less man that is a worm,
the son of man which is a worm? That's a good question. Well,
it's answered over in Romans 3. This is our foundation. This doctrine is so important.
If you don't know the answer to this question, how can God
be just and justify the ungodly, you have no foundation. In Romans
3, verse 25, he said, God set forth his Son to be a propitiation
of mercy through faith in his blood, to declare God's righteousness
for the remission of sins that have passed through the forbearance
of God. Talking about sins of Old Testament saints. to declare,
I say at this time, God's righteousness, that he might be just, and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. I know how a man can
be just with God. It's for Christ to come down
here and in the flesh represent us, in the flesh to do what we
couldn't do, obey the law, to bear our guilt and our shame
and our sins in his body on the tree and satisfy God's holiness
and God's justice. I know that. That's the foundation.
If you don't know that, you don't have a foundation. And then Acts chapter 8, turn
over there a minute. These questions are so important. Acts chapter 8, verse 34. The
Ethiopian eunuch is riding along. Philip joins himself with the
chariot and he hears him read. Now listen, here's what he's
reading. Acts chapter 8, verse 32. The place of the scriptures,
the Old Testament, which he read was this. He's led as a sheep
to the slaughter as a lamb done before his sheriff, so he opened
not his mouth. In his humiliation his judgment
was taken away. Who shall declare his generation?
His life is taken from the earth, and you know the rest of it.
He was wounded by our transgression." And the eunuch said, Philip,
verse 34, I pray thee, of whom is the prophet speaking this,
himself or some other man? Our fellow's got to know the
answer to that question. Who's he talking about? Who is
this man of sorrows, acquainted with grief? Who is this one numbered
with the transgressions? Who is this sin-bearer? Who is
this one who was led as a sheep lamb before his slaughters and
opened not his mouth? Who is this in whose hands the
pleasure of the Lord prospers? Who is this? Somebody's got to
tell them who it is. That's the foundation. Well,
it's Christ. That's Philip, verse 35. Philip
opened his mouth and began at the same scripture and preached
unto him, Jesus Christ. So you see, the foundation of
a building, it supports the building. It's that upon which the building
is rest and upon which the building is built. And even so, I say,
your profession of religion, your hope of eternal life, your
trust in God, your relationship with God is built upon your knowledge
of sin, your understanding of God's attributes and God's justice
and God's righteousness and God's atonement, your understanding
of who Christ is in the scriptures. He died for our sins according
to the scriptures. He was buried and rose again
according to the scriptures. He reigns at the right hand of
the Father according to the Scriptures, according to what the Bible says
about him. And if you don't know what the Bible says about him,
you could have the wrong person as an object of faith. And a
preacher gets up and preaches the Christ to the Bible, and
somebody sitting out there has heard some other Jesus preached,
and he says, well, that's not my Lord. That's not the one I'm
trusting. That's not the one in whom I
believe. Well, one of us have the wrong God. They're preaching
another Jesus, Paul said, another gospel, another spirit. So doctrine
is... Secondly, doctrine not only supports
the building, but it sustains the building. When the rain comes,
and the floods come, and the winds blow, It stands, turn to
Matthew 7, it stands, and here's the reason, Matthew 7, listen
to this now. And we're talking about, we're
talking about a religious temple. We're talking about our house,
which we're building on the right foundation. Now Christ said,
verse 24 of Matthew 7, Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings
of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man which
built his house on a rock," a strong foundation, a tried stone, a
stone that God the Father laid. And the rain descended. Now here
are three kinds of trials. He says the rain descended. Where
does rain come from? Heaven. Now then, Job's trials. God permitted Satan to subject
Job to these trials. And no man, when he is tempted
to sin, is tempted of God. But every believer who has tried,
is tried of God. God sends trials our way. They're
trials from heaven. And then the second kind of trial,
he said, and the floods came. That's trials from below. trials
from the earth. Paul said, I was in peril of
my countrymen, of false brethren, of all these different earthly
perils. The floods, the trials that come from the hands of earthlings,
of men, of human beings, they will try you. They will try your
faith. Satan will use men. Satan used
the apostle Peter. Our Lord said one time to his
own apostle, get thee behind me, Satan. Peter, Satan is using
you. And it may be that Satan will
raise up a human estimate to use against you to try your faith. And then the other trials are
the winds that blow, the mysterious trials from within, the unexplainable
trials. You have those, I have those.
Why art thou disquieted, O my soul? I don't know. Why are you
cast down? Well, I don't know, I just know
I am. And these trials will come, and
the house that'll stand is the house that has a what? A foundation. A foundation laid on a rock. And that rock is Christ Jesus,
that rock is the Redeemer, that rock is the one that God laid,
and a man's got to build his foundation His hope for eternity
on Christ the rock. And that rock will sustain him.
There's no trial that'll make your house fall if it's built
on Christ. And old Brother Barnard used
to say, the higher you plan to build, the deeper you better
dig. If you plan to do business for
God, or with God, the higher you plan to build, the more time
you better spend establishing a foundation. And then here it
brings me to my topic tonight. The foundation supports the building,
it sustains the building, and I'll tell you this, we are sustained by our confidence
and faith in God's purpose. If we can get a hold of this,
it will help us so much that everything he brings our way
is for his glory and our good. Whatever it may be. All things
work together for good to them who love God, who are called
according to his purpose. Whatever those things may be.
But they will be for our glory, his glory, and our good. And
our Lord Jesus Christ loved us and gave himself for us. I may
fail, he'll never fail. My faith may be very small and
sometimes seem to be nothing, but he is faithful who promises.
He said, I'll never leave you, I'll never forsake you. I know
He said that. That's the doctrine, you see.
The doctrine of God our Savior. Who shall separate me from the
love of Christ? Who can lay anything to the charge
of God's elect? Who is He that condemns? If God
be for us, who can be against us? If God elected us and predestinated
us and Christ redeemed us and the Holy Spirit called us and
we're seated with Christ in the heavenlies, I shall not be moved.
I don't care what the trials are. But where they come from,
I shall not be moved. Now that's what it sustains,
isn't it? Thirdly, the foundation shapes the building. It shapes the building. You've
got a round foundation, you're going to have a what? A round
building. You've got a triangle foundation,
you're going to have a triangle building. It shapes the building.
You got a rectangular foundation, you got a rectangular building.
So a man's doctrine determines the kind of person he is. Now,
it's not the opposite. The kind of person a man is does
not determine his doctrine. It'll determine false doctrine. But the foundation, who is your
foundation? What is your foundation? What
is your doctrine? What does it you believe? That'll
determine the kind of person you are. Now listen to these
scriptures. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. So is he. Whatever he thinks
about Christ, whatever he thinks about God, whatever he thinks
about himself, whatever he thinks about sin, whatever he thinks
about God's purpose, whatever he thinks about God's sovereignty,
whatever he thinks about God's glory, whatever he thinks about
God's commandments, that's what he is. Listen to this. To whom
much is forgiven, he'll love much. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creature. Be ye merciful as your Father
in heaven is merciful. Be ye holy, why? Because I'm
holy, God says. Turn to Hebrews 4. We have this
in our Sunday school lesson in the week after next. It talks
about in Hebrews 4.10. It says in Hebrews 4.10, For
he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his
own works, as God did from his. He's talking about Christ's thing.
Our Lord Jesus Christ came down here to do a work, and he did
that work, and he finished it, he accomplished it. He entered
into his rest, as God did from creation's six days of working
and planning and preparing. Let us, therefore, labor to enter
into that rest. Lest any man fall after the same
example, enter into his rest. Cease from our labors of trying
to perform the work of salvation by our hands and our righteousness
and our deeds. Christ came down here and accomplished
for us what? Redemption. It's finished, he
said. The work is done. The law is
satisfied. Justice is honored. It's complete. He finished it. He sat down on
the right hand of God. He's entered into a rest from
his labors. He'll die no more. He'll suffer
no more. He'll agonize no more. He'll
weep no more. You know what we need to do? Labor to enter into that rest,
into that finished, complete, sufficient work of our Redeemer. And when we do, when that foundation
is laid, then you can tell it by the building. I know the shape
of this foundation. You know how I know the shape
of this foundation? I stand right up there and look at this building.
And I know that wall goes right up there, and that one over there,
and that one down there, and this one back here. That's the
shape of this, that's what the foundation is. It determines
the shape of this building. And you watch this now. Turn
to 1 Thessalonians 1, 4. Paul knew these people, he knew
their election. How did he know their election? Election is the secret thing.
Election is the hidden thing. Election is the unseen ingredient. Election is the secret counsel,
the mysterious, underground, back in eternity. Well, how in
the world does Paul know their election? He knows it by what
he sees. He says in verse 4, 1 Thessalonians
1, I know, brethren, beloved, your election of God. Now do you know, Paul, were you
there and God elected them? No. Here's how I know it. For our
gospel came not to you in word only, but in power, in the Holy
Ghost and much assurance. Verse 6, you became followers
of us in the Lord. And verse 7, you were examples
to those in Macedonia, Achaia. And verse 8, far from you sounded
out the word of the Lord, you were witnesses, you were missionaries.
Verse 9, the latter part, you turned to God from your idols.
Verse 10, to wait for his Son from heaven. I know you're elect,
I can tell by the shape of the building. Ed Stevens laid this foundation
here. It's underground, it can't be
seen. But I can stand right up there and tell you the shape
of this foundation, tell you what it looks like. How do I
know what it looks like? Because of the shape of this
building. And Paul's saying of these believers, I know you were
elected, I know the secret, mysterious counsel of God. How do I know?
I can tell it by looking at you and listening to you. You see
that? Your doctrine, the thing that
took place, the thing on which you're built, determines your
actions. If God has been merciful to you
and you know it in your deep recesses of your heart, you're
going to be merciful to me. If God has forgiven you, you're
going to forgive me. If you've got that kind of foundation,
if you've got that kind of belief, if you've got that kind of root,
and I know Apple tree is an apple tree. I can't see the root, but
I can sure see the fruit. Listen to this, John 13, 35. John 13, 35. You know, our Lord said here,
listen to this, John 13, 35. The Lord Jesus says here, By
this shall all men know you are my disciples. How are they going
to know? How are they going to know you
are my disciples? Well, I wear a pin up here that
says, I am a disciple. Now, I tell you, I don't mean
to be strange and fanatical or radical
or anything like that, but I don't like all this religious decor.
I don't like fish in the lapels and crosses around the necks,
and I don't like this sort of thing at all. I think it's just
contrary to Scripture. I think this is the way men know
we're Christ's disciples. He said, if you love one another,
that's how they know it. That's how they know it. That
foundation of love has been laid. It's been shed abroad in your
heart by the Holy Spirit, and whatever the Holy Spirit builds
upon it, he's going to build it in that shape. He's going
to build it in that vein. He's going to build it in that
direction. If that's the foundation that was laid, what he puts on
top of it will bear it out. That's what it says. John James
chapter 2, let's turn over here. Faith, faith is something. Does
a man have faith? All kinds of faith. There's mental
faith, material faith, miracle faith, all types of faith. But
there's saving faith. How can you know a man's got
saving faith? Well, listen to what James says.
Well, he says, I believe in Jesus. Well, everybody believes in Jesus.
Verse 18 of James 2, A man may say, Thou hast faith, I have
works, show me your faith without your works. Can you do it? I'll
show you my faith by my works. You believe there's one God,
you do well. The devil believes there's one God and he trembles,
but will you know, vain man, that faith that does not produce
works is dead. Abraham, our father, was justified
by works. What was justified? His soul?
No, his profession. What he claimed. What he professed. What he said was justified, how?
By what he did. God said, Abraham, I know you
love me. You just showed me you love me. By offering your son. By not withholding your son.
You just proved your love. You just justified your faith. Here's a businessman who says
he believes in Christ. He's a deacon in the church.
He's dishonest in his dealings with me. His faith is not justified
by his works. Here's a businessman who believes
in God, who says he does, who has faith in Christ, who is a
member of the church, who is an officer in the church, he
treats men right. He treats them fairly. He treats
them justly. He treats them as he would have
them treat him. He's just justified his faith.
You see that? His faith is justified by his
work. His faith is not his soul. His
soul is justified by the blood of Christ. It's the cross that
justifies our soul, but every man's faith is either justified
or denied by his work. That's what we're saying. And
Abraham justified his faith. God said, Abraham, leave your
father's house. Well, is he going to leave or
isn't he going to leave? If he doesn't leave, he doesn't believe.
If he does leave, he does believe. Leaving didn't make him believe,
he left because he believed. He justified his faith. You see
what I'm saying? All right, turn to 2 Corinthians 9. Giving. Giving. Here's something else. I don't care for a preacher telling
people how much to give to the kingdom of God. I'm not going
to do it, and I object to those who do. I object to any kind
of pressure brought to bear upon any person in the kingdom of
God to give anything. Myself, you, anybody else. I
wouldn't pass out a pledge card. I wouldn't tell you to give a
certain percentage. I wouldn't beg you to give to
a missionary cause. Listen to what the scripture
says now about giving. 2 Corinthians 9, verse 7. Every man, as he
purposeth in his heart, so let him give. Huh? Where does it
start? From the pulpit? No sir. From
the law? No sir. From the heart. And I'll guarantee
you, not grudgingly, not of necessity, God loves a hilarious giver.
A man who's delighted to do it. And he's delighted to do it because
he initiated it. You didn't. He initiated it. You didn't tell him how much
to give. He didn't feel obligated. He didn't feel responsible. He
didn't feel duty-bound. He felt motivated. You see the
difference? That's what's wrong with the
Christmas season. That's what makes it a burden for everybody. Because we're expected to do
certain things, we're required to do certain things. Pressure's
brought to bear upon us to do certain things. And that's what
makes the church and the worship services objectionable to some
people. The preacher's always standing
up talking about how much the church needs, or how much we
ought to give, and if you love Christ you'd tithe. That has
nothing to do with your love for Christ. Not one thing on
this earth. Every man according as he purposes
in his heart. When I see a man who is tight
and miserly and not generous, that's the foundation he's got.
He can't help it. The shape of the building is
determined by the foundation. When you see a man who is generous
and open and delights to share what God has given him and blessed
him with, It's the foundation God laid in his heart. The building
is shaped with a foundation. Look at 1 John chapter 4. Here in the 4th chapter of 1
John, verse 12, no man has seen God at any time.
Never seen God, I haven't either. I'm always fearful of the people
that see visions. I want to run from them. I want
to run from them. Because they've been visited
by another spirit. No man has seen God at any time. You know what it says right here? If we love one another, God dwells
in us. And his love is perfected, and
if we love one another, it's because God dwells in us. Hereby
know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he's given
us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify
that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world,
and whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God
dwells in him, and he in God. There's a foundation laid. That's
the reason these things are produced, a foundation has been laid. Now that's what Paul's talking
about in Titus chapter 2 verse 1. You preach those things that
become sound doctrine. These are the things that are
becoming the sound doctrine. Doctrine is to the believer what
the foundation is to the building. What he believes about God, what
he believes about the Word, what he believes about himself, what
he believes about redemption, what he believes about justification,
what he believes about sanctification, what he believes about Christ,
who he is and what it is, that is his foundation. All these
other things are built on that foundation which supports them,
and which sustains his hope, and which shapes his building.
You can recognize a building that God has built because God
lays the foundation. Other foundation can no man lay
than that which is laid, Christ the Lord. And then he goes on
and tells us the aged men. You know, when older men, sometimes
they get older, they get impatient, irritable, and the old heathens
used to give themselves to gluttony and drunkenness and all of this
sort of thing. But believers grow old in what? Love, faith, and patience. love, faith, and patience. The
older women, older women out of Christ have less to do and
they become critical, they become intemperate, they become possessed
of bad attitudes, they become slanderers, they become gossipers. The believing women, having the
right foundation, will have the right type of attitude and conversation
in life because the foundation's right, it's becoming agreeable
to sound doctrine. And the believing women as they
grow older will be examples in kindness and understanding, examples
to the younger women whom they shall teach to be discreet, chaste,
keepers at home. You know, a lot of times I've
been to churches where A woman gets converted, and that's about
the last her family sees of her. She goes to this circle meeting,
and that circle meeting, and another meeting. She goes to
this tract society, and to that one. She goes to this visitation
program, and that one, to this youth group, to that one. Scripture
says here the older women are to tell the younger women to
stay home, be keepers at home, to love their husbands, to love
their children, to be obedient to their husbands, that the word
of God be not blasphemed. And then the young men, you know
what that sober-minded is there? Young men have a tendency, and
you know the reason I know so much about this is because I
can say with David, now I'm old and I have been young, but young
men have a tendency, Spurgeon said, to be intoxicated with
the idea that they know something. Haven't we all been there? Well,
let these young men be discreet and wise and willing to learn,
sober-minded. It's not talking about drinking
there at all. It's got nothing to do with alcohol in the least
vain. Drunkards won't enter the kingdom
of God anyway, and it's not talking about that. It's talking about
being discreet and wise and understanding and willing to learn. Sober-minded. Servants. Look down here at verse
9. Servants, be obedient to your
masters. please them, not answering again,
not troublemakers, good workers. Let me read you the amplified
version here a minute, Titus chapter 2. You know, I worked
in the steel mill for a short time, and one of the Unfortunately one of the jokes
around the meal is how much stuff people steal Because they work for a company
if they like the company, you know, well, they don't need these
Don't need these rulers and they don't need these screwdrivers.
They don't need these things, you know Just take them in my
lunch bucket and take them home with nothing wrong with they
owe it to me. Wait, let me show you something tell servants,
Titus 2, 9, to be submissive to their masters, to be pleasing
and give satisfaction in every way, warn them not to talk back
and contradict those who are their employers, nor to steal
by taking things of small value. Old Barney used to say, if you're
going to rob a bank, rob a big one. Same sentence. Get ya bigger. Don't feel 50 cents, feel a half
a million. Not a bit of difference. Go kill
somebody, you say kill an important fella, you know. Don't fool with
these little fellas on the back street. No, get ya bigger. Because
same sentence, taking things of small value. You all run into
that. It's not funny, is it? It's true. It's thievery. That's what he's talking about
there. Prove yourself to be a truly loyal and entirely reliable,
and faithful, certainly, loyal, reliable, and all of you, most
of you work here. And these are the things that
become sound doctrine. Don't go out in the world, don't
tell anybody you're Christian. Don't tell a soul, don't breathe
it, unless you're prepared. to live in such a way that the
doctrine you're teaching will be adorned. That's right. That's
right. You say, everybody ought to be
a witness. No. No, some people's witness does more damage than
it does good, because folks hear them say, but they, you know,
preachers have a bad reputation. You know that, most preachers?
Bad reputation. How do you, down here in verse
10, adorning the doctrine, how do you adorn the doctrine? Let
me read you something, I found this, I preached too long. I'll
start out, I'm going to preach just a little while. I preached,
you ought to have been in St. Louis, I preached one hour and
15 minutes, I know, I just wore them out. I told them everything
I told you all in six months, you know. But I want to read
you something that's so good. He says, We cannot adorn the
doctrine with choirs and instruments and cantatas. Go out and listen
to the birds sing. Go out and listen to the wind
whisper through the pines. Go out and listen to a rippling
brook as it flows over the rocks. That's God's music. How in the
world are we going to add to that, huh? How are we going to
adorn that? We can't do anything about that.
All right, we can't adorn the doctrine with buildings and steeples
and mighty temples. Stephen said Solomon built him
a house How be it the most high God doesn't dwell in temples
made with hands heaven is his throne The earth is his footstool.
What house will you build me stand out under the sky tonight?
and look at those stars and look at that moon and then look around
at the flowers at your feet and look at the snow-covered mountains
and look at the rolling green meadows and and you'll feel there's
no way you can build anything worthy of God and Bill, the most
multiplied billion-dollar edifice, and how can you adorn God with
that when you're standing out in his own universe? And we can't
adorn the doctrines by our religious garb. I see these nuns wearing
all that silly stuff, you know, and I don't mean to make fun,
but it is, it's silly. See a man all dressed in black,
you know, because of his doctrines. The gospel is no better under
a black hat or no hat. In fact, the perfect man stood
in the Garden of Eden clothed only with the beauty of holiness.
God clothed him. And we're not going to adorn
the doctrine with our mode of speech, our these and thous. Actually, somebody said the gospel
is best adorned when it's unadorned by the flowers of human rhetoric.
Well, preacher, how am I going to adorn the doctrine? Well,
let's look at two or three things. Number one, with holiness, truth,
integrity, and honesty, as you would that men should do to you.
You do it to them. Adorn it with happiness. Paul
said, rejoice in the Lord. Adorn it with love. Adorn it
with meekness. Adorn it with mercy. Adorn it
with kindness. Be kind one to another, tender-hearted,
forgiving one another. Adorn it with unselfishness.
Don't look. Most of our problems come about
because we have one person we are seeking to please, and that's
us. Make somebody else happy. I do believe the secret of happiness
is to know you've made somebody else happy. Unselfishness. Adorn it with quick forgiveness.
Be ready to forgive. Always ready to forgive. Don't
have to plan it, but always ready. Adorn it with patience under
trial. And then last of all, adorn the
doctrine with a holy calm and peace. And it's hard to learn,
but it's the Word of God, a meek and gentle spirit with which
God is well pleased. These things become agreeable
to sound doctrine. They're agreeable. Our Father,
we thank Thee for Thy presence. We feel that Thou has ministered
to us and rebuked us, instructed us. Thou art our teacher. This is that which is written,
and this is well-pleasing in Thy sight and in our sight. The
law of God is good. The holy law of God is good.
And with our minds we serve the law, and with our hearts we say
amen to Thy law. And we pray, O Lord, that we
may be brought into subjection and into an unconditional surrender
to that which we know to be good and that which we know to be
glorifying to our Lord. And yet we fail. What failures
we are. How we stumble and how we fall.
And we've come short of thy glory and we rejoice that Christ is
our strength and our refuge and our rock and our hope on whom
we build. Make us to be more like him.
Someday we'll be perfectly conformed to this perfect image. And we
pray until that day that the bent of our will and the tenor
of our lives and the direction of our walk shall be holiness
unto the Lord. In his name we pray. Amen.

The Things That Become Sound Doctrine

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The Things That Become Sound Doctrine

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