Jesus Taught Sound Doctrine
The Living Word holding the written word!
Yes. . . that's right, Jesus taught sound doctrine! He read from the Holy Scriptures, the Old Testament(The Septuagint i.e. LXX), which was faithfully and meticulously hand copied by scribes over the centuries, scriptures that were originally penned by prophets, priests, and kings. It is said that if the scribe made one mistake the whole kit and caboodle was scrapped and he had to start all over, talk about pressure! Jesus taught from these scrolls in the synagogue after He read a passage, or two. As you can see in this picture He is holding a scroll and reading from it. What a thrill it would be to jump into this artist's picture and listen in wouldn't it?. . . too bad I don't understand Greek, or Aramaic! When I voiced my musing to my husband, he said Jesus would make sure I'd hear it in English. Sure....why not?
Now then, the New Testament wasn't written in one day, but over decades, and the Gospels record Jesus' teachings, which His disciples recounted as eyewitness, including many of His works. We read that he taught in parables to the masses, but expounded upon them and made them clear to His disciples, and us, through the writings of those same eye-witnesses, thanks to their faithfulness to His Holy Spirit.
So, what is sound doctrine anyway and why does God's Spirit-inspired word insist upon it? Sound Doctrine is the proper interpretation and teaching of God's word that God gave through His Holy prophets, priests, kings, and Apostles. Scripture itself is 'His full counsel.' He also gave explicit instructions to Moses in Deuteronomy 12:32 (13:1 in Hebrew texts) that His commands were not to be added to, nor were they to be edited or censured. Why? Because God says what He means and means what He says. No one, including The Almighty, likes to be misquoted or misunderstood. So when we start messing with His commands by adding or taking away words and meanings that don't belong, in an effort to make it easier to understand or easier to comply with for the lazy, or harder for the works of the self-righteous, the true message is distorted, and ruined. God prescribes how we are to live proper holy lives in Scripture, and we are to use Scripture itself, in context, and with the aid of the Holy Spirit, to learn and adopt sound doctrine. You can use the study tools of a concordance and dictionary, but they are not to be used improperly, or as a means to an end. That means the context of the book, chapter, verse, and the entire Bible should over ride any private interpretation desired when using these tools.
Now then, the New Testament wasn't written in one day, but over decades, and the Gospels record Jesus' teachings, which His disciples recounted as eyewitness, including many of His works. We read that he taught in parables to the masses, but expounded upon them and made them clear to His disciples, and us, through the writings of those same eye-witnesses, thanks to their faithfulness to His Holy Spirit.
So, what is sound doctrine anyway and why does God's Spirit-inspired word insist upon it? Sound Doctrine is the proper interpretation and teaching of God's word that God gave through His Holy prophets, priests, kings, and Apostles. Scripture itself is 'His full counsel.' He also gave explicit instructions to Moses in Deuteronomy 12:32 (13:1 in Hebrew texts) that His commands were not to be added to, nor were they to be edited or censured. Why? Because God says what He means and means what He says. No one, including The Almighty, likes to be misquoted or misunderstood. So when we start messing with His commands by adding or taking away words and meanings that don't belong, in an effort to make it easier to understand or easier to comply with for the lazy, or harder for the works of the self-righteous, the true message is distorted, and ruined. God prescribes how we are to live proper holy lives in Scripture, and we are to use Scripture itself, in context, and with the aid of the Holy Spirit, to learn and adopt sound doctrine. You can use the study tools of a concordance and dictionary, but they are not to be used improperly, or as a means to an end. That means the context of the book, chapter, verse, and the entire Bible should over ride any private interpretation desired when using these tools.
Adding To God's word is DANGEROUS!
For example, in Genesis 3, Satan asked Eve a seemingly harmless question: 'Has God indeed said, "You shall not eat of every tree in the garden?" ' This subtle question puts God in a bad light, because it misquotes Him. In a sincere effort to put the record straight, Eve tells Satan that God said they could eat from all the trees in the garden except the tree in the midst of the garden, which they were not even to touch, or they would die. Stop right there! What did she just do? She added to the word of God! He never said they couldn't touch it, but only that they were not to eat its fruit. By adding to God's command, Eve gave Satan a means to exploit her error. He did this by convincing Eve that God had lied to her, and by appealing to the lust of her flesh and eyes, and the pride of life she bought into Satan's lie, especially since she didn't die after touching the forbidden fruit. Therefore, eating it was justified in her eyes, and the rest, as they say, is history. This clearly demonstrates that adding to God's word is DANGEROUS. This is something Jesus didn't do during His own personal hour of temptation in the wilderness, so we shouldn't either.
Jesus' Wilderness Temptation
When Satan came to Jesus in the wilderness, in an effort to tempt Him to sin, he used nearly the same tactic he did on Eve by appealing to Jesus' flesh, but this time he actually quoted Scripture correctly rather than misquoting it. When appealing to his hunger by trying to coax Him to cheat on His fast didn't work, then Satan appealed to a short cut to Jesus' rightful future rule over all earthly kingdoms, but this trick was also a no go! Finally, he tried to get Jesus to show off His status as the beloved Son of God by throwing Himself off the Temple pinnacle so God would save Him. Satan was busted by Jesus again! Satan knows Scripture better than most Christians, dear reader, this is so he can wrest it by misquoting it and/or use it out of context. Needless-to-say, Jesus didn't fall for Satan's temptations or tricks and He rebuked Satan by using the word of God, (Jesus is the word made flesh after all) and He quoted it accurately and used it in the correct context. So Satan fled, and Jesus' righteousness remained intact! Where Adam and Eve failed, Jesus succeeded, thanks be to God! Do you see how using the Word of God, as the Sword of the Spirit, is what makes Satan flee? There was no "Charis-wacko-matic" type rebuking and binding spiritual warfare- so called- going on. No. Just the spoken Word rightly divided, and used in quenching the fiery darts of the
Avoid Disaster By Teaching Sound Doctrine
"Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." 2 Timothy 2:15
That Scripture was recorded as the Apostle Paul's instructions to Timothy and to future would be 'teachers of the Gospel,' as well as the average "Joe" Christian. The word dividing in Greek is orthotomeo (or-tho-to-me'-oh), and it means to make or cut straight and smooth, to handle aright, to teach the truth directly and correctly. It doesn't mean to divine, as in getting a special revelation via a mystic experience, liver quiver, or voice from the mists after chanting your special word in front of candles. So here once again, we are urged to not add or take away from God's word of truth, but to teach it directly and correctly. Oh that we would take heed to these life giving words! But alas, there are many teachers and preachers who don't take these words to heart. Instead they deliberately wrest Scripture in order to line their pockets, and to gain a large following. But according to Scripture they are headed for disaster as well as those who listen to them with itching ears. This is the very thing Peter warns us about in chapter 3 of his second epistle regarding the things Paul taught. Read what Peter says from a paraphrase version of Scripture, The Living Bible:
"Dear friends,
While you are waiting for these things to happen, and for Him to come, try hard to live without sinning; and be at peace with everyone so that He will be pleased with you when He returns. And remember why He is waiting. He is giving us time to get His message of salvation out to others. Our wise and beloved brother Paul has talked about these same things in many of his letters. Some of his comments are not easy to understand, and there are people who are deliberately stupid, and always demand some unusual interpretation-they have twisted his letters around to mean something quite different from what he meant, just as they do the other parts of Scripture-and the result is disaster for them. I am writing you ahead of time, dear brothers, so that you can watch out and not be carried away by the mistakes of these wicked men, lest you yourselves become mixed up too. But grow in spiritual strength, and become better acquainted with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be all glory and splendid honor, both now and forevermore. Good bye. Peter"
See? Not much has changed. The entire epistle of Jude is dedicated to this topic as well, defending the faith and sound doctrine against false teachers and their false teachings. Why? Because false teachers chip away at God's truth for their own selfish gain, only to lose their own souls, and those that follow after them. They will all earn the same reward-eternal damnation. This is serious stuff folks. I have even heard many man-made cliches, adages, and excuses for unsound doctrine being taught in churches, such as: sin, and the lack of spiritual maturity with in the Christian church. These things are addressed by Paul to Timothy and Titus when he gives them instruction on how to go about selecting bishops, deacons, and pastors for the church. Here is yet another man-made reason that has been given for the lack of spiritual maturity that some of you may recognize:
"Dear friends,
While you are waiting for these things to happen, and for Him to come, try hard to live without sinning; and be at peace with everyone so that He will be pleased with you when He returns. And remember why He is waiting. He is giving us time to get His message of salvation out to others. Our wise and beloved brother Paul has talked about these same things in many of his letters. Some of his comments are not easy to understand, and there are people who are deliberately stupid, and always demand some unusual interpretation-they have twisted his letters around to mean something quite different from what he meant, just as they do the other parts of Scripture-and the result is disaster for them. I am writing you ahead of time, dear brothers, so that you can watch out and not be carried away by the mistakes of these wicked men, lest you yourselves become mixed up too. But grow in spiritual strength, and become better acquainted with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be all glory and splendid honor, both now and forevermore. Good bye. Peter"
See? Not much has changed. The entire epistle of Jude is dedicated to this topic as well, defending the faith and sound doctrine against false teachers and their false teachings. Why? Because false teachers chip away at God's truth for their own selfish gain, only to lose their own souls, and those that follow after them. They will all earn the same reward-eternal damnation. This is serious stuff folks. I have even heard many man-made cliches, adages, and excuses for unsound doctrine being taught in churches, such as: sin, and the lack of spiritual maturity with in the Christian church. These things are addressed by Paul to Timothy and Titus when he gives them instruction on how to go about selecting bishops, deacons, and pastors for the church. Here is yet another man-made reason that has been given for the lack of spiritual maturity that some of you may recognize:
"If you have too much word then you'll dry up; if you have too much spirit then you'll blow up, but if you have both then you'll grow up!" -Chuck Smith
Too much word? Is that even possible? Not according to the Bible. Yes, this adage sounds so cleaver, doesn't it? But what does it mean according to Scripture? It means Chuck Smith doesn't know that the word of God itself is spirit and life! And to grow up into spiritual adults, we need to feed on the sincere milk of the word, and its meat! So this saying really doesn't make biblical sense because the word and the spirit are one in the same. There are several Scriptures that teach that fact. See how knowing God's word protects one from this kind of cleverly contrived nonsense? Growing up in the Christian faith happens when sound doctrine is consistently put into practice, rather than giving it lip service. He doesn't even warn the flock that it is possible to be exposed to a lying spirit. Chuck Smith also seems to be a leading proponent for a man made teaching known as "legalism," which is a word not used in Scripture, but it is used by false teachers and hypocrites to deflect their sin of passing unsound doctrine by accusing the one who brings them into question by being like the Pharisees. By the way, Jesus called the Pharisees hypocrites, he never called them legalistic. And so, I'm assuming that is what he is referring to in the first part of his adage, that if you have too much word, that means you are legalistic and become a dried old prune of a Pharisee. Dear reader, the Bible deals with legalities, the Pharisees did not divide the word of truth, they twisted it to benefit themselves, which would make them lawless in God's eyes. Especially since they added to and took away from God's word, a sin they were warned not to do. Jesus was always correcting their misunderstanding of his word. Did they thank him? NO! They plotted to kill him. The sound doctrinal subjects of hypocrisy vs. truth, lawlessness vs. lawfulness, and man-made traditions vs. God's traditions are found abundantly in Scripture; there is nothing in Scripture that deals with legalism. So why not use the word of God instead of making up humanly devised mottoes? Here is a good verse to combat religious hypocrisy and spiritual adultery:
"But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter."Romans 7:6
What this means for us is that we are no longer subject to the penalty of the law, which is death, when we break the law. Why? Because Jesus paid the penalty on the cross. Now all we have to do is confess our sin to our Lord, he makes intersession to the Father for us - done deal! But the Jews who practiced Judaism, and loosely followed the letter of the law, rather than the spirit of the law, made hundreds of man made rules to follow, with no clear guarantee of spiritual cleanliness. There are many times in the pages of Scripture where God implored His people to circumcise their hearts and live by faith in Him, but they gloried in their ritual and traditions that were mere shadows of what Jesus would fulfill. They in effect, always showed themselves to be faithless by following man made rules rather than God's rules. But since Jesus has paid that price for us on the cross, now we are made spiritually alive when we accept His sacrifice and we repent and live according to the Spirit of the law, which says, "I love Jesus so much I would rather die than sin against Him!". A truly saved soul is renewed and more inclined to obeying God's word, than an unregenerated soul. But we aren't perfected yet, so when we sin due to our unregenerated flesh, Jesus is our faithful high priest who is there to intercede for us, the power of death no longer has a hold on us! That is the good news, or the gospel! However, we are cautioned not to use this knowledge as a means to sin, this is the sin of presumption, and a deadly misuse of God's grace.
So, if you want to grow up into maturity, in the knowledge of Jesus like Peter encourages us to do, then seek Him through His word, aided by the Holy Spirit, who the Bible tells us is Jesus Himself (see 2 Corinthians 3:17), and in prayer. Let me be clear: If you want to grow up into a spiritually mature Christian, then live out sound doctrine; don't just give it lip service or rely on occult type spiritual experiences. If you want to learn and teach sound doctrine, then be truly born again so God's spirit will bear witness with your spirit and lead you into all truth. All of the men who wrote down and taught God's words were sinners, that didn't disqualify them from writing down, and teaching God's word. Yes, these sinners they were perfectly able to teach sound doctrine, and even live according to it. I encourage you dear reader, to learn and live out sound doctrine, and cling to it with a jealously guarded heart, as if your life depended upon it, because it does! Next, I will be looking into the doctrine of the "Trinity" in my "Our Big God" section. But for now dear reader, make no mistake, it is very important to be like the Bereans, who were commended by Paul and Luke, they were not threatened with "touch not my anointed." We must look into the Scriptures to see if what a Bible teacher says, is actually so, according to the full counsel of God; not their private interpretation of their supposed divine revelation, liver quiver, dream, vision, or other occult experience.
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