Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Let's jump right in. We started last week in this series called the Hardest Habits of a Healthy Church. The last year or so that we've been walking through this theme, these couple questions that we've been wanting to answer. Well, is this what does a healthy church look like? And what does a healthy church member look like? And so this four part series leans into that question. To answer that question, last week we looked at a message on forgiveness. And the little images on the screen kind of reflect the subjects that we're covering. So last week was on forgiveness, pictured by a little lamb, being Jesus, being the anybody, the Lamb of God. The Lamb of God. So picturing that forgiveness. And then the middle one, the second one I should say is today, doctrinal devotion is the subject. And that is what does it mean to have sound doctrine? What does that look like to us? To hold firmly to what the word of God says above all else. And then next week we'll look at a message on mission and having a mindset and a heart aimed at God's heart for the lost and the last in the series, but definitely not least on prayer. And so we'll walk through these together. The goal of this series, and I put it on the screen because I want us to really hone into the goal of this. It's really important for foundation for our time today is this. Firstly, to remind us of the value of these habits, these practices, if you will, through instruction in God's Word, because this is the guide over all things that we use. Secondly, to speak to the reasons we struggle with these. I think all of us would agree that those four things that I mentioned, forgiving one another and trusting in the forgiveness of Jesus, holding tightly to the word of God above all things, a missional mindset and praying, those are all important practices, but we struggle with those. And so the aim of this is to speak to some of the reasons we struggle with these practices and then lastly to call us to take joy in regularly participating in these Jesus instructed disciplines. So today, doctrinal devotion, what does sound doctrine look like? There's one theme verse, if you have your Bible, you can open it to Titus 2. 1 and we'll unpack this and reference back to it many times today as really, it's the crux, if you will, of the subject matter for our time. It says this in Titus 2. 1. But as for you, teach or speak what accords or, or aligns with sound doctrine, with sound doctrine. And the word sound actually in the original language is the same type of Word. Actually the same word that we get the word hygienic from. Clean. Something that is pure, something that is right.
[00:02:31] Sound doctrine. And so with that foundation, let me pray and then we will dive into God's word and there'll be a lot of other passages that we will talk through today. So if you would join me in prayer and then we will continue on. Lord Jesus, we are so grateful for the time that we have this morning to sing the songs that we did to remind ourselves and those around us that we believe that you are God above all. You are Lord, above all. You are the Savior, you are the King that we are called to love you. And we desire to walk closely with you in our lives. Lord, you are worthy of our.
[00:03:11] You are worthy of our time.
[00:03:14] And so this morning, as we spend time in your word, Lord, I pray that you would open our eyes and our hearts to the things you want to say to us that we would be this morning, your students willing to learn, willing to be changed by you. Lord, I pray the things that I say would be directly from you and your word grounded, sound doctrine, sound teaching, Lord, directly from the guidance that you give us. In Jesus name, amen.
[00:03:41] Some of you know this. In my teen years, I was privileged to be able to learn how to fly an airplane. And so for many years in my teen years, I took flying lessons because we had lived across the street. We lived across the street from an airport growing up. And so there was a. I was watching planes all the time and I desire to learn. How do you do that?
[00:04:03] And so I expressed a desire to be a pilot. And I was privileged to be able to have the opportunity to go and learn how to fly. So over the course of many years, I would go and get in an airplane with an instructor, not by myself with an instructor. And we would do all sorts of training things. We'd do a lot of book work, we'd do a lot of time in the plane. It was fun, right?
[00:04:27] Enjoyable time. One of the key parts of training in getting to from when you're flying an airplane is learning how to fly when you can't see outside. Now, some of this might be somewhat technical, but you're smart, you'll catch on. So there's a few different criteria when you're learning to fly or standards ratings actually is what it is. And one of them, when you're first starting out, what they want to teach you is something called vfr. Can you say that?
[00:05:00] VFR and what it is, it's learning how to fly with it's an acronym for Visual Flight Rules. Can you say that with me? Visual Flight Rules. And so that's the first standard, if you will, because you need to be able to first figure out how do you get an airplane, look around and figure out how not to crash. Right? That's important, right?
[00:05:17] You can nod your head. That is important.
[00:05:19] Then after that standard is understood, the next tier is. Is called ifr. Can you say that? Ifr. And what that stands for is Instrument Flight Rules. And so what that teaches you is how to fly when you can, only when you're only looking at your instruments, when you can't see outside.
[00:05:37] So me learning how to fly, we're just working on VFR pilot. It's basic private pilot. But there might be a time when I do something that I shouldn't or the weather does something that I didn't expect and I can't see outside. And so what we do in the midst of training is something called hood work. It's strange, right? But can you say that with me? Hood work and all that we do with hood work is. What they do is they put these big old. They're not even goggles, this is this big old plastic hood over your eyes, and it goes like this over your eyes, so you can't see out the windows. Are you with me so far?
[00:06:11] So all that we can see then is the instruments that are in front of us. And now the reason, as I said earlier, the reason that they did this is because we might be put in a situation where we can't see outside and we have to rely on our instruments. And the goal of this training practice is to say two things. At least one, your instruments are reliable. And secondly, sometimes the things that you feel aren't reliable. Because what would happen for many people who would rely on their feelings, who have only, remember the lowest tier VFR training, what they would do is sometimes something would happen they didn't expect. They might fly into a cloud and they couldn't see around them. But because they don't have the training to say rely on your instruments, what they would do is they would rely not on their instruments but on their feelings. Can you say feelings?
[00:06:56] And so there's many stories of pilots who relied on their feelings and not their instruments. And when they came out to the other side of the cloud, or they thought they were turning around to leave the cloud, they would come out pointing straight towards the ground. Now, the thing is, they thought they were flying straight and level.
[00:07:12] They thought, we're just.
[00:07:14] Here we go. Looking for a way out. And they come out and they're staring straight at the ground. Now, sometimes they don't have time to recover. There's stories of pilots who'd fly out of a cloud. They think they're flying straight and level, and they're actually turned completely at a 90 degree angle. Why? Because they were trusting their feelings, not their instruments. All sorts of stories around that. And as we consider that, what I think is true for us as well is we are also called to be similarly like pilots who are trusting their instruments, not their feelings. Now, the Lord was gracious to us and he gave us instruments.
[00:07:54] He gave us directions so that we don't need to be people who rely only on our feelings. Though God gave us feelings and they are important, I don't want to dismiss that in any way. But there are times that our feelings are not right. There are times that our feelings can lead us in a direction that is not good or honoring to God. And so he was gracious enough to us to say, here are some instruments, here is some direction. So that when you can't see what's going on outside, or when there's a lot of distractions and things that can pull your attention away from making sure you're safe, you can look down and say, now what was I supposed to be doing?
[00:08:36] There's times in our life that we can't count on. Sometimes the people around us or even the things that we're feeling. Now, maybe the flying analogy, if that's not totally sinking in with you. It's the same thing. If you've ever gone backpacking or hiking and you don't have a trail and someone says go north, how's that gonna go for you?
[00:08:54] For some of you, it's going to go okay for a while, but after a while, it may not go so well. You need a what? A compass? You need direction. Because sometimes the things around you can be a bit deceptive. This habit of doctrinal devotion, as I'm calling in the message today, that is holding to the soundness of God's word, is a habit that is necessary for both the church gathered, that is us here, but also the. The church that is God's people scattered, that is when we are not all together. Now, why is it important? Because at least a few reasons.
[00:09:29] Because when we don't hold to the instruction book that is given to us both when we're by ourselves and when we're together as God's people doing this thing we call church feelings. For example, in even Music that we listen to. Feelings can take over in the midst of, of even our worship time, rather than the truth of God's word. Churches can hype you up on the feels of whatever the speaker is talking about, but not the word of God. So that when you leave, you might feel motivated, but you have no grounding in anything clear. There's no conviction, there's no equipping, there's no clear instruction.
[00:10:10] When we walk away from holding tightly to what the word of God says above all else, Christians can be more led by feelings than by faith in the word of God, which leads to an abandonment of obedience both personally and publicly. And lastly, when we decide to say, I would like the church to look more like how I feel than what the Bible looks like, what the Bible says, the church begins to look more like the world than like heaven.
[00:10:34] And that's a dangerous, dangerous thing. So with that all said, let's dive in. If you have your pen or a pencil, you can write it on your outline. This sound doctrine. That's point one, sound doctrine. Doctrine means this. Maybe I'm using that word and you don't know what that means.
[00:10:47] Doctrine means teaching. If we were to just boil it all down, teaching. In other words, doctrine is teaching, particularly by an authoritative source. So in different religions, different religions have different doctrines or different teachings given to them by an authoritative source. For us, who is our authoritative source?
[00:11:06] God is the correct answer and he's written it down for us. So we have an authoritative source. Thus the teachings, the doctrines, the that we hold tightly to or have been given to us by God, not some human who lived a long time ago who has now died in a grave somewhere. No, our authoritative doctrine is given to us by a living God. First Timothy 4:16 says this. Watch your life and your doctrine closely.
[00:11:33] So here we see there's an importance that we hold tightly, that we watch, that we pay attention, because it can be easy. Like when I'm flying in an airplane, right?
[00:11:42] It can be easy to look around and look around and then just ignore what's in front of you, ignore the instruction that we have been given. Where does doctrine come from? Firstly, you could write this in point A on your outline. Doctrine comes from the whole Bible. You could write that down, the whole Bible.
[00:11:58] 2nd Timothy 3:16 says this. All scripture is breathed out by who?
[00:12:04] God. And is profitable for teaching that word is doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work comes from the word of God. From the whole Bible. And that's an important. You might even circle that on your outline. From the whole Bible. Not necessarily what commentators say or church fathers or pastors that we like, we like to have fun saying and fun quotes from the Bible. There's a lot of them that we have or pictures that we put on the wall or posters or those canvas things. They look really cool.
[00:12:37] There's a danger, though, is that we can begin to establish our understanding of God just from that one verse.
[00:12:46] But right. Doctrine comes from not just part of the Bible, but from what the whole Bible. So just because.
[00:12:55] And when you're walking through Scripture, it's important to say, okay, if I don't understand what something means in the Bible, the first and the best place to go to help you understand the Bible is other parts of the Bible.
[00:13:09] So if you're ever like, I don't understand that part. Well, does other parts of the Bible speak to that subject? If so, go there first.
[00:13:18] Just because a Bible teaching is popular doesn't make it correct. Or another way of saying that same thing, and you write this down somewhere is this. Popularity does not decide authority. Popularity does not aside decide authority. Now, one of the most dangerous ways we can form doctrine is by adjusting what the Bible says, clearly to fit our.
[00:13:42] I'm sorry, to adjust, taking one thing the Bible says or one principle and saying, I'm going to apply that principle to other things that the Bible doesn't actually teach. Here's an example. And this has permeated much of Christianity in America. And it's this. It's God is loving. Is that true?
[00:14:03] God doesn't want people to go to hell. Is that true?
[00:14:07] Thus, nobody is going to hell.
[00:14:12] But the first two parts were true, Right?
[00:14:15] And then I drew a conclusion or a teaching, if you will, based on those first two verses that God is a God of love. Yes. John also tells us that he desires that none would perish. Also true. Now, I can draw a conclusion because of those two other passages. But here's what I just did is I drew a conclusion or a doctrine without using the whole Bible. How dangerous that can be.
[00:14:40] And there's books all about how God is a God of love and God of care, which is true. And because of that, people are not then going to hell if they reject him in this life. Dangerous doctrines can come from using part of the Bible and not the whole Bible. Secondly, and partly connected to that first point is this. And you can write this in point B on your outline.
[00:15:01] Sound doctrine isn't rooted in My feelings isn't rooted in my feelings. You could write that down somewhere.
[00:15:07] I have been crucified with Christ. It says in Galatians 2:20.
[00:15:12] It is no longer I who live. In other words, it's not me who has authority over all things, but Christ who lives where?
[00:15:19] In me, in the life I live now.
[00:15:22] I live in the flesh, but I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me. My feelings should maybe write this down somewhere. My feelings should bow to the Bible rather than making the Bible bow to my feelings.
[00:15:36] This includes taking passages out of context because it sounds really appealing, but ignoring other passages that clearly contradict what, what the Bible says. Now, I do need to say one thing before we go to point two is there is a difference between denominational differences and false doctrine.
[00:15:54] False doctrine is an idea that says this. It takes away from or something that's clearly communicated in the word of God and says, no, I don't like that. I'm gonna ignore that teaching of the Bible and I'm gonna teach something else.
[00:16:10] For example, the Bible says that Jesus was born of a virgin. It says that he is God, he is one with God, and that he died and that he what?
[00:16:21] That he rose again. So somebody who says, actually, so that's clear doctrine, clear teaching in the Word of God. Somebody who says, actually, no, that's not true. Jesus didn't actually die and thus he didn't rise again. Would that be called false doctrine?
[00:16:36] Yeah, that would be called false because the Bible clearly teaches about that. Something I touched on earlier, because God is love. God doesn't want people to go to hell, thus nobody's going to hell. Is that false doctrine? Yeah, that's a false doctrine because the Bible clearly speaks to that. Now, there are some ways that we go about worshiping. There are some preferences, some differences in preferences that different denominations have that don't necessarily have clear outline or direction in God's word. Those are different than false doctrine. That's not a different gospel that hopefully that they're preaching, but rather we do this a little bit differently and that at times can be okay, but worth examining God's word. So just because somebody goes to a different church or is a part of a different denomination doesn't mean that they believe false doctrine, doesn't necessarily mean that. It does mean that we should examine God's Word above all things. Above all things. There's a lot more we could say about this that we don't necessarily have time for this morning, but let's look at point two in your outline. It's this why we see the value of sound doctrine. Why is sound doctrine necessary for health?
[00:17:43] That's the question we want to lean into right here in point 2. Because we see that it's important that, as I said earlier, the church gathered, the church scattered, that is for Christians. Why is sound doctrine necessarily necessary for our health? And as we come together for the church's health. Now, there's a lot of things that can make churches healthy or not healthy. But as we particularly consider sound doctrine, firstly, sound doctrine is necessary for health because point A, the Gospel clarity matters. You can write that in point A, Gospel clarity matters. There's a particular verse. We touched on this a Moment ago in 1 Corinthians 15, 3, 4. Very clear foundation. Paul writing to a church in Corinth in He says this for I delivered to you as of second importance what I also received.
[00:18:30] What was that?
[00:18:31] Yeah, I'm talking first.
[00:18:34] That's what it says, first importance.
[00:18:36] Not second, not third, not fifth. This is first importance.
[00:18:42] So if we consider this as being first importance, we also should pay attention as well. That Christ died for our sins. Notice what it doesn't say that Christ died for our sins. As long as you do these 13 other things. You see that even in this clear statement, it's Jesus alone saves, not Jesus plus something else for your sins. In accordance with the what?
[00:19:03] The Scriptures, which teaches us something else. One, that the Old Testament is valuable.
[00:19:08] That the Scriptures, the Old. That's what. When he references the Scriptures, he's talking about the Old Testament speaks to Jesus.
[00:19:16] And so, for example, somebody might say the Old Testament. That doesn't matter. According to this passage, it does. And it's of first importance. Right?
[00:19:24] First importance, that he was what?
[00:19:26] That he was buried. Thus he died. Jesus actually did die. Thus false doctrine. If somebody says Jesus did not actually die, that he was raised on the what, third day. You all should know this passage, or if you don't memorize it sometimes in accordance with the Scriptures, our doctrine. Sound doctrine is important because our faith is based on a specific message. It's not just I'm a Christian because I love God, and suddenly that makes me a Christian. There is clarity in the message of the Gospel. It's this. God is holy and perfect.
[00:20:02] You and I are not trusting in him alone, not him, plus lots of other good things.
[00:20:10] Him alone as your Savior, as your Lord. That's what brings about your salvation. You are far from God. And it is only by the blood of Jesus Christ that You can be brought near to Jesus Christ, be brought near to the Father through Jesus Christ.
[00:20:25] You and I can have this tendency to say, I need to be a good Christian so that I can be close to God. Here's what Jesus says. You can't be.
[00:20:32] You can only trust in me as the one who died in your place, because the wages, the consequence of your sin is death. I died so that you didn't have to. So trust in me.
[00:20:47] Jude, verse three says this.
[00:20:50] That the gospel, the faith that we have, is a sacred trust that we must contend for. Jude, chapter one, verse three. It says the word contend, which shows that there's this battle that we have to consider. There is tension. There's people who are teaching a false gospel, people who are saying, if your life may be good and it's fine and all that, come to Jesus and he'll make it better.
[00:21:10] That's a false gospel. The true gospel says this. You are on a road to hell without Jesus, and Jesus is the one who can save you from that. You can't do it by yourself.
[00:21:23] So why is sound doctrine necessary for health? Because gospel clarity matters. We can't pick and choose which parts of the Bible that we like. Let's go on. Point B on your outline. Is this because our actions reflect our beliefs? Because our actions reflect our belief? Maybe something that you could write down that kind of encapsulates that picture. Well, is right living is rooted in right theology.
[00:21:44] Right living is rooted in right theology. Here's an example of that.
[00:21:49] Let's say that there's two people standing on a bridge that's 50ft up in the air.
[00:21:57] And one person deeply, clearly, with great conviction, believes that he can fly.
[00:22:04] 100%. He doesn't need anything. He believes he can fly. The other person does not believe he could fly. They're both standing on this bridge. How high above the ground?
[00:22:15] 50ft or so. Now, based on what they believe, do you think they might take action?
[00:22:21] Yeah. And the person who deeply believes that he can fly, what might he do?
[00:22:27] How's that going to go for him?
[00:22:29] Not well. See, in an example like that, their belief is going to decide what they do. The person over here who does not believe he can fly, is he going to jump? Hopefully not.
[00:22:42] He might even look over at the person who deeply believes that he can fly and say, you are delusional.
[00:22:48] Completely delusional. Or he might very lovingly say, come back over here. Let's talk about reality.
[00:22:54] Our beliefs will inform the things that we do as followers of Jesus. It's this. We don't accidentally live the right way and are clueless about God's heart and character. We don't accidentally honor God in our life and completely be oblivious to Him. We must first know him and his ways through the work of the Holy Spirit implanted in us and the holy word of God that has been given to us to obey Him.
[00:23:22] There's a saying that, as we think about even following Jesus, well, there's a saying that says, maybe you've seen on pictures in churches and stuff, it's not bad, but it can mislead us. It's this. I just want to love God and love people. Have you heard that before?
[00:23:39] Is that a good thing?
[00:23:40] Most definitely. Right? Even scriptural, Right? Love the Lord your God, with all of your heart and your soul and your strength and your might, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Very true. Very good. Here's the thing.
[00:23:54] The way we do that rightly is rooted in a robust and clear understanding of the character and the teachings of God. If we think, I can love God and love people the way that I want, we lead ourselves down a dangerous, dangerous road. I can't love God and love people the way God desires unless I actually know God and his instructions in how to love other people.
[00:24:18] People. Let's go to point C on your outline. You could write this down. Why else is sound doctrine necessary for our health, both personally as followers of Jesus and as a church? It's because this. The enemy is real. The enemy is real. As we look at all of scripture, we can't forget that the enemy still has power. That is, the devil still has power in the world. First Peter 5, 8 says this. Be sober minded. Be watchful.
[00:24:43] Your adversary, the devil prowls around like a, what?
[00:24:48] A roaring lion seeking someone to devour.
[00:24:54] What a comforting thought in the morning, isn't it?
[00:24:57] Wow.
[00:24:59] It is also important that we wake up and we realize that. That there is great danger around me. Now, I referenced the whole flying story earlier. I want to circle back to that because I think it's also relevant as we think about this, when I would. And there's some people in the room here years ago when I had my current pilot's license. I don't. So don't ask me if I can take you.
[00:25:20] I can't legally.
[00:25:23] There's people here, though, in the room who went with me. And so after I got my license, there was people who said, hey, can we go with you? And like, yeah, that's great. It'll be fun.
[00:25:30] And Their primary objective in going was to have fun. Is it bad to have fun?
[00:25:36] Sure, let's have fun. My primary objective was not just to have fun.
[00:25:42] My primary objective was to keep them safe because I knew that they wanted to come back. It would not be fun for anybody if my primary objective was just to have fun. Because flying is not just fun, it's also dangerous.
[00:25:55] Now, if my goal were just to have fun, I would ignore various protocols in place to keep others in the plane and myself safe. I would avoid things like traffic avoidance. I mean, I would ignore things like traffic avoidance, that is watching out for other airplanes. There's this thing called tfrs. There are flight restrictions for certain areas that you shouldn't fly. There's something called airspace that I should probably pay attention to so that I don't have, like a 747 come flying into me, because that wouldn't be good, right?
[00:26:21] There's weather problems. There's all sorts of things. My primary goal was there's danger out there. I need to keep them safe. And if I pay attention to the rules, to the instruction, to the training that I've been given, we should all come home safely, which is really the goal, not just to have fun. Now, in many ways, again, we can wake up in the morning and believe an incredibly dangerous lie of the devil. And it's this. Your primary job in life is to have fun, not to watch out for an enemy.
[00:26:55] We know based on this. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around looking for someone to devour. And if you've ever watched any of those nature shows, what you know is this. The lion goes after the animal that thinks everything is safe, thinks everything is fine, just meandering around, not concerned, not watching out. They don't go after the herd that's on the lookout for danger. The lion goes after that one stray animal.
[00:27:24] Friends, this is incredibly true for us as well. If we believe that our primary calling, even if you will, is, I wanna have fun, only live once, right?
[00:27:35] But really, in reality, there is an enemy who desires us to be distracted. And so even when I would take people flying, what I would do, what I would say to them, we're still on the ground before we've gone anywhere. Here's what I would tell them every single time, maybe not the first time that I realized I had to say it for future times, is, this is if I tell you at any point in time, when they're all chatting, we're all wearing headsets, so everyone's kind of talking over everyone. When I tell you at any particular time to stop talking. Your job is to stop talking. I don't care what you're talking about. I don't care if you're laughing and joking and having a good time. If I tell you to stop talking, stop talking. Because something important is going on that you don't understand.
[00:28:12] It's important that I'm paying attention because I know that there's danger out there. As followers of Jesus, we've been told that we need to watch out, that we need to pay attention. There's a passage in 2 Corinthians, chapter 11. It says this.
[00:28:26] The apostle Paul, he's writing to the church in Corinth. And one of the primary problems that was happening in the churches was false doctrine was seeping into the church. People were saying, you don't have to watch out anymore is one problem. Another problem was, you know what? You say that you believe this is the gospel. Actually, there's another way that you could believe the gospel. False doctrine was seeping into the church. And here's what Paul says, is that these people are disguising themselves. They're making it look like they're really spiritual and holy, but they're not. They're not. And even Satan does the same thing. Disguise himself, makes something look really good. But in reality, it is dangerous.
[00:29:05] When you're flying, it's the same thing as well. I think this might be my last flying connection here is if I take off from one airport and my goal is to fly to another airport, and it's only a mile away, let's say two miles away, and I have to fly a heading of, let's say, 090. So that's like east to fly to this other airport, it's only two miles away. Let's say I fly one degree off. Am I still gonna get to that airport? I'll give you the answer yes. It's only two miles away. Now, if that airport was 1,000 miles away and I was one degree off, am I gonna end up at that airport?
[00:29:36] No.
[00:29:37] Here's what the devil does as well for us. This enemy is.
[00:29:41] You can believe all of that, but there's this other thing. Maybe you just don't believe that part. He wants to tell us that almost truths are okay.
[00:29:51] The devil loves to say this. And I would say maybe perhaps one of the primary tools of the devil is not yelling overt lies over us, but small deceptions, half truths, one degree off. And the best way that you and I can distinguish between the truth and almost truth is to know the truth personally.
[00:30:12] Not just somebody else told us, but I know it personally. Let's look at point D on your outline. It's this. Because we are Christ's church. Why is sound doctrine necessary? Because we are Christ's church. This is not our church. We are Christ's people.
[00:30:28] Verse 18 of Colossians 1 says this. And he is the head that is the boss. He's the one who decides, the head of the church, the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, The. In everything. He might be preeminent. And there's a lot of connection pieces there. What that verse is saying is he's the one who gets to decide what happens with us. He's the one. And because he cares about us, he cares about what we believe.
[00:30:52] If we call him Father, he says, I hope you believe the right thing about me. Don't believe falsehoods about me.
[00:31:00] Good theology matters. Write this down somewhere. Good theology matters because God matters.
[00:31:06] What we believe about God isn't trivial. If we call him Our Father.
[00:31:11] It's not a trivial, trivial thing. There's a. You can flip to it if you'd like to, but in Leviticus, I know I'm referencing Leviticus, but In Leviticus, chapter 10, in the first three verses, there's a unique situation that occurs.
[00:31:24] There's two sons of Aaron. Aaron is the brother of Moses, and Moses is the one who parted the water and all of that and plagues in Egypt. His brother Aaron is the priest or the high priest. And then he has two sons who are also priests. And there's a time in chapter 10, verses one through three that tells about this. It says this that these two sons, they took incense and fire and they. In a setting of, like, worship, because that's kind of what they're overseeing. They offered incense in a way that they were not supposed to. And here's what happened.
[00:31:56] It says this.
[00:31:59] They offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which the Lord had commanded them not to. And here's what happens.
[00:32:08] And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died.
[00:32:13] Wow.
[00:32:14] And then Aaron, their dad, obviously, would be a bit frustrated by that, right? I mean, imagine seeing or finding out your sons just got consumed by fire.
[00:32:25] But here's what it says. Listen. Then Moses said to Aaron, Moses, being the spokesperson for God, says this. This is what the Lord said. Among those who are near me, I will be regarded as holy. And before all people, I will be glorified. Here's what that's Saying is, I care about how you worship. I've given you instructions. Do it the right way, don't ignore it and go, you know, I'm just gonna do it my way because my way seems good.
[00:32:52] I think God will be okay with my way.
[00:32:54] Was God okay with their way?
[00:32:56] Now? Hopefully. I'm not saying God's going to cast fire down from heaven. I don't know God's God, he can do whatever he wants. But what we see here is this is when God gives us instructions, we should care about them. We should care about them.
[00:33:09] Let's look at the last point here.
[00:33:12] It's this abundant verse three on your outline. Abundant life is found in Jesus, not doctrine. Keep a slide there. Here's the reason I need to go to this point here, which seems out of balance from where we just were, because it's essential that we understand this, that doctrine, information about Jesus and the Bible is not what saves us.
[00:33:34] There can be this belief, even as I walk through the last 30 minutes or so of all the things of us seeing how important it is that we know God's word, that we walk in obedience with God's word, that it is Jesus who saves us, not information that we read here. This tells us about Jesus. It shares with us the character of God and the heart of God. But it is vital that we come to a place that we say, those are instructions. It's a sign pointing me heavenward.
[00:34:03] He's the one I need to trust in here. The reason I bring this up is because in John chapter five, which we just spent a lot of time in John, John chapter five, it says this, and you can put this on the screen.
[00:34:16] Jesus is talking to the Pharisees, these religious leaders and scribes who know lots about the Bible. When you talk about doctrinal adherence, they stuck with like, what does that letter say? How can I do that letter? How can I do that? They stuck to this. But here's what it says. And the Father who sent me has himself born witness about me, his voice. You have never heard his form, you have never seen. And you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one.
[00:34:42] Now listen to this verse 39. You search the scriptures.
[00:34:47] That is, you want to know all the information because you think in them you have eternal life.
[00:34:56] And it is they, the scriptures that bear witness about me. That is, the scriptures are pointing, a giant sign pointing towards me. Yet you refuse to come to me and have life. What's he saying? It is in me that you have life. Abundant life is found in a relationship with Jesus, not just information.
[00:35:17] Now we might know this in our minds, but the way that we are saved then is submission to Jesus. It's not a cognitive I've come to understand certain facts. It's I've chosen to submit my life to him. And that's more than just information that we have. That's a posture of our heart.
[00:35:37] So to be very clear, don't use your knowledge to puff yourself up or to think even that you are right with God. God cares more that you love him well than you know the terms of systematic theology.
[00:35:52] For example, if you can talk through the details of dispensationalism and transubstantiation and various views of the tribulation and have a better view. And you think you can describe the Trinity better than anyone else. But you're not gentle with your spouse, you're not kind to your kids.
[00:36:13] You're not self controlled when no one is watching.
[00:36:16] You're not loving your co workers or patient with the person who cut you off.
[00:36:21] You're not joyful in hardship or good towards people who live next door. You're missing what it means to truly follow Jesus in a transformed kind of way.
[00:36:32] The fruit of the spirit is a byproduct of walking with Jesus in relationship.
[00:36:38] And this should be pursued more than just knowledge of a book. It's I want to fall in love with Jesus, the author of this book. So yes, the doctrinal devotion key because that teaches us about the character and the heart of God. But we can't miss Jesus.
[00:36:58] Are you with me? We can't miss Jesus. It's this balance between the truth of God's word and I'm gonna love God above all else. Not just I know all of the facts. Loving God, that's for those other people over there. I wanna love him overall. And as we fall more in love with Jesus, we're also going to fall more in love with what the word of God says as it teaches us about him. So focusing on Jesus as the source of life emphasizes then love and grace and transforms us from legalism to a love for the lost to a heart that reflects Jesus. We can conclude and go to the last slide when the world is.
[00:37:41] I said earlier that my last connection to flying was done full circle. Win the world for you is looking really cloudy.
[00:37:52] Maybe you have seen clearly before, but your life feels like you've flown into a cloud or the weather got really bad. The season of your life right now is really really hard and you can't see clearly. You don't know what you should be doing or what you shouldn't be doing. Your feelings are all over the place, and all these voices are going on all around you. The passengers, if you will, in the back saying, I think you should do this, and I think you should do this. Here's what we're reminded of today, that God has given us instruments. He's given us a map. And we can be people who say, I'm gonna trust my feelings and all the voices around me, or I'm gonna look to the direction that I've been given.
[00:38:33] And even in the midst of all that craziness out there, I can count on God.
[00:38:38] I can count on the word that he has given me. We teach this to young kids, even we tell them this song. The Bi B L E. Yes, that's the book for me. I stand not partially, not partially on God's word. I stand alone on the word of God. The B I B L E. Four things to take away from today. One, read your Bible in an organized way.
[00:39:05] Read your Bible. If you don't have a Bible, tell me, email. Inside your bulletin, you can see an email address. You can find me. Tell me, Call the church, say, I don't have a Bible. I need a Bible. Can you get me a Bible? Buy you a Bible. Read your Bible in an organized way. Don't. I'm.
[00:39:21] Well, what do we have today?
[00:39:23] Read your Bible in an organized way. Start at the beginning of a book and read through that. Get guidance from somebody. Read your Bible. Read it in an organized way. Secondly, when you're reading it, obey it.
[00:39:36] Obey it. Just as it would be pointless for a pilot to look down at the instruments, go, oh, it looks like I'm flying towards the ground and I'm descending at an incredibly dangerous rate of speed. It's okay. I feel like I'm going straight and level.
[00:39:48] Obey what this has to say. So firstly, read your Bible and obey what it has to say. You might need to ask other people to come alongside you and keep you accountable to say, no, look what it says. Let's do this together.
[00:39:59] Thirdly, use your Bible as a guide when things are foggy, when things are hard, when you're realizing, you know, I'm feeling a little bit unstable, open up God's word and say, what does it say about this particular situation? And odds are it says something about it. And fourthly, and lastly, have faith in God's instruction manual.
[00:40:21] Have faith in it. God knows what he's talking about.
[00:40:24] There's many, many pilots who, when we talk to them afterwards, after they almost died and they were in this cloud or in this fog or whatever, we ask them, what were you doing? Didn't you look at your instruments? The primary reason that that happened was because they didn't trust their instruments. They thought something was wrong with it.
[00:40:44] They thought, well, I know it said I was descending really fast, but I just didn't believe that. It felt like I was going stable.
[00:40:50] Faith in God's word. He knows what he is talking about. Let's pray together.
[00:40:56] Lord Jesus, we are grateful for your gift to us of your word, that we are not flying blind, that we don't have to guess which way is up and down and right and left. You tell us how you want us to honor your with our lives.
[00:41:11] And we need your help to trust that your way is better. Your way is always better, Lord, as we are confused at times and we're searching for answers. Lord, please, I pray that you put people around us to encourage us to look towards you.
[00:41:27] For those here today, Lord, who don't know you, that don't actually have a relationship with you, facts and rules, but have never actually submitted their life to you. Lord, we know that it all starts there.
[00:41:38] So, Lord, I pray that you would do that work in their hearts right now.
[00:41:41] You would show them their distance from you, the road that they are on, and they would trust in your work on the cross for their salvation.
[00:41:50] Lord, we thank you that you're a God who is gracious and kind, abounding in steadfast love. And we rejoice in that this morning. In Jesus name, amen.
