EQUIPPED Evening Service, February 9, 2025

Prayer and the Need for Discernment

All right, let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we thank you for who you are and we worship you for who you are and for what you've done. We're grateful for the opportunity that we have to come before you and show our gratitude, whether it's in song, whether it's in prayer, whether it's in reading the Bible or simply studying what it means.

We're just grateful for the opportunity to kneel before you and know that you're God. It helps us understand who we are and gives us a greater respect and a greater sense of thankfulness for all that you've done for us through the work of your son, Jesus on the cross.

God, thank you for each person that has taken their time to come here, the time out of their Sunday, which is your day, the Lord's day, but to be here and to close the day and worship God. We thank you for these things.

We love you and we pray all this in Jesus' name, amen. All right. This is, so I'm sort of going with these topics on the fly. Look at what we talked about the week before and then figure out what makes sense to go with the next week.

So we're not really following a curriculum or anything like that. It's just kind of, it's kind of coming as it makes sense. And over the last few weeks, we had just this big crash course on subjects related to discernment because remember the big picture.

So even when we're talking about a specific issue that doesn't necessarily seem directly related, discernment is the overall goal here, the overarching topic that we want to get at. And the reason that we're doing this is because there's so much out there in the world that claims to be Christian that is either less than Christian or just not Christian at all, even if it wears the label.

And even the churches, like this is the part that I struggle with more than just about anything else. And I was gonna say this toward the end. It's directly related to what we're talking about. Like I have trouble in that I'm not as ecumenical as I possibly could be.

And it's because I struggle with some of the things that I see churches doing, whether it's stuff they're posting on social media or the books that they're reading. And in a negative way for me, because I think this is related to pride as much as it is anything else, I find myself in a bit of a judgmental state over these things.

And I don't know exactly how, I haven't figured out how to interact in a loving way with some of these churches. So I just haven't. And again, I don't say that as something I'm proud of. I say that as something that I need to work on.

But the issue is that when I look out into the world and I see what churches are doing, I do not believe that very many of them are practicing discernment. Because when it gets right down to it, it's just a lot easier to do things that people like.

It's a lot easier to stick with things that are familiar, even when they're wrong, or even when they're far less useful than they could be. But at the same time, Amy and I were talking about this the other night, I found myself in the very position that a lot of people that I'm judging are in.

So I realized that I need to show some grace because if we were eight to 10 years ago, I'm the very person that I am judging. So the journey is long and sometimes complicated, but we have to put in work.

I don't think that we should settle for less than that. So again, so we're talking about discernment here and we talked about a bunch of different topics, but it's all coming down to the fact that if you recall, I tell people and I tell you to read your Bibles all the time, but it's not just as simple as opening up your Bible and having the words come in through your eyes, hit your brain, and then you're good to go.

Because we talked about how the Bible is different. Not only is it a collection of books, even if I do call it a book, because it's one book, but remember it's a library. It's not your standard book. And I know I've shared this quote before and I can't remember who said it now, but they said like the Bible is the only book that you don't read, the Bible reads you.

So reading the Bible is not just something that you do and you're done, like the Bible changes you. People say that they see different things in the Bible at different stages of their life. Well, I assure you that they were there the whole time.

And the way you were seeing them and the way you're processing them related to how your life is now going, whether you're closer to God or farther from God, it's because you have changed. And reading the Bible will also cause that kind of change.

And as we also said, you can't just read it one time and be like, okay, I've got it down. That doesn't work either. Because of the divine nature of the influence and the inspiration of God, there's more depth than we could ever plumb.

There's more depth than we could ever find the bottom of in this. And that's what I learned every time I go to prepare a sermon specifically on a verse or a handful of verses. I just, you know, there's so much there.

I read all these different people and realize how little I know and how little we all collectively know. So this is a lifetime project. And it's all coming down though, how you read the Bible to an issue of interpretation.

And I heard that you guys heard the term hermeneutics again this morning and literal grammatical historical hermeneutic. And now because, you know, you attended maybe that session. That's what Lynn told me.

She's like, well, because I've been to this, I heard that before. So I knew what it meant. And I'm sure there's a lot of people sitting out there that were just lost. But hermeneutics interpretation is important.

Remember, that's just a fancy way of talking about how we interpret the Bible. But all of this is done to the end, the end result that you get a proper understanding of the intent of the biblical author.

What the author was getting at when they wrote, because that's the only thing that matters about whatever it is that we're reading. Now, to what end are we doing that? To what end are we trying to get to the original authorial intent?

And to answer this question, we have to go back to the idea that scripture is authoritative and sufficient. And of course, when I say that, I mean that scripture gives us everything we know or everything we need to know to live as Christians, to receive salvation from the Holy Spirit.

It's sufficient. When I say it's authoritative, it means that we can trust it. Scripture is the authority that we go to. We all have authority. We have authority in our jobs. We have authority in other places in our lives.

We have people that tell us, maybe if you're retired, you don't have that, but people that tell us where we have to be and when. When it comes to how we live our lives and how we operate church, our authority is here and it is nowhere else.

We find it nowhere outside of the Bible. So we know also because it's from God that it's without error. Now, and since I'm in a apparently a question asking mood, we'll ask another question. And that is, what exactly is it that you are to understand once you've read and interpreted scripture properly?

And with that, we arrive at our topic for this evening, which is just a broad one this time, but it's doctrine. This is what we are discovering as we read and faithfully interpret scripture. Now, I have a verse, it's 1 Timothy 4 .16.

And Paul writes this to Timothy. He says, pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching. Persevere in these things, for as you do this, you will save both yourself and those who hear you. Now, some Bible versions translate the word teaching into the word doctrine.

So Paul would be saying, pay close attention to yourself and to your doctrine. Although teaching is probably a better word given the meaning and the context of that. But nevertheless, the point remains because what a pastor is teaching, what Timothy is teaching is doctrine.

So when I use this word doctrine, I throw the word doctrine around, what am I talking about? And doctrine can be defined this way. It is simply teaching that is considered authoritative. Now we have doctrine all over the place.

We have military doctrine, for example. There's all kinds of documents and publications that tell us everything about the way various branches of the military are supposed to operate. The army has a lot of these as well.

So again, doctrine, how we go about doing our jobs. And then those publications, for example, as a chaplain, AR 165 -1 is the one that deals with religious support. That is my authority for the way that I am to operate in my capacity as an army chaplain.

Now, considering doctrine as authoritative teaching, that means that what we are getting out of the Bible is doctrine. Now, again, if you consider what we talked about the last few weeks, there's nothing more authoritative than what we see in Scripture.

So even though doctrine is the headline, the term that we're using to talk about this tonight, it's still a little bit of a slippery term because doctrine really only takes place within a context. But just to keep this simple, all of the teaching of Scripture is gonna be considered doctrine.

Now, hopefully this will become clear if it's not. What we're striving for and the way this ties up into discernment is that what we're trying to do is make sure that we are learning, understanding and applying sound doctrine.

And what does that mean? That just means that you have arrived at what we could consider a proper understanding of the teachings of Scripture, a proper understanding or a proper discerning of the authorial intent of Scripture.

Now, when I say that we're trying to practice sound doctrine, what does that imply? It implies that there's something that's opposite of sound doctrine, right? That's the negative version of that. And that would be false doctrine.

And false doctrine is everywhere. And false doctrine will always be everywhere. And the reason we know this is because Scripture warns us about it. In 2 Timothy 4 .3, we have this verse, 2 Timothy 4 .3.

And this explains a lot of what's going on in a lot of churches. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires.

So Scripture, Paul is telling Timothy, look, there will come a time when the people that you are preaching to and the people that are in your church, they won't tolerate sound doctrine. Now, does that sound like anything that we have going on in the world today?

Of course it does. Again, not only will some churches not tolerate sound doctrine, obviously our society won't tolerate sound doctrine. But the outcome of this is exactly what Paul says. I mean, again, we remember that the context of this is that he is writing to Timothy and he's giving Timothy, his spiritual son, a young pastor advice from afar through a letter.

It's not only does he say that they will not endure sound doctrine, but he says that wanting to have their ears tickled, which means wanting to hear stuff that they like, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires.

And how do we see this play out in church? You say stuff that people don't like, and they say, well, I'll just go to a different church where people tell me stuff that I do like. And of course that happens.

And that's why we have some of the situations that we have. But those are the things that we can't let trouble us. I know that it sounds mean to the modern ear, but if we, and this is why I tell you to practice discernment, because you can then run anything that I say from Scripture through your filter of discernment and know that if it offends you, that I'm still telling you what the Bible says.

Or you can know that I'm not telling you what the Bible says, that I'm wrong because you were able to discern this. But we wanna talk about what impact or what influence or the implications of sound doctrine and what they are for the church.

Now, we had talked about resources before. This book is called, well, it's called Biblical Doctrine, but it's also called The White Whale. This is a systematic theology book. And I think that, honestly, I think that everybody should have one of these.

I put the link to it on the website, a couple of different places you can get it. But again, systematic theology textbook. So what it does is it goes through a number of different areas of doctrine in the church, and it explains what the Bible has to say about all of them.

Now, but our topic right now is the implications of doctrine for the church. So John MacArthur and Richard Mayhew, the editors of this massive textbook, they tell us that these are the things that doctrine does for the church.

Sound doctrine exposes and confronts sin and false doctrine. And there's scripture references for all of these. Sound doctrine marks a good servant of Jesus Christ. This is how you know the person teaching you is teaching you the right thing and is actually a servant of Christ.

Sound doctrine is rewarded with double honor for elders. Sound doctrine conforms to godliness. Sound doctrine is included in the apostolic example to follow. Now, some of these are important. Sound doctrine is essential to equipping pastors.

Sound doctrine is the continual mandate for preachers, and sound doctrine is a basic qualification for eldership. Now, if somebody starts a church or if somebody just decides that they want to be a preacher, somebody has to be able to determine whether or not they have sound doctrine.

Again, that is a basic qualification for somebody to do this. But we also see that sound doctrine exposes and confronts sin and false doctrine. And this is why sound doctrine is so controversial in the church, because when people don't have discernment and they can't recognize sound from false doctrine, they're gonna fall back on their sort of emotional response to anything that's taught.

So if they don't know if it's true or not, then they're gonna default to whether or not they like it. And we see this all the time as well. Now, again, the whole reason that I called this service or this session equipped is because that is the entire purpose of what we're doing.

It's to give you the tools to practice discernment on your own. I was even talking to somebody about this today, and he's another chaplain, so he's in ministry in various capacities as well. And he says the same thing to people.

It's like, if you only open up the Bible on Sunday and you're expecting somebody to give you the Bible,.

And you're expecting somebody to give you.

Everything you need to get you through to the next Sunday, it's not enough. It's never gonna be enough. You have to take the steps that are necessary to be able to interpret some of these things for yourself.

It doesn't mean you don't have questions. I have questions, but you have to do the work to understand this. Now, doctrine, I wanna bring up a couple of objections that people have to the concept of doctrine, because believe it or not, people have objections to this concept.

Now, the first one is that it's boring. Doctrine sounds like something academic. It sounds like learning, and it is learning. But of course, this idea that it's boring is nonsense. Now, it can be made boring, but that is the fault of whoever is doing the teaching, so hopefully this is not boring.

But with the idea of it being academic or intellectual, I do wanna offer a caution, and this is for all of us. Doctrine can become entirely intellectual. It can become entirely an academic exercise just for the sake of learning.

But if you don't use it, like part of the purpose for what we do, part of the purpose for learning who Jesus Christ is is so that we can tell other people, right? What does the Great Commission tell us?

To go out into the world and baptize everyone in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and to continue teaching them what Jesus taught us. So we have to do that as well. So if we're just up here collecting doctrine and collecting knowledge and collecting things, information, trivia, then that can result in a faith that is completely lifeless, and that is a faith that won't save you.

So you have to be careful. Don't just learn things for the sake of learning them. So first, the idea that doctrine is boring. People don't want to talk about that. They just wanna know what's in it for me.

How can I make my life better with this, right? That's what most people, or not most people, that's what a lot of people are out there for, even at church. Now, the second objection that people have to doctrine is an important one, and people will complain that doctrine divides.

And to that, I would say that, yes, it does. And in some cases, it necessarily divides us. But we have to tread carefully here, because there are doctrines that are not just that are not worth dividing over.

And I'll give a couple of examples, and we'll talk a little bit more about how we judge these. One doctrine that is absolutely not worth dividing over is the issue of Bible translations. And in this case, I'm talking specifically about the people that are King James only, King James Version only.

Any other Bible translation is wrong, and if you don't use the KJV, you're going to hell, right? That is not in Scripture, first of all. So since Scripture doesn't speak to that, it's sort of a silly thing to separate yourself from another Christian over.

Here's another area where doctrine divides us when it should not, even though Scripture does speak to it. And that's in the area of spiritual gifts. Like I know that, for example, me and Florence might have a little bit of a differing view on how this goes, right?

Scripture does speak about spiritual gifts, and we're talking about the miraculous, we're talking about healing, prophecy tongues, whether or not they continue today, or whether they cease with the apostles.

So there are different, there's a variety of different opinions on that. And Scripture does speak about the spiritual gifts, but when you come to this issue biblically, what you see is that it doesn't say that these gifts continue, and it doesn't say that they've stopped.

So there is no way to make, there's a lot, again, this is a very deep issue that you can do a lot of study on. But when it comes down to it, and I've been reading about this a lot lately, and that's what it is, it doesn't say they stopped, it doesn't say they continue.

So we just have to sort of allow for the Holy Spirit to operate in the way the Holy Spirit is gonna operate. And saying that the gifts have ceased in no way means the Holy Spirit has ceased, because that's absolutely false.

So that's just a couple of examples of doctrines where you can still have fellowship with other Christians. But I'll tell you this too, because when we talk about doctrine dividing, there are doctrines which are essential to the Christian faith.

And if you don't share some of these doctrines with other people, you can't have Christian fellowship with them. And we'll talk about these in coming weeks, because this is just kind of an overview to set the stage for this.

But there are, again, there are certain areas where if you are in conflict or you are in complete disagreement with people, it's really hard to have fellowship with them. And one example of this, because we've already discussed it at length, is the doctrine of Scripture.

I would suggest that the doctrine of Scripture being inspired and inerrant in its original manuscripts in total is something that you can't compromise on. You can't, we couldn't have two church leaders in the same church where one said that the entire Bible was God's word and it's inspired and inerrant.

And another church leader who said that there are parts of Scripture that we can ignore. Therefore, the whole thing is not inspired or inerrant. There are parts that were for that time when they were writing.

Those two things don't go together. Like you are now disagreeing on something that's very fundamental. We'll talk about this one later too. But the Trinity is an important doctrine to Christianity. Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Three persons, one God, all equally existing and eternal. All equally God. Again, confusing, but scriptural. Now there are groups that don't believe in the Trinity because, for example, Mormons don't believe that, or they believe in Jesus, but they don't believe that he's God.

Well, if you don't believe that Jesus is God, you are not a Christian. And again, while we can love these people, we can't have a service together. We can't sit under that teaching. It's harmful. And we don't, make no mistake, we don't worship the Bible, but we do respect the Bible for what it is.

And we give the Bible the reverence that is due to it being God's word and being sufficient. And we see this in the end of Revelation. If anyone wants to add to or subtract from God's word, then they have the wrong view of it.

Again, adding to or subtracting from. If there are passages that you wanna take out because you don't like them, then you are no longer treating the Bible as God's word. In fact, you have to stop and realize that if you are taking out passages that you don't like, you are now putting yourself in a position of judging what should and should not be in the Bible.

And I don't wanna be part of your church. But again, so we'll talk more about some of those other doctrines because the fact of the matter is, there's different levels of this. There are doctrines that you have to believe to be a Christian.

And then there are doctrines that Christians can disagree on and still be maybe even in the same denomination. There's doctrines that Christians can disagree on and that's what splits denominations. So we'll talk about some of this a little bit more.

But as we wrap up this idea, I wanna give you just a few things that we can think about, a few ways to think about doctrine and whether or not this issue that we're discussing, whatever doctrine it is, how should we treat our relationship with other people for this?

So the first question that you can ask is this, what does Scripture say? Because obviously our starting point for anything is the Bible. That's why we're trying to understand it. That's why we're trying to come up with this right interpretation.

So we think of this as the lowest level of the filter. Well, I guess it could be the highest level of the filter if you're going down. But anyway, this is your first filter. Either way, does Scripture speak to this issue directly?

If it doesn't, then it's not a doctrinal issue. King James version only. Tell me where in the Bible it says that that is the version that Christians have to use. I'll give you two quick examples that hit home for me personally.

So whatever you think about this, homeschooling and vaccines. I'm adamantly for homeschooling. Therefore, I'm against government schooling. I'm adamantly against vaccines in any form. But guess what? Both of those issues are issues of Christian liberty.

The Bible does not say anywhere prescriptively or prescriptively how you are to educate your children or how you are to take care of your health. Therefore, we cannot make church doctrine on those issues.

We can have our own opinions and we can live our lives in ways that match that opinion. And somebody else in the very same church can live their lives in a different way, and that's okay. Because these are not issues of salvation.

They're not even issues that Scripture speaks to. Again, I'm just giving you just flat out some things that I think and admitting that I have no room to judge the way other people live if they act in a way that I think is wrong.

Because it's not in the Bible. Yeah, we have a thing called Christian liberty. We'll get to that in Corinthians as well. So now, so that's the first question. What does Scripture say? Does it say something?

No, if not, well, maybe you need to dial it back.

Just a little bit.

Now, number two, let's say that Scripture does say something about it. What does Scripture say about it? This is where our descriptive versus prescriptive discussion comes into play. Does what Scripture say about it command you to do it?

Does it command you not to do it? You have to answer those questions. And again, an example for this is marriage. Now, Genesis 2 .24, God lays out what marriage is. However, I mean, if we really look at that, it is kind of a descriptive passage.

So what does Scripture say about it? Now, if Scripture says something about it, how much does Scripture say about it? This is the third question. So we're moving down a little farther. Is it one single solitary verse?

In that case, there's a chance that it's not doctrine and it's not something to divide over, although I guess there are cases where it could be. Now, are there multiple cross-references? Does this come up in the Old Testament?

And then Jesus talks about it, and then Paul writes about it, and then Peter or John or James write about it in their epistles. Well, then we have to start thinking that maybe this is something that we have to take seriously, and there are very specific things that we can do.

I would say that marriage is another example here. So we have God defining marriage as a man and a woman, but if we continue on into the New Testament, I mean, we see Jesus talk about marriage and what does Jesus use as reference?

Of course, he uses that Genesis 2 24 verse to talk about it but not only that, there are lots of verses about marriage. But they say things like, wives submit to your husbands, husbands love your wives, husbands be kind to your wives, treat them as the weaker vessel, all these things.

Now, what is important about this? From the context, only one type of, or only one form of marriage relationship exists in all these verses. There's no suggestion that marriage can be anything other than between a man and a woman.

And I don't even say biblical marriage because as I've said before, God established marriage, God defines marriage, we do not, society does not, the law does not, despite the fact that they will do it.

So there's that, how much does Scripture have to say about it? This is where systematic theology becomes useful because you can take a book like this and you can see all the things that Scripture says about a particular doctrine.

Now, number four, now that we've looked at how much Scripture has to say about it, does Scripture give clear instructions, a clear command, or does it address the issue in a descriptive way or even in a prescriptive way with details missing?

And an example I would give for this is the example of baptism. We know that baptism is all over Scripture. We know that Jesus has commanded us to baptize people. Yet, this is another one of those areas, kind of like spiritual gifts, where in no place does Scripture tell anyone to baptize infants, but in no place does it tell people not to baptize infants either.

So Presbyterians, for example, Baptists and Presbyterians, Presbyterians will take the argument from silence and say, well, there's some examples in Acts where entire households were baptized, so we have to assume that babies were part of that.

That's the argument for baptizing babies, even though it doesn't say to baptize babies. It doesn't say to not baptize babies. So Scripture talks about it. There's clear instructions to do it, but some details are missing.

But guess what? We can still be Christian friends with those people. You don't let them near your children, but you can do other kind of worship stuff with them. Now, the fifth one is, is does it deal with salvation?

So again, we're working our way. I said filter. Let's go with a funnel now. We're working our way down the funnel. Does it deal with salvation? So we know that there is only one way to salvation. Look at a couple of verses, Romans nine, or excuse me, Romans 10, sorry, nine and 10, that if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

For with the heart a person believes, leading to righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, leading to salvation. So that's Romans 10, nine and 10. Another one of my personal favorites is Ephesians chapter two, verses eight through 10.

Ephesians two, eight through 10. For by grace, you have been saved through faith and this not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

Now, salvation is, it is the most, it's the most important thing, right? This is what we're concerned with. Are we saved? Are we one with Christ? So we have to pay close attention to what scripture says about salvation.

But why is that important? Well, it's important because if you are dealing with a church tradition that has other things to say about salvation, well, then we have more problems, right? And now, like, for example, we would have a problem with a Catholic, a Roman Catholic approach to salvation, being that you need to have faith, but you also have to do certain things.

You have to perform certain works in order to be saved. Again, that is why as much as it pains some people, I'd say that Roman Catholics aren't Christians because they're working on a different method of salvation.

Now, they have a lot in common. They share many books of the Bible, but relying on that system, according to what we see in scripture, is not going to lead you to salvation. And again, I know that's offensive.

This is where we get into the doctrine divides, right? And sometimes doctrine divides us very necessarily. And there are people in the Catholic Church, the Roman Catholic Church that are truly saved and they truly have faith in Jesus, and they don't, they put their faith in that and not in their works.

But I and a lot of other people would say to them, they need to get out of the Roman Catholic Church because they're being taught against that. So those are the things we have to be careful about. And again, like I said, there are varying levels of doctrine.

So when we talk about this, we have to know and we have to be able to discern not only what the doctrine is, but what is the level of importance? Because again, there are high level doctrines without which you are not a Christian.

There are doctrines where Christians can differ that preclude fellowship. And there are doctrines where Christians can differ that do not preclude fellowship. And we have to be able to understand the difference between those.

So that is what I have for this evening. Again, overview of doctrine. We'll get a little more specific in the coming weeks, but does anybody have questions on this concept? And you should. Let Parker give you the mic.

Sure.

And the millions of people watching online. I'm just kidding. It's like five people.

Now it's five people.

That's right.

I didn't want to ask this question.

And I'll say something that'll get me in trouble.

So I'm feeling a, like the Roman Catholic view of salvation is all the way here. Like you have to, you have faith, but then you have to do all this stuff. And then you're saved. But then I'm also seeing this other side of it where it's like, all you have to do is believe.

Done, bam. So, and I'm feeling like where we are is somewhere in the middle. But that makes me a little uncomfortable because it makes me feel like there's still stuff I have to do, even though I know that's not actually true.

So there's this like middle gray area. Because I know it's more than just, I pray the prayer, I'm 12 years old, I'm eight years old, I'm whatever, however old I am. I pray the prayer, done. That's all I have to do for the rest of my life.

And I know that's not true, but I also know it's not Roman Catholic. I have to confess to the priest every week, I have to do this. So where's the connection in that middle area?

So I think the connection is in that passage in Ephesians because, again, I'm not an expert on Roman Catholicism, but one of the things that they say is, well, have you ever read James? Faith without works is dead.

If someone says that he has faith, but he has no works, can that faith save him? Well, the answer is yes, that faith can save him because that's what Ephesians 2, eight through 10 tells us. It says, by grace, you have been saved by faith and this not of yourselves.

It is a gift of God, verse nine, not of works so that no one may boast, right? But then look at verse 10, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

So hopefully this answers your question. Maybe it doesn't, maybe it's another issue, but the relationship with works comes in that the works are a result of your salvation. They're not the cause of your salvation.

So anybody who's shifting the works into something that are required for you to do as part of your salvation, like I don't think that Roman Catholics even deny that faith is part of salvation, but it's a faith plus work situation that makes it now a human creation and that you are doing things that are earning salvation.

Does that, is that what you're getting at?