Simple Church 2: Back to Basics (5) - "Does Doctrine Matter?"

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All right. Well, let's get back to the ministry of God's word We are in week five of eight of this sermon series that we have called simple simple church two back to basics
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This afternoon we have what should be a straightforward but Nonetheless important message as we think about the place of doctrine in the life of the church
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If you have your bibles and I hope you do just to get us started I invite you to turn with me to first timothy chapter 3 and verse 14
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First timothy chapter 3 and verse 14 I forgot to put the page number up on screen. But if you did grab one of those red hardback bibles, that's page 10 52
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First timothy 1 timothy chapter 3 beginning in verse 14
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First timothy chapter 3 from verse 14 and we're going to read all the way through to verse 10 of chapter 4 so first timothy chapter 3 beginning in verse 14 and reading through to verse 10 of chapter 4
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And if you're able to do so, can I invite you to stand with me out of reverence for god's word as we read it?
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First timothy chapter 3 in verse 14 reading as always from the christian standard bible brothers and sisters.
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These are god's very words I write these things referring to the letter of first timothy
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I write these things to you hoping to come to you soon But if I should be delayed
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I have written so that you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in god's household
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Which is the church of the living god the pillar and foundation of the truth
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And most certainly the mystery of godliness is great He referring to christ
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He was manifested in the flesh vindicated in the spirit seen by angels preached among the nations
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Believed on in the world taken up in glory Now the spirit explicitly says that in later times some will depart from the faith
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Paying attention to deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons Through whose through the hypocrisy, excuse me of liars whose consciences are sick
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They forbid marriage and demand abstinence from foods that god created to be received with gratitude by those who know and believe the truth
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For everything created by god is good and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving
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Since it is sanctified by the word of god and by prayer If you point out these things to the brothers and sisters
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You that's timothy will be a good servant of christ jesus Nourished by the words of the faith and the good teaching that you have followed
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But have nothing to do with pointless and silly myths Rather train yourself in godliness
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For the training of the body has limited benefits But godliness is beneficial in every way since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come
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This saying is trustworthy and deserves full acceptance For this reason we labor and strive because we have put our hope in the living god who is the savior of all people especially of those who believe
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And we pray that god would bless that reading of his word and grant us understanding Let's pray ask for the spirit's help and then we'll get to work in the word today
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Our gracious father we thank you so much for this privilege that we have Yet another opportunity to hear you speak to us through your word
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And so father we pray that as we open up your word That your word would give us life. Your word would give us light and above all
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Your word would point us to christ Father I pray that even as the word is being preached that your people would hear a better sermon than that which is preached through the ministry of your spirit father, it's our custom normally at this time to pray for one of our area churches, but This afternoon we take a moment to pray for all the churches here in the valley we pray for all of those churches who even with our maybe disagreements and other areas are still seeking to Proclaim christ and to see disciples made and to see people built up in their faith
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Strengthen their labor strengthen their leaders Father I pray especially that you would call out more laborers
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Because the harvest is indeed so plentiful Father that's my prayer for every church in our valley.
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It's my prayer for our body And father, we know that that happens through the ministry of your word And so we pray that your word would have its full effect in our time together
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Asking in jesus name and for his sake. Amen Please be seated As I said this afternoon,
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I want to talk to you from the subject for a few moments does doctrine matter
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Does doctrine matter Since 2014 ligonier ministries the teaching fellowship founded by the late great r .c.
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Sproul They've conducted a survey that they call the state of theology
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Some of you may be familiar with that if you're familiar with ligonier ministries each couple of years they commission lifeway research to Collect respondents and to ask them to basically affirm or deny various statements related to christian theology and ethics
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It's always a fascinating read. I encourage you to look that up. I believe it's the the state of theology .com
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It's a fascinating reading there Like I said, they've been doing this since 2014 i've read every one of them
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While the 2022 edition this will be edition number four Came out just a few weeks ago
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And i'll be honest as I read it at least for me it made for some very depressing reading
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Allow me to share with you some of the statistics that they shared that troubled me 48 of evangelical respondents again, they kind of do this in two phases.
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They will just Have your just regular everyday folks as it were and then they will have respondents who identify specifically as evangelicals
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So 48 of evangelical respondents Believed that god learns and adapts to different circumstances
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That's a heresy it's called open theism 48 percent
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Commenting on this ligonier said quote this may indicate the influence of open theism Which denies god's complete knowledge of future events and process theology which denies god's omnipotence and asserts that god undergoes change within the evangelical church
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This finding may also indicate a lack of clear biblical teaching on the character of god in evangelical churches
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Try this one emphasize 65 percent of again evangelical respondents
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Believe that everyone is born innocent in the eyes of god
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That's another heresy. We call that one pelagianism basically the denial of original sin
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Ligonier again said quote the fact that all humans are born in a state of innocence
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Reveals that the biblical teaching or the original sin is clearly not embraced by most evangelicals 53 of all respondents evangelical or not
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Apparently believe that the bible like all sacred writings contains helpful accounts of ancient myths, but it's not literally true 42 believe that gender identity is a matter of choice 46 believe that the bible's condemnation of homosexuality no longer applies 43 believe that jesus was a great teacher, but not god
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And finally in what I happen to think is the most foundational problem 38 percent
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Evangelical and non -evangelical together 38 believe religious belief is a matter of personal opinion
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It is not about objective truth As someone who loves preaching teaching who loves doctrine and theology
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I have to be honest to you. I read these Um, I want to say it was tuesday
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Of the week that before we left town And i'll have to be honest to you. I wept as I read those results
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As a pastor I have to ask myself how on earth did we get here I mean, let's be clear.
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I love church history I love the study of history in general, but I have no delusions about some golden age where everyone believed in sound
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Biblical doctrine, we've always had false teaching of various forms. You see even in the new testament era
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No sooner has the church of jesus christ been established. Then you see false teachers kind of Invading the church and the writers of the new testament have to address it head on so there's never been a golden age
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But give me strength brothers and sisters this is bad And it's one thing if the world out there is confused on biblical truth that I can accept
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But how is that happening in the church the one place where that should be most avoidable?
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It's like someone who is found dead in their home of malnutrition When they had a full fridge in the house and they lived across the street from fred meyer or walmart
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But allow me to extend that analogy a little bit. It's not quite like that Actually, it's like someone who dies of malnutrition with a full fridge in the house across the street from the store
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And rather than eat or find food they leave a note telling you I don't need food I just need good vibes all that food stuff just gets in the way
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And then you discover that even worse than that that rather delusional soul
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Is encouraged by the very family who ought to be encouraging him as a family member
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To feast because the food is there We think what does that analogy have to do with anything?
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Well, you see i'm convinced that the biblical and theological confusion that's described in that survey
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And now I know what some people will say kofi. It's a survey. It's not representative of everyone
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These are professionals. They know how to actually write a survey that is representative So when
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I see that kind of confusion, I have to believe that confusion is pretty widespread And i'm convinced that that biblical and theological confusion that exists it exists because A great many churches a long time ago bought into a lie
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A fraud was perpetrated on them and they did nothing to stop it. The fraud basically says I don't have to care about doctrine and theology
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Those things are ancillary To the christian life they're unimportant in the grand scheme of things
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Generations of christians were told that doctrine didn't matter and guess what they believed the people who told them that And I put it to you that now we are reaping the rotten and poisonous fruits of saying
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You know how much I hate this phrase. It's no big deal And I say we and us
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Because again, it's the church that's done this and unfortunately, it's people like me who occupy this sacred desk who have sometimes perpetrated that lie
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They have said that it's okay to minimize to mock and marginalize doctrine
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But I am of the conclusion that that day that period where it was fine to not care about these things
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Which quite frankly should never have started that that day needs to end
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I quoted this back in the first peter series those of you who remember it, but I agree with dr William downing longtime pastor of sovereign grace baptist church in morgan hill, california when he wrote
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Quote the christian ministry is an instructional ministry. It's didactic evangelistic
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It's polemic and apologetic the minister's task is not only to put to declare the gospel, but to educate the congregation
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Sitting under a sound well -rounded ministry in the ordinary church And its worship services should contribute to a biblical and doctrinal education if not, there is a
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Necessarily, there's necessarily excuse me a given amount of failure in the very ministry very nature of that ministry itself
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Sitting under a godly expository ministry for several years ought to approach
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The character of a seminary education now, dr. Downing might be overselling it just a little bit
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But I think he has a point That if we come to church year in and year out if we come and we gather together as god's people
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We should know a thing or two To quote the farmer's ad we should know a thing or two about a thing or two
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Well rest assured of this at least as long as i'm here And I know many of you share this conviction that's why you're here
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I redeem a bible fellowship. We believe that doctrine matters We believe every doctrine matters
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We believe that every truth of god's word matters because after all if god said it if it's in the pages of this book
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There must be a reason why god put it there And if there's a reason he put it there, then we should seek to know it and to understand it
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That's why as a church, we're pretty defined in what we believe And if you should decide to call this place home those of you who are thinking about that You are signing up for a great many things one of which is a lifetime of learning bible saturated christ -centered gospel focused
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Spirit empowered doctrine for all of life and should
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And should it ever happen that I or anybody else who occupies this desk stops doing that?
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You have a right if you call this place your church home to call us to account and say wait a minute what happened?
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Really what I want to do in this message When I planned this series what I was going to do was to give an overview of basic doctrine and then
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I realized I might need to do it. I might need to do a little bit more work before that I might actually have to demonstrate why it matters to even care
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Before we can talk about any sort of basic doctrine And so as I was planning this series a few months ago,
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I changed out what I originally had And this message became the result
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Here's my big idea if you don't remember anything else in this sermon remember this bible doctrine is an
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Indispensable part of the church's life and witness and churches must be committed to its pursuit
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Let me say that again Bible doctrine is an indispensable part of the church's life and witness
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And churches must be committed to its pursuit It is not enough for us to just say well
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You know, I believe the basics No, I think in this day and age churches need to start making doctrinal and theological teaching and education a priority
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And so I want to make a defense of that in this message this afternoon For the rest of our time. I want to consider three mandates
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Related to bible doctrine that if they're pursued well Should lead to the church's health and vibrancy
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So three mandates related to bible doctrine that should lead to the churches and not just our church but the church of jesus christ at large
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Should lead to its health and vibrancy Three mandates i'll try and do my best to move quickly because it would be first of all
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Let's start with number one the the mandate of believing biblical doctrine.
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Let's just start there The fact that you brother and sister you're called to believe
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Biblical doctrine Some of you were around when we used to have our wednesday night bible study when
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I Talked about the four ways in which we know truth as human beings Typically as human beings the way we know truth is one of four ways
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At least in the spiritual realm There's the word of god the bible There is human reason
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There is what institutions tell us And then there is our own personal experience If you look at kind of history of the world, we've just seen a subtle shift from the first of those to the last of those
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So previous societies The church basically functioned on the basis of the bible And then we had the rise of the catholic church and then it became all about institutions
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Well, we believe what the church tells us to believe That kind of carried on right up until the reformation where there was a recovery of the centrality of scripture
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And then what happens? The enlightenment happens Some of you may not know what happened in the enlightenment
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If you want to explain the world in which you live in 2022, you kind of need to know about what happened in the enlightenment
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And so the enlightenment came along which basically said that human reason Is the sum of all things?
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That no enough of this Emphasis on the supernatural and emphasis on the bible.
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No, it is human reason Human reason That is the great and grand cause of all things and the great and grand hope of all things
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Well, of course that didn't come about and so another movement came along called romanticism which basically said well actually
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It's not about that. And in fact the enlightenment went too far. Yeah, they were right the bible in the answer The answer is deep within And so that movement influenced poetry and art and greater cultural conversation and to this day it still continues to influence
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And here's the thing all of those came into the church And so you started to see a christianity developed that basically said
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Bring all of you to church, but check your brain at the door At this point some of you are saying if you've been paying attention to the sermon series
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Aren't you overdue for a weird and wonderful blog post at this point? Well, i'm glad you asked
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You thought I didn't have one. Did you? Yes, I do I did what
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I do every time I prepare a sermon I typed into google, but I kind of know what to ask to get the weirdest results possible
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So I asked this as I was preparing this message before I left town I asked the question why doctrine isn't important It was a long shot
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But the first article that came up Pretty much summed up what i've heard time and time and time again as a bible teacher allow me to read some parts of it for you
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Quote solid doctrine is important. I get that But how often do our secondary issues get in the way of our unity?
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Does it matter if i'm fully immersed when i'm baptized or just sprinkled? Is infant baptism permissible?
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Should we limit communion to only those in our church or should we open communion to all who believe do these things really matter?
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Would christ be focused on these outward signs of faith? Now he says
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I think not actually come back for the second to last week of this series I'll make a case for why actually you should care about baptism and the law supper
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But he says I think not So why do our christian theologians? Why do our christian theologians make such a fuss?
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Why do we have different denominations crop up because of these secondary divisions? This occurs because the christian laity has ceded too much control of their congregations to professional clergy clergy who are a little too vested in theology
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He goes on and says quote people aren't going to hang their hat on these secondary theological issues
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They're looking for something more profound people are looking for hope the hope found in christ as christians
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We tell the world that christ offers the way to a restored relationship with god. Do we live like we really believe that?
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When I see some of the quote petty squabbles He puts those in quotes within the christian church about secondary issues.
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I can't help wondering if we believe that If we want our christian churches to remain relevant, we must get back to our roots
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We must refocus our efforts on the foundations of our faith. I actually agree with him. We just don't agree what those foundations are
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He goes on and says and we must not get all wrapped up in meaningless theological debates Debates that divide our churches and weaken our witness to the world.
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This was the last line of his blog post We don't need more theology We need more
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I'll let you guess what do you think he said we need more words So who said jesus? That's exactly how he ended it
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And like I said, I I picked this because it's representative of stuff I've heard and no doubt clearly my mother -in -law said and several people have heard
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I don't do theology. I don't do doctrine. I just love jesus Allow me to quote a great theologian and philosopher
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I believe her name is dora the explorer I believe she says why?
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not Both is it theology on the one hand and jesus on the other
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It's theology what people who have fallen out of love with jesus Is that what they gravitate towards you?
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Jesus is boring. So now they've gravitated to something else Is that really what's going on here is the answer to the apathy?
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We see in the church and I agree with him on that much But it's the answer to basically get rid of theology and just get back to a simple faith in jesus
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I would actually say far from it actually I would say actually it's precisely because we love jesus and because we love the gospel that we should care about the whole of biblical doctrine
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This was the example in the early church. We've quoted this verse already in this series act chapter 2 verse 42 It says they devoted themselves to first thing in the list the apostles teaching
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It's clear that the for just from that one verse we can pick up a few observations first of all, the the early church had a commitment to doctrine that that word there that says they devoted themselves carries the idea of persisting obstinately in something
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But not only did they have a commitment to doctrine. They had a commitment to doctrine as an authority Note that it says it was the apostles doctrine the apostles teaching
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That the teaching that the apostles had came with authority. Why because they were commissioned by christ to lay a foundation
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And as they laid that foundation the early church gave attention to and heed to what they said
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And this was an ongoing commitment without getting into technical. This was an imperfect verb It means it began in the past and they just kept on going and by the time that luke was writing
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He could say this was still their practice Beloved there is a mandate that rests upon every believer and every local church to believe the doctrines of the scripture
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And that's one reason here at redeemer we make a point to take doctrine and theology seriously
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We've preached for a number of books in the bible and as we come to books in the bible and they address theological issues We tackle them head on we don't try and avoid them
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Because given enough time and enough space in an expository ministry you're going to tackle every kind of issue
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In short, we are unashamedly biblical and doctrinal and I pray that that never changes
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But since we're on the subject of believing biblical doctrine, yes, there is the call to do so But that assumes that there is such a thing as biblical doctrine
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And first I want to take you to one text. I think might be helpful We read from first timothy flip over a few pages to second timothy to timothy in chapter one to chapter one and verse 13,
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I'll draw your attention to These are paul's last words. He's writing them to his son in the faith timothy
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Verse 13 And I wonder if you can hear with me the focus in paul's voice the
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Determination the almost desperation his voice as he says verse 13 chapter 1 hold on To the pattern of sound teaching that you have heard from me in the faith and love that are in christ jesus
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That word pattern is what I want to draw your attention to for just a moment Carries the idea of a sketch an outline a model
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Some translations will have it hold on to the form of sound teaching
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Essentially paul says to his son timothy timothy, you know this there's a pattern there is a form
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There is a shape to biblical doctrine And son i'm about to leave here, but before I leave
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I need to remind you to hold on to that One commentator summarizes it.
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Well quote paul had earlier on conveyed to timothy an outline of doctrinal beliefs
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That were important. He now wanted timothy to use them as a model in his own ministry end quote
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We'll talk more about this in in our final point when we talk about well Let me not take my final point in this but we'll talk about that in our final point
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But for a moment, I want you to think about this with me that When we talk about believing biblical doctrine, it's specific
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There are things that this book teaches that we are called to believe And as you read the bible, there are categories that god's people have always understood this book to teach
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So the bible teaches us about god his being his existence his attributes The bible teaches us about his revelation in creation and in scripture
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The bible teaches us about his son the lord. Jesus the bible teaches us about the holy spirit
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The bible teaches us about man and his creation as the image of god and his fall into sin and ruin
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The bible speaks about the plan of salvation the bible speaks about the church where this plan of salvation finds its focus the bible even speaks about The end of the story the consummation of all things
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And all of those major themes have sub themes that run through the word of god and the bible nowhere tells us
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That we can be passionate about some of them and not care about others Can I can
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I pause for a moment? Can I pause for a moment? I need to ask And if the citizens are true in this room is a question.
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I probably should ask How passionate are you about biblical doctrine Please know what
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I said. I didn't ask. Do you believe biblical doctrine? I asked how passionate are you about biblical doctrine?
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You all know how it is If you spend enough time around something
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It kind of loses its shine You it's just this is the way human nature is
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The more familiar you get with something if you don't work hard you can start to just take that thing for granted
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You can just assume oh, this is just what it is.
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Okay, and you just kind of move on And I think it's all too real and all too possible that the more time we spend around the teaching and preaching of god's word
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The more likely is that we get bored with some of that Sometimes we'll utter that phrase that in my opinion no christian should ever utter
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Four words I already know that But what if we thought of it this way?
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What if we got rid of that phrase? I already know that we thought of it this way. Let me give you some examples What if we thought that we thought of biblical doctrine not as just some truths that we tick off and say oh we believe that tick
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But then we kind of move on to everything else What if we viewed biblical doctrine not just as a matter of the mind, but as a matter of the heart?
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What if every time we learn something about the covenants of god, we learn something about the god who never breaks his promises
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What if the doctrine of god's immutability the fact that god doesn't change and cannot change
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What if we allowed that doctrine not just to inform our minds? but to give our souls confidence in the face of trials because we know that god is not
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Going to change and he's not learning on the job when things happen What if knowing the origin of the bible even that boring stuff about manuscripts and textual history?
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What if knowing that blew our minds with wonder and love and praise as we saw god watch over his word both to preserve it and to perform it
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What if in studying the doctrine of the atonement? We didn't just see theories about the nature of the atonement
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But we saw the goodness of god revealed in the gospel as god gives his son to ransom the most treacherous of all his creation brothers and sisters
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Can I put it to you that maybe there is something of a if I can use this word a romance sacred sweetness to biblical doctrine
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And then you can only know that romance that drama that sacred sweetness by knowing the doctrine
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Like I said, if the statistics are accurate Some of you in this room have battled with that like what
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I like to call doctrinal fatigue And now i'm not speaking to you as a pastor
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I'm speaking to you as your brother in christ and fellow struggling pilgrim in the way you need to fight that urge
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Beloved doctrine matters and we don't just know it and we shouldn't just know it we should love doctrine
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So there's a mandate to believe biblical doctrine. But secondly, there's a mandate to preserve biblical doctrine the mandate of preserving biblical doctrine
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You see the church doesn't just have a role in believing good doctrine We also need to preserve in fact, you could probably add another word here protect
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We need to preserve and protect that doctrine So we started our message back in first simply chapter 3 in verse 15.
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You did you catch that description that paul has for the church? Paul calls the church first simply 315 the pillar and the foundation
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Of the truth Those two words pillar and foundation some translations have them as support and ground paul essentially tells timothy that This the the local church ought to be the one place where the truth is loved without question
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Regardless of how much it costs and how much it hurts because the reality is in paul's mind there's nowhere else that can be called the pillar and foundation the support and ground of the truth commenting on his verse the reformer john calvin said in his commentaries
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The reason why the church is called the pillar of truth is that she defends and spreads the truth by her agency
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The church has a divine mandate upon her life not just to believe the truth but to preserve and protect it
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Primarily that mandate is expressed through the faithful ministry of pastors and teachers in the church
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And this is a big pauline emphasis. I wish I had time to look at all the verses I have in front of me I'll just give you one or two
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So we were at second timothy 113 verse 14 paul says god the good deposit the good deposit
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I would argue is the same thing as the pattern of sound teaching He says god this good deposit this sacred trust
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The teachings of the scripture you're to god these things Through the holy spirit who lives in us
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In second timothy chapter four verses one and two as paul lands the plane on his final communication with his son timothy
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He tells timothy that He charged him Solemnly in the presence of god in christ
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Jesus who is going to judge the living and the dead and because of his appearing in kingdom that timothy was to preach the word
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He was to be ready in season and out of season. He was to correct rebuke and encourage with great patience and teaching
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So yes pastors and leaders and teachers have a primary responsibility in this
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But so do you even if you're not a pastor a preacher or a leader? You see biblical doctrine matters for your life, too
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The bible helps us to understand that sound doctrine exposes and it confronts sin
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That it's the mark of a good servant of jesus christ. You want to be a good servant of jesus christ I think we all want to be
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Well, one of the marks of that is having good sound doctrine In a number of places
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Paul will talk about truth that leads to godliness Could it be that so much of the ungodliness we see in so many churches?
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Stems from the fact that the doctrine of god's word is not being preached While I do believe that pastors and elders have a primary responsibility in guarding biblical doctrine
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The reality is the whole church has a responsibility And if that is true
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If we all have a role to play then doesn't that imply a few things? Doesn't that imply that you need to know the doctrine that you are called to preserve?
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Doesn't that imply that you're not you need to not only know the doctrine but you need to have some sort of vested interest in it
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And doesn't that imply not only knowing the doctrine and having a vested interest in it, but again having a heart love for these things
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Over the years i've watched Other pastors in my life as they try to call churches to this
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And i've watched them be told things like well that's not my problem You know, you're the pastor
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Of course you care about these things but we have other things going on As I remember one person saying in my church back in london
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Pastor I have a family and job a job and other responsibilities I'm glad we have folks like you who really care about this, but this can't be my problem on top of everything else
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Well, let me begin by saying that I don't always feel as passionate About these things as I know I should
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I have to discipline my own heart to care sometimes I feel moments of distraction and Disinterest and I have to labor in prayer and in the word to maintain zeal so I get it.
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Please I genuinely understand But we have to be careful that an attitude doesn't start to pervade our body that pervades so many churches
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That's you basically says this All that doctrine and theology and all that biblical stuff Yeah, I believe it but you know what to be really invested in it that's for a special few
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That's a special interest for a select few No, I think my point
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I want to make very simply here is that we must all care about these truths We must all take our place in holding the line and protecting the truths of the faith
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It's not by accident that paul tells timothy 1st timothy 4 16 Pay attention to your life and to your doctrine persevere in these things because in doing so you will save not just yourself
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But those who hear you Well, maybe up to this point.
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I've convinced you of the need to believe in sound doctrine And i've convinced you of the need to preserve and protect that sound doctrine.
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Okay. Well, how do we do that? I would argue that there is a biblical method not to the madness, but to the mandate as it were
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So we're called to Believe sound doctrine. We're called to preserve sound doctrine. Finally, there is the mandate of confessing biblical doctrine confessing biblical doctrine
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You see What god's people have done down through the ages is as we have come to agreement as to what the bible teaches on certain doctrines and certain truths of the scripture the church of previous generations understood that the best way to preserve and to protect that Which we all believe
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Is to preserve it in codified statements To write it down and to write it down in such a way as you can commit it to other people
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And in the history of the church these things become known as creeds and confessions
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Now this is an history class so i'll save the history of all of that for our cutting room floor show on youtube
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If you haven't been watching those, please do you get a lot more information than I can give in these sermons
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But what I want to do is rather than go through the history of all of that I want to show you where there are creeds and confessional statements in your bible because they're there
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So i've got five of them i'll make it quick five Let's start in the old testament. Tell with me to deuteronomy chapter six
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All the way back in deuteronomy deuteronomy chapter six beginning in verse four
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Deuteronomy chapter six verses four and five Paul says not paul.
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Excuse me. Moses says listen israel Yahweh our god Yahweh the lord the covenant god.
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He is one Love yahweh your god with all your hearts with all your soul and with all your strength
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So here is moses deuteronomy is a sermon series And here he is in the sermon series and he announces to the people
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Hear oh israel this becomes known as the shamar from that word shamar means to hear or to listen
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And he says israel. Listen Yahweh Is our god and yahweh is one a brief short statement of who israel's god is
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Okay, kofi. How do you know this was a creed because we get to the new testament and jesus quotes it and everybody knows what it says
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This becomes a statement of faith that god's people affirm from generation to generation right down to the very day of jesus to this day
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Orthodox jews will still cite deuteronomy chapter six verse four as the most basic creed of their faith
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While the center of the new testament first corinthians 15 First corinthians chapter 15.
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No doubt many of you know these verses It's paul's clearest summation of the gospel, but for a moment.
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I want to read it and listen to just how Clear this sounds Almost as though this is something that he he has heard.
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In fact, he says verse three for I passed on to you So here was this
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Body of truth. He's about to give he says listen, I received this and then I passed it on to you
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Well, what did he pass on? That christ died for our sins according to the scriptures That he was buried that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures and that he appeared to cephas and then to the 12
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Then he appeared to over 500 brothers and sisters at one time. Most of them must have been alive, but some were fallen asleep
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And then he goes on and mentions the other apostles and finally himself But he says that's what I communicated to you
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There was a body of teaching and I was able to summarize that and to pass that on to you
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And I received that directly from the lord as I heard the gospel I give you to you number three philippians chapter two
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And in fact in some of your bibles, you'll know That the way they format verses five through eleven
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It's formatted more like poetry Than just your standard words in the bible text in my bible
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I'm, not sure if you can see it from up here, but that's how it looks. It looks more like poetry The reason why is we've come to understand by and large
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That these words are some part of either an early christian hymn or an early christian creedal statement
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But again, you've read these words before and have this attitude that was um Have this attitude among yourselves that was also in christ
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Jesus who verse six existing in the form of god did not consider equality with god as something to be exploited
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Instead he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant Taking on the likeness of humanity and when he had come as a man
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He humbled himself by being obedient to the point of death even death on the cross for this reason
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God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name so that at the name of jesus
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Every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth And every tongue will confess that jesus christ is lord to the glory of god the father
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And a few short statements you basically have the entire biblical teaching about the person of christ compressed into a few verses
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He was pre -existent. He had equality with god But yet he didn't hold on to that equality with god and say i'm not going to add to my
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Derve my my divine nature a human nature forever. No, he does that He assumes a real human nature.
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That's why he says he took on the form of a servant and had the likeness of humanity And then it says that not only did he do that but then he went to the cross so there's the doctrine of the atonement
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But then it says that god highly exalted him. Well, if he was dead, how could god highly exalted him?
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Oh, that's because he didn't stay dead. There's your doctrine of the resurrection And then you have the final rule and reign of christ
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So that every side the name of jesus every knee will bow In a short statement there you have fundamental christian beliefs about the nature of christ
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And paul could quote them and remind the philippines, you know this so Behave like it
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Here's another one colossians chapter one Colossians chapter one Verses 12 through 20
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Actually begin in verse 15 So colossians 1 15 through 20 the text says
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He is the image of the invisible god The first born over all creation for everything was created by him in heaven and on earth
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The visible and the invisible were the thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities
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All things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things and by him all things hold together
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He is also the head of the body of the church He is the beginning the firstborn from the dead so that he might come to have first place in everything
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For god was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him and through him to reconcile everything to himself
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Whether things on earth or things in heaven by making peace through his blood shed on the cross
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Again short pithy statement of christian belief about the personal work of christ Finally, we read one in 1st.
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Timothy 3 16. So let's go back and look at it real quick 1st. Timothy chapter 1 Excuse me.
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1st. Timothy chapter 3 and verse 16 1. Timothy 3 and verse 16 And most certainly the mystery of godliness is great
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And here he goes He was manifested in the flesh Vindicated in the spirit seen by angels preached among the nations
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Believed on in the world taken up in glory again short statement again commentators generally recognize paul didn't write these words well
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Of course paul did write these words paul didn't make these words up But now we have them captured in sacred scripture as a reminder of the fact that god's people have always been a confessing
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People And so our fathers in the faith saw that and they picked up that practice as well and said we are going to confess together
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This is actually what that term confession carries the idea. We're saying the same thing together about core christian doctrines
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Never to replace the bible never to add to the bible I believe it's one of my favorites the 1689 that says that The fight the bible is the final authority in all matters of faith and practice, it's the final judge
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That all councils and creeds are subject to the scripture So when we say we believe in the concept of creeds and confessions
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We are not saying that they replace the bible or even that they become the grid that we place over the bible superseding its message but What we are saying is that there are truths that all believers confess
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And so as we see them in god's word We are able to say together with the people of god that we believe the truth just like they did
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And so the church has a mandate To confess and to affirm
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Publicly the great doctrines of scripture So with all due respect to the blog post that I read to you it is not a debate between theology and jesus
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It's really just a question of are you going to be faithful in the call to have sound doctrine Or are you going to be unfaithful and reject that call?
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That's the real decision As I said here at redeemer. We've made a conscious decision to be
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Explicitly doctrinal and all that we do We are not pragmatists.
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We don't just do things because they work We're not empiricists.
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We're not the type of just go around doing surveys and asking people. Hey, what do you want us to do? We're not rationalists.
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We don't just sit there and say well what seems smartest to us No brothers and sisters as a faithful bible church
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We want to be rooted and grounded in the scriptures And we want to be rooted and grounded in what god's people have said about those same scriptures as they read them
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With the same holy spirit that we do And so far from thinking that doctrine is unimportant and something we can just ignore while we just go about living the christian life
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Does doctrine matter brothers and sisters? It's indispensable And as we live in an age where the truth of christianity is increasingly attacked and marginalized
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The reality is it's not going to be seminaries and scholars who defend the faith. It's going to be people like you and I It's ordinary everyday people
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And so we have to become Not just mentally aware of the doctrine
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I have to keep emphasizing that because it's not just enough for us to know it up here We have to cherish it and love it so that when we see it's under attack
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We don't just sit there and say well, that's no big deal but that actually We're willing to lay down our lives for these truths that the scripture makes so Self -evident
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And gracious father we thank you that you have indeed made the truth about yourself Self -evident
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That we don't have to go Looking and searching and trying to create the truth for ourselves
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But that we can go to your word And we can allow your word to speak with power and with clarity and to As it were bank our very lives on its truth
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Father, I pray that you would deliver us from the apathy of the church culture around us
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Here in the western world where we just take these things for granted Where we just assume well that guy over there is passionate about that he can take care of that Father give us a supernatural delight in the words that you have given us father may we be hungry and desperate
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For the things of god And as we do that, we pray that you would open our hearts that we would return them to you
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In thanks and love and in praise and we ask all these things in the name of our