Finding Your Voice - Doctrine

Your Doctrinal Voice – What is your message?

Hebrew – leqah – Something Received – Old Testament doctrine is not a work of man’s wisdom but something received from God directly, placed in the hearts and minds of those He has chosen.

Moses was a unique individual in Bible history.  God Himself said that there would never come a prophet of His stature who God would speak face to face and breath to breath (Numbers 12:1-8).  He said he would only give the prophets a vision or a dream but Moses was special.  God presented him with the Torah which means the opposite of sin.  Sin means missing the mark.  The root of Torah is yareh which is an archery term and means to HIT THE MARK.  We already know that God’s scripture is inspired BY GOD. 

John 17:17 says, “Sanctify them through thy truth:  thy Word is truth.”  I am perfectly willing to hang my life upon the Hebrew and Greek texts of our holy scripture.  It cannot be proven wrong.  Jesus came to bring us life, light, peace and truth.  Either He was the biggest psychotic around or He truly was the Son of God.  He clearly and personally said, “I AM THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE:  NO MAN COMES TO THE FATHER BUT BY ME.”  That is a pretty clear declaration which requires one to decide, “Do I believe Him?” 

The reason I have explained all this is because if you do not believe the Torah, it makes the New Testament somewhat anemic.  Every single New Testament author built their doctrine and lessons upon the Hebrew Scriptures as revealed directly by Jesus.  This even included Paul who was taught by Jesus while in seclusion.  They took the Hebrew Scriptures as the authoritative Word of God and taught what that means to us born again Christians.  The New Testament is the…

Greek – didache – Something Taught – New Testament doctrine is taught by anointed men of God who stand and teach from the foundation of Old Testament doctrine as revealed by Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

That’s right, the Greek New Testament is something TAUGHT.  The Apostles received it from Jesus personally, not as some new and never before given Word, but a newly revealed depth to the Old Testament Hebrew scriptures that was hidden by God.  Psalm 51:6 says, “Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.”  Other writers (Isaiah 48, Obadiah 1, 1 Corinthians 2:7, Revelation 2:17) have spoken about the hidden truths in scripture.  Paul and Jesus made sure we knew that the book was closed and if revelation comes it will come through what we have already received and will line up with it perfectly.  I write about this later in this lesson but it should be understood that doctrine is FIXED.  God is not doing a new thing unless it is a repeat of an old thing.  Jews understand prophecy to be pattern more than prediction.  If it brings a remez to an earlier scripture then it may well come from God but the remez must be accurate and not a doctrinal change.

The only one to speak about a new commandment was Jesus in John 13:34 where He didn’t really create a new commandment but stated that we should love one another AS HE LOVES US. 

Because New Testament doctrine is something taught it is open to interpretation by those who do not have a strong measure of the Spirit of God.  This is a problem.  I have actually heard of churches in America who say they will take the Homosexual issue under advisement and take a wait and see what God does about it attitude.  Really?  A group whose lifestyle along with IV drug users has brought us AIDS and then politicized it so we dare not speak against their lifestyle?  One pastor of a church recently removed from fellowship with the Southern Baptists feels he made the right decision to marry gays and support homosexuality after prayer, reflection of scripture and discovering his son was gay.  That final fact seems to have made up his mind. 

I hold no hatred in my heart for homosexuals.  I have known those who live that lifestyle and while I do not approve of it from a Biblical doctrinal standpoint, they have been good and decent people.  They have also decided to live a lifestyle that has existed almost as long as mankind which God has declared to be an abomination.  I can love and pray for them and do all I can to win them to the Lord…but…  They must understand their lifestyle is unacceptable to God.  This is sometimes hard and difficult to deal with, especially if someone close to you is in that lifestyle.  God never changes.  If He called it an abomination in the Hebrew scriptures and spoke against it in Christian verses then it is unacceptable.  No man, no matter how honorable or virtuous sounding, can change the mind of God.

Deuteronomy 27:17 says, “A curse on anyone who moves his neighbor's boundary marker.’ All the people are to say, ‘Amen!’”

Doctrine is all about BOUNDARIES.  Christ came that we might have life more abundantly (John 10:10).  That more abundant life comes with some requirements and commandments on our part.  I have heard any number of people say, “Christ has freed us from the curse of the law! (Galatians 3:13)” which to them means that they can do what they want since the ‘law’ is made void.  This is not correct.  Christ has redeemed them from the curse of death for sin which the law could not do.  The law told them what sin was and they were expected to live by the law.  Christ came so they could heap that sin upon Him if they accidentally stumbled and sinned.  This does not cover willfully and purposefully living against God’s commandments.

Romans 6 talks about this in detail.  It goes on to explain that we are baptized into His DEATH and our bodies are to be kept in subjection to the Word of God as dead things which cannot rule and reign over us.  I am purposefully fasting right now in preparation to preaching Sunday because I know my flesh is way too talkative and full of itself if I don’t.  Everyone, preachers, teachers, prophets, sinners, evangelists, pastors…everyone lives in a body of conflicting desires and passions.  We would run around like a bunch of murdering, lying, thieving, loveless terrorists if we allowed our bodies to rule us.

Doctrine is the wall, the fence that says, “This far and no further.”  Doctrine tells us what is allowed and what is not.  Doctrine MUST be according to God’s Word.  One of the things that got the priests of Israel in trouble was that they Midrashed (created oral traditions) the 613 laws of the Torah into an insane number of pseudo-laws and doctrines of man until the average man on the street didn’t know if he was coming or going. 

The Torah, the Old Testament is God’s boundary marker.  He has placed boundaries for our lives.  When we choose to move those boundary markers by calling scripture sin and sin scripture then we are cursed.  You think those Old Testament laws are canceled but Christ Himself said, “I come not to destroy the law but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17).”  With the exception of dietary restrictions, avoiding dead bodies (of which I am personally in favor), and the like, and a few specified holy days, God’s holy scriptures remain intact. 

Even many of the dietary and sanitary restrictions that the Jews have been observing for more than 4000 years have produced beneficial results.  Are you aware that during the dark ages when disease killed almost half of Europe, the Jews death toll was almost non-existent.  It was so apparent that many accused the Jews of poisoning the people around them when they simply followed the dietary and sanitary rules given in the Torah.  That doctrine, which many Christians mock and ignore, saved them from some of the worse diseases in history.

Go to Genesis 3:1-7

Adam and Eve moved one of God’s boundary markers in Eden.  God was quite specific.  Every fruit in the garden is yours to eat…except one.  The fruit was not poisonous.  It was not bad tasting.  It was not ugly.  It was simply forbidden.  God’s promise was that on the day they ate of that fruit they would surely die. 

…and they did.

Adam and Eve lost much more than eternal life when they sinned against God.  Their bodies no longer functioned perfectly and their spirits were no longer connected to God’s  They spiritually died at that very moment and physically began to die right then.  Look at the example of the temptation that caused Eve to stumble and Adam to sin and ask yourself, “Is this happening in the world today?”

Coming to Eve who was younger and not yet as well taught as Adam, Satan said, “Has God really said you can’t eat it?” 

Sound familiar?  Has God truly said homosexuality is wrong?  Has God said you should tithe?  Has God said you should love your irritating neighbor?  Has God said you can’t get drunk?  Has God said you have to be polite and gracious?  Has God said you must be faithful to your wife? 

Feel free to add your own questions here.  Haven’t you heard these questions from the world and even the church today?  Eve was confused in her doctrine and said, “We can’t eat it or even touch it.”  Let’s go back and look at what God said in Genesis 2:16-17.

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Does it say anywhere in those verses that you may not TOUCH the tree or its fruit?  No.  Now, understand that Eve came after God commanded Adam to leave the tree’s fruit alone.  This meant that Adam had to tell her what was allowed and what was not.  Did Adam tell her not to eat of it or even touch it?  Did she increase the restrictions herself and decide she couldn’t touch it.  The reason this is important is because either Adam or Eve CHANGED GOD’S WORD!  They moved God’s boundary marker. 

God had placed His boundary marker on the “do not eat” line and they moved it way over to the “do not eat or even touch” line.  You might say, “so what?  It’s just strengthening God’s commandment.  This way they would be sure to keep out of sin.”  This premise is incorrect.  By making the command more onerous and difficult you make it more likely that someone will tire of keeping the commandment.  You could tie a ribbon around the trunk of the tree and happily wander around the garden eating anything else, or you might feel you have inadvertently sinned by brushing up against the tree so let’s just eat some.  We humans coined the phrase, “May as well be cursed for a sheep as for a lamb,” which means if you’re going to steal and eat a little lamb, you might as well take a full grown sheep and really enjoy it.”

Genesis 3:5 - Satan’s next tactic was to make her think God was keeping something important from them.  He practically said, “God is cheating you out of your future.”

This started Mary thinking, “I would like being smarter and more important.  I want my husband to be wiser too.  We could both be wise as God!  Yeah!  He’s trying to keep us down, like animals on his little Eden farm.  Yeah!  I’m going to eat it.  Workers of the world arise!!!”

Am I over the top here?  Look at the world today and the things people will kill and murder over.  Am I really over the top?  I don’t think so.  And what happened after she ate it and talked her husband into eating it?  The absolute first brilliant and blinding bit of wisdom they received was, “We’re naked.”  Wow!  Understanding of nakedness is a mark of the pollution of sin.  Without sin, nakedness is not an issue.  They didn’t learn anything to make their lives better or to improve the flawless functioning of the garden.  They discovered they were naked.  Great insight.  They also failed God and destroyed the trust He had in them.  It doesn’t matter that He knew they would mess up.  He had to give them a choice.  He didn’t want slaves, even Satan / Lucifer, had a choice.  Heaven must have grieved that day.

And of course Satan won that battle.

DOCTRINE IS IMPORTANT!  DOCTRINE PROTECTS LIVES! 

Doctrine DOES NOT swell with importance and begin to multiply itself until it makes someone crazy.  We do that to ourselves.

The prophetic New Testament is Christ’s boundary marker and the very same curse applies.  Revelation 22:18-19 says, “I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, 19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.”

In Galatians Paul says almost the same thing.

Galatians 1:6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: 7 Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. 9 As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.

Doctrine brings a moment of clarity in a difficult and changing world.

Deuteronomy 32:1 Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. 2 My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass:

Doctrine educates and nurtures us as dear children.  It does not abuse us with impossible tasks and rules.

Proverbs 4:1 Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding. 2 For I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law.

Doctrine is not poured into us all at once.  It is built up bit by bit and we are able to speed the process or slow it down depending upon how attentive we are to God’s Word.  The opposite is also true.  Doctrine can be torn down commandment by commandment until we become like those during the time of the Judges when, “everyone did what was right in their OWN eyes.”  When God’s doctrine dies, so do His protections and so does the nation.

Notice in the verses below that doctrine is supposed to bring us rest.  You don’t have to wonder what to do in a situation, you will know.  Others (sinners) will argue with you and disagree even though they have no standards of their own, but you will stand upon God’s doctrine and it will sustain you because all the authority of our Lord is behind it.  Verse 13 describes those who spurn God’s doctrine.

Isaiah 28:9 Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. 10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little: 11 For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people. 12 To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear. 13 But the word of the Lord was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.

I don’t want to belabor this so I will leave you with one last truth. 

Matthew 7:24 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: 25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. 26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: 27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it. 28 And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine: 29 For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

Jesus IS the one with authority.  Scripture IS the one with authority.  Not pastors, teachers, prophets or apostles.  If they do not present Christ (scripture) to you unpolluted and unchanged then do not follow their examples.  If our scripture is not true and honest and perfect then our faith is nothing. 

Obey God’s Word as perfectly as you are able.