Introduction to Sound Doctrine

Take your Bibles if you would please and turn to Titus chapter 2. Titus chapter 2 is where we're at and we're going to start a new series today called Sound Doctrine. And I'm pleased to start this on Mother's Day. Wasn't that a beautiful song from our children? Please give our children another round of applause.

That was fantastic. The hymns speak and sing of theology and doing that helps us to remember what matters the most. Today we're going to start this series and we're going to go through a lot of the beliefs that we cherish and today we're going to be talking about these beliefs and behaviors that matter the most. And in Titus chapter 2 and verse 1, I want you to notice today on how we are to be speaking the things that matter the most. You can't conceal these truths. You actually have to be talking about the things that matter the most, especially sound doctrine.

Notice as well that sound doctrine is going to be in two different categories. It's either going to be right doctrine or it's going to be wrong doctrine. It's either going to be biblical or unbiblical, sound or unsound, profitable or unprofitable. It's very important that we are able to identify what sound doctrine actually is. I'll read the text and then we'll pray together. In Titus chapter 2 and verse 1 it says this, "But as for you, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine." Let's pray together. Father, we thank You so much for the opportunity to expound upon Your word. I'll never forget that we started this series on sound doctrine on Mother's Day and how You have made such a difference in the lives of their children through the mothers who have spoken into their lives and taught them what the Bible says about You and the Scriptures and that being sound doctrine. Father, I pray Your blessings upon the hearer. I pray Your blessings upon the message. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen.

Sound doctrine is very affirming. It's affirming of a lot of different things. Number one, it's affirming of creation starting in the beginning. Not only that, it's very affirming of being gospel-centered. Sound doctrine is going to keep Jesus at the center of all things. It's very strengthening for the church. Sound doctrine also protects the sheep and at the same time it evangelizes the lost and it promotes God's glory. Sound doctrine is irreplaceable. Every believer needs to know and speak sound doctrine.

When you look at this passage, "But as for you, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine." If you will speak of these things, then you're going to talk of them. It's not very hard to do a word study on the word speak. It's very simple. It just means to tell. It means to speak of. It means to be talking about these things. But it also means to preach. Not only is it to preach sound doctrine, but it is to speak sound doctrine. Sound doctrine is not something that is just for a church worship service. It's not just for a Bible study group. It is for everyday life and in all ways. We are all to be speaking what is sound doctrine.

"But as for you, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine." That word sound carries a lot of weight. In fact, if you think of the word as sound doctrine, you're going to think of it as you do a word study. It is healthy doctrine. It's what's healthy for the soul. Healthy doctrine produces healthy Christians. In fact, sound doctrine will not misdiagnose a sin disease. It will rightfully diagnose a sin disease and prescribe the right prescription which is Jesus. What's the Sunday school answer? Jesus. And that is the prescription for everything. And so sound doctrine will bring Jesus at the forefront of your mind in all ways. So it's very healthy.

However, most sadly are not preaching sound doctrine but are misdiagnosing Christians and misdiagnosing the lost. They're not keeping sound doctrine at the forefront of the need for preaching. They are not rightly dividing the word of God. Big Pharma does the same thing in a physical way. Big Pharma would rather the people be sick and to take their money than to give them the right prescription. By and large, most of that is the case. Not for every doctor, not for every pharmacy, but by and large in America we deal with Big Pharma wanting to misdiagnose and keep people sick. Isn't that very similar to a lot of shallow preaching and teaching today? They would rather just keep everybody as happy as best as they can and not cause any type of ruffles or controversy but just trying to give you ice cream and cake and try and keep everybody happy and not get down deep into sound doctrine for fear of some type of controversy. That is a misdiagnosis of the Scriptures and that is, in fact, no preacher or teacher at all. And so we need to make sure that we are sitting underneath and also teaching sound doctrine so that we do not keep people sick but diagnose them correctly with the word of God.

First Timothy chapter 1, if you would turn there with me and look in verse 3. I want you to see this is no new news when it comes to sound doctrine. First Timothy chapter 1 and verse 3. First Timothy 1:3, "As I urge you upon my departure for Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines." Strange doctrines must be exposed. So here in First Timothy chapter 1 and verse 3 you see that strange doctrines are what Timothy is to expose.

Turn to chapter 4 and verse 6. Chapter 4 and verse 6 continues this idea when it comes to pointing out doctrine that is in error. First Timothy 4:6 is in pointing out these things to the brethren, "You will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following." When you read this in context it is riveting. It exposes the doctrines of man. It exposes the doctrines of demons. And it exposes hypocrisy and liars. Sound doctrine makes a dividing line between those who are on the right side of Scripture and God and those who are not.

Perhaps there are areas in our life that we need to cross on over to the threshold and be on God's side. You know we had a conference back in December with Phil Johnson, Justin Peters, Susan Heck and they were preaching and teaching sound doctrine. Susan Heck was over in the chapel that was built in 1945 and all the ladies congregated and they absolutely loved her teaching. And then Phil Johnson and Justin Peters and I had one session over here. We had just a phenomenal time on the subject of exposing the erroneous doctrine that has crept into the church today, worldliness that has crept into the church today, exposing that and then calling all Christians to stand upon sound doctrine. It's our collective duty to stand upon sound doctrine.

So you ask yourself what really matters? What really matters in this world? Well Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost in Luke 19:10. That's a fact. What really matters? At the end of the day here and what you actually see, that's not what really matters but what is really of eternal value are the things that are unseen. The soul is what really matters. The soul of mankind. Sound doctrine will get to the soul. It will get to the heart of the matter. And so the answer is Christ and Christ alone is what matters because Christ is supreme above all things and offers salvation through His substitutionary death on the cross. That's at the crux of it all. And we must be able to articulate sound doctrine especially in the area of soteriology which is salvation. Especially in the areas of teaching and preaching what it is for a lost soul to come into the light of the Lord Jesus Christ. And teaching the word of God has an illuminating ability because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Romans 10:17 says, "So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ."

And by the way, I'm so proud of our family discipleship services here. Our family worship services because as they hear teaching here and they hear teaching in our children's ministry and in our Bible study groups with families studying the Bibles together and in our areas and with our parents and our grandparents as we do fellowships and as we're working together in between just all the life in the church, all of this same ideology is being indoctrinated into our children. And when children hear the same thing in Bible study group, the same thing at home by their parents, the same thing at church, Lord willing you can get to the point to where they hear the same thing by way of education. Education is huge. If you can have a biblical world view, the best way to teach your children is through homeschooling and take education on yourself and to indoctrinate your children according to the word of God, to raise them up in the admonition of the Lord.

That is the parent's responsibility according to Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse 7. I'll read it to you. Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse 7 says, "You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up." This is not only family worship. This is indoctrination. You are teaching your children about God. Doctrine simply is teaching about God from what God has said. That's all it is. Doctrine is teachings about God from what God has said, from the Scriptures. It is teaching from the Scriptures. And in John chapter 1, this is an element that gives illumination to the mind and to the heart. It is teaching about God through the word of God. It helps the conscience. It helps the mind. It helps the being, the soul to becoming aware of their sin situation as children to be able to come to that knowledge of why Jesus came and died on the cross for their sins. That is very, very important for us to be able to teach sound doctrine to our children.

Do not be dependent upon a church. Do not be dependent upon an education system. Do not place your children's spiritual destiny and eternity in the hands of anybody else. That's unbiblical. It is biblical to take that into your own hands no matter how old they are, by the way. And so it really stands clear that sound doctrine needs to be clarified in our day because we have a lack of results. By and large we're seeing things falling away. I don't see things coming together stronger. I see more weak churches than I see strong churches. I see more weak families than I see strong families in the Lord. And so we need to have a time of clarification. So we as a church are going to study sound doctrine. That's what matters the most.

The main aim for the Christian is to glorify Christ and to enjoy an inseparable relationship and union with Him forever. And as knowledge of Christ increases, so does the inner joy and the desire to spread the good news of Jesus Christ crucified. His superiority in our society no longer is a secondary issue. It's a primary issue for us to spread the glory of Christ. And so what really matters? It is Christ and Christ alone. No longer do our ambitions in this world matter the most. No longer do our hobbies or our preferences or anything of the otherwise. Doctrine matters the most because it is explaining who Christ is. It's explaining the things that matter. True doctrine is from the word of God and it is talking about the Lord Jesus Christ.

We've mentioned an illustration this morning of how serious sound doctrine really is. And let me put it in first person. Perhaps where you work, okay, where you work you have relationships and you have a responsibility. Perhaps you're over some people at your workplace. And say somebody came in to your place of business or your place of work and they said, "On behalf of you," right? "On behalf of you using your name," they said that we need to do it this way. Okay, so they're using your name to change things. Think of this in the first person. Say somebody came into your place where you have influence and they said, "You said that we need to change things." Oh, they're using your name as an element of authority to change things. Wow, what if they used your name in a way that you did not say or that you did not intend and something went wrong?

Uh-oh, now things are starting to fall apart. What if somebody came in and said, "You said to do it this way," and it completely fell apart, right? How do you feel that Jesus feels about the teaching of the word of God? When you say the Bible says, which is preaching and teaching sound doctrine, if you say that it says this and it is not correct and something falls apart and you have used Jesus' name on behalf of their life, you're like, "Whoops, I messed up." Here's how serious sound doctrine is. At the end of the day, in your workplace, it may be that the customer gets an incorrect product and they don't pay the bill. So what?

But at the end of the day, with our families and our children, if we do not teach sound doctrine at the end of the day, we have not accurately represented the word of God and taught them the things that matter the most. The ramifications, the results of not teaching the Bible correctly have far greater consequences in our lives. And so it is imperative that we teach the doctrine correctly. All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching and for proof and for correction and for training in righteousness. 2 Timothy 3:16. And the Scriptures here, according to the Bible, are our gauge. They are what we compare and test everything because it is the word of God that is pure and true. Proverbs 30:5 says, "Every word of God is pure." And so this means that Scripture is the only thing that is completely pure and completely proven and trustworthy to base our lives upon, to make decisions upon everything.

Now, we don't have to sit here and wonder whether or not the Scriptures are true through and through. Jesus Himself personally endorsed the Scriptures. Jesus endorsed the Scriptures personally by stating that the unbelieving Pharisees of the Old Testament needed to know that the Old Testament testified about Him. In John chapter 5 verse 39, Jesus attested to this. He's talking to the Pharisees and He said, "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life. It is these that testify about Me and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life." And so you see that Jesus verifies that the Old Testament Scriptures are authoritative unto eternal life. He told the Pharisees, "If you search the Scriptures in the Old Testament, you'll see that they're talking about Me." And then He went on to expound upon the fact that they would not come to Him for eternal life.

This is sound doctrine from the Old Testament. This type of sound doctrine separates the sheep from the goats and it separates those who truly know Christ from those who do not. They are unwilling to come to Christ. The invitation for the unbelieving to come to Me so that they may live is a sobering invitation because Jesus said, "Come to Me, but you're not willing." Now, even though they had the Old Testament writings such as what Moses wrote, they still were not seeing the true doctrine that was being talked about. And so I ask you the question, "Do you see the words on the page but not truly understand?" Because in Matthew chapter 13, Jesus told a parable about the sower and the seeds and He said, "Some will see, but they will not truly perceive. Some will see what I'm saying but not understand it." It's the difference between missing heaven by 18 inches. You can't have head knowledge and get into heaven. You have to have heart understanding and belief. From the inside of the core of your being, do you confess Jesus as Lord? It's not lip service.

And so Jesus is saying, "You know the Old Testament Scriptures. You've memorized them as a boy, as a girl, but you don't know Me." And so you're missing the whole thing here. And we've got to dig below the surface to get to sound, solid, life-giving doctrine and teach and preach that which matters the most. Sound doctrine is Jesus Christ. "So do not think that I will accuse you before the Father. The one who accuses you is Moses," Jesus said in John chapter 5 verse 45. The one who accuses you is Moses. These Pharisees will stand before God and the Old Testament Scriptures are going to be that which accuses them and condemns them. They should have known the Old Testament Scriptures. They should have known the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ from those Scriptures.

The Old Testament is filled with sound doctrine that points to Jesus. Jesus pointed out the foolishness in the Galatian church the same way Jesus pointed out the stubbornness of the Pharisees. And Paul was contending for the truth of the gospel against Pharisaical opposition. And he said this, Paul said this, "We did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you." Galatians 2:5. So Paul is standing upon sound doctrine and he's not shrinking back from the truth of the Scriptures. In fact, Paul's concern was faithfulness to God and not the fear of men.

Too many times do we find ourselves shrinking back thinking, what are they going to think? Too many times we find ourselves not saying what ought to be said by thinking, oh, I'm going to offend somebody. You're offending God if you do not stand up for the name of Jesus. And when you do stand up for the name of Jesus, you care more about that soul than when you're silent. And when you stand up for it, then that means you have something to say. To have something to say that means that you're studying. Your study means that you know what the word says.

Today, we're introducing the need for sound doctrine. Keep coming every single Sunday because we're going to unfold some of the maintenance of what sound doctrine is. You know, the Bible also says in Galatians 3:1, "You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified." And so Paul takes no prisoners. He calls it like it is. Foolish. And then he even goes on to say you have a double curse. You're cursed. You're a curse because you are not truly embracing Jesus Christ. The sound doctrine of what soteriology really is.

Now, Jesus verified the Old Testament and He points out Him to be the Messiah. And Paul makes the same claim. He says this, "Therefore, the law," being Old Testament, the Torah, "has become our tutor to lead us to Christ so that we may be justified by faith." That's Galatians 3:24. He's saying to the Pharisees, you know the Old Testament and the Old Testament law is to point you to Jesus Christ. Don't make a mess out of things and create all these different laws and try to follow them in the flesh and work your way into salvation. Simply believe what they say. The Pharisees, they didn't understand this. The Pharisees didn't understand that it was by faith that you're saved. By the grace of God, through faith that you're saved. It's not by works lest any man should boast. Ephesians 2:8–9 says that. They didn't understand that.

I see the same things today. You can't go to church and have a membership and your burial plot picked out and think you're good. You're not good. None is good, Jesus said. This is so important that we get to the heart of sound doctrine because sound doctrine saves lives. But erroneous doctrine kills lives. Sound doctrine gets to the heart of what really matters. And shallow doctrine is false doctrine and is no better than lulling someone to spiritual sleep and then they end up in hell.

The Pharisees, they didn't understand that the Old Testament was sound doctrine that clearly pointed out that Jesus Christ is Lord. I'll prove it to you. They should have known this in Deuteronomy chapter 18 and verse 15. It points to Jesus. Deuteronomy 18:15, "The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen. You shall listen to him." And then in Deuteronomy 18:18, "I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you and I will put My words in his mouth and he shall speak to them all that I command him."

This is an indictment against the Pharisees because they should have known whom Moses through this Deuteronomic document is pointing to, especially the ones that we're talking to and most assuredly the ones whom Paul was indicting. Paul was talking to Pharisees who had already known and perhaps even seen Jesus Christ crucified. They knew that He was the fulfillment of Isaiah chapter 53. "He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And like one from whom men hid their face, He was despised. And we did not esteem Him. Surely our griefs He Himself bore and our sorrows He carried. Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening of our well-being fell upon Him and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray and each of us has turned to his own way. But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him." It doesn't get any clearer than Isaiah chapter 53.

And for those Pharisees who were ignoring Isaiah 53 and cutting this portion out of the Old Testament, this will indict them on the day of judgment and their sentence will be an eternity in hell. They had no excuse. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, they make up the Old Testament Torah which they cherish, and all of that is pointing towards Jesus. The first five books of the Bible clearly point towards Jesus. Genesis states that sin affected all of creation and humanity. Exodus clearly states by the Ten Commandments that all are guilty of sin. Leviticus clearly states the atonement for your sin is by the shedding of blood. Numbers clearly states that you can be sure your sin will find you out. And then here in Deuteronomy it clearly states that the Lord God will raise up a prophet, that being Jesus, whom you should listen to.

And then you think to yourself, okay, well does it get any clearer than this? Well, yes it does. In fact, God stipulates that no matter where you are, if you search for Him, you will find Him. In Deuteronomy chapter 4 and verse 29, they're in an awful mess, a really sin-saturated situation. And from the worst circumstances that you could possibly muster up in your mind, from the idol-saturated situation here in Deuteronomy chapter 4 verse 29, it says, "But from there," okay, that sin-saturated situation. And so you think to yourself, where are our loved ones? You think to yourself, they're too far gone. No, they're not. Okay, they're still alive, they're still breathing, there's still time. Share the gospel, the life-giving gospel, Romans 1:16, for it's the power of the gospel unto salvation. Don't think to yourself, I got to convince them because you can't convince them. All you can do is tell them, and it's the power of the word of God that can save a soul. So in any sin-saturated situation, Deuteronomy 4:29 says, "But from there you will seek the Lord, and you will find Him if," I always recommend for you to circle that little word "if" because it hinges the meaning of the text almost every time, "if you search for Him with all of your heart and all of your soul, you will find God, who is Jesus, if you search for Him."

Proof is that lost African out in the middle of the desert, searching for Christ in the book of Acts. Proof is that a man from Africa thought, "I'm going to seek out Yahweh, the God who is known in Israel." And as he goes, this rich African man had enough means to purchase a scroll called Isaiah. How in the world he got in with the who's who and was able to obtain a scroll? I don't know. I don't know how wealthy he had to have been, how much money he had to have offered the money-hungry Pharisees or Sadducees or scribes to be able to get a scroll. But he did.

And when he got it and he was reading it on the way back home, God sent Philip an evangelist to preach the gospel to him to explain the text. All he did was crawl up into that chariot and say, "Do you know what you're reading?" And the Ethiopian from Africa, this rich man said, "How can I know unless somebody explains it to me?" So there, all it was was sound doctrine explained to that lost man. So much so that the Ethiopian said, "I believe." Obviously, he was told what sound doctrine was. If you truly believe, then you'll follow with believer's baptism. He says, "What prevents me from being baptized right now? There's some water." And he was baptized. It's beautiful.

Only God can do these types of things. And if we are willing saints, He will put you in a position to be able to speak sound doctrine. That's what I'm talking about today in Titus chapter 2 verse 1. We are commanded to speak sound doctrine. And if you are able to speak sound doctrine, God can use you. But you got to get it in you first. It was like the professor of theology had told us preacher boys one time, "You can pray all you want before a test, but God can only bring out what you've been faithful to put in."

And that's true. If you are faithful to bathe yourself and to saturate yourself in sound doctrine in the Scriptures, then it's in you. And at the moment you need it, the Holy Spirit can bring it to the forefront of your mind, and you will find yourself testifying and saying things that you'll surprise yourself with. Like, wow, the Lord really did a wonderful work at that moment. I'm sure Philip felt the same way. Sound doctrine is needed for salvation. It's needed so that we can help understand that Jesus Christ is our substitutionary death for our sin, that we are totally depraved in the need of His payment. He's the only one that has enough merit to pay for sin. There's nothing that we could do to erase sin. We understand this when it's explained to us. It's God's way. He set it up that way.

Now, this situation here with the rich man from Africa who was able to get his hands on the scroll of Isaiah, and then it was able to be explained to him. There's another illustration of a rich man in the Bible whose fate did not work out so great. Turn with me, if you would, to Luke chapter 16. I want to read to you another passage of Scripture that talks about a rich man. And this rich man was on the other side of this chasm. It was on the other side of eternity from which the Ethiopian eunuch found he was able to find true salvation. And he's able to find that because he got his hands on Scripture. He was able to find that because he was seeking God. He was able to find it because God sent an evangelist to explain it to him. And we're all to be evangelizing. We're Christians on a commission with Christ.

In Luke chapter 16 and verse 19, it starts this story about the rich man and Lazarus. Luke 16:19, "Now there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen. Joyously living in splendor every day." You can just put the American way at the end of that verse. Just soaking it up, looking for all the comforts of life. You know, if your mantra is rest and relax, then you fit in with this rich man. If you live to comfort and pat yourself on the back, and rather than sacrificially serving the Lord Jesus Christ and spreading the gospel, then you're right here in verse 19, joyously living in splendor, getting all of the finest garments, trying on the same clothes over and over and over to see what fits the best and looks the best. You're all about yourself. Listen, get beyond the things of this world. Do not be like this rich man. Do not think of yourself as anything other than this rich person in America because statistically, we are all wealthy in America. We're all rich. I mean, not only do you have purple clothes if you want them, ten purple garments if you want them.

For real, this is not a blessing to be so wealthy in America. In fact, you look through history and you see that those who have been suffering for Christ are the strongest spiritually. Those who have been scattered for Christ, 1 Peter chapter 1, are the ones who are strongest in their doctrine. The ones who have suffered for their faith are the ones who have children that own their faith as well. The ones who have paid a price and sacrificed for the things that matter most, truly communicate not only with their lips, but their lives. What matters the most?

"Don't be like this rich man." In verse 20, "And a poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, and he was covered with sores and longing to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man's table. Besides, even the dogs were coming and licking his sores." In verse 22, "Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham's bosom. And the rich man died also and was buried in Hades. He lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and he saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried out and he said, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me.'" You realize that God distributes salvation by His mercy. Romans chapter 9 specifies. Abraham is being asked to give him some of God's mercy, salvation, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in the water and cool off my tongue. And I am in agony in this flame. "But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that during your life you received your good things.'" Oh, poor guy. "And likewise, Lazarus bad things."

"But now he is being comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between you and us, there is a great chasm fixed." Folks, that is sobering. There are no second chances. Purgatory is a lie. You cannot pray someone out of hell. You cannot give to the church and rescue their soul. It is a fixed chasm.

It is appointed unto man once to die, and then the judgment, okay? That is the last breath. It is the last chance. There is a fixed chasm between heaven and hell. And verse 26 continuing, "So that those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able. And that none may cross over from there to here." Verse 27, "And he said, 'Then I beg you, Father, that you send him to my father's house. For I have five brothers in order that he may warn them.'" We are to be warning and admonishing and evangelizing now while the time is able, while you're able to speak sound doctrine, while you're able to share the gospel before it's too late, warn them so that they will not also come to this place of torment. This place of torment is eternal.

Mark chapter 9 verse 44 and following repeats the idea that it's a place, a literal place with literal flames and literal emotional internal torment forever. It says, "Where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. Where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. Where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched." There's been three times in Hebrew language in ways they repeat what needs to be emphasized for the sake of it being important. You must get this. This is repeated three different times. "Where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched." The fire is obvious. We get that, okay? Hell is a literal place. But there's also this mentioning of not only the fire, but the worm. What is that? Well, the worm is the fact that on the inside of you is an internal being, a soul, right? You will always know that you exist for eternity. There's never going to be a time where you no longer can say, "I'm alive. I know I exist."

Your being will be in eternal agony forever and ever and ever, like a worm eating at your dead carcass forever and ever and ever. The word picture is after a war and all of the bodies are decaying in the field. Worms, maggots come and they start eating away at the inside of the body. And you will have eternal regret for rejecting the perfect love and the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ forever and ever and ever. You will suffer internally if you do not repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. That worm represents guilt and shame and agony for eternity. And so, hell is an eternal place of physical suffering and emotional suffering.

And he is pleading here in the text, "Warn my family, help them." And now here's the point which I'm getting to in verse 29, "But Abraham said, 'They have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them.'" This is a clear case for the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture. The Scriptures in the Old Testament proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior. They point towards Jesus and people are responsible to dig in and know that. And it's even clearer in the New Testament. It is unmistakably clear in the New Testament.

And here, now, evangelism is not an option for him. And he wants somebody to go and to plead with him. That could be resurrected. Listen to the verse. "But he said unto them," in verse 31, "even if they do not listen to Moses and the prophets." Let's go back to 30. "But he said, 'No, Father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' But he said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.'"

Here, you see that there's no gimmicks and no tricks that are any better or more sufficient than the authority of God's word. You cannot resurrect someone from the dead. You cannot do some type of gimmick or trick or wow people into true belief and salvation. They receive salvation through the authority of the spoken word. And so, the authority by which the Scriptures give us, give us the ability to say what the Lord saith, and faith comes by hearing. So the Scriptures is where truth is, and we cannot wow or entertain or trick someone into the kingdom of heaven. Even if you raise someone from the dead, it will not work. There's nothing pragmatic that you can do to save a soul. It is only by the power of the gospel. It's only through the sufficiency of the Scriptures. It's only through sound doctrine, that of Jesus Christ.

And so, the Scriptures are sufficient, and we will have eternal regret if we do not place our trust in the Scriptures now and actually live that out. And so, you might ask yourself, am I dependent upon something else to save my loved ones, or someone else to save my friends across the street? Am I dependent upon some church to do a circus party to get them on Saturday and somehow bait and switch and to come on Sunday and get saved? This is nonsense, but it's common in our culture. Sound doctrine is going to rightly divide against all of the pragmatism and help us to see that our faith and trust is founded on nothing less than Jesus Christ and His righteousness. And it's Jesus on whom we're going to place our faith and trust. It's Jesus on whom we're going to learn from and about. It's Jesus whom we're going to proclaim, and that is enough. We need no other gimmicks. We need no other tricks. We need nothing else but Jesus Christ and His righteousness.

Now, as I start to wrap up, I want to mention that Jesus not only affirmed all of the Old Testament Scriptures and then confirmed and further clarified these rich doctrines in the New Testament, He did it down to the smallest little iota possible. Listen to this in Matthew chapter 5 verses 17 and 18. "Do not think," Jesus said, "that I came to abolish the law or the prophets. I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the law until it is all accomplished. Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments and teaches another the same shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever keeps and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." It's Matthew chapter 5 verses 17 and 18. Every smallest point of Scripture will be fulfilled. You have no doubt in that area. That's where it's at. The authority is in the Scriptures. Everything is in the Scriptures. We need to be in the Scriptures looking for no other ways as to learn about what is true and right and holy and good. It's in the Scriptures. So we should be in the Scriptures in the deepest and most wonderful ways. Jesus said that everything is going to be accomplished. It's down to the smallest dot in the littlest tittle in the Hebrew language. Everything is going to be fulfilled and you will be called great for eternity in heaven, this Scripture says, "If you keep and teach them."

Again, Matthew 5:19, "But whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." It's my heart. It's my desire to help us all to understand sound doctrine so that we all can hang out in heaven one day and have this tag called great on our shoulder as a pennant or this crown, or however God chooses to acknowledge the fact that you are great for eternity because you taught sound doctrine, because you taught every little dot and every little tittle. You looked it up. You found out what it meant and you explained it to others.

Ezra was known for studying the law of the Lord and practicing it and teaching it in Ezra 7:10. We too are a church with that conviction. We want to study the law of the Lord and to practice it and to teach it. We want to grow from studying to actually living it out and practicing it. We're an example. As we study and we figure out how to live it, then we can teach it. Ezra 7:10. Study, practice, teach. Study, practice, teach. Your life can be measured in your spiritual growth if you are moving beyond studying the word of God to actually living it out and practicing it.

Call it step two. Step one, studying the word. Step two in your spiritual growth, actually living it out and practicing it. It will verify to others that you're a true Christian because you're living it out and your fruit is true because people know that what you do matters and they look at your life to see if it matches your lips. Then you will be able to teach others because they look at your life and they say, "Yep, that's an authentic person. There's no hypocrisy there. They're practicing it. Now I'll listen to what they have to say."

Sound doctrine. It does so much just to kind of poke at it just a little bit. Sound doctrine. It exposes and it confronts sin and false teaching. 1 Timothy 1:8 and following. Sound doctrine. It is the standard for good servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Timothy 4:6. Sound doctrine is rewarded with double honor for pastors who preach and teach it well. 1 Timothy 5:17. Sound doctrine conforms people to Christ. 1 Timothy 6:3. Sound doctrine equips pastors to teach. 2 Timothy 3:16 and 17. Sound doctrine is mandated for pastors to preach and teach. 2 Timothy 4:2 and following. Sound doctrine is a qualification for a pastor in Titus 1:9. Sound doctrine refutes unsound doctrine in Titus 1:9. Sound doctrine is to be spoken in love. Ephesians 4:15. Sound doctrine guards against sin. Sound doctrine is central to Christ's ministry and His own teaching and living in Matthew 7:28 and 29. Sound doctrine was central to the early church in Acts 2:42 where you learn what the apostles' teachings are. Sound doctrine was why they killed the martyrs in Acts 7:54 and following as Stephen was our example. Sound doctrine is what Christ commissioned Christians to preach in the Great Commission in Matthew 28.

What are we up against? We are up against a satanic agenda to steal our children. What are we up against? We are up against a humanist indoctrination system that wants to own our children. What are we up against? We are up against media, Hollywood, music, Twitter. All of this stuff is against Christ. It's anti-Christ. Islam is fine. Buddhism is fine. Naturalism is fine. LGBTQ is fine. Everything else is fine. You mention Christ. There's the dividing line. Don't we know that this is where it's at? And this is where we must be.

So we have a secular agenda that is like a 40-foot rogue wave coming out of the ocean toward our communities. And when 40 feet of ocean water come onto something like Florida and reaches all the way inland to central Florida, when that water starts to come back into the ocean, it just drags cars and houses and trees and roads and everything. It just drags it all back out into the ocean. And that's what we're faced with. We are faced with a secular rogue wave that is just coming way over us, crashing and dragging what's precious right out into the depths of the sea. A rogue wave that is secularly coming all the way into your children's bedrooms, through the media, through the music, through the EarPods, through YouTube, through TikTok, through all of these biased agendas. And it's just ripping away all that is precious.

And if you don't see it, you're blind. You're as blind as the Pharisees. And if you don't prepare and work against it, then you'll end up losing what's most precious. This is a fight for Christians to fight for sound doctrine. This is a battle that has casualties that are real for eternity. This is a battle that is worth preparing for. This is a battle that is worth training yourself for righteousness. This is the reason why we are converting one of our buildings to a training center to move beyond our Wednesday night Bible studies, which by the way are thriving, to move beyond our Sunday morning Bible study groups, which by the way are thriving, to get to the point of righteousness, because who in the world would send a soldier to war without first training them, memorizing the right Scriptures, knowing the right sound doctrines, being able to stand up against the wiles of the devil. He's got an agenda and it's huge. And if we don't prepare for it, we will suffer loss and we will be reminded of the loss that we will suffer at the end of the day when we stand before Christ.

Our job according to Titus chapter 2 verse 1 is to speak sound doctrine, to be getting it out there as far and as wide as we possibly can because people are dying and going to hell and we can reach the remnant that needs to be reached. We can do these things. Sound doctrine. Luke 4:32 says, "And they were astonished at Jesus' doctrine." John 7:17, "If any man will do this, he will know sound doctrine." Acts 2:42, "And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine." Ephesians 4:14, "As a result, we are no longer children tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine." I pray that in this next season we will truly be able to speak sound doctrine. Titus chapter 2 and verse 1, "But as for you, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine."

Do you have an excuse? Are you making excuses in your mind? I'm not called to preach. Yes, you are. You're called to proclaim the word of God. Do you have an excuse in your mind right now? I'm not a teacher. James 3:1 says, "Not many of you should be teachers." Is that your excuse? You're not excused from it. There are teachers who are called and gifted to teach corporately in the body of Christ, but you're also commissioned by Jesus Christ to speak sound doctrine and to go make disciples. We're commissioned to do that. Do you have another excuse in your mind? There are no excuses. I'm a little bit slow. I can't learn the deeper truths of the word of God. Hey, this document was written to some common guys and delivered to some pretty common people.

And by the way, the slowest people learn the best. They take their time with the word of God and then make sure that every jot and tittle is correct. No excuse is valid at the end of the day when you stand before Jesus Christ — that you do not know Him and that you do not know sound doctrine and that you have not been teaching and preaching it. It's the saddest thing in the world for me as a pastor to see so many who have grown up in the church but yet are not able to actually study the Bible. It's the saddest thing in the world for me as a pastor to see so many who have grown up in the church and are not willing to lead a small Bible study group because they don't feel confident enough to do that. It's a reflection upon the church. It's a reflection upon pastoral ministries.

We are not training and equipping the saints to the extent to what we're called to do, but we here at Beulah Baptist Church are headed in the right direction. Thank you for being here. Thank you for your dedication. It takes fully devoted disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ who are here when the doors are open to be trained. You know that we are not doing things just because we've always been doing things. We've cut away all the pragmatism, all the garbage, all the nonsense, and we are only doing the things that matter. So when the doors are open here, we're doing something that matters. It all adds up to the right things to do the right ways.

It all adds up to a whole world view. We are training saints to be able to see them go forward and train saints. We're making disciples so that they can move forward and make disciples. In fact, if you remember anything from today, perhaps you will remember this. In 2 Timothy chapter 2, Paul gives Timothy what I'd like to call — it's not original with me — a discipleship downline. If you want to think to yourself, you would go to heaven and be face to face with the Lord Jesus Christ and you can show Him, "I have a discipleship downline here." Mothers, I didn't just birth children, I actually raised them in the admonition of the Lord. I have a discipleship downline. Paul's discipleship downline in 2 Timothy 2:2 was Paul to Timothy, his own child. And then Timothy was expected to preach and teach these same doctrines to faithful men who could teach others. You see four generations right there, right there in one lifetime, four generations right there. Your discipleship downline, start praying over and developing it now, start pouring into the next generation. Pour into someone what you're going to learn on Sunday mornings as we unfold what sound doctrine really is. We're going into a series and we're going to take it slow and I'm going to hit the basics in a way that is transferable and memorable, Lord willing.

Pray with me if you would. Father, I pray that we would truly dedicate ourselves to knowing You more. May our union with You be the most important thing in our lives. May it bring You glory. Like John said in 3 John 1:4, that You have no greater joy than to see Your children walking in the truth. May we bring You immense joy. Dear God, we ask for You to pay for these things. These things that You have ordered, You would never order anything and not pay for it. And so based upon Your integrity and how good You are, we know that our future, Lord, is bright because we are doing the right things and not only are You going to pay for these things to be done, but You're going to pave the way. You're going to help us to understand what matters the most. You're going to help us to make it memorable so that we can share these things. And God, at the very crux of it all, is the doctrine of soteriology, the doctrine of salvation, the very most important thing. Where it starts is salvation. Help us first to understand the sufficiency of Your Scriptures and how You expound upon salvation and then help us to learn this most important doctrine in a way that we are addicted to it. May we truly be addicts of the word of God. May we truly have an insatiable desire to know You more and to spread Your glorious gospel. May we pull out all of the stops in our life and recognize what causes us to be distracted from Your glorious gospel. God, I pray that You would give us what Oswald Chambers said, holy discontentment.

God, I pray that You would convict our hearts, that You would convict our souls, that we would live for You, that we would love You with all of our heart and all of our soul and all of our mind and all of our strength. God, it's so convicting when we think of our lives and how short we fall from loving You with all of our heart and all of our soul and all of our mind and all of our strength. God, help us to put tertiary things in the past, help us to put secondary things behind us and put the primary things in front of us. Help us to aim at it with our mind, heart and soul and intentions and our time and our money and our learning and our repetition. Thank You Father for Your word, thank You for challenging us all to teach sound doctrine, to speak it Lord. We do love You and ask for Your help in this area.

And if there's anyone here that has never repented of their sin and placed their faith and trust in Your substitutionary death on the cross, God I pray by the power of Your Holy Spirit that You would draw that lost soul unto You. May they feel godly sorrow according to 2 Corinthians 7:10. May they feel that godly sorrow, the regret for sin that is against You and You alone. May they not run from sorrow but embrace that sorrow. May they be made to feel low, Lord, before Your holiness. And I pray God that as they truly comprehend that they have sinned and that they are lost and headed for hell for eternity, that You, God, by the illuminating power of Your Holy Spirit, would teach them, show them the way, that You would help them to repent of their sin. You say in Luke chapter 13 and verse 3 that unless you repent you shall likewise perish. Father, help them to embrace godly sorrow that leads unto repentance, unto salvation. God, that's the path. We can't cheapen it and raise our hand, we can't cheapen it and just say words. We have to mean them from the inside of our heart and truly repent and turn from our ways and cry out to You and place our faith and trust in You. God, give us the ability to see souls continually saved at this dear church and baptized and who will belong here and become members and study Your word and find out how they can also spread Your glorious gospel. May we be a church that makes disciples for Your glory and who knows what we believe and spreads it. God, we ask this in Christ's wonderful, strong, life-giving name. We all said amen.