"But Speak Thou the Things Which Become Sound Doctrine" By Brother Andy Giebler July 26th,
2015
But speak thou the things which
become sound doctrine. Let’s bow our heads for prayer. God Almighty, I ask that You would bless our
understandings; bless my understanding.
Lord, let me speak those things which become sound doctrine, speak those
things which would be Your truth. We
thank You, and praise You in Jesus’ name.
Amen. But speak thou the things which
become sound doctrine. Sound
doctrine. When we hear those words, what
does that mean to us? Sound doctrine. Simply, ‘doctrine’ is what we teach; it’s
what we learn. It’s what we put
forth. ‘Sound’ it’s pure and undefiled. It’s not about me. It’s sound; it’s not something that’s been
corrupted. Proverbs 16:25 There is a way that
seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. 2 Timothy 3:15-17 And that
from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee
wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God,
and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto
all good works. I’m going to read a little bit
here. It’s a little lengthy, but, I’m
going to go to Titus chapter two. We
can't speak sound doctrine if we don't know it. We can’t speak it if we haven’t understood. Titus 2:1-15 But speak thou the things which become sound
doctrine: That the aged men be sober,
grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience. The aged women likewise, that they be in
behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine,
teachers of good things; That they may teach the young women to be sober, to
love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at
home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not
blasphemed. Young men likewise exhort to
be sober minded. In all things shewing
thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity,
sincerity, Sound speech, that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the
contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you. Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own
masters, and to please them well in all things; not answering again; Not
purloining, but shewing all good fidelity; that they may adorn the doctrine of
God our Saviour in all things. For the
grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us
that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously,
and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the
glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave
himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto
himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke
with all authority. Let no man despise thee. This word of God that we
have… I want to say that I’m proud to be
part of a Ministry that’s not afraid to speak.
Not afraid to—in this ungodliness that’s all around us, we take the things
of—we use whatever media we need, whatever way, whether it’s getting together
for fellowship, some of us use social media…
What the world uses for evil, I see some of you—it’s not necessarily
something that I use all the time, but when I do, I see that, I see Bob, I see
Joe, I see many of you using Facebook a lot.
I see a Scripture, I see something encouraging; I don’t see a bunch of
nonsense. You can spot it; you look
through the whole string of things on there, and you see junk, junk, junk, junk,
Hey, there’s Bob! junk, junk, junk, junk, Hey, there’s Joe! And many other, you know, putting a Scripture
out. Something that’s godliness, not
just nonsense. Even on my phone, I get
Scriptures, you know? And I know that
people are into the Word; they’re reading this Word that’s important to us, and
we share a lot. So, why is this important? It’s important to have an answer. 1 Peter 3:15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts:
and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of
the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: There’s many doctrines out
there. There’s many ways of doing
things. The reason that I bring this to
light is that—let me give you an example.
I grew up in a town in Southern Illinois with a different culture than a
lot of other people in this room. Some
of the cultures, you could call them godly, and some of them were just way out
there. I grew up in a town where, if you
weren’t the color that I am, you didn’t belong there. I mean, that’s the culture I grew up in. I was blessed to have a family and parents
that taught me different. They taught me
that that’s not right; they taught me to love everybody. You can’t sugar-coat it; it’s out there. We know it’s there. So, my point is, I was taught that, and I had
to find out; I was taught by my parents that that wasn’t right. I was taught by the scriptures that that
wasn’t right. By the same token, there’s
a lot of things in different cultures where we’re raised that tell us how we
should live, and, sometimes they’ll use Scripture to back it up, when it’s
still just a cultural thing that they want to do. I’m not going to go there. I’m going to back off of this for a second,
but I’m going to come back to it. Hebrews 13:9 Be not carried about with divers and strange
doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not
with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein. The world wants to say a little of
this is okay, and a little of that is okay.
We’ve got this doctrine, close, let’s stick to it. Matthew 15:9 But in vain they do worship me, teaching for
doctrines the commandments of men. Teaching that the ways of the man
is more important than godliness. Sometimes we get caught in
teaching it, and just wanting to know it.
It’s more than just knowing it.
There are people that have read this, cover to cover, their whole life,
but it hasn’t brought them any closer to God.
I’m going to read a parable in Luke chapter six: Luke 6:46-49 And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not
the things which I say? Whosoever cometh
to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is
like: He is like a man which built an
house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood
arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for
it was founded upon a rock. But he that
heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house
upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately
it fell; and the ruin of that house was great. It’s not about knowing; it’s about
doing. Every day. That’s a weighty thing to stand up here and
say. I don’t claim to be perfect, but I
have to say what’s here in the Scriptures.
That’s what it is. It affects me
as much as it does anyone. I’ve got to
live this daily. I’m going back to where I was at
earlier. Romans 1 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of
Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth;
to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. It’s the power unto salvation. Romans 1:17-22 For
therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is
written, The just shall live by faith. For
the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that
which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto
them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are
clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal
power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they
knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain
in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing
themselves to be wise, they became fools, We’ve heard that word once already
this morning. …They became fools. We’ll stop right there for a second. As I talked earlier, you know, traditions,
cultures, what’s right, what’s wrong. We
look at different sins and say, “This is above this, and this is above that.” The one that’s dominating our news right now is
same-sex marriage, homosexuality. The
Bible is clear on what it says is right and wrong. The question is, how do we deal with it? The question is, what frame of mind are we
in? I was raised with that same frame of
mind that people were in where I grew up, against different cultures and
ethnicities; if you were a homosexual, there was a stigma. In some regards it was morality and religion,
and in some, it was just culture. I’ve
never seen it, or participated in it, but I’ve heard tell that if you were of
that persuasion, you might have gotten a beat-down, you might have found
yourself in a bad way. I’m not
glorifying that, I’m not promoting that; I’m just saying that’s part of that
culture that I was raised in, over twenty-five years ago. A lot of things have changed since then. My point is, we’re going to have
to look at the Scriptures to determine what we tell people is right or
wrong. I can’t go by my feelings, I can’t
look at my cultural upbringing; I can’t let that dictate how I treat someone,
because sin is sin. It doesn’t matter if
it’s adultery, fornication; it doesn’t matter if it’s drunkenness, or
homosexuality. It doesn’t matter. The Bible talks about them all as sin. And, culturally, over the years, we have
learned to walk side-by-side with someone who was cheating on their wife; don’t
think much of it. Or, who goes out and gets drunk every night; may or may not
think much of it. I had to really retool
how I thought when it came to that, because, homosexuality, that’s—when I first
joined the Navy, it was something that wasn’t culturally accepted. And, in my mind, it was just like, “I don’t
want to be anywhere near that.” That was
the way I thought. God had to turn me
around. God had to show me that they’re
human like me. We don’t have to accept
the sin; we don’t have to accept what the world says is right and wrong, but they’re
human beings, just like the rest of us.
I know what I’m talking about’s not popular in all circles, but this is
Bible; this is what has to be said. We
have to have a culture here, an environment here that it doesn’t matter where
people are at. They need to feel
comfortable sitting in these chairs. If
anything’s going to make them feel uncomfortable, it’s got to be the Word of
God. I put this in the light of, we can
look at the sins, but, what was the root?
The root was, they did not like to retain God in their knowledge. Very simple; they didn’t retain God. They took the Truth, and disregarded it. And I speak on this in all humility and all
fear, because, lest I be of that. It’s easy
to sit in this room and say, “Oh, those people,” but, it’s not those people; it’s
people in general. I know I’m just as susceptible
as any man. I’m human; I’m made in
corruptible flesh, but that’s why it’s important to give the thanks to God, to
give Him the glory, to have this sound doctrine, to know it, to teach it, to
speak it one to another. To speak those
things exactly, and live it. There’s Scriptures that talk about
the fruit of the Spirit: Love, joy,
longsuffering, peace (Galatians 5:22).
Those are all the fruit of God’s spirit.
If we’re living in God, living in Christ Jesus, we bear those fruits; if
we’re holding the Truth in corruptness, we bear some other fruit. 1 John 2:15 Love not the world, neither the things
that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not
in him. The Scripture right after that says: John 3:17 For God sent not his Son into the world to
condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. We have this Gospel, and this
doctrine is important. It’s not a club
to hit people on the head with. But, it’s
an awesome Truth, it’s an awesome blessing to have that in my heart, because I
had something to share. I know this wasn’t long, and it
wasn’t evangelistic, but let me recap some things here: Sound Doctrine—uncorruptible;
knowing God’s Word. God's ways, not my way. And, it’s more than just having book
knowledge, it’s faith. It’s acting, in
faith, on what God calls us to do. God
can show us things. How many of you have
read a Scripture, and come back to it, and got something a year later that you
didn’t see the other time you read that Scripture. God is good like that. It’s a spiritual thing. It’s something that scholars can’t get out of
their other books. I won’t go condemning
other books, but, you don’t need them. There’s
history; history’s good to have, it brings a lot to things, but the Gospel’s
here. God doesn’t need somebody else to
explain what He meant. And, as the man who built on the
stone, or on the sand; the difference is being a doer, or just a hearer It is the power of God unto
salvation Amen.
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