“Does Doctrine Matter?” Part 2/By: Derek Melton

Part 2.
“Does Doctrine Matter?”
By Pastor Derek Melton
www.pryorcreekcommunitychurch.org
Study Notes

It is quite challenging to traverse beyond this preeminent doctrinal truth unto other truths, simply because of the gross misappropriation of the Gospel in our current religious culture. The love of pleasure that has inundated our society has crept into the hallowed sanctum of the church. Subsequently, the pulpit has cowered down, and traded its birthright for a bowl of cultural porridge.
With this loss of biblical truth, there has in its place come a new gospel that is culturally palatable, hyper-tolerant, seeker-sensitive, and benefit driven. This is a gospel that is accepted among the throngs of pleasure pursuing parishioners simply because it is perceived as a means to their end of self-gratification – through riches, fame, favor, preeminence, and a life filled with pleasure.
Therefore the pulpit spends its time watering the inordinate seeds of wicked desires within its congregation with man-made religious maladies in the name of church growth and cultural religious success. The true Gospel is never preached amongst these seeker sensitive crowds because of its offensive nature and unpalatable demands. Hence, hours are spent in seminars, and in conventions, instructing these spineless puppets behind the pulpit, how to use the benefits of the Gospel to draw crowds and build great and successful ministries.
All the while, the Spirit of God is grieved, the true Gospel is perverted, and multitudes of unsuspecting church-goers are bound by deception and sin with no power to break free from their dungeon of despair that is ultimately leading them to an irreversible eternal damnation. I am aware that many of you think I am taking this far too serious, or maybe you feel that I am over reacting, or reading into our religious culture a norm that is not as pronounced as I am mentioning.
Beloved, I truly believe it is much worse than I am mentioning, and not better than. If you feel that I am too radical and out of touch, then I am concerned about the power of deception that is being asserted over your mind and heart. It may be that you are a candidate for doctrinal apostasy! Beloved, if the benefits of the Gospel are the motive for your commitment to Christ, you are an idolater and are an enemy of the Gospel and its Sovereign King for you are a lover of His gift and not His person. Beloved, let me ask you a question: “if the benefits of the Gospel were stripped away, would your love for Jesus Christ waiver and diminish?”
I understand the depth of the challenge in that question, but a love that finds its commitment within the dividends that are accrued is a feigned love. But a love that is birthed out of a passionate and abiding adoration for the character, (or the attributes that are ascribed to that individual that makes that person who they are), of that person is a lasting and pure love – regardless of the benefits ascribed therein. It is my great concern, that multitudes of church attending professors of Jesus Christ are in love with what He gives, but they are not in love with who He is in His divine character.
Much of this dreadful condition attributed to the pulpit and the rubbish being fed to the people. It is unfortunate but true, that multitudes of pulpiteers spend the majority of their time discoursing upon the benefits of the Gospel, while grossly neglecting the God of the Gospel. From this malady comes a generation of church attending professors of Jesus Christ that are wonderfully taught about what Christ can give, but sadly they have no idea who Jesus Christ is.
They have not been taught Christ. Just as the Apostle’s address to Ephesus:

Ephesians 4:20

“But ye have not so learned Christ;” KJV

Once again I must mention that when the benefits of the Gospel leave our peripheral vision and remove Christ from our direct vision to replace Him, we are in great error! In the Apostle’s address to the Hebrew believers, he stated: “Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith”. This is a challenge for us to fix our eyes, our direct vision, to the person of Jesus Christ, for our growth, maturity, and success.
No where is it mentioned that we should remove Christ from the center of our focus, and for us to fill our eyes with benefits that make our life more comfortable and easy. Once again, it is the chief end of man to glorify God and with this end before us, let us spend our time, energy, and passion, glorifying God – as God!
Romans 1:21

“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.” KJV

It would be easy for me to camp out here for several more hours, but it might be a little over the top, and there is other things for us to learn in regards to true Doctrine. Now, the second article or question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism is as follows:
Question 2: What rule hath God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him?Answer: The Word of God, which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him.
Now, we discussed at length the first article, to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever is the chief end of man. All true, Gospel doctrine flows from this truth. Any doctrinal matter, any scriptural matter, any truth that flows from another direction is a false gospel. Every subsequent truth must flow from this foundation; God must be glorified as God in all things!
Now, the second article of the Westminster Catechism gives us the means whereby this end is attained. We learned the Who, and now we must learn the How. It is one thing for us to have an understanding that God must be glorified in all things, even in our lives, but it is wholly another thing for us to understand how this is to be “fleshed out” or fulfilled in our lives.
Being so, we must know that it is impossible for us to fulfill the chief end of man in the glorifying of God without the second revelation which is the means to achieve the chief end. The means to achieve this end is the Word of God. The second article states that the Word of God, which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the ONLY rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy Him.
2 Timothy 3:13-17

“But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; 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.” KJV
First of all let me say that it is impossible to glorify God apart from the Word of God and the knowledge ascribed therein. I read earlier from Romans 1 where the Apostle mentions a people that knew God but did not glorify Him as God. We might ask: “how can someone know God and not glorify Him as God?” To this we must answer that the knowledge of God is inherently or instinctively within every man. Every created being has an instinctive awareness of the existence of the Creator; not justifying faith, nor converting grace, but instinctive awareness. It is manifest within them!
So, it is important for us to understand that the knowledge of God that is instinctive is not sufficient unto the glorifying of God – for these mentioned by Paul had knowledge but God was not glorified.
The instinctive knowledge of God must lead us to the Word of God whereby we learn by the Holy Writ how God is glorified by such un-glorious creatures such as we. In my opening remarks I made mention that it is impossible to glorify God apart from the Word of God. The Word of God is the rule, the only rule, whereby we are directed upon how we must glorify Him and enjoy Him.
As we mentioned earlier in this message, multitudes of church attending professors in Jesus Christ have a knowledge of God. Yet, this knowledge of God cannot glorify God because the rule of their faith is opposed to or deviated from the written Word of God. How you may ask? The chief desire of their pursuit is merely the benefit of the Gospel versus the God of the Gospel and this is knowledge disproportionate to the Truth. Any knowledge that is disproportionate to the Truth does not, nor can it glorify God.
Beloved, all scripture is given by the inspiration of God that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. It might be correctly interpreted to say that all scripture is given by the inspiration of God that the man of God might be perfect and thoroughly furnished unto the glory of God, for what value are the good works if they are not for His glory?
One of, if not the greatest obstacle standing between modern Christianity and the glory of God is the great lack in the knowledge of and confidence in the sufficiency of the scriptures. Great hosts of church attending, and good mannered people, are knowledgeable in what their church is teaching, or in what their denomination believes, but altogether ignorant of what the inspired scriptures say. Being so, the foundation of their spiritual lives is laid by quaint sayings, and partial truths of denominational or non-denominational beliefs.
Many of these doctrinal establishments if stripped of all of the money, popularity, cultural power, and witty presentations, would be found greatly lacking in purity of doctrine and scriptural sufficiency. It is with these mentioned artifices that the doctrinal and scriptural deficiencies become palatable and even desirable. Yet, they act as a catalyst to inoculate good intentioned people against their primary end, to glorify God.
Acts 17:10-11

“And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews.”
“These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” KJV
We will never be free from Rome until we abandon the practices of Rome. Let me explain. In Roman Catholicism in the 15th and 16th centuries, and even before, the priests alone were permitted to handle and study the Word of God. The common man was wholly unable to study the Word of God as it was only the learned priests that could understand the native tongues of the manuscripts. Being so, the church controlled what the people believed simply because they were unable to hear anything except what they were told by the clergy. The priests handled the Word of Truth and instructed the people upon what they wanted them to know.
From this, great heretical beliefs were formed and practiced. Most of you here know the history of the reformation – but Protestant reformers diligently labored to put the Word of God in the hands of the common man that he might study and search the scriptures as the Bereans of the Apostles days. Of course we know that great men of God such as William Tyndale burnt and perished at the stake for his work placing the Word of God into the hands of common men in their native tongues.
Now, it is Rome that presses the injustice of clergy alone handling the scriptures, not Christ! Beloved, we must abandon the maligned practice that leaves the study of the scriptures wholly in the hands of clergy. We as Christ’s dear children have a divine mandate to study the scriptures!
2 Timothy 2:15

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” KJV
Notice the language the Holy Spirit uses; “workman”. The Greek translates this as a laborer. This is the common man and not the laity alone being mentioned. Oh beloved, scriptural neglect is the path that scriptural deviation trods upon; and scriptural deviation is the path that scriptural apostasy trods upon; and it is scriptural apostasy that reserves the mist of darkness forever for the apostate!
This gross neglect of the study of the scriptures has led to a demise in the evangelical community at catastrophic proportions. I attribute this to Rome mindsets that leave the diligent study of God’s Word to the clergy. Hence, the misinformed evangelical has no plumb line whereby he might measure the truth. He must simply rely upon what he has been told by clergy and the scriptural purity and accuracy is left wholly upon the shoulders of the clergy leaving the parishioner vulnerable to his doctrine.
A book by George A. Marsden, "Reforming Fundamentalism" quotes a survey of student belief at one of the largest Evangelical seminaries in the US. 2 The poll indicated that 85% of the students "do not believe in the inerrancy (free from error) of Scripture."
This book also lists the results of a poll conducted by Jeffery Hadden in 1987 of 10,000 American clergy. They were asked whether they believed that the Scriptures are the inspired and inerrant Word of God in faith, history, and secular matters: the following stated no.
95% of Episcopalians,
87% of Methodists,
82% of Presbyterians,
77% of American Lutherans, and
67% of American Baptists said "No."
However, the Christian laity is far more supportive of the inerrancy position. The Barna Research Group reported in 1996 that among American adults generally:
58% believe that the Bible is "totally accurate in all its teachings"
45% believe that the Bible is "absolutely accurate and everything in it can be taken literally."
Support dropped between that poll and another taken in 2001. Barna reported in 2001 that:
41% of adults strongly agrees that the Bible is totally accurate in all that it teaches
They also published beliefs by denomination and metagroup:
Above average:
Pentecostal / Foursquare: 81%
Assembly of God: 77%
Christian, non-denominational (mostly Fundamentalist) 70%
Baptist: 66%
Seventh-day Adventist: 64%
Church of Christ: 57%
Below average:
Presbyterian: 40%
Methodist: 38%
Lutheran: 34%
Latter-day Saints (Mormon): 29%
Catholics: 26%
Episcopal: 22%
While I am aware of margins of error in any poll, there is a certain disturbing realism that shows that serious error has entered into the evangelical church and one of the catalysts is the lack on the part of individual evangelicals to study the scriptures personally and diligently. I know that I am getting away from the scope of my message but these issues are worth mentioning.
Oh beloved, the Word of God is the means whereby God is glorified in our lives. It is acutely impossible for us to glorify God as God apart from the Word of God understood and applied in our lives personally. It is imperative that we not only study God’s Word but it is equally as important that we teach our children the Word of God and disciplined study habits that their souls may find refuge in Christ and their lives given to the glory of God.
The Word of God is the ONLY means whereby we glorify God and enjoy Him forever.