INTRODUCTION (2)

ICE BREAKER

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What is doctrine?

“Specifically, doctrine refers to Christian teaching and most specifically to Christian teaching about God, the gospel, and the comprehensive pattern of Christian truth.” - Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary

A Christian doctrine is what the entire Bible has to say on one particular subject. Therefore, we speak of such things as the “doctrine” of Christ, the “doctrine” of God, and the “doctrine” of the church. This refers to what Christians believe about these subjects based upon the teaching of the Bible.” - Blue Letter Bible

“The English word, “doctrine,” comes from the Latin word doctrina. It can be defined as, “teaching or instruction.” Christian doctrine simply means the beliefs of Christians.

Given that, why do some people view doctrine in a negative light?

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Who was Martyn Lloyd-Jones? This class is not about Martyn Lloyd-Jones per se, our focus is not him but the Word of God. But, we are going to pursue our study along a path he set for us and avail ourselves of his wisdom on many topics so it’s good to know something about him.

It’s also good to know about our predecessors in the faith. I’m a big fan of learning church history, learning about those who’ve gone before us in he faith is a valuable exercise. As someone has said, we stand on the shoulders of giants.

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones (20 December 1899 – 1 March 1981) was a Welsh Protestant minister and medical doctor who was influential in the Reformed wing of the British evangelical movement in the 20th century. For almost 30 years, he was the minister of Westminster Chapel in London.

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Not to be confused with Westminster Abbey where kings and queens are crowned.

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In 1921 he started work as assistant to the Royal Physician, Sir Thomas Horder.

Lloyd-Jones obtained an MD from London University, and became a Member of the Royal College of Physicians. After struggling for two years over what he sensed was a calling to preach, in 1927 Lloyd-Jones returned to Wales, accepting an invitation to minister at a church in Aberavon.

The story is told that when Lloyd-Jones got to this church they were in the habit of presenting dramatic performances on the stage on Friday night to try to draw people to the church. To do those performances, they need to set the pulpit aside to clear the stage.

One of the first things Lloyd-Jones did upon becoming pastor was to bolt the pulpit to the floor so it couldn’t be moved. In doing so he made clear his belief in the primacy of the preaching and teaching of the word of God as the method of drawing the lost and discipling the found.

It wasn’t to use the methods of the world but the word of God to draw people.

He ministered there for ten years and then accepted the post at Westminster Chapel in London just as WWII broke out. He remained pastor there for the remainder of his career. That’s another impressive thing about Lloyd-Jones. He didn’t view his pastorate as a springboard to bigger and better things. He was that flocks’ shepherd and he stayed at his post until he retired from preaching.

In his entire career, he was only at two churches. He preached verse by verse through books of the Bible and his sermons were incredibly popular. They were transcribed each week and published by his church and many of them were recorded. We have a large number of his sermons that can still be heard, perhaps more than any other pastor of that day.

He also taught on Friday evenings for his congregation and the book we’re using is a result of a series he did on Friday evenings between 1952 – 55 (more on that in a moment). Perhaps his most famous written work is a 14 volume commentary on the Epistle to the Romans. He also wrote a book on what he calls “spiritual depression” that is excellent. He also wrote a book called “Preaching and Preachers” that we’ve read through as elders here.

You can read more about him as well as listen to his sermons at www.mljtrust.org. This site is also available as an app for your phone or tablet or in podcast form.

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One of the sermon series available on line is on Romans 8. Guess how many sermons he preached on that one chapter, 39 verses? 75

To finish up an introduction to him, here’s a short video promoting a documentary on Lloyd-Jones called “Logic on Fire.”

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The Origin of this Book & Its Goal & By Extension, Our Goal

As I mentioned a bit ago, the book grew out a series of teachings Lloyd-Jones did with his church on Friday evenings in the 1950s. He was concerned about the lack of knowledge of basic Christian truths in his day and so put together this series to address that.

Like Lloyd-Jones, I believe we have that same problem today both inside and outside the church here in the United States. I’m reminded of the book of Hebrews where the author says; by now you should be eating meat but I have to give you milk. Sadly, that’s where the church is in the west today in many cases. There is a dearth of biblical knowledge. Sinclair Ferguson whom you just saw in the video says:

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“The conviction that Christian doctrine matters for Christian living is one of the most important growth points of the Christian life.” Sinclair Ferguson

What do you think about that statement?

So, think about that, if the knowledge of Christian doctrine is waning and Christian doctrine matters for developing a healthy Christian life, we have a problem.

Last year I read Moby Dick, written in 1851. There are an incredible number of biblical metaphors or illustrations that Melville just drops on you without explanation assuming that his readers will know exactly what he’s talking about. And at the time he wrote it, that would have been true because that was a culture steeped in the Bible.

We don’t live in that world anymore. Gone are the days when western thought coalesced around the Bible and there was wide knowledge of its contents even among unbelievers. So, if that surface level knowledge is gone, how much more a deeper understanding of its teachings?

What do you think about this statement from Lloyd-Jones?

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“There is nothing more foolish or self-defeating than for a Christian to say he is not interested in doctrine.”

Why is it “self-defeating?”

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Doctrine is a biblical word:

Titus 1:9 “He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.”

I came across this on social media a while back viewed by 154,000 people. I’ve blocked out the person’s name, I don’t even know who they are, but the sentiment expressed here is widespread:

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What issues do you see with this sentiment?

How do you know what “Christ centered Christianity” is?

There has to be a source for that knowledge and if the Bible is not that source, what is?

What’s usually the source for a person’s doctrine when the Bible is not?

More times than not, that source is me.

We’ll talk more about what doctrine is in just a bit but I think this illustrates why it’s so important.

I think one of the reasons it gets a bad rap is people view it as dull or dry or just knowledge for knowledge sake, like learning the periodic table in school so you can regurgitate it on the test.

Lloyd-Jones didn’t just want to impart biblical knowledge to them. We don’t want to just impart biblical knowledge in our core classes. His goal, and this should be the goal of all doctrinal teaching, was for them to see God more clearly and so glorify Him more and have that new insight, that new knowledge, impact their lives and worship.

Right doctrine impacts our Christian lives - wrong doctrine does too, by the way.

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"The gospel doesn't merely give comfort. It gives truth. And the comfort is the result of the truth. You can't bypass the truth."  ―Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

So, the Christian faith is based, first and foremost in objective truth, not on our feelings. Feelings should flow out of truth, not be its source.

That’s our goal for this class as well. We will learn some stuff about God, we will learn doctrine, some important stuff, but my prayer and the prayers of Thomas and Thomas is that will lead to a deeper understanding of who God is and ultimately to the praise and worship of our King and increase our desire to be more like Him and tell others about Him.

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Psalm 119 is the longest of the Psalms and the longest chapter in the Bible both in number of verses and number of words and it is dedicated to the importance of God’s word.

Psalm 119: 62 says: At midnight I rise to praise you, because of your righteous rules. The psalmist praises God because of God’s law. Or, said another way, because of God’s word. One thing we find is that our praise of God and our desire to obey him is a function of the time we spend in the word because it’s a function of the knowledge we have about Him and it’s a circular process:

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We spend time in the word

This leads us to praise God

This leads us back to His word to learn more about him

Which leads us to praise God, etc. That’s what we’re hoping to accomplish in this class. So what we want to do is remind ourselves of the greatness and glory of our God and so be astonished anew at His goodness, power and mercy.

I love this quote by Burk Parsons:

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“Our Enemy is set on trying to destroy you, but he'll settle with just getting you to lose your astonishment of Christ.” – Burk Parsons And we lose that when we neglect his word and doctrine. So, far from making Christianity rote or dull, doctrine makes it come alive.

So don’t think about doctrine as a dry, boring topic, think of it as something that reveals the glory and majesty of God. Think of doctrine as pulling back the curtain and allowing you to see God better than you have before.

Thoughts?

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What do we mean by Biblical Doctrines? So let’s start with the obvious question, what do we mean by “biblical doctrines?” Is there any other kind? Is that like saying “Jewish synagogue” or “round circle?” The adjective is redundant. In one sense, no, there is no other kind, because all Christian doctrine must be grounded in scripture. But, in another sense, there are things about which we have beliefs that, while grounded in scripture, are not directly taught there. Lloyd-Jones uses as his base text for this study Deuteronomy 29:29.

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The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law. So he says we are going to talk about the things revealed in scripture and we are not going to speculate or wrestle with the things that are not. There is some benefit to the latter, that’s just not the topic of this series.

What’s the difference between “doctrine” and “theology?”

“Sometimes the word “doctrine” is used interchangeably with the word “theology.” While this is not necessarily wrong, there is a difference between the two terms. Theology, or Christian theology, is the more general term. It refers to the study of the God of the Bible. Doctrine refers to the specific teachings about God that are found in a study of theology such as the “doctrine” of salvation or the “doctrine” of the afterlife.” - Blue Letter Bible

All creation teaches us something about God but we’re going to focus on those things specifically revealed in his special revelation, the Bible.

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What will we study? Before saying what he does mean by this topic, Lloyd-Jones starts with what he does not mean. Sometimes it’s as helpful when defining something to say what it’s not as much as what it is. And with some things in the Bible, what it’s not is the best you can do. Think for example of the Trinity.

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FIRST

The Bible is not a general history of the world. What is says about history is accurate but it has other objectives than an overview of history. The Bible is not concerned with giving us a history of everything God has done or even everything Jesus Christ did

John 20:30–31 “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

SECOND

The Bible does not offer proofs for God; the Bible simply, from the first verse proclaims the truth of His existence.

Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

So, while things like apologetic proofs for God’s existence are profitable, in fact we have taught a class on apologetics before, they are not something we’ll touch on in this study.

THIRD

Where does evil come from? Again, a profitable discussion to some degree but not something the Bible tells us specifically.

Great Doctrines of the Bible, Volume 1: God the Father, God the Son Chapter 1: My Purpose and Method

Again, we shall be dealing with the doctrine of sin and somebody will want to know, ‘Where does evil come from?’ I cannot tell you. The Bible does not tell us. You can speculate; you can reason but that is not biblical doctrine. We must confine ourselves to the things that have been revealed, not to the secret things that are ultimately in the mind of God

What do you think about that?

There’s a famous quote by John Calvin along the lines of:

“When God closes his sacred mouth, we should desist from further inquiry.”

There are some things we want to know that we’re not ever going to know, at least this side of heaven, and maybe not even then. I have questions about things when I read the Bible (people who rose from the dead after Jesus’ resurrection).

2 Timothy 3:16–17 “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

There is nothing we need to know in order to follow God rightly that is not given to us in scripture.

FOURTH

And, despite the popularity of the idea, the Bible is not the owner’s manual for life. There are many things we must do or decisions we must make that are not spelled out for us in scripture because the purpose of scripture is not to give us day-to-day instructions for living. It’s not Google maps, turn here, the turn here, etc. (Decision Making and the Will of God, Gary Friesen)

So what is the Bible about and what kinds of things will we study?

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Ultimately, the Bible is the grand story of redemption. From Genesis to Revelation, it is, Lloyd-Jones says, the “history of what God has done about men and women as the result of their sin…the Bible is concerned with presenting to us the message of redemption by God and from God in a way that we can understand, see and believe.” [i] Just as John said of his purpose in writing his Gospel:

John 20:30–31 “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

In many ways that is the purpose of all of scripture. Given that, what are some doctrines that we will, in fact, must learn and understand to be effective, mature Christians?

From last year:

The Bible itself. What is it and why is it authoritative? If we don’t start there, with the authority of scripture, nothing else we study really matters. The Bible speaks about itself and we’ll see what it says (Doctrine of scripture).

The truth about who God is (theology)

The truth about who we are (anthropology)

We don’t often think of anthropology as a Christian discipline but we cannot really understand human beings apart from what our Creator says about us. So in that respect anthropology done rightly is a profoundly Christian discipline.

The truth about who Christ is (Christology), everything in scripture is about Christ because Christ is the cornerstone of redemption and the Bible is the story of redemption.

How can a sinful man, separated from God by nature be reconciled to God? The Bible tells us that (Soteriology).

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Last year we ended sort of in the middle of the discussion of Soteriology so we’ll pick up with that in our next session, starting with what it means to be a child of God.

Other topics for this will be:

What happens after we’re redeemed, how do we live? We are to unite with a body of believers in living the Christian life.

The church is God’s plan for the sanctification of His people and the spread of the gospel (Ecclesiology).

How will everything end up? The Bible tells us that. It doesn’t give us all the details we’d like but it tells us what we need to know (Eschatology).

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Why are we studying it? Finally, why are we studying this? Why should we take an hour of our time every week for the next several months to consider the great doctrines of the faith? Doctrine has fallen on hard times in recent years often being accused of irrelevance or even of hampering the gospel and something the church should dispense with.

Going back to the notion that we draw what we’re going to teach in this class from the Bible... The Bible itself shows the importance of this. You see a concern and reverence for doctrine among God’s people throughout the scriptures:

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The prophets were concerned with doctrine and they preached to the people who God is, who they are, what is required of them in light of those things.

Ezra 7:10 “For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.”

Psalm 86:11 “Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name.”

Ezekiel 44:23 “They shall teach my people the difference between the holy and the common, and show them how to distinguish between the unclean and the clean.” (the job of the priests)

One thing people sometimes use as a criticism of doctrine is that “doctrine divides.” My response to this is “Yes, it does. That’s what it’s supposed to do.” That’s a feature, not a bug.

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The Lord Jesus Christ was concerned with doctrine.

Matthew 5:19 “Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

Mark 6:34 “When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.”

Mark 7:6–8 “And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “ ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; 7 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ 8 You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”

The implication here is that there is doctrine from God (commandments) and doctrine from men and to get those mixed up is to worship God in vain.

And, of course:

Matthew 28:19–20 “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.””

We can’t follow the Christ of the scripture and poo poo doctrine.

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The Apostles were concerned with doctrine.

They sought to bring biblical truth to the people and they did so by preaching and preaching is always doctrinal, always grounded in the truths of scripture, not the minister’s opinion or in the cultural beliefs of the day.

Romans 16:17 “I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them.”

Ephesians 4:11–14 “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.”

We have to know true doctrine to avoid false doctrine.

1 Timothy 6:3–5 “If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, 4 he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, 5 and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.”

Another reason is:

Secondly, it is dangerous to approach the Bible apart from the understanding that it is there to teach us doctrine. We cannot use the Bible as a magic charm or an Ouija board for divining the future or, as we said earlier as a history text. It is given to us to teach us about God. We can know the scriptures backwards and forwards as many an atheist does and indeed as the Devil himself does and yet be unchanged by it.

R.C. Sproul once said “Satan could make an ‘A’ in my systematic theology course. He knows all the information and knows that the information is true.”

When we do not see it as the Word of God to us, instructing us in doctrine, right belief, our study is of no help to us.

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Lloyd-Jones says “Not to arrive at your doctrine after you have studied your Scriptures means that your study is thoroughly unprofitable.”

Because the Bible hasn’t done in your life what’ it’s intended to do - renew your mind, as Paul says.

What do you think about that?

Even worse is to arrive at doctrine before you study the scriptures and then subjecting the Bible to my self-made doctrine. This is what groups like Jehovah’s Witnesses do. Their New World Translation of the scriptures is a Bible altered to match JW theology, particularly with regard to the divinity of Christ. We can tend to do that too to a lesser degree and must guard against it.

What are some ways we see that happening? There’s a movement today among some who claim the name of Christ that values uncertainty in all things. It’s viewed as humble to come away from scripture with no firm convictions about doctrine. That it’s arrogant to claim we know anything about God.

How would you respond to that?

There’s nothing humble about the almighty God of the universe condescending to give us his word and then claiming He has not provided clarity, has not given us a Word that is sufficient and clear. That is, in fact, the arrogant approach, to discount the gift God has given us in His Word. That is ungrateful and wicked. Throughout history, the church has found the issue of doctrine essential. From the very first days of the church the confession “Jesus is Lord,” a thoroughly doctrinal statement, was required for membership. That’s what got people killed.

I heard a guy once talk about being with some people who said ‘we don’t want to get into doctrine, we just want to talk about Jesus.’ He said, ‘OK, I’ll stop you when you start to get into doctrine. Tell me who is Jesus?’

The minute you utter the words ‘Jesus is...’, whatever comes after that is doctrine.

As we talked about in our study of Jude over the summer, false teachers arose leading the church astray.

This led later Christians to craft creeds and confessions all of which are doctrinal statements. Which highlights another reason doctrine is important – it helps us know false teaching when we see it.

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Lloyd-Jones says: “We must know the ground on which we stand, and be able to withstand every enemy that comes to attack us, every subtle foe, every ploy used by the devil who comes disguised as an ‘angle of light’ to ruin our souls.” And doctrine helps us do that.

Finally he says it is the best, really the only, way to know God.

I’ll close this section with an extended quote from Lloyd-Jones:

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“The doctrines of the Bible are not a subject to be studied; rather we should desire to know them in order that, having known them, we may not be ‘puffed up’ with knowledge, and excited about our information, but may draw near to God in worship, praise, and adoration, because we have seen, in a fuller way than we have ever seen before, the glory of our wondrous God.”

Video J.I. Packer

[i] p. 2