"Doctrine Matters"
October 14, 2007
Pastor Phil Stevenson
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Date: Oct. 14, 2007
Sermon Title: Doctrine Matters
Text: 1 Peter 1:13-14
Whidbey Island Evangelical Free Church, 874 Plantation Drive, Greenbank, WA 98253, 360-678-4612, office, Pastor Phil Stevenson
Introduction:
How many of you went grocery shopping this week? How many stores did you have to choose from which you could have purchased your groceries? If you were in Oak Harbor you could have chosen from Albertson’s, Sears, or Safeway—or Wal-Mart & K-Mart have groceries too. If you include the whole island you could have gone to Prairie Center in Coupeville or Pay-Less in Freeland or Red Apple at Bayview or Ken’s Corner. Oh and there’s the Star Store in Langley and the Commissary on the base if you’re Navy. That’s quite a few options for little Whidbey Island, isn’t it? Imagine what happens if you go off island. How many options are there now? It explodes doesn’t it?
Now consider the options if you go down the cereal aisle in just one of those stores. It’s amazing, isn’t it?
What about cars? How many options are there when it comes to cars? You have Ford, Chevy, Buick, Toyota, Honda, Saturn, Cadillac, Mercury, Acura, Dodge, Nissan, Mercedes, BMW, Jaguar, Hummer, Audi, Saab, GMC, Geo, Fiat, Ferrari, Eagle, Jeep, Kia, Land Rover, Izuza, Infinity, Hyundai, Mazda, Lexus, Lincoln, etc. I went to CarTrader.com and counted 65 different makes. Of those 65 models they offered over 3,000,000 listings. Talk about being overwhelmed with options.
Now what if you want to go out to dinner tonight? Where will you go? Well the MacGregor’s Whidbey Island yellow pages will give you exactly 100 restaurants to choose from here on Whidbey Island alone.
We are a culture that is inundated with options. What’s even more amazing is that all these options are staying in business, at least to some degree or for some time. Which tells me that we are a culture that loves to consume. I remember the magnitude of this reality hitting me like a brick after spending only 4 months in Africa. I remember feeling acutely aware of the affluence and consumerism in America. It was and is quite staggering. But this consumerism has not been created in a vacuum.
We are also a culture that celebrates the individual, aren’t we? Part of the reason there are so many options is because there are so many individuals and every individual has a right to their own choice. What’s good for one is not necessarily good for another.
As I have been studying the history and development of our culture I am finding that behind all of this individual consumerism and materialism has been a movement of thought called the Enlightenment. 18th, 19th, and some early20th century thinkers like Immanuel Kant, Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud and others elevated human reason above divine revelation and persistently chipped away at the predominant principles of Christian Theism. This elevation of the self as the highest authority has created a culture of individuals who are given permission to create their own definitions of meaning in life and their own definition of the means to achieve that meaning. Add to that the results of the industrial and technological revolutions of the 19th and 20th centuries, the massive growth of free market enterprises, and the incredible expansion of information available to individuals today and you have the foundations of a culture that sees self-fulfillment in life as the production and consumption of products designed to conform to every individual’s tastes and desires. Basic hedonism as defined by the relative wants and desires of every individual seems to rule the day.
Now if you know your Bible you realize that this is nothing really new. There’s nothing really new under the sun. “For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes, and the pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world.” It’s only natural that a culture that has abandoned the Father’s perspective and elevated the world’s would come to this conclusion. But this does not minimize the power of the culture’s current in our lives. The fact of the matter is that we eat, drink, breath, and sleep in this cultural air of individual consumerism that is defined by postmodern relativism and it is difficult to resist the barrage of advertisements and the pull of all these options especially when you’re told have it your way, you deserve it everywhere you turn. As Ron Sider says in his book, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind*, “A prevailing belief in the West today is that whatever feels right for me is right for me and whatever feels right for you is right for you. The only unpardonable sin is to claim that absolute right and wrong exist and that a person’s personal choices are immoral. Relativism has conquered.”
This climate is creating increasing hostility toward the Biblical worldview. But this is not only because consumer products like cars and TVs and homes and boats and vacations and dinners out are advertised as options for self-fulfillment, but also because now there is also a proliferation of ideas, values, and religious beliefs that are constantly presented as options to be consumed as well. Along with the tremendous influx of immigrants from the Far East, the Middle East, Latin America, African, and Eastern Europe has come the tremendous influx of world views that are at odds in many ways with a Biblical world view. Today, our neighbors and co-workers are people who follow the teachings of Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Atheism, Animism, Voodoo, Secular Humanism, and any combination of these with other world views. [Jim Walker was just sharing with a couple of us the other night how different it is to teach today than it was even several years ago.] And in a pluralistic culture that values individual preference and shuns those who hold to absolutes and who make claims about absolute right and wrong, we Christians are swimming up against a very strong cultural current.
I share all of this as an introduction to this sermon in order to give you a reason why I am about to argue for the next couple months why Doctrine Matters. What you believe about God, what you believe about Jesus Christ, what you believe about the person of the Holy Spirit, what you believe about human nature, what you believe about the Bible and its authority, what you believe about the eternal state, and a number of other doctrines… All these issues of doctrine have a tremendous influence on how you are going to live in this relativistic, consumer-oriented, individual-exalted, materialistic culture in which we live. Doctrine Matters!!
For the next several weeks I want us to explore the doctrines that really matter and try and answer the question why they matter so much, especially in the day in which we live. We’re going to follow our denomination’s Statement of Faith as an outline and focus on the basic doctrines of our faith. I want to try and reinforce in our hearts and minds the basics of our beliefs so that we might not drown in this current that is flowing so strongly in our culture today.
This morning my encouragement to you comes from one simple verse. It’s the verse we introduced last week as our memory verse and in it I believe it can launch us forward in our intentions. It is one of many verses that we could look at that will help us remain anchored in the current. And it’s a verse that gives us some instructions on how to combat the current. It’s 1 Peter 1:13 and it goes like this:
“Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded (NIV-be self-controlled); set your hope fully on the grace that will be given you (ESV-brought to you) at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
Let’s focus first on the imperative, the command of the verse. Then we’ll look at the means to fulfill the command.
1. The Command: Set your Hope fully on the Grace that is to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed [NIV].
Each of the main words in this command are significant expressions and are critical for understanding why Doctrine Matters so much. Because truth is now considered a relative issue in our world today, hope is difficult to sustain. Hope easily morphs into hopelessness when all you have to put your hope in is the pleasurable experience of driving that new car or walking on the sands of that tropical beach. That’s nothing solid to put your hope in. Don’t you feel sometimes like you’re in the little boy in the fairy tale, The Emperor’s New Clothes. I get this way when I watch commercials on television. Everything is portrayed as a must have in order to have meaning in life. And I for one will readily admit that putting my hope in using a 4-bladed razor to shave with or drinking a particular brand of soda will sustain me when I have to meet the challenges of raising 8 kids or trying to deal with the realities of suffering in this world. I am not ready to see these definitions of pleasure as my ultimate authority and means of satisfaction in life. It’s time to acknowledge that the postmodern wardrobe is leaving people spiritually, emotionally, mentally, relationally, in so many ways naked and vulnerable.
Peter’s advice is so different than our world’s mentality today. He says fixate your hope, anchor your confidence on a reality outside yourself, namely the grace that is to be given at the Revelation of Jesus Christ.
What is this grace to be given at the revelation of Jesus Christ? As the object of our hope, I believe it is the culmination of all that is contained in God’s Word, this body of truth. The Bible says that Jesus came to make known the Father’s will, to reveal truth. He is described as being full of grace and truth. (John 1:14) He is the exact representation of God. (Heb. 1:3) He is the person that the whole OT redemptive story and prophecy points to and in Him it is completely fulfilled. (Mt. 5:17) In Him are found all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. (Col. 4:3) The grace that is to be given to us at the resurrection of Jesus Christ is not only the inheritance that is our because of the work of Christ on the cross and through the resurrection but it is also the full understanding of who God is as made known in Jesus Christ.
The grace that has been given to us and will be completely exposed when Jesus Christ returns is doctrine. It’s the teachings of the truth as revealed in Jesus Christ. Doctrine matters because it sustains our hope. The greater our understanding of this truth the greater our hope. The greater our hope the greater we will be sustained in the confusing currents of our culture.
Hope that is fueled by the doctrine and truths revealed in Jesus Christ has 2 functions: It weans you off the pleasures of the world that will lead you astray and eventually kill you, because Jesus Christ and all that is found in Him is far better and far more satisfying than the pleasures of this world. Secondly it will sustain you in suffering because hope in the doctrines and truths revealed in Jesus Christ is far better than anything you will ever lose in your sufferings. (Adapted from John Piper’s DVD: Brothers…Feel. Think. Preach. God**)
Therefore, when the world comes at you with all of its variety and plethora of promising solutions to your needs, Peter says set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.
Practically, How do we do this? Peter does not leave us without instruction.
2. The Means: The first metaphor is...
A. Prepare Your Minds for Action Literally, the words are: gird up the loins of your mind. It’s a metaphor that would have been commonly understood in that day when most everyone wore robes rather than pants. The picture is that of a person who is needing to take their robe and pull it up between their legs and tuck the corners or loose ends into their belt. By doing this they would be ready to move quickly and easily. They would avoid being easily tripped up or snared. Peter is saying that everyone of us need to grab hold of the loose ends of our minds, all those principles that seem to be just dangling in our minds and tighten them up so that we can be ready for action. We live in a world that needs Christian men and women who are thinkers and analyzers of the stuff out their that is passing off as wisdom. If we do not prepare our minds for action, we will easily be ensnared.
This means that we need to understand what the Bible teaches about the nature of God, who He is and what He is like. We need to be able to articulate how it is that Jesus is our substitute and why he being both God and man is so important for our salvation. If you don’t understand the doctrine of original sin and the depravity of human nature then you’re going to have trouble convincing someone who thinks all people are basically good that they need a savior. Doctrine matters! You want to know why abortion is rampant in our culture and why euthanasia is becoming more and more acceptable. It’s because we don’t understand the doctrine of man being created in the image of God rather than a product of evolutionary chance. Doctrine matters. What the Bible teaches is critically important.
Therefore, we should be reading the Bible. We should be meditating on its truths. We should be memorizing its promises. We should be applying its principles. We should be obeying its commands. This kind of preparation will only increase your hope. More reading, More hope. More meditation, more hope. More memorization, more hope. More application, more hope. More obedience, more hope. Prepare your minds for action by setting your hope on the doctrines of God’s grace and you will grow in your hope and you will be better prepared for action in this current of confusion we call culture.
The second metaphor is...
B. Be Sober-minded. I think this is another great word picture that Peter uses here to help show us how we can remain anchored and fixated in our hope. The NIV says be self-controlled, the NASB says Keep sober in spirit, the ESV is be sober-minded. The idea here put negatively would be do not become intoxicated and lose control of your thinking or your actions.
The reality is that we’re all addicts of some kind or another. Our bodies and minds have been given over to worldly pleasures and we have been by our very natures intoxicated with sin. We are flesh addicts. James says it pretty bluntly “each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.” Too many of us deny that we still are addicted to our own flesh and we give in too easily to our own desires. We become intoxicated with what the world offers because our flesh desires it. Peter says if we are going to set our minds on the hope of the grace revealed in Christ Jesus we’ve got to exercise the spiritual self-control that keeps us sober.
Those of you who have struggled with substance abuse in your life probably know the seriousness with which Peter is talking by using this term. You know how damaging one little indulgence in the substance can be. This is the way Peter wants us to treat the ways of thinking that run contrary to God’s truths.
But how will we ever know if we do not fill our minds with God’s truths. How will we ever combat the materialism of this age if we don’t grasp the importance of an eternal perspective or the doctrine of proper stewardship of God’s creation? How will we ever combat the pleasures of the flesh if we never understand the work of the Holy Spirit in putting to death the deeds of the flesh? How will we ever live through brokenness of severed relationships if we never understand the reconciling work of Jesus and the doctrine of forgiveness that comes through finished work of Christ on the cross? Do you see why Doctrine Matters so much?
Doctrine is the antidote to intoxication with the world. Doctrine keeps us sober. And as verse 14-15 says it enables us walk as obedient children not conforming to the passions of our former ignorance. Right Doctrine properly applied to our lives empowers us to live holy lives just as he who called us in holy.
Conclusion:
Let me conclude and illustrate what I’ve been saying with some further observations from Ron Sider’s book The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind. In chapter one of the book Sider sites information that has been gathered from pollsters like George Barna. Barna in his research discovered some troubling findings about evangelicals. Evangelicals are people whom he has defined as having made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ, who believe that when they die they will go to heaven because they have accepted Jesus as their Savior, who agree that Jesus lived a sinless life; that eternal salvation is only through grace, not works, that Christians have a personal responsibility to evangelize non-Christians, and that Satan exists. Sounds like pretty doctrinally solid folks. How are these folks faring in the challenges of our culture today?
In regards to divorce: 25% of evangelicals, just like 25% of the total population have gone through a divorce. (p. 19)
In regards to tithing and materialism: today on average, evangelicals in the US give about 2/5ths of a tithe, that’s about 4% of their income while the average American household income is $42,409. One study pointed “out that if American Christians just tithed they would have another $143 billion available to empower the poor and spread the gospel.” (p. 21) Meanwhile, according to the world bank, 1.2 billion people try to survive on just one dollar a day.
In regards to promiscuity among teens: A 7-year study of 12,000 teenagers who participated in the True Love Waits program showed that after 7 years only 12% kept their promise. The other 88% were unable to wait until marriage before acting like they were married.
Sider goes on to talk about other issues like adulterous affairs, the use of pornography, racism, and domestic violence. Sadly, the findings are very similar. Evangelicals in today’s society are not much different than those who identify themselves as non-evangelical and non-Christian. These kinds of findings should be very troubling to each one of us and should cause us to examine our own church and our own lives. How are we doing when it comes to divorce among us, tithing, and helping the poor? How rampant is pornography among our men or domestic abuse in our homes? These are serious questions.
The good news comes in what I have been arguing for this morning, Doctrine matters! Here again Sider refers to a Barna study of people described as evangelicals with a biblical worldview. These were people who believed in addition to what the evangelicals believed, that the Bible is the moral standard and that absolute moral truths exist and are conveyed through the Bible.” They also adhered to the following beliefs: God is the all-knowing, all powerful creator who still rules the universe; Jesus Christ live a sinless life; Satan is a real, living entity; salvation is a free gift, not something we can earn; every Christian has a personal responsibility to evangelize; and the Bible is totally accurate in all it teaches. (p. 127) These who hold to these truths demonstrated a genuinely different behavior.
“The good news is that the small circle of people with a biblical worldview demonstrate genuinely different behavior. They are nine times more likely than all the others to avoid ‘adult-only’ material on the Internet. They are four times more likely than other Christians to boycott objectionable companies and products and twice as likely to choose intentionally not to watch a movie specifically because of its bad content. They are three times more likely than other adults not to us tobacco products and twice as likely to volunteer time to help needy people. Forty-nine percent of all born-again Christians with a biblical worldview have volunteered more than an hour in the previous week to an organization serving the poor,…” (p. 128).
This is not to say that Christianity is solely defined by a list of do’s and don’ts. Please don’t misunderstand my intentions here. I am not seeking to promote any kind of legalism. What I’m trying to do is illustrate the fact that the convictions of doctrine and the level of our preparation of mind and work at being sober-minded as Peter has defined it for us should show up in being different than our culture. And this is exactly the conclusion Sider makes as well.
“Barna’s findings on the different behavior of Christians with a biblical worldview underline the importance of theology. Biblical orthodoxy (insert my word Doctrine) does matter. One important way to end the scandal of contemporary Christian behavior is to work and pray fervently for the growth of orthodox theological belief in our churches.” (p. 129)
Work & Prayer, this is what it is going to take. Willful cooperation with the Holy Spirit in our lives. I am not coming to you as one who has all the answers. I come into this with the reality that this is where we all live. This is reality for me.
This is my desire for us in the coming weeks. I
hope you will join me in this adventure of further
discovery of the great doctrines of our faith and how
they impact our hope and behavior in this world and
culture we live in.
- Paperback: 144 pages
- Publisher: Baker Books (February 1, 2005)
From Publishers Weekly
This stinging jeremiad by Sider (Rich Christians in an
Age of Hunger) demands that American Christians start
practicing what they preach. Evangelical Christians, says
Sider, are very much like their non-Christian neighbors
in rates of divorce, premarital sex, domestic violence
and use of pornography, and are actually more
likely to hold racist views than other people. Why the
discrepancy between American Christians' practices and
what the Bible teaches? Sider decries the materialism of
most churches, marshaling evidence to demonstrate that
American Christians' charitable giving has decreased even
while their income has risen. Although they are
collectively the wealthiest Christians in the history of
the world, they don't take care of the poor, he says.
Sider reviews the New Testament to argue that Christians
can't accept Jesus as their Savior without also honoring
him as their Lord and obeying his teachings. In the final
chapters, he insists that Christians must strengthen
their accountability to the church and "dethrone
mammon" (money) as the real object of worship.
Sider's issues are of course selective; despite careful
attention to the subject of racial inequality, there is
no mention of gender inequality, and Sider quotes no
women alongside such heavyweights as Wesley and
Bonhoeffer. Still, his criticisms are incisive and
prophetic. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of
Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Book Description
Ron Sider asserts that ''by their daily activity, most
'Christians' regularly commit treason. With their mouths
they claim that Jesus is their Lord, but with their
actions they demonstrate their allegiance to money, sex,
and personal self-fulfillment.'' In this candid and
challenging book, Sider addresses an embarrassing
reality: most Christians' lives are no different from the
lives of their secular neighbors. Hedonism, materialism,
racism, egotism, and many other undesirable traits are
commonplace among Christians. Rather than simply a book
bemoaning the state of American Christianity today, The
Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience offers readers
solutions to repair the disconnect between belief and
practice. While it's not easy medicine to take, this book
is a much-needed prophetic call to transformed living.
**
Brothers—Feel, Think, Preach God (DVD) by John Piper
The Happy Necessity of God-Centeredness in the
Pastor's Feeling, Thinking, and Preaching
http://www.desiringgod.org/Store/DVDs/ByTopic/All/696_BrothersFeel_Think_Preach_God/
Man-centeredness pervades our world. Even in the church,
a gospel is often preached that makes man the focus and
puts God at the edge. People become God and he becomes
their lackey. Into this context, the Bible levels a
radical challenge to feel, think, and preach with
absolute God-centeredness.
In these three messages from the 2006 Phoenix Seminary
Pastors Conference, John Piper preaches to preachers,
urging them to lead in a way that keeps God where he
belongs – the center. Also featured is an hour of Q
& A with John Piper and Wayne Grudem.
Watch or listen to all of these messages online:
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