The "to do" list

So what do we do with this Sound Doctrine? Hold Fast!! Paul says kinda the same thing in 1 Timothy 3:9 where he says to "keep hold." Why is that important? Because, stuff comes along that sounds pretty good, and we need to know if it is good. Satan isn't stupid. He doesn't attack us with things that are obviously wrong right at the start. None of us would fall for it if someone in our church suggested that we have temple prostitutes to help us worship. I'm pretty sure that it wouldn't take a business meeting to decide that one. But Satan knows that, and so he is much more subtle about his take-over. He starts small with stuff that sounds good, but isn't quite right. I remember when I started going to a new church and attended an adult class that had no perminant teacher. I sat in class for 4 weeks as they took turns leading the class in discussion based lessons. They got into some interesting conversations that usually contained a comment that sounded good, but wasn't quite right. Like I said, I sat for 4 weeks as a guest (biting my tongue) when one of the men (whose words were always accepted as truth) made a comment that was not true at all, but sure sounded good. I couldn't take it any more, so I gracefully pulled out my Bible and showed them the sound doctrine that they were missing. It's like people quoting that phrase, "God helps those who help themselves," and believing that as some kinda scriptual truth. It just ain't there! It sounds good, but it's not. After that, I taught that class for almost 7 years (They named the class Truth Seekers).

Are you familiar with the Jewish fortress called Masada? It was built high on a mountain top and for years was impossible to conquer. In the Roman times, it became the last line of defense against the Romans (Okay, yes I am a P.B.S. freak). Even though the Romans had 10000-15000 men going against only about 1000; they still did not rush up to the fortress and take it. They couldn't because of the huge walls of rock all around. No, they spent months camped around the fortress, building this huge ramp one shovel-full of dirt at a time, until they could roll right up to the wall with a giant ram-rod. The Jews just gave up when they saw that and killed themselves. That is exactly how Satan works. He takes a shovel full of dirt and tosses it at the foot of our fortress. And what do we do? We brush it off and say, "Oh that ain't gonna hurt anything; I won't even bother with it." Before you know it, we have killed ourselves. We have to hold firm to sound doctrine so we can see him sneaking-up on us.

What else do we do with Sound Doctrine? Verse 9 says that we use it to encourage others. I think it is about time to take a sneak peak at the Greek. That word, encourage, is "Parakaleo" (to call along-side). It has the same root as the word "Paraclete" which is the Holy Spirit. I'm thinkin that the whole "you can do it" pep talk kinda encouragement isn't what we have going on here. The Holy Spirit isn't there just to tell us we are doing good, but also to guide us, warn us, and help nudge us in the right direction. We should do the same thing for those around us, except that we need to use sound doctrine to do it. We shouldn't give out advice based on what we think, but on what the word of God has to say. We should come along-side others and say, "lets check out what the Bible says about that." No opinions; just good solid God stuff.

Then there is the whole refuting thing. Refute those who oppose sound doctrine by using sound doctrine. That sounds a little crazy, but it was exactly what Titus needed to do. Them people were teaching some pretty crazy stuff, and he had to put a stop to it. How do ya stop the wrong stuff? By using the right stuff. But lets take a look at the "Refute" thing. As I have studied this word, it doesn't seem to come across as a "beat em over the head with a big stick" kinda thing. The word in the Greek (elegcho) means to convict or find fault, with the idea that the person would be ashamed and correct the problem. We don't see any comment about kicking them out or a good ole fashion bannishing. Paul says (vrs. 13) "rebuke them sharply." Why? "So that they will be sound in the faith (healthy faith). When I made that correction in the Bible study class, I didn't beat them over the head with anything. I simply showed them what God's word says and then asked them to look at our discussion as it lines up with God's word. It ain't my opinion in the discussion that matters; it's God's opinion that can make the difference in our lives.

So we need to use sound doctrine to correct the wrong around us.

We need to use sound doctrine to guide ourselves and others.

And we need to use sound doctrine to hold on when it gets rough.

I've been doing alot of hay lately with my old John Deere square bailer, and I was having some trouble with my bales breaking when we load and unload. As I played around with the adjusters, I noticed that the more hay that I could pack in a bale; the more sturdy it became. I thought they were breaking because they were too tight, but the more I loosened them the worse it got. When I packed them full; we could throw them off the wagon and they would hold together just fine. I think that is true of our Spiritual lives. The more sound doctrine we can pack in there; the less chance we're gonna break. So I hope things are stackin up for ya!