What Is Biblical Doctrine by Pastor Dolapo Lawal: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Last week we spoke about the findings of Gordon-Conwell's Center for the Study of Global Christianity: about 47,000 distinct denominations. Not 47,000 human beings, 47,000 different ideologies from a 66 book Bible

The unity of the faith

Ephesians 4:11 to Ephesians 4:13

Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, for equipping the saints. Until we all come to the unity of the faith. Unity of the faith is unanimity of the faith

The faith there is doctrine

The word faith is used in four different contexts in scripture. The dictionary doesn't give us the meaning of words, it gives us probable meanings

Take grace: it can mean charisma, empowerment. It can mean charis, unmerited favor. It can refer to a person, your grace. You understand a word in the context of its sentence

Faith can mean charismatic faith, faith that moves mountains Mark 11

Faith can mean the body of belief. When it says they departed from the faith 1 Timothy 4:1, it means they departed from the doctrine

The word of faith we preach Romans 10:8. When he talks about faith here, he is talking about a body of truth

What separates us from other religions? They pray, we pray. They worship, we worship. They sing, we sing

Some of them are even more extreme with morality than some of us. I don't think we are more pious than a Buddhist, in my own opinion

Everything every religion does, Christianity does as well. What separates us is the faith: what we believe, which is theology

That is why saying we are all worshiping the same God is heresy. It is not true

Unity of the faith means unanimity in what we know. What God wants is that all of us believe the same thing and preach the same thing

That is not the situation. With 47,000 different ideologies, the probability of meeting someone outside your church who agrees with everything you say is zero. Even in the same church you can disagree

So we must find common ground, what theologians call the essentials and the non-essentials. In essentials we contend, in non-essentials there is liberty, and in all things there is love

Study the original, not the fake

Imagine trying to study 47,000 ideologies to know what is fake. You will die and not finish. We don't study fake, we study original

Illustration: the fake dollars

A man came from Nigeria to Illinois with fake dollars. He tried to buy a mobile line and the seller saw the money was fake

This was the money he planned to use to stabilize himself. He went to the pastor of the church he had just joined and said, I am stranded, they said my money is fake

The pastor said, I know somebody who works with currency, go and meet him. The man looked at the money for less than five seconds and said, it is fake

How did you identify it so quickly? He said, there are many things in the original that are not there. He identified the fake because he knows the original

You immunize yourself from false teaching not by learning about false teaching or ways to identify false teachers

If the devil were your pastor, he would also use a Bible. False teachers teach a lot about false teaching as a cover: I am not a false teacher, that is what they are doing

So know the Bible for yourself. At least be rooted in the essentials

This is our reality. It is not what Jesus wants. He doesn't want us confused

We must understand what makes us Christians and how we respond to other Christians who see things differently. Two folds:

1. Doctrine
2. Posture: heart posture and disposition

What is biblical doctrine?

Doctrine is God's revealed truth in scripture

Doctrine in itself is a revelation. It doesn't need a revelation

Doctrine means God has finished cooking the food. You only serve the food. You don't start recooking

I cooked fried rice and said, let me make it sweeter, and added pepper. I am cooking poison

When approaching doctrine we are not trying to give people a revelation. The doctrine itself is the revelation

The epistles are simply letters. Paul was writing to a church with children, old people and young people in it. The letter was intended to be simple enough for everybody to understand

The Bible is so simple. It is pastors that confuse us

The revelation in the epistles is contextual interpretation

As a pastor dealing with the epistles, I am not trying to say the meaning. It is already a meaning

The Old Testament is types

Genesis to Malachi is like dark sayings. It is God prophesying about the Christ in a type

Psalm 22:16

This is David speaking. They didn't pierce his hands, he was busy marrying women. So this is a messianic psalm

Psalm 22:17 to Psalm 22:18

This is Jesus's conversation on the cross. If Jesus were not the Messiah, you couldn't tell them to tear his clothes. They did it out of their own mind but were fulfilling scriptures

Psalm 22 is Jesus's conversation on the cross. Psalm 23 is his conversation in the grave. Psalm 24 is his conversation in the resurrection, sitting at the right hand of the Father

The rod and the staff Psalm 23:4 is a typology of the Holy Spirit. Jesus gave us the revelation of it John 14

Luke 24:44

The Old Testament is concerning the Christ, a type to bear witness of him when he comes

John 3:14

When Moses lifted the serpent, everyone bitten who looked to it was healed. The Son of Man will be lifted up, and if you look to him you will be saved

In the Old Testament you have types and typologies witnessing of the Messiah, so that when he comes his claim is authenticated

John 5:39 to John 5:40

The Old Testament scriptures testify of the Christ so that we don't miss him when he comes

Old Testament: types. New Testament: the antitype, the manifestation

The Old Testament has the promise of the Messiah. The gospels have the manifestation of that promise. The epistles have the explanation of the life he brought

The early church read Genesis to Malachi, showing people that Jesus is the Christ who was promised. The Old Testament is what needs explanation. The New Testament writers explained it with the epistles

So we don't cook what is cooked. They have finished the work. We just read in context. It is so simple that a child can read it

The epistles were written to poor, illiterate people. Even the people preaching were illiterate. Only one was educated, Paul

If Paul were writing in English today it would be broken English. I am telling you how simple it is

The book of Ephesians takes about 14 minutes to read

Doctrine is God's revealed truth in scripture, fulfilled in Christ, taught by the apostles, and given to be believed, obeyed and passed on

That doctrine is what the Bible calls faith

Jude 3

What did they deliver to the saints? We understand that faith by how the word delivered is used in the epistles

1 Corinthians 11:23

Paul is talking about communion. Who was there when Jesus did communion? The disciples. So what Paul received from the Lord is what the disciples said. He didn't cook up something

That is why it is the apostles' doctrine. If you are seeing the Bible in a brand new way that nobody in the Bible saw it, you are wrong

That is why eisegesis is terrible Bible study. We can't all sit down, read Matthew 5 and ask how do you see it. That is not Bible study

Misunderstanding is to hear from what I am saying what I didn't mean. If Jesus said something, there is an objective answer

Illustration: the Beautiful Gate

We preachers do this a lot, may God forgive us

I explain the miracle at the Beautiful Gate and say it shows the power of positioning, because where else can you receive a miracle if not at the gate leading to the temple?

But the reason for that text is to show that Peter and John, as they were going to pray, used the name of Jesus to heal a man at the Beautiful Gate

It shows Jesus is still alive, operating now with men Acts 3

Soon you hear somebody use the parable of the lost coin to teach business because it is a coin, but it is about salvation Luke 15

If three people have three interpretations, either all three are wrong or only one is correct. You can't study the Bible like that

A personal word is not a doctrine

Because we are prophetic, God can quicken a word to you. You can be reading and a scripture is quickened to you as your personal word. We can talk about that another day

Illustration: the woman on crutches

A woman was watching our church service from Singapore. I was reading Genesis 17:1. She was on crutches. She stood, dropped the crutches and started walking, and sent me an email

I video called her to confirm. I said, that is not the meaning of the text. She looked straight at the camera and said, Pastor, do you want to collect a miracle? I kept quiet

That word was quickened to her as a personal word, but I can't now teach it for healing

That is the mistake many make. They receive something out of context and say this is the word. Because it worked for A doesn't mean it will work for B

Moses' rod is not for you, Joshua. Every time you lift Moses' rod, God sees idolatry Joshua 1:3

1 Corinthians 15:3 to 1 Corinthians 15:4

That is where we find the gospel. Paul delivered what he received. Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures

When they prayed in tongues in Acts 2, nobody had spoken in tongues before in the Bible

When asked, Peter said they are not drunk, it is just 9 a.m., this is what was prophesied by Joel Acts 2, Joel 2:28

If you cannot explain your experience in scripture, it is demonic. The devil can appear as an angel of light 2 Corinthians 11:14

You can start a spiritual enterprise and be working with a demon. Don't say it can't happen to you

The devil quotes scripture out of context. Imagine testing the word with the word Matthew 4:6

If you quote scripture out of context, you are behaving like him. He is the only one who takes scriptures out of context

Jesus used another scripture. You don't test the Lord your God Matthew 4:7

If Jesus had no spiritual intelligence, he would say God has given me a word to show power, and you would go and die

This teaching looks simple but it is very important. This is how many people go off

Result doesn't mean it is correct

This is a balance for Pentecostalism. If you are praying the wrong way and they correct you, don't say but it is working for me

God can say speak to the rock, you hit the rock and water still comes out Numbers 20. Because water came out doesn't mean he is pleased

Illustration: the crying child

Two children in my house have a way of getting their way through crying

The older one is getting to a level where it worked a lot last year, and she sees the younger boy get away with it

When she tries it, we say, fix your face, give me your smiley face. Before, you got our attention through tears. Now tears won't work again

Some of us are not ready to adjust. There was a way you prayed before and God answered. Now God is saying no, learn the right way

Romans 6:17, Hebrews 2:3

Who are those who heard him? The apostles

The faith delivered to the saints is the doctrine that came from Jesus through the lips of the apostles to us

So when we say doctrine, we are saying something fixed. A dogma. We can't be inventive. They don't update. You update your Bible app, but they are not updating the Bible

One of the ways you know you are listening to a teacher of the gospel is that they say the same things again and again. Every religion has learned the power of repetition

Only Christians want something new, and that is our problem

Why the gospels differ and still stand

Jesus did not pen down the gospel. He had no message notes. He had the scriptures and read from them

The gospel writers wrote from what they heard Jesus teach and from eyewitness accounts. The data sometimes varies

One records the feeding of 5,000 John 6. Another records 4,000 Mark 8. Which is it?

In historiography, one way to authenticate an event is varying data. Take a car accident: one says two died, another four, another five

Same day, varying details. It authenticates that it really happened, because you interrogated various people

So the varying data in the gospels authenticates that the events happened and the writers interrogated different people

Jesus was such a fantastic teacher that even 60 years later, either they had message notes from what he said, or he preached the same thing the same way every single time

If Jesus said the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, the disciples heard it the same way every time

That is how you don't fall into error. People who look for new things meet new gods

Illustration: the book of Jasher

Somebody asked if I had read the book of Jasher. I said, what am I looking for there? I have not even understood everything in this

I have seen somebody lose their mind studying demonology, because worship is attention. If you give demons attention, you are worshiping them

Some study and study and study themselves out of the faith

There is nothing as beautiful as the innocence of a new believer

Illustration: the rapture argument

Two people in church came to me arguing about the rapture: will the tribulation happen after or before? I asked, will the rapture happen? Both said yes. You agree. So why are you arguing?

We argue about the weirdest things. Many people don't want to be a blessing, they want to be right

Look at what makes people say I am not this, I am not this. Some argue over baptism, we baptize children, we don't baptize children. But they bath every day

So who delivered the doctrine?

Luke 1:1

Doctrine has to be set in order, chronological and progressive. It can't be scattered

Fulfilled means settled. We are not looking for new things

No need for new realms. We are already seated far above principalities and powers. Nothing can be above that. He who is above is above all John 3:31

Jesus came from heaven and preached with parables and stories. Depth is the ability to simplify mysteries, not to sound confusing

A lot of people are trying so hard to confuse themselves, not us

When you join a teaching ministry, this is what the Lord wants the teacher to do for you. The mother eats meat but doesn't give the baby meat

As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word 1 Peter 2:2

The pastor is the mother. She eats the meat so that she has milk for the baby. If she gives the baby meat, the baby will choke and die

You are supposed to be served milk. If it is confusing, it is not you. The efficacy of a teaching ministry is that the dullest person should get what you are saying

No believer is dull

If somebody is confusing me, it is because I have an unction from the Most High and know all things. My spirit is not bearing witness

Have you heard somebody explain the Bible and it made sense? It was new, but it was not new. You have an unction from the Most High and you know all things

Luke 1:2

My doctrine has to come from scripture. It has to be something delivered to me

I can't cook something. I can't say this is a fresh revelation God is giving me, I have never heard it anywhere. Then don't tell us. You have to have heard it somewhere

We can be innovative with the presentation but we can't be inventive with the message

If we don't get this, we can never come to the unanimity of the faith, and that is what Jesus wants

What a pastor shares here should be what is shared one hour away. We are not seeing strange, weird things

Some preach the epistles and Paul would say, wow, I never saw it that way. That is not what he meant

Acts 2:42

Doctrine is fixed. I can't overemphasize this

If it is sounding new, if it is sounding strange, it is the voice of a stranger John 10:5

Doctrine is orthodox. Doctrine is not new. It is only made clear

Why doctrine is important

1. Discipleship

   We need it for discipleship. That is how we grow in our revelation and knowledge of Jesus

   Acts 2:41

   Salvation came first, then doctrine. They were saved before doctrine. So doctrine is for discipleship

   You can be saved and have wrong doctrine. Somebody can be wrong and not be a false teacher. They are two different things

   Illustration: my own modalism

   There are things I taught three years ago that I have adjusted. I didn't know I had a modalist theology until three years ago

   I explained God as one person in three dimensions. That is heresy. I taught it and people would say deep

   You can be sincerely wrong. Apollos in the Bible was eloquent but knew only up to John the Baptist Acts 18

   He wasn't preaching the resurrection. If you were in Apollos' church, you were a Jew, not a Christian

   Aquila and Priscilla pulled him aside and said, we get your heart, but the one John was bearing witness of is Jesus, who died and has risen

   Apollos corrected his doctrine, went to Corinth and was a blessing. Paul planted, Apollos watered, and God gave the increase 1 Corinthians 3:6

   Wrong teacher or false teacher

   When you approach a wrong teacher with correct doctrine, they change. They don't start arguing about the Greek word. They are open to learning

   A false teacher sees they are wrong, but because of what they gain from it, they stay with it

   Even if you are Samuel and the Lord is speaking to you, there are some things you only learn from Eli, because he is familiar with God's voice 1 Samuel 3

   You can have revelation, but older people have an experience component that gives your revelation form. This is for us young people

   One reason I didn't have a mentor for a long time: once someone interpreted a scripture wrongly, I decided he didn't know the Bible

   The root of all the mistakes I made in life and ministry is that I didn't have a mentor

   Don't go and say my pastor is a false teacher. Calm down. He can be wrong without being false

2. Salvation

   Doctrine is also important for salvation. What you hear to be saved matters

   If you want your life to change in three weeks, come to King Jesus: that is not salvation, that is not the gospel. If you need healing, quickly come: that is not it either

   Healing can bring you to him. You receive your healing and then the message is clearly preached to you

   Lazarus was raised from the dead and will still die John 11. Make sure you receive him before you die this time

   Receiving a miracle, signs and wonders, is not the end. A sign is like a signpost. It is not the destination. It points to salvation, to Jesus

   The end goal of our Christian enterprise is Jesus. We start with Jesus as Alpha and end with him as Omega. Every other thing is an addendum

   We also need doctrine to clearly explain the gospel

   1 Timothy 4:16

   2 John 9

   Doctrine is integral to salvation. When they say people are no longer in the faith, it means they left the doctrine of Christ

   Faith is explained as dogma, doctrine: Jude 3, Romans 10:8, Galatians 1:23, 1 Timothy 4:1, Titus 1:13

The antichrist and discernment

1 John 2:18 to 1 John 2:19

What does it mean when he said they went out from us? It means they left our doctrine

Who is the antichrist? False teachers. Simple

What does continued with us mean? Matthew 15:32

They had continued with Jesus three days. What was he doing? Teaching. So continued with us means they were with our teaching

Hebrews 8:9

Continue means a teaching, and continue means obeying the teaching. Read Acts 1:14 in your own time

1 John 2:20

Is he saying you don't need a teacher because he is writing to them? The anointing is for discernment

When they say grow in the anointing, they mean grow in discernment. How? By knowing the word of God, by teaching

Many think growing in the anointing is just praying in tongues. It is part of it, but not all of it

2 Peter 1:2 to 2 Peter 1:3

Grace, which is charismatic, and peace are multiplied through knowledge

That knowledge is not ginosko. The Greek word is epignosis. The more you are open, the more epignosis

1 John 2:21 to 1 John 2:22

Somebody who says Jesus is a prophet, or just a man, is antichrist. He is fully man and fully God, the hypostatic union

He is not another option for mankind. There is no other way to the Father John 14:6. That word is definite, the only way

There is no other name by which we can be saved Acts 4:12

You can't be nice and make it to heaven. You receive the gift of salvation. Heaven is not full of nice people. It is full of people who believed the gospel

1 John 4:1

We don't test spirits by just testing. A lot of people think suspicion is discernment

If you were in Jerusalem when Jesus was there, the narrative was that he was a false teacher. You had to discern him to know he was the Son of God

The majority thought he was false. That is why they killed him, and why God had to resurrect him

Deuteronomy 21:23

When they put Jesus on the cross, they were saying he is accursed of God. God was banishing him, rejecting him

That is why Jesus cried, Father, why have you forsaken me? Matthew 27:46

It was not a feeling. It was fulfillment of scripture Psalm 22:1

Men's verdict was that he is accursed of God. How does God vindicate him as sent of God? He resurrects him Romans 1:4

They said he is man. In the resurrection he is declared the Son of God. That was God saying, not so fast

1 John 4:1 to 1 John 4:5

Confess, in the Greek, means acknowledge. They believe in the humanity and the divinity of Jesus

Somebody who says Jesus was special because he is the Son of God, and we can't compare ourselves with him, is teaching falsely

Jesus was made manifest to show us who God is and who we are. On that cross you see a savior, but you also see an example

He wasn't dying for good people. He was laying down his life for his enemies. We who were far off have been brought near by the blood of Jesus Ephesians 2:13

When you receive Jesus, God can command you to forgive your enemies. You were his enemy and he forgave you. You receive him also as an example

Jesus is how we ought to be. Deny that Jesus came in the flesh and you are saying we should not change: this is how I am, this is how God made me

No sir, you deny yourself. Jesus didn't say this is how I am. He died for us. God killed his Son to make his enemies his sons. Think about that deeply

This spirit of antichrist is a teaching

1 John 4:4

We use it for prayer, but contextually it is for discernment. It is not warfare prayer

It is the anointing in chapter two. You are able to discern

For a believer to be deceived, you did more work silencing the Holy Spirit than being deceived. When you were exposed to the teaching, the alarm was going off in you

You silenced it because of what you saw with your eyes

But people are receiving miracles. If you come to God for what you can get from his hand, you will meet people who will collect what is in your hand

We have too many people who are not serious

We pray twice a day and read two chapters of the Bible every day. Some will not join, some will not read. Once a month we pray 4 hours and people will not show up

Everything that can make you a success in your Christian experience, the facilities are already established for you

• Father, in the name of Jesus, we thank you that the entrance of your word has given us light
• Lord, the things we have heard among many witnesses, may we be able to commit to faithful men who will teach others also

Psalm 119:130, 2 Timothy 2:2