SOUND TEACHING

John 13:13-17; 2 Timothy 4:3-5; Titus 1:7-9; Acts 2:42

It is in my mind to speak about teaching, and it is good to begin with the Lord. He said to His disciples, “Ye call me the Teacher and the Lord, and ye say well, for I am so”. Then He says, “If I therefore, the Lord and the Teacher …”. The Lord places His lordship first because He has authority in what He says, and that authority cannot be ignored. For example, it says that “God is faithful, by whom ye have been called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord”, 1 Cor.1:9. Being called into the fellowship of God’s Son involves that, on our part, we accept responsibly the lordship of Christ and His authority in relation to it. It says as to marriage, “she is free to be married to whom she will, only in the Lord” (1 Cor.7:39), so the Lord’s authority relates to the matter of marriage. It also says, “Blessed the dead who die in the Lord” (Rev.14:13); that means that subjection to the Lord is for the whole of our Christian life. Every believer who has died will be counted amongst the dead in Christ, but “Blessed the dead who die in the Lord”.

The Spirit acts first in new birth, but we begin in our Christian journey by recognising, through the work of new birth by the Holy Spirit, that we have a need of a Saviour. Paul sets it out very clearly in Romans chapter 10, “The word is near thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach: that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him from among the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart is believed to righteousness; and with the mouth confession made to salvation” (vv.8-10). There is present salvation in confessing Jesus as Lord because when you are a sinner you are under an authority. Paul says, “Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves bondmen for obedience, ye are bondmen to him whom ye obey” (Rom.6:16), and whether you like it or not, when you are a sinner you are under the authority of Satan, under the authority of darkness. You may not realise it and indeed Satan would blind you to it – it says in 2 Corinthians 4 “the god of this world has blinded the thoughts of the unbelieving” (v.4) – but it is nevertheless a fact that you “are bondmen to him whom ye obey”, captured by your own will. But on confessing Jesus as Lord and believing in your heart that God has raised Him from among the dead, you can say, ‘He died for me’, and now He is risen, raised for our justification, and is in glory.

Confessing Jesus as Lord means that you recognise that you are under His authority, and then His teaching begins to have authority over you. What He says, and how He says it, and what He does, begin to have authority over you so that you are not now cast adrift, not now largely motivated by your own will. Perhaps as unconverted, you may have stopped doing things that are wrong for fear of the consequences, but as a believer indwelt by the Holy Spirit, you are now under the Lord’s authority. You are also under the authority of His teaching, and His teaching is constructive. It has something substantial in view. It begins with a foundation and it goes on from that foundation to develop a structure which is for the glory of God. The teaching of Scripture has in mind God’s glory, and the teaching of Scripture and the knowledge of God have in mind an understanding of divine Persons as revealed, their affections and their thoughts. It has in mind too an understanding of the moral universe which God has established.

The book of Genesis has been described as an index to the spiritual world. In Genesis 1 we have the creation. The days are enumerated, and we have been taught that the first four days bring out the conditions of light, atmosphere, food and rule. These are the conditions of the kingdom, and they are necessary for life to be sustained. Then there is the variety of life created on the fifth day, and on the sixth day the establishment of man as the top stone of God’s creation and the thought of the headship of man. When God said, “let them have dominion” (Gen.1:26), he prefigured what would be seen in Christ and the assembly. In the book of Genesis, God’s thoughts are worked out on the basis of families. There are initially the relationships which God set up, the man and the woman, there are types of the assembly and there is a type of the Spirit in Genesis 24. First of all it was man and his wife, then the thought of brethren. You can see that Satan attacks every relationship that God sets up, so that the first thing he did was to bring in distance between man and his wife. Then he brought in distance between brother and brother, between Cain and Abel, and then Satan brought in distance between a man and his son, in Noah and Ham. Thus his attempts to disrupt divinely appointed relationships went on.

Satan would undermine every divinely appointed relationship, but the Lord establishes that God’s thoughts will stand. In Matthew’s gospel chapter 19 the Pharisees brought forward the matter of a bill of divorce and the Lord said to them, “but from the beginning it was not thus” (v.8). He went right back to the beginning and the Lord’s authority endorsed that which was established from the beginning. He said, “If I therefore, the Lord and the Teacher …”; He is Lord to us as He is Teacher, and His lordship comes first. His teaching is not optional, the teaching of Scripture is not optional. You see what happens to a star when it gets out of its orbit – it becomes a wandering star. What God has put in place is not optional, but the Lord brings in His teaching in such a gentle way. He washes the feet of His disciples, He teaches them not only by what He says but also by what He does, and the way in which He does it. He speaks to them later, “By this shall all know that ye are disciples of mine, if ye have love amongst yourselves” (John 13:35) and He had already taught them how that might be worked out. So that His authoritative teaching is not irksome, it is teaching that is delivered in love.

For saints to continue in it requires energy and exercise, and that is why I have read in the other three scriptures, to bring out that continuance in these matters is not optional, but it is not necessarily easy either. It requires energy and exercise and commitment. In the scripture in 2 Timothy, Paul says that “they will not bear sound teaching”. I do not want to speak about negatives, but rather to put the question before us: what does it mean in practice to “bear sound teaching”? If you bear something, it means that you have to carry it, and there might be a burden involved in that. We have spoken of “the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord”. There is sound teaching as to what that means. It means that we cannot associate that fellowship with anything that is unsuitable to it. It means that if matters come up which are inconsistent with the fellowship, they have to be taken up, recognised, named and judged. And it means that ultimately, if persons will not accept the truth as established by the Lord, then it is not possible to go on in fellowship with them. Bearing sound teaching means that we have to accept these things. It may be said that this is negative, but it does not have what is negative in view, it has in view pursuing “righteousness, faith, love, peace, with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart”, 2 Tim.2:22. It is not easy, but it is relatively simple to understand what is meant by “Let every one who names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity” (2 Tim.2:19), and I want to say one or two things about it.

First of all, naming the name of the Lord means that I ask myself the question; can I associate the Lord’s name with this? For example, if there is a system of religion in which all of the responsibility is given to one person, and they are ordained to carry out the services, then that hinders the Holy Spirit. Can I associate the Lord’s name with that? No, I cannot. If I name the name of the Lord, I have to withdraw from that. If it is said that there are other marriage relationships that are acceptable besides that of marriage between a man and a woman, can I associate the Lord’s name with that? No, I cannot; I have to withdraw from that. Believers have been taught certain things as to the Lord’s person: for example, that He took up the place of Son as coming into manhood: He was not the Son in eternity past. If a person says, ‘I have heard that said, but I am not going to accept it’, can I associate the Lord’s name with that? No, I cannot; I would have to withdraw from that. If, however, a person says that they do not understand the teaching, that is a different matter – we would not separate from someone for lack of understanding. But if a person rejected or opposed sound teaching, that would be a different matter. And we have to be specific – it is not right to withdraw from someone because of poor state. However low it may be, you do not withdraw from that. But you have to accept that, in order to “pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart”, there are certain things that have to be set aside, and brethren have suffered to do this. You think of Mr Darby leaving behind those dear believers whom he loved because he felt he could not go on any longer with what they were involved with.

I suppose there is hardly a person in this room of adult years who has not had to say to someone who they love, I cannot go on with that. Do you love them any less? No. In fact, it is because you love them that you would say it to them. If you did not care, if it did not matter enough to worry about, you would not take the time or trouble: you would not bear sound teaching, it would not be worth bearing. There was a man who wrote hymn 174,

‘Jesus! Thou art enough

The mind and heart to fill;

Thy patient life – to calm the soul;

Thy love – its fear dispel’.

That man died when he was about twenty-seven years old and that is what he had learned; ‘Jesus! Thou art enough’. It is because of the Lord’s love for you and me, and because of our love for Him, feeble though it is, that we seek to “bear sound teaching”. I do not mean ‘we’ in any exclusive sense; this is open to every believer who has the Spirit. The question is, are we going to take it up? It involves sorrow. It involved Paul, in this very chapter, having to say, “Demas has forsaken me, having loved the present age”, 2 Tim.4:10. It involves that we may have to say to our own families, I cannot go on with you any longer. The Lord knows that, He understands it. His own family said that He was mad, they despised Him, and they derided Him for what He went on with. He went on anyway, because it was the Father’s will.

To “bear sound teaching” means to carry something that involves exercise and it may involve sorrow, but the object is the Lord. In verse 5, Paul use these two words “But thou …”. You say, ‘What about other persons? They have done this or that’. Paul said to Timothy “But thou …”. That is what the Lord would say to everyone here: ‘What are you going to do; are you going to be for Me in the scene of My absence?’. I know, beloved brethren, that there is cost involved, there is sorrow, there is suffering, but if I know that in whatever limited capacity I have, how much more does the Lord know when through His apostle He says, “But thou …”. He is the One of whom we spoke in the reading, “having made peace by the blood of his cross” (Col.1:20); He is the One who says to us now, ‘But thou, will you be for Me?’.

In Titus, it is a word to the overseer, and we are all responsible. We have to accept that, and no one here should absolve themselves of responsibility. But first, there is this word in verse 9, “clinging to the faithful word according to the doctrine taught”. Now there is much that has been given to help us, and I just want to emphasise this word “clinging”. It is not like the analogy of a person clinging to wreckage as a last resort. Think of those persons in Paul’s shipwreck; they would be clinging to pieces of the ship’s furniture. There is nothing wrong with that, for they all “got safe to land” (Acts 28:1), but Paul is saying to Titus, “clinging to the faithful word according to the doctrine taught”. I suppose there would be persons who would try to dislodge it, but Paul says that we have to cling to it. One of the features of exercises amongst believers is that there is often a great deal of detail involved and sometimes necessarily so, but there is a risk that every time that you want to take a step forward someone will say to you ‘What about this detail and what about that other matter?’. Well, “clinging to the faithful word according to the doctrine taught”, would lead me to ask – what would the Lord say about the matter? How would His rights be answered to in the matter? There may be details which are unsatisfactory and matters which could have been better handled; we would have to accept that. It is a humbling thing to have to accept that. I might have to accept, and I lay this on myself, that I did things that I would have been better not to do, or did not see things as clearly as I might when others could see them clearly. But the thing is to cling “to the faithful word according to the doctrine taught”.

There was a time when persons were objecting to the apostle Paul and they were “throwing away their clothes, and casting dust into the air”, Acts 22:23. There was a lot going on and there is never any shortage of dust to throw in the air, but dust is man’s death. The way to go forward is to cling “to the faithful word according to the doctrine taught”. Is what we are doing consistent with the teaching of Scripture? Is it consistent with the faith once delivered to the saints? Is it consistent with the present mind of the Lord? If the answer is yes, then cling to it and the Lord will help you in that. Titus had been left by the apostle in Crete where there were great difficulties; there were persons who were headstrong and lazy. I suppose they may have been violent, but Titus was to cling “to the faithful word according to the doctrine taught”. There is much teaching available. Ministry is not the pinnacle of what we have, the Scriptures remain the top stone of everything that we have, but there is much that is available in ministry “according to the doctrine taught”.

I trust that I will not be misunderstood when I say this, but do not depend over much on ministry, exceedingly valuable though it is. Remember David, when he went up against the troop of the Philistines, asked, “Shall I pursue after this troop?” (1 Sam.30:8); the answer was yes, and he went up and defeated them. Then the Philistines came again. Someone might have said that David will know what to do, because there is already ministry about that. Should David not just go up against the Philistines again, as he did before? No, he enquired of Jehovah again and the answer this time was that he was to wait. “And it shall be, when thou hearest a sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry-trees, that then thou shalt bestir thyself”, 2 Sam.5:24. In both cases the Philistines were to be defeated, there was no doubt about that, but in one case the means of their defeat was in one way, and in the other case it was different. David had to be dependent every time. Then there was the time when Israel did not go forward in dependence; they tried to deal with Ai by their own means just after they had come into the land. They suffered a defeat and they had to go back and do it the Lord’s way. So we should not simply say that there is ministry about a particular matter, and thus we know perfectly well what to do. The ministry may well be right, and the doctrine has not changed, but the need for dependence remains constant; that is always the case. We are not being asked to do something that is not according to the doctrine taught, but we must do it in dependence.

Then Paul writes of the overseer “that he may be able … to encourage with sound teaching”. I want to give some examples of that. We read last week locally in Hebrews chapter 1, and this week we read in Colossians chapter 1 and next week, if we are left here and the Lord will, we will read in John chapter 1, about the personal glories of Christ. There is much to encourage in taking these scriptures up, and there is sound teaching associated with them. Running through Hebrews 1, Colossians 1 and John 1, you see certain features of Christ referred to. Something that came to me as we were speaking together on Thursday evening was that the Creator is the Redeemer. Christ is the Creator and then Christ is the Redeemer, and the One who is our Creator and our Redeemer is also our title to glory. That runs through Hebrews 1, Colossians 1 and John 1. You see how the Lord is presented as Creator and as Redeemer but also our title to glory. What do I mean by our title to glory? In Hebrews chapter 1, it says “thy God, has anointed thee with oil of gladness above thy companions” (Heb.1:9); the Lord has companions with Him. Then in chapter 2 it says, “For both he that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one; for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren” (v.11); it is a title to glory. In Colossians chapter 1, you have, “And he is the head of the body, the assembly” (v.18), then in chapter 2, “For in him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (v.9). There is what is accessible and what is available to us. At the end of chapter 1 it says, “Christ in you the hope of glory” (v.27); not just our title to glory individually but our title to glory collectively. And then in John chapter 1, it says “He came to his own, and his own received him not; but as many as received him, to them gave he the right to be children of God, to those that believe on his name; who have been born, not of blood, nor of flesh’s will, nor of man’s will, but of God” (vv.11-13). The Lord Jesus is our title to glory and that runs through. We can be encouraged by these things which God establishes, that Christ is our title to glory, and in these different settings the Holy Spirit repeats it for our encouragement.

Another way we can encourage one another with sound teaching is in answer to questions. Persons may question you as to whether the Lord was the Son eternally. In Hebrews chapter 1 we have a direct answer to that. It says, “For to which of the angels said he ever, Thou art my Son: this day have I begotten thee?” (v.5). There you are; that is not Christ as Son in eternity past. In Colossians 1, you have a different presentation of Him, “firstborn of all creation” (v.15), and “firstborn from among the dead” (v.18). If He is firstborn, that must refer to a point in time. You might ask, ‘Does that mean that Jesus was created?’ No, that refers to His place as firstborn of all creation. His deity is protected by the fact that it says, “all things have been created by him and for him” (v.16); His deity is perfectly protected there. In John chapter 1, it says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (v.1). His deity is protected there, and then again John writes in verse 18, “the only-begotten son, who is in the bosom of the Father”. That word “only-begotten” suggests that something took place at a point in time. We can encourage one another with sound teaching because Scripture confirms itself in the way that it proceeds.

Many other things could be said but the fact is that sound teaching is meant to be an encouragement to us. You look at the way that God has ordered things. We have spoken about the beginning of Genesis, the order of the kingdom. Look at the way in which God orders things in Matthew’s gospel, look into the way in which the kingdom is established in order that there might not only be a kingdom but a city and a house. Look for these things in teaching and it will be for your encouragement because you will see that God’s order has never changed and will never have to change. In the first chapter of Colossians, you see the way in which the truth of the gospel, the truth of the kingdom and the truth of the assembly are all part of one whole. Paul speaks “of which ye heard before in the word of the truth of the glad tidings” (v.5); that is the truth of the gospel. Then in verse 13, “who has delivered us from the authority of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love”; that is the truth of the kingdom. Then in verse 18, “And he is the head of the body, the assembly”; there is the truth of the assembly coming into view.

It is all centred in Christ. We can encourage one another with the fact that God’s thoughts are centred in Christ and they have never had to change. If somebody says to you that the truth of the kingdom is more important than the truth of the gospel or vice versa, or that the brethren are always occupied with the truth of the assembly, that is not so. The truth of the gospel and the truth of the kingdom and the truth of the assembly form part of one whole; they cannot be separated from one another. It is not that one is better or more important than the other. Without the gospel you will not be saved, and you will not come into the kingdom. Without the kingdom you will not come under authority and you will not be taught and you will not be fed. If you are not under authority and taught and fed, you are not going to come into the assembly. So by the truth of the gospel, you are brought to Christ and brought under His authority so that you have become a subject of the kingdom. As coming into the kingdom, you come under divine authority, you are taught and fed and led, and you are brought into a sphere of order. Then as you are brought into that sphere of order, you are ready to form part of that which is nearest the heart of Christ. All of this requires the gift of the Spirit, and these things cannot be detached from one another.

We read in Acts. We have spoken about bearing sound teaching, we have spoken about clinging to the doctrine taught, and we have spoken about encouraging with sound teaching. I just want to speak of persevering. Perseverance brings out particularly the matter of steadiness; “And they persevered in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles, in breaking of bread and prayers”. Teaching and fellowship are put together here, and that is important. A person who will not bear sound teaching is not fit to take their part in fellowship, and again I am not making that exclusive. If you cannot find your place in fellowship, then what would the breaking of bread be? It would be a matter that was entirely individual. I know that some say that it is an individual matter. The preparation for it is individual, but the enjoyment of it is collective, as shown in “we being assembled to break bread”, Acts 20:7. That is the word which scripture uses; “being assembled to break bread”. We must assemble in righteousness – it is essential. God’s rights are at stake here. 1 Corinthians 10 is the public side of the breaking of bread, and the blood is put first there because the blood involves the rights of God. Assembling involves the public recognition of the rights of God before we come to the side of privilege which is opened up in 1 Corinthians 11.

I want to speak briefly about perseverance; “they persevered in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles, in breaking of bread and prayers”. The prayers would mean that there is power available to sustain what is for Christ in the scene of His absence. In 1 Kings 7, we read of the lavers on the ten bases of brass; “And on the panels that were between the fillets were lions, oxen and cherubim” (v.29). The lions on these bases would represent the contending “earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints” (Jude v.3), and the oxen would represent steadiness of tread. I would speak to my younger brethren – look at some of your older brethren who go on steadily. How do they do that? They continue to do it, I believe, by dependence on Christ, by dependence on the Holy Spirit, by nearness to the Father, by the enjoyment of communion. That is how they go on. They do not go on in their own strength. Brethren who are getting older, and their physical strength is less than it was, are still going on. Then the cherubim were there on the bases; they care for the Lord’s rights in the scene of His absence. These are the features of the ten lavers. We said at the beginning that the Lord washed the feet of His disciples and He said that if He had done it, then we should do it too. Well, here are the lavers; their bases are on wheels, they can be moved to where they are needed, and on these bases there are lions and oxen and cherubim. It says in verse 37, “After this manner he made the ten bases: all of them had one casting, one measure, one form”. That is the sound teaching – one casting, one measure and one form. The pattern is Christ, and “one casting, one measure” would represent sound teaching. Then “one form” might represent the power of the Holy Spirit to make it real and good in our souls.

May we be encouraged for His name’s sake.

Address in Fraserburgh

2 December 2017

P.A. Gray