We Must Know The Truth

And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. Acts 2:42a

There was need of instruction and the Lord had given command that the apostles were to teach (Matthew 28:20). The teaching of the apostles was a concern of the Lord Jesus Christ, as they were revealed later as the foundation of the great spiritual building (Ephesians 2:20).

The denial of the truth is almost as old as the truth.

The early Christians described here, desired to know more of “the apostles’ doctrine.” This is the exact opposite of what is most popular today. Modern men and women have a rooted objection to Christian doctrine and Christian creeds.

We cannot expect anything from the world except rejection of Christian teaching, that is nothing new. The world Jesus lived in rejected His teaching. It was the same world that rejected the teaching of these apostles. But what is new today is the opposition to Christian doctrine is not confined to the world, but is at the very center of the teaching of the church herself.

One of the last exhortations from the apostle Paul, is an exhortation to be true to right teaching. “Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, (2 Timothy 1:13). “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Timothy 4:4). This is exactly what we are seeing in the church today.

Everyone wants the church to ok their lifestyle, regardless of how sinful it is, and churches are doing that in the name of love.

Many liberals think Christianity will “die as a theology and rise again as a way of life.” They say, we don’t want doctrine. we don’t want teaching, and we don’t want theology. All we want is something to help us to get along.

Scientific and social revolution in the last two centuries have produced the assumption that with knowledge and power men can make their own world. Life has become a do-it-yourself
affair, and the sense of Providence has been weakened. Where as man once prayed for rain, he now builds reservoirs. But why is it we ration water in California when it does not rain, you work that one out.

Instead of the apostolic doctrine, for the last one hundred years, men have been preaching what was called, before the First World War, “a social gospel.” That old Gospel of individual personal salvation is no good; what we need is a social message. So they gave ethical teaching and said this was the only way to redeem society, the interesting thing is that the more they have done that, and the less they have preached the apostolic doctrine, the more immorality and vice and ethical problems have increased.

A Social Gospel Says Only Christ Teaching Matters

This view is the ultimate and final denial of Christ. That was the whole trouble with the Pharisees, Sadducees and the scribes. Jesus once contrasted them with the tax-collectors and the harlots. (Matthew 21:32).

The Pharisee is the person who is interested in the teaching of Christ but denies Him at the most vital and essential points. Many churches and theologians today will not say, this is true because it is the apostle’s doctrine or the Word of God. They will say, this part is true because we say it, and that is not
a dependable answer.

A social Gospel has no standard or authority.

We are living in an age very similar to the time of the judges in the Old Testament. That age is summarized in these words: “In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6), Today there is no authority, and no standard. If there is no authority and it is all just your opinion and mine, then you can do what you like; everything becomes entirely relative.

A social Gospel gives no reason to live differently.

If there is no standard, why should I even be concerned? Why should ethical problems engage my attention? No motive at all is offered as to why I should try to live a good life. The social
gospel appeal of teaching that excludes doctrine and only preaches ethics is too narrow. It is only interested in human conduct and not in human beings themselves. It is not concerned with eternity. It is all too contingent; it is all too small. It is all due to the fact that it is based on an entirely false view of man.

The apostle Paul put this in a vivid phrase in 1 Corinthians: 15:33 “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners”. He means that once you begin to go astray in your doctrine, you will very soon be going astray in your behavior. Today we need to remind men and women of Paul’s warning. The present condition of society is the result of the rejection of the apostles doctrine.

The social gospel provides me with no power, no help. It gives me a standard, and I am left alone to live it, to imitate Christ! How can I? I can not, it is all useless.

The apostle’s doctrine not only provides a standard, but a power through Christ to live His standard.