Music In a day full of conflicting opinions and ideas, the Word of God stands true, and the Bible is the source for absolute truth. In these days of confusion and questions, it is so important to know what the Bible says. In today's study, let's ask the Lord to open our heart and mind as Scott Pauley leads us into Scripture to help us discover God's absolute truth. Libraries and bookstores are absolutely filled with men's opinions. Radio, television, talk news, all of it, totally filled with everybody's ideas about what they think is right. But I wonder how often we stop to say, what does God think? Did you know that God's thoughts are revealed in His Word? And if you want to know what God thinks about something, then ask yourself this question, what does the Bible say? We're beginning this series of what the Bible says, and I've started here by just laying a little foundation about the importance of what we call doctrine. You know, that's a word that some people stay away from today. Let me just tell you, doctrine is not a dirty word, not at all. In fact, it's God's Word. Did you know that the word doctrine is found 51 times in 50 verses of your Bible? Let me show you a couple of them today. You may want to get a good concordance and look them all up for yourself and walk through them and meditate on them. I've done that. And it's a rich, refreshing way to study that Bible word. But let me show you the first one. The first one is Deuteronomy chapter 32 and verse number 2. Remember, the first time a word is used in the Word of God, it has great significance. It's the Law of First Mention. Because the first time it's given, it really gives a pattern to follow. It gives an opening truth, if you will, that the Lord will consistently go back to. In Deuteronomy 32, we read these words, My doctrine shall drop as the rain, My speech shall distill as the dew, As the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass. You know, there are two or three things that really strike me even as I read that verse. One is that God connects doctrine to rain. We think of doctrine as being some really heavy thing. But I want to say to you, really, God says, my doctrine is refreshing. My doctrine is a blessing to you. It drops down as the rain. It distills as the dew. Think of the gentleness of dew. And then, not only what it is as it comes down, but what it produces. It brings about the tender herb. It brings showers upon the grass. You see, I believe that every good thing that grows in our life grows out of the truth. And until we understand the importance of doctrine, we will never become the people that God wants us to be. Now, that's Deuteronomy 32.2. Let me read the verse before it and the verse after it. Verse 1 of Deuteronomy 32 says, Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak, and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass, because I will publish the name of the Lord, ascribe ye greatness unto our God. You see, the very first time the word doctrine is used in Scripture, it is connected to worship. We don't study to know. We study to worship. We don't study to simply have facts. We study to know the God of truth. We come to Bible doctrine and we say, Dear Lord, we want to know you better. We want to know what you have to say to us. Oh God, speak to us and show us yourself. That's the great message of Deuteronomy chapter 32 and that's the great purpose of doctrine. The last mention of the word doctrine is found in Revelation 2, in the church age, in the letters to the seven churches. It says in Revelation 2 24, But I say unto you and unto the rest in Thyatira, As many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan as they speak, I will put upon you none other burden. So here we have the exact opposite. Here we have a reference to false teaching. There's always going to be truth and error. There's always going to be this battle, this warfare between the God of truth and the old liar, the deceiver, the serpent, the devil. Always. That's what we're watching in our world today. That's what's going on on school campuses. That's what's going on in the news. That's what's going on in government. There's always this conflict and struggle between what is true and what is not. And in the end, we must go back to this, what does the Bible say? I said to you that the word doctrine is found 51 times in scripture, but the plural word doctrines is used five times. And did you know that the five times it's used in the New Testament, it is always in the negative. It's never a reference to truth. It's always a reference to error. Now that's very significant. For example, Matthew 15, nine, Jesus says, in vain they do worship me teaching for doctrines, The commandments of men. Or how about Hebrews 13, 9? Be not carried away with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace, not with meats which have not profited them that have been occupied therein. God reserves the plural for men's ideas. But he reserves the singular for his own truth. Why is that? Because men have lots of disconnected ideas. They teach lots of varied things and call them truth. But God has one body of truth and it's all connected and it's all important. I have the Bible in my hand right now, the Word of God. Friend, I need it all. I don't need part of it, I need every bit of it. I don't want to fall short of scripture, and I don't want to go beyond scripture. I just want to know what the Bible says. Now, there are basically two great myths when it comes to doctrine. I've heard both of them, and so have you. Number one, some people say, well, we stay away from doctrine because doctrine is divisive. As a matter of fact, I hear even some churches advertise, come to our church. We don't talk about doctrine. We talk about real life things. I think, excuse me, that's a very ignorant thing to say. Because the word doctrine literally means our beliefs and teachings. So what those people are saying is come to our church. We don't believe or teach anything. Why would you go to a church that doesn't believe or teach anything? No, doctrine is real life. It's truth that is to be applied to the way we live every day. Doctrine is not divisive. It simply divides truth from error. It does divide. Oh yes, it divides believers from unbelievers. It divides the obedient from the disobedient. It divides the humble from the proud. It does divide, but it is not divisive. In other words, the truth is not what stirs up the problem. What stirs up problems are the responses of people to the truth. You see, it's not loving to say everything goes, anything and everything can be truth. Love always has to measure up to the truth. The God of love is a God of truth. So the first great myth is that doctrine is divisive. I say to you that doctrine comes from a God of unity and our hearts are only made one and our minds are only singularly fixed on what is right when we come in line with what the Bible says. The second myth is this, doctrine is dry. I hear that from time to time. People say, you know, people can't handle all this doctrinal teaching. I even hear people brag sometimes. Well, I'm no theologian. Well, you should be. Theology is the study of God. You should be a real student of God. Doctrine is not dry. The speaker may be dry. I've been dry and you've been dry. But the Word of God is perennially fresh. And so, as we study the Word of God, we should do it with enthusiasm. And when we share it with others, we should do it with a spirit of real excitement that we have the truth of God. And we have the joy and privilege of sharing it with other people. All men have some truth, the truth of creation and of conscience. But all of them don't receive it alike. See, it's how you respond to the truth that's important. We're not searching for the truth, we're searching in it. We've come to find out what the Bible says so we can bring our lives in line with it and we can pass it along to someone else. Repeating what other people have said about the Bible is not enough. We must know the biblical reason behind what we believe. We hope you will visit us at etj.bible to access our library of Bible teaching resources, including book-by-book studies of Scripture. You'll also find studies to watch, listen to, or read. 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