n Hebrews 13:9 we are instructed not to be “carried about with divers and strange doctrines.” Doctrine is defined as teachings, instruction, principles or precepts. Titus 2:1 states, “But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine:” Strange Doctrine is contrary to Sound Doctrine. Chafer wrote, “It is a short step indeed from the ignorance of doctrine, to rejection and ridicule of it.” Psychology is the study of mind and behavior. Sociology is the study of the development, structure, interaction, behavior, of social relationships and society. Philosophy is a love of wisdom, the most basic beliefs, concepts or attitudes of an individual or group. Theology is the study of God and God’s relation to the world. Colossians 2:8, “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” I Corinthians 3:19, “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.” Beware of “doctrines of men” Colossians 2:22. Beware of “doctrines of devils” I Timothy 4:1. I am giving and will continue to give you many Bible references today because this is where true doctrine is found. It is important that we know and understand where to find the truth about God, about eternity, about salvation. This will keep us from being deceived by false doctrine and help us to guide those that are ignorant of true doctrine.

Ephesians 4:14, “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive:” Titus 1:9, “Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.” A gainsayer is one who contradicts or denies…an opposer. False doctrine will spoil you – Colossians 2:8. False doctrine will seduce you – I Timothy 4:1. False doctrine will separate you – I John 1:9.

In Isaiah 55:9 God says “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Mortimer Adler wrote, “The Trinity, the Incarnation and the Resurrection: your faith and my faith must include these three mysteries. They are difficult to understand. They are not unintelligible – God understands them. But for us there is an element of mystery. The greatest error anyone can make is to think they can fully understand these three mysteries. It makes a mockery of faith.” I Timothy 3:16, “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.”

What are we to do when man’s doctrine disagrees with God’s doctrine? Romans 3:4, “…yea, let God be true, but every man a liar,…” There are vast differences between creation and evolution, the One True God and a higher power, eternity with or without God after death or reincarnation, forgiveness by accepting Jesus Christ as Savior or good works outweighing bad works. Acts 4:12, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” The scriptures warn us in II John 1:10, “If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed:” Verse 7 states, “For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.” Let God be true!

Isaiah 5:20 states, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” What is good and what is evil? Good question. It is important to have Biblical answers, but many times we don’t even know the questions! Think of all the songs that we sing in church that ask us a question: “Is thy heart right with God?” “Is your all on the altar?” “Do you know my Jesus?” “Are you washed in the blood?” Questions cause us to think of a response, to search our hearts. Think of all the questions that are asked in our homes among our family members. Mom and Dad ask their children, “Why did you do that?” “What were you thinking?” A Husband asks his Wife, “Why did you spend so much money on foolish things like clothes and food and not important things like hunting equipment?” A Wife asks her Husband, “You promised to fix that a month ago, why haven’t you done it yet?” Ha. Ever get tired of people asking you questions?

God asks a lot of questions to challenge us to think, but He has all the answers. Isaiah 6:8, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Jonah 4:9, “Doest thou well to be angry?” Genesis 4:6, “Why is thy countenance fallen?” Jeremiah 32:26, “I am the Lord, the God of all flesh; is there anything too hard for me?” Job 38:2, “Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?” Psalms 42:11, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.”

Questions are really important if they come from God. The answers are even more important if they come from God. This is the time to search our own hearts. Do we really know God? Do we believe His answers are relative and true? Do we love Him enough to obey and follow Him? Do we trust His Word? I Corinthians 11:28 states, “But let a man examine himself.” II Corinthians 13:5, “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves.” Lamentations 3:40, “Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.” Thomas Watson wrote, “External acts of religion are easy to be done; to life up the eye to heaven, to bow the knee, to read a prayer, this requires very little effort; but to examine a man’s self to take the heart all in pieces as a watch, and see what is defective. This is not easy. Reflective acts are the hardest. The eye can see everything but itself. It is easy to spy the faults of others, but hard to find out our own.”

Am I a soldier of the Cross—A follower of the Lamb?
And shall I fear to own His cause, Or blush to speak His name?

Must I be carried to the skies On flowery beds of ease,
While others fought to win the prize  And sailed through bloody seas?

Are there no foes for me to face?  Must I not stem the flood?
Is this vile world a friend to grace, To help me on to God?

Since I must fight if I would reign, Increase my courage, Lord!
I’ll bear the toil, endure the pain, Supported by Thy Word.

Psalm 56:9 states “…this I know, for God is for me.” That is a wonderful truth and promise to know! “If God be for us, who can be against us?” Romans 8:31. Baxter wrote in his book “The Saint’s Everlasting Rest”, “What should stop me or intimidate me? Is God with me or against me in the work? Will Christ stand by me, or will He not? If God and Christ be for me who can be against me? In the work of sin, almost all things are ready to help us, and only God and His servants are against us; yet how ill does that work prosper in our hands! But in my course to Heaven, almost all things are against me, but God is for me; and therefore how happily does the work succeed! Do I enter upon this work in my own strength, or rather in the strength of Christ my Lord? And cannot I do all things through Him that strengthens me? Is anything too hard for Omnipotence? GOD IS FOR US!

Let me give you just a few of the promises of this truth in the Scriptures:

Psalm 126:3, “The LORD hath done great things for us:”

Romans 5:8, “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

II Corinthians 5:21, “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”

I John 3:16, “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us:”

PSALM 56:9, “THIS I KNOW, FOR GOD IS FOR ME!”

God is the Creator. He is also the Savior. The One who had the power of creation also has the power of recreation. The Psalmist said concerning this, “this I know.” I John 5:11-13, “And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.” “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the son of God hath not life.” “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.”

II Corinthians 5:14, “And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. We, as Christians, should live for the One who died for us!

MY LIFE, MY LOVE, I GIVE TO THEE.

My life, my love, I give to Thee, Thou Lamb of God who died for me;
Oh, may I ever faithful be,   My Savior and my God!

O Thou who died on Calvary, To save my soul and make me free,
That I may ever live for Thee   My Savior and my God!

I’ll live for Him who died for me, How happy then my life shall be!
I’ll live for Him who died for me, My Savior and my God!

HE IS WORTHY.

I read an article that asked the question, “What is more valuable in your life, more than money”? Here is the list: Your Health. Treat your body with the respect it deserves. … Your Friends. Spending time with friends is key to our emotional wellbeing. … Gratitude. Appreciate the miracle of life. … Your Reputation. … Your Family. … Your Education. … Giving To Others. … Life Experiences. There are a host of options and answers to this question. Yours may differ greatly. Peter Pertocci wrote “No man knows what he is living for until he knows what he’ll die for.” Certainly this would only be for what we value most. Our freedom, our family, but what about our faith? The Apostle Paul wrote “For to me to live is Christ”, Philippians 1:21. He wrote to the church at Corinth “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” II Corinthians 4:18. Something happened to this religious man, something that changed what he valued immensely. Before he became a Christian, he persecuted the church and the followers of Christ. After his conversion, he loved the Lord and served Him. Listen to his testimony in Philippians 3:7-8. “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.” “Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,” His values changed!

“For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Luke 12:34. Think of the treasure that a person finds when they accept Jesus as their Savior. II Peter 1:1, “precious faith”. II Peter 1:4, “precious promises”. Psalm 126:6, “precious seed” (the Word of God). I Peter 1:19, “precious blood of Christ”. I Peter 2:7, “Unto you therefore which believe he is precious.” Something that is precious is something that is valuable. Our values change.

But God may not be valuable to you today, but you are valuable to Him. There are those that would cause you to think you are of no value to the Lord…that God is cruel and critical, but God loves you more than you can comprehend. Psalm 139:17, “How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them!” “We love him, because he fist loved us.” I John 4:19. Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” God wants everyone to have eternal life by accepting Jesus Christ as their Savior. God wants everyone to experience abundant life by following Jesus. God loves you.

Erwin Lutzer writes, “I was preaching in the Midwest one day, when a woman came to me with a little girl at her side. This woman showed by the cast on her arm and some scars on the side of her face that she had been in the hospital. She said, “I was in the hospital because of a very serious fire. There were burns over two-thirds of my body. My husband walked into the hospital room, took one look at me, and said, “You’re not the woman I married.” “He left her to marry someone younger and more beautiful. Human love says, “As long as you stimulate me, as long as I can be proud of you, as long as you’re beautiful, I can love you. If you change, my love for you changes.” Not so with God! He loves us with an everlasting love. May you find and experience the value of God’s love for you and your love for Him.

Today is Valentine’s Day. The greeting card companies make a fortune today. The Valentine cards are filled with romantic expressions and sweet words. These words are powerful when they are received as sincere and “believable”. The greatest love ever expressed is the love of God to mankind. The Bible is filled with sweet words that speak to us personally. They are true, sincere and “believable”. Psalm 119:103, “How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” It must be sweet to our taste when we think of it, or it will not be sweet to our mouth when we talk of it.

II Samuel 23:1, “Now these be the last words of David,…the sweet Psalmist of Israel…”.

Jeremiah 15:16, “Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart:…”.

Matthew 4:4, “But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” When God fed Israel with the “manna” from Heaven, which was a picture of His Word, the Bible says “the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.” Psalm 19:10, “More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.” What words of God are “sweet” to you? “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee?” “I am thy

God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness?” “I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindess have I drawn thee?” Wouldn’t those be sweet words to hear your mate say? I will love you forever? I will be here to help you? I will never leave you? II Peter 1:4, “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises:…” Sweet Words! Psalm 23, John 14, Revelation 22.

Carol Mayhall wrote, “I reached into the cupboard for a mug, filled it with water, then popped it into the microwave. After the water was piping hot, I mixed in a packet of hot chocolate and carried it up to the room where I have my quiet time. I sat on the couch with my Bible and sipped the hot liquid, savoring each swallow. Then it dawned on me that what I was doing with my morning hot chocolate was exactly what I should do with the Word of God. As I drank my hot chocolate, it becomes a part of me. So should I be with God’s Word. I should sip and savor, be warmed and fed.”

Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, Just to take Him at His Word;
Just to rest upon His promise, And to know, “Thus saith the Lord!”

Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him! How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er;
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus! Oh, for grace to trust Him more!