Guarding A Healthy Mind In A Sick World

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Grace Energized Men:

 Guarding a Healthy Minds

In a Sick World

Titus 2:2d

 

Earth’s darkest hours are dead ahead. Jesus warned us that at the end of days, the world will be subjected to the most intense bombardment of deceptions, false teachings, and truthlessness ever poured out on humanity. How healthy are your beliefs about God?

 

Satan’s All out Attack

Is on Your Mind

 

The physical world meets the spiritual world in the realm of our minds. There is only one firewall that can protect your mind from the invasion of malicious spiritual worms, and the damage of deadly demonic viruses, and the havoc that spiritual hackers can wreak on your souls. What firewall can protect our minds?

 

What firewall allows us to resist the relentless attacks the world of Satan? Paul explains just one: our mind fed a healthy diet of TRUTH!

 

How is your truth intake? Is it real, are you feeding your soul on the pure food of God’s Word? Do you recognize, hold onto, and really know sound or healthy doctrine? If not, the days are growing darker, the spiritual legions of mind twisters are stepping up their hacking, and lest you fall pray to their deceitful lies and get crashed on the rocks of error: start today a lifelong habit of Guarding a Healthy Mind in this sin sick world.

 

Healthy minds are firmly holding onto The Truth. How healthy is your mind? Eternal freedom from guilt, shame, pain, and horror are all tied solely to The Truth.

 

Jesus Christ said He is the TRUTH we all need to cling to through life: “I AM the Way, The Truth, and the Life”. The Truth is a Person, and that Person is the Lord Jesus Christ, God in human flesh.

 

Nothing matters more than the Lord Jesus Christ, The Truth, incarnate and revealed to us in God’s Word, our Master and Savior.

 

That is why nothing is so precious as the faith we have in God, His Word, and Christ’s work for us. That is why Paul sat to write the young church-planting pastor named Titus, serving on the island of Crete. Paul’s world was hostile to the truth of God; and Paul warned that days to come would increasingly be filled with false teachings about God, and false doctrines.

 

God Wants Men with

Healthy Minds

 

As we open to Titus 2:2, we are on the fourth of six qualities God is watching for in the lives of men. To be a highly useful tool in God’s Hands, and to live a highly rewarded life, God wants these qualities to become your life-priorities.

 

Titus 2:2 that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience; NKJV

 

  1. “Sober” as this Greek[1] word nephalious is rendered in the KJV and NKJV; or “Sober-minded” is the way that the ESV renders it; and “Temperate” is the rendering you find in both the NIV and the NAS. The only church-wide curriculum for men starts with this word God chose that communicates the quality of: MAINTAINING A BALANCED LIFE IN AN OBSESSIVE-COMPLUSIVE WORLD. In other words, for them to choose a life balanced by God’s Word in an unbalanced world.

 

  1. “Reverent” as this Greek[2] word semnous is rendered in the NKJV; or “grave” (KJV); “worthy of respect” (NIV); or “dignified” (ESV, NAS). This word God chose communicates the quality of: GETTING SERIOUS ABOUT GOD IN AN AMUSED WORLD. These men think deeply about God in an amused, shallow-thinking culture. That means they are not entertained by sensuality, never amused by vulgarity, and don’t treat God’s Word superficially.

 

  1. “Temperate” as this Greek[3] word sophronous is rendered in the KJV and NKJV; or “Self-controlled” as we find in the ESV and NIV; or “Sensible” as translated in the NAS. This word is chosen by God, and communicates to us the third quality He wants to see in His highly useful and rewarded men which is: LIVING WISELY IN A FOOLISH WORLD. God wants older men whose lives are lived in such a way that they demand an explanation from a watching world. God wants a man whose life is a pattern for others to use in shaping their own lives.

 

Then Paul gives the second trio of qualities…Sound in faith, in love, in patience.

 

  1. “Sound in faith” as these Greek words hugeinos pistei are rendered in the NKJV: This means God wants the men of Christ’s Church always GUARDING A HEALTHY MIND IN A SICK WORLD. God wants older men with healthy minds.

 

Sound is from the same word (hugiain) used in Titus 2:1 for Biblical doctrine, and refers to things that are healthy, proper, whole, and as they ought to be.

 

Paul constantly stressed to Pastor Timothy and Pastor Titus that a growing wave of spiritual deception, false doctrines, and false teachers was headed their way.

 

Paul started on this theme when he warned the elders at Ephesus that the wolves were at the doors and would be attacking the church as soon as Paul left (Acts 20). Paul wrote to Timothy and all pastors after him in II Timothy 1:14, to guard the teaching of truth, because:

 

Healthy Doctrine

Means Healthy Souls

 

Paul said that God considers false doctrines to be as deadly and destructive as cancer or gangrene (II Timothy 2:16-18). Turn to Second Timothy with me now, and remember that, these are Paul’s final recorded words here in II Timothy 4.

 

So to his very last message, sent by the Spirit of God to us, the Apostle Paul is pleading: guard healthy or sound doctrine. That warning is the heartbeat of Paul’s life and ministry. Let’s read that final chapter in his life:

 

2 Timothy 4:1-4 I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: 2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. 

 

Pray

 

At the end of His earthly ministry, Jesus had also warned of the faith of believers being assaulted by these waves of false teaching and teachers (Matthew 24).

 

Jude and Peter repeated this theme and point out inroads that false teaching and teachers had made already in Christ’s church.

 

Then at the end of the New Testament era, John describes what the false teachers were teaching in his epistles we call I, II and III John.

 

Finally, in Revelation, as Jesus sends His seven final letters to seven churches we can see how false teachings had deeply impacted the local churches. For all of these reasons Paul writes to Titus that Christ’s church is to be filled with the godly example of highly useful:

 

Men Sound in

“The” Faith

 

Look over the page at Titus 2, and remember the 4th element of a true follower of Christ as described in Titus 2—they are sound in faith, and that call is so timely.

 

Titus 2:1-2 But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine: 2 that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience; NKJV

 

As the dark days of deception come, God wants the Church filled with men who have guarded and healthy minds fixed on God’s Word. That is why this fourth quality of Titus 2 explains to us that: men who are sound in faith as disciples of Christ, are Guarding their minds by a healthy faith in this sin sick, deception filled world around us.

 

First, Paul says these men are to be “sound[4]” which is the word hugaino, meaning “to be sound, well, in good health.” The application is that those who teach God’s Word protect their teachings from any error being mixed with truth.

 

Paul is saying these men must believe and teach true doctrine, which is recorded in God’s Word. These godly older men should know what they believe; and their doctrinal convictions and behavior should line up with God’s Word.

 

This truth is emphasized by the next word, “faith” which in this verse has the definite article. It is not “faith” as in what is exercised, but “The Faith,” which describes the content of Christian doctrine as revealed in the Scriptures.

 

Paul is in the midst of identifying the behavior in every age group of Christ’s church that follows a proper understanding of God (or “sound doctrine”). But this health in the church starts with the godly, older, leading men of the church who are example to everyone in how to become a strong advertisement for God in a ‘crooked and perverse’ world (Phil. 2:15).

 

God’s discipleship program for men was laid down for Christ’s church right from the earliest days. It was focused upon guarding healthy faith—in a sin sick world. There is nothing more timely for us as we enter the end of days, because, as the end of the physical world approaches, so does earth’s darkest spiritual hour[5].

 

Turn back with me to I Timothy and see what happens to those who do not guard their minds, feeding it upon healthy doctrine. The result is very sobering. Paul says unhealthy minds should:

 

Beware of

Shipwrecked Faith

 

Paul describes believers who did not guard themselves, believers who did not feed themselves the pure Word of God. They faced the storms of deceptions and spiritual warfare and were neutralized. Look with me back at I Timothy 1:19-20.

 

Here Paul uses the word “shipwrecked” to describe those believers who neglect healthy minds and sound faith, and who thrust away sound doctrine and try to sail on their own and without Christ’s way, truth and life.

 

1 Timothy 1:19-20 having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck, 20 of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.

 

What can cause a person’s life to be shipwrecked? Paul says it is neglecting sound doctrine, neglecting being grounded in the truth, and getting swept away by false teachers and belief in false doctrine. That was one of Christ’s constant warnings. But are these individuals saved, or lost?

 

Paul refers to them in such a way we must conclude that they are saved, so we know that they can’t lose their salvation. My former pastor John MacArthur recently preached on these verses, and clearly explains:

 

A good conscience is the rudder that steers the Christian life. Because they rejected the pangs of conscience and the truth, it is no wonder that the errorists suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. It is possible for a believer to have his faith “upset” (2 Tim. 2:18). Maybe that is another way to express the disaster of shipwrecked faith. It is all too common for Christians to wreck their usefulness, virtue, and sanctification by believing error.[6]

 

Paul warns that just as false teaching shipwrecked their lives, it can shipwreck us as well. That is why God wants men who are guard healthy doctrine; and stay sound in the faith as teachers and leaders.

 

This is not new to our generation. False teachers have been a part of the landscape from the start. In fact, things were so bad one hundred years ago, that the greatest Bible teachers of that generation banded together to put up the flag of truth. They sat down and declared what were the non-negotiables of God’s Word or what they called:

 

The Fundamentals of

“The Faith”

 

At the end of days, truth is under attack and lies will abound.  That is why Jesus said watch out for false teachers and counterfeit religion. When faced with a similar situation at the turn of the century, evangelicals produced a work called the FUNDAMENTALS in 1909-1915.

 

The writers read like a “Who’s Who of Christianity” of the day:

  • R.A. Torrey [D.L. Moody’s assistant and then the founder of Biola, the Bible Institute of LA],
  • B.B. Warfield [of Westminster Seminary],
  • J.C. Ryle [a well known pastor and devotional writer],
  • G. Campbell Morgan [an expositor pastor],
  • C.I. Scofield [of the study Bible],
  • James M. Gray [Moody Bible Institute],
  • A.T. Pierson [devotional writer], and so on.

 

These men distilled down the fundamental beliefs that distinguish a true believer from a false or counterfeit one. They boiled down all theology into seven essentials. They then presented and explained these seven doctrines in a muti-volume set of books called “The Fundamentals”.

 

Here is their list of the seven essentials, and the guide to use to uncover when someone is a false-teacher and on a course of “falling away”.

 

  1. INSPIRATION: All we know and believe about God is based on His Word, so they affirmed the Inspiration and Reliable Historicity of the Bible.
  2. CREATION: God is revealed from cover-to-cover in His Word as the Creator of the Universe just as described in the Bible, so they exposed the grave errors of Evolutionism and Darwinism.
  3. DOCTRINE: God’s Word teaches clear doctrines about Jesus Christ and His Church, so they specifically named the cults who presented false gospels in their day such as the errors of the Jehovah Witnesses, Mormonism, Christian Science, Spiritism, and so on.
  4. DEPRAVITY: God’s Word declares the reality of sin, so they affirmed that man is not basically good, but born a sinner.
  5. SUBSTITUTION: God’s Word only presents Biblical salvation as received only by faith in the God-incarnate Christ Jesus who became sin for sinners to save them.
  6. IMPUTATION: God’s Word teaches that salvation can not be earned at any level, and is dispensed by God not by any church and cleric, thus they clearing exposed the errors of Roman Catholicism, and every other religion of human achievement and works righteousness.
  7. CHRISTOLOGY: Finally, they most fervently declared that all error starts in some way with an incorrect view of Christ, so they strongly affirmed the Deity, the work, and the personal visible Return of Christ.

 

So how are we doing, a century after this warning was sounded, by the greatest teachers of God’s Word alive in that generation? Sadly, we are doing terribly.

 

We who live in the first decade of the 21st Century are facing a crisis in the Church: Biblical illiteracy and incomplete Biblical discipleship.[7]  That makes it imperative that we see that there is a critical need to preserve:

Healthy Doctrine

In Christ’s Church

Do you remember the story about the frog that landed in a pan of water and stayed until it boiled? If the water in the pan had been hot, the frog would have noticed and immediately hopped out. But the water felt cool at first, and the frog sensed no danger. As the water warmed, the frog just relaxed and conformed to the gradual change. Finally, when the water was dangerously hot, the muscles of the frog were subdued by the rising heat, and grew too sluggish to act. By the time the water boiled, the frog was dead.

The longer I live, the more alarmed I get at the growing trend of Biblical illiteracy and the lack of Biblical discipleship in today’s church.  Just as the decline in church attendance, Bible reading, and even Bible carrying can been seen in each new generation—the corresponding decline in even knowing the Bible (Biblical illiteracy), and obeying God’s Word (Biblical discipleship) is showing up in the woefully powerless lives of so many believers.

 

Research, that points to Biblical illiteracy and ineffective discipleship keeps getting published. Here is what Christian researcher and author George Barna reported, as he surveyed people who considered themselves to be “Christians”:

  • Less than half of all adults can name the four gospels.
  • A majority of professing Christians struggle to identify more than two or three of the disciples.
  • 60 % of Americans cannot name even five of the Ten Commandments.
  • 40% of Americans believe that when Jesus Christ was on earth He committed sins.
  • 50% believe that anyone who is generally good or does enough good things for others during their life will earn a place in Heaven.
  • 40% believe that the Bible, the Koran and the Book of Mormon are all different expressions of the same spiritual truths.

 

These statistics indicate a gradual change of temperature over time. In general, Biblical illiteracy is a growing trend and the discipleship that is being offered in churches is ineffective.

One British pastor insightfully wrote, “The Christian landscape is strewn with the wreckage of derelict half-built towers. The ruins of those who began to build and were unable to finish. For thousands of people still ignore Christ’s warning and undertake to follow Him without first pausing to reflect on the cost of doing so.

 

The result is the great scandal of Christendom today, so called nominal Christianity. In countries to which Christian civilization has spread, large numbers of people have covered themselves with a decent but thin veneer of Christianity. They have allowed themselves to become somewhat involved, enough to be respectable but not enough to be uncomfortable.” (John Stott)

 

What is the solution to spiritual deception coming from every direction? God’s solution hasn’t changed. Paul told Titus as he tells us today: each believer in Christ’s Church needs to be nurtured in God’s Word until they are mature enough to disciple someone else.

 

Paul details in Titus 2 the behavior that follows a proper understanding of God (or “sound doctrine”). When Paul gave these clear objectives for Titus as he taught the older men, it was to show them how to become a strong advertisement for God in a ‘crooked and perverse’ world (Phil. 2:15).

 

God’s discipleship program for for Christ’s church right from the earliest days is focused upon guarding healthy faith—in a sin sick world.

 

There is nothing more timely for us as we enter the end of days, because, as the end of the physical world approaches, so does earth’s darkest spiritual hour.

 

Be sure that you are in that life-long process of guarding and feeding your heart and mind; look for the evidence of your progress (I Timothy 4:15); obey God by a healthy diet of sound doctrine; and then share your life with others as you walk with them and Christ through life.

 

Application:

Get Started Today

 

What are you doing to learn and cling to healthy doctrine? Some responses to the truth that God desires your mind to be fed healthy doctrine are:

 

  1. Learn some Healthy Verses: Start learning verses that support key doctrines of the faith. We have a list at the CBC office of the 108 verses that every believer ought to know. Get that list and try to learn one a week for 2 years. That is a strong foundation.
  2. Use a Healthy Study Bible: Get a sound doctrine study Bible like the MacArthur Study Bible (2240 pages; about $28 online), or the Ryrie Study Bible (2336 pages; about $34 onlin . Be sure that you get a Bible that teaches historic evangelical, dispensational truth. Use that study Bible to trace doctrines from God’s Word and see how the Scriptures present each key doctrine. It is worth a high price to have a trusted source of answers that keep your soul and mind healthy.
  3. Reference a Healthy Theology Book: Invest in key tools for understanding systematic theology. The most comprehensive systematic theology of the day is Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology (1264 pages, about $30 online); or Charles Ryrie’s Basic Theology (564 pages; about $22 online).

 

 

 

The 108 Verses (NKJV) Every Believer Should Know

 

SALVATION ONLY IN HIM: 1 Timothy 2:5-6 For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time,

 

MUST REPENT: Luke 13:3 I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. Acts 3:19 Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,  Acts 8:22 Repent therefore of this your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. Acts 26:20 but declared first to those in Damascus and in Jerusalem, and throughout all the region of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent, turn to God, and do works befitting repentance.

 

MUST RECEIVE: John 1:12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: John 3:36 He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

 

CHRIST  DIED FOR US: John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

 

ASSURANCE OF SALVATION: John 10:27-28 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 28 And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. Philippians 1:6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;  1 John 5:11-13 And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.

 

SALVATION ONLY IN HIM: John 14:6 Jesus said to him,  “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Acts 4:12 Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

 

CHRIST THE CENTER: John 15:5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.

 

 DOCTRINE OF SIN: Romans 3:10 As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one; Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—

 

NOT BY WORKS: Romans 4:4-5 Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. 5 But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.  Titus 3:5 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,

 

CHRIST  DIED FOR US: Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit,

 

THE WORD OF GOD – HEAR IT: Romans 10:17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

 

THE WORD OF GOD – STUDY IT 2 Timothy 2:15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

 

THE WORD OF GOD -OBEY IT: James 1:22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. James 4:17 Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.

 

THE WORD OF GOD – READ IT Revelation 1:3 Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.

 

THE WORD OF GOD/ INSPIRATION: 2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

 

THE WORD OF GOD – MEDITATE ON IT: Joshua 1:8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.  1 Timothy 4:15 Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all.

 

CONFESS SINS DAILY: Psalm 38:18 For I will declare my iniquity; I will be in anguish over my sin. Proverbs 28:13 He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy. 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

 

THE WORD OF GOD / MEMORIZE IT: Psalm 119:9-11 How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word. 10 With my whole heart I have sought You; Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments! 11 Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You.

 

PRAYER: Matthew 21:22 And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”  Philippians 4:6-7 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. 1 John 3:22 And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.

 

MUST RECEIVE: Revelation 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.

 

FELLOWSHIP:  Acts 2:42 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. Hebrews 10:25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. I John 1:3 that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.

 

CHRIST THE CENTER: 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; 15 and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. Colossians 3:23-24 And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.

 

SURRENDER (DEDICATION): Romans 6:12-13 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. Romans 12:1-2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.  1 Corinthians 10:31 Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

 

WITNESS: Matthew 28:19-20 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.  Mark 8:38 For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”  Acts 1:8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”  2 Corinthians 5:19-20 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. 20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.

 

HOLY SPIRIT:  1 Corinthians 12:13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body— whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.  1 Corinthians 6:19-20 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.  Galatians 5:16-17 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.

 

PROMISES OF HIS PRESENCE  Joshua 1:9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Psalm 91:10-11 No evil shall befall you, Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling; 11 For He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you in all your ways. Proverbs 1:33 But whoever listens to me will dwell safely, And will be secure, without fear of evil.”  Hebrews 13:5-6 Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6 So we may boldly say:  “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear.  What can man do to me?”  Isaiah 41:10 Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’

 

PROMISES OF HIS PROTECTION Psalm 34:7 The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him, And delivers them.

 

PROMISES OF HIS PROVISION: Matthew 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Romans 8:32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?  Philippians 4:19 And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

 

PROMISES OF HIS PEACE: Psalm 119:165 Great peace have those who love Your law, And nothing causes them to stumble. Isaiah 26:3 You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You. John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

 

PROMISES OF HIS FORGIVENESS: Psalm 86:5 For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, And abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You. Psalm 103:10-12 He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor punished us according to our iniquities. 11 For as the heavens are high above the earth, So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; 12 As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us. Ephesians 4:30-32 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. 32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.

 

PROMISES OF HIS GUIDANCE: Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path. Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.  John 17:7 Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You.

 

PROMISES OF HIS STRENGTH Psalm 27:14 Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord!  Isaiah 40:31 But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint. Hebrews 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

 

PROMISES OF HIS VICTORY: 1 Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. 1 Corinthians 15:57-58 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

 

DOCTRINE OF SIN: 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.

DOCTRINE OF DEATH & HELL: Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Hebrews 9:27 And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,  Revelation 21:8 But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION 1 Thessalonians 2:13 For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe.  John 6:63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.

 

DOCTRINE OF SALVATION: John 17:17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.  1 Peter 1:23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever,   Acts 26:18 to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.’

 

DOCTRINE OF SECOND COMING: Romans 14:12 So then each of us shall give account of himself to God. Titus 2:11-13 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, 12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,   2 Corinthians 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.  Revelation 20:15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.

 

 

 

[1] Strong’s number 3524

[2] Strong’s number 4586

[3] Strong’s number 4998

[4] Sound translates a participle form of the verb hugiainō, which has the basic meaning of “being well and healthy” and is the term from which we derive “hygiene.” Paul uses a form of this word nine times in the pastoral epistles, five of those times in Titus, and always in relation to personal righteousness and spiritual well-being. He repeatedly emphasizes that sound doctrine (1 Tim. 1:10; 2 Tim. 4:3; Titus 1:9; 2:1) eventuates in sound faith and sound speaking (1 Tim. 6:3; 2 Tim. 1:13; Titus 1:13; 2:2, 8). Healthy doctrine produces healthy spiritual living. (MacArthur, John: Titus. Chicago : Moody Press, 1996, S. 90)

[5] 050612AM WNS-21.

[6]MacArthur, John F., The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, (Chicago: Moody Press) 1983.

[7] COREnet: a newsletter from CORE Discipleship Ministry

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