Zealous for Sound Doctrine

8The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works.

These words from Titus 3 were examined last week as we considered being zealous for good works. But it is here I would like to focus on what is the fuel of those good works, namely sound doctrine. Paul is teaching the young pastor Titus to insist on” these things”, which begs the question, “What are these things?” We can identify what these things are in the text by what is here in verse 8 and what precedes this verse. Here we read that Paul wants Titus to insist on these things “so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works.” Therefore it is necessary to believe in God to do the works of God. This leads us then to the doctrine about God and his salvation in the verses that precede verse 8. In verses 3-7 Paul says, 3For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. 4But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. These verses are the teaching or doctrine about God, ourselves, and his salvation for us in Christ, and Paul says it is this doctrine that leads to belief in God and the good works of God. Therefore, we may say that where there is no sound doctrine in the church then there will be no good works. The doctrine of God from his word is the fuel that God uses to ignite our minds and hearts for being zealous in doing the works of him.

Paul says something similar to the young pastor Timothy in 2 Timothy 3. He is preparing him for the kinds of people there will be in the church who do not do the works that God is pleased with, then he instructs him how to handle this. He is to handle it with the preaching of God’s Word (4:1-2). The Word of God which was able to make him wise unto salvation (3:15) and “is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,” (3:16). Here Paul says the Scriptures are first of all profitable for teaching or doctrine then they are profitable good works in righteousness. Therefore in the church the horse of doctrine must come before the cart of good works but they must both come together lest the church be full of runaway horses or broken down carts.

In a culture of spiritual relativism where doctrine is sidelined as a persons particular view of truth or reality and spiritual experience and moralism is highlighted on the playing field as “true Christianity” the church must consider the ancient paths of sound doctrine.

Those in the church must pray for and prize sound doctrinal teaching and preaching. The church is flock of God that is cared for by undershepherds who must teach her the truth about God and his will lest they be scattered and devoured by wolves in sheeps clothing. Pray for the Word of sound doctrine to be faithfully delivered to the people of God. It must be explained, proved and applied with all faithfulness and earnestness according to God’s Word. Pray for those who deliver it that they may be free from the love of this world and the fear of man to preach and teach sound doctrine. Pray for yourselves that you will be hungry for sound doctrine. Pray that the church will hunger and thirst for the deep things of God, the sound things of God, the glorious things of God revealed in his Word. And then apply yourselves to the learning of sound doctrine. Attend to it preached and taught on Sundays and during the week. Read it for yourselves in the doctrinal works of the Confessions and Catechisms of our Reformed faith. Read it in books provided by those who have gone before us to teach us the ancient paths. Read it in the Scriptures which tell us what we need to know about God and what duty God requires of us.

The doctrine that comes forth from God’s Word is the fuel for the works of God that issue forth from the lives of those who are growing in the knowledge and enjoyment of God. We as the church must be zealous for sound doctrine in the way we pray, read and act, for then we will be zealous for the good works of God.