If God has chosen to use such terms as righteousness, justification, sanctification, redemption, atonement, reconciliation, propitiation, then it is our duty to face those terms and to consider their meaning; it is dishonouring to God not to do so. Someone may say, for instance, ‘I am not interested in all those terms; I believe in God, and I believe in living as good a life as I can in order to please Him.’ But how can you please God if you refuse to consider the very terms that He Himself has revealed to the men who wrote the record?
...Unfortunately there are still large numbers of Christians who … say, ‘I cannot stand doctrine; it is too much for me. I find it difficult and boring. Give me the sort of Bible lecture which will do the whole of Hebrews in one evening and I will be very happy.’...
...It is important that we take the doctrines of Scripture in their right order. If you take the doctrine of regeneration before the doctrine of the atonement you will be in trouble if you are interested in the rebirth and having new life, before you are clear about your standing with God, you will go wrong and you will eventually be miserable...
...The man whose doctrine is shaky will be shaky in his whole life. One almost invariably finds that if a man is wrong on the great central truths of the faith, he is wrong at every other point...
...I spend half my time telling Christians to study doctrine and the other half telling them that doctrine is not enough...
...There is nothing which I know of which is more unscriptural, and which is more dangerous to the soul, than to divide doctrine from life. There are certain superficial people who say, ‘Ah, I cannot be bothered with doctrine; I haven’t the time. I am a busy man, and I have not the time to read books, and have not, perhaps, the aptitude. I am a practical man. I believe in living the Christian life. Let others who are interested in doctrine be interested!’ Now there is nothing that every New Testament epistle condemns more than just that very attitude...[I]f we go astray in our doctrine, eventually our life will go astray as well. You cannot separate what a man believes from what he is. For this reason doctrine is vitally important. Certain people say ignorantly, ‘I do not believe in doctrine; I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ; I am saved, I am a Christian, and nothing else matters.’ To speak in that way is to court disaster, and for this reason, the New Testament itself warns us against this very danger. We are to guard ourselves against being ‘tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine’, for if your doctrine goes astray your life will soon suffer as well...
My observation over the years is that it is the people who have not been taught the truth negatively as well as positively who always get carried away by the heresies and cults, because they have not been forewarned and forearmed against them...
The whole purpose of doctrine is not merely to give us intellectual understanding or satisfaction, but to establish us, to make us firm, to make us solid Christians, to make us unmovable, to give us such a foundation that nothing can shake us...
...Take away the apostolic doctrine and you take away my motives for holy living.*
*Sargent, T. (2007). Gems from Martyn Lloyd-Jones: An Anthology of Quotations from 'the Doctor' (95-98). Milton Keynes, England; Colorado Springs, CO; Hyderabad, AP: Paternoster.
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