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SOUND TEACHING, SOUND WORDS AND SOUND MIND

1 Timothy 1:6, 7, 11; 1 Timothy 6:3 - 5; 2 Timothy l: 13, 14; 2 Timothy l: 4:1 - 5; 2 Corinthians 5:13.

I wish, dear brethren, to speak of sound teaching, sound words and a sound mind. The first passage we read refers to "sound teaching according to the glad tidings of the glory of the blessed God". I would say, dear brethren, that this is the standard of sound teaching, and that whenever you get false teaching, it will mean a departure from the glad tidings of the glory of the blessed God. Paul speaks in this passage of those who desire to be law teachers, "not understanding either what they say or concerning what they so strenuously affirm". That idea is rampant in Christendom. Christendom is governed largely by law teaching. Nearly every sect has its rules and regulations. Paul refers in Titus to "commandments of men" and in Colossians "according to the teaching of men and not according to Christ". It is innate in our nature, if we are not under the control of the Spirit, to lay down the law; law teachers are always laying down the law for others. The Lord said in Matthew's Gospel that they tie on men burdens which are hard and grievous to be borne and they do not touch them with their little finger. They have plenty of excuses for themselves but they lay burdens on others. Paul refutes that by speaking of "sound teaching according to the glad tidings of the glory of the blessed God".

I would like to speak for a moment about this

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word 'sound'. It means 'healthy'. It says of the prodigal son that the father had received him "safe and sound" (A.V.), "safe and well" (J.N.D.), but it is the same word. It is a great thing to have healthy teaching, healthy words and a healthy mind. This is not a morbid mind. The morbid human mind goes on with its reasonings and can never reach up to God. The only way we can have a sound or healthy mind is by the Spirit of God. "The mind of the Spirit is life and peace;" and through having the Spirit, the apostle says, "we have the mind of Christ". The mind of Christ is a sound healthy mind. It comes from God.

I think that Luke 15 sets out in parable form, from the Lord's own lips, the glad tidings of the glory of the blessed God. The shepherd is seeking the sheep till he finds it, the woman is sweeping the house till she finds the lost piece of silver; the father is running to meet the repentant son and is covering him with kisses. As J.N.D. says, the chapter shows God's own joy in love. That is the idea in the term "the blessed God:" the God who finds His own joy in acting in love, in free-hearted giving, and free-hearted forgiveness to repentant ones. And all the various false teachings that have come in, including those that we have had experience of, are contrary to the glad tidings of the glory of the blessed God. You can test all of them by bringing them up against the glad tidings of the glory of the blessed God. Are they in accord with that? If not, we must reject them. Whether it is law teachers or whether it is those who would teach that principles must be surrendered and would turn grace into licence; neither line of teaching is in accord with the glad tidings of

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the glory of the blessed God. When the son returned he returned on the basis of true repentance; and it says, "bring out the best robe and clothe him in it". There must be nothing in evidence but the best robe, as we might say in the language we used this afternoon, that which belongs to the sanctuary. The robe suggests that in which you appear publicly. The glory of the blessed God would clothe us in the best.

You may say Ephesians is the best robe, and so it is -- "accepted in the Beloved" -- but the teaching of Ephesians does not suppose that you come out down here in any other character of garment than that in which you are before God; that is, that you come out here to display Christ. If you are accepted in the Beloved you want to display the Beloved in all your ways and movements here -- to walk as He walked. Christ upheld all that was due to God in every way during all His pathway. He expressed in fulness the kindness and love of our Saviour God to men, without surrendering a single principle, without in any way saying or doing anything that would come short of God's glory. He was perfect in every way.

So if our teaching is according to the gospel of the glory of the blessed God, it will not deviate to the right hand of legality nor to the left hand of licence. It will go straight forward and it brings men to God in the power of the grace which not only sets them up in His presence in perfect acceptance in the Lord Jesus Christ, but, by the gift of the Spirit, sets them up down here to display in their life and walk the character of the man in whom they are accepted above. James says in chapter 1 that the one who is a forgetful hearer of the word and not a doer is like

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a man who looks at himself in the mirror and goes away and directly forgets the kind of man he is. He contrasts that with those who look into the perfect law of liberty and are not forgetful hearers but doers of the word. What the Spirit of God means in that is that you get an objective presentation of Christ; Christ our righteousness, Christ our life, our sanctification, our redemption, all is there in Him. We are justified in Him, we are sanctified in Him, we are redeemed in Him, and you say, 'that is wonderful! that is the gospel'. But then, looking on the perfect law of liberty and becoming a doer of the word means that as I look at Christ like that -- Christ in glory, the glory of God shining in His face -- I say that He, the glorified Man, is my righteousness; He went to the cross and took my place there, and now on that basis it is a matter of righteousness for God to give me His place there.

Christ is my righteousness -- I could not have a better righteousness; He is my life, and I look on the glory of the Lord, who is my righteousness and life; there I see the kind of man I am. The danger is to go away and forget the kind of man you are. If I want to see the kind of man I am, I look at Christ who is my righteousness, my life; I was chosen in Him; I belong to Him; I am of His order; I am among a company who are said to be all of one. Shall I, going away from looking at the glory of the lord, straightway forget the kind of man I am and display the flesh? It is perfect liberty to look at Jesus, knowing that God has made Him to be wisdom for me, and righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. It is the perfect law of liberty to look at Him, and keeping my eye on Him, to walk here

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in the Spirit in accord with Him, feeble perhaps in measure, but the flesh not in evidence. May God help us all into this! How often the flesh gets the better of us! But it need not, because we have the Spirit. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8). That is the perfect law of liberty. And all that is involved in the gospel of the glory of the blessed God.

2 Corinthians 3 and 4 involve the gospel of the glory of the Christ, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Let us then reject any teaching not in accord with that. This gospel makes no room for man in the flesh at all: neither the pretensions and the claims which the legal man would assert, nor his looseness and self-gratification. And if we understood that, God would be the God of the gladness of our joy. We would not need to look elsewhere for stimulation.

'God thine everlasting portion,
feeds thee with the mighty's meat'. (Hymn 76)

We may try to find stimulation in what in itself is right. Who has not done that? Who is not doing it at the moment? You may try to find stimulation in your service for the Lord, in your devotion to the Lord, in anything else; things that are right in themselves; the best things, it may be. But if you are trying to find your stimulation or satisfaction in anything short of God Himself, you will never find them and you will never serve God as you should. You may try to find satisfaction in lesser things, natural things, which may be right in themselves. But you can never find satisfaction outside of God. "As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my

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soul after thee, O God" (Psalm 42:1). That is the fruit of the work of the Spirit in the soul. A man cannot rest short of being before God and of being conscious that God is His everlasting portion. "God is the rock of my heart and my portion for ever", says the psalmist. (Psalm 73:26).

I would now make a remark or two about 1 Timothy 6, because this same word is used of the very words of Jesus. "If any one teach differently and do not accede to sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ". Now these words must be healthy -- what could be better? -- "and the teaching which is according to piety, he is puffed up knowing nothing". We must note the forthright way in which the Spirit of God speaks. Such a man knows nothing. He is "sick about questions". That is the opposite to a sound mind. You can get mentally sick, and how much mental sickness there is about! Why not get back to the words of our Lord Jesus? They are 'wholesome' words. What I see is that the legal man and the man who wants a wider path both build on the sand. They are both sick about questions and disputes of words, because they do not properly and truly accept the words of our Lord Jesus (Luke 6). He says, "he that comes to me" -- and this is a continuous thing -- "and hears my words and does them, I will show you to whom he is like. He is like a man building a house who dug and went deep and laid a foundation on the rock". What you will find when you come to false teaching, is that there is no rock. It is the words of a man, when you get down to it, or the opinions of men. If you challenge such persons, you will find they have no bed rock. Let us be all building on the rock. And let us seek grace

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to judge our own minds, so as to get free from mental sickness.

Now in 2 Timothy 4, it says, "But thou, be sober in all things". You will find that being sober means having a sound, clear mind. If you look at the note to verse 5, it says, 'a mind not muddled with the influence of what intoxicates'. It does not imply watching or being awake. Sometimes in scripture soberness implies vigilance, watchfulness. Of course, a drunken man cannot be vigilant; but this word, which is often used, is sober clearness of mind, resulting from exemption from false influence, not muddled with the influence of what intoxicates. Now you know, false teaching is very intoxicating. What stems from the human mind appeals to the human mind. It comes from man in the flesh and it appeals to man in the flesh, and Satan works on the flesh. He is behind these things. People get intoxicated. I have met people who are positively intoxicated with the present evil teaching that has come in amongst brethren. If you try to reason with them, you might as well reason with a drunken man. You put scripture before them and it means nothing. They have lost their power of thinking, in that sense. So we may not only get sick about questions but intoxicated in our minds with what is false.

If you read what Mr. Coates says on Revelation 9, you will find that he refers to the overwhelming attractiveness of evil teaching when it firsts attracts the natural mind. If you are in the Spirit, you will judge it at once. We have an unction from the Holy One and know all things (l John 2:20). We can judge at once whether a thing is truth or error. But if you rely on your natural mind, you will find the

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false teaching is overwhelming in its appeal, and that is why some remain under it, even though the unction tells them at first that it is wrong. They come under this overwhelming appeal of what is false. What is from the flesh and from the devil appeals to and intoxicates the natural man. So you find today some so intoxicated with false teaching that scripture has no power with them at all. You will find others who are sick about questions and disputes of words. But let us all seek help from God to have a sound healthy mind, a sound healthy teaching, sound wholesome words. What a great thing to be free from sickness of mind! Humanity as a whole suffers from sickness of mind. You have all kinds of heresies and evil teachings. People say, 'however could some be deceived by this, by that and the other?' People say of Mormonism, for example, 'however could it be?' but you see, you can get intoxicated with these things. They become overpowering. They come from the devil, working on the human mind, and what the human mind develops appeals to the human mind. Unless you rely on the Spirit, the unction, you will come under its power if you give your mind to it. So it says, "giving their minds to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies and hypocrisy". It has come close to us. We have been right up against it. We must remember Satan can transform himself into an angel of light. He would say, 'yes, you have a desire to be separate to God, to be really true and faithful to Him. I will show you the way to do it'. But instead of separation, he brings in segregation, which is just a human idea; in place of true devotedness, he brings monasticism, another human idea, but overwhelming in its appeal, even to godly souls who

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give their minds to it. The thing is to give your mind to scripture, to sound teaching according to the gospel of the glory of the blessed God, and to sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the teaching which is according to piety. Let your mind be on those things. My desire in speaking tonight is that we might all get free from sickness of mind, sickness about questions and disputes of words. We must have a clear mind governed by the Holy Spirit, seeing things in the power of the word of God which is penetrating, quick and powerful.

Now in 2 Timothy 4, Paul says, "I testify before God and Christ Jesus, who is about to judge living and dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom, proclaim the word". This is something for each of us to take home. This is what will deliver souls, what will heal minds that are sick about questions, what will deliver from the intoxication of false doctrine. We are to "be urgent in season and out of season", proclaiming the word. This is not simply the gospel preaching, as we call it. This brings the word of God to bear on every circumstance and every individual. "Convict, rebuke, encourage, with all long-suffering and doctrine". These days are a great test of endurance, and a great test as to whether we can put up with long suffering. And then we are warned, you see, as to how evil teaching would get a grip. It says, "For the time shall be when they will not bear sound teaching; but according to their own lusts will heap up to themselves teachers, having an itching ear; and they will turn away their ear from the truth and will have turned aside to fables". Teachings that have come in of late, of which we have had experience, are fables. But because they can be named like that

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by those who have the Spirit and avail themselves of the unction, it does not mean that they present themselves like that to the public mind or to Christians generally. It is a question of deceiving spirits; Satan as an angel of light suggesting he can tell you a better way of doing what you desire to do than scripture would tell you.

"But thou", it says, "be sober" -- that is, do not let your mind get intoxicated -- "in all things, bear evils, do the work of an evangelist. Fill up the full measure of thy ministry". Now how can we do the work of an evangelist if we have not imbibed sound teaching according to the gospel of the glory of the blessed God? "Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water". There will be no difficulty in doing the work of an evangelist if we are amongst those who are maintained in a living faith in Jesus, in coming habitually to Jesus glorified, finding our souls completely watered and satisfied, and thus rivers flowing out. Do not think that this means simply accepting invitations to go and preach. It is a pretty poor thing, this 'institutionalism' that we have got into, thinking that our duty is done if we have gone and preached now and again on a Lord's Day evening. That is not doing the work of an evangelist; that is not rivers flowing; the work of an evangelist goes on from morning to night. Neither Philip nor those refugees, scattered after the persecution of Saul of Tarsus, asked for desks and meeting rooms in order to preach at 6.30 p.m. on Sunday. They went everywhere, evangelising the word; from Monday morning to Saturday night, and perhaps especially on Lord's Day. And they were ready at all times for the movements of the river. "Approach and join this chariot"

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(Acts 8:29). That was the river moving. The river of God's grace was going out to reach Ethiopia in that simple way. (The river of God's grace is coming to us here in Marlow tonight.) "Go with them, nothing doubting", Peter was told. That is how the river moved. (Acts 10:20).

The moment we begin to think that we must organise this and that; any intrusion of man into the matters that relate to God only blocks the way. Men think that their suggestions will help. They say, 'that is an idea; let us do it; let us do this and that'. But all it does is to play into the enemy's hand. It shows that we have not learnt to rely on the Holy Spirit to manage matters. Is He not capable of raising up those He needs and sending them out? Instead of thinking about what others have done, why not be doing things ourselves from morning till night? Why not be a channel for the rivers? People ask why we do not do more in the gospel. They are thinking of platforms, halls, advertisements, special occasions. That is not doing the work of an evangelist. A lot of that just blocks the way. God sovereignly uses these things. Wherever the river can go, it will go. Although blocked, although the Spirit may be grieved, if there is a way of using it to bless men, God will use it. But in themselves, men's efforts can only damage. This does not mean that we do nothing. One of the lessons we have to learn, if we are going back to the beginning in our thoughts, is to let the Holy Spirit guide; let Him work. Where we see that He is moving and doing things, we must move with Him. It is not for us to take the initiative. There is plenty of scope in a twenty-four hour day for doing the work of an evangelist. We have the Spirit, and we have the

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glorified One to come to continually for satisfaction; why should there not be rivers of living water flowing out? If the Lord has at any time something special for one of us to do, the Holy Spirit can indicate that. He may say to you one day, 'Go and talk to that man', and who knows what the results of that may be? The thing is to be ready for the river and its movements -- to be in the current all the time.

So we read, "do the work of an evangelist, fill out the full measure of thy ministry". Ministry is a very wide matter. With Timothy, it would be a good deal of the ministry of the word, but the very same word, 'ministry', is used also for deacons and for practical services. It is all regarded in that way as a form of ministry, which the Lord may lay on any one of us at any time. Instead of thinking then so much about grandiose schemes of evangelization, which may originate in the human mind, we must be sensitive to the Spirit. And let us do what scripture definitely tells us to do. Let us practise pure religion, for instance. "Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, to keep oneself unspotted from the world", James 1:27. How much of this is done? How many orphans and widows have we cared for? Our chief business in life -- as it was man's chief responsibility in the beginning -- is to represent God. Man was made in God's image and glory to represent God. Now God says that He cares for the orphans and widows. He can do things direct. He fed Elijah by the ravens direct, but then He fed Elijah through the widow of Zarephath (1 Kings 17); for God normally desires to do things through His people. If God is the Father of the fatherless and the judge of

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the widows (Psalm 68:5), then it means that we are to be that as representing Him, taking up that service. We do not know what God will do in another sphere if we begin with what is in hand. Stephen, for instance, began by serving tables (Acts 6). Let us begin with what is in hand. There are orphans and widows. Let us practise pure religion. It will provide an opening to do the work of an evangelist. In any case that work is open to you every day.

I now come to the first chapter of the second epistle of Timothy where Paul says, "have an outline of sound words". This is something we need to take to heart. The note again helps us, Timothy was to have a summary or outline; he was to state clearly and definitely what he did hold. Can everyone of us here state clearly and definitely what he or she holds? It goes on to say that the Greek means a systematic expose in outline of any system of doctrine. You say you are a Christian and you are living in the last days. What kind of outline could you give of what you hold and what there is in the faith of your soul as to the present moment? There is no reason why we should not each have an outline of sound words. I would encourage every one of us to get the main outlines of scripture. If you take the first two chapters of Genesis, tremendous principles are introduced. It says, "he divided the light from the darkness". Separation comes in the first few verses of scripture and separation goes right through scripture till the last chapter: "Blessed are they that wash their robes" (Revelation 22:14). That is the idea of an outline, seeing the scope of the thing through scripture. If anyone thinks of belittling separation, then just remember that it begins in the first chapter

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of the Bible and it comes out still in the last one. And then you see the thought of rule in Genesis 1, "the greater light to rule the day, the lesser to rule the night". This too runs right through scripture, Christ coming forth as the sun of righteousness, His face shining as the sun in Revelation. Then the thought of headship, of man and woman, Christ and the church, the idea of the garden of delights for God, the tree of life as a sustaining food, the river that went to water the garden. You see these great principles in the first two chapters of the Bible running right through and all appearing at the end of the Bible. To have an outline of sound words means that you are not moved away from these things -- not tossed about like babes: "In order that we may be no longer babes, tossed and carried about by every wind of that teaching which is in the sleight of men, in unprincipled cunning with a view to systematised error" (Ephesians 4:14). We must remember that in all these doctrines there is unprincipled cunning. We are up against the sleight of men and the wiles of the devil. But the way to withstand them is to have an outline of sound words. This is needed if we are to have a sound mind.

We are in a very favoured position, because all these great principles, which scripture brings out, found their completion in Paul's ministry. He completed the word of God (Colossians 1:25), that is, he finalised all the great lines of scripture which have come out from Genesis onwards. Paul brought in the substance of all that had been given in type, bringing in the key by which we can understand all that came out in the Old Testament. So that we are in a specially favoured time to have an outline of sound

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words. Scripture says, have it! Do not be dilatory about this. Otherwise, one day, you may be sick about questions and disputes of words; you may get intoxicated with false doctrine. Nor is it to be just a dry outline. Paul says, "which words thou hast heard of me in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus"

(2 Timothy 1:13). You will never get the outline in any spiritual sense unless you have faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. This is not human exposition. It is a living soul-absorbing matter. Their hearts burned within them as the Lord expounded the scriptures (Luke 24). There is nothing that can thrill the heart more than to go over the outline of sound words. It thrills the heart to see something beginning in Genesis and developed through scripture right to the end, and to see in scripture the great threads of God's positive work ending in a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness. Then, "keep by the Holy Spirit which dwells in us, the good deposit entrusted"

(2 Timothy 1:14). That is the good deposit of the whole Christian faith. Keeping "the commandment spotless, and irreproachable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Timothy 6:14). We are to give up nothing, but cherish the whole testimony of God. In Genesis we do not get the sanctuary idea; we have to go to Exodus. But you see the thing develop as you go on, the thought of God dwelling, and once it is brought in in Exodus, it goes right through until you find the tabernacle of God with men in the eternal state (Revelation 21). How marvellous these lines of scripture are!

In the other scripture which I read, 2 Corinthians 5:13, Paul says, "whether we are beside ourselves, it is to God". If you see a Christian in an ecstasy, you

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might wonder whether he was intoxicated, but Paul brings out here what ecstasy really is. It is to God. The note again helps us. It says, 'His ecstasy was not excitement or folly, but if out of himself it was with God. If sober, it was the calculation of love for their good'. When Paul was not actively engaged in service for the Lord and for His people, he would retire into the holiest and be beside Himself with God. That was not excitement or folly. An ecstasy means that you are outside of yourself with God. It is unspeakable bliss to be with God, as unconscious for the moment, as abstracted from things here. That is where the Christian gets his relief. The thing for us is to be sound on every score; sound in teaching, sound in mind, sound in the faith, and thus from this standpoint to be sober in all things. If we want relief, we must be like Paul, beside ourselves to God.

May the Lord help us in these matters! We are living in crucial days and we need to see the contrast between Christianity and false so-called Christian doctrines, and false religions of other kinds. These with their excitement and intoxication draw crowds.

We must not think that because they get crowds they are right. In Christianity we must cherish what is sound and sober. That is building on the rock.

May the lord help us for His Name's sake!