We are here in 1 Corinthians chapter 11. We are starting a new series called "The Alphabet of Bible Doctrines." This is going to be a long series — we are not going to be skipping any letters in the alphabet, so it is going to be kind of interesting because every week you are going to be trying to guess what the sermon is about for this letter or that letter. This sermon is an introductory sermon, and I will reference next week's sermon a little bit to give you an idea of what it is about. Basically, every week we are just going to go through the alphabet. Next week will be the letter A, the week after that the letter B, and I am going to pick a doctrine or a topic that starts with that letter and preach a sermon about it.

For most letters there are a lot of options. For the letter A there are angels, apostasy, anarchism, amillennialism — what I am choosing is abortion. There are really a lot of choices that can be made, so this could be a series that 20 years from now is still going. But when it comes to a series like this, you have to realise that when I am going through some of the doctrines, you might not learn something completely brand new. You should not have the mentality that you always want to learn something new and if you do not learn something new you are going to be bored with the preaching — because honestly, we need to be reminded of things that we already know. I am going to talk about abortion next week. I am very confident everybody in this room is against abortion. I would be very shocked if somebody at our church was pro-abortion. One thing I can guarantee: there is not a single soul winner on the planet that is pro-abortion.

Here is the thing — it is not about simply finding out whether a doctrine is right or wrong. You might know something is wrong but not know what the biblical punishment for it is, what causes it to take place, what some preventive measures are, or how to prove it to someone from the Bible. Any time the word of God is open there are things we can learn. We can be re-motivated. We can be edified. All of the word of God is good for us. With certain doctrines you are probably going to learn a lot of new things. With others it may be stuff you have mostly already heard. But any time you are preaching through the word of God there is always something to learn.

A lot of people might shy away from a series on Bible doctrines and ask why you are preaching on doctrines instead of love or grace or peace. I have been criticised before by people who left our church because they said my preaching was all about doctrines. But God gives a lot of doctrines in the Bible, and any time you are preaching on anything — if it is in the Bible and you are using the Bible to support it — it is good for us.

Point 1: Doctrine Divides

In 1 Corinthians 11:13, this is in my opinion one of the funniest verses in the entire Bible. The Bible is a very serious and grave book, so when there is humour mixed in you can sometimes miss it. This is Paul speaking and he says, "Judge in yourselves." He says judge inside of yourself — not even using the Bible — naturally you be the judge of what seems right to you. And what he is going to talk about is whether it is comely, meaning attractive, that a woman pray unto God uncovered. This is in reference to her hair length. He is saying: you be the judge inside of yourself — do you find women with short hair praying attractive? Is Joyce Meyer a very spiritual woman who preaches sermons? Is Joyce Meyer attractive? Why? Because of her hair length. How many husbands in this room want their wife to get a haircut shorter than mine? How many men would find their wives more attractive if they had really short hair? That is what he is saying in verse 13.

Verse 14: "Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering." When the Bible says nature here, it is not referring to Mother Nature — it is referring to what is naturally built into you. That is why he says when the Gentiles by nature do the things contained in the law — naturally they do and do not do certain things because they know it is wrong to lie and to steal and to kill, even if they have never seen a Bible verse about it. God gave men the mindset of finding women with long hair more attractive, and men are to have short hair.

Verse 16: "But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God." People really misunderstand this verse. He is not saying that if somebody wants to argue about it, we should just say never mind, we do not have an opinion on hair length. When he says we have no such custom, he is saying: Church of Corinth, we do not have a custom in our church of saying that hair length does not matter — and neither do any of the churches of God. All the churches of God have men with short hair and women with long. If someone is contending about this, let me just be very clear — we have no custom at Verity Baptist Manila or Pampanga or Bicol where it is like, hey, it does not matter what your hair length is. No. Men have short hair and women have long. That does not mean you have to cut your hair to come to church — you have free will — but we are also not going to say it does not matter.

Now Paul brings up something very controversial, and he specifically brings it up because it was one of the many problems at the Church of Corinth. He says let me just be very clear — apparently this was an issue at the church. He is bringing up a very contentious doctrine. But what you also see in this chapter is that there are divisions already before he brings up the doctrine. Go to verse 1: "Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ." He is saying: I started this church, I got a lot of these people saved — let me be very clear, do not follow those who are teaching things we do not agree with. Follow what I am saying because I am actually preaching you what the Bible says.

You say, Brother Stucky, if you preach on hair length it could offend people and cause them to leave the church. Yes — Doctrine divides. Paul brings up something very divisive, and here is the thing: I am not denying that. People criticise preaching on doctrine because it is going to turn people away, divide people, make them angry. You are right — doctrine divides. Well, that is what Paul did. He brings up a very specific doctrine and guess what, it does divide people. But who said division is a bad thing? Who said we should just always get along with everybody about everything? Did Jesus Christ say he came not to bring division but peace? No — he said the opposite. He came not to give world peace but division. Why? Because the word of God divides.

Genesis 1:1: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light." Verse 4: "And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness." All the way back in Genesis 1 you are seeing God making a division. He uses the analogies of light and darkness over and over and over again in the Bible — have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, walk in the light. He is literally talking about light and darkness but he is also using symbolism, and you are seeing him making a division between light and darkness. This is right, this is wrong.

People take this mindset: we should not say anything controversial because we want to bring everybody in. We are not trying to bring everybody into our church. We invite people to church — we go soul-winning, we invite, we hand out invitations — but we also know that a lot of people will never like our church. Why? Because of the preaching. The preaching divides. It turns some people away.

John 3:18: "He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." A lot of people never like the preaching of this church because they do not live a very godly life. Why would you be offended about something if you are innocent of it? If someone brought up thou shalt not kill and the death penalty and somebody got incredibly offended — well, have you killed somebody? Something does not offend you unless you are guilty about it, or unless you know somebody close to you who is guilty. Verse 20: "For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved." The reason you like this church, those that are members, is because you want to know the truth, you want to make changes in your life if necessary, you want the word of God to shine on your life. That is the attitude we ought to have.

Point 2: Doctrine Unites

Point number one was that Doctrine divides. Point number two is that Doctrine unites. You say, Brother Stucky, that is a contradiction. It is not. This is what doctrine does: it divides this side away from what I am saying, and it unites those that agree together more strongly. Doctrine divides people away and it unites those that remain.

Let me give some obvious examples. What about preaching on repentance of sins? That is going to divide people. A lot of people would not like our church because of that. What do a lot of Baptist churches do? They just generically say "repentance and faith" so both sides can say, well, he did not say anything wrong. No — let us just be clear what we believe. I am not hiding anything. And yes, the second you are clear you might divide people away. Well, then they need to be divided away. If I preached on repentance of sins being work salvation and it caused soul winners to leave our church because they disagree — well, good, because we do not want people going soul-winning preaching a false gospel. The division needs to happen. But what it also does is unite those of us that remain.

Our church is a very united church. Why? Because of the doctrine that is taught. We understand there are very few people that agree with us on these things. A lot of people come a long distance to this church. Here is the reality: if there was a group of 30 people near where you live that believed the same things and taught the same doctrines, you would go to that church and I would encourage you to. But why do people come from a long distance? Because you do not have that in a lot of areas. Doctrine divides, but it unites those that are left.

At a lot of Baptist churches you have a million different doctrines out there on salvation, on repentance. You talk to somebody and they might believe completely different things, and you know that. I have been to churches like that. It is kind of awkward because in the back of your mind you are thinking I do not think this person is saved. We are not just local church together in one location by proximity — we also need to be united together in our beliefs. It is better to have a church of 50 people that are united than 500 people where one out of ten believe the same thing as you.

1 Corinthians 1:10: "Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you." You say, Brother Stucky, I thought you said division is not a bad thing? It is not necessarily bad because some people need to be divided out. But those of us that remain, because we believe the same doctrines, should be united together.

One thing you notice at a church like ours that is very united on salvation and soul-winning is that you do not have as many silly things to argue about. I literally know a church in my hometown that had a church split over the colour of the paint on the wall. That is the sort of foolishness you have at churches when people are not united on the things that matter. But when you are united together on beliefs, you feel close to one another. I feel more united with church family than with physical family in many instances — why? Because of beliefs, and because of our practice of soul-winning. There are not a lot of soul winners out there. We realise we are the few. We can set aside foolish little things because we believe the same thing about salvation.

"That ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment." How can you be united in the same mind and in the same judgment if you do not believe the same thing? It is not possible. When I first got saved I would go to various Christian Bible studies on the college campus and it was a mixed bag of every denomination and every Bible version. I remember when an argument came up about speaking in tongues. I said no, it is not biblical, it is wrong. And it was like, how dare you say that — you can have that opinion but do not be divisive. I caused a division because I said it was wrong? I mean, it is clear as day. Well, you know, it is just your interpretation. No — we cannot both be right. You know what you are going to find if you use the Bible as the basis for your beliefs? You are going to have the same beliefs as somebody else who used the Bible as the basis for their beliefs.

Ephesians 4:13: "Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: 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." The unity of the faith is not simply referring to we all believe on Jesus so let us set aside all differences. We should actually preach doctrine, and if those who hear it decide to stay, they get united in the things they believe. Through the ministry and my time as a Christian I have found there are actually a lot of people in this world who want to know the truth. A lot of people just want the light to shine on their life. There are people wondering, why is nobody saying this stuff? It is about time somebody said that. There are people that agree. There are people who just want to know the truth.

Point 3: Doctrine Protects

Verse 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." The Bible says there are people that are going to bring false doctrines to confuse people. You might say, I am not going to fall for them, I know what I believe. That may be true. But even if you have been saved for a long time, do you not care about other members of the church who are newly saved and might not know these things? There are doctrines that people can twist and use to confuse people. A lot of you before you joined our church were saved but were probably a bit confused on things like Calvinism, or repentance of sins — what does the word repent mean? Because you were at churches teaching different things. But if you have been at our church for years you are not going to be confused on that now. What about those that are newly saved? Do you want them confused? So yeah, maybe I am preaching a doctrine you have already heard many times, but it is good to be reminded. It actually protects us from those that would deceive.

Romans 16:17: "Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them." What does that mean? If people preach different and false doctrine, avoid them. Never listen to a sermon from John MacArthur — he preaches weird doctrines about salvation and Calvinism. Never listen to Paul Washer, never listen to Ray Comfort, never listen to Joel Osteen, TD Jakes or whomever. They preach false things. And let us say somebody is at our church for years, then they leave and it turns out they do not believe what we do. They start a YouTube channel teaching stupid stuff about how there is no hell or how the Trinity is false. Never listen to their videos. You already know it is false — what are you trying to do? You do not want to get deceived or confused.

The only exception I can think of is if you are a preacher who sometimes reads or listens to false things in order to preach against them. I would never advise a church member to read weird religious books. I read the Bhagavad Gita and it was the biggest load of garbage I have ever read in my life — do not read it. Do not listen to things that are false. "For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple." They go after those who are unaware of certain things.

Now, this might be some people's opinion: Brother Stucky, you preach too much against Calvinism. Yeah, but you know what it certainly does? It protects us from having Calvinists come into our church and just stay as regular members, because they know this is not the church where the pastor is just going to let anything go. Maybe you say, Brother Stucky, you overly preach on the LGBT. Yeah, but at least it is not going to become a cesspool of those who would defile little kids. I would actually rather over-preach on something serious than under-preach it. But it at least protects us.

1 Corinthians 11:19: "For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you." Here is what he is saying: if it is disorganised and just anything goes and nothing is being preached against, there are also going to be heresies — major doctrinal problems rising up within the church. If I never made it very clear what I taught and what we believe about Calvinism, the Trinity, repentance of sins, there would be heresies rising up at our church. People would get a group together and confuse people on these topics. This is what Paul is stating: if you do not preach the doctrine, there are going to be heresies. That is what is going to take place.

Philippians 3:1: "Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe." Paul says: I am repetitive about certain things, but actually it is good for you. Brother Stucky, you preach too much on soul-winning. Well, that might be your opinion, but it still reminds us we need to go soul-winning. As a preacher you should preach on the most important things and try to have a balance of everything. When it comes to things like salvation, repentance of sins, the Trinity — these are things that it is good to hear a lot, because they are major doctrines and every false religion is wrong on these sorts of things. It is safe for us.

Jude 1:3: "Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints." People try to take this verse and say it means if you do not serve God your whole life you are going to go to hell. How could you get that out of Jude 1:3? He is saying to defend the things that we believe. Here is one way you defend the common salvation — by going soul-winning. Did you know when you are going soul-winning you are defending the faith? The common salvation means Jesus died for everybody — it is available to anybody. He died for the sins of the whole world. You are contending for the faith as you go out soul-winning. You are contending for the faith when you defend what the Bible says about certain things.

Especially at church we must be sure to contend for salvation above all else. Can you imagine going to a church for years and someone asks, what does your pastor believe about repentance of sins — does he think you have to do that to be saved? And the answer is, your guess is as good as mine. I do not know because sometimes I think he agrees and sometimes he lets people pray work salvation behind the pulpit. Does anybody at our church not know what I believe about repentance in regards to salvation? Nobody who has been here for even a couple months would say that. Why? Because we contend for the things that are most important.

Verse 4: "For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ." Because people creep in and cause problems. When something creeps in the implication is it is very subtle — you are trying not to be discovered. Unless someone is completely foolish, they are going to bring false doctrine very subtly. They are going to creep in quietly. How do they creep in work salvation? By saying something like, well, you know, someone who is really saved is going to start living a good life. That is a false statement but it seems harmless. If you are really saved you are going to make some changes — well, that is actually heresy, because there is no guarantee of a change when you get saved. Someone could remain a drunk until the day they die and be saved. There is no guarantee. But is that not subtle? Especially to someone who is newly saved — it would seem very harmless. If you had said that to me shortly after I got saved it would have seemed very harmless to me. I would not have realised anything was wrong with it. People can creep things in, and not all of them are bad people — some do it innocently. But there are others where it is intentional, and in the back of your head you start to think, well, I guess if they are really meant to be saved they will get saved. That is actually Calvinism. That is actually not a true statement. God means for everybody to be saved — that is why he died for everybody.

Point 4: Doctrine Shapes

Doctrine divides. Doctrine unites. Doctrine protects. But doctrine also shapes — it moulds and forms our church into being a certain type of church.

1 John 5:10: "He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son." A record is something that is written. God has given us a record, speaking largely about the Lord Jesus Christ. If you do not believe it, you are saying God is a liar. Verse 11: "And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son." This sounds a lot like the last half of Romans 6:23 — the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. They are basically parallel. What is that saying? Salvation and life is only in Jesus Christ. He is the only way to heaven. If someone got offended by that, they are at the wrong church. Division needs to happen.

It also says God hath given to us eternal life — given, like a gift. A gift is something that is given. The gift of God is eternal life. Eternal life is something given to us as a gift. It is free — no works are involved on our part, because it was the work of God. He died, he paid for it. Eternal life is free for us because it was paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ. The gift was very expensive, but it is not paid for by us. It is free for us as the receivers. So a person to be saved must believe salvation is a gift. If they think they have to work for their salvation, they are not saved. If someone thinks they have to repent of their sins or get baptised to go to heaven, they are not saved, because they do not believe it is a gift. It also says eternal life — you must believe the gift is eternal. If you think salvation can be lost, you are not saved. Saying that divides a lot of people away. Well, I am sorry to quote the Bible — that is what God says. There are no works to be saved, and no works to stay saved. It is a gift.

Now in the last few minutes, I have not once told you that you should be going soul-winning on a regular basis. But because of the fact that when you hear how clear salvation is, you realise that very few people are saved. Narrow is the way which leads unto life, and they cannot get saved on their own. No — they cannot. And you know what happens? It shapes our church into being a soul-winning church, even though I did not directly say anything about needing to go soul-winning. That is the result of that kind of preaching. Churches that are very clear on salvation, it is going to result in those members being soul winners — because we realise I have got to defend the faith, I have got to preach the common salvation. The result of being very clear on salvation motivates us to go soul-winning, because we really start to realise wow, I used to think 20% of this country was saved, and now I am starting to realise it is not that high. It shapes our church into being a soul-winning church.

One more example to close up. One thing we emphasise at our church is the importance of learning the Bible for yourself — reading the Bible, memorising it, studying it, reading it on a daily basis, having that personal walk with God. From what people at our church have told me, at most Baptist churches Bible reading is not really a major emphasis. In fact, very few people at those churches have actually read the whole Bible. And one reason why people probably do not feel all that motivated to read the Bible is because they are not getting a lot of verses in the sermons. At our church, say what you want about my preaching — one thing you cannot say is that I do not give you much Bible. I cannot think of a sermon where there are less than 10 or 20 verses. Often I am up here looking at the time thinking, all right, I am going to have to skip this because I have so much Bible in my notes that it is going to take too long. It is not just a church where there is a story and that is it. If you are hearing a lot of Bible preached you start to realise, man, I need to read the Bible. If I talk about a story like Naaman, for a lot of people who are not that familiar with it, you think I should probably read 2 Kings 5.

1 Peter 2:2: "As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby." We ought to desire God's word, and we grow by reading it. At our church I do not think we have a major problem with people not reading the Bible. Obviously for all of us it is hard on a daily basis when we get busy, but I think everybody at our church would say, yeah, I really need to read the Bible. We have our New Testament Bible reading challenge coming up in January to read the whole New Testament in a month — I am confident at least half our church will do it. But it is not just because I am putting forth a challenge. It is because there is so much Bible in the sermons that you want to know the word of God. You want to know these stories, you want to learn these things, because we preach a lot on our doctrines and what the Bible says. And it shapes our church into being a certain sort of church.

A lot of churches have different emphases, and as a result it shapes their church into a certain type. A lot of churches major on money and it shapes the church accordingly. Our church is focused on soul-winning. I do not think there is any question — if somebody asked what is the number one focus of Verity Baptist Church, I am pretty sure everybody would say soul-winning. Why? Because that is what we are about.

Conclusion

Doctrine is good for us. Doctrine divides — and there might be people in the future who get divided out because they disagree with something I say. Well, it is what it is. I am meant to preach the whole word of God. I am not meant to hold back. If anybody at our church is guilty of a sin in the past and loves God now, they would agree: yeah, you know what, it was wrong, I should have never done it, and I do not want others to make the mistake I made. We do not want the next generation to make mistakes we have made. We want them to know what the Bible says and why they believe it.

Doctrine divides — sometimes that is a good thing. But it also unites those of us that remain. Our church is a very united church — why? Because we believe the same things. Those who disagree leave. It is what it is, because we want to be united together in what we believe. Doctrine also protects us from false doctrine coming in, confusing newer people. And it shapes our church into being the type of church that it is.

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here in your house today. I ask you to help us to learn from this sermon, help us to be excited for this new series — to not only learn new things and new doctrines but also get reminded on things we already know, and learn how to prove things that we know. I ask you to help us to always be humble before what the word of God says, regardless of whether it is something new to us or something we are guilty of. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.