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Proverbs chapter 4 is very interesting in terms of sound doctrine. Read it all but, for the moment, let us just consider a couple of verses:

"Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth. Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her and she shall keep thee. Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her." vv 5-8. Wisdom and understanding come from being taught in the things of God. With all your getting get understanding. Sound teaching is important. In Matthew chapter 28 vv 19/20, (and this is the Great Commission), Jesus said,

"Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the age." That first word 'teach' is, in the Greek, a word which means 'make disciples of' but the second word 'teaching' is the word we have been thinking about this evening. It means to instruct. Notice that such teaching is to be comprehensive, not selective - "teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." We centre again on Jesus and on what He taught.
Remember, in Acts chapter 1, that Luke wrote referring to his gospel where he had recorded what Jesus had begun to do and to teach. There was teaching in the ministry of Jesus. We find that, in Acts chapter 11, Paul and Barnabas spent a whole year in Antioch. What were they doing? They were teaching the new converts and disciples. It was important that they were established with sound teaching, sound doctrine.

In Acts 18, Paul was in Corinth for eighteen months. What was he doing for eighteen months in Corinth? One often gets the idea of Paul rushing from place to place, but that is not so. Teaching had to be given and teaching requires care and time. So he spent eighteen months there, getting them firmly grounded in doctrine, that they might know the Lord Jesus Christ. In Acts chapter 19 and 20, Paul was in Ephesus. It was there that he met those disciples that did not know the Lord. They knew only John's baptism. Paul preached to them Jesus and they were baptised and baptised with the Holy Spirit. Paul spent quite a long time there in Ephesus - teaching. Here is his own record:

"...I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publicly, and from house to house...........For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God."
(Acts 20 vv 20 & 27) What teaching! What doctrine! Now in the relatively brief period of time that Paul was with them, he could say that he had declared all the counsel of God. You see, doctrine is not complicated; doctrine is not like some vast encyclopaedic library that you must studiously plough through. We can be established in sound doctrine and all the counsel of God in a fairly short space of time. So much is this the case that, after eighteen months in a place, Paul could ordain elders, to be responsible for teaching others. 'Sound doctrine' sounds wonderful, does it not? It sounds as if you have got to be studying it for years. But it is simple. And the Lord, by His Holy Spirit, teaches us that it is important. It is not to be neglected. The Lord wants us to be taught in good things. Being thus grounded, you can then continue to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Where there is no sound doctrine, then there is weakness, coldness, and exposure to those things which cause harmful divisions. Paul said in Romans 16 v 17,

"Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which you have learned; and avoid them." By doctrine you can know and take note of those that cause divisions, who teach things contrary to sound doctrine and avoid them. This is separation, you see, from things that are not right. The trouble with people that do not have sound doctrine and claim that doctrine is divisive is that they want to embrace and hold on to those that will cause harmful division; they want to have fellowship with those that have erred from the faith. That is plainly wrong. It says in Proverbs 11 v 14, "Where no counsel is the people fall." There is weakness. We need that counsel, all the counsel of God, that teaching which is from Him. Jude says, "Contend earnestly for the faith, which was once delivered to the saints." How? By knowing your sound doctrine. That word 'once' means 'completely' or 'wholly'. All the counsel of God is there for us to know.

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