Now, what was the doctrine of Paul? Well, Paul was an apostle of Jesus Christ. He was inspired by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit guided the things that Paul said. Thus, the things that Paul said were from God. And so when Paul speaks about “my doctrine,” what he is really saying is “the doctrine of God.” He praises Timothy for following the doctrine of God.

In 2 Timothy, chapter 4, beginning with verse 1, there is a description of the condition of our age, although I’m confident that it probably describes the condition of every age. But, after all, this is the age that we live in, and this is the reference point in time that we have. But just listen to these words—this warning—that Paul will give to Timothy. He says, “I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, Who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the Word!” (Ah, there’s that “preach the Word.” We can as easily say, “preach the doctrine.”) “Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the Truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”

Yes, we live in a time when they, that is “people,” just will not endure sound doctrine. Frankly, many are just not interested in sound doctrine, just as Paul had predicted here [2 Timothy 4:1-5].

Well, what to do? Brethren, we need to be reminded about sound doctrine. We need to understand what doctrine is. We need to understand and appreciate the importance of doctrine. And so I trust that our study on great Bible doctrines over the next few weeks will be of benefit to us as we strive to better understand and rightly divide the Word of Truth, 2 Timothy 2:15. [“Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth.”] And, we must strive to put this Word—or this doctrine—into practice in all that we do.

In the weeks to come, we are going to be looking at the great Bible doctrines—the teaching, the instruction—that the Bible has to say about God, about His Son Jesus Christ, about the Holy Spirit, about the inspiration of the Scriptures, about salvation, about worship. We are going to cover many other topics and subjects during this series.

And by the way, it would be unprofessional on my part, or unthinking on my part, if I didn’t tell you that much of this information we’ll be presenting during this series is based on a book entitled, “Great Bible Doctrines,” written by a brother by the name of Walter Swain.

Our time is up for this evening, and I appreciate your kind attention as we have presented this introduction—this first in a series of lessons on great Bible doctrines.