Kissin’ don’t last, cookin’ do.

Steve Brown:
Kissin’ don’t last, cookin’ do. Let’s talk about it, on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
The deepest message of Jesus and the Bible is the radical grace of God to sinners and sufferers. That’s what Key Life is all about. So, if you’re hungry for the hopeful truth that God isn’t mad at you, keep listening. Steve Brown is a professor and our teacher on Key Life.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. If you hope in your Bible, we just finished the 18th chapter of Acts in our study of Acts, by looking at Apollos and how God prepared him and used him in a major way. And we’re going to move now into the 19th chapter of Acts. And we’re going to talk about doctrine. And you say, that sounds like really fun. Well, it’s necessary, and I’m going to tell you why it’s necessary. I had mentioned the theologian who said that he learned after all of his years of study, Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. That is a wonderful statement and there is profound truth in it, but that’s not all he learned. And if that had been all he learned, God wouldn’t have used him in the way he did. As you know, sometimes I teach in theological seminaries and that’s crazy, by the way. I ran away from kindergarten and I work with people who have PhDs from all kinds of places, and I have doctorates too, but they’re all phony. I will say to the other professors sometimes, how long did it take you to get your doctorate? They say, well, three or four years. And it was really hard work. And I said, I got mine in 30 minutes. All I had to do was speak, they paid me and they made me a doctor. And so, I’m hanging out with people who know a lot more than I do, but whom I respect more than you can imagine because you see the Christian faith is more than just feelings. It’s a sexist comment. There used to do banners and mothers used to tell daughters, kissin’ don’t last but cookin’ do. Now, erase the sexist side of that because there is a profound truth that goes very deep and it’s this, feelings don’t last, doctrine do. And so, it’s important that we as Christians not only get saved, but that we begin to grow in knowledge. And a good example of why that is true is found in the first few verses of the 19th chapter of Acts.

While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. And he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said, “No, we have never even heard that there’s a Holy Spirit.” And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” And they said, “Into John’s baptism.” And Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentence, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is Jesus.” On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, they spoke with tongues and prophesied. There were about twelve of them in all.

Now, as you read those verses, you begin to see what had happened with the ministry, I assume of Apollos we’ve been talking about for the last few days. Apollos was a man on fire. God used him as an evangelist, but Priscilla and Aquila had to teach him doctrine, theology, if you will, or you will end up with Christians like the ones in the first chapter, first verses of the next chapter of Acts that I just read to you. We never even heard there was a Holy Spirit. They were baptized into the baptism of John. They knew absolutely nothing except that Jesus loved them and had saved them. And in most cases that would be enough. You know something? If I knew that Jesus was coming back on Thursday, I would burn every theological book that I have. If I knew that Jesus was coming back on Thursday, I would never again try to teach anything other than salvation. But he may not come on Thursday. And if he doesn’t, we’ve got to live this life in a hard and dark place. And if you don’t know what God says about how hard the life is, how dark it is, how you’re to handle it, how you’re to be serving Christ in this kind of world, what God says about this kind of world, what he says anthropologically about people. If you don’t know those things, then it’s a lot harder to get through. There’s that old prayer and I pray it often. Lord Jesus, the ocean is so very big and my boat is so very little. And that’s true and that will always be true. But I’ll tell you something, you want to make sure that your little boat is well stocked. You want to make sure that your little boat doesn’t leak. You want to make sure that your little boat will float. And that’s what doctrine does, and that’s why it is important to understand that. I have a friend who later became the president of a large seminary and he was being ordained in a denomination that is known for its progressive and liberal attitudes about the Bible. For the most part, they don’t accept the doctrines of the Bible or that the miracles really happen or that the resurrection of Christ happened, the bodily resurrection and return of, etcetera, etcetera. But that was the place where my friend was at that time called to serve. And that denomination had compiled instead of a confession, a book of confessions, and many of them contradicted each other. And when you’re being ordained or installed as a church pastor, you have to subscribe to the confessions of the church. And my friend said, and I’ll always love him for it, my friend said this, Gentleman, during this service, I will be asked about my adherence to the confessions of this denomination. I just want it made clear that when I answer that question in the affirmative, I will mean by my answer that I affirm my belief in the ancient Westminster confession of faith. I say this not to be divisive, but because as I read the confessions of our denomination, there are a number of contradictions and I cannot in good conscience say that I believe in contradictory confessions. Man, I wanted to stand up. I didn’t cause I was getting ready to preach, but I wanted to stand up and applaud my friend and his stand because what he said was important, and what he said was this, doctrine, what you believe about God and what the Bible teaches is very, very important. Now, it won’t affect your salvation. Salvation is by faith in Christ alone, period. I don’t care how many degrees you have, how much you know about Scripture, how accurately you execute and exposit Scripture, if you don’t know Jesus, it’s worth about a bag of chicken feet. It isn’t worth anything. If you know Jesus, you’re saved and you’re going to get home before the dark and he will never kick you out. That’s really important. But don’t miss the importance also of knowing the eternal verities of the faith and why those things are true. And as you study them, make them a part of your discipline. Hosea 4:6 says this.

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I will reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.

That’s Old Testament harshness, but it has a truth to it that we must remember. One time, Wesley was approached by a woman who said to him, God is not impressed with your knowledge. And Wesley said, that is true mam, but God is not impressed with your ignorance either. So, we’re going to talk about doctrine, and it’s important, I don’t want to go crazy with it, but it is important that as Christians, we not only understand Jesus loves me, this I know, but we understand who Jesus is and why. You think about that. Amen.

Matthew Porter:
Thank you Steve. What a week. We got to know Apollos and cracked open a brand new chapter here in Acts that we’ll continue exploring next week. Don’t forget, tomorrow is Friday Q&A, of course that’s when our friend Pete Alwinson drops by and together Steve and Pete answer the challenging questions you’ve sent in. On deck for tomorrow, do I have to tithe? That’s a great question. Tune in for that answer. So, I’m not great at math, but by my reckoning, we have about 16 more days left in this year. Crazy, right? That means you have 16 more opportunities to get your copy of this year’s Key Life magazine. It is packed with great articles from Chad West, Pete Alwinson, Kendra Fletcher, and of course Steve. Claim your free copy right now by calling us at 1-800-KEY-LIFE. That’s 1-800-539-5433. You can also e-mail [email protected] to ask for that magazine. If you’d like to mail your request, send it to

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