Dead Doctrines for the Desperate

We live in a society that seems to be falling apart at the seams, and nobody seems to care. We have a generation of teenagers who have no moral compass, and in turn, no morals. We have an evil government that calls evil good and good evil, and we have in many of our churches today a full house, but an absence of Christ.

Perhaps there is someone within the sound of my voice who is at the point of desperation. You look around you and you feel like you are a lot like Lot and Sodom. You enjoy the benefits of the land, but you are discontent in it.

You want more out of your life. You want more out of church than just ritual and routine or laughter and entertainment. You want to go deeper with your God, and you want your God to take you deeper with Him in a vital love relationship.

Because of the moral decay in society and the spiritual dryness in the church, you want more of God, and you are at the point of being desperate for Him. I offer you this evening, friends, some dead doctrines for the desperate, and if you will imbibe with these four doctrines, I promise you it will change your life, allow me first to list them, and then I will elaborate upon each head as we proceed. Here now are the four dead doctrines for the desperate.

Number one, the doctrine of dead to sin. Number two, the doctrine of dead to self. Number three, the doctrine of dead to the world.

And number four, the doctrine of dead to the opinion of men. My message this evening, friends, is entitled Dead Doctrines for the Desperate, and my text can be found in the book of 1 Samuel. You can turn in your Bibles there now.

We will be in chapter one, beginning in verse four. For here in our text is a picture of a woman who is desperate. She is desperate in soul, desperate in body, desperate in prayer, and desperate for her God.

Listen to her story as we begin in verse four. And when the time that Elkanah offered, he gave to Peninnah, his wife, and to all her sons and her daughters portions. But unto Hannah he gave a worthy portion, for he loved Hannah, but the Lord had shut up her womb.

I will pause there. Here we have an account of the family to which the prophet Samuel was born. His father was a Levite named Elkanah, and this man had two wives, Peninnah, who was blessed with sons and daughters, and Hannah, who was barren.

Every day Hannah watches the children of Peninnah play and laugh and make merry, and she has no child to make merry with. Hannah longs to have a son. She is desperate for one, and in her desperation we find her in our text.

And her adversary also provoked her sore, for to make her fret, because the Lord had shut up her womb. And as he did so year by year, when she went up to the house of the Lord, so she provoked her, therefore she wept and did not eat. Then said Elkanah, her husband to her, Hannah, oh why weepest thou, and why eatest thou not, and why is thy heart grieved? Am I not better to thee than ten sons? So Hannah rose up after they had eaten and shallow, and after they had drunk.

Now Eli the priest sat upon a seat by a post of the temple of the Lord, and she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the Lord and wept sore. Let me pause here, friends. We have a picture here of a woman in distress of soul, for she longs for a son and hungers for her God.

She's quite at the end of herself. Our text says she is in bitterness of soul. Have you ever been in that condition, in bitterness of soul? Perhaps some of you are there now.

Perhaps you are at the end of your resources and at the end of yourself and are at a loss as to what to do next. All you can do is pray and believe God will help you out somehow. Notice our text says that Hannah wept sore.

This wasn't the first time she cried tears of sorrow and anguish over her barren state, but this was a time of desperate prayer where she's unburdening herself to her God. If we go further in the text, we see that the priest Eli thinks Hannah is drunk because of her odd behavior while she is praying, but she's only intoxicated with her God and clings to him in desperate prayer. She's ready for change.

She's desperate enough for change. Let me ask you a question, friend. Are you desperate enough for change? Are you? Let me go now to our four dead doctrines that if applied to our lives, will transform our lives in real change.

Let us look at number one, the doctrine of dead to sin. In Isaiah 53 6, it states, all we like sheep have gone astray and we have turned everyone to his own way. This is a good definition of sin, friends.

Sin is going our way when we know it isn't God's way. When we turn in rebellion against God and break his law through sin, we accomplish two terrible things. We trampled the blood of Christ and we robbed God of his glory.

Many in the church today adhere to the doctrine of sin all you want to and still go to heaven because they believe in a once saved, always saved. And sin is not only tolerated, but indulged in. But if you want your life to change, friend, you must adhere to the doctrine of dead to sin.

You must stick a dagger into every lust and take an axe to every sin that so easily besets you. You must imbibe of the doctrine of dead to sin. Because once you apply the cross into your life and go the way of dead to sin, then you will become more of a unobstructed channel for God to flow through by his spirit.

Often it is the person who is sick of sin and the failure of falling into it who cries out in desperation to God to affect change in their life. So we have this first dead doctrine of dead to sin. Next, there is the doctrine of dead to self.

And this is by far an even harder doctrine to imbibe for it only breeds in desperation. There are two little doctrines that make up the doctrine of dead to self. And these two little doctrines we will call A and E. A is the doctrine of absence of self.

E is the doctrine of emptiness of self. Let us address the first of these, the doctrine of absence of self. When you speak to others, are you your favorite topic of conversation? Do you like to pamper yourself, to parade yourself, to make yourself important in the eyes of others? Do you like to boast about yourself? The doctrine of the absence of self will teach you to learn how to live.

The main doctrine of dead to self, dead to self via the cross. Nail every bit of flesh up on that cross, friend, every inch because if it's not nailed down, it will crawl off and demand attention. The second little doctrine, which I call E, is the doctrine of emptiness of self.

I like what J. Siddall Baxter had to say about this. He said, how can a man full of himself preach to Christ who emptied himself? And I apply this doctrine to my preacher brethren. There's nothing more sickening to behold than a man to preach himself.

Years ago, there used to be a brass plaque on many pulpit stairs that led to the pulpit. And the plaque read, Sir, we want to see Jesus. In other words, when a man preaches, the last thing anybody wants to see is the flesh prominently displayed.

I cringe when I sit and listen to men preach, and all they do is tell you how great they are and how greatly used of God they have been. But the doctrine of emptiness of self will lead to the doctrine of dead to self because when you imbibe it, you will not need the applause of man. The doctrine of dead to self stands upon Galatians 2.20, which states, I am crucified with Christ.

Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And these twin doctrines, friends, of A and E, absence of self and emptiness of self, stand on the words of John the Baptist as found in the Gospel of John in 3.30. He must increase, but I must decrease.

Let me ask you, friend, are you willing for someone else to get the credit, the recognition? Are you willing to decrease so Jesus can increase in your life? Then this doctrine of dead to self must come into play. It must be a living reality in our lives where we live our Christian life via the cross, where self goes to the cross. Now let us look at this next dead doctrine, and that is number three, the doctrine of dead to the world.

Oh, how hard a doctrine this is to put into practice. How we love the world and its allurements, its toys and entertainments. How hard it is to live a life in this modern society that practices the doctrine of dead to the world, but it must be done, friends.

In 1 John 2.15, we read, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world.

How we church people love the world, and the world can see little difference between us and them. We ought to live above the world, friends. Our affection should be above the world.

We should live only for eternity and the God of our eternity. But my, oh my, how we cling to this bauble of a world and seek its amusements and pursue its enjoyments. We are indeed a worldly church today because we love too much of the world.

But our doctrine of dead to the world must come into play in our lives in a vital reality. We must be able to say with the apostle Paul in Galatians 6.14, but God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. When I study the lives of men and women whom God has used in former times to advance his kingdom, I see men and women who are exponents of the doctrine of dead to the world.

Now let us go to our last and final dead doctrine for the desperate, and that is the doctrine of dead to the opinion of men. Oh, dear brother preacher, dear fellow gospel worker, how God could transform your very usefulness and ministry to others if you would imbibe of this doctrine of dead to the opinion of man. It would make you a more bold witness for Christ.

You would not fear man nor his acceptance. It would make you a better preacher because you wouldn't be afraid of offending the chairman of the deacons. You would boldly proclaim the full counsel of God with the power of God and not fear the opinion of man.

You would not preach for their affection. You would not preach for their approval. You would not serve in your church for recognition.

You would not strive for advancement within your denomination. You would live out the doctrine of dead to the opinion of man and her desperation. Hannah prayed and Eli the priest thought she was drunk, but Hannah had imbibed these dead doctrines and was intoxicated with God and dead to the opinion of man and dead to this world and dead to sin and dead to self.

She knew the doctrine of absence of self and emptiness of self, and God heard her desperate prayer and filled her life with his glory. He gave her a profit for the good of God's people and the glory of God. And dear friends, if you too will take these four dead doctrines for the desperate and apply them and adhere to them, they will indeed forever change your life for the good of God's people and the glory of God.

Let us pray.