Truth Magazine

By Mike Willis

Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin (Heb. 3:12-13).

The Lord warned mankind to beware of the “deceitfulness of sin.” The devil promises more than he delivers and other than he delivers. To Eve, the serpent promised, “Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:4-5). Believing the serpent, Eve ate of the fruit. But the devil lied to Eve. Sin promised what it did not deliver. Sin brought physical and spiritual death, pain, heartache and sorrow.

Sin has not changed in its nature nor has the devil quit deceiving men. Sin’s allurements still promise what it cannot deliver. Consider some examples of the deceitfulness of sin.

Sin Promises Liberty But Gives Bondage

Under the guise of personal liberty and freedom, sin enslaves men. Peter warned of false teachers saying, “While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage” (2 Pet. 2:19). Much of modern sin’s defense is under the guise of liberty. Abortion is defended as the woman’s right of free choice; homosexuality is advocated as the liberty to choose one’s sexual preference; pornography is advanced as freedom of expression (speech). The devil is still deceiving people by promising them liberty but bringing them into slavery. Here are some examples for us to guard against:

1. The use of alcoholic beverages. Those who defend drinking decry the days of prohibition as days in which personal liberties were restrained by right-wing radicals. Consequently, our society has virtually no restraints on drinking. Even when drunks kill someone while driving under the influence of alcohol, the judges frequently give them a “slap on the wrist” and release them to commit their crimes again.

In the presence of a society reeling to and fro from the problem of drunkenness, some brethren defend the right of Christians to drink alcoholic beverages, using such passages as John 2:1-11 and 1 Timothy 5:23. 1 Timothy 5:23 teaches that one may use “wine” for one’s physical infirmities; nevertheless, the context implies that young Timothy shunned drinking to such a degree that he would not even use wine for medicinal purposes without an apostolic injunction to condone it. The interpretation given to John 2:1-11 by modem defenders of drinking states that Jesus gave a party of people, who had already been drinking intoxicating beverages, 150-180 additional gallons of intoxicating drink to party with. That interpretation makes the drunken orgies at the fraternity houses of the state universities rather mild parties by comparison. A much more logical interpretation of John 2:1-11 recognizes that the Greek word oinos can be used to described unfermented grape juice.

The devil encourages men to use wine. He describes those who oppose its use as those who are trying to restrain one’s liberties. He advertises the product of the brewer’s art using glamourous men and women enjoying the best of life. He persuades men to believe that using alcohol is harmless.

However, he deceives men. Using wine makes drunkards of men. Men become enslaved to drink. They drink for relaxation, when under stress, and to escape reality. Even those who are not full fledged gutter drunks frequently drink and drive, making their automobiles as dangerous as a loaded pistol. Homes are broken under the influence of drunkenness. When one calculates the harm which has come to man because of drinking, he stands amazed at how many people have been seduced by the deceitfulness of sin.

2. Smoking. The Scriptures forbid being enslaved to anything (1 Cor. 6:12 – “I will not be brought under the power of any”). Cigarettes contain a drug which is habituating, just like cocaine, heroine and other addictive drugs. Smoking also contributes to cancer, emphysema, heart disease, and other physical ailments. Nevertheless, some (even among our brethren) resent the implication that smoking is sinful and argue that smoking is a liberty which man has. “While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption.” They are addicted to the cigarette, being unable to face the day to day circumstances of life without leaning on their crutch – the cigarette. Without concern for the other person, cigarette smokers blow their smoke in the faces of other people. Can you imagine a man eating an onion and blowing his stinking breath in your face?

Yet notice how attractively Satan has packaged his product. He shows two beautiful people at one of nature’s most beautiful settings holding hands and sharing a cigarette. He makes smoking the “manly” activity for young men (“you’re in Marlboro country”), the sophisticated activity of liberated women (“you’ve come a long way, baby”), and non-threatening to one’s health (“the lowest in tar and nicotine”). He promises what he cannot deliver. Smoking destroys the health, makes beautiful women speak with a raspy voice and the victim of lung cancer, and makes strongwilled men the slaves to their cigarette addiction. Indeed, the devil has entrapped men with the deceitfulness of sin.

Sin Is Attractively Adorned

The devil makes sure that he does not describe sin as it really is. He disguises it to deceive the hearts of men. Perhaps there is no better example of how the serpent deceives mankind than with reference to sexual immorality. The devil portrays fornication as the innocent sexual experiment of budding adolescents, the accepted behavior of the macho man and liberated woman, the normal expression of marital dissatisfaction, and the accepted solution to people in a boring marriage.

Fornication is not so beautiful. I have recently witnessed its impact on the family. A teenager has created absolute chaos in her home by her repeated acts of fornication. Her immorality has led to rebellion against her parents, runrung away from home, and arrest by the police. Fornication is no less painful to older participants. A father has broken his marriage vows, divorced his wife, emotionally seared his children, disassociated himself from his parents and friends to satisfy his sensual lusts. Indeed, such people are “slaves of corruption.”

Sin Deceives One Into Thinking He Can Quit Its Practice Whenever He So Desires

The devil permits man to think that he can quit the practice of his sin whenever he so chooses. While man is thinking that he can cease his sin anytime he pleases, Satan is connecting the strands of his rope to completely entrap his victim. The cigarette smoker realizes he has been deceived when he tries to lay down the cigarette but does not possess the power to quit. The fornicator watches the devil’s ropes tighten about him when he uses a child born out of wedlock to persuade his victim to enter an adulterous marriage. Deeper and deeper the victim goes into sin until his heart is so hardened by sin that he cannot be brought to repentance (Heb. 6:4-6).

Sin Deceives One Into Looking At Sin’s Pleasures Without Thought To Sin’s Consequences

The devil’s deception also emphasizes the “pleasures of sin” (Heb. 11:24-25) without thought to sin’s consequences. The devil never speaks to us about hell, eternal damnation from the presence of the Lord. The devil never reminds us of the Lord’s second coming. The devil never encourages us to think about the results of our choices on the later development of our life. Rather, the devil persuades us to concentrate on sin’s temporal pleasures for the present.

When one looks at Paul’s choice to give up earthly power, prestige, and position to become a Christian, suffering persecution at the hands of both Jew and Gentile and culminating in his being put to death for being a Christian, his choice to become a Christian was a foolish choice. However, when viewed from eternity’s vantage point, his choice was the only logical choice to make. Sin never makes sense from eternity’s vantage point; consequently, the devil will ever concentrate on the immediate pleasures which sin can bring.

Preventatives To Sin

The writer of the warning in Hebrews 3 exhorts us to overcome sin’s deceitfulness in these ways:

1. Take heed. The Christian must constantly be on guard to avoid the temptation to sin. He needs to be “sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (I Pet. 5:8). Anything which lulls us into a false sense of security,dulls our senses, or otherwise allows us to take down our guard should be avoided.

2. Exhort one another. Christians need each other’s support and encouragement. We need to watch for those who are becoming weak so that we might rush to their aid. Paul exhorted, “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted” (Gal. 6:1). When we see a brother missing services, rush to his aid; don’t wait until he is so ensnared by sin that he cannot be reclaimed for the Lord.

Conclusion

We have a cunning adversary whose craftiness and deceit should not be underestimated. We need to become aware of the devices which he uses to destroy men’s souls, instruct men in the dangers which they pose to the soul, and become equipped to resist his assaults. The deceitfulness of sin is one of Satan’s tools to destroy men’s soul. Take heed and beware!

Guardian of Truth XXXII: 23, pp. 706, 726-727
December 1, 1988

By Forrest D. Moyer

III. Some Things We Must Know

1. We must know God. In fact, those who do not know God are in the group of those who will be banished from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power (2 Thess. 1:7-9). Paul’s intent in his precisely logical presentation on Mars Hill was to produce the knowledge of God in order that man may “seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:22-30). It is a lack of knowledge of God that causes the bulk of the immorality in the world. Paul said that we are not to live “in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God” (1 Thess. 4:5). We can only come to know God through his revelation of himself in his word. True, in nature we can know that there is a supreme being, but we cannot know who he is or what his characteristics are. Only by divine revelation can we know God and that revelation is the Bible (1 Cor. 2:9-13). To know God, we must study his word. The proof of our knowing God is seen in our keeping his commandments. “And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, ‘I have come to know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected” (1 John 2:3-5).

2. We must know Jesus. Paul’s desire was to know him (Jesus) and the power of his resurrection (Phil. 3:10). John wrote, “Many other signs therefore Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:30-31). Thus, we come to know Jesus just as we come to know God -through the revelation that is given to us in the Bible. It is only by knowing Jesus that we can have the salvation that is made possible by his death, burial and resurrection. Paul tells us of the gospel which he preached “by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:1-4). We must know that Jesus was born of a virgin (Luke 1:26-38), that he did signs and wonders among the people (John 20:30-31), that he died for me, that he was raised for my justification (Rom. 4:25), that he ascended into Heaven to sit at God’s right hand where he reigns over his kingdom (Eph. 1:19-23; 1 Cor. 15:24-26) and ever lives to make reconciliation for the sins of his people (Heb. 7:25). When I come to know him, I win only want to love him and serve him as the King of kings and Lord of lords (Rev. 19:16).

3. We must know the truth. Only by our knowing the truth can we be made free from sin (John 8:32). The reason that “the man of sin” could deceive so many people was that “they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved” (2 Thess. 2:10). The reason that many people “go onward and abide not in the doctrine of Christ” (2 John 9) is that they often do not know the truth. If I love the truth, I will diligently seek to know it so that I can live by it.

The writer of the majestic Psalm 119 is a dynamic example to us of love for the truth of God’s word. As he uses the Hebrew alphabet to label each section, in practically every verse he uses a term that refers to the law of God. Observe:

v. 11: Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

v. 14: I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, as much as in all riches.

v. 16: I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word.

v. 24: Thy testimonies also are my delight, and my counselors.

v. 47: I will delight myself in thy commandments, which I have loved.

v. 72: The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver.

v. 97: O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.

v. 105: Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

v. 140: Thy word is very pure: therefore thy servant loveth it.

Our need is to develop this same kind of love for the truth. Then we will diligently seek it.

4. I must know the truth about salvation. In very simple language Jesus sets forth his plan of salvation in such passages as Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:15-16, and Luke 24:47. We should have little trouble understanding it. It is tragic that these demagogues of religious theology have concocted ways of salvation that are not in God’s book and deceive the hearts of the simple with such teachings as “faith only,” “give your heart to Jesus as we pray, ” etc. Jesus teaches that we must hear the gospel, believe it, repent, and be baptized in order to be saved or receive the remission of sins. Not only did he set it forth very plainly, but we see it consistently in action in the book of Acts. In the second chapter Peter tells his inquiring listeners to “repent and be baptized for the remission of sins” (v. 38). In every case of conversion we see the same plan in operation. Now, I must know this truth in order to be saved. I cannot be scripturally baptized without knowing the purpose of that baptism (Col. 2:12). Knowing and obeying his truth will make me free from sin.

5. We must know how to live. The purpose of divine revelation is to teach us how to live our lives in this world. Paul wrote Timothy in order that men might “know how to behave themselves in the house of God” (1 Tim. 3:14-15). The Lord’s message teaches us to “live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world (Tit. 2:11-12). And “as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul” (1 Pet. 2:11-12). The character of God and of Jesus is revealed in the Bible. My goal is to become as God is. Therefore, I must know how to live and I can do that only as I know his truth.

6. We must know God’s promises. We five in a world where there are temptations, discouragements, and numerous hindrances to godly living. We need motivations to keep on living as God desires. Some of the greatest motivations are the “exceeding great and precious promises of God” (2 Pet. 1:4). When temptations come, when discouragements weigh heavy upon us, the promises of God will sustain us. He has said that he will never leave us (Heb. 13:5-6). He has said that “all things work together for good to those who love God” (Rom. 8:28). He has said that we will have a gloriously new body in Heaven (2 Cor. 5:1-2). He has promised eternal life (Tit. 1:2). When we know and believe these promises, we have the incentive to keep on keeping on. We have the positive assurance that our labor is not in vain in the Lord (I Cor. 15:58). Let us loam and rely on the promises of God.

IV. Our Knowledge Must Be Connected With Doing

Our reason for learning the truths of the Bible is not that we might be a “walking encyclopedia.” It is not that we might be a master at Bible trivia. We learn that we may do. Jesus said that the man who heard and would not do is like the foolish man who built his house on the sand (Matt. 7:24-28). James gives us the graphic picture of one who looks in the mirror and then forgets what he saw and then compares the forgetful hearer to such a foolish one (Jas. 1:22-25). We must be doers of the word. John tells us how we truly come to know God. He says, “And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments” (1 John 2:3). He goes on to say that a person who claimed to know and did not keep his commandments is a liar (v. 4). Our whole purpose in gaining the knowledge of God is to five as he wants us to live (1 Pet. 1:16).

Once again we look to the Psalmist as he spoke of applying truth to life in Psalms 119.

v. 33: Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes, and I shall keep it unto the end.

v. 34: Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart.

v. 112: I have inclined mine heart to perform thy statutes alway, even unto the end.

As a result of following God’s way we can say as the psalmist said: “Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them” (v. 165). May we come to have the kind of knowledge in our hearts that will make us free and will keep us in the pathway of righteousness all the days of our lives.

Guardian of Truth XXXII: 22, pp. 682-693
November 17, 1988

By J. Wiley Adams

The above sentiment has been used by many sects and humanitarian groups with regard to physical necessities in poverty-ridden parts of the world where many are dying of hunger, disease, and the harsh treatment of atheistic governments in those areas of the world. It is truly good to save the children even if we cannot save the adults. Why not save both? But man does not five by bread alone. Here in our own wonderful land people are dying from spiritual malnutrition. They need the Word of God.

However, let us look within the ranks of the church of the Lord. Are we even doing so much as saving our children? Case after case can be cited of congregations where the young peopl-e-are not obeying the gospel when it is time for them to do so. Why is this? Surely many factors would be involved in this. But, I have noticed that in some cases the parents of such children have been extremely loose in emphasizing to children where the priorities He. They will let them go off on outings and miss services, go around with worldly friends and do nothing to correct the matter. In fact, if I may be bold, some parents who are church members let their children do what they Jolly well please. The inconsistency is seen in that they always insist on their going to kindergarten, elementary school, high school, boy scouts, little league, girl scouts. They let them go in mixed bathing and expose their bodies to the lusts of sensual people. They allow them to sit around the house or go out in the yard without enough on to wad a shotgun. Then they wonder why their boys get some girl in trouble and why sometimes girls get with child out of wedlock and then they wring their hands and moan, “What did I do wrong?” For one thing they did not heed the Scriptures or the advice of those who could see where all this was heading. It is too late to shut the barn door when the horse has already run off. Even when parents do all it is possible for them to do, it might not turn out as we had hoped. But Ephesians 6:1,4 teaches children to obey their parents and that parents are to teach their children the ways of the Lord.

As long as children are at home, enjoy the blessings afforded in that relationship as part of the family, parents not only have the responsibility but the right to determine the conditions that will prevail in that household as a condition of staying there. When they will not abide by the parental rules, including attending worship and putting spiritual things first, then they should be told to leave and given their walking papers. If the Law of Moses were stiff in effect such rebellious children would be put to death.

The bad thing is that parents cannot take correction any more than some of their children. No doubt, some will read this and be offended. So be it. It is high time for God’s people to know there are still a few of us who will tell it like it is. We need more who will do so. Preachers and elders, wherever you are – will you join us in a return to the old paths of frankness and boldness in the teaching of the gospel of Christ? Save the children? Indeed, let us do so as a condition of saving ourselves!

Guardian of Truth XXXII: 22, p. 680
November 17, 1988

By Lewis Willis

The book is entitled Dianetics, by L. Ron Hubbard. Not long ago I bought it in paperback form and primarily, nothing but curiosity motivated me. I found it to be one of the most difficult books to read that I have ever encountered and even now I wonder how it could have been a bestseller. I dug my way through about 125 pages of its total 600 pages and then laid it aside. However, if I fail to capture the point he is trying to make, I have found one point that serves my purposes well. I share that point with you.

For several months I have been fascinated by a book which I have seen advertised on almost every television channel I have watched. I wondered what it was all about. The name of the book did not offer any clues and the advertisements certainly did not answer my questions. It occurs to me that perhaps this is nothing but a new marketing technique. If many people have been as 1, the technique is working.

On page 69, Hubbard wrote, “Charles Darwin did his job well and the fundamental principles of evolution can be found in his and other works. The proposition on which Dianetics was originally entered was evolution.” Whatever Hubbard intends to say in his book, it will be said as an evolutionist. Imagine my surprise when he made one of the best arguments against evolution that I have seen in a long time.

Beginning on page 61 he had some things to say about the human brain. He compared it to a computer by analogy, observing, however, that the brain “is yet more fantastically capable than any computing machine ever constructed and infinitely more elaborate.” He said it could be called the “computational mind.” He observed that the brain, like a computer, “has its standard memory banks. . . . The various senses receive information and this information files straight into the standard memory banks” of the brain. He points out that there is a set of memory banks for every one of our senses which not only store information but cross indexes it with the other memory banks. Thus, what we see is recorded and cross-indexed with what we heard, thought, felt, etc.

For instance, if you step out on your lawn, your five senses go to work storing information. As you stand there you observe a car go by. Your brain stores your remembrance that you were standing in your lawn and cross-indexes this information with the fact that, at that time, you saw the car pass by. Not only does your brain store that information, it stores that you saw a red car, with four doors, occupied by two people, one of which was your neighbor, who just incidentally smiled and waved at you as he drove by. Your ears activate their storage banks, recording the sound of the car motor, the sound of the tires as they moved over the pavement, as well as the sound of one neighbor across the street mowing the lawn, while the children of another neighbor, were laughing and shouting as they played. Without realizing it, the memory banks of your sense of smell were activated to record the smell of your new mown grass, and perhaps the fertilizer which you had just applied, as well as the smell of your neighbor’s off burning lawn mower. It would be possible to go on and on with this kind of information, all of which we store in our brain. So, what is the point?

First, the point is that the human brain has the capacity to store all of this varied information! And, secondly, it has the capacity, under the right set of circumstances, to play back to us all of this data so that we can describe, in intricate detail, all that was observed at that normal, average, non-special moment in our long fife. A fifty year old man has fifty years of such information stored in his brain. And, there is stiff room in his storage banks for another fifty years of information if he should live that long. Thirdly, if the right set of circumstances exist, this scene which has been described above can be recalled in detail three hours, three years or thirty years after it occurs, without error!

The theory of evolution says that we human beings are in the evolutionary chain – albeit, at the very top of that chain. Whatever we are, they assert, it is the result of a series of blind-chance occurrences over billions of years. Thus, our marvelous brain, with its capacity to do what I have herein described, as well as millions of other things, according to the evolutionist, just happened! To a degree, the human mind is an accident, according to the theory!

It is impossible for me to accept the evolutionary hypothesis that says the human brain evolved, just as it is impossible for me to accept that the computer on which this article is being written is the result of blind chancel I would like to hear an evolutionist explain how either of these possibilities can occur. When he asked his brain to search its memory banks for a reasonable explanation, his brain could only reply, “no such data available.” Young people, if you do not remember all that is said in this article, at least remember, in general terms, the point which I have made.

Guardian of Truth XXXII: 22, p. 681
November 17, 1988