Truth Magazine

By Dick Blackford

(The following letter was written in September, 1981. Names and places have been changed to protect the family. This is the first in a series of three.)

Dear Joe,

This is a difficult letter to write. I have spent much time wondering what I could say to help. I want to assure you of my personal care. I regard you as a friend and I want to be the same to you. Jeanette did not ask me to write. It was my idea and I am doing it on my own. I have always thought a lot of both of you and you have been a source of encouragement to me. Several times when we were living in Dyersburg I remarked to Kathy about what a good family you had, how you had done so well raising your children and how I wished you lived there with us.

I can understand how such a situation arose. You are an understanding, compassionate person. Your neighbor was unhappy with family problems and needed someone to help shoulder her burdens. She was younger and you were mature. One thing led to another. With the boys away at school, you felt the need for a friend. A feeling was ignited that you felt when you were younger in your courting days. It was a good feeling that made you feel young again. She gave you compliments that would inflate the ego of any man (we all have egos and they can be difficult things to live with).

Sometimes it is hard to face the reality that we are growing older and to see the deceitful means through which Satan works. He tries to convince us that we can recapture our youth. But Satan is a liar (Jn. 8:44) and he often uses us for target practice by using others to capture us. We are both well over half way to the “threescore years and ten” that is generally allotted to man (Psa. 90:10). We cannot regain our youth, but those feelings that you are having can be recaptured again with the girl that you loved enough to snatch from the clutches of the Roman Catholic Church and make her your wife and the mother of your children.

I want to remind you that a knock down is not a knock out. You can still pick up the pieces and get it together again. Joe, God has wonderfully blessed you. He gave you a loving mother and father who have always had your best interest at heart and gave you a happy home life. He has given you a wife who cares for you, is a good homemaker, and who can be trusted. You were given four healthy children who are obedient and respectful and who love you. They didn’t go off the deep end of rebellion as many teenagers have done. You have been successful in business and financial matters and have enjoyed many of the pleasures of this life which some never have the opportunity to experience. You have enjoyed the respect of people throughout your community. But especially, you were fortunate enough to come in contact with the Christ, the Son of the living God, who loved you and went to the cross so you could have the greatest experience yet of spending eternity in heaven. How then can you turn your back on everything that has ever mattered and sin against the God who made it all possible without which you would be nothing?

Pentecostals often tell people to “silence your intellect and let your emotions take over.” It is easy to let one’s emotions rule rather than his knowledge of what is right. Don’t silence your intellect and allow your emotions to rule, God promises a way of escape in time of temptation (1 Cor. 10:13). He doesn’t promise that it will always be the easiest course to follow, but it is always there. It wasn’t easy for Joseph to leave his coat and flee from Potiphar’s wife, but he ran (Gen. 39:8,9)! Joe, I urge you to break off this situation and move completely away from it (1 Cor. 9:27). You are a man of like passions that must be controlled the same as Joseph was, and you can! “Can a man take fire in his bos9m, and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned? So he that goeth in to his neighbor’s wife; whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent” (Prov. 6:27-29).

There are some other questions you need to ask yourself. Would you recommend this behavior to your children – Lee, Jimmy, Michael, and Linda? By your example, what are you recommending? Actions speak louder than words. Children will follow our example much easier than they will our advice. Statistics show that broken homes breed broken homes. I personally know a family that has three generations of divorce. It is very likely that you would become an occasion of stumbling to those who love you. “. . . But woe unto that man through whom the occasion cometh” (Mt. 18:7). Don’t squander the family fortune on someone who has done nothing to help you be the success you have been.

I can guarantee that should you marry your neighbor’s wife that those feelings that have been sparked and the novelty of it will be gone in a matter of months, if not sooner. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence because you don’t have to mow it. Both of you have been careful to put forth your best image to each other, but things will change as soon as you learn each other’s faults. Joe, have you considered the kind of woman you will be getting? You will be getting a woman who steps out on her husband when something more inviting comes along. In a short time you will be in your fifties and she will still be in her thirties. Neither her age nor your jogging will keep you from getting older. And, what kind of man will she be getting? A man who steps out on his wife when the situation is more inviting.

Have you considered the number of people you will hurt by your actions? Is your need for a friend at this point in your life worth the loss of her soul throughout eternity? What kind of comparison is that? Will your selfishness lead you to that extent? Can you really call that love? True love is when you seek only the best for another, including that person’s eternal welfare. If your love for her is any less than that, then it is only for what you can get out of it and you are deceiving yourself and her too – just for a few years of personal pleasure and enjoyment, if that long.

I won’t make a list of everyone you will be hurting. There are plenty, both in your family and hers, aside from your brothers and sisters in Christ and others who respect you. But above all, there is the loss of your soul! You have come too far to give up heaven now. I am reminded of a sermon I heard titled “Halfway to Heaven.” It was about people who devote most of their lives to the Lord but then blow the whole thing as they come into the home stretch.

I highly recommend that you and Jeanette take some time off – just the two of you – and make a trip and talk this thing out. Cumberland Lake is a nice place. Or you could come here. We will treat you so many ways you will surely like some of them. You and Jeanette are quality people and have a lot of talent. It would be good if you could be in a congregation where there are other couples your age. I know you have been an asset to the church there but I also know that it is easy to become discouraged in a small congregation in a small community, especially when there is hardly anyone your age and with your interests (we have been in those situations before). You are in the prime of your lives and need to get more involved in the Lord’s work. You have lived your lives for the children, now do something for yourselves. You owe it to each other and no one should fault you for it. Recapture those feelings with the one who bore your children and who knows you better than anyone ever could; who loves you in spite of your shortcomings and has stood by you and will stand by you and is willing to forgive. As I say this, I know you are saying Jeanette has her faults too. Well, we all do and so do our children because we are human. But we can love in spite of faults (1 Cor. 13). I promise you that a second marriage will have as many or more faults and problems in it. It will just take time for them to come to the surface, but they will.

Joe, I hope your conscience has not become seared to where it no longer feels the pangs of guilt or hears the cries of danger or the pleas of your loved ones to do what is right. You can be forgiven and I urge you to repent. Quit leading a double life. Remember, there are no loopholes in God’s law. Sin, like quicksand, always drags the sinner deeper. One cannot remain at a standstill once begun. He will go one way or the other. I am making a plea for your soul. Get hold of yourself and don’t let it happen! “For what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world – and lose his own soul. . . ?”

Feel free to call on me if there is anything I can do.

Your friend and brother,

Dick

Guardian of Truth XXXII: 2, p. 7-8
January 7, 1988

By Bob Owen

Repeatedly we are called upon to make decisions. Many of these are routine, physical actions such as stopping for a red light or eating when we are hungry. Some of our decisions are judgment calls on matters of significant importance: selecting a mate for marriage, choosing a vocation, investing money for future security, voting for a political candidate. All of us recognize the importance of the decisions in these matters and we also know there is no absolute direction. Each must “make up his own mind” on these issues. The freedom (and responsibility) we have in these areas is often “assumed” in religious matters. Many feel that each of us is at liberty to decide what is right or wrong on moral issues or for religious practices. A study of the Scriptures (Bible) indicates this is not man’s right – God has given us the direction and we are to recognize his regulations.

How are we to decide moral issues? Is it right or is it wrong to lie? to steal? to punish lawbreakers? to execute those guilty of murder? What process do you usually hear used to decide these maters? “It seems to me. . . ” or “I think. . . ” are common expressions in such discussions. Using this process, changes can result in standards of morality. Within the past generation a classic example of this process has occurred.

Thirty years ago, “everybody” condemned homosexuality. Any person who practiced homosexual relations was considered “queer.” The very term shows a variation from the norm. The practice was so generally condemned that violators were discharged from the army, removed from government posts, fired from businesses, and otherwise rejected by society. Although some of this rejection still exists, we see the practice defended now as “an alternate lifestyle.” Practitioners have “come out of the closet” and openly parade for gay rights. Many churches have given open acceptance for the practice and gay churches exist in many cities.

What standard should we use to govern our lives in religious or moral issues? A look at the Bible shows that the inspired writers recognized “the Scriptures” as the standard. In Romans I and 2 Paul reasons that both the Gentiles and the Jews stood condemned because they had left God and his word. No appeal was made to Paul’s own feelings or to how society felt about these issues. (Actually, “society” would have approved the common practices which Paul condemned.)

On another occasion Paul reflects the attitude toward God’s revelation which should characterize all of us. In 1 Timothy 5:18, while discussing the support of elders who gave their time and efforts to the teaching of the word, he says, “For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn. And, the laborer is worthy of his hire.” Note the appeal made by the inspired apostle: “For the scripture saith . . .”

The reference to the ox and the corn is from Deuteronomy 25:4, a part of the law given through Moses. It was a law from God and Paul recognized it as Scripture. “The laborer is worthy of his hire” is not a direct quotation of the Old Testament but a statement of Jesus (Luke 10:7). By the time Paul was writing to Timothy, Luke’s letter recounting the life of James would have been written. Apparently it had been copied and circulated and Paul acknowledges it as Scripture.

What should we recognize as authority today for our moral code or for our religious practices? God’s word, the Scriptures, are the proper source and we should be careful not to substitute the judgments of men. How I feel or how you feel may be of interest, but what God says is right!

Guardian of Truth XXXII: 1, pp. 1, 21
January 7, 1988

By Larry Ray Hafley

“Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests” (Rev. 1:5,6). “But after that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration. . . That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Tit. 3:4-7).

Volumes could be written regarding the three words of our title. This triumphant trio of terms sums up the work of God. He loved; he washed; he made. Man can love, man is capable of love, but all the love of mankind cannot forgive a sin or save a soul. Man must act, man must respond to the love of God, but all of the obedient acts of man are unable to save. Man is a creative being, man can make many things, but man cannot make himself to be what God makes of him through the gospel of grace.

God’s love is seen in what God did – God so loved . . . that he gave his only begotten Son. God did not need to save us; God was not bound by justice to redeem sinful man. That he did so is part of his goodness and kindness which ought to lead us to repentance (Rom. 2:4). Man is not so depraved as the creeds of men say, else he could not respond to God’s love. Regardless of the longing of man for forgiveness, whether it exists or not, God did not owe us anything. He could have been perfectly just and left us to writhe in the guilt of our sins. But, thanks be to his name, he “loved us” as our texts reveal.

Not only did he love us, he also “washed us from our sins.” This washing occurs “in his own blood.” Man cannot wash away his sins by himself (Tit. 3:5a). It is the blood of Christ that washes and cleanses man from his sins. Christ shed his precious blood for the sins of the whole world (1 Jn. 2:2). Why, then are not all men saved? Because the washing in the blood of the Son of God is conditionally received. One is washed or cleansed by the blood when he is baptized; that is, when he receives the “washing of regeneration,” which is baptism (Acts 22:16; Col. 2:11-13). The sinner must be obedient. He must believe and be baptized (Mk. 16:16). In that sense, he washes. away his sins (Acts 22:16), but as Paul says in the Colossian passage, it is the “operation” or working of God; it is the “circumcision of Christ”; it is the cutting off of the sins of the flesh which God performs when he forgives the sinner who puts his faith in God’s working (Col. 2:11-13). Essentially, man reposes his confidence (has faith) and obeys God, trusting that he will do what he has promised; namely forgive his sins.

Finally, then, it is proper to speak of what God (and not man) has made. Forgiveness and salvation are not of man. They are of God. Consequently, whatever results from that action is the work or making of God. According to our twin texts, God has made us something – kings, priests, heirs. All of it, all of God’s making, is related to “the hope of eternal life.” God is able to save. God is able to destroy (Matt. 10:28). It is God that loved us. It is God that will wash us. It is God that will make us. He will make us a vessel of wrath, fitted to destruction, or as heirs together of the grace of life. Let his love lead you to repentance. Let him wash you in his blood according to the conditions or terms of the gospel. He will make you, then, what you could not make of yourself.

Guardian of Truth XXXII: 1, p. 13
January 7, 1988

By Irven Lee

Moses found a people who were not well informed about God when he went back to Egypt to lead Israel out of bondage. The Lord sent him for this task. It was not a strong faith in Israel that sent out an invitation to Moses to help them escape bondage and find freedom in a land flowing with milk and honey.

During the forty years in the wilderness these descendants of Jacob had a great opportunity to learn much about God and his righteousness. There was a great revelation made. These former slaves were taught by Moses who was given power to confirm his message by miracles, wonders, and signs. Food and water were provided by the power of God in the sight of all. The Lord blessed, punished, and protected a people who needed to learn of him.

After the death of Moses, Joshua continued this leading and teaching process. There may never have been a generation of Jews that knew more about God than those who were given the land by Joshua. Millions of people had grown from childhood to maturity in intimate and personal contact with God in all his power, love, and righteousness.

“The people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord, that he did for Israel. . . And that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor the works which he had done for Israel. . . and they forsook the Lord god of the fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the Lord to anger” (Judg. 2:7-12).

Moses commanded the parents to train their children with diligence. The book we call Deuteronomy is a book of sermons Moses preached near the end of his long and eventful life. In these sermons he made numerous appeals to the adults to train the young (e.g., Deut. 6:4-9). There was none to object to his teaching on this duty, but his suggestion was evidently not heeded with proper zeal.

Children can be taught. They can be taught to have faith and to accumulate knowledge. Eunice and Lois did their work so well in Paul’s day that Timothy had “unfeigned faith,” and from a child he had known the holy Scriptures (2 Tim. 1:5; 3:14,15). This faith and knowledge made Timothy one of the very best servants of his day (see Phil. 2:19-22). There are very few like Eunice and Lois, so there are not so many rooted and grounded in the truth as was Timothy.

Many general statements could be made about people in America today. One such remark is that there is a pathetic lack of Bible knowledge in our country. There are a few excellent students today, but in some cases their own children are not being well taught. Such students may be too busy writing, studying and teaching others to teach their own children. They may have a feeling that their children may absorb precious knowledge or just inherit it.

We are to buy the truth and sell it not. Peter wrote of precious faith (2 Pet. 1:1; Prov. 23:23). Timothy’s life was truly enriched by these two wonderful gifts from his mother and grandmother. Are you in similar way making your children rich? Parents need to start early and work hard at this worthy task.

Ignorance of the holy Scriptures is not a new thing under the sun. Many in the generation before mine did not attend school much so they were poor readers. They worked long hours to earn a living. Fifty years ago there was a serious lack of effective teachers and song leaders. In those days many attended worship services once a month on “preaching Sunday.” Others attended only during the “big meeting” in the summer. Some speak of the great Bible students in the past with “testaments in their pockets.” I knew a few, but very few, such people.

Now there is school for every one and there are many with their graduate degrees from the universities. There are many known for their great scholarship. Many of these highly educated people have been trained to a. great extent by atheists, and they have been taught to disbelieve the Bible and to have no reverence for God. These educated people are pathetically ignorant of the Bible, but they may often speak with dogmatic arrogance about spiritual things as if their degree with biology gave them authority to speak about Christ and his Father.

There is a great multitude of people who attended school for twelve years, more or less, and who have developed skills and earn good salaries. Many of these watch TV to keep up with the world about them and for entertainment, but they do not read. The TV networks are not teaching people to be Christians! They teach promiscuity, evolution, and materialism. It is hard to reach many of this segment of the population because they do not listen to the gospel or read it. Of course, they are not teaching their children.

We are taught to pray for more laborers in the vineyard. They will have to be found among those who “give attendance to reading” (1 Tim. 4:13). If people close their, eyes, stop their ears, and harden their hearts, there is hardly any way to help them. Even the Master and his apostles did not reach such people (see Matt. 15). The faithful need to shout the gospel from the housetops to awaken those who are asleep spiritually. Children of the spiritually blind are not well taught, of course. Preachers, teachers, and parents should, by all means, do their “homework” and be well prepared to teach the needed lessons.

Guardian of Truth XXXI: 24, p. 747
December 17, 1987