Truth Magazine

By Weldon E. Warnock

Far too little preaching, teaching, or writing has been done on the rights of a congregation. How long has it been since you heard or read anything along this line? It would be accurate, I surmise, that many churches think they have no God-given rights, no consideration or voice after they have elders. In fact, in some places a few men take it and run with it, never giving the church as a whole any input. Neither the elders nor the men should ignore or always bypass the consideration of the members.

Brethren, the local church has rights and it is duty bound to exercise them. Let us notice some of these rights.

To Choose Officers

Each congregation has the right to choose its own officers. Acts 6:1-7 shows this beyond any doubt. The apostles told the Jerusalem church, “Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men . . . whom we may appoint over this business” (v. 3). The church did the selecting and the apostles appointed them.

Robert Milligan wrote concerning this matter in Acts 6, “And there were the apostles who knew all the members well, and their respective qualifications, and in whose judgment and impartiality the whole congregation had entire confidence. Surely to the eye of sense and finite reason, the shortest and best way to settle the whole matter would seem to be that the apostles themselves should choose and appoint men to wait on the poor and needy. But no; under the infallible guidance of the Holy Spirit, the apostles thought very differently . . .This one example, then when fairly and fully considered, should really be an end of the whole controversy touching the election of church officers” (The Scheme of Redemption 345-346). J.W. McGarvey said, “We conclude that all church officers were selected by the congregation at large . . . The only certain fact is that the people elected their officers” (The Eldership 73).

George W. DeHoff stated, “That forever (commenting on Acts 6:3, WW) sounds the death knell of any hope of any state headquarters of any presiding elders, or presiding preacher selecting any kind of officers in any congregation of the church but rather the New Testament teaches that the power to select officers is in the church itself . . . The church selects its own functionaries for any purpose whatsoever . . . It is not right for a preacher to come in and say, ‘I’11 select so and so for your officers and here they are’. . . It is not right for the elders of the church to get off in a huddle and say, `We’ll select so and so for an elder and put him in  there he is’ … It is not right for a handful of church members to get off in the corner and say, `We’ll pick out so and so and then tell the church’. . . The church must select its own officers” (Gospel Sermons 270-271).

In his excellent book on elders and deacons, H.E. Phillips wrote, “In some places it has been known that the elders in office took full charge of selecting and appointing those who were to serve with them, or in appointing themselves to the work. Many objections may be offered to this method. To begin with there is no Bible teaching that shows any elder had charge of his own appointment to the office, or he so acted to appoint another. This would prove to be an unwise procedure because it would tend to form a clique in the oversight. Elders may select some easily controlled .. . the only example we have places the duty of selecting on the number of disciples (Acts 6:3). Choosing other men to be elders or deacons does not fall in the class of elders’ duty. It is neither their duty to decide when men should be appointed as elders, nor who shall be appointed” (Scriptural Elders and Deacons 246). Yes, the church is to choose its own officers

To Remove Officers

The congregation that selects and appoints its elders and deacons, also has the right to remove them from office if they become disqualified. Men can become immoral, inactive in duty, or other circumstances while elders and need to removed if they will not step down on their own. If such becomes the case the church may remove them, yea, must remove them from office.

E.L. Flannery stated, “The church has the right, if reason or Scripture demands it, to remove elders from their appointment. If their judgment, when guided by the Bible, enables them to properly decide who of their membership shall serve as elders, why should it be considered improper for the very same people, with the very same Bible to be able to remove the eldership from any who neglect, or be-come disqualified for that work? No organization on earth fails to provide legal means for the removal from office those officials who disqualify themselves by inability or in other ways” (Let Brotherly Love Continue 7)that can select a man as an elder can remove him as an elder … There is just as much scripture for firing an elder as there is for firing a preacher and we do that every time we get ready . . . The next verse that says something about firing a preacher tells exactly how to fire an elder and I am amazed that anybody would run around talking about, `If you are once an elder, you are always an elder.’ That is not true” (Ibid., 272).

Of course, scriptural elders are to be esteemed and respected by the congregation (1 Thess. 5:13). The Bible also says, “Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account” (Heb. 13:17). Thank God for good elders.

To Be Informed

Every congregation has the right to know what is going on. Many times, the business meetings are conducted and the members that are not present are never informed of the transactions. Reports from preachers that the church is helping to support may be read by a few (elders, deacons, preacher), but the church is not told about it. The reports are not posted on the bulletin board. Some elders never let the church know the financial condition of the church. No report is ever given. It is kept secret. However, in recent years we are doing a lot better in this area. Anyway, the church has a right to know where the money is being spent.

Information that relates to the congregation or concerns the congregation should be disclosed to the congregation. Sometimes a congregation is never told who the preacher is going to be until it is time for him to move in. The pulse of the church should be felt when hiring a preacher. All are helping support him and all of them have to listen to him. The attitude “It’s none of the congregation’s business” is a sorry attitude.

The Bible teaches that the church was informed in New Testament days. When Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch after their first preaching tour, we read, “And when they were come, and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them, and how he had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles” (Acts 14:27).

The church at Jerusalem was in attendance at the Jerusalem conference because it concerned all those disciples. When Paul, Barnabas, and other brethren came from Antioch to Jerusalem and “they were received of the church, and of the apostles, and of the elders, and they declared all things that God had done with them” (Acts 15:4, cf. verses 22-28).

Quoting George DeHoff again, “The same power that can make a man an elder can unmake him . . . The church Remember that the church is God’s heritage (1 Pet. 5:3). Although the elders have authority to oversee, the deacons the authority to serve, and the preacher the authority to preach the word, the church has its God-given rights, too.

Guardian of Truth XLI: 6 p. 1
March 20, 1997

By Bobby L. Graham

People sometimes indulge themselves in wickedness to the point that it no longer seems wicked. The danger of sin is that it can easily deceive us and eventually lull us to sleep so that our former awareness of God’s will and sin’s violation of that will becomes foreign soil to us.

Daily exhortation is the Lord’s means appointed to prevent the process of hardening exerted by sin’s deceit-fulness (Heb. 3:13). “…lest any of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” The Lord said that the heart becomes hardened, calloused, by sin because of its deceitful quality. There is something about sin  any sin  all sin  that is deceptive. While we seem to be faring well and enjoying ourselves, basking in the adulation and esteem of others, sin is hardening our hearts. It is through this process that sin becomes trivial, a light thing to us.

In 1 Kings 16, near the end of the chapter, we have an example of sin becoming trivial in the day of King Ahab. Ahab served as king in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, in that long line of wicked kings after Jeroboam. Not one of his predecessors had deviated from the ways of evil launched into by Jeroboam. For years these kings had practiced evil instead of righteousness in leading the people of the nation. Is it any wonder that Ahab did wickedness “more than all who were before him” (v. 30)? Sin had become the usual way of life for all of the leaders of the nation. Verse thirty-one says that he took as wife Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians, and that he went to serve and worship Baal in a temple that he had built in Samaria. The Lord’s explanation as to how such departure from God could take place is found in the same verse: “as though it had become a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat.” Sin had become trivial to him.

Remember that a calloused attitude develops slowly, so that the person is hardened in his feelings, insensitive in his response to those influences designed by God to prick and goad him to do right.

The warnings of God mean increasingly little to him as the hardening process proceeds. When sin becomes trivial to one, it usually spreads contagiously so that it is then trivialized by many; in fact, the trivializing of sin becomes almost institutionalized.

I hope this thought scares us to avoid sin. It is not the harmless plaything that we sometimes think it to be. It can paralyze us spiritually and damn us eternally!

When our attitude toward the vulgar and irreverent speech so common in our world declines so that we begin viewing it as not so bad after all, we need to wake up. When we start thinking that one’s clothing has little to do with his godliness, so that we start experimenting with styles and garments bordering on indecency, we need to wake up. When we start thinking that our children’s popularity and acceptance are more important than the positive influence for good that they should exert, then we need to wake up. When we allow the ungodliness and abounding iniquity in the world to dampen our zeal to save the lost and to set examples for good, we need to wake up. When we permit the loose thinking in the world and in the church to drift into our attitude and practice, no longer striving to hold fast to the pattern of sound words set forth in the Scriptures, then we need to wake up. Sin is becoming trivial to us, and the sad thing is that we don’t even realize it.

And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent; the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts (Rom. 13:11-14).

Reprinted from Market Street Church of Christ Bulletin, Athens, Alabama

Guardian of Truth XLI: 5 p. 23
March 6, 1997

By Jarrod Jacobs

There is a cry today by some saying that we need to preach Christ, and not the church. Some say let us preach a Savior, not a system. Even though I am a young man, I believe that I am assessing the situation correctly when I say that you cannot preach Christ without preaching the church. You cannot preach about a Savior without preaching about a system. I am not alone in this either, for the apostle Paul said this when he wrote: “To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus: Whereunto I also labor, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily” (Col. 1:27-29). What is involved in “preaching Christ”?

Warning Every Man

The first thing that Paul says is that when preaching Christ to people, we must warn them. What warnings should we give? (1) Warn of the coming of false teachers (Acts 20:29-31). (2) Warn people of the coming judgment (Acts 17:30-31; 2 Cor. 5:10). (3) Warn others that God wants them to give their all in obedience (Rev. 3:15-16). (4) Warn people that if we do not stand up for the truth, we are as guiltyas the ones who partake in error (Rom. 1:32). Warning others is a very important and necessary part of being not only a sound gospel preacher, but being a solid and sound Christian.

Teaching Every Man in All Wisdom

If we are going to preach Christ, we must “teach every man in all wisdom.” Notice the all-inclusiveness of this statement. It is not enough to teach a few people! We must teach every man! There are many things that people need to learn. The question is where to start. Not everyone is where we are as far as knowledge is concerned. Thus, we need to teach them by starting where they are. This is what Paul did in Acts 13. In talking to this company of Jews and proselytes, Paul began with the exodus of Israel from Egyptian bondage (v. 17), and brought them forward to the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ (vv. 35-37).

How should we teach others? We need to start where they are. We are not going to talk to someone about how to be saved if he is already a member of the church, are we? Nor are we going to get into the qualifications for elders and deacons with someone who is not a saved. Please understand, I am not saying that we do not talk about it, and touch on some points when necessary, but there is no need to belabor certain points that will not affect them right now. Only with time can one go from milk to strong meat (Heb. 5:13-14).

Present Every Man Perfect in Jesus Christ

When one will preach Christ as he should, the end result is to present them to Christ. The word “present” means, “to bring, or lead to” (Thayer, 489). In other words, when preaching Christ, we should warn and teach others with the end result being that we bring them to Christ. Are we really doing that? I wonder sometimes. We have “watered” down preaching Christ until it means no more that making sure everyone feels good after the preaching is over. I do not say this as a blanket statement, but it is true in many places. The preaching of Christ that is needed is the kind that will bring lost souls out of atheism, out of modernism, out of denominationalism, out of institutionalism, and this will never happen if we never mention these subjects!

What are you doing to preach Christ to others? It does not have to be a public talk, you can teach others privately, you teach by your example, you even teach in your singing praises to God! What have you done this week to warn someone about the coming judgment, to teach them the truth, and to lead them to Christ?

Preaching Christ is Labor

The apostle Paul continues his description of preaching Christ in Colossians 1:29 by saying, “Whereunto I also labor. . .” Some do not believe it, but it is hard work to study the Bible, learn the truth, and then preach it to others. Is it not interesting that those who think it is not hard to be a preacher are the very ones who refuse to preach? If you do not think it is hard work, try studying God’s word, and preach a lesson that is “unpopular” among the brethren. See how many times you are asked to preach again!

Paul said it was labor because it is. There are too many preachers, however, that make preaching look like some-thing reserved for people who do not want to do anything. Shame on you if you are like that! Let us get back to preaching the old Jerusalem gospel, the kind of gospel preachingthat saves souls, the kind that will bring the down-trodden, the broken, and those hungering and thirsting for righteousness to Jesus our Savior! Let us not be afraid to preach the truth to all people (2 Tim. 4:2). Let us not be afraid to tell others that there is one church, one head of the body, and one way to Heaven (Matt. 16:18; Col. 1:18; John 14:6). Let us labor and toil for the cause of Christ, and rest later!

Preaching Christ Means Striving

As Paul continues to write, he does not just say that he was striving, but he was “striving according to his working.” In other words, we are to fight for the truth, oppose error on all sides, and never give up. However, we are not just to be “picking” a fight over trivialities. There is a time to draw the sword, and use it without mercy (“Pity them not”  Deut. 19:11-13; Ezek. 9:4-5; etc.). However, if we stand against all things, we stand for nothing! We must reprove the error, then offer the “correction” and “instruction in righteousness” which the truth of God gives (2 Tim. 3:16-17). After we reprove and rebuke the sin and error, we must also exhort men to believe and obey the truth (2 Tim. 4:2).

Paul said to strive “according to his working.” Whose working? Christ’s working! What did Jesus come to do? What was his purpose? “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). Jesus Christ worked very hard at teaching and preaching to others. Jesus worked so hard that John speculated that the world itself could not contain all the books if he told all that Christ did (John 21:25).

Conclusion

Knowing how hard Jesus worked, how hard are we working? This is a serious and sobering question, but one that must be answered. I want to suggest that we answer that question through our actions every day. Now, the question is, could we do more? Of course, we could. Let us get to work in preaching Christ in love and with courage and conviction. Let us be motivated to win souls for Christ every day that we live (John 9:4).

Guardian of Truth XLI: 5 p. 14-15
March 6, 1997

By P J. Casebolt

” We then, as workers together with him … Giving no offense in anything, that the ministry be not blamed” (2 Cor. 6:1-3).

We cannot deny the fact that the apostles played a special role in the ministry of the gospel, as “ambassadors for Christ” (2 Cor. 5:18-21). But as beneficiaries of this “ministry of reconciliation” and “the righteousness of God,” we all become workers together in the cause of Christ. There may be “diversities of gifts” and “differences of administration” (1 Cor. 12:4, 5), but we must all work together if this ministry is to succeed. And if it does not succeed and this ministry is blamed, we must all share in that blame just as we do in its success.

There are different kinds of ministering. When the Grecian widows “were neglected in the daily ministration,” that neglect was corrected, but the apostles emphasized that “the ministry of the word” was not to be neglected (Acts 6:1-4). And once this matter was resolved, even some of those selected to expedite this ministry of serving tables were later found concentrating their priorities in “the ministry of the word.” Stephen was not stoned for ministering to Grecian widows, but for preaching the word. Philip left Jerusalem, preached to the Samaritans, the Ethiopian eunuch, went on to Caesarea, and was living there as “Philip the evangelist” when Paul went through that town several years later (Acts 21:8).

The house of Stephanas was “addicted . . . to the minis-try of the saints” and Paul included them with “every one that helpeth with us, and laboreth” (1 Cor. 16:15,16). Those widows “taken into the number” were qualified in part be-cause of their work in ministering to the needs of others (1 Tim. 5:9, 10). The Hebrew writer assures us, “For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister” (Heb. 6:10).

We should not be surprised that in the early church so much emphasis was placed on ministering of all kinds. Jesus taught that when we minister to others, we minister unto him (Matt. 25:35-46). Jesus himself came for the purpose of ministering to others, and he always gave priority to the ministry of the word and spiritual matters, when a choice needed to be made between the material and the spiritual.

The builder and head of the church equipped it with workers. “For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry (the work of ministering, ASV), for the edifying of the body of Christ” (Eph. 4:11, 12).

In order that we “receive not the grace of God in vain” and “that the ministry be not blamed,” the apostle provides a lengthy but simple and practical list of things to be observed by those who are “workers together” in the work of ministering. Under adverse conditions, he includes such things as patience, afflictions, necessities, distresses, stripes, imprisonments, tumults, labours, watchings, and fastings (2 Cor. 6:4, 5).

The ministry will not be blamed if we observe the qualities of pureness, knowledge, longsuffering, kindness, the Holy Ghost, unfeigned love, truth, the power of God, and the armour of righteousness on every hand (vv. 6, 7).

We should be desirous of “giving no offense in any thing” even in what appears to be contradictory things, such as “by honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things” (vv. 8-10).

Paul was always careful to remind brethren that the work of ministering was for the benefit of all, not just for the apostles, evangelists, or special groups or individuals in the church. Paul and those with him always set an example that was above reproach, and one that would further the cause of Christ. He tried constantly to convince the Corinthians that they should do what he exhorted them to do for their own good, not just for the good of the apostles and others who labored in the word and doctrine. Even on this occasion when he exhorted them to pursue a course whereby “the ministry be not blamed” he assured them, “Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own bowels” (v. 12), and further exhorted them, “be ye also enlarged” (v. 13).

It is ironic that preachers will lead the church away from its primary, spiritual mission, then wonder why brethren take a purely secular view of the preacher and his work. If the church isn’t going to emphasize its identity as “the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15), then why does the church need preaching and preachers? If we are “workers together,” then we stand or fall together.

The Gentiles blasphemed the name of God because God’s own people brought reproach on that name. Let us make sure that we are “giving no offense in anything, that the ministry be not blamed.”

Guardian of Truth XLI: 5 p. 20
March 6, 1997