Truth Magazine

By Anonymous

A young man, the son of a gospel preacher, in his teenage years, became involved in using alcohol and other drugs, and sexual immorality. He left the Lord and was withdrawn from by the local church. In the summer of 1990, near Father’s day, he wrote the following letter to his father.

Dad,

Happy Father’s Day. I wasn’t able to get you a card right now. This is what you call a generic Father’s Day card. Dad, I know I was never easy and I know I have had a lot of problems, but I have always known that you love me and will be there for me. Dad, I know I don’t tell you very often but I do love you and I’m glad you are my father. I look back at how close we used to be and if I could start all over I would have never hurt you or Mom. I love you both so much. I just don’t know how I could have done some of the things I did.

I’m glad I married ________ and settled down because now I can see what I have done to you and Mom. Thanks for being there for me. Dad, I love you.

Signed ________________

This letter was received with gladness by his parents. It has been said that a long journey begins with a single step. He has made that first step. Pray for this young man, that he might realize that the pain and hurt he caused his earthly parents, he also inflicted on his heavenly Parent. And just as his earthly parents are willing to forgive, so is our Father in heaven willing to forgive those who return to him. John wrote, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 Jn. 1:9).

Pray for this young man, that he might continue his journey, and return to the Shepherd and Bishop of his soul, and to the Lord’s people.

Guardian of Truth XXXV: 1, p. 8
January 3, 1991

By Donald Townsley

1. It is Not the Mission of the Church to Entertain Saints or Sinners. (By “entertainment” we mean eating together, fun and games.)

a. Jesus did not come to earth to “seek to entertain,” but “to seek and to save that which was lost” (Lk. 19:10).

b. The gospel is not God’s “power to entertain,” but “the power of God unto salvation” (Rom. 1:16).

c. The church is not the “support of entertainment,” but the ‘~Pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15).

d. The mission of the church in the world is to preach the gospel to the lost (1 Tim. 3:15; Phil. 1:5; 4:14-17; Mk. 16:1516); to edify its members (Eph. 4:11-12); and to minister to its own in time of need (Acts 2:44-45; 4:32; 6:1-6; 1 Cor. 16:1-2; Rom. 15:25-27; Acts 11:27-30; 1 Tim. 5:16).

2. It is not scriptural for the church to furnish entertainment, for no Scripture authorizes it.

a. We must respect the silence of the Scriptures (1 Pet. 4:11; 2 Jn. 9-11).

b. The idea that we can do something because it is not expressly forbidden in the Scriptures creates respect for what the Bible does not say, rather than what it does say!

c. When one’s action in religion is governed on the assumption that he can do what is not expressly forbidden, the door is wide open! Through this door comes instrumental music in worship, praying through Mary, baptizing babies, ad infinitum!

d. John said, “If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book” (Rev. 22:18).

e. Paul said “not to think of men above that which is written” (1 Cor. 4:6).

3. Entertainment is not “church business”; it is home or family business (the church does have business – Acts 6:3).

a. Paul tells the Corinthians that they had houses to eat and drink in: “What? have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? Or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I praise you not ” (1 Cor. 11: 34).

b. Disciples in Jerusalem ate at home: “Breaking bread at home, they took their food with gladness and singleness of heart” (Acts 2:46, ASV).

c. From these passages we learn this truth: Christians have houses to eat and drink in: the social aspect of life is family business and God does not want the social business of the family mixed with the spiritual business of the church.

d. It is the social business of the home to “wash feet” – show hospitality (1 Tim. 5:10). We have pointed out to our Baptist friends who want to make “foot-washing” church business, that it is not church business but the business of the home to show hospitality. “Foot washing” is in the realm of the social and should not be mixed with the spiritual, just as entertainment is in the realm of the social and should not be mixed with the spiritual.

4. For the church to furnish entertainment is to put no difference between the holy and the common, the sacred and the secular.

a. God has always made a difference between the holy and the common. Ezekiel 22:26: “Her priests have done violence to my law, and have profaned my holy things: they have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they caused men to discern between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them” (ASV).

b. Entertainment is not authorized in the New Testament which is sealed with the blood of Christ (Matt. 26:28; Heb. 9:23-28), therefore it is common and cannot be a part of the work or worship of the church with God’s approval. All things used in God’s service must come under the blood of Christ.

5. It leads away from spirituality by substituting “food for the stomach” for food for the soul: music and laughter for meditation and prayer.

a. Philippians 3:19: “Whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.”

b. The kingdom of God is a spiritual kingdom, not carnal in nature, and does not appeal to the fleshly appetite (Rom. 14:17; Jn. 18:36).

6. The Bible term “fellowship” is never used in reference to entertainment.

a. The Bible does not teach just any kind of “fellowship”: the term is limited to what the Bible teaches about it.

b. Bible fellowship is based upon gospel teaching (1 Jn. 1:3-4,7).

c. It is fellowship men enjoy with one another and with God because Jesus died, and which would have been impossible without his death. Jesus did not die to bring men and women together to drink coffee and eat doughnuts (or hamburgers)!

d. Jesus’ death brings men and women together in fellowship in song (Eph. 5:19); in fellowship in prayer (Acts 2:42); in fellowship in the support of gospel preachers (Phil. 1:5; 4:14-17); in fellowship in suffering for the cause of Christ (Phil. 3:10); in fellowship in the harmony that exists among members of the church one with another (1 Cor. 12:1827); in fellowship with God, Christ and the Holy Spirit (1 Jn. 1:3,7; Phil. 2:1), and in fellowship of the ministering to the saints in need (2 Cor. 8:4; 9:13; Rom. 15:26).

7. Church-furnished entertainment is denominational in origin, and has not added to their (the denomination’s) growth.

a. The following is from an article by Connie W. Adams in which he quotes from a Baptist paper published in Florida: “Not in sixteen years have the number of baptisms in Texas sunk to such a low. There are 4,000 Baptist churches in the great state of Texas. Last year these 4,000 churches baptized 53,956. This was the lowest number since 1949. This was less than 14 baptisms for each church. . . It take(s) one Texas Baptist 12,045 days to win one soul.” “The secret of soul-winning is following Jesus. Maybe it would not be out of order for Texas Baptists – along with all Southern Baptists – to stop cooking in our church kitchens; stop playing in our athletic buildings; and call for an oldfashioned prayer meeting . . . Get back to God; back to the Bible. On fire with . . . real love in our hearts for lost souls. Maybe this is the answer.”

b. A church that furnishes entertainment cannot claim to be undenominational in practice when it does that which is denominational in origin.

8. Church-furnished entertainment was opposed by gospel preachers in terms nobody misunderstood forty years ago.

B.C. Goospasture, in an editorial in the Gospel Advocate (May 20, 1948) said, “It is not the mission of the church to furnish amusement for the world or even for its own members.” “The church would come off a poor second if it undertook to compete with institutions established for the express purpose of entertaining people.” “Only as the church becomes worldly, as it pillows its head on the lap of Delilah, will it want to turn from its wonted course to relatively unimportant matters.”

Guardian of Truth XXXV: 1, pp. 3-4
January 3, 1991

By Jimmy Tuten

Introduction:

A. Briefly review lesson #3.

B. The Christian is not to conform or fashion himself after the world: he must not follow . . .

1. Its fellowship (Jas. 4:4; 2 Cor. 6:17-18).

2. Its lusts (1 Pet. 1:14).

3. Its course (Eph. 2:2).

4. Its god, Satan (2 Cor. 4:4).

5. Its leaders (1 Cor. 2:6-8).

6. Its false security (Matt. 24:38-39; 1 Thess. 5:2-3).

7. Its deceitful riches (Matt. 13:22).

8. Its crowd (Exod. 23:2).

C. Our greatest danger: the seeing of how someone else is molded by the spirit and fashion of the world, yet be blind to our own worldly practices. The very excuses for sin that are rejected at one point may be used at another point to justify what we do and what we love.

1. David could see the abuse of a poor man by a rich man, but he did not see himself in the parable (2 Sam. 12, “thou art the man”).

2. Even so the worldly mind points to the sins of other men while excusing its own sins.

a. Many things trigger a reflex defense by the worldly rationale, but that rationale has no validity at all in reference to those other sins so readily condemned.

b. Some examples.

1. “But be ye transformed” – Gr. metamorphousthe, “change the form of.” The Greek root of the word is morphe. Morphe means the real being of a man, the very nature and essence of a man. The man in evening clothes looks different than he does in work clothes, but he is still the same man inwardly. The elderly man is still the same man inwardly that he was as a young man.

A. It is evident: the believer must undergo a radical change within his inner being in order to escape the world and its doom. He must be transformed and changed inwardly (his real self must be changed). However, there must be the inward change of the mind (Prov. 23:7), before there can be an outward change of the body or actions (Rom. 6:13,16).

1. So the first step is “be not fashioned according to the world,” i.e., there must be a change of character first (Col. 3:9-10).

2. Then the center of the mind, being different, can produce an outward change of behavior through its transformation, i.e., the “renewing of the mind” (Rom. 12:2).

3. This begins with one’s obedience to the gospel (Rom. 6:3-6,11,16-17). Having put on a new relationship he should live better the longer he lives (Col. 1:13; 1 Pet. 2:2). This is the point of 2 Corinthians 3:18, “glory of the Lord” (his effulgence, Heb. 1:2), “are changed” (present tense, gradual).

B. “Renewing of the mind” – Renewed (anakainosis, which means to be made new, readjusted, changed, turned around). Before this renewing takes place the mind is basically worldly, i.e., selfish (centered on this world), self-centered (centered on the flesh) and self-seeking (centered on this life).

1. It can become vain in its imaginations (Rom. 1:21), reprobate (Rom. 1:28), carnal (Rom. 8:7), blinded (2 Cor. 4:4), etc.

2. It is renewed in Christ when one is born again (1 Pet. 1:23), made a new man (Col. 3:10), becomes a new creature (2 Cor. 5:17) and given the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16). Whereas the believer’s mind was once centered upon the world, it is now centered on things spiritual.

3. When his life is transformed he is to:

a. Love the Lord with all his mind (Matt. 22:37).

b. Center the mind on spiritual things (Rom. 8:5-6).

c. Cast down every thought that interrupts knowledge of God (2 Cor. 10:3-5).

d. Think on things of virtue (Phil, 4:8).

e. Arm himself with the mind of Christ (1 Pet. 4:1).

II. “That Ye May Prove.” “Prove” (Gr. dokimazo), to find and to follow God’s will, to experience (Heb. 11:1). Again, to put to the test for the purpose of approving and finding that the thing tested meets specifications laid down.

A. This is done by the focus of and the keeping of one’s mind on the things of God (what a challenge!).

B. The will of God is described by a threefold description that stirs one to crave after God’s will:

1 . “Good” (Gr. agathon) – beneficial, rich, bountiful, moral.

2. “Acceptable” (Gr. euareston) – pleasing satisfactory, welcomed.

3. “Perfect” (Gr. teleion) – without error, flawless complete, free from need.

C. The earlier chapters of Romans describe the revealing of the will of God in Christ. Chapter 12 shows that our response to that mercy and grace should be done in such a way as to be well-pleasing and agreeable to him.

1. The one who acts in accordance with his will as described here, whether he later falls away or not, will agree that such action is good, acceptable and perfect.

2. Nothing which is worthwhile is left out (2 Pet. 1:3).

3. It is so practical, why should we not practice it?

Conclusion:

1. When God’s people under the O.T. came into contact with heathen people in the promised land they began to imitate them and conform to their customs. The result was disastrous both to their spiritual life and their temporal prosperity.

2. So it was in N.T. times with certain churches of Asia: Sardis had a name, but she was dead. Laodicea was lukewarm, etc. Worldliness proved their ruin.

3. Those who obey the gospel have the right to enter into the sublime joy of moment by moment submission to his will.

4. If we present our bodies a living sacrifice unto him, we shall be transformed and prove the truth of what is good, acceptable and perfect for ourselves.

5. There are no circumstances that are beyond God’s power, and nothing is so trivial that it is beyond his love. We must submit ourselves unto him.

Guardian of Truth XXXV: 1, pp. 14-15
January 3, 1991

By Johnie Edwards

It is often wondered if man has to sin. The discussion comes about when one looks at the temptation of Jesus. It is reasoned that Jesus was “in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15). A reading of the temptation of Jesus in Matthew 4:1-11 will show that he was tempted through the same three avenues as we arc today: “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1 Jn. 2:16). Jesus did not give in to the temptations of the devil. He called Scripture to mind as he said, “It is written.” He resisted the devil and the devil fled from him (Jas. 4:7-8). There was nothing miraculous about Jesus not sinning on this occasion; he just did not give into the devil’s temptations.

What about us? Do we have to sin? The answer is no. We don’t have to sin. We can resist the devil (Jas. 4:7-8), just as Jesus did. There is a way of escape. “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it” (1 Cor. 10:13). Often we are not willing to take the way of escape!

It is not a question of “Do we have to sin?” but “Do we sin?” How do we answer this question?

1. All have sinned. Every person who reaches the age of accountability before God is said to be a sinner. “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). Sin comes about when one commits sin and transgresses the law of God (1 Jn. 3:4).

2. Sin haspleasure. Moses chose rather “to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season” (Heb. 11:25). Man likes sins and the evil things a person wants becomes the problem. James said, “But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away from his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death” (Jas. 1:14-15).

3. Sinners by choice. We are free moral agents and can obey God or disobey. We are not born a sinner but become sinners by omitting doing what God says or committing acts of unrighteousness (1 Jn. 3:4; 5:17). We make the choice. Who is there among us that would say, “I have never sinned” or “I cannot sin”? John said, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us . . . If we way that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us” (1 Jn. 1:8-10).

Guardian of Truth XXXV: 1, p. 1
January 3, 1991