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  ABILENE1943 LECTURES
  by Abilene Christian College
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The annual Abilene Christian College Lectureship for 1943, featuring a series of
sermons, lectures, and addresses by prominent preachers and teachers in the
Churches of Christ on themes of faith, doctrine, and Christian living.

  Chapters: 14

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  TABLE OF CONTENTS
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    1. What Kind of Christ Is the Hope of the World?
    2. The Foundation of Christian Hope
    3. Why Jesus Is the Hope of the World
    4. The Implications of Christian Hope
    5. "I Believe”
    6. The Father of Success
    7. Theory in Practice
    8. The Conduct of a Gospel Preacher
    9. Loyalty and Christian Leadership
   10. Loyalty to Christ’s Principles of Living
   11. Loyalty to Christ
   12. The Great Physician
   13. The Rewards of the Christian Life
   14. Loyalty to Christ’s Church

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  CHAPTER 1: WHAT KIND OF CHRIST IS THE HOPE OF THE WORLD?
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What Kind of Christ Is the Hope of the World?

WHAT KIND OF CHRIST IS THE HOPE OF THE WORLD? J. P. Sanders

Jesus Christ is the hope of the world. However, there are many who praise his
life, laud his ethics, and love his character who deny his deity. In the very
beginning it is fitting that we should say the Christ about whom we are speaking
is the Christ of the New Testament, the Christ who was virgin born, who
performed miracles, who was raised from the dead the third day, and who ascended
to the right hand of the Father. All these things the Bible teaches concerning
Jesus yet many modernists deny. The Christ of the modernist is a good man, a
noble example, a sacrificing servant, even a master teacher, but not God
revealed in human flesh. He becomes therefore a mere man regardless of how
virtuous his life may have been. . Moderpism came into existence as a result of
the desire on the part of certain religious persons to apply the evolutionary
hypothesis and the empirical method of modern science to the field of religious
thinking. The essential elements of Christianity— that which makes it distinctly
Christian—have been neglected for a religious liberalism which is distinctly
unchristian.

Now to notice some of the particular features of modernism. In the first place,
in modernism God no longer holds the central place. The central place in
religion in the modernist way of thinking lies in the individual’s religious
experience which is quite difficult often for him to define. God no longer is
central, his word no longer is authority, and in a sense every man becomes a law
unto himself. Confusion and chaos result.

What do they mean when they say that religious experience takes the central
place? They simply mean that there is no authoritative standard by which all of
us may measure our conduct and guide our lives, but the experience of every
individual toward those things which he conceives to be spiritual constitutes
the norm by which he orders his own life in a religious way. That, of course, is
difficult to grasp and is not something that we can easily lay our hands on. The
essential thmg about religion from this point of view is not obedience nor
conformity to the will and the word of God, but, to use their language, it is
the integration of one’s own personality. The gathering up of the far-flung bits
of one’s emotions and feci mgs and the unifying of them toward a central
purpose. That is what they mean by salvation. Consequently there is no need for
redemption, there is no need for a saviour, there is no need for a sacrifice,
there is no need for a death on the cross reconciling man to God. Sin, rather
than being actual, is merely relative, and the fundamental structure of
Christianity is gone. Only its ethical content remains. This the modernist
recognizes as superior to other systerns of ethics the world has produced. He
holds on to that but rejects every bit of supernaturalism that he finds in the
Scriptures, the deity of Christ, his miracles, his bodily resurrection, his
ascension to the right hand of the Father, and the incarnation of God himself in
Christ. The Bible, consequently, is no longer the word of God to man. It is but
the feeble attempt of mankind reaching up to a God which he conceives to be the
determiner of his destiny. The Bible is simply an evolutionary product of human
thinking. That’s what religion becomes according to modernism.

Humanism goes modernism one better. It feels that modernism is too conservative
and takes even a more liberal point of view than modernism does. It no longer
holds to the ethical ideals of the New Testament and of Jesus Christ as being
supreme. Certain humanists rep-resent even the teaching of Jesus as being
inadequate to modern life. I am not talking about the humanism of the
renaissance, neither am I talking about the humanism of some of the literary
writers of some of the past few decades, but of a distinctly religious humanism
which belongs to the twentieth century and which is but an extreme form of
modernism. The humanist believes with the modernist that the essential feature
of religion lies not in conformity to the will of God but in the integiation of
the human per-sonality. But he, differs from the modernist in many respects. He
denies that there is any such thing as Providence in the world. Consequently
there can be no value in prayer and certainly no answer to prayer, even though
sometimes the psycological value is admitted. The humanist does not believe that
the existence of the woild requires a great and infallible intelligence and
personality, such as the Bible represents God possessing. Everything is
necessitated, no purpose directing it, and with no “far off divine event” toward
which the world is working. Religion is a mere human affair and most humanists
deny the necessity of believing m the immortality of the soul.

I do not believe that the Hope of the world lies in the Christ of modernism nor
the religion of humanism. It is our purpose during this discussion to present
the Christ of the New Testament who is the. hope of the world.

I. First of all, the Christ of the New Testament was virgin born. The modernists
ask why no more material is presented in the New Testament concerning' the
virgin birth if it is such a cardinal doctrine in Christianity. Mention is made
only in Matthew, chapter one and Luke, chapter three. The modernists believe
that it could not have been of great importance. Let us see. While mentioned
directly only by these two, many other writers show that they were acquainted
with it and assumed it in the foundation of their work. Mark began his gospel
with the ministry of our Lord. The infancy records, therefore, were purposely
left out. Yet he begins by referring to Jesus as the Son of God. In no place
does Mark call Jesus the son of Joseph, but always the son of Mary. The prologue
to John’s gospel shows conclusively that John was acquainted with and agreed
with the doctrine of the virgin birth. “The word became flesh and dwelt among
us, and we beheld his glory, even as the glory of the only begotten of the
Father.” John clearly presents both the pre-exristence of Christ as well as the
absence of earthly fatherhood.

Paul also knew of the virgin birth of Christ although he nowhere directly
mentions it. When he speaks, of the birth of Christ he says, “God sent forth his
Son born of a woman” (Galatians 4:4). “God sending his own Son in the likeness
of sinful flesh” (Romans 8:3). “Being made in the likeness of men” (Php_2:7).
Paul never mentions Jesus as belonging purely to the category of mankind.
Concerning all men he says,'“There is no distinction, for all have sinned and
fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:22-23). Yet in reference to Christ he
says, Christ himself “knew no sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Not only then in
Matthew and Luke but in the other gospels and all the way through the New
Testament the virgin birth of Jesus Christ is assumed.

Harry Emerson Fosdick refers to the virgin birth as a biological miracle, our
modern minds cannot accept. He is faced, therefore, with the problem of
explaining a sinless life on the part of a human person. A. B. Bruce one time
said, “A sinless man is as much a miracle in the moral world as a virgin birth
in the physical world.” It is no more difficult to assume one than the other.
The modernist assumes that the story of the virgin birth was created in the same
way that such stories were created in the literature of other religions. They
point to the fact that in Buddhism and other religions of the East such stories
are prevalent. Careful examination, however, will reveal that the virgin birth
of Jesus Christ is in a class by itself. The births revealed in the mythologies
of pagan religions were really not virgin births at all. Buddha’s father was
supposed to be a God who appeared in the form of a white elephant. The mythical
father of Augustus was Apollo, who appeared in the form of a snake. The mythical
father of Alexander was Ammon, who also appeared as a huge serpent. There is
absolutely no parallel between these stories and the story revealed in the
Scriptures. All of them are vile adulteries of beastial rela-tionships compared
to the pure, chaste story of Chi ist, who was born of Mary. The virgin birth of
Jesus is unique in that it was the subject of prophecy more than 700 years
before he was born. Isaiah said, “Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a
son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). Matthew quoted this
statement from Isaiah and applied it to Jesus, (Matthew 1:23). The virgin births
in connection with the stories of pagan religious leaders were always invented
many decades after the leader’s death. Nothing in the literature of the leader’s
day, certainly nothing before his day, advocated the type of birth by which he
came mto the world. It was only, in some instances, after hundreds of years had
passed, that these stories were, assigned to these pagan characters. But 700
years before Jesus wvas born the pioph et of (tod told that he should be born in
a virgin way. Not only do the Scriptures teach it, the very life of Jesus
demands it. He was without sin, he spake and taught, as never man spake. Even
his worst critics ascribe to him the highest moral excellence. From a human
point of view it would be difficult to imagine that 2000 years ago the world
reached a peak of perfection. Why has no one in all the intervening centuries
been able to match the life of Christ. The power, beauty and perfection of his
personality require a miraculous explanation. The virgin birth fits in perfectly
with his sinless life and the story of the resur-rection in presenting a
congruous wnole. Such a birth would naturally awaken a great expectancy, and in
that expectancy we are not disappointed. All that he taught and said is evidence
of how he was born. In spite of all this, however, there are many who ac-cept
the moral miracle of Jesus’ sinlessness while re-jecting the physical miracle,
which, according to the gospels, is a presupposition underly ing his sinless
life. Since a sinless Christ is the only Kind of Christ who could be the proper
object of faith and worship, it is not reasonable to cast out those unusual
features in regard to his birth, life, and death, which provide the foundation
and give meaning and significance to the type of life he lived. It is apparent
at once to the careful student of the New Testament, that the early disciples
and Jesus’ apostles regarded him as Lord. They did this even during his lifetime
as well as following his resurrection, and were encouraged in ’t by Jesus
himself. Entirely consistent with this point of view is the fact that Jesus was
regarded as sinless by the apostles and the eariy disciples. Paul describes him
>n a well- known verse as “him who knew no sin’’ (2 Corinthians 5:21). Some have
supposed that the words found in Romans 3:3, “Made of the seed of David
according to the flesh/’ refer to the fact that Jesus came into the world in the
ordinary way. The expression, however, is auite recon cilable with the
miraculous birth. In fact it is even possible to discover a positive allusion to
Jesus’ virgin birth in this verse, since it merely refers to his descent
according to the flesh, and recognizes the fact that there was another side to
his nature which was not of human descent. After all things are properly
considered, the only plausible thing to do is to accept the actual story
concerning the birth of Jesus given in the account of Matthew and Luke. They
present a worthy and an acceptable account of the beginning of a life which all
disciples regarded as sinless. They embody the faith and the sinlessness of
Jesus, in the form of a history of his birth from a virgin through the power of
the Holy Spirit. This history is not the creation of the Christian’s faith, it
is not a mere legendary expression of the belief that the Lord of the church was
a man altogether free from moral taint and sin. But it is welcome as a worthy
account of the birth of one who was the holy one of God, of the congruous
starting point of a life that was free from sin. After all the scientific spirit
in the name of science has no right to negative the possibility of the miracles
happening. Always there have been men, versed both in science and in religion
and of undisputed scholarship, who have held to the doctrine of the virgin
birth. Those who represent it as a doctrine held only by the illiterate and the
unscholarly are themselves uninformed on this important point. Dr. Orr of
Edinborough, Dr. Sanday of Oxford, Sweet of Cambridge, and Dr. Robert Dick
Wilson of Princeton, are all scholars of the first order who always re-tained
their beliefs in this New Testament doctrine.

II. In a more general way let us now consider his miracles. Jesus is represented
on the pages of the New Testament as performing signs and wonders and many
miracles. The religious world in general, and especially those of modernistic
and humanistic leaning, have paid but little attention to the miracles of Jesus
and have rarely used them as an indication of his divinity since the days of
David Hume. Hume was one of the leading deists among the philosophers of the
18th century. Together with his dialogues on natural religion he wrote a tract
on miracles. He held that since no one had witnessed a miracle that the evidence
was completely against it. He doubted the character and the testimony of those
who had produced the New Testament since they had recorded what he and no one
else of his age had observed. But we might stop just here to ask the question,
What is a miracle? No doubt any definition would be subject to certain
limitations and criticisms. And yet in general we might say that “a miracle is
an event making known to the senses the presence of a personal power above the
human plane and working toward a moral end.” Any attitude toward life or reality
involves the acceptance of certain assumptions. The Christian point of view
involves the acceptance of certain assumptions which in no way would interfere
with the acceptance of the miracles presented in the New Testament. Let us
notice what some of thos.e assumptions are. First, a personal God who is good.
God is not just a power or force, not just an attribute or an emotion, but a
divine person, characterized by righteousness, goodness, and the highest moral
and spiritual ideals. Second, there is a moral order. This moral order
recognizes and is based on the will of a personal God. Third, into this moral
order sin has been introduced as the result of man transgressing the law of
Jehovah. Fourth, the moral and spiritual interests of the world are higher than
physical interests. All except the grossest materialists would readily admit
this. Fifth, miracles are, therefore, a part of the divine purpose to restore
order to the moral and spiritual realm. Anyone who believes in a personal God
and in the supremacy of the moral and spiritual order will not find it difficult
on careful thought to believe that this personal God would perform what we know
as a miracle for the purpose of restoring mankind to the plane where God would
like to have him.

If it be objected by some that there are miracles in the sacred literature of
the pagan religions, let us point out certain qualities that characterize Bible
miracles and set them apart from all others. First, Bible miracles were never
curiosity devices. They were always ethical in nature and had a moral end.
Recall how Jesus refused to jump from the pinnacle of the temple for the purpose
of attracting the curiosity seeker and winning applause from the multitude. In
the second place, the Bible miracles served as a means of revelation. Through
them God made known his i)ower and made known to the people the presence of his
power in the person who was performing the miracle. The miracle was not an end
in itself but a means to something higher and more spiritual. In the third
place, the miracles presented in the Bible never offend the intellect. The
miracles of pagan antiquity and even of the apocryphal gospel are full of
offense to the refined mind. For example, in the apocryphal gospel Jesus is
represented as a lad becoming angry at his playmates and turning them into
donkeys. Upon another occasion when reprimanded by his father for making mud
birds on the Sabbath day, he turned them all into live birds to the astonishment
of his father. Such stories offend the intellect, lack moral and religious
purpose, and are absolutely out of harmony with the entire character of our
Saviour. The miracles of the Bible are of such character as to appeal to the
intelligence. They are all supported by the highest quality of evidence in the
presence of which it is much more reasonable to believe than to reject or to
doubt.

III. In the third place, the Christ of the New Testament, who is the hope of
the. world, arose from the dead. Paul represents the resurrection of Jesus as a
fact of most fundamental importance to Christianity. “If Christ be not risen
then is our preaching vain and your faith is also vain” (1 Corinthians 15:14).
The modernist maintains that the bodily resurrection of Jesus is of no
importance, holds that it is the spirit of Jesus continuing to work in the world
which is alone the subject of concern. Yet without the accentance of the
resurrection of Jesus it is impossible to explain how Christianity could have
got started on its marvelous world conquering career. To all who would give a
purely natural account of the origin of Christianity it is incumbent upon them
to explain the origin of the belief in the resurrection of Christ. This the
modernist finds great diffuclty in doing and most of them simply refuse to face
the problem. Of the few who have tried their hand at solving the problem, each
has spent most of his time criticising his predecessors’ theory, so that the
work of refuting their sceptical points of view is made an easier task. The
facts concerning the resurrection story presented in the New Testament are
these. First, Jesus died on the cross; second, he. was buried in the new tomb of
Joseph of Aramathea; third, a guard of Roman soldiers was placed around the
sepulchre; fourth, the grave was found empty; fifth, examination of the grave
revealed that the body was gone; sixth, the various appearances of Jesus to his
disciples during the period of forty days between his resurrection and
ascension. These are historical facts abundantly supported with historical
testimony—as adequately supported as any other facts of antiquity. The Bible
explanation is that Jesus arose from the dead, his body came out of the tomb,
and there is no other explanation that can explain these facts. The various
sceptical hypotheses, that have been sug-gested to explain the resurrection of
Jesus are as follows: First, that the whole affair was a matter of theft and
falsehood, both on the part of Jesus and his friends and disciples. Second, that
Jesus was never dead and revived after a temporary lapse of consciousness.
Third, that the appearances, so called, were purely subjective, due to the
excited minds of the disciples. Fourth, that the appearances were not purely
subjective but had an objective cause which, however, was not the body of Jesus,
but simply the glorified spirit of Jesus producing visions of himself for the
comfort of his faithful ones. Fifth, that there were no appearances, but that
the stories were only a strong way of speaking on the part of the disciples
concerning the continued life of Jesus in the spirit. Sixth, that these stories
are merely myths which were collected years later by his disciples.

All these hypotheses go on the assumption that there was something real to the
disciples which demands an explanation. Yet there are none of them which
ade-quately account for what happened. They do not account for the moral
transformation of the disciples following this experience of witnessing the
resurrected Christ. They do not account for the miraculous beginning and growth
of Christianity so that the gospel covered the world within a generation. Each
of them, with time, might be discussed and the various defects to each pointed
out. Hume denied not only the resurrection but all miracles. He said that no one
had witnessed them, but that just exactly what the New Testament said, that the
disciples did. They saw the resurrected Jesus upon various occasions, at various
times of the day, over a period of forty days duration. They not only saw him
but their hands handled him, and their ears heard him. They were convinced that
he was their Lord whom they had known, who was risen from the dead. All
sceptical attempts to explain away the resurrection have failed. The physical
resurrection remains. The revivification of the crucified body of Jesus is the
foundation on which Christianity rests. Jesus is declared to be the Son of God
with power by the resurrection from the dead, (Romans 1:3). It is therefore the
key to all the Christian religion. Believe it and all other miracles are easy.
Deny it and all the others make no difference. And to deny it is to face the
task of explaining the evidence that we have.

Without any hesitation we can say that the hope of the world lies in this Jesus,
the Jesus who was born of the virgin Mary, performed his works of miracles and
signs and wonders, died on the cross, who was buried in Joseph’s tomb, and who
came forth to a new life of glory, honor, and immortality. The Christ of
scepticism, who lacks all of these attributes, cannot prove sufficient to the
task of morally transforming the lives of men and women. Lazarus in his grave
needed more than an ideal. He needed a power to recall his spirit from the
hadean world that it might reinhabit his body to come forth out of the tomb. We,
today, need more than an ideal, more than a human Jesus. We need a sin bearing
redeemer, a sacrifice for sin which has been made possible through the death of
the Son of God. We, who were dead in our trespasses and sins, have needed the
redemptive power of Jesus’ blood. Because he was the Son of God appointed to
this task, because he was without sin himself, he could tread the winepress of
his sorrow alone, and come forth more powerful than Sam-- son when he carried
away the gates of Gaza, marching in the greatness of his strength, mighty to
save. He could say, therefore, I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold I am
alive forevermore. In such a Jesus we rest our faith as the hope of the world.


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  CHAPTER 2: THE FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIAN HOPE
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The Foundation of Christian Hope THE FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIAN HOPE J. P. Sanders

Throughout the long history of the human race, as mankind has struggled to gain
mastery over both himself and his environment, he has placed his hopes of a
better world in many things. Some have been so foolish as to place it in their
own strength, only to find themselves defeated by some superior power. Others
have sought it in philosophy, believing that knowledge holds the key to the
problem of the universe. Yet the philosopher finds himself in the face of
profound mysteries of life that no honest philosopher could deny. Facing such
mysteries many have become skeptical and others have taken the road of the
materialist. Perhaps most of our modern philosophers are instrumentalists and
their sole interest is in mechanism and efficiency. They are interested in a
philosophy of doing, a philosophy of action rather than a philosophy of values.
The result, however, is just what we are getting—catastrophe, war, ruin. Perhaps
it is not too much to say that Hitlerism is the essence of this theory of action
developed and carried out to its nth conclusion. And after all, what is it but
the old philosophy of the jungle. While according philosophy a higher place than
force we still must list it as a failure in remaking the world.

Other men have turned to science. The rapid de-velopments of the last century
and of this led many to feel that the hope of the world lay in the developments
of scientific interests and scientific mechanisms. Science has done so many
wonderful things that men have been wont to think that there was nothing that it
could not do. To many of its savants therefore it has become a god. But science
too has failed us in dealing with the ultimate. Its sphere, while useful, is too
limited. It is only a tool of life and never an end. It has given us good light
with which to extend our days, but has not been concerned with what we did with
the extra time. It has enabled us to travel from one place to another much more
quickly. It has not interested itself with the worthwhileness of the trip. It
has prolonged our life by showing us how to conquer disease, but it has not
dealt with the problem of what makes life worth prolonging. Because it has not
conquered the human will, because it has not shown us a worthwhile program of
real living, it has lent itself just as well to the forces of destruction as to
the forces of righteousness. A flying ship not only overcomes the inconveniences
of travel, but makes the perils of war thousands of times more horrible. In the
last analysis, science, we should say, is neither good nor bad, it is neither
moral nor immoral, it is simply a tool in the hand of moral or immoral men. The
state of man’s morality must be determined by something that lies beyond and
outside the realm of science.

Others have turned from these things to education. But education, like science,
is found to be only a tool, and the results depend on the type of men who guide
it. Since it has been primarily concerned with the development of the material
and the intellectual, to the neglect of the spiritual, we must also list it
among the forces that have failed, to bring about the fulfillment of man’s
highest hopes and deepest yearnings. But Christianity is different. It places
its hopes not in the force of nature or of human beings, not in the results of
human knowledge and philosophy, nor of science or education, but in a
divine-human being, in Christ, the word of God. The foundations of our Christian
hope rest squarely on Jesus, the crucified but risen Saviour. Jesus of Nazareth
is pictured in the New Testament as the Christ, the king of prophecy, the
fulfiller of Israel’s highest hope and brightest ideals, the august person in
whom the history of the chosen nation culminated, and in whom the divine purpose
in her election found its consummation and interpretation. The very heart of the
gospel message is the death of Christ for human sins. Without it all the rest of
Christianity is in vain. It is at once the most profound of all the truth of the
world, and still the most creative. It determines for us our conception of God,
of man and of history. It de-termines them for we must bring them all into
accord with it. In the last resort, it holds the "key to all suffering. The
cross is a reality of such sort that it can make no compromise. The man who
fights it knows that he is fighting for his life, puts all his strength into the
battle. To surrender is to give hirnself up, to cease to be the man he is and to
become another. In the present century, therefore, as in the first century, the
attraction and repulsion of the Christian message are centered on the same
point. The cross of Christ is man’s only glory, or it is his final stumbling
block. Paul said to the Corinthians, “We preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews
a stumbling block, and unto Gentiles foolishness, but unto them that are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom, of God” (1
Corinthians 1:23-24). Since our entire salvation rests on the reconciliation
that Jesus has made for our sins on the cross, let us give some attention to the
means by which Gocl brought it to pass. A natural beginning place is to be found
in Galatians 3:13, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become
a curse for us; for it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree.”
While Paul admits that in enduring the shameful death on the cross, Jesus became
a curse, yet Paul maintains that he became such not because of what he was but
on our account. Jesus was subject to this shameful death not justly, but
vicariously. He bore this shame for us. His death proves nothing against him,
but on the contrary shows to what a depth of shame he was willing to de-scend in
order that men might know the blessings of his redeeming blood. The cross then
is not something in which the Christian is ashamed, but something in which he
finds his highest hope. It is the symbol of divine condescension and pity in
order to save men. Paul was so thoroughly rooted and grounded in its message,
that he said, “Far be it for me to glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ” (Galatians 4:14). “The word of the cross is the power of God unto
Salvation” (1 Corinthians 1:18). Paul had determined within himself to have but
one subject of knowledge and interest, Jesus Christ and him crucified (1
Corinthians 2:2). Jesus was a pure and holy being absolutely without sin
himself, who willingly submitted to be treated as a sinner for our sake. “Him
who knew no sin God made to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the
righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Certainly this passage means
that the sinless Christ endured a cross that he did not personally deserve, bore
an experience of suffering such as belonged only to the nature of sinful man
rather than to him, and he did all of this to secure the salvation of mankind.
The scriptures are literally filled with passages which show Christ as a sin
bearing redeemer, “Who died for us, whether he wake or sleep, we should live
together with him” (1 Thessalonians 5:10). “Who gave himself for our sins that
he might deliver us out of this present evil world” (Galatians 1:4). “Who was
delivered up on account of our transgressions” (Romans 4:25). “God sending his
own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sins condemned sin in the
flesh” (Romans 8:3). “He spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all,
how shall he not also freely give us all things? Who is he that shall condemn?
It is Christ who died” (Romans 8:32). “One died for all, therefore all died” (2
Corinthians 5:15). “For to this end Christ died and lived again that he might be
Lord of both the dead and the living” (Romans 14:9). “Christ has blotted out the
bond written in ordinances that was against us, nailing it to the cross”
(Colossians 2:14). Many other passages express the idea of redemption or
deliverance as by purchase. For example, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of
the law” (Galatians 3:13). “God sent forth his Son that he might redeem those
under the law” (Galatians 4:4). “In whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness
of our sins” (Colossians 1:14). “You were bought with a price” (1 Corinthians
6:20). “Being justified freely by his grace through, the redemption that is
v/ithin Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation through faith by his
blood, to show his righteousness, because of the passing over of the sins done
aforetime through the forbearance of God, for the showing, I say, of his
righteousness at this present season, that he might himself be just and the
justified of him that hath faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:24-26). Other passages in
the New Testament speak of the reconciliation between God and man by the death
of Christ. “For while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the
death of his Son” (Romans 5:10). “But all things are of God who reconciled us to
himself through Christ who gave to us the ministry of reconciliation, to wit
that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself” (2 Corinthians 5:18).
The word that we ordinarily use to refer to this process by which God reconciles
sinful man unto himself through Christ is the word “atonement.” This word is
found but once in the New Testament, Romans 5:11, and that in the King James
Version. The American Standard Version uses the word “reconciliation.” “We also
joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the
atonement.” The atonement or reconcilation is the result of God’s love for a
sinful world. “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John
3:16). “Herein is love, not that we love God but that he loved us and sent his
Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). After man’s creation a
state of alienation and enmity came between God and man as a result of man’s
sins. The justice of God demanded that sin should be punished, while on the
other hand the love of God sought a means by which man might be saved. Were our
God a God of justice only and not a God of justice and mercy, we would be
without hope. The wisdom of God provided the death of Jesus on the cross that
justice might be fully satisfied and that the love and mercy of the Father might
be freely bestowed. We have all sinned. Everyone of us has alienated himself
from God as the result of transgression of the law. “There is no difference for
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” “There is none righteous,
no not one.” “All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his
own way.” And the Bible further informs us that the wages of sin is death. But
while the justice of God demanded a penalty for sin, the mercy of God provided
that penalty in Jesus Christ. So that we, while sinners, might be reconciled
unto himself by the death on the cross. “That Christ hath suffered for sins, the
just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18)

One of the oldest examples used to illustrate the com-bination of justice and
love, is that of Zaleucus, the Locrean law-giver and ruler. He found it
necessary to make a law that those who committed a certain crime should have
both eyes put out. The very first violator of that law was one very near and
dear to him, his own son. Naturally all eyes were turned to the king to see
whether justice or love would triumph. The exercise of justice of law would have
resulted in the cruel punishment of the offender, in the loss of both eyes by
his son. The exercise of mercy alone would have resulted in setting the law
aside and sparing the offender. The king’s wisdom devised a scheme which
satisfied both justice and mercy. He had one of the offender’s eyes put out and
one of his own. Thus he took part of the suffering upon himself, gave a nobler
expression of the importance that a rightous ruler attached to law than if in
cold blood he had executed the full penalty on the offender. And at the same
time he gave a grander proof of his love for the offender than if he had ignored
the law and unconditionally pardoned him. God saw mankind as the offender
against his perfect, holy and righteous law. He further realized that man had
nothing with which he could atone for his sins. God then in Christ, touched with
the feeling of our infirmities, suffered for us, the just for the unjust,
bearing our sins in his own body on the tree. In that way he presented to us the
noblest proof of his infinite wisdom, devised a just punishment for all sins,
and showed an infinite love that could save all sinners. At the cross,
therefore, “mercy and truth are met together, righteousness and peace have
kissed each other.” In Christ’s death on the cross, we see God pursuing a method
which illustrates alike his goodness and severity, that is, reveals, vindicates,
and satisfies his whole moral nature. Since Christ has died for our sins to
redeem us from the curse of the law it is apparent at once that Christianity is
a religion of redemption. Jesus becomes our redeemer, a Saviour who died in our
stead, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God This is the
glorious good, news of Christianity. We have a sin bearing Saviour, a vica rious
redeemer, whose death atones for our sins. This truth, namely that Jesus
suffered and died for man’s redemption on the cross of Calvary, is opposed by
all the forces of hell. It is made light of by many human philosophers. It is
attacked by atheism and infidelity, umtarianism, humanism, and most modernists.
But it must be upheld by all those who are truly God’s children. And we believe
that there is so much power here in God’s plan that it cannot possibly be
defeated by all the forces of the universe that oppose it.

Someone has said, to create man God had only to speak, to reedeem him he had to
suffer. He made man by his breath, he saved him by his blood. And there is no
other power under heaven whereby man can be saved except by the blood of Jesus.
The sin-stained conscience of mankind can be washed white now’here except in the
blood of the lamb.

"‘My hope is built on nothing less Than Jesus’ blood and righeeousness; [ dare
not trust the sweetest frame, But wholly lean on Jesus’ name. On Christ, the
Solid Rock, I stand; All other ground is sinking sand.” “His oath, his covenant,
his blood, Support me in the whelming flood; When all around my soul gives way,
he then is all my hope and stay. On Christ, the Solid Rock, I stand; All other
ground is sinking sand.” The human conscience is powerless to free it from the
guilt of sin except by the blood of Jesus. Other men may have set great
examples, other leaders may have held up before their countrymen high ideals,
but no one, no one but Jesus has provided, a means whereby the guilty conscience
can be cleansed of its sins. In vain does Lady Macbeth seek to wash the blood
spots from her hands. The only thing that can remove them is the blood of Jesus.
In the seventh chapter of the book of Romans, in that mite of autobiography of
the apostle Paul, Paul found it impossible even to satisfy his own conscience as
he sought to live up to the law cf God. When he would do good he found that evil
was present. Although within his mind he served the law of God he found the law
of death working in his members. This caused him to reach the awful conclusion,
“Wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?”
Without Jesus there was no hope. Paul found himself powerless to overcome the
inclination of evil within himself. His condition was one of misery and of
wretchedness until his conscience with his sins were washed in the blood of
Jesus. George Elliot, in one of the most realistic of all her books, tells the
story of a young woman, who strayed from the path of right. In order to hide her
shame and crime she put to death her tiny baby and hid its. little body in the
hedge. She soon, however, was overtaken by justice and judgement. She was
arrested and brought to trial. Many kindly women gathered around her and
compassioned her. Yet for all their compassion, George Elliot tells us that when
they ceased to talk for half a minute she would come back with the wild refrain,
“Yes, yes, I have heard all you have said, I have heard it all. But tell me,
will I always hear the cry of the little child I put to death in the hedge?”

George Elliot is simply saying that there is no way that the conscience which
must be reckoned with can be kept quiet. But Jesus is the door of hope in the
valley of Achor. He hath suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he
might bring us to God. His blood cleanses the conscience and takes away the
guilt of sin that we may stand justified and free in the presence of our father.
Without Jesus’ atonement for our sins there would be no gospel to preach and
there would be no hope for the lost. And someone has reminded us that sin has no
history apart from redemption. If it had not been said, the seed of the woman
shall bruise the serpent’s head, the woman would have had no seed and the race,
no history. In our preaching of the gospel we must always place emphasis on
three truths in reference to the atonement. First, is necessity. There is no
salvation except through the blood of Christ. Second, its extent. It avails for
all sinners and for all sins. The blood of Jestrs cleanses us from all sins.
Third, it is conditional in its application. Only those who have accepted it by
faith and have obeyed the gospel of our Lord have benefited thereby. It is thus
limited by the will of man and not by the will of God. God provides it for all
but we must accept it as the result of our own choice. Neither is there
salvation in any other, nor is there any other name under heaven given among men
whereby we must be saved. Jesus is the Saviour of all men, especially of those
that believe. Only those will be saved who believe in him and obey his gospel.
These great truths have been well expressed in one of the great hymns:

“Lord, I believe thy precious blood, Which at the mercy seat of God, Forever
doth for sinners plead, For me, e’en for my soul was shed. Lord, I believe were
sinners more Than sands upon the ocean shore, Thou hast for all a ransom paid,
For all a full atone-ment made.” His death atones for the sins of Saul of
Tarsus, who represented himself as being the chief of sinners because he had
been a persecutor of the church of our Loid. His death atones for the sins of
the many-hus- banded woman at the well. His death atones for the 3,000 who
accepted the gospel on the day of Pentecost, among whom were the murderers of
the Lord himself. Yes, his death atones for the soldiers who drove the nails
through his hands, for Pontius Pilate who turned him over to the Jews to be
crucified, for the Jews who cried, “His blood be upon us and upon our children
forever.” His blood atones for you and me, for all who will come humbly to the
cross.

“0 can it be upon a tree The Saviour died for me, My soul is thrilled, my heart
is filled, To think he died for me.” But that Jesus who died for us was also
raised for our justification. Herein lies our hope for the world beyond the
grave, our faith and immortality. Job asked the question in the long ago, If a
man die shall he live again? This question waited for its completed answer until
Jesus arose from the grave. The Christian view of immortality maintains the
continuation of personal consciousness, the existence on the other side of
death, of the same person who lived in this world. Our personalized conscious
life will continue beyond the grave in such a way as to make us know that we are
we, the same creatures who one time lived and suffered on the earth. There was
little in pagan knowledge that could fill man with joy and hope as they looked
toward the open tomb. There was always wonder and doubt and little of assurance.
Socrates, the greatest in the pagan world, in the moments of his departure spoke
words of consolation to his weeping friends. But at the same time he declared
that whether the change could better his condition he could not tell. Death was
a leaving of the known for the unknown—a leaving for the unexplored abyss with
its awful silence and mystery. It was reserved for him who is the resurrection
and the life to shed about death the radiance of an eternal hope. The Psalmist
has said, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear
no evil.” But only those who know Christ can shout in triumphant exultation, 0
death,where is thy sting, O grave, where is thy victory? Jesus hath abolished
death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. Old fears
pass away and new hope fills the heart as a result. In the midst of great
persecution, harried on every side, the greatest of the apostles, in his
weariness and painfulness, one time explained, “Our light affliction, which is
but for a moment, worketh for us a more exceeding and a more eternal weight of
glory. For we know that if our earthly tabernacle were dissolved, we have a
building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2
Corinthians 4:17 to 2 Corinthians 5:1).

Later on, in his Roman dungeon, thinking of his beloved son in the gospel, he
could look beyond the mist that hung over the valley of the shadow and see the
crown of righteousness in his redeemer’s hands ready to be placed upon his
immortal brow. The explanation of this hope was his confidence in the gospel of
Jesus Christ. No other teacher has ever inspired the hope and confidence that
Jesus has. Buddha, Confucious, Tao, and others have very little to offer by way
of hope concerning the future. Most of them have longed for a kind of
nothingness, an extinction of desire, with no continuation of personal
consciousness at all.

Consequently it was the beginning of a new era in man’s hope when Jesus
declared, “I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live.” Jesus said, “The hour is coming in which all
that are in their graves shall hear the voice of the Son of man and shall come
forth. They that have done good, to the resurrection of life; they that have
done evil to the res-urrection of damnation. He that believeth in me though he
were dead yet shall he live. He that liveth and believeth in me shall never
die.” Surely Jesus speaks as one who had authority and not as the scribes. Never
did man speak like this man. In him was no darkness at all. One of the unique
features of Jesus and his message on which our hope rests, and which sets him
apart from all other teachers, is this: No other founder of any other religion,
while still living, staked his religion upon his triumph over death. Yet Jesus,
before he faced the cross, staked the hope of all his future aspirations on his
own triumph over .death and the grave.

“Judaism left Moses sleeping in the lonely sepulchre of Mount Nebo. No Chinese
or Buddhist Bible tells how the stone was rolled away from the sepulchre of
Confuscius or Buddha, and how they rose again to cheer their despairing
disciples by their presence and by the promise of light and victory over the
grave. As far as the dim legends of Zorroaster are concerned, when he died he
went to the towers of silence as all his followers. The Mohammedan, borrowing a
hope from Christianity, believes that his prophet is in Paradise, but has never
dared to affirm that he has been seen by mortal vision since his body was placed
in the tomb at Mecca. In contrast with all these other religions, Christianity
bounded into existence big with the hope of immortality, and pointing to a
crucified but risen Lord, as the foundation of this hope. In the first sermon,
Peter said, “Him whom ye have taken and by wicked hands crucified and slain, God
hath raised up, whereof we are witnesses.” The faith of Christianity rests in
Christ, who is the resurrection and the life, and who rose from the tomb as the
first fruits of them that slept. Here is the full explanation of the new hope,
joy, and inspiration which came into human life with the earthly church of our
Lord. The greatest enemy of man and the last that ever shall be conquered is
death. In Christ and his resurrection we find our victory over this enemy. “O
death, where is thy victory ? 0 death, where is thy sting? The sting of death is
sin; and the power of sin is the law: but thanks be to God, who giveth us the
victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:55-57).


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  CHAPTER 3: WHY JESUS IS THE HOPE OF THE WORLD
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Why Jesus Is the Hope of the World WHY JESUS IS THE HOPE OF THE WORLD J. P.
Sanders

We are standing today on the threshold of one of the most dramatic and
significant periods in all history. We are living in the last phases of an age
which has betrayed itself. The world’s unspeakable chaos together with the
speeding velocity of events makes any attempt to criticize or to analyze it very
difficult. Yet we look hopefully for a tomorrow which will bring a new pattern
for living, a pattern that will be more truly and thoroughly grounded in the
principles of social justice advocated by Jesus of Nazareth. Any worthwhile
civilization, be it a democracy or not, must rest upon Christian principles and
ideals. Only that which is righteous and good can last, and God has revealed all
goodness to the world through Christ. Only as men follow Jesus can they attain
the good life, righteousness of character, peace on earth, and the hope of peace
in the world to come. Jesus is the hope of the world because he reveals to us
those principles which must undergird our homes, our schools, the church, and
our personal lives. It is because men have not known Jesus, or have for-gotten
him, that the world finds itself in the darkness and the confusion of this
present war. It is because men have not undergirded with the teachings of Jesus
the various institutions that concern our modern life. The right principles have
not been applied in building the institutions that lie at the basis of our
pattern of living.

I. Education and the Church. Let us begin with education. In the first part of
the nineteenth century Benthom and Mill believed the adoption of universal
education would solve all the serious social problems of the country before the
close cf the century. The idea was a very old one, for even Socrates held
knowledge to be virtue, and Bacon had found it to be power. Nevertheless the
idea did not develop the utopia longed for. It did produce an age intoxicated
with knowledge and drunk with power, but nothing positive and favorable could be
said for its virtue. The program was successful in developing intelligence
without character and the result was public calamity. It became noticeable that
a trained mind does not necessarily guarantee a straight life nor make one a
desirable citizen. A neglect of moral and religious training cannot but result
in impoverished spiritual living, in the failure to develop the type citizenship
that will make the community safer and better. Even in this critical hour when a
bewildered world is calling for an overwhelming stress upon spiritual
perspective there is a steady decline in the study of those things that will
bring about these spiritual ideals. There is an increasing emphasis on the
purely secular. The emphasis in education has been such as to produce, not
spiritualized character, but robot recruits with highly integrated manual skills
for service in an industrial and material world. It has been entirely lacking in
soul-saving culture and in spiritual realism. Training of students chiefly for
occupational and gainful pursuits in life is after all a kind of sordid
business. Much that is called civilization today is of all things most
uncivilized. In the midst of our unprecedented learning with its none-such type
of efficiency, in the blazing glory of its intellectual light, we are surrounded
with chaos and the ravages of war. We are pairt of a generation that seems to
know best how to work its own destruction by' way of literally starving itself
to death in the midst of plenty. We have produced a famine of the word of God.

Even within the last decade there has been a very marked decline in religious
training. There are a number of reasons for this. The people of America have
been guilty of trying to serve two masters, God and mammon. We have been So in
love with the material in all its forms that there has been little time left for
things of the spirit. We have sought the comforts, advantages, and privileges
which usually come with increasing wealth and prosperity. We have become the
most prosperous nation in all the world. We sought to live for ourselves and
took but little time to think of ourselves as our brother’s keeper. All of this
material progress has been largely at the expense of our neglected souls. Our
wealth has created for us a higher standard of living, a higher material
standard of living. The price that we have paid for it has been taken from the
realm of the spiritual. Interest in Christianity has therefore changed in
weight. Young people were taught in our schools that science held all the
answers to their problems, and they forgot even the brotherhood of man, not only
in our own country, but also toward the other nations of the world.

Educational programs came almost wholly within the realm of the state’s
influence, which caused them to become more secular, materialistic, and cynical.
They have been permitted to teach everything but a knowledge of God. The
fundamental spiritual qualities of life handed down to us by the forefathers of
our country were questioned and often ridiculed. Skepticism came in to take
their place, and loss of faith resulted. Someone has said, Material science
built for the student a sensuous concept of the universe, which satisfied his
search for the secret of life, its purpose and its meaning. These things have
resulted in changes in home life, and very definite change in the status of
women. The school became more and more responsible for the education of children
as the home neglected this care. Since the school was not concerned with
teaching spiritual values these values went down. The foundation stones of true
character were neglected and often entirely wanting. Entertainment and
amusements have increased, since education and material enjoyments flourished
while spiritual education was lessened. The temporal gained more and more
prominence—the eternal declined. As a result, apathy toward the church and
Christian teaching has been felt even within our own membership. We are faced
therefore with a great need, a great challenge, for a spiritual awakening. Jesus
is our only hope.

If we are going to be the masters rather than the slaves of our great material
scientific developments we must possess a greater knowledge of the Bible and a
change of heart and life that a vital knowledge of the word of God will bring
with it. The all-compelling list of ideals found in the teaching of Jesus, which
can effectively guide our development and progress, must receive our devotion
and loyalty. Leaders are needed for our time—decisive leaders—guided and
inspired by these ideals,, who can see out on the horizon, and there catch the
vision of a greater and better tomorrow. Life is never static. As the tides rise
and fall life surges on to eternity. Today is but a moment on the fringe of that
endless merging of the known present with the unknown future—a future whose
possibilities lie in the hands of those who shape the educational policies and
destinies of today. Those who shape these policies are too often inspired by
pagan concepts and motivated by selfish ideals. The result will be the
continuation of the darkness and chaos of the present.

Dr. H. H. Horn says in his book, JeSus the Master Teacher, “Those who are
interested in education have not known about Jesus, and those interested in
Jesus have not known education.” It is the responsibility of the Christian
school, not only to know Jesus, but to be vitally interested also in the
processes! by which a knowledge of Jesus can be spread to the world. We must
face the responsibility of taking our educational program more seriously.
Christianity is a teaching religion, it is educational in nature and process.
Jesus was called Teacher more than by any other title. The public school has a
child five days each week for six hours each day. This thirty hours stands in
sharp contrast with the very small amount of religious training which the
average child receives during the week. The elaborate equipment and highly
trained teachers in the public school system also stand in contrast to the
meager equipment and often poorly trained teachers of the Christian program.
Unless we are willing to admit that secular education is more im-portant than
Christian education the proportion of emphasis is entirely too small on the
religious side. This should challenge us to increase both the time spent and the
efficiency of our Christian educational work. Our growing young people cannot
help being impressed, consciously or otherwise, by this failure on our part to
provide adequately for Christian instruction.

Let us pause here to ask the question, what is Christian education? Teaching is
no more than the introduction of control into the experience of a person. A
person grows, develops and learns something whether he is taught or not. The
teaching introduces control, guidance, direction, and stimulation into the
activity of the person, so that certain desirable ideals and aims may be
attained. With this in mind we may define Christian education as the
introduction of control into experience in terms of the teaching of Jesus and
the New Testament. Truly Christian teaching is the guiding and controlling of
the growth and development of a person so as to produce the Christian life. The
word “teach” comes from the Anglo-Saxon word “tae- cean,” which meant “to show
how to do.” Christian teaching is showing persons how to do in terms of the life
and teaching of Jesus Christ so thoroughly and skillfully that they will learn
to do and to be all that is expected of Christian men and women. The
achievements of Christian education, then, are to be measured in terms of the
improvements of the pupils’ lives. The teacher may present many interesting
facts and all of them may be very true, but unless, by means of them, a change
for the better has been effected in the life of the pupil, no real teaching has
been accomplished. If, under the Christian teacher’s leadership, the pupil gains
clear understanding of the word of God, realizes a high loyalty to Christ, sets
for himself true Christian goals, and achieves righteousness in living, then he
has learned, and of course the teacher has really taught. The aims of Christian
teaching are set forth very clearly in the scriptures. For where else can one
find the goal that we as Christian teachers are to follow. Jesus set the goal
for the Christian life in the sermon on the Mount. “Ye therefore shall be
perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Toward this goal the Christian
teacher sets his hopes and aspirations. To achieve in himself, and to lead his
pupils, into an achievement of it, so that they will think rightly, feel
rightly, and act rightly, is his greatest ambition. The chief difference between
the point of view of the secular college and the point of view of the Christian
college is: We believe that the integrating factor of Christianity is essential
to remedying the hopeless confusion of modern education. Christianity gives one
his proper relation to the universe, his general framework that will enable him
to keep balance and proportion, and into which he may place all other knowledge
gained in specialized fields of study. When one starts with Christianity he
views the universe from the center outward. Consequently he sees all parts of
the circumference very well. But if one starts with any other viewpoint he is
looking toward the center from the circumference and he loses both proportion
and perspective.

It is not the aim of the Christian college to be solely interested in the
discovery of truth, but its interest is in the use of truth in making the world
more Christian. The ideal of the secular school may be truth for truth’s sake,
but that is not enough. We want to find the truth that we may use it to make the
world a better place in which to live. We want to bring order out of chaos, to
see the whole as greater than the part, and to find a life purpose that can
steer a straight course in spite1 of the storms and cross currents. We want to
build the truth into human life and to make it serviceable to the church and to
generations yet to come. This great task cannot be achieved by just a
department, but every sphere of campus life must be permeated by Christianity.
It will be the aim of the Christian school to make the science classroom equally
a center for the propagation of Christianity with the Bible classroom. The
primary agencies for carrying out this purpose held sacred by the Christian
college is the faculty. The aim of the college cannot hope to be achieved by
teach-ers that are disqualified by character or by preparation for their task.
If the teaching is to be distinguished by its religious purposes the teachers
themselves must be thoroughly Christian. They are the most important human
factor in reaching the goal. The personal influence of the teacher is very
great. His maturity, superior education, academic prestige, make him a powerful
personal influence. Very often those teachers who come in contact with students
in their athletic, campus, and social activities, have the greatest opportunity
for helping them build life ideals, and it should become a part of the religious
function of the school that these teachers should be qualified to reflect the
ideals and a^ms of Christian education. The cynic has no place among these, or
the misanthrope who has lost contact with, and sympathy for youth, or that
vigorous intellectualist not unknown in American institutions of higher learning
today, who concedes his profession to be degraded if it ever is said in his
presence that the college is the place for the upbuild ing of character. We are
faced today with the need of an army of teachers who are willing to devote
themselves to the great task of instructing the earth’s unchristian millions in
the way of righteousness.

II. Jesus Our Model Teacher The model for every teacher is Jesus, Christ the
Lord. Dr. Horn mentions four reasons why JeSus was so successful as a teacher.
First, he knew something to teach. He possessed a comprehensive knowledge of God
and the materials and activities necessary to help his pupils attain the desired
goal. Second, he knew human nature. He understood the structure and function of
human personality. He knew the kind of help his pupils needed to live a godly
life. Third, he knew how to teach. He was a master of the skills of mediating
the subject matter of learning to the needs of the pupils So as to produce the
greatest possible learning outcome. Fourth, he backed all of it up with a
righteous life. His own personality was an example of what he wanted others to
become. If we would be skillful teachers we need to follow Jesus in these
fundamentals of teaching excellence. But such excellence is not attained without
long and painstaking effort. The Bible must become the bread and meat of the
daily study diet. The very best of educational philosophies must be understood
and appropriated to Christian 'teaching. The teacher must first be a learner
with all his mind, soul, and strength. Another characteristic. that every
Christian, teacher needs to ac-quire is devotion to his pupils. Think of Jesus’
wil-lingness to lay down his life for his pupils. He was no hireling but tne
shepherd of his sheep. Think of Paul spending and being spent for the souls of
his converts. The Christian teacher must be able also to see values even in
lives of delinquency, and devote himself vicariously to helping them realize the
fullest possibilities as children of God. Jesus did vastly more than cherish
ideals for people. As a good teacher he gave himself to help them realize those
ideals. Educationally motivated self sacrifice is an essential quality of the
real Christian teacher. Without this spirit of sacrificial service incarnate in
flesh and blood teachers we may never experience the growth that is possible
today and that was witnessed in the apostolic era. The Christian college is in
no sense an adjunct of the church nor a substitute for the work of the church.
But it is concerned with the educational process. It came into being because
Christian people realized that it was better for their boys and girls to be
trained under Christian teachers who are interested in their eternal welfare
than under teachers with unchristian views of life who lack personal
individualized interest in their sludents. Here are a few of the things the
Christian college seeks to do. First, it gives constructive confirmation to the
faith and teaching young people have received in Christian homes and in the
church. The secular institution, in, spite of its great service, Very often
destroys them. And even if it does not it fail's to develop them. Second, the
Christian school seeks to develop Christian character in boys and girls, men and
women entrusted to its care. This it does by providing instruction by men and
women of deep Christian faith and genuine interest in the development of
Christian personality. Purely secular education has miserably failed in this
respect. We have learned with great sorrow that the trained mind does not
guarantee the straight life. Only the teaching of Jesus Christ can do this.
Third, the Christian college re-turns the students to their homes equipped and
motivated to do their utmost to fill a place of service in the community and the
church. It emphasizes Jesus’ statement, “He that would be greatest among you
must become the servant of all.” Fourth, it equips young people for leadership
by helping them prepare to be better parents, teachers, elders, and preachers.
In this way they are able to contribute their part to the teaching and preaching
of the gospel in the growth of the church. It encourages educational
independence and does not follow all the fads and fashions of the prevailing
mode of educational philosophy. It has convictions that are eternally Christian
which cannot be sacrificed for these passing things. It is only when education
becomes Christian that it can possibly prepare men and women to create a better
world in which dwelleth righteousness. It is for this reason that we have no
hesitation in saying that Jesus Christ is the hope of the world for education.
The teaching of Jesus provides the only adequate foundation for the development
of a really Christian happy home. For that reason Jesus is the hope of the home.
There is hardly any doubt but that the home has received inadequate treatment
from Christian teachers in times past. We have often talked about divorce, which
of course should not be neglected, but have failed to discuss what the home
ought to be and how its ideal is to be achieved. When we have presented Jesus’
teaching on divorce we have presented only a part of what Jesus had to say
concerning the marriage relationship, and aftei all it is marriage and not
divorce which constitutes our problem. Marriage is the problem and divorce is
only a solution, an unfortunate solution, to an unfortunate marriage, ar-
ragement. When marriage is contracted and made what Jesus intended it to be,
divorce will never be thought of. Outside the teaching of the Bible the ideal
home is unknown. We search in vain the writings of antiquity, and all pagan and
secular literature, to discover what the home should be. It is only in the Bible
that its ideals are set forth, that its beauties are revealed, that the
self-sacrificing spirit undergirding all its members with love is pictured as
the institution into which man comes, and which plays so important a part in
shaping his destiny. We find ourselves under obligation to present the teaching
of Jesus on the home not only to the adult but to the future home builders of
America, our boys and girls. Where this is done and has been done in the past
the results are most gratifying. In America there is one divorce for every six
marriages, and following the war the percentage of divorces will no doubt
increase very rapidly. While this is true for the country as a whole among those
who have contracted marriage after at-tending Christian schools together, there
is only one divorce in about seventy-five marriages. This is true because in
Christian schools young people with similar Christian background are thrown
together, and because in the Christian schools they receive instruction in the
Bible concerning Jesus’ teaching regarding marriage and the home. Here too they
have the opportunity of knowing one another and becoming acquainted during a
period of courtship before a marriage is actually contracted. These things
practically eliminate the element of chance from the marriage relationship.
Perhaps if there were no other advantage to the Christian college other than it
helps young men and women to select marriage partners with whom they can build
successful Christian homes, it would justify its existence, and should cause
every Christian parent to want to send his son and daughter to a Christian
school.

Ill. Jesus and the Church We said in the beginning that Jesus reveals to us
those principles which undergird the church. We do not give this discussion less
time than that given to education because we believe it less important. In fact,
we believe it is the more important. It is, however, more often discussed, and
is more familiar to all of you. For that reason we have allowed ourselves to
discuss some of these other things in greater detail, and now call your
attention to things which are more familiar. When we consider all that Jesus had
to say on the subject of the kingdom of God and the. church, two great
attributes stand out clearly. These are spirituality and universality. After
all, these things imply one another. $)nly that which is spiritual can be
universal, and nothing in religion is universal except that which belongs to the
realm of the spiru tual. These qualities of the church, of the kingdom of God,
definitely set it apa^t from the kingdom of popular Jewish expectation. The Jews
were looking for a warrior on horseback who would establish what in other
respects would be like any ordinary kingdom. They expected it to be visible to
the eye and national in character. All Jew* were expected to have a place in it,
and all the other nations of the world were to be used to minister to their
glory and honor. They saw the Messiah seated in Jerusalem and extending the sway
of his power over the old realm of David and Solomon. It was earthly, racial,
national and material. Put Jesus had not come to found an earthly empire or to
sit on a materiel throne in the Palestinian city of Jerusalem. He refused to be
made a king when his popularity wras at its height and his followers most
numerous, and he told Pilate that his kingdom was not of this world. He came to
establish a spiritual kingdom, the church.

After Peter had confessed him as the Christ the Son of God at Caesarea-Philippi,
Jesus said, “On this rock will I build my church” (Matthew 16:13). Jesus is at
once both the founder and the foundation of this kingdom. Paul said, “Other
foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, wThich is Jesus Christ” (1
Corinthians 3:11). Peter quotes Isaiah, “Behold I lay in Zion a chief
cornerstone, elect, precious,” and applies it to Jesus. On the first Pentecost
after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ the kingdom of prophecy and the
church of promise came into existence. Three thousand persons were added to it
that day and it became an organic reality. Under the direction of the inspired
apostles it grew until it practically covered the known world of that time. But
even before the death of the last apostle grievous wolves wTere entering in
which caused it to leave the path of right. It forsook the plain, simple
teaching of Jesus of Nazareth, became corrupted with pagan philosophy and Roman
politics until, it became the greatest ecclesiastical political power the world
has ever known. Efforts at reformation resulted in the establishment of hundreds
cf what wTe know as denominations. These all exist without the sanction of God,
against the will of the Saviour, and are a stumbling block hindering the true
Christian work that ought to be done in the wTorld. This condition presents us
with a challenge, the challenge of getting back to Jesus and his teaching. Jesus
is the only hope for the confusion that reigns in the religious world. And the
only way to make progress in Christianity is to get back to him. The church must
return to the organization, the plan of worship and the character that Jesus
intended. Only then can it be wTell pleasing to him. Only then can it fulfill
its God given mission m the world.

If the church is loyal to Christ, its hope, it must be the foe of every wrong.
From the day that evil entered into the world in the Garden of Eden until this
very hour, a conflict and state of tension exists between the forces of
righteousness and the forces of evil. The devil always has and is continuing to
make war on the church of our Lord. The ravishings of both earth and hell have
been unleashed agamst it. Satan hates and defies the church and seeks to overrun
and overthrow the kingdom of God. Since the church condemns the evil desires of
men, attacks their cherished lusts and insists on the practice of self-denial
and sacrifice, it cannot ecape the ridicule and onslaughts of Satan. Satan uses
such weapons as atheism, infidelity, modernism, humanism, denominateonalism, and
all the other km?, to divide and weaken the cause of the Lord. The lure of
pleasure, the trick of perverting the truth, and offering substitutes for the
word of God, deleting and amending the gospel plan of salvation, and every other
device possible are used by him to defeat the interests of the church on earth.
The devil uses weapons that have been forged by the inhabitants of darkness in
furnaces of everlasting fire, and yet at the same time possessing the brilliance
and all the skill of the world of man. Yet in spite of all these fiery darts of
the evil one, the church has marched down the highway of the ages, is
maintaining its work despite all this trouble, and will continue unto the very
Saturday evening of time. The battle of the church is set forth for us in the
word of the Lord, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against
principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this
world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12). In all of
this work the church must show itself no effeminate weakling but a mighty and a
victorious foe to all that is evil. The church can be no straddler of issues
where principles of truth are concerned. It must declcare itself defiantly
against every foe of righteousness and can not hesitate to take a pronounced
stand against it. As God commissioned Isaiah long ago, so God commissions the
preacher of righteousness today, “Cry aloud, spare not, set thy voice like a
trumpet, and show my people their transgressions and the house of Jacob their
sins” (Isaiah 58:1). Peter denounced the sins of his audience on Pentecost, Paul
talked to Felix of righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come. We
need the courage of a Nathan to say to every David, “Thou art the man.” Much
preaching is weak and effeminate, unworthy of a God-like ministry in a
sin-doomed age. The church needs fearless preaching that comes out of a heart of
love, and that seeks the salvation of the sinner, and does not hesitate to
condemn the sin that is destroying him.

There are all kinds of sins in the world and all of them are to be denounced.
There are sins in doctrine, yes, they must be condemned with all the severity
and vigor with which Paul condemned the Judaisers of his day. There are social
sins which chill the desire in the hearts of the masses for God. Against these
we cannot possibly close our eyes. But whatever the sin may be, whether against
doctrine or against character, the church must stand militantly opposed to it.

Just as the church is the enemy of all that is evil, it is also the friend of
that which is good. Her teaching is furnishing the highest ideals and the
deepest motives for the individual life. It is guiding and purifying the
emotions to well appointed scriptural worship, it seeks to promote those habits
of thought that rise above the things of the earth and center themselves in
things eternal. It bestows comfort in old age, sorrow, and disappointment, and
keeps alive the consciousness of our obligation to God. The church is the
greatest institution in ah the world. The church is the symbol of inaugurated,
organized opposition to hell, its banner is high and lifted up, unfolded upon
the air above every embattled field and every scene of contest, which has marked
the progress of the church in sunshine and in darkness. It has ever streamed and
triumphed while human ambitions have trailed in the dust. It will never be
folded around its standard till man is redeemed and saved.


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  CHAPTER 4: THE IMPLICATIONS OF CHRISTIAN HOPE
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The Implications of Christian Hope THE IMPLICATIONS OF CHRISTIAN HOPE J. P.
Sanders When the beloved John wrote his first epistle, he was concerned with the
primary theme of eternal life. He knew that the joys and glories that God had
for those who were his were far beyond the powers of human description, and
beyond the understanding of the human mind. It was sufficient for him,
therefore, to express himself concerning that future state, “Beloved, now are we
the children of God and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be. We know
that if he shall be manifested we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he
is” (1 John 3:2). Such a hope carries with it very definite implications. It is
moving and dynamic, and possesses a purifying and cleansing efficacy. And so the
apostle added, “And everyone that hath his hope set on him purifieth himself
even as he is pure. Everyone that doeth sin doeth also lawlessness, and sin is
lawlessness. And we know that he was manifested to take away sins and in him is
no sin” (1 JOH. 8:3-5). John knew that it would be impossible for the Christian
person to have his hope set on Christ without seeking to be like Christ, without
purifying himself as Christ is pure, and without walking in the path of
righteousness for which Jesus had set the pattern by his own conduct. The
definite implication of the hope of eternal life is the life of righteousness.
It is impossible for men to continue to trust in God as their Saviour while they
continue in sin. Realizing that there might be soma who have a tendency to take
advantage of God’s grace and mercy, Paul asked the question, “What, shall we
continue in sin that grace may abound?” And he did not hesitate to give the only
answer that is consistent with the demands of the Christ way of life, “God
forbid. We who have died to sin, how shall we any longer live therein?” (Romans
6:1-2). With Jehovah religion demands righteousness.

Even under the old covenant it was impossible for a man to be right in the sight
of God merely because he was ceremonially correct. God demanded conduct in
keeping with his holy will. David so expressed it in the 24th Psalm, “Who shall
ascend into the hill of Jehovah, and who shall stand in his holy place? He that
hath clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul unto
falsehood, and hath not sworn deceitfully, he shall receive a blessing from
Jehovah and righteousness from the God of his salvation” (Psalms 24:3-6).

Prophets were also equally insistent upon the ethical demands of God’s
righteousness. In Israel’s day of prosperity, when the inhabitants were at ease
in Zion and secure in the mountain of Samaria, when they were lying upon beds of
ivory and stretching themselves upon their couches, and eating the lambs out of
the midst of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall, and
singing idle songs to the sound of the viol, and yet coming to Bethel with many
of their sacrifices, Amos said unto them, “Therefore shall they now go captive
with the first that go captive, and the revelry of them that stretch themselves
shah pass away. The Lord hath sworn by himself, saith Jehovah the God of hosts,
I abhor the excellency of Jacob and hate his palaces. Therefore will I deliver
up the city with all that is therein” (Amos 6:1-8), Michael also rebuked the
people for their injustices while realizing that they were meticulously careful
in offering their sacrifice. “Wherewith shall I come before Jehovah and bow
myself before the high God ? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings and
with calves a year old? Will Jehovah be pleased with thousands of rams or with
tens of thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my first born for my
transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He hath showed thee,
0 man, what is good, and what doth Jehovah require of thee, but to do justly,
and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with thy God” (Amos 6:6-8). The people
of Israel had fallen into the careless habits of the pagan religions around
about them, felt that they could get by with all kinds of unholy and unrighteous
living provided they were careful of Jehovah’s sacrifices. But the prophets
thundered against their wickedness, their idolatry, and all their injustices,
reminding them that Jehovah was holy and righteous, and that he required the
same of men. It is not surprising then, when we come to the New Testament, to
find the apostles of our Lord insisting that his religion and that the hopes
that go with it demand the purification of life.

Jesus has a standard of hfe that is inferior to none, and that demands an
excellency all its own. To his disciples he said, “For I say unto you that
except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the i ciihes and
Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20).
We very often pride ourselves on being as good as those who are about us, but
Jesus reminds his people that to be just as good as those around us is not to be
good enough. The righteousness of the religious leaders of his day was not
adequate for the righteousness of his disciples. Chns- tianity is an exceeding
religion. It requires an exceeding righteousness. The second mde and the turning
of the other cheek are characteristic of the righteousness of Jesus and set it
apart from the righteousness of common standards.

Let us inquire further into the meaning of the term righteousness as Jesus used
it. The basic idea that lies at the heart of all Jesus’ teaching concerning
righteousness is the idea of love both to God and to man. When one of the
scribes came and heard them questioning together, “knowing that he had answered
them well, asked him, What commandment is first of all? Jesus answered, The
first is, hear, 0 Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, and thou shalt love
thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and
with all thy strength. The second is this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as
thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:28-31).
This idea of love reaches out in lojalty, devotion and obedience unto God above
and m devotion and service to our fellow men. The ideal of all living is set
before Jesus’ disciples in the 48th verse of the first chapter of the seimon on
the Mount. “Ye therefore shall be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is
perfect” (Matthew 5:48). The righteousness of the Pharisees was made up of a
piece-meal righteousness, doing this good deed and that good deed, mak'ng this
sacrifice and that sacrifice, tithing mint, anise, and cummin. All these
ceremonies and duties which are valued for their own sake have but little value
in the sight of Christ. Even the apostle Paul reminds us that if we give away
all our goods to feed the poor and have, not love it is nothing. Even if we give
our bony to be burned and have not love it is nothing. Love includes every
specific form of goodness that God expects of his children. It is not just an
enthusiastic emotion, but the rich, round, vigorous expression of the complete
Christian life. The comparing of many of the' statements of Jesus reveals the
fact that to him love is righteousness, and the terms aie very often used
synonymously. At any rate, righteousness is included in love.

After he warns his disciples that their righteousness must exceed the
righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees if they expect to get to heaven, he
immediately points out the difference between the demands that they made upon
men and the demands of brotherly love which he demanded. Said Jesus, “"You have
heard that it was said to them of old times, Thou shalt not kill, for whosoever
shall kill shall be in danger of judgment. But I say unto you that everyone who
is angry with his brother shall be in danger of the judgment. And whosoever
shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the. council, and
whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of the hell of fire” (Matthew
5:21-22). There is a contrast between the demands of Jesus’ righteousness and
the demands made by the scribes and Pharisees of their disciples. Jesus knew
that before the overt act of murder is committed that it exists first of all m
the heart, and begins with anger toward one’s fellow men Righteousness as Jesus
demanded it is a righteousness that springs from the love of man. Jesus saw
anger as a sin against love and as the first step toward murder. According to
Jesus’ standard it is possible for a man to be a murderer who has never killed
anyone. It is not just the overt act that makes one a murderer in Jesus’ sight
but the attitude of mind and heart that would permit him to commit the act under
certain circumstances. The judgement of Jesus is on what man is and not that
which the accidental circumstances of life permit him to do. Two men put their
guns on their hips and go out to “get” their man. One finds his man and “gets”
him. The other is unable to find his. The long arm of the law reaches out and
takes the first and puts him in prison and brands him a murderer. The second
retains his freedom. In the sight of Jehovah both are murderers, both were
prompted with the same anger toward their fellow men, both were motivated by the
desire for revenge and the desire to kill. They are both unrighteous alike in
God’s sight. Circumstances permitted one to give expression to his feeling,
circumstances did not allow the other to do so. But the judgement of God says
that they are both unrighteous. The righteousness of Jesus demands that right
conduct be undergirded with right character. It is impossible for one to possess
the righteousness that Jesus talks abcut without possessing certain primary and
fundamental attitudes of heart that cause him to maintain’the proper disposition
toward both God and man. Even one of the scribes in Jesus’ day detected this
difference between the popular idea of righteousness and Jesus’ idea. He asked
Jesus which was the chief commandment, and Jesus replied by citing the
command-ment of lo\e, Lo which the scribe replied, “Love to God and man is, as
you say, more than all offerings and sacrifices, and when Jesus saw that he
answered discreetly he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God”
(Mark 12:32-34). Whenever anyone possesses the spiritual insight to determine
the differences between a real spiritual and a ritualistic conception of
righteousness, he has made an appreciable step toward the kingdom of God. In the
parable of the Royal Wedding Jesus pictures there a guest having not on the
wedding garment. To this person the king replied, “Bind him hand and foot and
Lake him away and cast him mto outer darkness; there shall be weeping and
gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 22:13). This w’edding garment in which the guests
were required to present themselves was the wedding garment of true Christian
character, a righteousness that corresnonds to the nature of Christ’s kingdom.
It is absolutely impos-sible to be a member of his kingdom and to participate in
its blessings and to share its hopes without the disposition to do the will of
God and to purify oneself even as Christ is pure, e referred above to the first
and greatest com-mandment, to which Jesus replied that one should love God with
all of his mind, heart, soul, and strength. May we inquire into Jesus’ meaning
of “love to God” and “love to man”? This of course we learn from the vanous
things that he has taught about the attitudes of men toward God- Jesus severely
denounced any ostentatious piety that was practiced as a means of gaining the
attention of peopie round about. The Pharisee who loved to pray standmg in the
chief place of the synagogue, and the man who gave alms to be seen of men, both
had theii rewrard, but they were not the rewards of the truly righteous. What
they did was for the purpose of being overheard and overseen of men. They were
overheaid and overseen and they were r ewar ded. Jesus commended the unselfish
benevolence of doing the good deed that w'as not to be seen and the simple
devotion and prayer expressed in the px’ivacy of one’s closet which only God can
hear. Surely this is a just conclusion from a careful study of the first-
eighteen verses of the sixth chapter of Matthew^. Here too wre see that if one
is to love God acceptably it will result in a reverent attitude on man’s part
toward God, As one contemplates the. greatness and goodness of his heavenly
Father he finds a corresponding sense of weakness and sin within himself. The
acceptable worshipper confesses his sins before God (Luke 18:13), and even
disclaims any special merit for doing his obvious duty (Luke 17:10). Another
element that Jesus pictures in love is that of trust or faith which is an
unshaken confidence in God’s goodness and in God’s provision for our need. This
trust causes the individual to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness,
believing thoroughly that all these other things will be added. He will not be
torn between conflicting desires that will detract his interest in the kingdom
of God. The hu-. man heart cannot hold within it two great loyalties. At any
moment of crisis the one that is truly first will stand out and dominate the
other. God and mammon cannot occupy first place in the same heart. The single
eye stands for one dominant, controlling ambition in life. Where that ambition
is to lay hold on the kingdom of God, the eye is single, and he will make God’s
requirements his primary interest and desire in life. He will choose God as the
source of all that is good. To choose, reverence and obey God as revealed by
Christ—that is love to God. Jesus said, If you love me you will keep my
commandments. Love without obedience is impossible. If we love God we will obey
God. We will love what God loves. We will desire for ourselves that which God
desires for us, and in doing this we will be loving God with all the heart,
soul, mind and strength. The second part of this commandment is like the first.
“Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” In other words, we should be just as
careful about fulfilling our obligations to our neighbors as we are that they
fulfil their obligations toward us. When one loves his neighbor as himself he is
just' as anxious to do a good deed for him as he is to receive a good deed from
him. One is just as anxious to confer as to receive a benefit. This commandment
is further amplified in what we call the golden rule. “All things whatsoever ye
would that men should do unto you, even so do ye also unto them, for this is the
law and the prophets” (Matthew 7:12). In other words, the rights of others are
equal to our own rights. We should be just as anxious that the other fellow gets
his as we are to get our own. In the parable of the good Samaritan, Jesus helps
us to understand the term neighbor. The lawyer had asked, “Who is my neighbor?”
Jesus told the story of the man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho, who fell
among robbers, was stripped and wounded, and left half dead. The priest and
Levite, representatives of the official religion of the Jewish people, passed by
without rendering aid to him who was in need. But the despised Samaritan came
along, inconvenienced himself by getting off his beast and binding up the wounds
of the half dead man and bringing him to the inn. He showed by the kindly way
with which he dealt with the unfortunate that he was a neighbor to the man. And
Jesus said to the lawyer, “Go and do thou likewise.” The road that leads from
Jerusalem to Jericho was all the way around the world, and whenever we come to a
person in need there is our neighbor, there is the opportunity to show our love
for our fellow men. Wherever there is a person that we can serve or help there
is a neighbor. And there is no reason why neighborliness should be diminished as
the result of national and social differences whatever this may be. Jesus showed
himself completely above the prejudices of the Jew for the Samaritan and the
Samaritan for the Jew. He saw all men as potential sons of God, and he loved
them for what they were capable of becoming.

Jesus shows us further that our neighbors do not consist just of those who love
us, but they may even exist among our enemies. “Ye have heard that it was said,
Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy, but I say unto you, love your
enemies, and pray for them that persecute you, that ye may be sons of your
Father who is in heaven, for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the good,
and his rain on the just and the unjust. For if ye love them that love you, what
reward have you ? Do not even the publicans the same ? And if you salute your
brother only what do ye more than others? Do not even the Gentiles the same?"
(Matthew 5:43-47). If the Pharisee had been given the liberty of defining who
his neighbor was, he would have been glad to love those within the little circle
that he drew. Those without he would have regarded as an enemy, or at least as
one who had no claim upon his r crvice. But the righteousness of Jesus demands
that even those who offend us are to be treated with positive kindness. Jesus
said, “Resist not him that is evil, but whosoever smiteth thee on thy right
cheek turn to him the other also. And if a man would go to law with thee and
take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee
to go one mile, go with him two” (Matthew 5:39-41). It is human nature to
respond in kind to the treatment which we receive. You lie about me, I lie about
you. If you cheat me, I will cheat you. If you strike me, I will strike you. The
superiority of Jesus’ righteousness is demonstrated in the spirit of any lack of
retaliation. When one responds to lies by lying, to cheating by cheating, to a
slap by slapping, he places himself upon the same level as the other, partakes
of the same evil and has absolutely no possibility of causing the other to turn
to the superior righteousness of the heavenly Father. For the Christian the
spirit of retaliation is definitely out. Evil cannot be overcome with evil.
Satan will not cast out Satan. The only way that evil can be overcome is with
good. Render to no man evil for evil. “Avenge not yourselves, beloved, but give
place unto the wrath of God, for it is written, Vengeance belongeth to me, I
will recompense, saith the Lord. But if thine enemy hunger, feed him, if he
thirst, give him to drink, for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire upon
his head. And be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans
12:17-21).

Jesus clearly shows that love for one’s fellow men must be unselfish, and not
motivated by the desire to receive as the result of one’s giving. To this end he
spoke a parable to a group of invited guests on one occasion mentioned by Luke,
“When thou makest a dinner or a supper call not thy friends nor thy brethren nor
thy kinsmen nor rich neighbors, lest haply they also bid thee again and a
recompense be made thee. But when thou makest a feast bid the poor, the maimed,
the lame, the blind, and thou shalt be blessed, for they have not wherewith to
recompense thee. For thou shalt be recompensed in the resurrection of the just”
(Luke 14:13-14). The value of any service or gift in the sight of God is to be
measured not in the outward form of the action but in the love which prompts it.
Hence the poor widow’s mites were greater than the abundance which was cast into
the treasury by the rich, because they represented a more self-sacrificing love
than did the abundance of the wealthy.

Another quality of Jesus’ righteousness is to be in the strenuousness with which
he maintained the sacredness of filial and family relationships. Jesus told the
Jews that they made void the word of God when they withheld support from their
needy parents in order to make a temporal offering unto Jehovah. Later on the
apostle Paul reminds them that he who would not take care of his own has denied
the faith and is worse than an infidel. The righteousness of Jesus commends the
highest in conjugal fidelity and condemns even an impure look (Matthew 5:27-28).
Here again he gets down to the foundation of all evil, un-righteousness in
attitude held within the heart. To Jesus the marriage bond was sacred and
divine, and for its origin he went back to the original intention of Cod who
created man male and female (Genesis 1:27; Genesis 2:24). This standard of
righteousness, the many aspects of which we have been studying m this lesson,
was not only the subject of Jesus’ teaching, but was made concrete in Jesus’
life. In all his relationships, both with God and with his fellow men, we see
exemplified the high principles which he taught. If we follow his life we will
at the same time give expression to this righteousness of conduct that we learn
from Jesus’ teaching. This brings us back to the subject of our text: And
everyone that hath his hope set on him purifieth himself even as he is pure.
Because Jesus was righteous, the disciple seeks to make himself righteous;
because he was pure, the disciple, seeks to make himself pure. This change from
unrighteousness to righteousness, from the righteousness of the Pharisee to the
r ighteousness of Jesus, from impurity to purity, is accomplished in the most
natural manner. It is the process of growing in the grace and in the knowledge
of our Lord Jesus Christ. To the Corinthians Paul said, “That we all with
unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed
into the same image, from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the spirit” (2
Corinthians 3:18). Here we have the secret of how the trans-formation is
produced. It is brought about by studying Jesus, by knowing Jesus, by becoming
like Jesus, and then by showing Jesus to others. As we stand before the mirror
and marvel at the perfection of his character and the righteousness of his
conduct, it is natural for us to become like him. People have a tendency to
become like those that they admire, and with whom they constantly associate.

Upon one occasion Peter and John had been arrested and placed in prison. When
the Jewish leaders came together Peter and John were set before them and asked
in what name they had done the things which they did. Peter spoke with such
power and persuasiveness that those who were present marveled at him, and Luke
says, “Now when they beheld the boldness of Peter and John and had perceived
that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled and they took knowledge
of them that they had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13). As the result of following
Jesus through the three years before his death, studying him and learning him,
he became like him, so much like hirr that others saw the characteristics of
Jesus in Peter. Christian people today must so study and learn Jesus that their
very lives will be a demonstration of the righteousness and purity of Jesus
Christ. It is especially incumbent upon those who teach Christianity, especially
upon those who are ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ that they study
carefully the character of Jesus in order io correctly portray him to men and
women. When Paul wrote back to the Thessalonians after be-ing- absent from them
for just a little while, he reminded them of his conduct when he first came unto
them. “For yourselves, brethren, know our entering- in unto you that it hath not
been found in vain. We waxed bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God
in much conflict"(1 Thessalonians 2:1-2). “For ye remember brethren our labor
and travail working night and day that we might not burden any of you, we
preached unto you the gospel of God. Ye are -witnesses, and God also, how holily
and righteously and imblama- bly we have behaved ourselves toward you that
believe: as ye knew- how we dealt with each one of you, as a father with his own
children, exhorting you, and encouraging you and testifying, to the end that ye
should walk worthily of God, who calleth you into his own kingdom and glory” (1
Thessalonians 2:9-12). Paul had purified himself as Christ was pure, had made
himself righteous as Christ was righteous, and had carried the picture of Christ
in his own life to those people whom !e had converted in the city of
Thessalonica. Unless wre do set forth the message of Christ m deed as well as in
word, we put ourselves in the place of the. scribes and Pharisees, of whom Jesus
said, and of whom Jesus warned the multitude, “But do not ye after their works
for they say and do not” (Matthew 23:3).

Arthur Guiterman wrote these lines concerning a great teacher:

Mark Hopkins sat on one end of a log And a farm boy sat on the other. Mark
Hopkins came as a pedagogue And taught as an elder brother. I don’t care what
Mark Hopkins taught, If his Latm was small end his Greek was naught, For the
farm boy ho thought, thought he, All through lecture time and quiz, “The bind of
a man I mean to be Is the kind of a man Mark Hopkins is.” That quality of
excellence, in the teacher which so impresses the pupil as to make him want to
be like his teacher, is a desirable, quality which every Christian ought to
possess. As the righteousness and purity of Jesus impresses us and makes us want
to be righteous and pure, so our lives will impress others-with the same desire.
When we become conscious of the fact that our iives are useful and instrumental
in helping others to become what they ought to be. It provides us with a new
motive and a new power for living. In such glorious achievements all sense of
futility is gone and joy fills our heart as we look forward hopefully to the
great challenge of rehabilitating human life with the righteousness and purity
of our Lord.

Back during the days of the depression when Mr. Clarence Darrow was in his 76th
year, the newspapers report him as saying this to the younger generation, “If I
were a young man with a life ahead of me, I think I’d chuck it all, the way
things are now. The odds are too great against it, and anyway, the world is all
wrong nowadays. I certainly have no encouragement for the young bloods" that are
just starting out looking for jobs. The sooner they jump out a window the sooner
they will find peace.” What a message from age to youth! But after all, what
does an atheist have to live for? The Christian, on the other hand, is filled
with a glorious and an eternal hope which motivates him to be righteous himself
and to give his life in sacrificing service that others may also know the
righteousness of our Saviour. The Christian does not need to chuck it all and
jump out of the window to find peace. He can find peace in the midst of
difficulty, trouble and persecution. He has a profound conviction about the
ultimate meaning of life, and a glorious hope that keeps him marching on.

“Wherefore we faint not, but though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward
man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is for the moment,
worketh for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory. For we look
not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen. For the
things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are
eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18). With these beautiful words the glorious
apostles set forth the hope of the Christian ministry. That kind of hope makes
an immeasurable difference. It makes a man want to be like his Master, it makes
him want to show all other men the picture of his Master that they may be like
him too. It takes their eyes off of the scene and sets them upon things eternal.
“Wherefore we make it our aim, whether at home or absent, to be well pleasing
unto him” (2 Corinthians 5:9).


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 5: "I BELIEVE”
========================================================================

"I Believe”

“I BELIEVE” F. B. Shepherd

Brethren in the Lord, the three speeches I am planning to make to you these
three afternoons of today, tomorrow and Thursday, have been prepared in a
sincere endeavor to comply with the suggestion of Brother Morris who wrote me,
“We want you to give the boys what you think they need.” I wish it understood
that the bulk of the speech today is expressed in language I have borrowed in
part or in whole from others. I regret I cannot tell you who these others are. I
believe I am justified in this use of the material however because it is
fundamental truth every child of God should know" and hold.

About God I believe that Jehovah, the God of the Bible, the God I worship; is
infinite in knowledge, in wisdom, and in power; in mercy, in love, and in grace.
I believe he is absolute in sovereignty in heaven and On earth; in oil things
material and spiritual. The infinity of his power and the absoluteness of his
sovereignty is positively affirmed in the scripture, Genesis 1:1-3; Genesis 1:6;
Genesis 1:9; Genesis 1:14; Genesis 17:6; Revelation 4:8; Revelation 4:11; and
just as clearly and definitely demonstrated in the material universe (Psalms
19:1-4).

I believe Jehovah is immutable, that is, he is changeless and unchangeable in
his very nature. I believe all the laws of Jehovah are the very mirror of his
changeless and unchangeable nature and attributes. All his statutes and
institutions are inherently, immutably, and infinitely reflections of his
immaculate character and person. Not one expressed wish of God, not one
expression of his will has ever been the result of whim, caprice, or momentary
impulse. His very laws have been binding because in the eternal righteousness of
his own nature they define conditions that cannot but be in the very nature of
the particular dispensation of grace of which they have been made a part, or to
which they exclusively belong. I seriously doubt that the popular divisions or
definitions of “Moral” and “Positive” law are authorized by the scriptures.
Therefore I believe Jehovah cannot err, that he makes no experiments; but has
ever been, now is, and forever will remain the only infallible source and
standard of truth and righteousness.

I believe, therefore, that the way of Jehovah is the only right way. It is the
way that can not but be.

I believe that every provision made by Jehovah--- the performance of any work or the attainment of any end sought by him has ever been an absolutely perfect provision, needing no revising, no correcting, no improving upon, in order that it might function perfectly unto the* doing of the work, or the production of such an end as God has designed to accomplish through it originally. I believe that whatsoever has been left out of divine revelation on any subject or regarding any matter upon which Jehovah has spoken, decreed, or made provision, has been left out deliberately by infinite wisdom.

I believe, therefore, that it is exceedingly presump-tuous for man to seek to
supply any supposed lack of information and thus endeavor to be wise beyond that
which is revealed. It is exceedingly sinful for man to attempt any change in,
revision of, substitution for, or improvement upon: any utterance, ordinance,
or-ganization, istitution, or provision of God by attempting to supply any
supposed deficiencies therein. Any and all such action tends to discount the
provision made by God and reflects upon divine wisdom.

About the Church Christ Built I believe the church established upon the first
Pentecost following the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the kingdom of heaven
promised in inspired prophecy. I believe it is the church Christ pledged himself
to build; the church for which he prayed; and therefore is perfect in origin,
foundation, constitution, work and practice. That this church is the one God
originated, God ordained, and God established. Through this church the children
of God can, and must, function unto the salvation of souls. The supreme triumph
of Christianity is the universality of its invitation and the impartiality of
its appeal to every class of men, all grades of society, and shades of color
(Romans 1:16; 1 Corinthians 1:18-21; Jno. 3:16; Hebrews 2:9; Hebrews 5:9;
Revelation 22).

I believe that the churches of Christ as first established by and while
remaining under the immediate direction of the Spirit filled apostles were just
such churches as God designed and Christ approves. In their original simplicity
and purity these churches were perfectly adapted to all spiritual needs of all
ages following. The New Testament church is the institution through which the
sublime and infinite wisdom of God is to be displayed now.

I believe that through this church Christ built--- the kingdom God established through Christ—Jehovah provides a solution for every issue of the centuries, the answer to every legitimate heart longing of man. Let it ever be remembered that it is possible to make demands upon the church that are not legitimate. About such I make no claim.

I believe that such a church can never be outgrown, nor need revision,
reorganization, readjustment, to meet the changing needs or conditions of
different ages. If these churches are not so adapted then changes would have to
follow all changes of conditions and the institution would have to be changed to
conform to differing conditions in all parts of the world in all ages.

I believe there is not one thing that is good, that is of God, that cannot be
done through these churches perfectly and exclusively as a child of God, a
citizen of the kingdom of heaven only, and a member of the body of Christ. The
problems of every generation are identical in their nature and character, even
if diverse in their detail.

I believe to doubt or deny such conclusions is to challenge the infinity of
Jehovah’s wisdom; to discount the completeness and perfection of God’s plan for
kingdom establishment; and to reflect upon the immaculacy and immutability of
God’s nature. I submit to you that since natural laws are unchanging and
unchangeable in all localities and in all times in spite of man’s progression or
retrogression, spiritual laws must remain immutable since God is the author of
both. To meet all the problems, to answer every legitimate need will call forth
all that is highest, noblest, and best in the life of Christians; the fullest
expression of our manhood, the very essence of our Christianity (James 2:15;
James 1 Jno. 3:17; 1 Timothy 5:16). He that wears the name of Christ and
complains of the inefficiency of the churches should as-sume his full quota of
responsibility and service, and thus contribute to making them what they should
be and ever will be when every joint supplies according to its several ability.
The failure of the churches to meet the legitimate demands and needs of the
times is not a result of weakness in God’s plan, but the result of a failure
upon the part of those professing to be the children of God to work or apply
that plan. As simple churches of Christ unencumbered with the “Traditions” or
“History” of an ecclesiastical institution we enjoy the liberty and independence
of the apostolic congregations (Ephesians 3:20). Not confined to a human “Creed”
or “Articles of Faith,” but in the adulterated truth and freedom of Christians
only we can all speak the same thing as were admonished the early disciples (1
Corinthians 1:12; 1 Corinthians 2:1-4). Being untrammeled by the theories of
men, as simply Christians we should be running with patience the race set before
us (Hebrews 12:1).


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 6: THE FATHER OF SUCCESS
========================================================================

The Father of Success THE FATHER OF SUCCESS F. B. Shepherd

“The father of success is work. The mother of success is ambition. The oldest
son is common sense. Some of the other boys are Perseverance, Honesty,
Thoroughness, Foresight, Enthusiasm, and Cooperation. The oldest daughter is
Character. Some of her sisters are Cheerfulness, Loyalty, Courtesy, Caution,
Economy, Sincerity, and Harmony. The baby is Opportunity.

“Get acquainted with the ‘old man’ and you will be able to get along pretty well
with the rest of the family.”

Work is the identification of our lives with the life of God. Said Edison:
“Success is attained by 2% inspiration and 98% perspiration.” Of genius he is
reported to have said: “Genius is 2%, dogged persistence and hard work make up
the other 98%.”

Why did you decide to become a pulpiteer? I won’t say “preacher” because all of
God’s people are expected and obligated to be preachers. Nor will I say
“minister” since all of God’s children are obligated to serve. They emulate the
Christ only when they do serve. The standard of greatness in the kingdom of
Christ 's placed upon the basis of service.

I hope you have not “chosen the profession.” I hope you have not “decided to
enter the ministry.” I hope the work to which you think you have committed
yourself is not just an “ideal”; or that you are indulging yourself in what you
think will be a “thrill.” I sincerely urge that you change your course
immediately if this one upon which you have embarked is just for “convenience”
or as a “makeshift” in a pinch. I hope you have not “entered the ministry” or
“become a ministerial student” because there appears to be easy money in it.
That is for the professional. I hope you have a better reason than that “Mother
wants me to” or “Father was a minister, you know.” There is but one real reason
for any man becoming a pulpiteer. That one is, “just simply because he cannot
help it.”

Genuine gospel preaching is divine truth, through human agency, unto eternal
life. Christianity is a message: “We have found the Christ,” “Come and see!”,
“Behold the man!” A gospel preacher is a herald of passion, and one cannot be a
herald of a passion he does not feel. The greatest work in the world is the work
of pulpiteering. No greater potentiality is there than that of the human soul.
There is no higher, no finer, no more fascinating substance to work with than
human emotions, decisions, ambitions and aspirations. No greater or more to be
coveted opportunity comes to angel or man. No wider range for the exercise of
our best than this work. Gospel preaching is the imperative, pressing, vital
need of the world. It is then the supreme task of the child of God.

There are three kinds of pulpiteers. These are: the “one you cannot listen to,”
the “one you can listen to”; and the “one you cannot help listening to.” The
only kind that is of any value to God or man is the last one.

There are some qualifications that are imperative would one be really a success
in the eyes of God. In the eyes of man it makes no difference.

First we must “know the message.” To this end the apostle Paul has some divinely
inspired recom-mendations. “Give diligence” or “Study,” “Give heed to reading”
(2 Timothy 2:15; 1 Timothy 4:13). And, while I am on this part of the theme I
would say emphatically: “Don’t study without prayer” nor “pray without
studying.” Plan your work and work your plan. Have a “study” and time to study
and maintain both in a work shop and work there. Be boss in a one man office.

Never forget that you are not working for the church; you are working for the
Lord. We are not even working with a church in the strictest sense. We should
rather be working in the church and working with the Lord. Not “our” work or
“their” work, but “his” work. Read the language of our Lord in John 4:34; John
6:38; John 9:4. This last quotation especially is the real secret of the success
of the life of Christ on earth. It expresses the keynote of his personal
ministry. Re-member that success in the Christian life is not in at-taining
efficiency, but in being faithful. Faithful unto death. The second obligation of
the true pulpiteer is to preach the message. “Evangelistic Christianity” this is
sometimes called. Don’t be too concerned about whether the people see you or
hear you. Be tremendously concerned whether they see the Christ and hear God.
Don’t “orate.” Paul seemingly never did but there never was a more suc-cessful
preacher of the unsearchable riches of God’s grace (1 Corinthians 2:1-5). Of one
great speaker it is said that when he closed his discourse the hearers would
exclaim, “That was a wonderful oration.” However, when another was through it is
said the hearers would shout: “Let us go against the enemy.” Be always going
somewhere. Make your sermon fit the text or institute divorce proceedings. Kill
it. The sermon, I mean. There are many fine texts. There are many fine sermons.
But sometimes the sermon does not say what the text says. Or the text sometimes,
does not say what the sermon says it says. We would do well to be honest, even
in religion.

Avoid preacher “airs” and “preacher voice” or “preacher pose.” Learn the
difference between poise and pose. There is a difference. It is in the “I.” Be
humble and not professional. And don’t feign the humility. No one who is worth
fooling will be fooled by any such hypocrisy, and pretense. Apropos of this I
append the following “Don’ts for Preachers.” I have accumulated these here and
there thiough the years. “Don’t study without prayer.”

“Don’t pray without studying.” God giveth wisdom to those who ask in faith, but
knowledge you have to get for yourself. “Don’t try to make bricks without
straw.” “Don’t miss an opportunity to speak in the honor of God.” More preachers
are made than are born. And those born have to be nurtured and cradled. “Don’t
feed people with unbaked dough.” “Don’t tell all you know in one sermon.”
Someone has aptly said, “A sermon does not have to be eternal in order to be
immortal.” “Don’t put the hay too high in the racks.” Be plain; most people
bring a very shallow jug in which to take the sermon home. “Don’t offer people
sentimental confections or intellectual shavings.” “Don’t mistake philosophy for
Christianity; cant for piety; noise for profundity; nor crowds for success.”
“Don’t be so broad that you can float nothing but in-tellectual chips on your
shallow stream.” “Don’t scold.” “Don’t mistake length for profundity nor brevity
for wit.” “Don’t wear the cap and bells.” “Don’t lash the back of the sinner
instead of the sin.” “Don’t offer other people manna which you haven’t tasted
yourself.” “Don’t imagine your sermons to be a revelation of anything you are
the first to discover. Better see their texts always have ‘Thus saith the Lord’
written across them.” “Don’t let your heart have but one string.” “Don’t
question the Book, apologize for it, explain it.” The Book is always right. Make
your theory fit it or kill it. The theory, I mean. “Don’t shout.” Few of us are
deaf and noise usually denotes absence of thought. Remember noise is what you
make going through a graveyard. It is. the lightning that kills ; the thunder
only makes one uncomfortable. “Don’t apologize.” If you haven’t made preparation
you should be ashamed and we will soon find you out. If you have made
preparation you lie in offering excuses.

Live the message and let your Christianity be practical. Really, there is no
other kind of Christianity that is genuine. All else is of the devil. The Holy
Spirit through the apostle Paul gives some wonderful advice right along this
line in the letters to Timothy and Titus. For instance: “Suffer hardship,” “Flee
youthful lusts,” “Let no man despise your youth.” Read 1 Timothy 4:6-7; 1
Timothy 4:12-13; 1 Timothy 4:15-16; 1 Timothy 5:1; 1 Timothy 5:3; 1 Timothy
5:19-22; 1 Timothy 6:11-21; 2 Timothy 1:13; 2 Timothy 2:2-4; 2 Timothy 2:14-16;
2 Timothy 2:22-23; 2 Timothy 4:1-13; Titus 1:10-14; Titus 2:1-10; Titus 2:15;
Titus 3:1-2; Titus 3:8-11.

Avoid all entangling alliances such as “Ministerial Alliances,” “Service Clubs.”
Never, no never, com-promise truth or your conscience regardless of place or
person.

Know your own weaknesses. Susceptibility to flat-tery, love of money, desire for
higher education or academic degrees, for their own sake. As a means to an end,
fine, as an end merely, never! Stay away from everything you cannot stand up
under. Sometimes it is best to be ignorant of some things.

Stay out of debt. My brother, it can be done re-gardless of the failure of the
brethren to shoulder their responsibility on your behalf. Remember, Paul did. He
worked with his hands to support himself and also to support his fellow workers
even though the churches should at least have taken care of his support, but did
not (2 Corinthians 11:8; Acts 20:34).

Renounce all self-seeking. Don’t selfishly covet places of great responsibility
and chafe and fret because you are not “appreciated.” Too many preachers possess
some admirable traits of character, native ability, and acquired knowledge; but
with overwhelming vanity and selfish ambition, are continually scheming and
scrambling for high position. A man who is not content to be a doorkeeper in the
house of God, or a servant of all, is utterly unfit for the chief place in the
service of the congregation. The standard the Lord has set is, “the only way to
go up is to go down” (Php_2:5-11). “Minister” equals “servant.” Paul repeatedly
called himself a “bondservant.” And it will not hurt to remember there is always
a danger of receiving your reward here and so having none coming to you
hereafter (Matthew 6:2).

It is Worse for A Preacher We often hear these days when a preacher is
criti-cized for some conduct that is not Christlike: “Oh, well, it is no worse
for a preacher than for anyone else.” I deny that very emphatically. Corny
jokes, excess of any kind, tobacco using, especially cigarette or cigar smoking,
is much worse when the preacher does it because of the greater influence he has
on those weaker in faith (that is, if such things are in the eating of meat
class) (James 3:1).

Avoid flirtations. Remember, you are supposed to be seeking souls, not
compromising with matrimony. Then there is the temptation to which some
preachers are heir and some indulge, of spending too much time in the kitchen of
the house where he is being entertained while he holds the meeting. That church
im vited you to preach during the meeting, not assist in the housekeeping of one
of the sisters.

You are responsible to the church for what you do off the platform, between
Lord’s days. What you do in your spare time is their business. If the church is
supporting you for your full time you are responsible to the brethren for how
you spend it. No right thinking group of elders would want the preacher to punch
a clock. But no honest preacher will spend one-fourth jf his waking hours
shuffling cards, playing dominoes, hopping majrbles, playing checkers, tossing
hoTse- shoes, or following hound dogs. The preacher should be the busiest man in
town. Busy about the right things. If a preacher lacks fundamental integrity his
life is a ghastly lie. Never eat the bread of idleness. Guard carefully against
the love of ease. Remember, he that is faithful in a little will be faithful in
much, and he who is unfaithful in a little will be unfaithful in much.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 7: THEORY IN PRACTICE
========================================================================

Theory in Practice THEORY IN PRACTICE F. B. Shepherd

Let it be distinctly understood that the God we read about in the Bible is an
infinite God. His way is the only right way. This God is the author of several
institutions, each of which has been established to perform a definite function,
to attain a definite end. Being born and authorized of God they may, and do in
some details of their function, somewhat overlap. Yet it is preposterous to
presume they in any sense conflict or contradict. Two institutions to which I
refer are: the “home” and the “church.” Each has been originated by God for a
specific purpose, ordained by God unto a specific end. For our purpose today I
shall have little to say about the home except incidentally. I am particularly
concerned about the place and function the Lord intended the. church to fill and
fulfill in society generally. I deal with that subject more or less negatively
today since yesterday I discussed the matter in a positive way. I propose to
deal largely with some popular misconceptions of the church Christ built, the
“tabernacle the Lord pitched, not man” (Matthew 16:18; Hebrews 8:2). The church
Christ built and Christianity have always been misunderstood and frequently
misrepresented. While upon earth Jesus Christ himself was frequently
misunderstood (Matthew 26:61). Even his own disciples misapprehended his mission
and the nature of his kingdom (Luke 24:25-26; John 20:9; John 20:24-25; Acts
1:6). The apostles also were misunderstood (Romans 3:8). The early congregations
of the church Christ built and Christians were spoken against, misunderstood,
and misrepresented (Acts 28:22). Truth itself has ever been misunderstood,
misconceived, and misrepresented. Some of these misconceptions,
misunderstandings, misrepresentations, have been in ignorance, conscien-tious,
and God will have mercy upon them. Some have been wilful, premeditated,
criminal, hence God cannot pardon (Acts 28:26-27; 2 Peter 3:5). All have been
without good reason or excuse since God has ever said what he meant, meant what
he said, and expressed himself clearly and plainly in all matters that must be
understood in order to obedience to his will and man’s salvation. One among the
most popular and yet most unjustifiable misconceptions held by many today is the
false idea the church Christ built is a combination or amalgamation of several
hundred independent sects or denominations. A sort of religious society or
social club of nice people all Christians should join. (The wife should join her
husband’s church or vice versa.) This fallacy has fruited in such expressions
as: ‘‘The church will not save you”; “It makes no difference which church you
join”; “One church is as good as another”; “One can be saved as easily out of a
church as in one”; “There is nothing in a name,” etc....etc.

Sectism and denominationalism exist in direct opposition to the church Christ
built and Christianity. It is specifically forbidden and condemned by the Holy
Spirit (1 Corinthians 1:10-31). It separates believers in Christ. It defeats the
purpose expressed in the prayer of Christ In John 17. The church of the Lord
Jesus is the “Body of Christ”; the “House of God”; “Family of God”; “Vine and
the branches” (Colossians 1:18; Colossians 1:24; Ephesians 1:22-23; 1 Timothy
3:14; 1 Peter 2:5; Ephesians 2:19-20; 2 Corinthians 5:1; 1 John 3:1; John
16:15).

Just about as popular is the idea the church Christ built should shoulder
responsibility for the correction of the moral, the social, and domestic evils
of society m general. To the end this may be done effectively and successfully
according to some human standards a great many otherwise wonderfully fine folk
take a very active part in the deciding of political issues and the installing
of polipcal leaders in, the various positions of trust within the gift of the
people.

It is highly significant I believe, that no inspired preacher ever uttered a
tirade or delivered a discourse on moral or ethical principles to alien sinners.
Neither Jesus Christ, his disciples nor any inspired preacher, so far as the
inspired record is concerned, ever made a direct onslaught upon the customs,
practices, or institutions of the day and age in which they lived, as these
things related to non-members of the church. In the matter of slavery, which all
men agree is not compatible with Christianity, the inspired utterances dealt
only with the conscientious service of the slave to his master (Ephesians 6:5-8;
Colossians 3:22-25). The instruction of the Holy Spirit to slave holders is that
they treat their slaves with due regard to their own relationship to Christ as a
bondservant of his (Ephesians 6:9; Colossians 4:1; Philemon). No where was the
slave instructed to free himself by physical force or legislation. Neither was
the Master commanded to free the slave in order to remain well pleasing to God,
In the matter of the relationship of the child of God toward the political set
up or situation he is nowhere made responsible for Democracy, for Monarchy,
absolute or limited, but is instructed to ‘Tender unto Caesar the things that
are Caesar’s” (Matthew 22:17-21), and to be “subject to the powers that be”
(Romans 13:1). And be it remembered this in a time when slavery, barbarism, and
every kind of abuse of liberty was rife. The church nowhere in the teaching or
practice of the inspired teachers either by inference or otherwise, is committed
to assume a definite responsibility for the enforcement of ci\il law, the
execution of corporal punishment, or the infliction of physical pain upon
lawbreakers in or out of the church. Nowhere does the New Testament instruct the
church to busy itself in the control of legislation politically. Nowhere does
the New Testament inform the church it is superior to human government. A third
misconception of the divinely ordained function of the church Christ built is
that it should assume the burden of supplying the physical and material needs of
the world today. Certainly the Lord Jesus never spoke truer words than when he
said, “The poor you always have with you.” But in that very expression and that
very time he quite clearly indicated that primarily the church was not
instituted as a benevolent or eleemosynary society to be burdened with the
obligation to assume responsibility for the eating, wearing, and housing of the
world. The Jerusalem church is found early in its history concerned about the
physical needs of its less fortunate members and efficiently caring for the
situation. But one reason for the appointment of the seven was that the apostles
themselves might not be handicapped in their most important “ministry of the
word.” And be it noted this was not the organizing of an independent,
subsidiary, or auxiliary to the church itself that would function to the seeking
out of all and sundry, in the church and out, persons to whom some money,
clothes, or food might be given (Read Acts 4:32-37; Acts 6:1-6). In the case of
the activity of the churches of Macedonia to raise money to relieve the physical
distress of the brethren in Judea, the help was evidently sent to relieve the
distress of the Saints exclusively, and not for general distribution (1
Corinthians 16:1-4; 2 Corinthians 8:9; Acts 11:29). In one of the few explicit
instructions given by the Holy Spirit to govern this sort of church work the
apostle limits the donations to a particular type of needy (1 Timothy 5:9-10).
He at the same time gives some direct instructions regarding the relief of the
church itself from responsibility. Read again 1 Timothy 5:4-8. I am not opposing
the giving to the relief of the needy, child or adult. Such is the natural
expression of a heart warmed with the love of God. It is Christianity. What I
have in mind is that the New Testament nowhere teaches, either by precept or
approved precedent, that the church or the churches shall be committed to the
dispensation of “charity” promiscuously. That the church should go into the
business. Christianity has to do primarily with the soul and its salvation
rather than with the body and its preservation (1 Timothy 4:7-8; 1 Timothy
6:6-8; 2 Thessalonians 3:10).

Again of late years there has been considerable agitation looking to the
obligating of the churches to assume responsibility for the recreation and
enter-tainment of their membership. Especially for their “young people.” Much
has been said of late about the “young peoples’ problem” and the need for the
church to supervise games, plays, etc. In circles outside cf “ours” (?) churches
have gone so far as to assume the supervision of the public dance on the
assumption that if the young people are not provided with a “clean” dance they
will go to the “honky tonk.” The idea looks attractive to some. The arguments in
favor of church supervised play appear plausible. But! are we not mixing our
functions? The home is the responsible institution for all such that is
legitimate per se. Entertainment is not at all the responsibility of the church.
Entertainment of either its own members or the other fellow. It is true the
home) has become grossly, criminally, negligent in the matter of maintaining the
proper oversight of its product. But a bad situation cannot be scripturally or
authoritatively corrected by unloading it upon the shoulders of the churches. At
no time have two wrongs made one right.

God has authorized three institutions that still exist in this world. These are
the home, the church and the state. All three have exclusive, God ordained and
authorized functions. We cannot be too careful in our endeavor to understand
each and acknowledge and recognize the distinctions. God made them. God has
revealed them. Let man recognize them and abide by them. No amount of failure to
understand the reason of some of God’s prescriptions justifies a rebellion
against any. No amount of failure upon the part of churches or Christians to
function scripturally justifies any departure from God authorized means or
methods. Would we realize the ideal we must idealize the real.


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  CHAPTER 8: THE CONDUCT OF A GOSPEL PREACHER
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The Conduct of a Gospel Preacher THE CONDUCT OF A GOSPEL PREACHER Otto Foster

(1) Act or method of leading; guidance. (2) Act or manner of carrying on, as a
business; management; direction. (3) Manner of carrying oneself; one’s actions
in general; behavior. (4) Convoy; escort; also, a guide. Synonyms: behavior,
deportment, bearing, demeanor. A gospel preacher is one who preaches the gospel
of our Lord. The church of Christ was not made for the preacher; but the
preachers of Christ were made for the church and the world. “It pleased God by
the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” When they are doing the
Lord’s work with an eye single to his glory, they are noble instruments for good
among men; but when they become selfish, engage simply in their own work, or
that which they can turn to their own aggrandizement, their usefulness ceases,
and they are dead weights upon the cause. Our Lord’s own life is the model of
perfection in human character, both public and private. No community need look
for any permanent good from any preacher who does not imitate the character of
his Lord and Master. He may be much of a gentleman, very fine, pleasant, and
interesting to worldly-minded persons, and not do anything or say anything that
would remind one of the Savior of the world. But to come under the name of a
preacher of Christ, and not be like him, not make men think of him, love him,
and desire to come to him, is a deception upon the church and the world. “If any
man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” The work of the church is
threefold in its character: (1)It is to convert the world to God (2)To train the
converted to fidelity in his ser-vice, and so develop the Christian life and
character (3)To care for and help the poor, the sick, the suffering. The
preacher at once fits into the work of converting the world. The elders should
be leaders in training the converted and the deacons should lead in the
benevolent work of the church.

These works may and do interveave and overlap in different lives but the ones
who, under the influence of the gospel, come into the church and at once begin
to try to teach the truth to others and bring his friends into the Kingdom,
constitute the class from which our preachers come. With proper culture and
ability they make our evangelists. A person with a talent, a burning desire for
converting men, will feel strong impulses to preach to sinners and such will be
found at the work. He may not make public sermons. The greatest number of
preachers ought never to make public speeches, but in a quiet, but earnest way,
they will be found presenting the claims of Jesus to their own kindred, friends
and neighbors, urging them to become Christians. Many a good farmer, business or
professional man has given up his business to try to make a public proclaimer of
the gopel, that could have been worth more to the church in his profession and
private work as a Christian. But we are to talk this afternoon about the gospel
preacher, the public proclaimer. Jesus said to the apostles, “Go into all the
world and preach the gospel.”

Under these marching orders, after they had waited in Jerusalem until they were
baptized in the Holy Spirit, these men went forth under the command of the King
of Kings and Lord of Lords, even Jesus Christ.

These apostles were illiterate men of Galilee with no worldly influences; they
had nonvorldly attractions —needed none—desired and used none, yet they turned
the world upside down and converted many thousands by preaching Christ, that he
lived, that he died, that he was buried, that he rose again the third day
according to the scriptures. They spoke of these facts as being great enough to
move heaven and earth, as they really are. They were not trying to make any
oratorical display, or show their eloquence. The story they had to tell was so
vast in itself, so vital to all the best interests of all nations and peoples,
they knew it to be true, and they were so filled with the desire to tell it to
others, that it only appeared necessary to tell it in the plainest, simplest,
most artless way, which is always the best, most powerful and effectual way of
telling any great thing in itself. As gospel preachers today, you are messengers
ot Christ with the same wonderful and important message that the apostles had
and it is just as powerful today as it was then. There may be no message, of
course, except the divine word. There may be no subject save Jesus Christ, his
death, burial and resurrection and the teachings of the Holy Spirit.

Yes, God has placed this treasure in earthen vessels and herein lies the
difficulty, the medium is imperfect while the message is not. It behooves us to
try to improve the medium, hence the discussion of this subject.

Addressing myself to the gospel preacher directly and to the rest indirectly may
I say that no mission was ever more important than yours, and think you not that
one so important will not be fraught with many dangers. Satan with all his imps
and his chief counsel will be devising means to tempt you and if possible, to
discredit you and in any and every way hinder, injure and kill your influence.
We have but to remember what Satan promised our Lord if he would but serve him.
See how he tried to encompass his downfall through every avenue of temptation:
the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. Jesus
cautioned his apostles in the Garden of Gethsemane to watch and pray lest they
enter into temptation. Paul said, “I bring my body into subjection, lest by any
means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.”

Yes, Christ was tempted, the apostles wese tempted and one fell; Paul was
tempted and every gospel preacher as well as every follower of Christ will be
tempted over and over again. The jocular statement sometimes used when departing
from a friend, “I am going to do something to you that Satan never did—leave
you” is veritably true. Satan is ever on the job. The gospel preacher will be
tempted through, the lust of the flesh. Yes, there may be times when he that he
who travels in the narrow way may really want for the necessities or seeming
necessities of life. Paul knew actual want. Should anyone be free? I wonder if
it would not be better for us all to have is hungry, it is possible even in this
day and generation such schooling. Perhaps the stronger temptation is to abound.
How many of us can stand success, can really take it and hold our poise. The
gospel preacher is only a man and if he starts out in his work, makes a success
of it in the eyes of the church, begins to get calls from larger fields,
churches that pay more, churches that are well known everywhere, it becomes the
easy and the natural thing to reason that, “This is a larger field, I can do
more work, reach more people, and I really need more pay. Yes, my influence will
be greater and I can accomplish more good for the Lord.” The decision is made.
The preacher goes to greener fields and if he is ready for the greater work in
mmd and in soul he makes good, but in the course of time, it becomes best for
him to move on. This time no larger field is open, he has been getting better
pay while preaching to large audiences, etc., etc.

. . . Now can he make another adjustment and come back to a smaller work? It all
depends. Can we abound? This is what our Master meant, no doubt, when he said,
“How hardly shall they that are rich enter into the kingdom of God/’ “Not many
high, not many noble are called.” We ought to thank God every day, you and I,
that we are a part of that great body of ccmmon people known as the poor. The
common people have always been the ones that have listened to God’s message to
mankind. Success is hard to overcome. The lust of the eye—have you been tempted
to make some great speech, to write some great article, to write a book, to
announce some new theory, to prove to [the world you are a great man, an
extraordinary man? It is not so much the doing as the motive that prompts it in
these things. The pride of life, a desire to be the greatest in the brotherhood,
the outstanding leader of God’s people of this age, the one to whom all w7ill
naturally pay homage and honor whenever and wherever followers of Christ
congregate.

Yes, all the avenues are used by Satan to try to reach the gospel preacher and
the avenue of escape is as it was w ith our Lord—is the word of God. How well do
we know it? How much of its spirit have we imbibed? How closely have we, are
w7e, conforming our lives to its teaching? How7 much are we depending on our
Lord tc help us? IIow heavily do wre lean upon him? We are not powerful enough
of ourselves and within ourselves to overcome the temptations of evil, but our
God will help us and will not suffer us to be tempted above' that which we can
bear if we live in and trust in him.

Preacher Jealousy—Envious is almost a syonym of jealous. One is envious who
discontentedly desires or covets the good fortune or attainments of others; one
is jealous who suspects and resents the diversions to another (especially to one
regarded as a rival) of what one loves or prizes as one’s own.

Jealousy will make us suspect rivalry, suspiciously watchful, and have jealous
fears. It is to foe avoided like any deadly poison by all Christians and
especially a preacher. If you have any jealousy in your makeup, you should
carefully guard and watch yourself while you definitely and surely overcome it.
On one occasion while our Lord was in his masterful way, teaching the apostles
that they should not be striving about who should be greater, but should be
serving instead, the beloved apostle John informed him that they had found one
casting out demons in the name of Jesus and had forbidden him because he was not
one of them. Some of us do not get any joy out of what others are doing in the
church-only from that which we do. When anyone does anything that others
approve, we are jealous. Older preachers are sometimes jealous of younger ones
and vice versa.

Sometimes jealousy exists between the preachers and the elders. We all need the
lesson and the rebuke that Christ gave. Jesus said “Forbid him not, for there is
no man who shall do a mighty work in my name, and be able quickly to speak evil
of me. For he that is not against us is for us” (Mark 9:39-40).

Church officers and preachers should cooperate, council, and work together.
Being fellow workers with God, neither officer nor preacher should seek to excel
the other in authority or influence, or to do all the work of the church. You
will recall the request of the mother of the sons of Zebedee. May we all learn
more fully that the way to greatness is to become the servant of all. Then we
will not be jealous of any Christian worker. Brother Sewell used to say here in
A. C. C., “It does not make so much difference whether you like me, but it makes
all the difference whether you like my Lord.” There is too much to be done and
the field of labor is too large to leave any room for workers to be jealous of
each other, it is of the devil. The best way to whip Satan is to keep working
for the Lord. “Always in your place on Lord’s Day” and at other times. Where is
the Christian’s place on Lord’s Day? Where do you spend it?

Genesis 41:39, “And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, for as much as God hath showed
thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou.” Discreet means
possessed of, or showing discernment or good judgment in conduct, especially in
speech; prudent; hence prudently silent, careful. Oh! how we all need to be
discreet, would that we all could be prudently silent.

’Tis said that a man once said he had heard so much about the greatness of
Abraham Lincoln that he would give anything to see him. Finally the opportunity
came and he was ushered into the presence of the President of the United States,
the great emancipator. When they were introduced Lincoln asked some question
about the home state of his visitor that started this man to talking, and wnen
he haa exhausted himself on that particular phase of his interest, Lincoln asked
another question and when the visitor was told his 30 minutes were up and he was
outside again, he was praising Lincoln in the highest terms just as his friends
had done. Someone, after listening to this praise for a while said, “Weil, what
did the President say?” and then the visitor, as he analyzed his visit in trying
to tell his friend what the President said, discovered he had done all the
talking and the President was just a good listener. We need good listeners. Are
you one ?

Discreet, prudent, careful in your conduct. Joseph is held up to us as a very
discreet man, a wise man, a successful man, a man that was attractive and that
did attract the wife of the man that had put Joseph over all his household.
Possibly no temptation is greater to a normal man than that which came to Joseph
fiom Potiphar’s wTife. and yet by God’s help he overcame it. So can you, so can
I, so must the gospel preacher. The worldly man cannot understand nor appreciate
the story of Joseph; to them he is foolish and a weakling, but: Anyone could
have yielded—it took a real man to refuse. Joseph has lived through all these
centuries and will live and inspire men and boys to noble deeds and lofty ideals
so long as this world lasts—what a different story concern »ng all those who
have yielded to pas-sion’s call; and had Joseph yielded where would-his
influence be now? The gospel preacher gets into the family life, very often, of
other people, listens to their troubles, sympa-thizes with them, ad\ises with
them. They learn to love him tenderly and dearly, he is often asked, most of the
time unthoughtedly, to do thing’s, go places, with members of the family, the
daughter, the mother, or someone that might cause comment, start tongues to
wagging. How discreet the gospel preacher must be. A preacher some years older
than I was in the store where I work the other day and I told him I was com ing
here to talk on the “Conduct of a Gospel Preacher,” and he said, “You have a
great and important subject. When I was holding my first meeting an elderly
gospel preacher took -t upon himself to talk to me along that line, telling me
how careful I must be and how I should watch my every action and carefully weigh
the consequences before I promised to go any place for any purpose, etc. ...” He
said, “That talk, that bit of advice has ever been a high spot in my life and
has been worth more to me as a gospel preach er than any talk I ever had with
anyone at any time.” My own experience has been very limited but I have seen
women, members of the church, fall for the preacher—our preacher. I tell you,
brethren, the preacher is tempted more than any of us and we need to pray for
him and help him in every way. He is usually stronger spiritually than most of
us and overcomes these temptations, but when he falls, great is the fall. None
of us do quite the damage to the church, if perchance we fall, as does a
preacher.

Within recent months I have been somewhat con-versant with conditions in a
church in one of our larger cities and just a few Sundays ago I talked to a
church in a smaller town where the local minister had finally been asked to
leave after he had gotten into court, being charged with "driving while
intoxicated.” These things are terrible but they seldom happen; most gospel
preachers resist the devil wherever and whenever he attacks, whether it be in
the form of some ruinful lust or otherwise.

If a preacher so conducts himself as to bring reproach upon the church,- goes
astray morally, loses control of himself, and his passions, then comes to
himself and makes confession of his faults will God receive him back? And should
we?

If such a one confesses irregularities of conduct which the world has noted to
such an extent that they would be held against him, and, hence, would reflect
upon the work of the ministry, such things may not be overcome. Maybe he can
really be saved at last without doubt, but effective service among men has come
to an end. About this there can be no question. One may talk about beating back
but it can never be done sonal feelings of the servant must be subordinated to
except in a very limited way. In such matters the per- the larger interests and
reputation of the church. Any man who tries to do otherwise is a detriment to
the church and will damn his own soul by his brazen and defiant determination to
force the church and the world to accept him at his former evaluation. God may
forgive, but humanity will not forget.

” The same principle applies to a man who has had a checkered career, lived a
profligate life, and perchance hears the gospel and genuinely repents and bcomes
a Christian by obedience to the gospel. His past will ever be a detriment to the
use of his talents for the Lord. Be not deceived-—God is not mocked— whatsoever
a man soweth, that shall he also reap. I have been in the drug business all my
life, have been in contact with the public and the medical men that doctor their
ills, and I am saying to you that 90% of the boys that are immoral in their
teens, never change after they are older and are married. Oh! that we could
teach all our boys to say no! Teach them real values, teach them that anybody
can be a rat and go into the gutter but that it takes stamina—a real man to live
a clean life and be somebody, teach them that they should seek first the kingdom
of God, make it first in time, first in affection and first in reality, always
in their places on Lord’s Day, fulfilling their mission on the earth, living for
God while serving hu-manity. A reformed ruffian, robber or moral pervert is not
good material for a gospel preacher.

First must be God’s glory and then our own good— or goods. There are some who
would make merchandise of the gospel, but they are hirelings and do not love the
Lord’s work—do not love his sheep. With fair words they would deceive the hearts
of the simple. When one preaches, he must feel, with Paul, that a woe is against
him if he preaches not the word, regardless of the income. This is the proper
motive and spirit. Nothing else can induce a man to carry on a successful work
in the ministry of the word. The preacher who told the boy when he had asked him
if he thought he should make a preacher, replied, “Not if you can help it” was
about right. Yet we all believe in and do encourage every worthy man to preach
if he wants to and can. If I had boys, nothing would please me better than to
see them preachers of the gospel, the best and greatest of the earth have been
preachers; if I had my life to live over I would want to prepare myself better,
so I could preach the gospel, all honor to the man who does preach and lives
what he preaches.

I am not one to condemn or to talk, or emphasize in any way the weakness of my
brethren and I have no patience with the suspicious and hurtful person who is
always watching for something wrong in my life, in the life of a Christian, or
especially the life of a preacher. All my life I have been very intimately
associated with preachers in our own work and I suspect I know as many gospel
preachers as most any man, excepting the preachers tnemselves, and as a group,
they are. the most godly men living today. And while I love them and would help
them anytime, when one of them does yield to temptation and brings reproach upon
the church, he should be asked to take a back seat and prove his repentance by
godly living before he attempts to preach the gospel again. I am not at all in
sympathy with, and as Paul says, “I believe I have the mind of Christ,” with the
custom that is too prevalent, of listening to a preacher after he has been
caught in a trespass, say he is sorry for his error, and then continues
preaching. That procedure will not do for any church leader.

There are too many real men, men who have overcome the wicked one, who can lead
and direct the work and preach the gospel to make it necessary or advisable to
use one whose influence is detrimental. No, they should take a rest and we
should have some way of disseminating the information to other congregations
concerning them. In the early days of the restoration movement, I am reliably
informed, the preachers went anywhere they had an invitation to go. They never
asked nor thought about how much they would receive, but do they want to hear
the gospel ? Experience has proven that—today the churches grow taster, develop
more rapidly—the individual members, and preach the gospel to others more when
they have regular preaching, or a located minister, but how about finances now?
Very often the preacher wants to know about the financial support before he
considers moving there, and ihat is likely alright in this modern age also, but
too frequently the preacher will not consider a move if the promised support is
not at least as much as he u getting wnere he is located.

Why should a preacher move anyway? What should prompt him to go elsewhere? What
should be the motive that should determine whore he should go? Naturally, he
would desire an invitation and then he should see if he could reasonably expect
to accomplish more for the Lord there than at his present location, and lastly,
he should See if they are giving enough to pay his living expenses. We, at
Cleburne, believe in paying our preacher a living wage, and we want it to be
enough that he can give a portion of it, as he will want to, to the work of the
church, be an example in giving as wTell as in living, but we are not increasing
the salary of the preacher in order to move him to us from some other place.

Woe will be unto the church if local congregations get to bidding against each
other for our best preachers. There are too many places and peoples that need
the gospel and we can only save ourselves by saving others.

How does it happen that you are a preacher? Wnen did you make the choice of your
life’s work? Why did you make this decision? Are you prepared for your work?
Where did you prepare? Did you decide that it would be a good way to make a
living, to be taken into the hearts and lives of people, honored and respected
by everyone, and especially loved by your congregation ? When I was in college I
heard a discussion about the fields that were open to young men and several
thought at that time that the ministry was less crowded and offered the best
opportunity to a young man. Do we have any preachers like that—looking for good
opportunities?

""Every life affects the world for good or bad, in pro-portion to its activity
and influence. If I am a person of influence, my opportunity to do good is
great. A person of influence can lead many people in the right or he can lead
many people in the wrong way. Do I have influence over others? Yes, definitely,
and so do you.

How are we using it? Our best talents should be employed in the furtherance of
the gospel of Christ. As you grew as a Christian, learned more of God’s way and
his plan, did your heart burn within you with a desire to do more for Christ and
after prayer and much consideration, you decided that come what may, sacrifice
and hardships will be welcome if I can really serve? Then where did you want to
work? Why? Did you have any bad habits? What did you do about them? Did you
smoke then? Do you smoke now? If you cannot or rather do not overcome any of
your habits, how can you tell others to change their lives? Thou that teachest
another, teachest thou not thyself?

1 Peter 5:3, “Neither as lording it over the charge allotted to you, but making
yourselves ensamples to the flock.” Can you ask your congregation to follow you
as you follow Christ?

James 1:27, “And to keep one’s self unspotted from the world.” Any Christian
should and must do that and shall I say especially a preacher. A professor in a
school of religion in talking to a group of preachers studying religious
problems told this to them: “The French have a saying that when a cat comes up
to you and rubs against you, the cat is not stroking you, it is stroking
itself.” Are you young preachers motivated by a driving desire to serve God and
humanity in your determination to preach Christ or are you stroking yourself on
Christ’s wounds?

God forbid that any gospel preacher should ever make merchandise of the
gospel—then don’t allow yourself to get mercenary.

I know a preacher is very often referred to as a financial failure and most of
them are, but most of any class are likewise financial failures when measured by
certain standards, but I prefer that the preacher think as little about money as
is consistent with economical living and honest dealings. It just seems of all
men, he should not be mercenary.

Recently I read this from a gospel preacher: “A man who preaches falsehood for
money is not dealing in the gospel at all. But there are certain lines of gospel
preaching that are popular among brethren. It does not require much thinking to
know what will please the brethren, and to know that brethren will pay well for
such preaching. Nor does it take much wisdom for a preacher to know that some
needed preaching is not popular in some churches, and that such churches will
not pay much for such preaching. Any preacher knows that the displeasure of the
big church injures his popularity as a preacher. What then? The ‘gospel peddler’
will preach the gospel sermons that please, and leave off the needed things that
would not be well received. Then people can say he preached the gospel straight,
and he did as far as he went. That is the slickest way to make merchandise of
the gospel. Do not fool yourself into thinking that I am overdrawing the
picture.”

I do think that he has overdrawn the picture. There may be such a preacher, but
we have never had him at our place and I am persuaded his type is very scarce.
We like it all even if it hits us right between the eyes. A preacher is looked
upon as an example; though he sometimes is not a good example. A good example is
one that stimulates people to better living and guides in the right way. Hence,
Paul exhorted Timothy to be an example to the believer—in word, in manner of
life, in love, in faith, in purity. In his preaching the preacher should be true
to the word, and he should be true to the people in that he withholds nothing
from them that would be profitable to them. His love, his aim and his purpose
should center on the right things; for these determine what he is. His manner of
living counts for much. He must deal honestly. To do so he must live within his
means. The honest preacher will do without things rather than make debts he
cannot pay. If he cannot pay as he goes on the salary he gets, he knows that he
cannot on that same salary ever be able to pay an accumulation of debts. He
should not be extravagant and wasteful; neither should he be slouchy and filthy.
He should be pure and clean morally and he should reflect that inner cleanness
in the care of his person and the clothes he wears. He should be firm and
courageous in advocating and defending the truth of the gospel, but should avoid
all senseless wranglings and useless strife. “But thou, 0 man of God, flee these
things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience,
meekness.” “Fight the good fight of the faith, lay hold on the life eternal
whereunto thou wast called, and didst confess the good confession in the sight
of many witnesses” (1 Timothy 6:11-12).

Tf ere will be met people with itching ears, who will seek by various ways to
entice the preacher to preach so as to please them. They are frequently willing
to pay well for such preaching, though it damns both them :-v.J the preacher.
“For am I now seeking the favor c_ men, or cf Cod? Or am I striving to please
men? If I were plca::ng men, I should not be the servant of Christ” (Galatians
1:10). The celebrated actor, Garrich, was once asked by an eloquent clergyman
why it was that the gospel preacher who has such solemn truths to utter could
not affect or interest his auditors as he could on the stage, when everyone knew
that what he said was all fiction. “Why, sir,” the distinguished actor replied,
“You speak truth as though it were fiction, while we speak fiction as though it
were truth.” But no man can really be in earnest who is not pious. And should
anyone study earnestness of manner for the sake of its effect, without a
corresponding piety, he will never acquire it except as a hypocrite acquires so
much of the appearance of a saint as to make him tolerably current amongst those
who have no hypocrite detector. Indeed, he that would deceive in the ministry
must put on the garb of godly sincerity, as the ancient false prophets were wont
to apparel themselves with a rough garment, because in those days the true
prophets assumed that style as more compatible with their office. No man ought
to try to preach the gospel who does not feel such an interest in the great work
of saving men as to absorb his whole soul in the undertaking. Many indeed wish
to become public men because of their love of publicity and popular admiration.
Better for such a one to seek admiration in a safer market, and to cater for
that reward on terms that will not imperil their own salvation in the day of
final reward.

If a man love shouting and acting, let him go to the stage. Does he love
wrangling? Let him go to the bar. Does he love teaching? Let him become a
school-master. Does he love money? Let him become a merchant, banker or
professional man. But does he love souls and desire their salvation? Let him
spend much time in the mount with God and go forth to the congregation with
sincerity and zeal and pathos of one inspired with the faith and hope of the
gospel. Then indeed, his labors in the Lord shall not be in vain, for the work
of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

Some excerpts from an article from Brother C. M. Pullias: “The growing tendency
to the ‘pastor system' by the churches of Christ is alarming. We preach against
it and at the same time practice it. The preachers are being called in by the
large churches to preach exclusively for them. The larger a congregation, the
more helpless it is. They have reached the point where the preacher is not
allowed to evangelize the world in holding revival meetings where they are
needed. The churches are not able to have prayer meetings unless the preacher is
there. As a result the churches are perishing. Large congregations are the
burying grounds for talent. The larger they are, the more and more is this true.
The members of the churches are to trust to the preacher everything. They feel
they pay him to do it, and they, therefore, are relieved of any rsponsibility in
leading or conducting the services. A few more decades, and the church of Christ
will not favor itself—if changes are not made soon. Besides, the preacher in
such cases is not appreciated for his strong and scriptural preaching, but for
his little pastoral visits, good mixing, and organizing." Does that describe the
church where you worship and work? Brother Colin Smith told me about a Brother
Cheek who went to Australia a few decades ago to preach Christ to them'. Within
a period of some two years he had established some 34 congregations of
Christians and died at the age of 29, but leaving all these congregations imbued
with a missionary spirit to reach all near them with the truth. On Lord’s Day
this brother would meet with a congregation at 6 or 7 A. M., and then ride
sometimes as much as 45 miles on horseback over almost impassable roads to get
to another appointment by 8 or 9 P. M. His life was short, his work was intense,
but look at the accomplishment. I am not sure but that Jesus meant for his
followers to work in just such a way. He often reminded them that they were not
of the world. He tells us not to follow or be influenced by the ideas of the
world if and when they are opposed to his plan for Christian living. The world
would advise against a life similar to our Brother Cheek’s and would say he cut
his life short by his imprudent zeal. But did he? He lived a full life in five
years and God said, “It is enough, come on up higher.” Christ worked for three
and a half years and worked intensely. A more modern example in our own country
is Willard Morrow of the Riverside Congregation in Fort Worth; he is the most
constant worker in the Lord’s vineyard that I know anything about. I asked for a
report on his activities and have a report from the elders there. He preacnes at
Hicks Field of Flying Cadets at 8:30 Sunday morning; teaches a Bible class of 80
to 100 in the church building at 9:45; preaches at 11:00 A. M.; meets with the
young people on Sunday afternoon; and preaches again at night. On Wednesday
night he meets with the men and boys at 7:00 P.M.; and at 8:00 P.M. teaches a
class of High School boys and girls that averages 35 to 40 in attendance, He
speaks over the radio station KFJZ each Tuesday and Thursday at 4:45 P. M. On
each fourth Lord’s Day he preaches at Azle at 2:30 P. M. and at the County Home
for the Aged at 5 P. M., in addition to his regular Sunday program. He prepares
numerous gospel tracts and advertising material in printed form. In the nearly
38 months he has been there, he has conducted 58 meetings, usually from eight to
twelve days in length, within 50 miles of Ft. Worth, with about 200 additions;
220 funerals, numerous weddings, baccalaureate sermons; some lectures, etc. Two
new congregations have been established at Azle and at Kennedale. Yes, the
Riverside church is working, too. They are a busy bee-hive of workers, and they
back up their preacher in his work all the time. How about the local work—did it
suffer? No—Morrow comes home every night and preaches at horn? every Sunday and
most every Sunday night. During the 38 months, there have been a total of 563
responses. October, 1939, the month before Morrow came to Riverside, the average
contribution was $50.55 per Lord’s Day; treasury balance was $181.98. The 1942
average contribution was $141.32; treasury balance was $1,666.67, increased more
than nine times; and $5,110.36 cash on hand in the building fund. The Riverside
congregation has no large contributors, but is composed of people with
comparatively small or medium wage-earning ability. Brother Morrow is a single
man, says he has no time to devote to a home life, that too many people are
dying without Christ, and that he must do all he can to save them.

“I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day; the night cometh
when no man can work.” In temporal things it takes work; in spiritual things
there is no substitute for work. Should the gospel preacher have a title? Should
he wear special garb or clothing? Should he belong to the Ministerial
Associations of the town or city? Should he be a college graduate? Should he
meet with the officers in their meeting or just with the elders? Etc., etc. ...
• We all know he should not and will not be called reverend for he knows that
means God. Shall we call him doctor? If he has a doctor’s degree, say doctor of
philosophy from some leading university, should he then be referred to by us as
Dr. Brown? Some time ago one of our members complained to one of our elders that
he was never referred to or called on by his title, that we called on our
doctors as Dr. Yater, etc., but that we never called him judge. Why not be
satisfied with brother? In the early days Christians were referred to as saints;
but more often as brethren. That shows our mutual relationship to one another
and acknowledges each other as on an equal basis in the Lord. If I had a dozen
titles I would prefer to be called Brother Foster by my brethren to any of them,
and so would every lover of the Lord. So let’s do it, let’s not hesitate to
greet each other as brother and sister, wherever we meet and whenever we meet.
Let’s let the world know we love each other. A degree re-quired? We will take no
time to answer the other questions now. May I make my final appeal to the
preacher, as an elder, by asking you to concentrate more on the correct method
of selecting qualified officers of the churches, how to correct mistakes that
have been made in the past in such selections; and teach every church member
everywhere the truth along these lines. These actions are seldom taken and
ignorance is bliss in most cases. Brother Showalter said once that the preachers
have been improving themselves for some decades, but little or nothing has been
done to improve our elders and that the next ten or twenty years could well be
spent with this purpose in the foreground. The elder is just as important to the
local work as the preacher and he is much harder to reach for he stays in his
shell and whatever you say here never reaches him. In many instances he only
needs teaching, but in some he certainly needs removing and either is hard to
do. Better be sure they are good material before we select them. I am willing to
go my full length in this work; so long as I am able, I will go anywhere in
reach of my home and talk to elders, deacons, etc., if you will get them
together at any central location— will you not join me in this most important
work? Since you know that the elders are a hindrance to the work in many places,
isn’t there some way to show them a better way? May God help us to work in his
vineyard while it is day.

If I have said anything that is worth anything to anybody, I am glad. The
preachers know how to conduct themselves; if they didn’t they know that no
better advice could be found anywhere than in Paul’s letter to Timothy, a young
preacher, and in those letters you will find everything I have said and very
much more. For your conduct in the pulpit I refer you to these letters. To the
rest of us: We are kings and priests unto God—Christ is our elder brother—do you
think God would be pleased with any conduct save the highest type of efficient
workers in his church?


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  CHAPTER 9: LOYALTY AND CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP
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Loyalty and Christian Leadership LOYALTY AND CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP A. Hugh Clark
That Christian Leadership and that which constitutes loyalty in leadership is a
subject of very great importance; one that demands the most serious thought and
deliberation of which we are capable needs no further proof nor demonstration
than that which is amply furnished by an acquaintance with the defeats and
failures of so many of our congregations occasioned by incompetence,
indifference and lack of loyalty on the part of those to whom they look for
leadership. How often might it be Said of the church, God’s people today, as it
was said of Israel of old: “They that lead this people cause them to err; and
they that are led of them are destroyed” (Isaiah 9:13).

I do not have the public preacher especially in mind in this discussion nor
those qualities and characteristics thought to be exclusively requisite to
loyalty in him as a leader among the people. I have in mind the preacher, the
elders, the deacons, and all who in anyway accept the obligations of leadership
in the church. It might be said, too, that everything I shall name as necessary
for loyalty in leadership is also necessary for loyalty in every Christian; but
so is this true of everything Paul said about the qualifications of even the
elders, with possibly two exceptions.

Let us turn our attention now to the following considerations.

Loyalty in Leadership Demands Great Faith Loyalty in leadership demands great
faith; a faith that can “endure as seeing him who is invisible” even when
considered from every human viewpoint the realization of God’s promises and the
accomplishment of his requirements seem unnatural, improbable or even
impossible. A faith that shines more bright and clear When tempests rage
without; That, when in danger, knows no fear, In darkness, feels no doubt! Where
God has spoken, such a faith proceeds in spite of difficulties and without
regard for consequences. The conduct of Abraham on two occasions is an
ex-emplification of the kind of faith which loyal leaders will have need often
to exercise. God had made a promise to Abraham but between Abraham and the
realization of that promise lay apparently insuperable difficulties, when
considered from every human point of view. But Abraham had great faith and, “In
hope believed against hope, to the end that he might become a father of many
nations, according to that which had been spoken, So shall thy seed be. And
without being weakened in faith he considered his own body now as good as dead
(he being about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb; yet,
looking unto the promise of God, he wavered not through unbelief, but waxed
strong through faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what he
had promised, he was able also to perform” (Romans 4:18-21), He was not blind to
the difficulties that lay in the way of the fulfillment of God’s promise, he was
fully conscious of them and considered them, but because of his faith they
became not his difficulties, but God’s, and he was convinced that nothing was
difficult with God.

Later in the history of this man of great faith when the promised seed was now a
flourishing youth and God commanded that he be offered as a sacrifice on an
altar in the land of Moriah, seemingly destroying the very possibility of the
ultimate fulfillment of the promises formerly made concerning him, Abraham moved
deliberately and unfalteringly toward the strictest obedience to Jehovah’s
command. And so complete was his decision and purpose, that Paul says, “By faith
Abraham, being tried, offered up Isaac; yea, he that had gladly received the
promises was offering up his only begotten Son; even he to whom it was said, In
Isaac shall thy seed be called; accounting that God is able to raise up even
from the dead; from whence he did also in a figure receive him back” (Hebrews
11:17-19). This is the loyalty of a great faith and without great faith such a
loyalty is utterly impossible. Men of this type receive a natural deference from
those among whom they live and serve which always puts them out in front which
is unquestionably the position of leadership.

Loyalty in Leadership Requires Consecration A little inquiry into the etymology
of the wTord con-secration as used, in both the Old and the New7 Testa-ments
shows it to have the following significations: to separate; to set apart; to
devote; to dedicate; to make perfect; to fill the hand or full handedness. It is
easy to collect from these significations that the man w7ho is consecrated to
the Lord has separated himself completely from all other allegiance, is fully
set apart unto the Lord in his own. mind, and is devoted and dedicated wholly,
fulJ-handedly, that is, without reservation to the Lord’s person and to the
Lord’s cause. One so fortified inwardly will find little difficulty in
exemplifying that measure of allegiance and loyalty becoming a leader in outward
conduct, and there will be in him nothing of the vacilating, temporizing,
compromising disposition of the half converted.

One so consecrated to the Lord will not enter a relationship, business or
otherwise, which will not lend him both time and bodily energy sufficient to be
loyal and faithful to the Lord's appointments and service. Such consecration
will easily insure the presence of all the leaders of the congregation at all
the church meetings and will also bring them down near enough to the front of
the house to indicate a fervent interest and a definite concern in things
spiritual. It wiil promote such a measure of self denial and self forgetfulness
as will preclude all maneuvering, political intrigue and catering on the basis
of friendship and personal obligation among leaders, and will enable them to
rise above personal feeling where the Lord’s work is con-cerned and to act
strictly upon the basis of sincere conviction, enlightened reason and moral
judgmet. One who cannot or does not do this has not sufficient consecration to
be loyal to the Lord, and makes of his office or position a tool or expediency
either for the imposition of a tyrannical will or through servility and
subserviency to secure human favors and selfish aggrandizement. And either is a
terrible prostitution of divine and human trust.

Must Recognize the Rower of Example in Leadership There is marvelous power in
example in leadership. Hence the apostle Peter, himself an elder, gave
com-mandment through the Holy Spirit to all elders, “ . . . Neither as lording
it over the charge allotted to you, but making yourselves ensamples to the
flock” (1 Peter 5:3). And Paul, the great preacher of the gospel, in-structed
Timothy, “Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example to them that
believe, in word, in manner of life, in love, in faith, in purity” (1 Timothy
4:12).

Jesus, as he lived among men, recognized the power of example in leadership and
exemplified in his own life every great truth he ever taught and set it forth as
a living, breathing, active reality. His language was ever, “If any man will
come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.” The
result was that in after years when any of his apostles sought to teach the
great truths of his kingdom regarding human conduct, as the most powerful
enforcement possible they always made their appeal to the Master’s example. Let
me give a few instances. If humility was to be impressed, Paul would say to the
Philippians, “Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus; who,
existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a
thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being
made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled
himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross”
(Php_2:5-8). When the same apostle recommends meekness and gentleness, what is
his argument? “Now I, Paul, myself, entreat! you by the meekness and gentleness
of Christ ...” (2 Corinthians 10:1). When he would exhort to unity and concord
and mutually edifying assistance, what does he say? “Now we that are strong
ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each
one of us please his neighbor for that which is good, unto edifying. For Christ
also pleased not himself.” And further on he continues, “Now the God of patience
and of comfort grant you to be of the same mind one with another according to
Christ Jesus; that with one accord ye may with one mouth glorify the God and
father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 15:1-6). When Paul would exhort
Christians to brotherly love, to what pattern does he refer us? “Walk in love,
even as Christ also loved you, and gave himself up for us, an offering and a
sacrifice to God for an odor of a sweet smell” (Ephesians 5:2).' How does the
same apostle encourage charity to the poor and liberality in giving? “In all
things I gave you an example, that so laboring ye ought to help the weak, and to
remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that he himself said, It is more blessed
to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35).. And did he give anything? “For ye know
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes
he became poor, that ye through his poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians
8:9). How poor did he become? “And Jesus said unto him, The foxes have holes,
and the birds of the heavens have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to
lay his head” (Luke 9:58). When Peter teaches men to be patient under injuries,
what model does he propose to them ? “This is accept-able, if for conscience
toward God a man endureth griefs, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it, if
when ye sin, and are buffeted for it, ye shall take it patiently? But if, when
ye do well, and suffer for it, ye shall take it patiently, this is acceptable
with God. For hereunto where ye called; because Christ also suffered for you
leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps; who did no sin,
neither was guile found in his mouth: who, when he was reviled, reviled not
again; when he suffered^ threatened not; but committed himself to him that
judgeth righteously: ...” (1 Peter 2:19-23).

Finally, when the same apostle would inculcate universal holiness, to what
standard does he direct the thoughts of his followers ? “Like as he who called
you is holy, be ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living” (1 Peter 1:15).

Oh! What a lesson is here for all who would lead in the church today! And how
have the hearts of the strong been grieved and the weak been made to stumble,
because professed leaders have not learned this lesson : but go on assuming the
role of a leader and stating and restating the great truths of the kingdom while
it is public knowledge that their own lives are sadly at variance with the
principles of righteousness and holiness they profess with their mouths. It is
possible for one’s knowledge to exceed his practice, but it should never exceed
his intention and purposeful endeavor. And if this be true, there will never be
those glaring inconsistencies often witnessed in the lives of men, and there
will be an obvious and continuous narrowing of the margin between knowledge and
achievement.

Loyalty in Leadership Requires Initiative and Vision in Matters Concerning the
Kingdom of God Circumspection and forethought, wise planning and animated
desire, precede all consistent growth and de-velopment, activity and achievement
in a congregation. This we call vision. But there must be more than this; there
must be the generation of the disposition and energy with which to exercise
inherent ability in personal and cooperative effort to originate and instigate
action; this we call initiative. And all of this belongs peculiarly and
particularly to the obligations and functions of a loyal leadership.

Sometime men possess these fine qualities and char-acteristics where their own
personal affairs and for tunes are concerned but are strikingly devoid of them
where the affairs of the church are concerned. Such spiritual indifference and
sloth on the part of men who have accepted positions of leadership in the church
of our Lord constitute the grossest, most aggravated disloyalty which certainly
deserves and will receive the severest penalty (Matthew 25:26-30). Their wicked
sloth not only stifles their own usefulness but intercepts and destroys the very
possibilities of those who look to them for leadership.

Extreme age in leaders carries serious peril here. Many times the individual who
in earlier maturity, generously endowed with health and ability and succeeding
well in his personal affairs, was optimistic and enthusiastic in the Lord’s
work, and who really planned and initiated the most outstanding achievements in
the history of the congregation, continues in the position of leadership until
the debilities of age and unavoidable reverses have robbed him of his security
and his productivity; in consequence he naturally loses his once energetic and
enthusiastic outlook, and though the congregation is now numerically larger and
financially stronger than it ever was, having in it a group of younger men with
much of life still before them and filled with zeal and the ability to carry on
to greater service, because of his personal condition he may now be counted on
consistently to discourage or oppose even lesser ventures than he one time
championed to the glory of God and the growth of the church. He cannot realize
that there are other men still in the prime of their strength and usefulness who
are just as sane, conservative and capable as he was at their age, whose
leadership and usefulness, vision and intiative in di-recting the congregation
in further achievements, he should not hinder. These things are not said to
disparage age nor to detract, in the least, from that full measure of love and
esteem which we should all delight to accord those who have borne the burdens of
other days, but simply to warn against a real and possible fault into which any
of us could slip with the passing of the years.

Loyalty in Leadership Demands Watchfulness The vigilance and watchfulness of a
loyal leadership will take three directions. There are false teachers from whom
the church must be preserved and false doctrines against which the church must
be fortified. These false teachers may be divided into two classes; those who
arise in the church and those who would seduce from without. Paul said of the
first, “I know that after my departing grievous wolves shall enter in among you,
not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves shall men arise, speaking
perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Wherefore watch ye . . . , ”
and of the second, “Take heed lest there shall be any one that maketh spoil of
you through his philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after
the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ” (Acts 20:29; Colossians 2:8).
The safety and purity of the church in every age depend upon the sincerity of
its teachers and the soundness of their doctrine. Sound doctrine and plain
teaching constitute the only hope of right practice.

Loyal leaders will watch also for opportunities for do-ing good, that they may
direct the energies of those under them into the most fruitful channels,
“Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” (Ephesians 5:16).

They will also “watch in behalf of your souls, as they that shall give account;
that they may do this with joy, and not with.grief” (Hebrews 13:17). “They will
admonish the disorderly, encourage the fainthearted, support the weak, be
longsuffering toward all. See that none render unto any one evil for evil; but
always follow after that which is good, one toward another, and toward all” (1
Thessalonians 5:14-15).

Loyalty Demands Much Prayer There is nothing which more powerfully influences
the life of a Christian than prayer. There is nothing which to a greater degree
purifies his passions and tranquilizes his conscience than prayer. By prayer a
man is delivered from headiness, egotism, and presumption ; he learns instead to
be meek and humble and “not to think of himself more highly than he ought to
think.” But all of the benefits of prayer are not to be thought of as merely
subjective and psychological. God actually does things for his children in
answer to prayer. “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find;
knock, and it shall be opened unto you; for every one that asketh receiveth; and
he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened” (Matthew
7:7-8).

“For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto
their prayers; but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil” (1 Peter
3:12).

“And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything
according to his will, he heareth us” 1 John 5:14).


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  CHAPTER 10: LOYALTY TO CHRIST’S PRINCIPLES OF LIVING
========================================================================

Loyalty to Christ’s Principles of Living LOYALTY TO CHRIST’S PRINCIPLES OF
LIVING Raymond C. Kelcy Our scripture reading for this morning is Titus 2:11.
“For the grace of God hath appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing
us to the intent that? denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live
soberly and righteously and godly in this present world; looking for the blessed
hope and appearing of the glory of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;
who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify
unto himself a people for his own possession, zealous of good works.” So far as
I know, “Loyalty” is a word not found in the scriptures. However, the principle
is there throughout. It carries with it the idea of fidelity or devotion.
Concerning loyalty to Christ there are many phases. A person shows his loyalty
to Christ by rendering obedience to the primary steps of the gospel. He shows
his loyalty by worshipping faithfully. He shows his loyalty by contending
earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to the saints. But there is a
phase of loyalty that means far more than any of these so far as influence on
the world is concerned. That is loyalty to Christ in every-day living. It may be
that this phase of loyalty has not received the attention it deserves, in our
thinking, in our preaching, and, certainly, in our practice. It may be a
weightier matter of the law, the significance of which has not been realized by
many members of the church. The law given through Moses contained many
prin-ciples of living. If one were given the task of discussing in a single
discourse all of those principles of living in the law of Moses, he would find
it extremely difficult, if not impossible. However, the task would be made much
lighter, were he to turn to the book of Micah and find all of the principles of
living in that law stated in a brief condensation: “He hath shewed thee, 0 man,
what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to
love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” (Micah 6:8). This passage
comprehends the entire duty of man. The code of living set forth by the Christ
is far su-perior to that of Moses. Jesus verily taught men how to live. His
principles of living have never been equalled. They are held in high esteem by
friend and foe alike. But to speak of all the principles of living stressed by
the Christ in a single discourse would also be a difficult task. But our text
for this morning is an abridgement, an epitome, of the entire teachings of
Christ. “The grace of God . . . hath appeared . . .teaching- us to live soberly
and righteously and godly in this present world.” This comprehends all that
Jesus ever taught. The world notices the daily life of the person who professes
to be a Christian. As far as the world is con-cerned, his daily life is the only
test of loyalty.

We are living epistles, known and read of all men. The Goapel According to You
There’s a sweet old story translated for man, 'SHE0K' in the long, long ago. . .
. The gospel according to Mark, Luke, and John Of Christ and his mission below.
Men read and admire the gospel of Christ, With its love so unfailing and true;
But what do they say and what do they think, Of the gospel according to you?
’Tis a wonderful story, that gospel of love, As it shines in the Christ life
divine, And, Oh, that its truth may be told again In the story of your life and
mine. Unselfishness mirrors in every scene, Love blossoms on every sod, And back
from its vision the heart comes to tell The wonderful goodness of God. You are
writing each day a letter to men; Take care that the writing is true! ’Tis the
only gospel some men will read . . . That “Gospel according to you.” The power
of the church is often sapped by the unchristlikeness of its members. This has
caused much criticism of the church and has kept many out of the church. As
someone has said, “Yes, the Christian is the world’s Bible, and just now we are
badly in need of a revised version.” The failure of members of the church to be
loyal to Christ’s principles of living has retarded her progress more than all
other Hungs combined.

Some have never seemed to realize that Christianity extends into every realm of
a Christian’s life, and affects his behavior at all times. We often hear a
person say that he doesn’t have time to be a Christian. His idea is warped. He
seems to think that Christianity is something separate and apart from his
everyday life . . . something that he must take time off to practice, and then
having practiced it, go back to the other things of life. But Christianity is
something that is coextensive with every phase of life. It >s something to be
nracticed at the same time we are aoing the thousand things that make up life.
You are not to take time out while in school to be a Christian, but you are to
be a Christian while you go to school. You are not to take time out from your
business to be a Christian, and practice the principles of Christianity, but
practice them in your business. The principles of Christianity are not even
separated from our play and recreation . . . they are to be remembered and
observed while we play. Christianity is an everyday life. Many are Christians,
or they give that impression, while in the assembly, but when out of the
assembly all restraints are thrown away. They are in the sanctuary talking the
higher life on Sunday, but in the whirl of business or pleasure living the lower
life the other six days of the week. A Christian has a wonderful opportunity and
a great challenge before him . . . that of glorifying God and preaching the
gospel of Christ every minute of his life, simply by living soberly and
righteously and godly before men. The first principle to be observed in daily
living, if one would be loyal to Christ in that realm, is: Be true to yourself.
This is the first thing mentioned by Paul in his trio of our text: “The grace of
God hath appeared . . . teaching us to live soberly.” This concerns our duty to
ourselves. Of this word Adam Clarke says, “Having every temper, appetite, and
desire under the government of reason, and reason itself under the government of
the Spirit of God.” This was the characteristic to which Jesus referred when he
said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8).
Until this attribute is acquired it is useless to attempt to go farther in
applying Christ’s principles of living. The time for me to convert others is
after I am converted. If I would live a life acceptable to my heavenly Father,
then I must maintain a conscience void of offense. It is better to have the
approval of your conscience than the applause of all mankind.

There is much included in a pure heart. You and God this morning know whether or
not your heart is pure. But in order that each one may look into his heart and
measure it by the principles of living taught by Christ, let us notice a few
tests of purity of heart. And the first test is: “What are your thoughts?”

I do not mean to ask what your thoughts are at this very moment, but what are
your thoughts in moments of leisure? When you are alone and you have time to
meditate, upon what are your meditations? “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is
he.” The law of Moses sought to regulate the life by demanding external
conformity to law, but the gospel of Christ would first purify the heart and in
this way regulate the conduct of men. That is one great advantage of the gospel
over the law. This matter of right thinking is one of Christ’s principles of
everyday living. He said, “Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts.” It seems to
me that this is nowhere more forcefully emphasized than in his declaration,
“Except you be converted and become as little children^ you cannot enter the
kingdom of heaven.” One of the greatest attributes of a little child is purity
of life and speech. It do'es no evil and it says no evil. And the reason for
this is, it thinks no evil. Yes, out of the heart are the issues of life. And
Jesus said we must become as little children. Certainly this is one childlike
trait we must imbibe if we wish to enter the kingdom of heaven. We can become
the master of our thinking or we can become its slave. One cannot be enamored of
worldliness and live a chaste life. Happy is the person who has conquered his
thinking to the extent that it rigidly follows the divine program for the mind
set forth by Paul in Php_4:8 : “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true,
whatsoever things are honorable, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things
are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if
there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” If one
would live soberly he must think soberly.

It is hardly necessary to make this next test after making this first one for we
are told, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” If one’s
thinking is right it follows that his speech will also be right. Our speech is a
vital test and it is a matter in which most of us are very careless. I have
recently interviewed several persons who were not Christians. The question I
asked was: “What is the first thing you notice about a person who claims to be a
Christian ? What is the thing whereby you judge the reality of his profession?”
They all answered, “His speech.” Yes, friends the world judges us to a great
extent by our words. We should always be certain that they are full of grace and
seasoned with salt. Paul admonished in Ephesians 4:29, “Let no corrupt speech
proceed out of your mouth.” It is impossible for the same tongue that is used
for idle and corrupt speech in everyday life to hymn acceptable praises to God
in the assembly. “Doth the fountain send forth from the same opening sweet water
and bitter? Can a fig tree, my brethren, yield olives? Or a vine figs?” (James
3:11-12). Some have derived consolation from the statement made by James, “The
tongue can no man tame.” But there is no consolation there. He doesn’t say, “The
tongue can no man control.” There is a difference in taming a thing and
controlling it. We may not be able to tame the tongue, but with a strong will
power and a desire to be loyal to Christ, we can control it. Since we entered
the war we have seen hundreds of posters warning against loose talk. These
posters portray the disastrous results of careless words. A horrible picture of
the enemy is drawn. He is pictured with an attentive and hungry ear. On the
posters are words of this nature: “Watch your words! The enemy is listening!” I
wish today that it were possible to make a gigantic banner and wave it aloft
that every Christian might behold it. Upon it would be emblazoned the warning:
“Watch your words. The world is listening. Christ is listening. Don’t betray him
by cheap talk!” Upon this banner also would be these passages: “Every idle word
that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.
For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be
condemned” (Matthew 12:36-37). There is power in words. Words move the world.
Right words, rightly spoken, have the power to move the world for Christ.” So,
“He that would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from
evil, and his lips that they speak no guile.” (1 Peter 3:10). If one would live
soberly, he must speak soberly. This word “soberly” and its kindred words have a
prominent place in the New Testament. In the book of Titus the words
“sober-minded” occur four times. This is the book in which our text is found,
“Teaching us to live soberly.” One meaning of this word is “serious.” If I am
sober-minded, I am serious, sincere^ earnest. In other words, there is no
pretending or hypocrisy in the person who lives soberly. So, here is another
test that we must apply this morning. Are you in earnest . . . actually in
earnest about living for Christ and glorifying God? Are you serious about this
matter of being loyal to Christ? Does it occupy first place in your heart and in
your life? Doesn't the fact that a person is earnest about a certain thing have
much to do with molding your attitude toward that thing? Certainly it does! In
Christianity this is an essential attribute. We must reflect earnestness. I have
seen people who made a joke of religion. Whatever they had to say had no good
effect. But we are all ready to listen to the sober, the serious, the earnest
person. Christ’s teachings regarding this trait do not insist that we must be of
a gloomy and sad countenance in order to be sober-minded. The Christian is to
reflect happiness and joy. But at the same time he is to let others know by his
behavior that Christianity is an important thing with him and that he is in
earnest about it.

Yes, this is the important. . . the fundamental thing. I must be loyal to the
principles of Christian living in my own heart. I must be able to maintain my
self-respect, to look myself squarely in the eye.

I have to live with myself and so, I want to be fit for myself to know. I want
to be able as the days go by, Always to look myself in the eye. I don’t want to
live wuth the setting sun, And hate myself for the things I’ve done. I want to
deserve all men’s respect, And here in the struggle for fame and pelf, I want to
be able to like myself. I don’t want to look at myself and know, I can never
hide myself from me. I see the things others may never know, I can never fool
myself and so, Whatever happens I want to be, Self-respecting and
conscience-free. And now for the next test in this examination on self-loyalty.
Are you loyal to your convictions ? Convictions must never be compromised, even
in the interest of friendship. Our Master asks for an undivided heart and we
have no right to betray him under any circumstances. How loyal are you to
convictions? Of course, you know when I ask this question I do not mean here and
now, but how loyal are you to convictions when with the other crowd? You
remember one time Peter acted one way when in one crowd and in an entirely
different way when in another. He was severely rebuked by the courageous Paul.
How loyal are you to sacred convictions when you are a thousand miles away from
everyone you ever knew and when the bright lights of the big city beckon you to
come on and compromise just this one time? Do you compromise then? When we think
of loyalty in the midst of unfavorable surroundings, we always think of Daniel
and tne Hebrew children, and, of course, Joseph. Am I a Joesph or a Daniel under
such conditions? Or am I a Judas Iscariot or a Benedict Arnold? Thank God there
have always been men and women in every age of the world wtw defied their
surroundings and maintained purity of heart.

I heard a speaker some time ago tell of an experience that he had had with his
own son. It touched my heart and I tell it to you with the hope that it will
touch yours. They had lived for years in a neighborhood near a family that was
quite wealthy. This family had a son the age of his own son. One time this boy
invited his son to a party. He was glad of the opportunity to go. So he went and
found many of his friends there and many others with whom he had wanted to
associate. Everything went well until later in the night they began to roll back
the rugs and clear the floor making ready for the next part of the program. This
preacher’s son called his friend over to one side and said, “I must go home
now.” And even though his friends begged him to stay and others laughed at him
for being so peculiar, he went home long before the party was over. His father
was in bed when he arrived home, but he asked him how the party was and what
kind of a time he had? as parents so often do. He told his father of the
enjoyable time he had but that it had been necessary for him to come home before
the party was over. “Why did you have to do thai?” his father asked. And ne said
that when he was told he arose from bed right then and there, knelt by the side
of it, and thanked God that there are still boys and girls who will not
sacrifice convictions for anthing in the world.

It is true that many limes we cannot see any visible results of our fidelity,
but there are results as surely as you live. Besides it is a question of
loyalty. Young people, never let anybody laugh you out of your con-victions! We
have all felt the power of social pressure and the tendency at times to
compromise, but in a Christian’s warfare the first field of battle is his owm
life. If he fails there he cannot expect to win in other fields. In order to
secure and maintain this punty of heart which is the basic principle of Christ’s
code of living, we must make great sacrifices at times. However, the testimony
of history, as well as the testimony of revela-tion, is that most of the,
valuable things do require sac- rific. It may be necessary, figuratively
speaking, to pluck out an eye or to cut off a right arm. This is Jesus’ way of
saying that the things of life that are dearest to our hearts must be severed if
they hinder us and threaten to keep us out of the kingdom of God. The grace, of
God hath appeared teaching us to live soberly. The second thing ft teaches us is
to five righteously. And if we do live soberly we shall find it easy to live
righteously. “To thine own self be true, and it must follow as the night the
day, thou canst not then be false to any man.”—Shakespeare. The Christian is one
whose inward and outward life conform to the doctrine of Christ. Living soberly
has to do with his inward life. Living righteously has to do with his outward
life. It concerns his duties toward his fellowmen.

Benjamin Franklin said, “Don’t judge of men’s wealth or piety by their Sunday
appearance.” It is true that faithful church attendance and upholding the faith
are essential to Christian loyalty, but if you would get a true insight into a
man’s character, observe his daily living. Go into his home. Observe how he
treats his family. Is his home known in that community as a Christian home ?
What kind of language does he use in his home ? What does he read ?

Enter his shop and see how he treats his employees. Do his business associates
recognize him as a man of God? Ask his customers how he treats them. Listen to
his language in moments of trial.

Listen to him as he talks to his friends on the street. What are the subjects of
conversation? What kind of stories does he tell? To what kind does he listen?

Go with him on a vacation tour or a fishing trip. How does he conduct himself on
such occasions? What are some of the principles of Christ’s teachings that
should affect our behavior toward all men? In the home, in business life, in
social life, and in our daily contacts with all men? For this sutdy I have
selected three passages which use the expression, “all men.” These seem to cover
Christ’s teaching on this phase of loyalty. In Galatians 6:10 we have Paul’s
admonition to “do good unto all men.” Jesus taught by life and example that the
only life that counts with God is a life of service to others. He said, “He that
would be the greatest among you, let him become the servant of all.” We need to
learn this lesson today. The. greatest in the kingdom of God is the humble
servant, who, though unrecognized by men for his service, is content to do what
he can. The greatest man or woman in this congregation is the one who makes no
attempt to be prominent and popular, but who watches for opportunities to serve
others. We sometimes talk about wTho the greatest preacher in the brotherhood
is. The. greatest preacher in the eyes of God is the one who is the great est
servant. In the midst of our struggles for recognition, it might be wTell tor
the Christ to come into our midst, gird himself w7ith a towel, and wash our
feet. It might be well for him to set a child in our midst and teach us again
that the road to heaven is paved with humble service. Not only are we to do good
to all men when oppor-tunity presents itself, but we are admonished to watch for
opportunities. It is easy to do good to those who love us and who are kind to
us. It is sometimes easy to do good to those we have never even seen. But
Jesus’s teaching goes even further than that. He tells us to do good to our
enemies ... to those who have done evil to us, who have persecuted us, and who
have despitefully used us. Loyalty to Christ demands that we return good for
evil. It is better to receive many injuries than to give one. Are we practicing
this principle of doing good to all men ... of watching for opportunities of
service? “Serve the Lord with gladness” may be read on many scrolls on many
walls of church houses. However, this is not merely to be associated with the
church house, prayer meetings, and the Bible school. Read again the story of the
Good Samaritan. We have vested it with a certain halo as though it were removed
from life’s common tasks. It is an illustration of how we may serve the Lord by
doing unto others as we would have them do unto us. In the judgment Christ will
say: “Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye did
it unto me.”

Only recently I read an article which described quite vividly the ordinary
person’s conception of true religion. It told of a young lady on a train who had
received news of the death of her only brother. She was talking with a preacher
who happened to be on that same train. In discussing the subject of religion,
she said, “Our boss never mentions religion, but all of us who work for him feel
that he practices the genuine thing.” She then told the preacher how kind and
considerate her boss had been to all of his employees and how specially kind he
had been to her when he learned of the tragedy. Yes, friends, in time of need
the real friend isn’t the one who asks if there is something he can do. The real
friend is the one who sees that there is something he can do. Such a person as
that adorns the doctrine of Christ. Thank God there are many Good Samaritans
yet, who, in the rush of business and pressure of commercial life, still find
time to be merciful. And . . .

“The quality of mercy is not strained It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath; it is twice blessed; It blesses him that gives and him
that takes.” —Shakespeare.

Jesus said “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” (Matthew
5:7). A man may be a churchgoer and yet the hungry may go unfed, the sick may go
uncared for, the stranger may be turned away in the cold, the disconsolate and
the downtrodden may receive only a passing glance, of scorn. The one burdened
with sorrow needs sympathy, the one against whom the sharp tongue of scandal has
been pomted needs consideration; the one falsely accused needs assurance. Our
next passage In which the expression “all men” is found is Romans 12:17 :
“Provide for things honest m the sight of all men.” The same thought is
expressed in 2 Corinthians 8:21 : “Providing for honest things, not only in the
sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men.” And 'in 1 Peter 2:12 : “Having
your conversation honest among the Gentiles, that whereas they speak against you
as evildoers, they may by your good works which they behold, glorify God in the
day of visitation.” So, in order to live righteously, it is necessary to lice
honestly. An article in one of our papers recently asked the question, “How long
has it been since you heard a sermon on the dreadfulness of lying?” Lying is a
dreadful thing. We sometimes lose sight of just how dreadful it is in the sight
of him who cannot lie. Some have the idea that they can get by so long as they
falsify in little matters, such as purloining in business, telhng little so
called “white lies,” or cheating on an examina tion. But those who desert truth
in trifles will not be trusted by the fjord in matters of greater importance.
Loyalty to Christ in the little things prepares for service m greater realms.
Then there are those who seem to think that it is all right to practice
dishonesty as long as it concerns something big, such as a Railroad Company or
the National Government. They are not truthful when paying incomes taxes and
things of that nature. But in the sight of God, lying is lying, and he says,
“All liars shall have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and
brimstone.” An honest life, day in and day out, counts for God. It leads men to
Christ. Besides being the best policy, honesty is the only policy that will give
you happiness, guarantee you the respect and confidence of all men, and give you
the assurance of a home in heaven. There is no man so bad but that he secretly
respects the honest man. The third passage that mentions our duty to all men in
our righteous walk is Romans 12:18 : “If it be possible, as much as in you
lieth, be at peace with all men.” This, too, is a principle of living stressed
by the Master. He said, “Blessed are the peacemakers; for they shall be called
sons of God” (Matthew 5:9). The implication of Paul is that it will be difficult
at times to be at peace with all men, but the Christian is willing to make great
sacrifices to obtain this precious possession. He may have to agree with his
adversary quickly; it may be necessary for him to travel the second mile; he may
have to turn the other cheek; he may have to give his coat and cloak also; he
may have to suffer reproach for the name of Christ without mur-muring and smile
in troubles; he may have to exercise patience, forbearance, and longsuffering;
but these are all principles stressed by Christ in his code of living. To be
peacemakers we must “be kind one to another, forgiving each other, even as God
in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32). However, the Christian does not desire
peace at any price. With him it is first purity and then peace. But as much as
in him is, he preaches peace, practices peace, and promotes peace among others.
He endeavors to “keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace,” he follows
after the things that make for peace and the things whereby he may edify
others,” and he prays that “we may live a quiet and peaceable life in all
godliness and honesty” (Romans 14:19; Ephesians 4:3; 1 Timothy 2:2). His King is
the prince of peace, his message is the gospel of peace, and he, himself, is a
living example of peace, for he has obtained it from Christ who is our peace
(Ephesians 2:14). He realizes that “the kingdom is not eating and drinking, but
righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17).

“For the grace of God . . . hath appeared . . . teaching us . . . that we should
live soberly, and righteously, and godly.” Soberly, concerning our own hearts;
righteously, concerning our duties to others; and godly, concerning our duty to
our Maker. May I say that the person who lives soberly and righteously is a long
way toward being godly? Jesus declared, “He that hath seen me hath seen the
Father.” He was a personification of every divine attribute. To be godly, then,
is to follow in the steps of Jesus. He left us an example that we should follow
in his steps. It is said that we become like the objects of our devotion. Hence,
if we walk with God, we become more and more godlike each day. We are partakers
of the divine nature, new creatures in Christ . . . having crucified the old
man, we have been transformed by the renewing of our minds. Someone has said,
“Strive to be the greatest man in your community and you may fail; strive to be
the most godly and you may succeed.” With Christians the question is not, “How
may I be popular or great?” but “How may I be godly?” With them the question is
not, “What is popular?” or “What is convenient?” but “What is right?” Yes, we
should strive to be such that the world could look at us and say, “There is a
body of people living, yes. actually living the Christian life.”

Sometimes we hold a sheet of music in our hands and say, “It looks as if it it
might be good.” But when it is handed to the competent musician, and when that
which the composer intended is brought out, only then do we understand its
attractiveness. The beauty of the rose has been the subject of many an able pen,
but no description, however beautiful, can do justice to the living flower.
Christ’s principles of living are like that. They are beautiful on the printed
page, but they are not; . . . they cannot be ... as attractive there as when
seen in a noble life. An older preacher said to a young preacher, “My son, let
us go to the city today to preach.” The young man was glad of this opportunity
to accompany this great man of God. They went to the city and they walked and
they walked, up one street and down another. Finally, they returned home. The
young preacher said, “You forgot, sir, that we went to town to preach.” “My son,
we have been preaching . .. every step we took. We have been observed. It is
useless to walk to town to preach unless you preach by your walk.” And may I
say, too, that this sober, righteous^ and godly life is the only truly happy
one. It is the only one that will enable you to find yourself and God. You
remember the story of Sir Launfal and his search for the Holy Grail. He did not
find God in far away places of adventure. It was when he divided his last crust
of bread with that lonely leper that the soul of the beggar stood lip before his
eyes and he stood before him glorified. It was in the path of obedient service
that he found God, and it is there that you and I too shall find him.

Somewhere, sometime, I heard this story. A group of soldiers had returned home
after battle. They were entertaining their friends by telling cf their thrilling
adventures. Some of them were showing medals. Others were displaying trophies,
and others other things. There was one young man who was rather quiet. He told
no thrilling stories and he had no trophies of battle. Some were wondering what
he would say. When his turn came to speak, he arose and said this: “My friends,
I have no trophies. I have no medals. But I bear in my body the marks of many
battles. Here are my scars of service.” Friends, when we stand before Christ, he
will not look us over for medals, degrees, and diplomas, but for scars of
service.

If thou, my Christ, today Shouldest speak to me and say, What battles hast thou
fought for me? Show me thy scars; I fain would see Love’s deep victory; If thou
shouldst speak, my Christ My leader and my King, And bid me lay my wounds in
sight, The scars borne just for thee in fight, What love scars could I bring ?
—James Hastings.


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  CHAPTER 11: LOYALTY TO CHRIST
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Loyalty to Christ Loyalty To Christ Hugo McCordd The Lord, knowing what is in
man, was not flattered when “there went with him great multitudes.” He knew many
would not be really loyal to him. Instead of letting them keep on until they
found out for themselves, he turned and told them exactly what loyalty to him
meant:

"If any man cometh unto me, and hateth not his own father, and mother, and wife,
and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot
be my disciple. Whosoever doth not bear his own cross, and come after me, cannot
be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, doth not first sit
down and count the cost, whether he have wherewith to complete it? Lest haply,
when he hath laid a foundation, and is not able to finish, all that behold begin
to mock him, saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish. Or
what king, as he goeth to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first
and take counsel whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh
against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet a great way
off, he sendeth an am- bassage, and asketh conditions of peace. So therefore
whosoever he be of you that renounceth not all that he hath, he cannot be my
disciple." (Luke 14:25-33).

I. True Loyalty Exemplified. A dog’s master was taken to a hospital. The
faithful dog followed as far as he could. When the ambulance bed carried his
master in the hospital’s front door, he peered through the screen. Day after day
he sat there, waiting for his master. The loyal pet did not know his master died
and his body was removed by the back door. Week after week the dog lingered,
finally dying. When Orpah kissed Naomi, her mother-in-law, and departed, Ruth’s
loyalty could not be so soon cut. Her beautiful words of devotion, a treasure of
millenniums, were:

"Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for
whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people
shall be my people, and thy God my God: where thou diest, will I die, and there
will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part
thee and me."(Rth_1:16-17). And just as steadfast as Ruth’s loyalty to Naomi was
Jonathan’s attachment to David. “The soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of
David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.” “Then Jonathan and David made a
covenant, because he loved him as his own soul. And Jonathan stripped himself of
the robe that was upon him, and gave it to David, and his garments, even to his
sword, and to his bow, and to his girdle.” It was an unnatural loyalty that
would make Jonathan be willing to die for one not of his family, and that at the
risk of angering his own father. Notwithstanding, “Jonathan answered Saul his
father, and said unto him, Wherefore shall he (David) be slain? what hath he
done? And Saul cast a javelin at him to smite him: whereby Jonathan knew that it
was determined of his father to slay David. So Jonathan arose from the table in
fierce anger, and did eat no meat the second day of the month: for he was
grieved for David, because his father had done him shame.”

II. The express image of his person. If a dog is loyal, if a daughter-in-law can
have filial devotion, if a friend will lay down his life in sacrifice, what
should we be willing to do for him in whom the very fulness of God dwelt?
(Colossians 1:19) for him who was the Word become flesh? for him the only
Begotten, full of grace and truth? for him who dwelleth in the bosom of the
Father? (John 1:14; John 1:18). for him who made the worlds, is the heir of all
things, and is the brightness of his glory and the very image of his sub-stance?
(Hebrews 1:1-3). Wouldn’t you be loyal to one who had the nerve to drive temple
thieves from his Father’s house and had the love to pick up little children in
his arms and bless them? Wouldn’t you be loyal to one who scorched hypocrisy in
abrasive language and who showed such feelings of mercy toward the multitudes,
for they fainted and were as sheep without a shepherd? Wouldn’t you be loyal all
the way to him who announced:

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are
they that mourn: for they shall be contorted. Blessed are the meek: for they
shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after
righteousness: for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful: for they
shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are
they that have been persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven.

“Come, follow me,” he invited, but he warned, everyone to sit down and count the
cost, which cost was:

III. Renounce all you have. (Luke 14:33). Such is easy to say. Four particular
things it means hearts was the faith more precious than gold that perishes.

1. Christ comes before a house and a bed (Luke 9:57-58). He promises his
disciples food, and houses a hundredfold, with persecutions, but if a man makes
a house and bread a condition of following him, he cannot be his disciple. Early
Christians were so loyal they of choice became refugees (Acts 8:1-4) rather than
give up the faith.

2. Christ comes before blood kin (Luke 9:59-60). "Let the dead bury their dead.”
Was he harsh? Disrespectful? No, no! See him on the cross, not thinking of his
own suffering, but thinking of his mother? and telling John, “"You take care of
her”? What did he mean, “Let the dead bury their dead* Hate your ow n father and
mother”? Just this, “Love them, care tenderly for them, but you must love me
more" (Luke 10:37). Paul ever loved his “kinsmen according to the flesh.” his
“bretnren,” loved them so much he could wish himself accursed if it would help
them, but he loved Christ more, and obeyed the gospel, going against his own
people.

3. Christ comes before Caesar. Disciples are not loyal if they try to rebel
against a government, and they must be subject to “every ordinance of man, for
the Lord’s sake” (1 Peter 2:13); but if a conflict ever arises between man’s law
and Christ’s law, their loyalty is with Christ. They must obey God rather than
man (Acts 5:29), When Hirohito drafts men under banner of the Rising Sun to
attack innocent Americans or Chinese, every Christian Japanese will respectfully
refuse such draft. He may have to go to jail, may have to die, but he refuses to
do what Christ would not do.

4. Christ comes before self. Paul’s physical man did not like lashes laid across
his naked back. Personal desires would have prompted him to evade them. "But
necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake” (2 Corinthians
12:10). “I live, yet not I” (Galatians 2:20). What do you mean, Paul? Aren’t you
alive? No, he had given himself, body and soul, to Jesus. Therefore: “I take
pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, I am bought; I, Paul, am dead, and my
life is hidden with Christ in God; everything I do, it is Christ doing it; I
have denied myself.” Are these actions hard? Yes, for the half-converted. A boy
walking down one side of a creek has no trouble, but when he tries both sides at
the same time, he is pretty awkward and unsuccessful. A man trying to walk with
Christ and with the world at the same time will find Christ’s demands hard. But
everyone, really given to him, finds his yoke easy and his burden not hard to
bear. “His commandments are not grievous” (1 John 5:3). Though a Christian is
offered upon the altar of service and sacrifice, he joys and rejoices
(Php_2:17). “Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I say, rejoice.” A joy by day
and a happiness by night is the life of every truly converted soul.

We can demonstrate our loyalty to Christ by our obedience to the Gospel. We can show our loyalty to Christ by our Faith. We can show our loyalty to Christ by our worshiping Him "In Spirit and in Truth," and by "Contending Earnestly for the Faith of the Gospel" which was once and fo all delivered unto the saints. Put it this way---He has shown us what is good and "What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do (wallk) justly in His sight," and to "love mercy," and to "Walk humbly with thy God." This passage from Micah 6:8 represents the entire spectrum of what is necessary for us to be loyal to Christ.


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  CHAPTER 12: THE GREAT PHYSICIAN
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The Great Physician THE GREAT PHYSICIAN R. C. Bell In one flaming sentence, Paul
flashes out the basic philosophy of all human history: “He hath made of one
every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, having determined
their appointed seasons and the bounds of their habitation, that they should
seek God” (Acts 17:26). God is the Maker of men and na-tions, and presides over
their destinies. The drama of time is his drama. Men have not always existed,
they did not just happen to come into existence, nor do they belong to
themselves. Moreover, since any creation must do that for which its Maker
designed it or be a failure, men and nations, no matter what else they may
achieve, are failures unless they seek and find God.

Another deep Scripture that admits man further into the secrets of the divine
economy and gives him his place in it more definitely reads: “The heavens are
the heavens of Jehovah; but the earth hath he given to the children of men”
(Psalms 115:16). Man has no part whatsoever in the government of the heavens;
but God, trusting him with the freedom of a steward who must give account to his
Lord, turned the earth over to him to manage for a season, and to take the
consequences of his good or bad management. When God surrendered the initiative
of choice and action to man, purposing to do nothing on earth himself
independently of man, he thereby lost his moral right to have a world as he,
primarily, wants it to be. By this plan, he can do nothing arbitrarily, but only
that which is in moral consonance with human deeds. Of course, all of man’s
activities, good and evil, influence God in his presiding over the world as its
absolute owner and final judge. The prayers of saints, for example, are mighty
factors in divine government. And how different history would have been in the
past and would now be, if no praying had ever been done, no man can know.
Consequently, according to God’s primitive arrangement, man is morally
responsible for what hap-pens on earth; if things go wrong, he, not God, is to
blame. God’s changeless soul is still grieved at the misery of men as of old
(Judges 10:16), but, by his own wise, good, and eternally fixed moral order, he
can not change things without the consent and cooperation of men. The world,
therefore, will be better, only when men choose to make it better. The world
after the war will be no better unless better men and women live in it.

These two great Scriptures, one from each of the Testaments, proclaim the
cardinal truth that God is Creator, Father, and Judge of all peoples of all
climes and times. The Old Testament contains scores of examples of this truth
applied in history. The tenth chapter of Isaiah is a striking case. The Jews had
per-sisted in idolatry and its associate sins until, in a moral universe, they
had to be punished. God, the Judge, chose war as the fit punishment and
Sennacherib, the king of heathen Assyria, as the man to wage it. Sen-nacherib
did not know God, but he liked to fight and get booty. While he served his own
purpose when he made war on Jerusalem, he, at the same time, served God’s also,
not knowing however that he was doing so. This is one of the many cases of the
supernatural in the natural recorded in the Bible for man’s learning. A little
later when God removed the Jews as an in-dependent nation and made them subject
to Gentile kings until the Romans, several centuries later, finally destroyed
them even as a subjugated nation, he gave their first Gentile master,
Nebuchadnezzar, to under-stand that he himself was still Sovereign of all the
earth and would hold the heathen kings responsible for their stewardship. God
further informed boastful, presumptuous Nebuchadnezzar that he would afflict him
with certain evils “to the intent that the living might know that the Most High
ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth
up over it the lowest of men” (Daniel 4:17). When the threatened punishment
came, Nebuchadnezzar was humbled and confessed that Cod was ruler of the heav-en
and the earth and that those who “walk in pride he is able to abase.” These two
historical sketches, so replete with the supernatural in the natural, are
sufficient to demonstrate that God’s claim to sovereignty over all the earth is
no empty boast. Not only does God sometimes use evil men as his agents, but he
also uses even Satan sometimes. “The anger of Jehovah was kindled against
Israel, and he moved David against them saying, Go, number Israel and Judah” (2
Samuel 24:1). Concerning this same in-cident, another Scripture says: “And Satan
stood up against Israel and moved David to number Israel” (1 Chronicles 21:1).
How did both God and Satan move David? Roth God and Sennacherib, though for very
different reasons, wanted war against Jerusalem. Roth God and S>atan, for very
different reasons again, want-ed Job to be tested; therefore upon Satan’s asking
God’s permission to afflict Job; he got it (Job 1-2). In a similar way, both God
and Satan desired that Israel be numbered, and God allowed $atan to do it. Much
later, Satan asked and received permission to “sift” Peter (Luke 22:31). Satan
is not independent of God and can not touch Job, Peter, or even a pig (Matthew
9:31) without first getting permission from God. These few cases, out of many
scattered throughout the entire Bible, must suffice to show that the
supernatural from beneath is worked into the mosaic of divine government as well
as the supernatural from above. If men do not believe that God is absolute
Sovereign over the realms of men and angels, both good and bad, it is not
because God failed to write it into his autobiography, the Bible. When God, in
the government of his world, made un-necessarily complicated by his unfaithful
steward, needs a devil, a Pharaoh, a Sennacherib, a Judas, or a Hitler, he knows
where to find him and how to use him so that his wrath will praise Jehovah
(Psalms 76:10) and his evil contribute to final good. He overrules men and
angels who will not be ruled by him. Men may learn how God is running the world
today by reading their papers and listening to their radios. Those who want to
know God should read history, sacred (especially ^ and secular, ancient and
modern, for history, when readers climb high enough to interpret it properly, is
just the record of God’s using men as they, by using their freedom under God,
have fitted themselves to be used. For being the cause of the fall of his race
and the wreck of the world, man is without excuse. From the beginning, God in
grace gave his steward of earth ample directions to enable him to live happily
forever.

He left man to his own efforts for the most part, to become acquainted with the
physical world as best he could. If he never learned much geology, chemistry,
biology, astronomy, and the like, there would be no ir-reparable loss, for he
could still know God, which is life eternal. But in the moral and religious
realm, where the welfare and eternal destiny of immortal souls were at stake,
God left nothing to man’s discovery. With miscarriage here, both God and man
would suffer such inestimable loss that God took no chances of failure because
of man’s lack of moral knowledge. Moral concerns were too important to leave to
human searchings, therefore, God revealed them to man di-rectly and fully.

What a privilege for man to have free access to the knowledge, wisdom, power,
and goodness of his infinite Creator! Strange to say, man, not believing that he
had ultimate truth in-ethical and religious matters; but believing that he could
learn and grow by experience here as elsewhere, demanded the same self-direction
in the moral sphere that God granted him in the material sphere. Here is the key
that unlocks the mystery of all the wrongs, sorrows, and horrors of earth for
all time. In the beginning, the faithless steward failed to realize that it was
as impossible to have a good world without God as to have an irrigated valley
without water. Nor has man even yet learned that the clock of civilization
without God must ever run down in strife and woe.

Study of man’s first sin throws much needed light upon the cause of the troubles
of earth down through the milleniums of time. If men can be brought to see the
cause and nature of their world-old malady, they can better cooperate in their
recovery. God permitted Adam to eat freely of every tree in Eden except “the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” The penalty for eating of that tree was
death. Satan convinced Eve, however, that instead of dying, if she ate, she
would be “as God, knowing good and evil.” And when beguiled Eve believed “that
the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she did eat” (Genesis 3:6). Thus
she brought death not only upon herself and Adam, but also upon their posterity
till the end of time. Is there not something here far deeper than eating literal
fruit? Surely the eating is symbolic of something vaster and more momentus than
itself. Observe the emphasis that the account puts upon the human craving for
knowledge. The devil who has never been accused of being a fool, with shrewd and
black malice, taking advantage of Eve’s disposition to prize knowledge above
such emotional qualities as veneration, devotion and adoration, and of her
indifference to the truth that worship, although it has small intellectual
content, is the highest function of human nature, seduced her into thinking that
to know was better than fidelity to her trust of stewardship and love for her
God.

One wonders at the devil’s consummate psychology, profound, diabolical strategy,
and dreadfully efficient, single essay which threw hcman nature out of balance
and wrecked man so completely that he can no more function properly than a
rapidly-revolving flywheel can run smoothly when it is out of balance. Just as
the wheel must run with vibration and irregularity, so must men live unnaturally
and futilely until their original balance is revstored. In other words, the
devil so upset and perverted human nature that the posterity of Eve became his
children (John 8:44) and “by nature children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3), dead in
trespasses and sins. After Eve’s transfer of the stewardship of earth to Satan,
he, not God the rightful owner, used the brains, energy and wealth of the
defaulting steward to run the world in his own interest. And he so entirely, for
a few thousand years, possessed the world which he had unlawfully seized that
Christ in speaking of this usurpation and Satan’s relationship to the subverted
world-order said: “Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of
this world be cast out” (John 12:31). And Paul called him “the god of this
world” (2 Corinthians 4:4). This usurping and bedeviling the world is the
devil's masterpiece of sagacity and infamy. His ingenious, criminal plot blasted
the race of men in its infancy and initiated mankind’s all but unrelieved
failure as steward of the earth. Who but the ‘‘earthly, sensual, devilish”
Archfiend could have been wise and wicked enough at once to do such a heinous
thing? The crime of exalting knowledge to the disparage-ment of emotion, which
the devil, Who is himself the best example of such an unbalanced personality, so
long ago foisted on Eve is stdl prevalent among men. Modern civilisation is
definitely guilty of it. The scientific spirit has nothing but contempt for
emotion. To it, feeling is a relic of an ingiorant, superstitious, bygone day,
and it not to be countenanced among cultured people. Though a man be proud,
selfish, hard, cruel, and even very licentious, if he has brains, scholarship,
and learning, he has recognition and honor from men. But this is not true
“wisdom that cometh down from above.” It worships at the shrine, of “Divine
Reason” and places usurper knowledge on love’s throne. Of course knowledge is
wholly all right, if kept in subor-dination where it belongs. lake money, it
makes a good servant, but a poor master. When intellectualism crowds the
emotional nature off her thone, the result is a fatally unbalanced personality,
more like the new god, Satan, than like Jehovah God. Is not this the sad
condition of some of the rulers of the world today? No measure of mere
intellectual knowledge and belief can make either men or demons good (James
2:19). “Knowledge puffeth up, but love edifieth” (1 Corinthians 8:1). Not
knowledge, but feeling is the dynamic of conduct. Although thieves know it is
wrong to steal, they will continue to steal until they also feel that stealing
is wrong. Not what men know, but what they love and honor determines w’hat they
are.

Christian worship and work are surcharged with the intellectual of course; but
both are supremely emo-tional. Indeed, without love, only in form, never “in
spirit and truth” could either exist. When the heart is wrong, what can be
right? Loveless knowledge is nothing (1 Corinthians 13:2). Nor can that which
must be done with the heart be done with the head. When God got ready to save
the world, he used love as the means, not philosophy, learning, and reason. “For
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.” God came to men in
love, and it must be by loving him back that men go to Cod. They can not reason
themselves to heaven. Scientific knowledge, academic scholarship, and mental
attainments can not ao men’s Christian thinking, feeling, and li\mg for them.
However, it is very easy for erudite men, who prize such acquisitions, to
sacrifice spirit for letter and mistake chaff for wheat. Is it not worthy of
remark that Paul, the only apostle who was equipped to discuss “moral
philosophy” and “metaphysics,” resolutely refused to do so? (Romans 8:11-24).
The devil has never needed a more modern, a more subtly devised, or a more
deadly wile to destroy the souls of men than his original snare in Eden.

“The god of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving that the light
of the gospel . . . should not dawn upon them” (2 Corinthians 4:4) so completely
that they do not even know that ”the kingdom of heaven” and “the kingdom of the
world” are opposing kingdoms, ruled by antagonistic kings, namely, God and
Satan. The only stranger thing in history, probably, is the truth that the devil
has even many of “the elect” fooled. too, about the mutually exclusive nature of
these rival kingdoms. “Whosoever therefore would be a friend of the world maketh
himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4). “We know that we are of God, and the whole
world lieth in the evil one” (1 John 5:10). Why should not Christians know the
difference between these kingdoms as well as they know the difference between
“the kingdom of God” and denominational churches ? That Satan failed in his
personal, frontal attack m the wilderness to entice Christ into thinking that he
could serve the interests of both these kingdoms, is clear from Christ’s stern
rebuff: “Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord
thy God, and him only shalt thou serve” (Matthew 4:10).

Later, when Satan changed his tactics and made an oblique attack upon Christ by
using malicious men to accuse him of being in league with the devil and of
casting out demons by Beelzebub, Christ thought the charge so false and damaging
that he refuted it with a careful, elaborate, four-fold argument (Matthew
12:2230). And neither Christ nor any inspired man was ever less positive about
the impossibility of serving the “two masters.” But men, thinking they knew a
better way to extend Christ’s kingdom than his own way, have continuously
compromised with the devil and used his tools in trying to do the Lord’s work.
Who can say how much this has contributed to the success of “the kingdom of the
world” and to the comparative failure of “the kingdom of God” as they exist on
earth now? Are not the sons of Eve sill “beguiled” by her old enemy, using his
same old nefarious stratagem? Christ came to earth to “bruise” the devil’s head,
to retrieve the world from his illegal dominion, and to re-store the original
balance of man’s nature. Neither Christ nor Satan were under any illusions about
all this, for their inveterate enmity, seemingly, antedates the creation of
Adam. But the remainder of this lecture must deal directly with Christ as “The
Great Physician” for sin-sick, sink-sunk humanity.

First of all, the physician knew the extreme need of the patient. He came to
heal; he knew that man was very sick, sick even unto death. Christ had a sad
con-ception of humanity. Because he knew that the world was in a state of
corruption and darkness, needing a wholesome, preserving agent and an
illuminating, quickening influence, he told his disciples that they were “the
salt of the earth” and “the light of the world” (Matthew 5:13-14). He knew that
most people were travel-ing the broad way to destruction. “When he saw the
multitudes, he was moved with compassion, because they were distressed and
scattered, as sheep not having a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36). He bore the griefs of
men, carried their sorrows, and felt “the pain of sympathy.” Near the end of his
life, he wept over Jerusalem, for he knew the sin and unhappiness within her
walls and the destruction that awaited her at the hands of the Romans. Not only
the sorrows of the Jews, but also the false standards of greatness and happiness
throughout the earth, and the tragedy of the perpetual human waste and
wretchedness from the beginning wrung his heart and moved him to tears. “This
painful earth did not leave him cold.” Said he: “I am come ... to call sinners
to repentance.”

Christ knew furthermore that his patient was so sick that superficial treatment
of symptoms and functional disturbances could never reach the old, deep- seated,
organic disease of human personality out of proportion since Eden. He knew, too,
since man was sicker than he thought or even suspected, that the first step
toward recovery was to get him to realize the seri-ousness of his condition and
to accept a correct diag-nosis.

Consequently, when a lawyer asked Christ, “Which is the first commandment ?”
Christ, with a depth of wis-dom that must have surprised the lawyer, replied:
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and
with all thy mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second like
unto it is this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two
commandments the whole law hangeth, and the prophets” (Matthew 22:36-40). In
substance Christ said to the lawyer:

“Crown love, not knowledge; make love the law of your life; live a love-mastered
life, ‘And it must follow, as night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any
man or to God. Then, you can treat God and man as law requires without feeling
either the constraint or the restraint of law, for law shall have passed from
letter into spirit; then, you can be a faithful steward over your charge and no
longer be a failure, for you will be able to live as your Maker intended you
should live.” “Love therefore is the fulfilment of law.” When a rich young ruler
of admirable character, an exceedingly rare four-fold combination in any man,
came to Jesus, thinking that he probably had some mino*’ ailment, asking about
eternal life, “Jesus look-ing upon him loved him.” And Christ seeing that he, as
most men are, was blinded by the world-order of the devil, with respect to Jiis
heart’s allegiance and atro-phied emotional nature, undertook, by a dual test,
to show him himself as he really was. The first part of the test was in moral
conduct; this he passed with an exceptionally high grade, at least JDy nis own
grading. The second installment of the test was in economics; this he failed so
miserably that his average fell way below passing, and he went away “a sadder
and a wiser man.”

Christ asked the ruler to give his great wealth to the poor and to follow him.
His refusal to part with his possessions precluded his admittance into the group
of Christ’s followers, for a rich man among them would have disrupted their
fellowship, something Christ could not tolerate. The ruler departed know mg 1
hat he was afflicted with a frightful malignant tumor of covetous-ness and
worldlmess. When the skillful, honest phy-sician had diagnosed the man’s
disorder, he faithfully recommended the necessary major operation. What more
could he do ? Thus, the curtain drops on the sad scene.

Another ruler of the Jews, a philosophic, self-cen-tered, typical Pharisee of
the elite, named Nicodemus, benighted both bodily and spiritually, came to
Jesus. He was another man so blinded by “the god of this world” that he did not
know he was sick. By strict observance of rites and rules, by much studying and
striving, Nicodemus had lifted himself to honor and power as “the teacher of
Israel.” Of course he was proud ef his efforts and success. To make him realize
the futility of all this, and the emptiness of his religious life, required
skill, honesty, and courage. The physician had all these plus, however, and
probed his disorder to the root with, “Except one be born anew, he cannot see
the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). By this, Nicodemus was to understand that his
way of intellectualism, self-sufficiency, and human merit was the way of
“flesh,” and that by means of it he could not enter the spiritual kingdom;
understand that entrance into the kingdom required such a radical change in his
life that it could best be described as a birth. That is, the change would
require him to discard all his laboriously built up religion and life as a means
of acceptance with God and begin all over again. In trying to help Nicodemus
grasp this puzzling, new doctrine, Christ illustrated by telling him that the
birth “of water and the Spirit” was as independent of human wisdom and work as
is the wind and its doings. In other words, as God uses no energy and “wisdom of
men” in making the wind to blow, so he uses no human philosophy and learning in
effecting the birth from above. “So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of
him that runneth, but of God that hath mercy” (Romans 9:16).

Christ closed the interview with Nicodemus by gra-ciously giving him the way of
the new birth in skeleton outline. The key-words are “Lifted,” “Loved,” and
“Light” (John 3:14-21). Gods’ love, Christ’s suffering on the cross, and man’s
loving and embracing light. Here are some cardinal truths concerning the way out
of “the kingdom of the world” into “the kingdom of God,” and all of them are
articulate with man’s emotional nature rather than with his inteelectual
faculties. Love lays her “ . . . just hands on that golden key That opens the
Palace of Eternity.” From the three preceding typical diagnosis may be gathered:

First, “TheGreat Physician” is not a quack, treating mere symptoms. He does not
hack at the branches of sin, but digs it out by the roots. His technique is that
of a Hercules who, in order to change the flora and the fauna of a land, would
not destroy a few flowers and animals artifically, but raise the altitude of the
country a few thousand feet. Even so, Christ raises the whole life-level of his
patients from the depths of Satan to the heights of God.

Second, he is not a specialist, with different remedies for different sins.
Instead, since all sins are the bitter fruit of one sour stock, he lumps them
all together for one, great, expiatory treatment with his sovereign panacea
“that taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). And what is his panacea ?
In a word, himself. In the gospel by John, several familiar Scriptures from his
lips, which may well be called “Great I am passages,” although very succinctly,
very fully and emphatically give his reationship to the world of men. Some of
these passages are: “I am the bread of life,” “I am the light of the world,” “I
am the good shepherd,” “I am the vine,” and “I am the way, and the truth, and
the life.” In general, these passages mean that Christ himself is adapted to
human nature as a key is to its lock; that in him man can find everything he
needs for his highly complex nature. They mean that Christ is bread for man’s
hunger, drink for his thirst, light for his darkness, cure for his diseases, and
life for his death. Since he is the way, without him there is no going; since he
is the truth, without him there is no knowing; since he is the life, without him
there is no living.

Christ can restore the original balance and perfection of human nature and
enable man to face the past, the present, and future in true hope and optimism.
All other hope is false; all other optimism is blind. Paul’s soul had ample
cause to catch up its tambourine and sing the grand lyric of redemption found in
the latter part of the eighth chapter of Romans. With more study, each of these
great comparisons would yield more gold. For example, what plain, non-figurative
exposition could teach so well that Christ is to the souls of men what literal
bread is to their bodies, as “I am the bread of life”? In the controversy with
the Jews which this statement provoked, Christ supplemented it with: “Except ye
eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have not life in
yourselves” (John 6:53). “Eating” Christ put into literal language means
appropriating him by faith and obedience. As literal food, by the process of
assimilation, is identified with the body and becomes part of it, so Christ must
be assimilated and identified with the Christian’s personality and life, to live
and work in him. That is, Christians must be instinct with his life; impregnated
and animated by his Spirit; incorporated into his personality; in short, share
his mind, his heart, and his very life. Christ will restore men’s fallen,
perverted nature and enable them to live as their Creator intended up to the
measure that they “eat” him. Those who nibble at him, he will civilize; those
who lunch off him, he will moralize; and those who feast on him, he will
Christianize.

Let it be emphasized that Christ himself is this im-perial Panacea. He himself
must be “eaten.” And it does not necessarily follow because men go to church on
Sunday to pinch the loaf and sip the wine that they are “eating Christ.” The
“Lord’s supper” is a symbolic representation of “eating him,” intended to help
men really to partake of Christ’s nature and life and personality. If it does
not serve this end, but becomes a symbol, without signification, it is “not for
the better for the worse” (1 Corinthians 11:17). His supper is not he. Nor the
Bible Christ. Christ tried to set the Jews right on this point by saying to
them: “Ye search the scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have eternal
life; and these are they which bear witness of me; and ye will not come to me
that ye may have life” (John 5:39-40). The Scriptures, like the supper, are not
the life-giver, but the necessary means when correctly used, to the person who
is “the life.” If the Bible does not lead its readers and students to Christ
himself, it not only fails to be a “savor from life unto life, but even becomes
a “savor from death unto death” (2 Corinthians 2:16). The Bible never leaves
people as it finds them. When it does not lead them to Christ and thus make them
better, it hardens them and makes them worse, no matter how well they may know
the letter of the Bible. There is perpetual peril of form and letter usurping
spirituality and personality; of “holding a form, but having denied the power
thereof” (2 Timothy 3:5). In the commerce of love nothing can win a person but a
person, therefore Christ “gave himself for us” (Titus 2:14).


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  CHAPTER 13: THE REWARDS OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE
========================================================================

The Rewards of the Christian Life THE REWARDS OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE Chas. H.
Roberson The Jewish Doctrine Matthew 20:1-16; Luke 14:12-14; Luke 14:1; Luke
14:7-11; Luke 18:9-14; Luke 17:7-10

Among the Jews in Jesus’ day the fear of punishment and the hope of good fortune
in the present and of blessedness in the future were the great motives which
influenced the individual. Such a motive has to some extent, the mercenary
element in that doing right is prompted by the selfish interests of the
individual. The prevailing teaching among the Pharisees was a the effect that
one’s title to immortality was assured only when a man’s righteous deeds
exceeded his evil doings. This developed selfish and egoistic impulses rather
than altruistic and social one, for it led the Pharisees to use many superficial
devices, such as long prayers, alms-giving, fasting and different types of
sacrifices whereby they thought they might obtain great favor with God. Such a
selfish and mercenary conception of religion has proved in every age to be the
worst foe of vital personal faith. In Jesus’ teaching there are traces of this
baneful influence. The important passage, Luke 14:12-14, directly teaches
service rendered unselfishly to those who need it is alone of lasting value. It
emphasizes the importance of an unselfish motive in doing deeds of kindness.
Jesus’ exhortation to his disciples was to invite those who could not repay. In
Jesus’ teachings the rewards are regarded not as the motives but as the result
of unselfish actions. This presents a vital distinction between Christianity and
all other religions. When you have entertained “the poor, the maimed, the lame,
the blind”; those who can not repay you, “thou shalt be blessed.” The passage in
Luke 14:1; Luke 14:7-11 teaches that true honor comes only to those who conquer
self-seeking and pride. Jesus’ understanding of men made him well aware that the
man who pushes himself forward arouses the antagonism of his fellows and he who
claims less than his due finds championship by all men. The very graphic
teaching of Jesus, “For every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled; And he
that humbleth himself shall be exalted,” should find a ready response in the
conduct of every true disciple. This same principle is applied to man’s relation
to God in Luke 18:9-14. This narrative brings out sharply the contrast between
Jesus’ teaching regarding rewards and that of the Pharisees. The Pharisee
confident of divine favor because of his good deeds entered boldly into the
temple and began to recite them but went home unblessed. The publican, conscious
of no deserving and expecting no reward went to his home justified rather than
the Pharisee.

Further, in Jesus’ teaching, it is the spirit and the quality of service rather
than the quantity, that are essential. The parable of the laborers in the
vineyard, Matthew 20:1-16, surely illustrates the principle that rewards are
dependent upon the quality and the spirit of the service. By the pharisaic
doctrine of rewards, the claim of the men who had labored longest that they were
entitled to the larger compensation, was entirely valid. Their complaint recalls
to one’s mind the older brother in the parable of the two lost sons. But to
those who labored one hour he gave the same gifts. In any case the gift so far
exceeded the deserts that no one had just cause for complaint. The passage (Luke
17:7-10), illustrates the fact that the simple doing of duty is not the basis
for special rewards. The thought is: “we belong to God, if our conduct is
perfect, it gives no claim to special rewards,” for as servants of God it is our
duty to do the best we know.

Faithful Service: Its Rewards Matthew 4:19-22; Mark 1:16-20; Mark 10:28-31 and
parallels; Matthew 22:32 and parallells; Luke 18:29-30 and parallels; Matthew
10:39 and parallels

While the mercenary doctrine of rewards was rejected by Jesus he knew well that
if a man is to do his best he must have a worthy goal; the more attractive the
goal, the more does the man put forth effort. Jesus attracted men by appealing
to their nobler desires. ‘‘Come ye after me, I will make you fishers of men”
were the words with which he drew Peter and Andrew, and James and John (Matthew
4:19; Matthew 4:22, Mark 1:16-20) to him. There is no reference to material nor
personal reward; yet the request of James and John on their last journey with
Jesus to Jerusalem shows how selfish their ambitions were (see Mark 10:37, or
Matthew 20:21). The words of Peter, Mark 10:28-31 (cf. Matthew 19:27-29, Luke
18:28-30) throw much light upon their motives. Peter’s question is the natural
and almost universal one, “what is to be gained by leaving all and following
Jesus?” The answer which has been so often given in the past, “Everlasting peace
and joy in the future life,” is but a reassertion of the Jewish doctrine of
rewards. Jesus taught that this is the result of fellowship in the kingdom of
God and did not place it as the chief goal for his followers. References to
future blessedness are found more often in ecclesiastical interpretations of
Jesus’ utterances than in his own words. The cruel and bitter persecutions which
thinned out the ranks of Christians in the latter half of the first century
caused men to think with increasing desire of the hope of reward beyond death.
This distinction which Jesus made between earthly things and spiritual things
was transformed into sharp contrast between the things of the present and those
of the future. But Jesus taught that the kingdom of God is both present and
future. God is “God not of the dead, but of the living” (Matthew 22:32, Mark
12:27, Luke 20:38). Eternal life begins here and now: death is not the end of
life, but is the transition from a lower estate to a higher one. Therefore the
goal which Jesus sets before his disciples is the attainment of a full life with
God in the present and not merely in a distant future. Such a life is reward in
itself for the denials and efforts which men can put forth. It is acknowledgment
of God’s supremacy on the one hand and on the other the enjoyment of the
manifold gifts which the heavenly Father can and does bestow. When Peter came
with his implied question, he had apparently in mind material honors and
possessions. Jesus’ answer, “There is no man that hath left house, or wife, or
brethren, or parents, or children, for the kingdom of God’s sake, who shall not
receive manifold more in this time, and in the world to come eternal life” (Luke
18:29-30; (cf. Matthew 19:29, Mark 10:29-30) is quite conclusive. Also in
Matthew, “In the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of his
glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of
Israel,” the promise is expanded into an elaborate prediction. But back of this
lies the statement of an eternal principle, “He that loseth his life for my sake
shall find it” (Matthew 10:39), (cf. Mark 8:35, Lk, 9:24, Matthew 16:25), that
is, he who gives up all through loyalty and love for the Master shall receive
infintely more. It is doubtless true in the experience of many that when there
is the ceasing to attain to something selfishly that that thing is gained.
Jesus’ teachings reveal the character of the things which come to those who
follow him in his way of living. They are permanent and the only satisfying
possessions which man can attain: the peace and confidence and the perfect
physical, mental and spiritual health which is possible only as a man stands in
an honest, trustful, helpful relation to God and his fellow-men. Emancipation
from greed, anger, envy, fear and worry is the goal Jesus places before his
disciples. This gives complete normal development of the powers with which men
are endowed and results from right thinking and efficient and unselfish service.
It is not for things nor for mere rewards thath JeSus would have men bend their
energies but for perfected, divine manhood with its resulting happiness.

Happiness: Its Place in Jesus’ Teachings Christianity has been too often thought
of as a gloomy religion. One must recall how often the word ‘‘blessed” or
“happy” was on Jesus’ lips. It was and is for the true happiness of men that
Jesus labored. The importance of happiness is indicated by the prominent place
the Beatitudes have in the records of Matthew. They portray in briefest
statement the real condition of happiness that is true and genuine. They do not
state that the gentle, and the merciful and the peacemaker will ultimately be
rewarded by attaining to happiness but that they are already happy. Happiness is
as sure to follow these qualities as the “night follows the day.” Each Beatitude
gives its own reason. In far too many instances today, happiness is thought of
as something selfish and trivial. Happiness was dethroned from the high place
Jesus gave it by Puritanism and given over largely to the devil. Even today we
find people who have a twinge of conscience whenever they are thoroughly happy.
It must be kept before us that to make happiness the chief goal of one’s efforts
is selfish and suicidal. Too, many things popularly supposed to be sources of
happiness are barren. With the vulgar, superficial conception of happiness,
Jesus had no sympathy. The happiness of which he taught is the fruit of
whole-hearted self-denial, sacrifice and service. It is freedom from fears and
the envies and the unsatisfied ambitions that are the foes of happiness. It is
the overflowing that comes from abounding mental, moral and spiritual health. It
is the joy that springs from the sense of perfect adjustment with one’s
environment, from love and loyalty to God, and from good will toward men.

Conditions of True Happiness Matthew 5:3-12; Luke 6:20-23; Acts 20:35 The
Beatitudes present a marvelous portrait of Jesus and are the crown of his
teachings. They reveal the sublime traits which blended, produce that divine
serenity radiated from his face and are reflected in all his words and acts.
They are great fundamental principles by which every son of God may attain to
peace and happiness. They present the goal which mankind is endeavoring to
attain by the longer, more tortuous path of scientific investigation and
experiment. They assume that it is God’s purpose that all men shall be happy and
teach that the ultimate source of happiness is not in achievement nor in things
but in the thought and motive of men. Jesus’ message here is not for an
impossible ideal but for humanity and society as they are right now in this
present time. The Beatitudes as recorded in Matthew may be arranged in three
groups: (a) the first four refer particularly to the character and spirit; (b)
the next three to men’s attitude toward society; (c) the last two offer comfort
and encouragement to Jesus’ disciples amidst bitter persecution, more
particularly probably to the harsh persecutions which came in the years
following his death. The Beatitudes are Jesus’ “map of life.” They are the most
perfect expression, in words, of “the life that is life indeed”—life that is
really worth while, and no man who wishes to be what he ought to be, to enjoy
what he may, may wisely ignore them. In other words the one great spiritual
teacher the world has known definitely sets forth the really basic qualities of
life ancTThus reveals to man the great secret of true character, real happiness
and right influence. Therefore the Beatitudes are our chart and our sailing
orders for the supremely happy voyage over life’s sea and we may be well assured
that if life is right now that the future life will also be eminently right.

Each Beatitude is not a description of a distinct class of men but is an
essential quality which must find acceptance and expression in combination in
each man to insure perfect happiness.

The first Beatitude, Matthew 5:3, (cf. Luke 6:20) emphasizes the receptive
attitude. The “poor in spirit” stand in contrast to the proud and
self-satisfied. They are the humble, the teachable, the open-minded as well as
the trustful. This great quality is fitly placed first in this picture of the
true life for it is the first essential of all growth into better things. The
Chief Corner-Stone of True Character is Humility The second, Matthew 5:4 (Luke
6:21) emphasizes the need of genuine penitence. The mourners are those who are
conscious of their own defects and thus filled with dis-content of their own
spiritual attainments are sincerely penitent. They stand in contrast to those
who without scruple feel free to follow every impulse without compunction. There
is implied the sensitiveness of conscience which is at once the condition and
the effect of steady duty doing even in the little things.

Groivth in Character is Not Possible Where Penitence is Lacking The third,
Matthew 5:5 emphasizes self-control at its highest power. The meek are the
unresistant and submissive. They stand in contrast to those who are perpetually
envious of their rights and as persistently claiming everything for themselves.
Beecher says: “It is the best side of man under provocation maintaining itself
in the best mood and controlling all men.” Meekness is no milk and water virtue:
it is a root virtue and is essential to the strong man.

Self-Control, Meekness, is a Root Virtue of All Virtues The fourth, Matthew 5:6,
(cf. Luke 6:21) emphasizes the necessity of persistent eagerness for high
character. This Beatitude requires the insatiable desire for character
itself,—the unfailing pursuit of the best conduct and inner spirit. Those who
hunger and thirst after righteousness stand in contrast to those who have no
care for character, who harbor sin unchecked, who desire only the reward of
righteousness, not righteousness itself. The righteousness of whicn Jesus speaks
is not merely that which comes through conformity to law, but the personal
consciousness oT too. approval of God. It means that the deepest trend cl one's
being is sot toward the. righteousness of God. The Goal of Hungering and
Thirsting After Righteousness is Complete Integrity of Character These first
four Beatitudes emphasize the supreme importance of the open receptive attitude
toward God and of that spirit which says “thy will be done," and yet is
insistent in the quest of the higher spiritual blessings. They teach the
superlative happiness of those eager for God’s rule in their lives. Each of
these involves the other: a teachable humility plainly leads to penitence,
meekness is the chief aid of the humble spirit and prepares also for the
wholesouled pursuit of righteousness, likewise the persistent eagerness for the
highest character implies humility and penitence and self-control. The fifth,
Matthew 5:7, emphasizes the necessity of sympathy with men. The merciful stand
in contrast to the tyrannical, the hard, the intolerant. To be merciful requires
that one shall be courteous and kind; to attain to a sympathetic understanding
of men; to be intelligent in the treatment of men. Such is no easy
accomplishment,—it is found only in the best, those who know out of their own
experience what temptation and struggle mean. To be merciful includes more than
mere forgiveness of others. It means kindliness expressed in helpful acts,
illustrated in the narrative of the Samaritan. It is then a source of joy, and
is essential if man is to claim the mercy of God. But let us bear in mind that
God’s merciful attitude is not a reward but an inevitable result.

Every Relation of Men Calls for Such Mercy The sixth, Matthew 5:8, emphasizes
the necessity of deepest reverence toward men. The pure in heart stand in
contrast to those who through greed or anger or impure thought are weakened in
their powers of spiritual vision. The purity essential to happiness is purity of
thought, purity of purpose, purity of act. Such purity can belong only to those
who have a deep reverence for the sacredness of the person even unto the
severest temptation. Social purity is one of the chief forms of such purity. No
love is real love that lacks real reverence. And for this reason, real love
becomes the strongest of all human motives to self-control. The pure in heart
recognizes the child of God in every soul and treats him not as a thing but as a
holy person.

Every Thoughtful Student Knows Hoiv Fundamental to Moral Growth is the Spirit of
Being Pure in Heart The seventh, Matthew 5:9, emphasizes the necessity of
promoting love among men. The peacemaker stands in contrast to those who stir up
strife and promote war, whether in large or small ways; to those of whom the the
proverbs speak so contemptuously—the whisperer, the meddler, the tale-bearer,
the busy-body, the tattler and the mischief-maker. Both the Greek and the
Aramaic word, means to be well, to be whole, to be complete. The peacemaker is
not a coward, but belongs to that high order of men who are able to be
reconcilers of their fellowmen and promote peace; and are so, the whole-makers,
the harmony makers. He not only withstands hate but postively promotes the reign
of love among men. His aim is to bring peace and harmony and completeness in his
own life, into that of the family, into the economic world and in every
department of society. The Work of the Peacemaker is a Clear Road to Happiness
The second group of three emphasizes the great importance of mercy, purity and
peacemaking. They teach that the royal road to happiness is traveled by those
who are devoted to the welfare of others. As humility is the first condition of
personal growth, so intelligant sympathy, mercy, is the first condition of the
true social life. The earnestly righteous man must be sympathetic with men,
particularly in their struggle for character and must stand against the two
great foes,—lust and anger; and in true purity of heart be reverent toward men.
Reverence for the person, implied in purity of heart, is the greatest condition
of all high personal relations and naturally stands second in these basic social
qualities. At the same time, it demands the highest righteousness in that
relation that lies at the very basis of society; and itself presupposes and
requires sympathy with men. And once more, he who has the proper regard for the
person and personality of men must seek to promote peace and love among men. And
this deep and permanent peacemaking implies purity of heart. So clearly each
Beatitude paves the way for the following one. The eighth and the ninth, Matthew
5:10-12, (cf. Luke 6:22-23) emphasize the quality of heroic endurance, prompted
by loyalty to God, which has been in all the years of Christianity the crowning
mark of Christian knighthood. That noble array of godly persons who for the sake
of the promotion of righteousness and truth among men, have been willing to
endure hardness, to face the trying experience of the pioneer in every realm and
thus give inconstestable proof of love that expresses itself in sacrifice and
suffering are they who shall enjoy the blessings of these Beatitudes. The virtue
portrayed here is not for the lackadaisical, nor the luxurious, nor for the
self-indulgent. There is a clarion call for heroic service and a challenge for
our easy-going piety with uncompromising questions: Have you really sacrificed
at any time? Have you put yourself out anywhere? Have you really stood for your
convictions, for right, and purity, and truth, at the risk of some unpopularity?
Have you taught by precept and example what God gave you to teach? Has there
been the least little sacrifice of a loving heart? Has there been constant
thoughtfulness? How poverty- stricken, how swept clean of the best that life
holds, would this world be if these last Beatitudes had no place!

Nothing can so equip one who is in earnest in pro-moting the reign of peace and
love among men as to be prepared to sacrifice for men—to face suffering and
persecution. This sacrificial love includes all the great qualities that have
preceded and is itself their climax and final glorification.

Men Know Nothing Higher Than Courageous, Suffering, Sacrificial Love Therefore
the highest traits of character, as put down by our Lord himself are: teachable,
penitent, self- controlled, genuinely in earnest in the sursuit of the highest,
sympathetic with men, reverent toward men, promoting love among men, sacrificing
for men. And as these qualities produce the highest character so likewise are
they the supreme conditions of happiness. Further, another author places the
Beatitudes in two groups of four each, the first is personal, treating the
kingdom of God in our own hearts; the second is social, dealing with the kingdom
in our relation to others. The eight (regarding the eighth and ninth as
duplicates) form-a definite progress, each leading to the one following and
presupposing all that have preceded. As a progress and a unity they may be thus
arranged.

Personal Matthew 5:3-6 1. A teachable humility, Matthew 5:3; 2. Genuine
penitence, Matthew 5:4; 3. Self-control at its highest power, Matthew 5:5; 4. A
persistent eagerness for the highest character, Matthew 5:6.

Social Matthew 5:7-12 1. Sympathy with men, Matthew 5:7; 2. Deepest reverence
toward men, Matthew 5:8; 3. Promoting love among men, Matthew 5:9; 4.
Sacrificing for men, Matthew 5:10-12.

Here, then, indeed is our map of life, our chart, our sailing order, in every
relation of life both in duties to God and to our fellow-men. But before this
study closes, mention must be made of that other Beatitude, preserved for us by
Luke, “it is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). The truth here
expressed though opposite to the ordinary impulses and practices of men, is
being demonstrated in the laboratory of human experience. This truth is the
logical conclusion of Jesus’s teachings. Men aic net only counseled to exchange
material possessions for things eternal and spiritual, but also they are taught
that in so doing, they shall find real happiness. Any and all other teaching
seems superficial and petty in comparison with the teachings of Jesus. The
acceptance of his teaching-; and the faithful application of them represent the
narrow way that alone leads to life.

Finally, he who, with mind open to the revelation of God, lives in harmony with
the divine will, unceasingly craves for himself and others the highest spiritual
blessings, heroically and unreservedly labors for the peace and well-being of
society and the extension of God’s rule among men, will find for himself real
happiness and the peace that passeth understanding, for he will have the
consciousness of the divinity of the great teacher and the certainty of the
eternal trueness of his message.

How great the thought that in the fuller, more complete understanding of the
blessed Master and his teaching, we can say with a confidence that knows no
wavering, “my faith looks up to thee”!


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  CHAPTER 14: LOYALTY TO CHRIST’S CHURCH
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Loyalty to Christ’s Church LOYALTY TO CHRIST’S CHURCH J. D. Harvey

Thank you, Brother Adams. It is quite a pleasure to be back in Texas to enjoy
the fellowship and asso-ciation of this Lecture Week as well as many other
things enjoyable common to Texas. It has been about eight years since I attended
this feast of good things, and I have been looking forward to it with eager
anti-cipation. In the book of Hebrews, third chapter, verses 4, 5 and 6, we have
these readings: “For every house is built by someone; but he that built all
things is God. And Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant, for
a testimony of those things which were afterward to be spoken; but Christ as a
son, over his house; whose house are we, if we hold fast our boldness and the
glorying of our hope firm unto the end.” This text just about defines, as best
as I can see, the subject of the hour—Loyalty to the church. The word loyal is
not in our Bible, but the principle is there. What we call loyal, God calls
faithful. What we style loyalty, God calls faithfulness. Now listen. And as
Moses was faithfu or loyal to all of his house as a servant for a testimony of
those things which were aft-erward to be spoken, so are we supposed to be loyal
to-day. In Exodus 25:40, God commissioned Moses on this wise: “And see that thou
make them after their pattern, which hath been showed thee in the mount.” When
Moses carried out in detail the program according to that order, Paul styled him
a loyal or a faithful servant. Now listen. “But Christ is the son over his house
(that is the church) whose house are we, if we hold fast our boldness and
glorifying of our hope firm unto the end.” In Ephesians 1:22-23 Paul says Christ
is the head of the body, the church. “Then Christ is the son over his own house,
which is the church, whose house are we, if we hold fast our faithfulness and
re-joicing unto the end.” In talking and speaking about loyalty to the church,
you notice that Christ is the son over his own house, whose house are ye if you
are loyal. Then Christ could not have a church unless there is somebody loyal.
There could not be a church on this earth today because the church is made up of
loyal Christians. And Christ says you shall be my house in Abilene or anywhere
else you come together if there is enough loyalty in your heart to maintain the
orders from the King of kings and Lord of lords. Then, the existence of the
church depends upon Christian loyalty to the church. The type of study; Loyalty
makes the subject important as well as a very challenging situation that never
does exist until we have persecution, until we have opposition, or, rather, it
doesn’t show up. You don’t know whether you are loyal or not or faithful until
opposition comes. I doubt if it even can show itself until the opposition arises
and the circumstances

Let me suggest this morning that it takes persecution ; it takes opposition to
bring out in us our loyalty, faithfulness, to God and the church. A very
striking example is found in the book of Ruth. Whatever else you have learned
from the book, you certainly learned one thing about Ruth—her loyalty to her
mother-inlaw’s religion. When the test came, Naomi said, “Go on back to your
people; I am going back to mine. You go back to your people, for I am a stranger
in a foreign country.” But Ruth was so faithful to her mother-inlaw that she
entreated her not to leave her for she said, “Whither thou goest, I will go, and
whither thou lodgest, I will lodge. Thy people shall be my people and thy God
shall be my God, and where thou diest, I will die.” Ruth here expressed her
loyalty. In the book of Esther we see a woman who when called upon to face the
king when he held out the royal invitation showed that degree of loyalty to her
people which is comparable to that found in the book of Dan-iel. A lion’s den
was prepared for Daniel to test his faithfulness to his God. In Daniel 6:10,
“And when he knew that the writing was signed he entered into his house, raised
the window, faced Jerusalem, and prayed to God three times a day just as he had
before.” Loyalty in the face of a lion’s den is a great degree of faithful-ness.
We have some boys today who are prisoners of a heathen world, but I believe we
have some boys that were born in American homes who have the faith and loyalty
to pray to their God and even be prisoners of war.

What I am trying to say this morning is that we should be loyal when opposition
comes, in the face of opposition you will never know 'just how strong you are
until persecution arises In John 19:25-27 when every disciple except John left
the Lord while he was suspended there on the cross, John expressed in verse 25,
“But there were standing by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother’s
sister, Mary, and Mary Magdalene.” John’s faith didn’t cause him to stand there,
but a mother’s love is always shown in all kinds of opposition; she stood by the
cross of Christ. Young men and young ladies, older ones, that mother’s loyalty
will always prove all right, and I think the most loyal group of citizens in
America this morning are the mothers who offer to the armed forces their own
blood. You can know very well that the mother will stand loyal, and I merely
brought this out to suggest to you how Mary stood there by the cross of Christ
in the days of opposition, In Acts 5:29 when Peter was charged to preach no more
the gospel, he said: “We must obey God rather than men in the face of such
opposition.

I have in these few moments just about defined to you what I mean this morning
by the. term faithfulness or loyalty, but the next part of my subject is loyalty
to the church—Christ’s church. You will be loyal to the church if you understand
what the church is. Disloyalty is a result of misconception of the church. When
you see people disloyal to the church, it is more or less due to the fact that
they do not have, a proper conception of that institution. People who are not
loyal to Abilene Christian College usually are people who do not understand it.
Then, before you can be faithful to the church, you would have to have a clear
conception of what the church is. It „s impossible for any one to prove faithful
to any Institution if that institution is not clear in their mind.

Therefore, I think it is time here to discuss to you that institution to which
you must be loyal as a mem ber of it. Occasionally in my visiting I have this
point thoroughly brought out. About five, days ago I called on a young soldier
and his wife, and I said, “What church do you belong to?” and they said, “To the
church of Christ, but we attend services at the Methodist Church.” That wasn’t
any shock to me because they had just got through saying that one. church is
just as good as another. The reason they feel that way is that they do not
understand. I was called on not long ago to visit a young lady who had been a
member of the church and who had left the church for a denomination, but upon my
sympathetic investigation I found that she did not know anything about the
church; therefore, she could not be loyal to it.

Before I can seat in your heart this morning that loyalty to the church, I must
get before you the picture of the New Testament church. “Well,” you say, “I
don’t think you can find it. It has been so long ago since that church existed.”
I wonder if we can really identify it. In Acts 21:4 we have this little
historical statement: “And having found the disciples, we tarried there seven
days; and these said to Paul through the Spirit that he should not set foot in
Jerusalem.” There are three points in this:

(1) True disciples to the church must have existed, because you can’t find
something which did not exist. (2) Evidently the church had earmarks or an
identity by which these seekers could identify it. (3) They knew what they were
looking for.

Some Christians write me, stating, “Brother Harvey, we can’t find a church in
this town.” There might be a dozen there; they don’t know what they are looking
for.

First of all, friends, before you can be loyal to the church, you must know what
you are seeking for, be-cause you can’t find what you know nothing about. In
this statement first, there was a church; and second, it had definite markings;
and third, these men knew the picture wrhen they saw it. But somebody said,
“Brother Harvey, I still don’t see where I can go to find that picture.” In 1
Corinthians 4:6 Paul says: “Now these things, brethren, I have in a figure
transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that in us ye might learn not
to go beyond the things which are written; that no one of you be puffed up for
the one against the other.” What is a figure ? It is a picture; it is a
photograph. I hold in my hand this morning a book that pictures unto us a
perfect photograph of the New Testament church and there you can read and see a
perfect picture, pictorial, of the church.

I never shall forget one of our colored preachers, Brother Bowser. I attended
his debate with a sectarian preacher, and they were debating that usual subject
that the church to which I belong is scriptural in doctrine. About the first
shout that Brother Bowser made, he said, “Now, I’ve got the catalog here, and I
don’t find your church listed in it.” So the debate was over. So now, this is
the catalog, and that is the one in which it is listed, and there is a clear
picture of it. As wre begin, you find the original church in the New Testament
to which I am asking you to be loyal orig-inated in the word of God. On the day
of Pentecost the gospel was preached, and it had its beginning with the apostles
in Jerusalem. A church that did not origi-nate in God’s word is not the New
Testament church. In Luke 8:11 we have, “The seed is the word of God.” And from
that seed we had a production of the church, and when I ask you to be loyal to
the church, I am ask-ing you to be loyal to a spiritual instition that comes as
a result of gospel preaching. I couldn’t ask anyone to be faithful to an
institution that didn’t be~gin from that seed.

Furthermore, I want to say this morning that because the church was produced by
the seed, it is advanced and promoted by the same process. In Acts 2:42 of that
early church that began from that seed, the Bible said: “There they continued
steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine.” It is the apostles’ doctrine, but you
notice there is no s on that doctrine. It is the apostles’ doctrine. In places
where I have preached, they have said, “Brother Harvey, you are mighty good at
taking the s’s off of things.” I would like to take the s off the church; I
would like to take the s off of doctrine. Now listen, friends. There are
doctrines with s’s on them. The kind we read about in 1 Timothy 4:1 in which
Paul said: “The Spirit said that in latter times shall fall away from the faith,
giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of the devil.” In Colossians
2:22-23 Paul said: “All which things are to perish with the using, after the
precepts and doctrines of men; which things have indeed a show of wisdom.” The
doctrines of men will have the s on the church also. In Hebrews 13 :S Paul says:
“Be not carried about by divers and strange doctrines,” for it is good that the
heart be established hy grace.” If you know not what I am talking about, take
your Bible and turn for a while to see if you can find any other doctrine than
the apostles’ doctrine. I am asking you this morning to continue steadfastly in
the apostles’ doctrine, and that is what I mean by loyalty to the church. But
again another thmp; that identifies the church of the Bible is the complete
program. In Colossians 2:10 Paul says: “And in him you are made full, who is the
head of all principality and power.” And in him we are made full. In Php_4:9,
“And my God shall supply every need of yours according to his riches m glory in
Chiist Jesus.” The church of the Bible is big enough and large enough to include
every spiritual blessing in the world. And that is the picture of the church.
When you hear somebody say, “Well, you don’t have to be a member of my church to
be saved”; you can just say, “It is not big enough for you to be faithful to.”
But the New Testament church is big enough to hold every blessing that God gives
to man. I don’t like for anyone to call me narrow, but I am glad that I belong
to the church that gives every blessing that God offers to us. That is the
institution that I am asking you to be loyal to this morning. The New Testament
church had a government in Fhilippians 1:1, elders to rule over, deacons to
serve, and saints to come, That is all of it; that is the New Testament church.
I am not asking you to be loyal to a church that has a presiding elder and the
bishop and ail such types of modern denominationalism.

But, again, the New Testament church had a name in Romans 16:16, “The churches
of Christ greet you.” I am not asking you to be faithful to something with a
human handle. I am asking ycu to be loyal to the church—the church of Christ. A
new thing has been suggested in my town; I think it must be all over the
country. “The church of Christ is an offspring of some denomination.” The church
of Christ originated in the Bible; therefore, it couldn’t have originated from
anything else. The church of Christ is not all mouth; it is not like a
hippopotamus. It had a work, and that work was to edify the members to care for
the less fortunate and, mainly, to preach the gospel. The church of the Bible
talks about a worshio, Revelation 22:8 woship God, with these acts (Acts 2:42).
How? John 4:24 says, “in spirit and truth.” Then, that is something of what I
mean this morning by loyalty to the church. But I would like to suggest before I
leave this particular phase, that the larger and main reason why the church of
Christ exists in this world is to preach the gospel. Every school, every
building, every service, every dollar spent is just a means to preach the word.
In 1 Timothy 3:15 this passage says, “But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know
how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of
the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” May I suggest that this
passage states the truth supports the church, and the church supports the truth.
Everything else that we do in life should be an outgrowth of teaching the Bible.
The church is the pillar of the truth. Then, young preachers, if you are here,
you can rest assured that when you preach the truth, there is not much
competition from denominations, and when you preach the gospel, you don’t have
much competition from those who espouse the priests.

There is something about the church that we need to build up. To have progress,
we must have faithfulness. In 1 Thessalonians 1:3 Paul said something about the
work of faith. Friends, it must be a work described in this book. We get an idea
sometimes that, “Well, we just work.” We will work miracles and healings, but
that is not a work of faith. To be a work of faith, it must be a work outlined
in God’s word. There is a work of faith in every Christian’s being faithful and
loyal to the church. If you are not, you will soon be disloyal.

About nine o’clock one Sunday morning the old fam-ily clock was striking about
as lazy as usual on Sunday morning. The Father of the house said, “Son, I think
Mother needs to wind up the striking of the clock.” The boy said nothing. About
ten o’clock the church bell began to ring, and the Mother said, “Aren’t you
going to church today, husband?” He answered, “No, I don’t think I will go.” The
little boy said, “I think your re-ligion needs to be wound up, Father.” My
friends, there is a work of faith that winds up your religion, and you must be
loyal to it, but the rest is a labor of love. What is a labor of love ? What is
the difference in a work of faith and a labor of love? Well, I don’t know how to
describe it to you other than there is a closer tie in that labor of love. I
stayed in Kentucky six years—a long time in Texas, but a short time in Kentucky.
I learned one *hing about Kentucky that I admire and that was the great bird
family there. There are more' pretty birds thare than I have ever seen at any
other place. The state bird is the cardinal —a beautiful, proud-winged affair.
While sitting in my study, I noticed two cardinals; it must have been a Mr. and
Mrs. They had contemplated a little family. She was working all that she could.
I can see her yet as she put the feathers and the string and the grass in the
nest. He was concerned but not much. He just sat by and watched mostly. Oh,
occasionally he would come around. As that love affair developed and she began
to look for the little family, the last thing she did was to put in there her
feathers from her own breast to line that nest. That was a work of love, and
those things that will make you loyal are a work of faith, a labor of love, and
a patience of hope.

But, you know, Christ never did say to me, that you are the loyal of the earth.
I have taken out a little time this morning in proving it. I will now use a few
minutes in applying loyalty. I don’t think we have used too much time in proving
it; but I don’t think we have used enough time in applying faithfulness. In
Matthew 5:13 Christ said to his disciples, “Ye are the salt of the earth.” Why
didn’t he say, “You are the loyal of the earth”? Salt is loyalty applied. What
do you think about going down the street and saying, “I am the salt of the town”
? What do you think about going into a community and saying, “We are the loyal”?
He said that you are the salt of the earth. It is a wonderful compliment and an
obligation when the Lord said that you are the salt of the earth. I meant to say
when you have genuine loyalty to the church, you will be a big force wherever
you go. You don’t have to say, “Does this have salt in it?” If the salt gets in
there, you can find it. If it is not in there, you will miss it.

I was out to dinner not long ago. We had a nice lunch, and I heard the old
family freezer turning. That is the best sound in the world. We had lunch over,
and it came time for the ice cream. We waited for the hostess to take the first
bite. She did, and she screamed and said, “Oh, it ruined/’ Just a little salt,
that was all. Salt is positive, and you don’t have to go down the streets
saying, “I am the salt of the earth.” People will find out.. That is loyalty
applied. The teaching started at the beginning in the home, in the school, in
the church. I don’t know whether you read the Abilene Reporter or not, but when
Stephen Bodine, that young American from Mitchell county, wrote his mother the
letter that she did not get until he was already killed, he said, “Mother, don’t
pray for me to come home; pray that I might do my duty.” She read that letter
after Stephen had lost his life in the Coral battle. My friend, that spark of
state loyalty was in that youth’s heart from the home, and this great group of
young men who go to our soldier camp any even attend prayer meetings have a bit
of loyalty to the church that was put there by the mother.

Jesus said, “You are the light of the world.” “Me?” “Why,” Somebody said, “I
hope my light will shine.” You needn’t hope that; if it is there at all, it will
shine. You could not keep from it. Somebody said, “When I get to heaven, I am
going to shine.” You are supposed to shine where you are. You are then the salt
of the earth, the light of the world. Old Brother Shrygley said a little while
before he died, “If a man is a fisherman, he will fish.” If he is the light of
the world, he will shine. This is loyalty applied. But before I close, I wish I
could develop a genuine case of what I am talking about. Loyalty, faithfulness
—how can I get it? Somebody said, “Nobody expects to live until he develops
something in him for which he is willing to die.” Let me tell you this morning
how you get this loyalty. In 2 Corinthians 8:5 Paul commented on the liberality
of the people, and you are not very loyal if you can’t give. Whenever the
members of the church get to the place where they will give themselves, then
they are being loyal to the church and to Christ. In Romans 12:1, “I beseech
you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a
living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”
Until there is something in you for which you are willing to die, and give
yourself, there will never be loyalty.

I have always thought a great deal of John T. Hinds, The best book that he wrote
was the “Comments on Revelation,” and his complete consecration to that account.
He said,

“Until you develop in your heart willingness to die for the church and the
gospel, it will always be just a mere insincerity.”

I am told that the Chinese country, and I love the Chinese better than I ever
did before, used to manufacture some beautiful bells. They were regular bell
pealers. A certain king ordered a man to build a bell out of certain materials.
When the bell was finished, it would not ring right. He told the man to build
another bell, and still it did not ring. “If you build a third bell, and it
doesn’t ring, you will die,” the king told the man. The man’s daughter heard
about this and threw herself into .the third bell, and became a part of the
bell. When that third bell began to ring, it was the great bell of the world.
You will never be loyal to the church until you give the church yourself. Are
there some people today who will give themselves to the great cause? If there
are, will you come while together we sing?


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Source: https://sermonindex.net/books/abilene1943-lectures/
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