The story is told of a vacuum cleaner salesman whose persistence often won him
a quick sale. On one particular day, he approached an old home place back in
the woods where he was sure he would find success. After spending a few
moments introducing the product, the salesman opened up his bag and brought
forth a jar of dirt and grime. As he continued his normal sales pitch, he
began pouring the contents of this jar upon the carpet leaving it soiled and
dirty. His intention was to show how powerful his brand of cleaner really
was. But, he failed to inquire about an essential item. He found out the
hard way that this house was not wired for electricity.
The moral of this story illustrates a fundamental truth in our service and
worship to God. Too often we are prone to jump to conclusions and do things
we feel are alright without ever checking the source or comparing these items
to what the scriptures teach. As this salesman realized, an essential item
for the proper functioning of his appliance had been overlooked. In
Christianity, this is often done as well.
Many times we overlook the fundamental and essential items in our quest to be
pleasing unto God. Jesus told us plainly in John 4:23-24, “But the hour
cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in
spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a
spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”
An essential item in order for worship to be acceptable is truth. Jesus said
unto the Father in John 17:17, “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is
truth.” Not only are we to have the proper attitude, we also are to worship
the Father in accordance with the teachings of the word of God. Thus, in
order to worship the Father, we must not overlook an absolutely essential
item. We must search the Scriptures and only offer unto the Lord those things
that are found to be acceptable according to the words of our God in heaven.
The Scriptures also reveal unto us the need for faith in every aspect of our
work and worship. According to Romans 14:23 “whatsoever is not of faith is
sin.” The same writer earlier in this letter wrote “Faith cometh by hearing
and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). With these Scriptures in
mind, we should all realize the great need for authority from God in the
things we do for him. Paul once wrote of how “we walk by faith and not by
sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). In other words, we don’t look at things from a
human perspective and reason our way through them, we direct our steps through
and by faith. Such thoughts as “I just don’t see anything wrong with it,”
“Well it sure looks good to me,” etc... are thoughts that focus on walking by
sight.
Those who walk by faith do not rely on feelings or sight; they are guided by a
study and a proper application of the word of God. When we walk by faith we
walk by the teachings of the word of God. Suffice it to say, we can become
entangled with false doctrine or contrary ideas and stray away from the faith
and truth revealed in God’s word. Paul warned Timothy in 1 Tim. 6:20-21 to
“keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain
babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: Which some professing
have erred concerning the faith.” The application for us is as strong as for
Timothy. We must keep that which is committed to us, the word of truth,
avoiding false doctrines and the quagmire of sin and error so we never err
from the precious teachings of the word of God.
The church of Christ remains dedicated to walking within the light of God’s
Holy Word and not in the shadows of man’s theology. We believe in doing Bible
things by Bible ways. We refuse to accept things for which we have no divine
authority. We encourage each and everyone to study carefully the word of God
and compare each practice with the teachings found therein. We try not to
expect something from others that we fail to put into practice ourselves. We
are always open to learn and grow in our understanding of the word of God.
This does not mean we are weak or easily swayed, but we continually strive to
be open minded to the teachings of God. After all, He remains the potter and
we the clay.
We ask you to consider this very essential item, the need for authority from
God for our practices. Paul stated in 1 Thessalonians 5:21; “prove all
things, hold fast to that which is good.” The wise man stated in Proverbs
23:23 “Buy the truth and sell it not.”
One of the reasons we see so much division within the “realm of Christianity”
is due in part to assuming too much without checking with our source of
authority. If we fail to have the necessary essentials in place on judgement
day, we may very well find ourselves in a far worse situation than this
foolish salesman. He was left with the unpleasant task of trying to undo his
mistake the hard way; for us it will be too late to undo what we have done.
We will simply have to face our eternal reward.
“Are We Happy In The Weeds Of Sin?”
If you were offered $19,219.68 or an existence as an almost penniless wino,
which would you accept? Clint Wescott, age fifty-one, accepted the latter.
His cronies called him Old Whiskers. How interesting is his story!
Clint was a bearded flop-hatted bum attired mostly in rags. For ten years Old
Whiskers resided among the weeds on a slope at the base of a cliff in Los
Angeles. His home had no walls, floors or ceilings; just a broken down chair,
an old mattress, a campfire, and several large rocks for his “guests” to sit
on.
In his earlier years Clint was an industrious individual. He ran a service
station in Burnt Hills, New York, which he abandoned in 1953 when he headed
west. The station was sold in 1961 for $15,124.38. The money was deposited
in a bank to Westcott’s credit by a New York court. Accumulated interest
brought the deposit to nearly $20,000.00.
Attorney John P. Brown saw a story in the Schenectady Gazette about Old
Whiskers and immediately contacted him. When told of his fortune, he turned
his back on it. He said, “I’d rather stay at the bottom of the barrel. Give
me a dollar. I’ll take it, buy a little drink and a little smoke. But I
don’t want that money. Sure, I want to get out of the weeds. But I have no
thought of moving out now.”
There are very few people in this world that would turn down earthly riches as
Old Whiskers did. But there are thousands that are living in Spiritual
poverty and have no desire to move out of the “weeds” just yet. Many are
content with their present condition failing to realize the brevity of life
and the punishment for sin. Paul stated, “For the wages of sin is death”
(Romans 6:23). The attractions of this world offer nothing but fleeting joy
and temporary appeasement. In the end, if our affections are placed upon
things of this world, if we live in sin and never obey the Lord, we will be
punished with everlasting destruction, (2 Thessalonians 1:8-9). As Paul
stated, “the wages of sin is death.”
On the other hand, if we would but realize the riches we stand to enjoy if we
are faithful in our obedience and service to God, these fleeting attractions
would fail to compare. Paul went on to add in Romans 6:23, “but the gift of
God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Will you turn your back
on eternal life in order to stay in the weeds? Do you reason like Old
Whiskers, “I want to come out of the weeds, but just not today?” We are not
guaranteed a tomorrow. The riches promised by Jesus may well slip from our
grasp due to our unfortunate demise. There is far too much at stake to choose
to stay in the weeds of sin for a moment and miss out on the joys of our Lord
for eternity!
“The Simple Truth”
The story is told of an inquiring child who asked her father, “Dad, is today
Wednesday?” The father replied, “No, daughter, today is Thursday.” “But,”
said the child, “You said yesterday that ‘today is Wednesday.’” The father is
said to have replied, “Well, today was Wednesday, yesterday. Yesterday,
Thursday was tomorrow today. When today is tomorrow, today will be
yesterday. Today is today now. Now do you understand?”
Many people believe the Bible is just about as difficult to understand as the
father’s reply. They may believe the Bible is true, but they argue, “It is so
hard to understand.” The Bible, though, is not hard to understand at all.
There are a few passages here and there that may be a little difficult, but as
a general rule the Bible is very simple. It simply says what it means and
means what it says. The problem that often arises in understanding the
Scriptures has to do with those who read it. The Bible may be as plain as the
nose on our face about a certain point, and, yet, we come along with our
preconceived ideas and mess matters up. We refuse to simply accept the plain
teaching of the Scriptures due to our own likes and dislikes, prejudices and
preferences. We make the obvious and the simple seem difficult due to our own
feelings on the subject.
To illustrate how mankind often refuses to see the obvious truth, notice with
me Mark 16:16. Jesus simply said, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be
saved; he that believeth not shall be damned.” For the sake of illustration,
let’s put this in the form of a mathematical equation. Two (faith) plus two
(baptism) equals four (salvation). Any honest person should be able to see
the simple truth of this statement. But, man comes along and states that
Jesus put all the emphasis on faith by stating, “he that believeth not shall
be condemned.” In essence they reason, “he that does not have faith shall be
condemned and thus faith is the only essential for salvation and baptism is
not needed at all.” Is such reasonable?
In the mathematical equation this would be the same as saying, “he that does
not have the first two (faith) shall not equal four, thus the second two
(baptism) is not needed to make four.” This is not only unreasonable, it just
isn’t true. In order to have the right answer to our equation, we must add
both faith and baptism together. Man can strive for all he is worth to
explain away the simple truth of Jesus statement. Regardless, faith and
baptism are equally essential for the salvation of our souls. That, my
friends, is “the simple truth.”
