Truth Magazine

The writer of the book of Hebrews pleaded with Christians in the first century to place their heart and soul in faith for Jesus the Christ. The writer was aware of rumblings from several members of the church of Christ who were fading away from the faith, plunging headlong into worldliness or back to binding the law of Moses for religious practices. We read in Hebrews 10:23-27, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. For if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.” These are sobering words which reveal serious and eternal consequences for failing to assemble with saints as the New Testament commands Christians.

God is telling Christians in Hebrews 10:23 to, “hold fast.” This means that there is no room for giving in or giving up. God is telling us through the Hebrew writer that we cannot give up the confession of our hope. There is only one hope available to men (Eph. 4:4), and that hope is eternal life with God in heaven (Tit. 1:2). It’s our only hope, but it’s the greatest hope man can have. Really, it is the only hope you need and Christians must understand this principle. We sing from time to time, “This world is not my home, I’m just a passing thru. . . .” Our life on earth is one of faith, commitment, and sacrifice as Paul told Christians in Rome in Romans 12:1-2 to, “. . . present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

To prove our transformation to God, we must hold fast; we must learn our duties towards God revealed in the New Testament and steadfastly obey, grow, and work in the Kingdom of the Lord. However, there were Christians in the first century who did not hold fast. They failed to assemble as God commanded and, in the process, sinned wilfully. They rejected the knowledge of the truth by forsaking the assembling of themselves with a congregation of God’s people.

Yes, this is another lesson on our need to assemble! Brethren, failure to assemble with the saints is a major problem among congregations in America today. Yet, I am persuaded that “forsaking” is really the result of a greater problem, the problem of failing to “hold fast” one’s confession of hope. Many members of the church in America are not giving their hearts and souls to Jesus. Worldliness, sin, and sexual immorality are running rampant among some members of the church and many are seeking an avenue for, “having their cake and eating it too,” in religious service.

These types of members will attend public worship every now and then or attend just enough to avoid being “noted” (Rom. 16:17-18) for being contrary to the doctrine of “not forsaking the assembling of themselves with the saints” (Heb. 10:25). Then, there are other members who “hop” around from one congregation to another in hopes of finding a group who will allow them to have Jesus, “just the way they like Him.” I’m aware, as other gospel preachers are, of members who have been caught in sin, then they quickly write a distraught letter of goodbye to the church, indicating their own “withdrawal” from that congregation, using this letter as an attempt to avoid congregational discipline. I have also witnessed situations where rebellious members attempt to justify their departure from the Lord into worldliness by writing a polite letter to the congregation requesting to have their names taken off the membership list, using some lame excuse for not being able to be a member of that congregation anymore.

All behaviors of this nature are nothing more than devious and devilish attempts by sinful brethren to avoid being castigated as sinners. Imagine someone attempting to use such ploys belonging to a branch of the U.S. military! When one decides to go AWOL in military service to our country, a letter of polite resignation isn’t going to cut the mustard. You can’t just quit the military without serious consequences and a member of the church of Christ cannot just quit serving God without eternal consequences. When a member of the church attempts to run from a congregation, brethren need to quit upholding the hands of the rebellious by saying, “You can’t withdraw from those who have with- drawn themselves from us!” The New Testament is clear. Paul said in 2 Thessalonians 3:14, “And if anyone does not obey our word in this epistle, note that person and do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed.” To “note” someone for rebellion to God’s law is to distinguish or to mark that person as living in sin. That person could be on the other side of the world, still running from God, but that does not minimize the obligation God has placed on the congregation one bit. Paul told Timothy and, in the process, told the world in that, “. . . Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world” (2 Tim. 4:10). I wonder if Demas wrote Paul a letter saying, “I just can’t serve God with you anymore for life has simply become too difficult and I need time to think”? If he did, it surely didn’t stop Paul!

The only way we can hold fast to our hope is to become a Christian, worship, and work with a congregation of God’s people through thick and thin and be faithful to God’s every command until death. Faithful members in churches of Christ do not run from sin, they fight against it and if they fall prey to sin, they overcome it (1 John 2:1-2). If they have problems with their brethren in a congregation, they work them out together in a spirit of love as Jesus commands (Matt. 5:23-24). Real Christians assemble as often as they can for they are determined to “hold fast” to their confession. They want to work in the vineyard of the Lord. No excuses! No congregational hopping! No running from their problems! They have virtue, they have brotherly kindness, and they have love for God and each other. They will worship and work with a congregation of God’s people. They will stir up their brethren to love and good works. They will assemble with the saints at their every opportunity. Being one with this world is no longer an option for them. Excuse making for lax service and worship is deplorable to them.

My friend, you can’t hold fast to God without an absolute determination to obey God’s every command. It is Satan who encourages you to find a way around congregational activity and discipline, but it is God who says that those who sin willfully have nothing left but, “a certain fearful expectation of judgment” (Heb. 10:27). One of the responsibilities the New Testament has placed upon churches of Christ is to warn sinful brethren of the harsh consequences that rebellion against the Lord will bring. Far too many rebellious members are getting away with sin. We must warn! We must cry out! We must mark the wayward! Brethren, let us never forget the powerful statement in Hebrews 10:31 which says, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God!”

If you serve God with all your heart and soul, there is a bright hope for us to hold fast to. If you leave the Lord by returning to the ways of the world, there will be death. The choice is ours. No one reading this article can afford to make the wrong choice.

 

There is much talk today about the difference between perjury and legal accuracy as it applies to the United States’ judicial system. Let’s look at some examples of legal accuracy from the Old Testament.

The Serpent

Let us consider what the serpent (the most cunning of any beast of the field) said to Eve when he convinced her to eat the forbidden fruit. “Then the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil’” (Gen 3:4, 5). If one looks closely at the words the serpent uses in this case, it can be construed that everything he said was “legally accurate.” It was true that Adam and Eve would not die — at least not for many hundreds of years. It was also true that their eyes were open and they, like God, knew the difference between good and evil (Gen. 3:7). So, does the preeminent Judge let the serpent off the hook, since everything he said was strictly true? Of course not! God saw through the deception and cursed the serpent. It is also prudent to note that the serpent is the father of “legal accuracy.” “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it” (John 8:44).

Cain

What were the words Cain used when God confronted him with the murder of his brother? Consider the text: “Then the Lord said to Cain,

‘Where is Abel your brother?’ He (Cain) said, ‘I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?’” (Gen 4:9). Cain has a convenient memory lapse here, as he has “forgotten” that he had murdered his brother. He also evades God’s question by asking another question. Do these games work for Cain? Does God fall for these tricks? No, Cain was punished for his deeds. God knows the intents of all men (Ps. 94:11), and the intent of the heart is what constitutes a lie as opposed to the literal words.

Abram

Now Abram (or Abraham, as he is later known) is remembered as the father of the Jews and a faithful follower of God. Yet he is not immune from being guilty of the sin of “legal accuracy.” Consider the following ac- count. “And it came to pass, when he (Abram) was close to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, ‘Indeed I know that you are a woman of beautiful countenance. Therefore it will happen, when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, This is his wife; and they will kill me, but they will let you live. Please say you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I may live because of you’”

(Gen 12:11-13). This is what is called a “cover story.” Abram and Sarai had to get their stories straight when asked about their relationship. Was there anything wrong with Abram’s assertion that Sarai was his sister? Sarai was actually Abram’s half-sister, therefore this was a legally accurate statement. However, it is a half-truth which, because of Abram’s intentions, was a whole-lie. There were consequences for Abram’s twisting of the facts. Pharaoh took Sarai into his house and suffered many plagues because of it.

Joseph’s Brothers

Joseph’s brothers were jealous of their father’s preference for Joseph, and although deterred from killing him, they sold him into slavery. They deceived their father into thinking Joseph was dead. “So they (Joseph’s brothers) took Joseph’s tunic, killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the tunic in the blood. Then they sent the tunic of many colors, and brought it to their father and said, ‘We have found this. Do you know whether it is your son’s tunic or not?’ And he recognized it and said, ‘It is my son’s tunic. A wild beast has devoured him. Without doubt Joseph is torn to pieces’” (Gen 37:31-33). Did the brothers lie when they brought the coat to Jacob? They merely asked if it was Joseph’s tunic. Notice, Jacob is the one that wrongly deduced that a beast devoured his son. Maybe Jacob would have deter- mined the truth if he asked follow-up questions to his sons. Is it Jacob’s deficiency that he concluded that Joseph was dead, or was it the brothers’ shortcoming for allowing their father to believe a lie? The answer is clear to any reasonable person.

Saul

King Saul, God’s anointed, was instructed by God to “utterly destroy” the Amalekites for their misdeeds. Saul returned victorious from battle with the king of Amalek and the best of their belongings in tow. Samuel met Saul to tell him of God’s displeasure. “Then Samuel went to Saul, and Saul said to him, ‘Blessed are you of the Lord! I have performed the commandment of the Lord.’ But Samuel said, ‘What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?’ And Saul said, ‘They have brought them from the Amalekites; for the people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen, to sacrifice to the Lord your God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed’” (1 Sam 15:13-15).

Saul speaks the truth here. Saul did carry out the will of the Lord — al- most. Notice how he shifted the blame to the people for bringing the cattle. Saul, was the king and, no doubt, the people would have obeyed his words on the matter. Also, they kept the cattle for a noble purpose — as sacrifice to God. Surely God would overlook this slight transgression of his command since it was for a good cause. God did not accept this explanation, and Samuel explained: “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams” (1 Sam 15:22). At this point, King Saul was quite popular with the people. They had the king that they desired. If polled, the Israelites would have likely given Saul a high approval rating at this time for his job performance. What does God think about popularity as a judge of righteousness? In Luke 16:15 our Lord said, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.” Saul was punished for his sin with no partiality given to legal accuracy, good intentions, or popularity.

One day, all will stand before the throne on high. The record will be there of all that was done in the flesh, whether good or evil. God knows the hearts and deeds of all men. No one will get off on a technicality. “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” (Matt. 7:21-23).

By Forrest Morris

The mighty grandeur of sitting sun, magnificently ends the day

Lightning streaks across the sky, displaying it’s brilliant ray.

Thunder finishes with drum-like roll, as raindrops start their fall

And clouds unfold to reveal therein, mountain peaks so tall.

Then in radiance, brightly lit, above the mountains high

Hang the many countless stars, across the darkening sky.

A rainbow connects east to west, as Winter winds doth blow

Soon the drops of rain that fall will turn to whitened snow.

All these things that I observe, are not mere happenstance

But rather have a purpose here, and not just left to chance.

I venture further on to say,

that “God Controls It All” And that is why it’s like it is,

on this terrestrial ball.