Truth Magazine

By Larry Ray Hafley

In the book of Romans, salvation is ascribed and attributed to a number of items. One is saved:

1. By the gospel: “The gospel” is “the power of God unto salvation unto every one that believeth” (Rom. 1: 16).

2. By the Grace of God: “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:24).

3. By faith: “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5: 1).

4. By the blood of Christ: “Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him” (Rom. 5:9).

5. By obedience: “But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from smi, ye became the servants of righteousness” (Rom. 6:17, 18).

Are these five statements a mire and mixture of confusion and contradiction? Should we accept some and reject and refuse others? Should one acknowledge salvation by faith, obedience, and grace, and then say that the gospel and the blood are not essential? Or should one advocate salvation by the gospel, the blood, and obedience, and repudiate faith and grace? Certainly and absolutely not! We must receive and believe all that God says.

The question or issue is, “When were the Romans made free from sin? When did they become new creatures and begin to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus?”

Answer: “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life… ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness” (Rom. 6:3, 4, 17, 18).

Have you done as they did, or have you obeyed another form of doctrine?

TRUTH MAGAZINE, XVI: 31, p. 2
June 8, 1972

By Dennis L. Shaver

The attitude of some individuals, concerning religious matters, is just as we have suggested in the title. We are speaking not only of our denominational friends, but most especially of our own brothers and sisters in Christ. Those that are supposed to have brotherly love one for another, yet profess the above attitude when discussing the word of God.

It has been said that “one should never argue politics or religion.” In one way this statement is true. Arguments rarely are of benefit to any. However, discussions in which both sides keep an open mind can be of great benefit. We need not to prove our point, but rather, what does the Bible say. But, whenever one sees the beginning of a disagreement, one can see the barriers being thrown around the disputants. Then each one yells: “What! Me Wrong?”

If one disagrees with us concerning the gospel of Christ, we need to understand with who the disagreement is. We seem to always take it as a personal insult to our knowledge, and therefore great arguments follow. After all, we have to defend our reputation, dont we? When we understand with whom they are disagreeing, then we can understand that one does not defend his reputation. Samuel thought the people of Israel had rejected him, but God told him they had rejected Him (I Sam. 7:8). And, if they refuse to accept the truth, we need be sorry for them as the words of Christ shall judge (Jno. 12:48).

Too often we manifest the attitude that we are right and everyone else is wrong. The attitude of some is: “Ive already made up my mind, dont confuse me with the facts.” Then we have those who consider themselves infallible. “How could he ever think that I would be wrong on that point?” “Hes got some nerve, disagreeing with me.” Thus they, have the feeling that anything they say must be right, and how could anyone think they are wrong. The New Testament gives a good example of just this kind of attitude. In Acts 26:9 Paul states “I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.” Then in I Tim. 1:13 Paul says; “. . . but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly and in unbelief.” People today who feel they are always right, are just like the apostle Paul before he obeyed the gospel, ignorant and unbelieving. We are told in Jno. 8:32, “And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.”

If we know the truth, have knowledge as we should, then we should know better than to believe our opinions are always right. The only time we can be sure we are right is when we agree with the word of God. The prophet Jeremiah stated in Jer. 10: 23, “0 Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his own steps.” In Prov. 12: 15 we read, “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise.” Prov. 14: 12, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the ends thereof are the ways of death.” Let us be careful that our attitude does not send our soul to the eternal torments of – hell! Rom. 3:4, “God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar …” If we are not in agreement with the word of God, let us admit mistake and let the word of God always he accepted as true, and the opinions of men false.

TRUTH MAGAZINE, XVI: 30, p. 13
June 1, 1972

By Ronny Milliner

“. . . then the people did bide themselves in eaves, and in thickets, and in rocks, and in high places, and in pits” (I Sam. 13:6). In this verse the Israelites seem to be playing hide and seek with the approaching Philistine army. The children of Israel must have had the attitude that if the Philistines could not see them, then they would not have to fight.

By comparison, many of the brethren appear to be playing hide and seek with the rest of the world. There are those in this world who are seeking salvation. Yet many of us are hiding behind some sort of excuse and are not going out to meet them with the gospel. Some Christians bide behind other members. This type sits back and let the elders, preachers, or some of the other saints seek the lost. Then others will say that they do not know how to do personal evangelism. They tell of their shyness and of their fear of talking to people about religion.

In the latest figures I could find, there are about 142,500,000 people fifteen years old and older in the United States. (I do not mean to imply that the exact age of accountability is at the age of fifteen years.) There are estimated to be about 2,500,000 members of the Church of Christ in the United States. What would happen to the 140,000,000 if the Lord should come now? Also consider the unfaithful members included in the 2,500,000.

Brethren, we all have been left with the responsibility of declaring Gods plan of salvation to the lost. In Matthew 10: 27 Christ told His twelve disciples to proclaim what they bad heard from the rooftops. When was the last time you declared your faith from a “rooftop”? Paul was not ashamed of his faith in the gospel, but declared it boldly everywhere he went (Rom. 1: 16; Eph. 6:20). He urged people to be as he was (Acts 26:29; Gal. 4:12). We should not sit back and wait for the lost to come to us, but go out to find them. In the parable of the sower the one who sowed the seed had to go out to the ground. It would have been ridiculous for him to have sat back and waited for the ground to have come to him.

If we are going to play hide and seek, then we bad better make sure we are on the seeking side instead of the hiding side. We need to remember that we have competition in this seeking. While we should be seeking to save the world, the devil is “seeking whom he may devour” (I Pet. 5:8). The way the figures look, our opponent is winning by great odds. We had better stop hiding behind our excuses as the Israelites were hiding in caves, thickets, rocks, high places, and pits and get to seeking to save souls instead. “Youre it!”

TRUTH MAGAZINE, XVI: 30, pp. 12-13
June 1, 1972

By Larry Ray Hafley

Acceptable obedience in the sight of the Lord is not the mere mechanical performance of certain duties. God is interested in the heart that prompts the service; whereas man assumes that doing “what God says” is all that is important. The failure to see obedience as the Lord conceives it leads to vain and void sacrifice. Obedience is more than doing; it involves and includes more than physical activity.

In Israel

When God brought His people from beneath the power of Pharoah and the sting of the taskmasters whip, He did not immediately command specific, external duty. “Just do this and this, and it will repay me for having delivered you from Egypt.” This was not Gods way, and through Jeremiah He warned and reminded His people that it was not. “Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh. For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices: But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you” (Jer. 7:21-23).

Isaiah wrote of a “sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters” (Isa. 1: 4-6). Like Sodom, they hid not their sin, rather they were proud of it; they declared it (Isa. 3:9)! Yet in all the muck and mire of wickedness, they ceased not to offer a “multitude” of sacrifices, therefore, God reproved them thusly:

“Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth; they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear; your hands are full of blood” (Isa. 1:10-15).

Saul learned this lesson from Samuel and Amalek. He did not “utterly destroy” Amalek as God directed, but spared some “to sacrifice unto~the Lord” (I Sam. 15). From the lips of Samuel, there echoed the fundamental principle of acceptable service unto God. “Hath the Lord as greatdelight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams” (I Sam. 15:22). In like fashion, the Psalmist said, “For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, 0 God, thou wilt not despise” (Psa. 51:16, 17).

In Jesus Day

The Pharisees of Jesus day were meticulous moralists who scrupulously paid tithes and observed minute, detailed traditions. As far as the eye could detect, they were righteous unto men. But our Lord knew their hearts and openly revealed and rebuked their hypocrisy and iniquity. The difference between their profession and their actual condition is the difference between mans views of acceptable obedience as opposed to Gods. The divergent concept is enunciated by our Lord in Luke 16:15, “Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: For that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.”

Summary

God did not need the bulls and goats of sacrifice. The point and purpose of animal offerings was not to supply Gods lack, “For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine and the fullness thereof” (Psa. 50:10-12). Likewise, God does not need our contribution, our dimes and dollars. Fort Knox and the world are His! We are the needy ones. We need to learn obedience, to offer our hearts on the altar of crucified flesh. When we are awakened, quickened, and challenged in this respect, our spirits will be justified, our activities sanctified, and our God glorified.

TRUTH MAGAZINE, XVI: 30, pp. 7-8
June 1, 1972