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DANGERS CONFRONTING THE CHURCH - PART 2
ATHENS CLAY PULLIAS President David Lipscomb College
SUBSTITUTION OF PLANS, PROGRAMS, AND PROMOTIONAL MACHINERY FOR THE TEACHING OF GOD'S WORD
The fourth danger which I want to mention is this: the substitution of plans, programs, and smooth-working promotional machinery for the solid teaching of God's word. There is a proper place for planning and promotion, just as there is a proper place for good buildings. It must never be forgotten that the power to save is in the word of God, and in the word of God alone-preached, believed, and obeyed. I do not know that this criticism is generally justified, but I heard a woman who is well versed in the Scriptures say not long ago that: "I wish conditions were different at the congregation where I attend. They talk so much about plans and promotional schemes that the preacher really does not have time left to do any preaching to teach the people the word of God, and feed them on the sincere milk of the word." I say again there is a proper place for planning and for advertising, and promotion, if you want to call it that, to bring the people to the place of worship; but when they get there, give them something. Teach them the word of God. If you do not do that, then it is all in vain.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PARTY SPIRIT - AN ANCIENT EVIL
The fifth danger is this: the development of the party spirit-an ancient evil. This spirit appeared in Corinth long ago. "I am of Paul? and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas." That condition continues to endanger the unity and the purity of the church. This development of the party spirit can take place around schools, around papers, around preachers; and wherever it takes place, it is wrong. A greater part of the student body of Lipscomb is here today, and I would like to say this to them in your hearing. We want the students of David Lipscomb College to be loyal first to Christ and then to this institution which seeks to help them. Beyond that, we want them to be loyal to the Cause of Christian education, the training of young people everywhere, and then to this particular institution. I would consider myself a little person indeed to try to encourage the students of this college to place it above Christ, or even above other institutions trying to do a like work. We do not need the party spirit.
This party spirit has led to undue exaltation of human leadership. Too often we have thought of men more highly than we ought to think. Not long ago I heard one of the older brethren give a comparison between Brother Lipscomb and Brother McGarvey. If it be true, it accurately defines what we ought to do and what we ought not to do in this respect. That man said that he noticed along through life, as he met the students who were under Brother Lipscomb and the students who were under Brother McGarvey, the students who were under Brother McGarvey were wont to say, "Brother McGarvey says that this is true and that is true," and that the students who came from under Brother Lips-comb said, "The Lord says that this is true and that is true. The Bible says that this is right and that is wrong." Now, that could be an injustice to Brother McGarvey, and so I am not going to emphasize it as a fact, but let us assume that this was the difference. I hope that the students who go forth from this college will always say concerning things spiritual, "The Bible teaches." I want to emphasize to them that it does not make any difference what any of us here at the college teach if we cannot say, "Thus saith the Lord." If by inference you assume that applies to all the preachers and teachers in the world, that is correct. It does not make any difference what anybody teaches unless he can find it in the word of the Lord. If perchance I, in my class, or anyone of us here at the school, should try to teach these young people anything that we cannot read from the book of God, I beg them to reject it and turn it down, no matter where it comes from or whom it comes from. I know that this is safe ground.
This party spirit has also led to a habit of faultfinding and mote hunting Which has gravely injured and hindered the brotherhood. In James 3:16 we have this statement: "For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work." I am not suggesting that any compromise of any kind be made with any false teaching, or false teacher, anywhere, but I am suggesting that there is no place among the people of God for faultfinding as a business. We must reprove and rebuke, but let it be done with long-suffering and teaching. When you condemn a man that is wrong, is it your desire to get him right, or is it your desire to pin him to the wall and ruin him? If you want to know whether you are following Christ or not, just answer that question. If the man in question should correct himself, would you sit in the scorner's seat, or would you give him the right hand of fellowship?
You know I have often thought about Simon Peter preaching the first sermon on Pentecost. It had been less than two months since he had denied, even with an oath, that he knew Jesus of Nazareth. Now, I have often asked myself this question: "Would we have allowed Simon Peter to preach that sermon if we had been picking the preacher?" I am afraid that we would not even have allowed him to usher. We have such a tendency to be utterly unforgiving, and to hold a mistake that one may make against him forever and ever. As a matter of fact, if God were not more merciful toward us than we are toward one another, as a rule, not one of us would ever reach heaven. Now, do not misunderstand me. I am not recommending compromise with any false teacher or false teaching in anybody anywhere, but I am saying that when a man tries to get right and correct himself and turns away from evil, he ought to have our help and not our scorn. I am sure that represents the will of God.
I have often thought of what it would be like to publish a book-you know, everybody likes to publish a book-I have often thought of what it would be like to publish a book which would contain written quotations of all the ugly things which have been printed by brethren about brethren. You want a copy? There is not a man among us, I am ashamed to say, of brotherhood-wide reputation who would not be cut to pieces and scarred for life by the publication of such a book. "My brethren, these things ought not so to be." I want you to reflect on that. I am not going to publish that book, and I hope nobody ever does. It would be a waste of time and a collection of our shame, but it might be well to reflect on what such a book would look like. I say one of the dangers among us is the development of the party spirit. Let me plead with you to be loyal to Christ and not to any man. This is not in the Bible; it was said by Abraham Lincoln; but I think the sentiment is and the principle is, and I think you will agree that it is. Lincoln said: "I say stand with anybody that stands right. Stand with him while he is right and part with him when he goes wrong." Now, that is the spirit of Christ. Jesus never went with anything that was wrong, but he never sought to destroy anybody. He wore nobody's handcuffs. He was nobody's! servant except the Lord's, and he said the things that needed to be said for the purpose of saving souls and never for any less noble purpose.
AN UNEQUAL EMPHASIS ON NEW TESTAMENT TRUTH
Another of the mistakes that I think we are in danger of making is an unequal emphasis on New Testament truth. Once in a while somebody comes to me and says:"Is this essential to salvation? Is that essential to salvation?" I do not know of any answer to such a question except this: As far as I know, there is not a single commandment that the Lord has given which you can disregard and expect to stand justified at the day of judgment. Do you know of any? There are preachers in the world who mock the passage, for instance, commanding baptism and shrug their shoulders and say: "You do not have to do this to be saved." We say they are wicked and presumptuous in so doing, and so they are; but if we dare to put our finger on any other passage and do the same thing in fact, we are wicked and presumptuous and daring to deny the power of God's word. I would like to suggest a little spiritual exercise for all the preachers present. Every once in a While I hear a preacher say: "You know, I am going to have to move. I am about to run out of sermons." He means by that he is about to run out of those dusty outlines that he has borrowed around here and there. That is what he means. Let me tell you how not to run out of sermons-at least, for a long time. You get you a copy of the New Testament. Now listen carefully to this just one copy. Read it through and mark with a red pencil every passage on Which you have never preached a sermon, and then go back and start picking them up. You will have a little work to do for a while. I suspect that a good many of us would be downright ashamed if we were to measure in this way how little of the New Testament we have ever really preached. Yet some of us dare to throw out our chests and say: "I have shunned not to declare unto you all the counsel of God." There are hundreds of verses that we have never even read in the people's hearing, much less talked about. You can stay a long time if you will just keep reading in the book. There is a sermon in almost every verse in the Scriptures, and a dozen in some of them. If you will just read, and study, and meditate, and throw away those little books of outlines, you can preach a lifetime. Then get a New Testament, read it through, mark the passages you have never preached on, and look right in the mirror and ask yourself: "Can I say that I have not shunned to declare all the counsel of God?"
AN INCREASING NUMBER OF HALF-CONVERTED AND UNTAUGHT MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH
Here is another danger: as a result of all this, there is an increasing number of half-converted and untaught members of the church-that is, they are members as far as we can see. I am not going to try to decide whether the Lord has added them to the church or not. This condition comes as a result of the lack of emphasis on "thus saith the Lord," and as a result of high-geared promotional pressure by which unripened sheaves are often gathered in, and by failure on the part of teachers, preachers, parents, and elders to teach them "all things whatsoever I have commanded you." A babe in Christ is a baby spiritually in the same sense that a babe in your family is a babe in the flesh. My wife and I have a little boy just twenty-one months old, and I said something in a meeting last summer which caused somebody to whisper to one of our friends afterward: "I didn't know Brother Pullias' baby was afflicted. What is wrong with it?" Well, here is what I said: He was born on April 20, 1948, a year and nine months ago. From the moment that he was born until now we haven't been able to leave him alone at the house. You haven't, either, if you have one. Somebody has had to be with him every minute. Right now it takes two. I assure you that at the present writing there is absolutely nothing wrong with him. He is very active. What does it mean? It means that he needs care, care, loving care, day and night, and will for years to come. Now, you contrast that with what happens to H babe in the church. He is baptized into Christ. You go around in six or eight months and ask the brethren: "Where is So and So who was baptized here?" They look around. "Well, you know, I haven't seen him around lately. I don't know where he is." Suppose that I should go into your home and that you have a little child. I come back in four or five years and I do not hear the laughter of a child, and I ask you: "Where is the child who was here?" I fear that something dreadful has happened. What would I think if the mother of that child would reply, "Well, you know, that reminds me I haven't seen that child around for months"? When some boy or girl who is a member of the church starts to stray a little, how often do some of the members of the church this is a responsibility for all of us-the elders, the preachers, the teachers, the mothers, the fathers, all of us-how often do we go and put an arm of love about them and talk to them to help them to do right? Too often the first time we hear about it is when one of these boys who is not doing just right waits on the table and somebody cattily says: "He ought not to be allowed to do it." And he should not, but that is not the first step that needs to be taken. Somebody should have done something long before that. Too often it is like that in our charity work. When do we pick up the widow and the orphan and do something? When the neighbors get to talking about it so much that we are ashamed not to. That is a terrible situation. Now, I say we have a great many half-converted and untaught members for the simple reason that we have not carried out the second part of the Great Commission, "teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you."
There are two grave dangers in an untaught membership. First, it may go back into the world from which it came, and be eternally lost. Even worse, an untaught membership may stay in the church and bring the world into the church and corrupt its teachings, its doctrines, and its life. Either way it is a dangerous thing to the church. So let me plead with all of you: look after these babes in Christ as we do the babies that come into our homes. Watch over them, feed them on the sincere milk of the word. Be tender and kind and thoughtful and understanding, and please do not sit in the scorner's seat.
A FAILURE TO PLEAD FOR UNITY IN CHRIST ON THE WORD OF GOD
Another danger that I want to mention is this: in consequence of these tendencies that we have mentioned, there has been an increasing failure to see and to emphasize the basic New Testament teaching on unity in Christ and on the sacred Scriptures as the inspired word of God. In other words, we have lost, I fear, to some extent, our appeal for unity in Christ on the word of God. That is the basic appeal. Plead with the people to be loyal to Christ, not to men; to all the Scriptures, not the teachings of men, and to become one in him, not because we have held a conference around the table and have come together on some mutually acceptable grounds, but because we both have bowed at the feet of Jesus and find ourselves together in common service to him. That is the appeal that we should make in teaching and in life.
A FAILURE TO BE CHRISTLIKE IN DAILY LIFE-A FAILURE TO "PUT ON CHRIST"
Finally, and perhaps worst of all, all this has led to a failure on our part to do, and to be, what we teach and claim. Listen at this: If we dare to wear the name of Christ, if we dare to call ourselves Christians, then let us be Christlike in practice. It is deceiving to call yourself something that you are not. That means we should be debt paying, clean, moral, honest, upright, careful, loyal, devoted, and all the other good things that are mentioned and set forth in the New Testament. Just as long as we cry with our lips that we follow the New Testament and deny the same statement with our lives, just that long we will have little influence among the people. "Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves." (James 1:22.) Let us put it this way in closing: If I go down to the drugstore and buy a vial of medicine, I have a right to believe and trust in this fact: the name that is on that vial will correspond to the contents of that vial. When we stand before the world and say we are Christians, and Christians only, God give us the strength to be Christians. Then we will be the "light of the world" and "the salt of the earth."