THE PRIESTHOOD OF THE BELIEVER (INTRODUCTION)
#846 THE PRIESTHOOD OF THE BELIEVER (INTRODUCTION)
Scripture I Peter 2:9; Exodus 19:4-6 Orig. 4/1/1988
Passage:
I Peter 2:9
9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
Exodus 19:4-6
4 “‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, 6 you[a] will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.”
Purpose: To introduce the study of the doctrine of the priesthood of the believer to the Church Training class.
Keywords: Doctrine Priesthood
Introduction
Item: Which of the following would be the more correct?
· “The doctrine of the priesthood of all believers is a fundamental belief among all Baptists.” Findley Edge—1985 Doctrine of Laity1
· “The doctrine of the priesthood of all believers is a fundamentalist belief among Baptists.”--incorrect
Item: Pass out the true/false pretest. Take time to work through this entire sheet of twenty questions allowing class to write in their answer.
Item: Display Cel #2, pass out worksheets. The class is to decide whether they agree with the statements, disagree, or are undecided. Overlay Cel with answers and discuss with the class.
Item: Display Cel #3
· Discuss: The priesthood of believers is the centerpiece of the Baptist faith.
· Discuss: A priest is someone who relates to, and acts for, God.
· Discuss: All believers are priests.
· Discuss: Spectator religion is out.
· Discuss: Each Christian has a duty to hand on the gospel.
· Discuss: The veil of the temple was rent in the midst. (Luke 23:45)
After discussion try to mount each of these statements around the room.
I. Refer to Outline Poster.
a. Display Cel #4 (Outline).
b. If the Agree/Disagree worksheet has not been used, do so at this time.
c. Definition of terms.
i. Priest—a person who relates to and acts for God (14:3).
ii. Believers—those who hold the proposition that Jesus Christ of Nazareth is the final and ultimate revelation of the eternal God (9:4).
iii. Priesthood—to be priestly, to relate to and act for God (10:3).
iv. Priesthood of believers—a demand for priestly sacrifice to God on the part of all believers (13:1).
d. Have class search for answers to the “Who am I?” question in the text
i. I am Biblical
ii. I am Christian
iii. I am Baptist
iv. I am believer’s rights
v. I am one’s right to access God
vi. I am your right to choose Christ yourself
vii. I am the opposite of proxy religion
viii. I am the democratization of faith
ix. I am a movement of the people of God
x. I am your obligation of ministry
II. Looking at the Origin of Priesthood of Believers
a. Origin in biblical teaching
i. From Hebrew noun “kohen”—accepted meaning from the verb “to stand.” Used over 700 times in Old Testament
ii. Key Old Testament passage—Exodus 19:4-6 “You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. . . . You will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”
1. Moses was leading them to God’s will.
2. They were on the verge of entrance.
3. But first, they had to deal with a thing called “relationship” covenant.
4. It was an invitation to the entire nation to become priests.
b. Continuation in New Testament—
i. Greek word for priest is “hiereus.” Used in Gospels and Acts to describe the religious leadership of Israel; One reference to “priest of Zeus,” Acts 14:13.
ii. Various New Testament passages referring to the priesthood of believers.
1. I Peter 2:5, “You . . . are being built up into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood.”
2. I Peter 2:9, “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood.
3. Revelation 1:5-6. “To him who loves us . . . and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve . . . God.”
4. Revelation 5:9-10, “You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God.”
5. Revelation 20:6, “. . . but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.”
c. Expression in the early church
i. Believers applied Exodus 19:6 to themselves.
ii. Drew strength from texts relating priesthood to Christ.
1. “Hiereus” refers to Christ
2. Hebrews 4:14, “great high priest.”
3. Hebrews 7:14, “offered up himself.”
iii. They understood that New Testament priest never referred to specialized clergy.
d. A development in history changed the meaning of priesthood.
i. Priesthood was clericalized! Example, Mennonites in Transylvania began looking from their own fellowship for the next pastor.
1. Clergy/laity came to be.
2. Equality gave way to hierarchy.
3. Then came celibacy to intensify.
ii. Grace was sacramentalized!
1. With the separation and exaltation of the professional clergy.
2. Only they could dispense favors—baptism, Lord’s Supper.
3. Sacramental faith replaced personal faith.
iii. Church was institutionalized.
1. Church became a place to go.
2. Called to serve, many became spectators.
e. From the Reformation on:
i. Revolt came under such men as Zwingli, Luther, Calvin.
ii. It was based upon a belief in justification by faith.
iii. Luther’s emphasis.
1. Before God all Christians have the same standing . . . through faith.
2. Each Christian is a priest and needs no mediator save Christ.
3. Each Christian is a priest and has an office of sacrifice, not the Mass but the dedication of himself.
4. Each Christian has a duty to hand on the gospel which he himself has received.
iv. The contemporary Baptist position.
1. The necessity for each person to make his or her own commitment to Christ.
2. The understanding of the church as a community of believers.
3. The affirmation of the priesthood of all believers.
a. Freeman Baptist World Alliance 1905 (essential) “the sovereignty of Christ, accompanied by . . . the complete and consistent recognition of His personal, direct and undelegated authority over . . . souls . . . men.”
b. E.Y. Mullins “Axions of Religion”2—historic significance of Baptists?? “The competency of the soul in religion.”
c. Truett—“Keystone truth of the Baptists.”
d. Norman W. Cox, “We Southern Baptists”—distinctive—“redeemed personality ministering under the Lordship of Christ.”
Conclusion
Call attention to teaching posters. Ask class to single out one special one and comment on it.
Distribute printed copy of pretest and ask class to complete it for the next session.
Call attention to the outline (Cel #4). Session Two will cover chapters 2/3 “The Priesthood of the Believers and the Bible/Salvation.”
1Edge, F. (1985). The Doctrine of the Laity. Convention Press.
2Mullins, E.Y. (1908). The Axioms of Religion. American Baptist Publication Society.
Mulllins: https://archive.org/details/axiomsofreligion01mull_0/page/8/mode/2up
COVETOUSNESS REDEFINED
#299 COVETOUSNESS REDEFINED
Scripture Exodus 20:17, Luke 12:13-21, NIV Orig. 8/21/1966
Rewr. 10/28/1984
Passage:
Exodus 20:17
17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
Luke 12:13-21
13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”
14 Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” 15 Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”
16 And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. 17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’
18 “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. 19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’
20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’
21 “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”
Purpose: To conclude a series of messages on The Ten Commandments, this one redefining a positive thrust to “desire for” what is good.
Keywords: Covetousness Holy Spirit Gifts Series, Ten Commandments
Timeline/Series: Sequential
Introduction
I stood one day looking upon a woodland scene that is etched still upon my memory. The characters in the drama in miniature that unfolded before my eyes that day were a colony of ants. They were busy about those things that seem almost mechanical with such creatures. I was reminded then and now of that passage from The Book of Proverbs (Proverbs 30:25), “The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer.”
As I watched the busy activity at my feet that day, I wondered how many hundreds were passing under my gaze, and how many thousands of others that I could not see, all of which had one common goal. They were moving with unhurried pace, toward or away from the place that was their single destination. There was one sure sign of where home was. It was noted by the direction of those laboring under a burden.
I was fascinated by the trail over which they travelled. The woodland carpet had been worn nearly three quarters of an inch deep by their busy feet. Here was evidence of insatiable desire for food. Not by the wildest stretch of one’s imagination, however, could this be called covetousness.
Less than a mile away I had on numerous pastoral visits encountered another, though much larger, trail worn through a carpet of grass. It was worn by a collie named Prince as he roamed inside a fenced yard, barking at and chasing everything that appeared to his searching eye. That unreasoned longing more closely defines what God’s Word speaks of as covetousness.
I. A Negative Notification. V17, “Ye shall not covet your neighbor’s house; ye shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”
1. The command first speaks of property.
a. Note that this command takes a direction that the others do not. It is self-limited.
b. The word “covet” means “inordinate desire.”
c. Eve—“Do not eat”—Satan challenged her at the point that God was saving the good one for Himself. She looked, she lingered, she longed, she listened, she lost.
d. Lot—While Abram built an altar, Lot (Genesis 13:12) was said to be “pitching his tent toward Sodom.”
2. The command secondly speaks of coveting the person of another.
a. It speaks as the 7th, at the point of sensual desire. Jesus enlarges on this to remind us that such begins with a look.
b. We remember well the story of David. I Samuel 17—a man of greatness—through II Samuel 10, II Samuel 11—obituary—“From the roof he saw” his sin, death of Uriah, encounter with Nathan, the child’s death, Absalom’s rebellion.
c. This also speaks, as the 8th, at the point of personal gain. Recall Laban—When Abram’s servant went to find a wife for Isaac, Laban “saw the earrings and bracelets that had been given to Rebecca and he went to fetch the man.”
II. A Positive Promise. Luke 12:31, “Seek the Kingdom of God, and all these things will be added unto you.” I Corinthians 12:31, “Covet earnestly the best gifts, and yet I show you a more excellent way.”
1. It is the positive promise of a job to be done, a task to be accomplished.
a. Every person should have free and equal access to labor. The biggest problem facing the next President is jobs. Louisiana has unemployment from 4% to 14%. The chief concern of governors, legislators, and police juries ought to be jobs. God to Adam “by the sweat of your brow you will earn your bread.” Proverbs 30:25, “The ants are a people not strong. Yet they prepare their meat in the summer.”
b. Any sin of coveting here, is in coveting not to work.
c. It is certainly not a sin to covet a place of responsibility in your church. The best performance of tasks is always by people who desire those tasks.
2. It is the positive promise of family.
a. Can there be higher or nobler thinking than to COVET family. Two people in committed love. A thousand when God’s love sustains.
b. We are told that there was a tribe in New Mexico who had no word in their language for love. Translators struggled with John 3:16. Nearest word was similar to “heartburn.” “God so hurt in His heart.”
3. The positive promise of a faith to share.
a. The teaching of Jesus is clear. “Blessed are they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled.” This is uncommon desire. But it is not inordinate. In John 6:27 Jesus told a parable of a pearl of great price. “When he found one pearl of great price, he went and sold all that he had, and bought it.” Such covetousness is allowed. Nay, rather, it is expected and demanded.
b. The teachings of God’s Word contain no other message. I Corinthians 12:31 “Covet the best gifts.” I Corinthians 14:39, “Covet to prophesy.” Psalm 51, “A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
Conclusion
Tell the story from childhood of desire to have as Fuller Callaway, III, had. Call attention to the fact that while still a young man, having lived his life in luxury, [he died a suicide].
THE COMMON THIEVERIES OF LIFE
#289 THE COMMON THIEVERIES OF LIFE
Scripture: Exodus 20:15, Malachi 3:8-10 NIV Orig. 7/17/1966; 10/1984
Rewr. 7/24/1989
Passage:
Exodus 20:15
15 “You shall not steal.
Malachi 3:8-10
8 “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me.
“But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’
“In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.”
Purpose: Continuing a series on the Ten Commandments, here identifying this eighth command as the bold declaration of relationship.
Keywords: Morality Series, Ten Commandments
Timeline/Series: Sequential
Introduction
Back in the mid-seventies, there were many students from Middle Eastern countries in school in various universities across the United States. One of the major ways in the last half century that America has helped third world nations is through the education of some of their brightest students.
One of these exchange students was in school in Oklahoma, It became necessary for him to purchase a used car. He was on a limited budget, but had to have a dependable car. The young man went to an agency near the campus and made the necessary arrangements. The used car served the young man well. Even when service was needed the dealer went out of his way to provide for this customer that would be leaving the country as soon as he graduated. He could have treated the young man shabbily. After all, the oldest consumer declaration known is “caveat emptor”—“Let the buyer beware.”
This is the rest of the story. Years passed. The young man, highly trained in business acumen, worked hard and became purchasing agent for a contractors’ association that was an affiliate of his government. Remembering his honest American friend who had helped him secure and keep a used car, he placed an order for his government. The order was for 450 pick-up trucks, and 750 heavy dump trucks.
I. The First Concern of Thievery is in not Daring. “Thou shalt not steal” means that we possess honorably, or not at all.
1. It is the failure to accept God’s plan for human provisioning.
1) Some think that work was a punishment heaped on Adam for his sin.
2) I remind you that he was given the garden and made to be its keeper.
3) God’s plan, then, is all are to be remunerated for their labor.
a) The Fourth command sought to certify a day of rest from labor.
b) Proverbs 12:11, “He who tills his land will be satisfied with bread.”
c) The prudent woman of Proverbs 31:27, “She watches over the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness.”
d) Paul advised Christians in I Thessalonians 4:11, “We urge you to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands.”
e) There was an even stronger word in I Timothy 5:8, “If any provide not for his own, he has denied the faith.”
f) Even the beasts were protected by Deuteronomy 25:4, “Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn.” Quoted in I Corinthians 9:9 and again in I Timothy 5:18.
4) This plan is the foundation upon which any workable economic system is based.
a) One of the first freedoms should be the right to work—therefore to earn, therefore to save.
b) It is in this spirit of occupation that God gave man “dominion.” We can “occupy”—sitting, sleep. But for the Greek literally, it means “to be busy with.”
2. It is also the failure to live within our means.
1) Many year-end crime reports show most arrests for robbery, burglary. Last seen—over 1,000 per day
2) Article (Christianity Today) “Stealing Their Way through College.”
3) Until recently, 85% were men.
3. It is not daring to grant to others what we demand for ourselves.
1) There are too many who are unaffected by the plight of unemployed/under-employed.
2) Christians need to address social issues that force people into crime. In VBS I shared the story of Frank Laubach. More need to adopt his “Each One Teach One” philosophy.
4. Thank God, men are not working in sweatshops for pennies a day. 15-year-old boys are not being hung for stealing bread. But America still has social circumstances motivating criminal activity.
II. An Additional Concern of Thievery is That of not Sharing. “Thou shalt not steal” means that it is a sin to guard so selfishly what we should give away.
1. Not sharing the return of honest debts.
a. Christians are to be fiscally responsible.
b. That means paying debts, living within our means.
c. Proverbs 28:6, “Better is the poor that walketh in his uprightness, than he that is perverse in his ways though he be rich.”
d. I remind you there our responsibility to God is pictured in terms of debt—Our sin has not only corrupted us. Romans 8:12, “WE are debtors, not to the flesh, . . . but . . . the Spirit.”
2. It means sharing the load of legitimate taxes.
a. Not to pay the debts of scheming politicians. This week’s paper tells of Angola and the former governor’s agent (________) serving a five-year prison term.
b. Not to build up a welfare system that invites corruption.
c. To keep my country strong, and to help the weak, aged, homeless, who are not able to help themselves.
3. And of course it means the sharing of the blessings of the tithe.
a. Old Testament law or New Testament expectation for every believer.
b. The higher goal of reconciliation. Matthew 5:23, “If your gift . . . and remember, leave . . . go be reconciled.”
c. Malachi 3:8 pleads that the people not “rob God.”
d. At the point of commitment, we discover what we ought to do materially.
e. One of the eight woes of Luke 11:42 is of those tithing everything except a willing spirit.
III. The Final Concern of Thievery is That of not Caring. “Thou shalt not steal” speaks of the sin of not caring.
1. Stay free from the sin of benefiting from someone else’s misfortune. There was the Biblical character of Jacob (deceiver). He is not pictured as a hero. In fact, he makes amends to Esau.
2. Stay free from the sin of robbing a person of that that is irreplaceable.
a. Many girls have lost virtue on the basis of false promises [by] boys.
b. Gossip has been the instrument of stealing honor, integrity—to start it [or] to pass it along. Shakespeare: “He that filches from me my good name, Robs me of that which not enriches him, and makes me poor indeed.” (Iago in Othello).
3. Stay free from the sin of stealing from the truth of God’s Word.
a. To deny it is to rob it of saving efficacy.
b. To compromise it is to steal from its life-giving vitality. John 10:1, “I say to you, he who does not enter the sheep-fold by the door, the same is a thief and a robber.”
4. Stay free from the sin of robbing people of their dignity.
a. They are the children of God.
b. We are to treat all people accordingly.
Conclusion
A student at seminary was the son of Japanese diplomat. In England they were given one hour to pack before being extradited at start of the war. Value (silver and gold); ancestor (porcelains, etc.). Finally, woolens, food. The war robbed them of great wealth. A daughter killed herself when her husband was killed in kamikaze raid. Converted in Germany following the war when he was given a portion of a German New Testament.
Links
https://renovare.org/articles/living-each-moment-with-a-sense-of-gods-presence-frank-laubach
THE SAD, SIMPLE SIN OF ADULTERY
#286 THE SAD, SIMPLE SIN OF ADULTERY
Scripture Exodus 20:14, Matthew 5:27-28 NIV Orig. 7/10/1966, 2/1976
Rewr. 7/17/1989
Passage:
Exodus 20:14
14 “You shall not commit adultery.
Matthew 5:27-28
27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’[a] 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Purpose: Continuing a series on the ten commandments, here defining the sin of adultery as the abuse of human sexuality.
Keywords: Adultery Love Marriage Sexuality Series, 10 Commandments
Timeline/Series: Sequential
Introduction
If you could decide for everyone of what human sexuality ought to consist, what would you decide? If your marriage were to become the touchstone, would our society be better off for it?
The most significant human relationship on this earth is that which exists between a man and a woman who have shared fully of themselves with each other. To share fully, means to share in perpetuity. Significance is determined by two lives interwoven with the fabric of eternity.
It was popular a generation ago, but was indicative of fleshly pursuits rather than spiritual acumen:
“Though our love may vanish with the morning light,
We loved once in splendor, how tender the night.”
Today’s lyrics are far more vulgar and suggestive. The goal of the entertainment industry today is to make the lifestyle of its proponents the standard for all.
Christians do not have a choice. We are not free to choose the kind of sexuality that we will employ. Song of Solomon (3:5) contains an intriguing directive.
“I adjure you, O daughter of Jerusalem, by the gazelles, and by the hinds of the fields, that you stir not up nor awaken love until it pleases.”
It addresses the vulnerability of sexuality. To love always means to be vulnerable. It means to face the trauma of what may jeopardize love. Human spirituality is the resource through which we see the enemies to such love and by opposing, end them.
I. The Sin Addressed in the Seventh Commandment is That of Adultery.
1. Its principal infraction is within the bounds of marriage. Matthew 19:5, “For this cause shall a man leave father and mother and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be one flesh.”
a. “Cleave,” by the way, means “to join fast together, to cement.”
b. Marriage is a firm, fast, part of the plan of God. It was so in the beginning. Jesus affirms its longevity.
c. It is the fullest expression of human sexuality.
i. Not to be learned in Hollywood. The music video scene prostitutes its meaning. To follow the world’s way is to be adrift on a sea of passion.
ii. The Victorian church is partly responsible. The abusive dogma of sex for procreation only is as offensive as promiscuity.
iii. It is the physical, mental, spiritual sharing of a man and a woman in every dynamic of life.
2. Biblical adultery, however, is more than the breakdown of marriage.
a. It is defined as well as premarital sexual experimentation. Deuteronomy 22 defines a long list of sexual infractions. For these improprieties, death was often the sentence. Marriage was an alternative if both were single. There has to be a better beginning.
b. Nothing is as simple as it used to be. Valentine Day was celebrated on the frontier by leaving a cryptographic message, stamping on the porch, and hiding to watch the object of this flirtation to see her reaction upon deciphering the message. Even if people had porches, I would not advise stamping on them in the middle of the night.
c. What we Christians must always remember is that we can’t teach what we don’t live. The Grapes of Wrath sizzled forty years ago. It hardly raises an eyebrow today. There are a lot of mothers out there who have caved in and just teach their daughters about the pill.
d. The young person who navigates this sea of promiscuity has had excellent example, exemplary teaching, and probably has good genes besides. It is worth the wait. But marriage is made of more than innocence.
II. We Are Not Hard-Pressed to Certify the Wrong of Adultery.
1. It is wrong in the first place, because God’s Word says so.
a. There are those who say it is a question for consenting adults. Kinsey refers to sexuality as “biologic function.” It is that in lower animals. Do you wish it to be no more for humans?
b. Trull calls man the “superorganic creation,” meaning that his sexuality is unlike other created orders.
c. There are theologians who confuse the issue. They are of the “new morality.” Basically, this is the old immorality given acceptance. Biblically, morally, humanly, sex is uniquely tied to marriage. It is climax and consummation of union.
Charlie Brown stood transfixed considering the hill just out of town. “What’s on the other side?” he mused. “What if there’s a kid over there looking over here wondering what’s on the other side?” Lucy yells out, “Forget it kid.”
Christians survey the landscape of sexuality. Some struggle to the top of the hill because it’s there, asking “What if?” They toboggan to the bottom, crash on all the clutter. Look back asking, “What if?”
2. For the Christian, God’s Word is enough, but how do we convince an unbelieving world?
a. Sexual misconduct is harmful. Not because Father Time says so, or some zealous evangelist. Perverted love is lust, and lust distorts the capacity for caring. Sex becomes “What I can do for me,” and nothing else.
b. It is harmful for pathological reasons. Such diseases have always been around. The new kid on the block is AIDS. Newsweek reports that CDC will soon announce 100,000 cases, 54,000 deaths—Nearly as many as killed in Vietnam.
c. Abortion is a social concern, but it is directly related to sexual misconduct.
III. A Final Word Must Be Said of Judgment. “Thou shalt not commit adultery.”
1. This means that there are moral implications.
a. There is no satisfaction being only a dispenser of accusations.
b. Openness to discuss such things means little if there are no alternatives. Two monkeys were on their way to the moon. One says, “This is a heck of a way to make a living.” The other responded, “You remember, they offered you cancer research.”
2. For the guilty, there is the alternative of forgiveness. It begins [by] recognizing God’s sovereignty. For best results it should involve the offended spouse. One must be capable of forgiving oneself as well.
3. To deny the forgiveness factor is to play Russian roulette with our emotions. James 1:15, “Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” Romans 1:24, “Wherefore God gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts.”
4. A final word, then, to the inexperienced.
a. Keeping God’s command is reasonable.
b. Not only is it best, it is possible.
c. Cultivate clean thinking: avoid unseemly, sexually explicit situations.
d. Accept the high ideal of Christ and trust Him for Holy Spirit help.
e. Don’t complicate others’ lives by gossip, even when you know it’s true.
THE STRANGE WAYS OF DEATH
#284 THE STRANGE WAYS OF DEATH
Scripture Exodus 20:13, Matthew 5:21-22, NIV Orig. 7/3/1966 (2/1976)
Rewr. 7/13/1999
Passage:
Exodus 20:13
13 “You shall not murder.”
Matthew 5:21-22
21 “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder,[a] and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister[b][c] will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’[d] is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.”
Purpose: Continuing a series from the Ten Commandments, here calling attention to the involvements of causal death.
Keywords: Death Murder Series: Ten Commandments Suicide
Timeline/Series: Sequential
Introduction
The strange ways of death affect each of us. To the one it lends itself in quest of eternal values, of God Himself. To the other it causes the bristling of the hairs of doubt and dread.
I struggled for years with the husband of a church member who would close any conversation in reference to his lack of faith with a heated charge. He could not, would not believe in a God who would allow such perpetration of evil as that heaped upon the German Jews of the Second World War.
But many have been propelled to faith by some disquieting visit from the death angel. My good friend, and fellow New Orleans pastor, came to seminary after such a visit in a Kerr-McGee pumping station in Oklahoma. He was an active Christian. In fact, it was his relationship to his church that was directly related to the death Ralph Blevins arranged for a Wednesday night off to participate in an important church business meeting. And on that night, one of the proverbial plains tornadoes roared into his home town and vented its fury precisely on that pumping station, killing the substitute attendant. It was that death that turned my friend toward the pursuit of a seminary education and a commitment to the pastorate.
After graduation he became pastor of a struggling congregation on the lower side of the Crescent City, and never found reason to leave. Retired now, “death’s strange ways” touched his life in New Orleans as well. His older daughter’s husband was killed, electrocuted, while flying a wire-controlled model airplane. His younger daughter, twenty-one at the time, [died] of heart failure.
Some of “death’s strange ways” may be listed as “acts of God.” Death is much easier to deal with if it is so defined. Others cannot be! Must not be! How does one make peace with such loss when it results from the machinations of other human beings. God’s Word is adamant. “Thou shalt not kill.” But a lot of people are being killed, and artful devices in the hands of other people are clearly at fault.
I. Our First Consideration is of Death by Malice. James 4:1, “What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? . . . You kill and covet.”
1. The heat of anger.
a. Our law differentiates between premeditated and unpremeditated. A man was dead from a gun in another man’s hand, but in defending himself he was ruled to have caused the discharge. Justice? Unless he was our friend.
b. The scripture concludes a difference. Numbers 35:11, “. . . cities of refuge. . . , that the slayer may flee thither, which killeth any person at unawares.”
1-A type of mercy.
2-Personal responsibility was taught.
3-Presumptuous wrong, high-handed sin, offered no recourse. Numbers 15:30f
c. So, man assumes the responsibility, regardless of terms, when he takes another’s life. Shakespeare Othello: “Put out the light, and then put out the light: If I quench thee, thou flaming minister, I can again thy flaming light restore. But once put out thy light, . . . I know not where is that Promethean heat that can thy light relume.”
2. Beyond the heat of anger looms the stress of war. A 4th grader asked how WWII started. The mother told of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The father, in another room, came quickly to point out all the other factors involved. A heated argument ensued. “Never mind, I think I get the picture.”
a. A Norwegian statistician fed information about wars into a computer It revealed the following:
1-5,575 years of recorded history
2-14,530 wars (2-1/2 times as many)
3- Of 190 generations, 10 without war
4-WWI mobilized 65 million with 8-1/2 million deaths and 37-1/2 million casualties
5-WWII mobilized 100 million with 22 million deaths and 34 million casualties
b. Hosea knew what God’s attitude was. Hosea 2:18, “Bow and sword and battle I will abolish from the land so that all may lie down in safety.” Amos 9:14, “They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them.”
c. When you find God’s people with a sword in their hand or a dagger at their throats, you remember, it is man’s device, not God’s.
II. We Must Not Overlook Death Without Malice. The “city of refuge” is for the one killing “any person at unawares.” (Numbers 15:11)
1. Scripture says little other than implantation of these cities of refuge.
a. A clear difference between killing and murder.
b. But to have accidentally caused the death of another defines guilt.
c. Such refugees taught personal responsibility.
2. Accidental death take a different hue in this 20th Century.
a. Daggers didn’t go off accidentally.
b. People were rarely run down by camels.
c. The only people with wheels were potters.
3. Our day is beset by the woes of the avoidable accident.
a. Every family in this room has been visited by accidental death, many caused.
b. I have had to preach these funerals.
c. I passed recently within two blocks of a railroad crossing where family of six killed on their way to church.
4. I pray to reach a safe haven. I pray that I may not be guilty of another’s death. The single best thing you can do is to teach by example: alcohol does not belong behind the wheel, and seat belts should always be used.
5. There is also a liability beyond immediate cause.
a. Employees are to take seriously the safety of all employees.
b. Landlords should be held accountable for hazardous dwellings.
c. There are those who are culturally dead barely existing in a society that has passed them by. Was it suicide or murder?
III. Consider this Death by Suicide.
1. The statistics are appalling.
a. Every 2-1/2 minutes someone attempts.
b. 25,000 a year (in U.S.) succeed.
c. So many have occurred on the West Coast that some researchers have called it the West Coast sickness.
d. They’re mostly white, Protestant. They’ve run as far as they can run.
2. On the world scene it is frightening.
a. W.H.O. researcher Anthony May
b. May be as many as 1000/day—10X as many attempts.
IV. There are Biblical Examples of Proxy Deaths. David had Uriah put in the line of fire to ensure his death.
1. There is the guilt of the alcohol-sated driver who causes other deaths. A Kentucky man last year who hit a church bus. Is “may he rot in jail” unkind?
2. Drugs (even prescribed) cause people to do things unacceptable by decent standards.
a. Baby found wandering on freeway in New Orleans.
b. At the controls of an 18-wheeler, speeding freight, 200,000-barrel tanker. Drug tests are no longer a deprivation of freedom, they are essential to order.
V. If Christ were Standing Here Before Us, There are Some Things I Imagine He Would Say.
1. No one knows better than He that all must be finally visited by dusky death.
2. To be responsible for the death of any human being under any conditions as a grievous sin (with or without malice, avoidable or not, premeditated or not)
3. To take up arms to do bodily harm must be perceived as against the will of God, and is therefore sin.
4. Even when war is an inescapable alternative, we are to remember our accountability.
5. Our city of refuge: Proverbs 18:10, “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run into it and are safe.”
BEARING FALSE WITNESS
#292 BEARING FALSE WITNESS
Scripture Exodus 20:16; John 8:32 NIV Orig. 7/24/1966; 3/1976
Rewr. 8/17/1989
Passage:
Exodus 20:16 You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
John 8:32 “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Purpose: Continuing a series on the Ten Commandments, here calling attention to the ninth and its urgings as to the importance of truthfulness in all things.
Keywords: Falsehood Truth Witness
Timeline/Series: Ten Commandments
Introduction
If one is writing on stone tablets, brevity and conciseness are essential. It is necessary to say the very most in the very fewest possible words. We must remember, then, that the value of these words springs not from their mass, but from their measure.
John, the gospel writer, will not be content until the full measure of this meaning is stated. He determines to define and personalize both truth and falsehood.
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. . . . For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” John 1:14,17.
Satan was called “a liar and the father of lies.” John 8:44
Pilate wanted to know if Jesus was a king: “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth” (John 18:37f). “Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice.”
“Jesus said to him, (Thomas) ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life.’” John 14:6.
There is His most earnest expectation for us: “I will pray the Father, and He will give you . . . the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him; you know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” John 14:16f
John 8:32 “If you continue in my word, you are . . . my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
I shall seek to go in two directions this morning: (1)To define what “being a false witness” means,” and, (2)understanding religious experience as the fullest expression of truth.
I. Bearing False Witness is the Passing of Any Judgment that is not Factually True.
We live in an age of compromised values. Integrity and truthfulness are often sacrificed for personal advantage. People in “high” and “low” places speak in the lingo of the Saturday matinee, “with forked tongue.” What emerges is a bland mixture of truth, half-truth, and no-truth-at-all: The fairest flower is poisoned; the tallest sequoia has root rot; the finest furrows of our fertile fields are awash with weeds.
A man was asked: “What in your lifetime has given you the greatest satisfaction?” He answered without hesitation: “A child that went down the road singing, after asking me the way.”
How willing are you this morning to perceive of yourself as the witness in question? Anonymous: “There is no fit search after truth which does not, first of all, begin to live the truth it knows.”
To begin at the beginning is to define false witness as the giving of false evidence in a court of law. This was at the heart of the Old Testament meaning: Perjury is a crime; it is false testimony; it is withholding truth. The law court is a device, ordained of God, through which justice is mediated. Romans 13:1 “Let every soul be subject to the higher powers. For there is no power of God: The powers that be are ordained of God.” For the which there is judge, jury, witness, plaintiff, defender, accused: One lie irreparably breaks down the system.
Out of the law court, the false witness is the peddler of malicious gossip. Do not ask if true or false, it is gossip either way. Claim not to be condemning sin. That being the case, to the sinner you must go. Psalm 1:1 “Blessed is the man/woman that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.” Doubt not that the one receiving such trash is as guilty as the purveyor. We take garbage to a proper receptacle. So the gossip, with his load of filth, seeks out the willing ear. If such people gravitate toward you, find out why.
One who wishes to slander another can do so also by inference. This is the realm of the half-truth. When the real juicy stuff is in decline, this will do very well. Proverbs 11:9, “An hypocrite with his mouth destroyeth his neighbor.” Proverbs 12:18, “Gossip can be as sharp as a sword. But the tongue of the wise heals.” NEB.
Someone has noted, “Beware of half-truths. You may get hold of the wrong half.” Shakespeare writes of Julius Caesar’s death at the hand of Brutus, but he thought justly. Mark Antony delivers the funeral oration intent on declaring his feelings to the populace. Speaking then that “Brutus is an honorable man,” until the people begin to doubt. After planting this doubt, Shakespeare has Antony to say, “Mischief, thou art afoot. Take thou what course thou wilt.”
Likewise in need of consideration is standing in defense when it is in our power to do so. In defense of a friend when their character is assailed: Mainly, nothing counteracts slander at its roots like upbeat, positive reply. Job 42:10 “The Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends.” John 13:34 “that ye love one another.” Romans 12:20 “If thine enemy hunger, feed him.”
II. The Second Consideration from this Passage is a Valid Declaration of Religious Experience. “Thou shalt bear false witness.”
We are, in fact, to communicate the truth of relationship. There are people in the local church and out, who deny Jesus is Lord. Those out are the object of some ministry of prayer or concern. Those within are a contradiction of gospel declaration. Mark 16:16 “He that believeth not shall be damned.” These are the words of Jesus. To what degree do we believe them? Are we willing to live by them?
Laws in natural world, fire, water, storm, are deadly. Even the liberal media warn of dangers of drugs.
Whether we take Jesus’ words (above) to be temporal or eternal, we are to live in the context of truth, reality.
We, occasionally, need to reconsider our own spiritual experience. In light of all the New Testament says about repentance, are we up-to-date? Can we recall the time when, by actual expression of faith, Christ became Lord of my life? “Ye must be born again.” Let me rephrase an earlier statement. “There is no fit search after Jesus (truth), which does not, first of all, begin to live the Jesus (truth) it knows.” Go, and live that experience, or be what you are, a false witness.
Conclusion
Martin Luther had theological values we would not want. He thought the earth stationary. (Eclipse.) He thought demons caused thunderstorms. National Geographic [has a] picture of black wall stain where he threw his ink pot at the devil. But it was he, standing before Emperor Charles, surrounded by the royal court, knowing that he was bringing the combined wrath of empire and church down on his own head who declared his witness. “. . . My conscience is captive to the word of God . . . . Here I stand! I can do no other! God help me!”