PUMPING IN PERFECTION
#053b PUMPING IN PERFECTION
Scripture II Timothy 3:12-17 Orig. Date 10-22-61
Rewr. Dates 4-19-75
Passage: 12 In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13 while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God[a] may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Purpose: To speak to my people early in the year encouraging them to give stronger consideration to the need to study God’s Word with a renewed intensity.
Keywords: Bible Christian Responsibility Baptist Belief
Introduction
I stood there that day talking with a lady about a need for a music worker. She shared some reluctance, but I felt that she was almost convinced. I moved in like a fisherman at his favorite fishing hole. I reminded her that we simply wanted to see her talent invested in this important “kingdom” cause. Her response was sincere. “Brother Skinner, I love to sing, but there’s a lot I don’t know about music.” I felt like a chess payer moving in to checkmate. Said I, “I love to preach, but there’s a lot I don’t know about preaching and sermons.” I was just getting ready to pat myself on the back when she took the wind out of my sails. She responded, “Yeah, but YOU can fool people, and you can’t when you don’t know music.”
People as a rule have capabilities to master just about anything. There are musicians who have dedicated their lives to mastering music. There are theologians and preachers who have mastered the art of sermon and rhetoric.
As difficult as it is to believe, there are people who understand, and who have mastered, American foreign policy. To most of us it is beyond the scope of comprehension. One of the nemeses of the school years is always testing time. It’s bad enough to spend hours preparing for the subject, and then leave the classroom wondering if we even passed. Then we look at the posted grades and see the names of those who not only passed, they had perfect scores.
One of the most significant doctrinal emphases of Baptists over the centuries has been our regard for the Bible. I do not know of anyone who has claimed to master this book. None of us will ever be able to exceed in understanding what the Word of God proclaims in revelation. But, oh how we need to set ourselves to the task.
We will never know all that we would like to know about our chosen vocations, but we work at improvement. Knowledge abounds in the avocational areas of sports, arts and crafts, travel, history, and a thousand other subjects. That we can not know everything does not hinder our determination.
“Pumping in Perfection” is an apt title because the only way that we will ever get close to what we ought to be is by the embrace of the assimilation of God’s Word creatively applied.
I. We Discover that This Book was Written By Men Inspired. II Peter 1:21 “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”
There are a lot of different reasons that people write: Some to share knowledge; some to entertain; some to express their prurient thoughts. Others write simply because it is easier than working. The Bible was written as a storehouse of redemptive knowledge. Its purpose was not science, not astronomy, not even history. God is at work redemptively.
Psalm 110:105 “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” Jeremiah 23:29 “Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?” Luke 24:32 “Did not our hearts burn within us as he opened to us the Scriptures?” Romans 15:4 “Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.”
Patrick Henry referred to the Bible as “a book worth all other books which were ever printed.”
II. Written By Inspired Men, It Had God for Its Author, Salvation for Its End. Romans 1:16 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth.” God is then eternally responsible for His Word. In man’s beginning, he struggled to communicate with other men, and language was born, a language capable of expressing the deepest of thoughts. In man’s entrapment in the nuclear age, communication has been replaced by détente. God’s Word is now more than ever man’s only surviving means of brotherhood.
God’s purpose according to His Word will not and cannot be averted. The writing of the Bible as we know it today covers about 1600 years of man’s history. The Old Testament was born and woven in three fragments—Law, Prophets, and Writings. By 150 A.D. a complete New Testament canon was in circulation. Many translations preceded the ones we know: Jerome, mid 4th century; Wycliffe 1380; Tyndale 1611; King James 1611. The TEXTUS RECEPTUS was the basic King James text. Though some 5,000 manuscripts have been found since, there is a total alteration of less than one percent.
III. God’s Word has Truth without Any Mixture of Error for its Matter. Proverbs 30:5-6 “Every work of God is pure. Add thou not unto His words, lest He reprove thee and thou be found a liar.” There is not to be found any book with the integrity, credibility, and authenticity of the Bible. Why do people waste time on the trashy books that offer only a fleshy sensation at best? They may do worse. This is the real evil of pornography: What it does to us, and what it keeps from us.
The truth of man’s gravest need is found and continued in the book we know as the Bible. We were concerned with Watergate. We are concerned with Southeast Asia. We wonder about ecology and energy supplies. There is an answer to “Why am I here?” and “Where is it all going?”
Psalm 43:3 “Send out Thy light and Thy truth; let them lead me.” John 8:32 “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” II Corinthians 13:8 “We can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.”
IV. The Bible Goes on to Reveal the Principles by Which God Will Judge Us. Romans 2:12 “As many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law." John 12:47-48 “If any man hear my words. . . . the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.”
The most significant aspect of that judgment is faith in Jesus. Whatever good there is, or merit, in any human life comes about as a result of faith.
Aristotle said of his own writings that they “were given for action and not for discussion.” Even so, with the Bible, it is easier to get people to talk about the Bible, even to study, than to get us to do what it says. We marvel that Codex Sinaiticus sold for ½ million dollars. Vaticanus was so closely guarded that it was not known until Napoleon conquered Rome.
V. The Bible Is and Will Remain to the End of the World the True Center of Christian Union. Philippians 3:16 “Let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.” We have learned some things worthy of keeping: We are judged by the same standards. We are forgiven alike through Jesus. We are saved for equal purposes.
It will do us well to remember that the totalitarian state is enemy to the purpose of sharing this Word from God. One is reminded of a Hitler quote to youth-oriented groups, “Whether it is the Old Testament or the New Testament, or the sayings of Jesus, it is all the same old swindle. . . . One is either a German or a Christian. You can not be both.” A Hitler mouthpiece was head of the German people’s church. National socialism must not be judged from a biblical or ecclesiastical standpoint.
VI. The Bible is the Supreme Standard by Which All Human Conduct, Creeds, and Opinions Should be Tried. I John 4:1 “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.”
CLOSING
Last eve I passed beside a blacksmith’s door,
and heard the anvil ring the vesper chime.
Then looking in I saw upon the floor
old hammers worn with beating years of time.
“How MANY anvils have you had,” said I,
“to wear and batter all these hammers so?”
“Just one,” said he, and then with twinkling eye,
“The anvil wears the hammers out you know!”
And so, thought I, the anvil of God’s Word,
for ages skeptic blows have beat upon;
Yet, though the noise of falling blows was heard,
the anvil is unharmed—the hammers gone.
Attributed to John Clifford
Don’t you think it’s time for a little of God’s perfection to be pumped?
DEMAS THE WORLD-LOVER
#061 DEMAS THE WORLD-LOVER
Scripture Philemon 24; Colossians 4:14; II Timothy 4:10 NIV Orig. Date 12-31-61
Rewr. Dates 1-6-88
Passage:
Philemon 24, NIV
24 And so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas and Luke, my fellow workers.
Colossians 4:14, NIV
14 Our dear friend Luke, the doctor, and Demas send greetings.
2 Timothy 4:10, NIV
10 for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia.
Purpose: Showing that the best way to avoid straying from our faith is to continually re-examine it by the light of the way we are living.
Keywords: Biography, Demas Faith Worldliness Revival Faithlessness
Introduction
I was a proud young man after completing my work at Louisiana College. A significant time had come in my life. Ann and I were already married. We had a baby daughter named Fritha. Soon I would begin my next level of preparation for the pastorate.
In my mind, at least, seminary would offer a different perspective of preparation. There, so I thought, I would gain through the experiences of others. My professors were to be graduate theologians. Most had served pastorates. Some had even taken advance studies in the finer theological schools of Europe.
While I had been active in my home church after receiving Christ at age 16, I had reached the ripe age of 24, having left my home, and home town, and fellowship of believers to enter the military. From there, I had gone to work in industry in Baton Rouge. So, for six of those years prior to entering seminary, I had not had a close and uplifting experience with a pastoral role model. Seminary would offer me that, or so I thought.
I now know that what I wanted was someone to lean on, someone who would serve as an occasional crutch. But, as early as my first seminary class I discovered that there would be lots of competition. There were 2,000 students at Southwestern, needing, more or less, someone to lean on. And there were only about sixty faculty members. And most of them felt that it was not in their students’ best interest for them to be leaning posts.
I wonder if Demas looked at Paul, and Luke, and the others as someone to lean on. I wonder if he held them in such reverence that he never found time to seek the Lord for the daily needs of his own life. Paul had addressed this very issue with the Corinthians. “Was Paul crucified for you, or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” Demas may have missed that lecture. What he needed, we need—a daily walk with our Lord. Loving the world is the alternative.
I. When First We Meet Demas, He is Called Co-Laborer. Philemon 24 “Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas, my fellow-laborers.” Clearly, there were prior years of good effect. We know nothing of his prior years, only that this is the first of three listings. This is chosen as the first because the object of this letter, Onesimus, is mentioned in Colossians 4:9, “a faithful and beloved brother.”
Knowing so little, we try to piece together a life. I watch and read with interest the scenarios of paleontologists and archaeologists who take a bone, a bead, a tool, and attempt to build a culture. Law enforcement uses artists to draw up likenesses from slender shreds of evidence of witnesses.
We can conclude a few things. Philemon, written from Rome, was written first, some suggest during an early imprisonment. Perhaps Demas was enamored of this man Paul. Remember, at first Paul “was in his own hired house” (Acts 28:30).
It is possible that hardships were minimal. Demas was a piece of clay being molded, not yet experiencing the heat of the kiln: As someone (Lockyer p91) says, “like a piece of soft iron, temporarily magnetized by the presence of a magnet.”
It would not have been difficult for any of us to revere a man like Paul. And too many of us have revered those who unlike Paul had “feet of clay.”
Little can be said, therefore, about Demas’ conversion. Some would conclude that Demas had not been converted, and would be quick to say so. They fear, I suppose, that he would thus be an example of one who had “fallen from grace.”
But we Baptists know the truth. We know that one cannot fall “from” grace. Hebrews 6:19, “Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast.” But we know that the believer can fall “in” grace. I Timothy 4:1, “Some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits.”
It remains a sad commentary that some who walked the way of faith lost their zeal for the walk. But for now, Demas is a coworker, along with Philemon (Philemon v1), Clement (Philippians 4:3), and Epaphroditus (Philippians 2:25).
II. When Next We Find Him, it is with a Cosmopolitan Spirit. Colossians 4:14 “Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas greet you.” Imagine, being mentioned in the same breath with a great Christian like Luke. Interestingly, like Demas, Luke is mentioned by name only three times—the same three passages. What a remarkably significant difference in these two men.
Imagine, as well, having the opportunity to learn scripture from such men of knowledge and spirit. According to the best information, Luke’s gospel had been written a year or two earlier: Gospel of Luke in 60 A.D., and Colossians in 61 A.D. Perhaps it was already being circulated.
It should not escape our notice that Mark is also mentioned in these three passages. And his gospel was written first. Luke enlarged upon it. I checked a couple of New Testaments: Mark and Luke comprise 80 pages, Paul’s writings 90 pages. The total in the New Testament is 360 pages.
Demas is with three who wrote half the New Testament.
No better place than this to digress. How seriously do we take scripture? How long has it been since we engaged in regular Bible study? What will be our response three weeks from now when we study Malachi? Have you read through the Bible? The New Testament? Have you resolved to do better in 1988? Whom do we choose as a role model? Paul? Demas?
Here was an opportunity to learn scripture from a man likewise skilled in science. I love science, do you? I have a grasp of what it means to reconcile science to scripture. Notice, I said “science to scripture.” If we have to reconcile scripture to science, then what’s the use? I owe science no apology for my faith. If my faith means nothing, then science is nothing more than separate irresistible forces on collision course.
We still turn out to hear scientists who are also believers, believers who are scientists: Willie Ley at Louisiana College, George Schweitzer at Southwestern Seminary.
And this particular scientist was “beloved.” It was a word used of Jesus in Matthew 3:17. It is used of believers: Romans 1:7, I Corinthians 4:14. Will you be thus remembered? One of the pluses of the pastorate is from people who do not forget. I had a letter from a Riverside church member in New Orleans, Bonnie Williamson, kindly expressing appreciation. People have that kind of love for family doctors also.
Brother Doctor Luke was easy to love. Demas was working on becoming a world lover.
III. Finally, We Find Only a Vapor Trail of Where He Has Been. II Timothy 4:10, “For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world and is departed unto Thessalonica.” Perhaps as many as five years have passed. At what point he left we do not know. The spirit of his leaving seems to have been desertion. Surely Paul would have yielded up this brother in pursuit of the will of God.
We do know that circumstances have changed for Paul. Clement of Rome (30 years later) says he was exiled. Tradition affirms that he was released, but to what is conjecture. Paul himself gives us a hint. II Timothy 1:16f, “May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me; he was not ashamed of my chains, but when he arrived in Rome he searched . . . and found me.”
Do you think Demas had become “ashamed” of “chains”? Aischuno is the Greek word that means “shame,” or a feeling of “fear.” “Chain,” or halusis, refers to a literal binding. Are we ashamed of what we perceive as “chains” binding believers today?
Thus, emerging from this Christian cocoon is a world-lover. It does not suggest that he became worldly, only that he decided that being an outspoken Christian was dangerous. He put his church letter in his trunk and took out for home, betraying Paul, but more important, denying his Lord.
Conclusion
The point of Demas’ life has nothing to do with falling from grace. It has little to do with salvation. It has everything to do with growing in our faith: With sanctification if you please. We must take care that Demas’ mistakes do not become our mistakes. We should, and must, move in those circles that exemplify our Lord, and that ensure spiritual growth, not a kind of religious tedium that is revoltingly commonplace.
WISE UNTO SALVATION
#053 WISE UNTO SALVATION
Scripture II Timothy 3:12-17 Orig. Date 10-22-61 (4-75)
Rewr. Dates 1-12-86
Passage: 12 In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13 while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God[a] may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Purpose: To speak to my people early in the year encouraging them to give stronger consideration to the need to study God’s Word with a renewed intensity.
Keywords: Bible Christian Responsibility Baptist Belief
Introduction
I stood there that day talking with a lady about a need for a music worker. She shared some reluctance, but I felt that she was almost convinced. I moved in like a fisherman at his favorite fishing hole. I reminded her that we simply wanted to see her talent invested in this important “kingdom” cause. Her response was sincere. “Brother Skinner, I love to sing, but there’s a lot I don’t know about music.” I felt like a chess payer moving in to checkmate. Said I, “I love to preach, but there’s a lot I don’t know about preaching and sermons.” I was just getting ready to pat myself on the back when she took the wind out of my sails. She responded, “Yeah, but YOU can fool people, and you can’t when you don’t know music.”
I never cease to be amazed at the capabilities that many people have. There are few things in this world that are not within the scope of being mastered if one has the heart and the will, and some intellect thrown in for good measure.
There are musicians who have dedicated their lives to mastering music. There are theologians who likewise have mastered the art and craft of sermon and rhetoric. Believe it or not, there are even people who understand American foreign policy. They know what is going on in Nicaragua, even Libya, or South Africa.
Make no mistake about this then. If one wants to understand the Bible, it is within our grasp. We can, and must, see it as vital to the Christian life. We must perceive of God’s Word as the agent of His communication with His people. Such a voice would not be shoddily handled when so much depends on it.
I. We Discover that This Book was Written By Men Inspired. II Peter 1:21 “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”
There are a lot of different reasons that people write: Some to share knowledge; some to entertain; some to express their prurient thoughts. Others write simply because it is easier than working. The Bible was written as a storehouse of redemptive knowledge. Its purpose was not science, not astronomy, not even history. God is at work redemptively.
Psalm 110:105 “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” Jeremiah 23:29 “Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?” Luke 24:32 “Did not our hearts burn within us as he opened to us the Scriptures?” Romans 15:4 “Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.”
Patrick Henry referred to the Bible as “a book worth all other books which were ever printed.”
II. Written By Inspired Men, It Had God for Its Author, Salvation for Its End. Romans 1:16 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth.” God is then eternally responsible for His Word. In man’s beginning, he struggled to communicate with other men, and language was born, a language capable of expressing the deepest of thoughts. In man’s entrapment in the nuclear age, communication has been replaced by détente. God’s Word is now more than ever man’s only surviving means of brotherhood.
God’s purpose according to His Word will not and cannot be averted. The writing of the Bible as we know it today covers about 1600 years of man’s history. The Old Testament was born and woven in three fragments—Law, Prophets, and Writings. By 150 A.D. a complete New Testament canon was in circulation. Many translations preceded the ones we know: Jerome, mid 4th century; Wycliffe 1380; Tyndale 1611; King James 1611. The TEXTUS RECEPTUS was the basic King James text. Though some 5,000 manuscripts have been found since, there is a total alteration of less than one percent.
III. God’s Word has Truth without Any Mixture of Error for its Matter. Proverbs 30:5-6 “Every work of God is pure. Add thou not unto His words, lest He reprove thee and thou be found a liar.” There is not to be found any book with the integrity, credibility, and authenticity of the Bible. Why do people waste time on the trashy books that offer only a fleshly sensation at best? They may do worse. This is the real evil of pornography: What it does to us, and what it keeps from us.
The truth of man’s gravest need is found and continued in the book we know as the Bible. We were concerned with Watergate. We are concerned with Southeast Asia. We wonder about ecology and energy supplies. There is an answer to “Why am I here?” and “Where is it all going?”
Psalm 43:3 “Send out Thy light and Thy truth; let them lead me.” John 8:32 “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” II Corinthians 13:8 “We can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.”
IV. The Bible Goes on to Reveal the Principles by Which God Will Judge Us. Romans 2:12 “As many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law." John 12:47-48 “If any man hear my words. . . . the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.”
The most significant aspect of that judgment is faith in Jesus. Whatever good there is, or merit, in any human life comes about as a result of faith.
Aristotle said of his own writings that they “were given for action and not for discussion.” Even so, with the Bible, it is easier to get people to talk about the Bible, even to study, than to get us to do what it says. We marvel that Codex Sinaiticus sold for ½ million dollars. Vaticanus was so closely guarded that it was not known until Napoleon conquered Rome.
V. The Bible Is and Will Remain to the End of the World the True Center of Christian Union. Philippians 3:16 “Let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.” We have learned some things worthy of keeping: We are judged by the same standards. We are forgiven alike through Jesus. We are saved for equal purposes.
It will do us well to remember that the totalitarian state is enemy to the purpose of sharing this Word from God. One is reminded of a Hitler quote to youth-oriented groups, “Whether it is the Old Testament or the New Testament, or the sayings of Jesus, it is all the same old swindle. . . . One is either a German or a Christian. You can not be both.” A Hitler mouthpiece was head of the German people’s church. National socialism must not be judged from a biblical or ecclesiastical standpoint.
VI. The Bible is the Supreme Standard by Which All Human Conduct, Creeds, and Opinions Should be Tried. I John 4:1 “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.”
CLOSING
Last eve I passed beside a blacksmith’s door,
and heard the anvil ring the vesper chime.
Then looking in I saw upon the floor
old hammers worn with beating years of time.
“How MANY anvils have you had,” said I,
“to wear and batter all these hammers so?”
“Just one,” said he, and then with twinkling eye,
“The anvil wears the hammers out you know!”
And so, thought I, the anvil of God’s Word,
for ages skeptic blows have beat upon;
Yet, though the noise of falling blows was heard,
the anvil is unharmed—the hammers gone.
Attributed to John Clifford