The End of the Road For 25,000 Americans
Every 2 1/2 minutes, someone in the United States tries to commit suicide. Most of them fail. Yet each year 25,000 Americans are successful – a strange but necessary usage of the world! Although suicide is called the “West Coast weakness,” every West Coast clergyman knows the troubled people who come West because they found life in the EAst intolerable. The “West Coast weakness,” is simply the end of the road for many who have traveled a long way, and when the golden symbols of a new life in the West grow pale, restricted by the forbidding vast Pacific, they then and there abandon all hope — and finally life itself. The suicide of Marilyn Monroe — young, beautiful, affluent, and a symbol of pleasure – has done much...
The Churches Witnessing
“Just as a single individual cannot achieve the purpose of Christ alone, so a group of individuals constituting a Church cannot carry out Christ’s commission by themselves. The essential conception of Democracy calls corporation. No church cut off with fellowship with all other churches can be true to the New Testament idea. A Church that refuses to cooperative with other churches of like faith and order has voided its charter as a Democratic body.” Dobbins I. The Church and its members: 1. We must teach more than the New Birth. 2. The New birth revolutionizes a man: New hopes, desires, and aims in life. 3. A Christian must find God’s plan to work out his Christianity. The Church is that plan. 4. No man can work out his own salvation by...
The Book of our Faith
“Heaven and Earth shall pass away.” Matt. 24:35, Heb. 4:12, Isiah 55:10-11 A new navigator chartered a course for a C 47 from Labrador to the Agores. “The Agores should be right there.” Fulfillment proved the navigators readings of 8 hrs. earlier correct. Fulfillment in human life has proved again and again the truth of the Bible as God’s word. I: The 5 Alps Climbers. 1. “The People of the Book.” Whitefield asked a Roman Catholic Miner, “What do you believe?” 2. “We believe that with the bible in our hands we are able to deal with every problem of life.” 3. “We believe that it is the final authority for conduct of life! The whole structure of Christianity is built upon it.” 4. Dr. E.V....
The Backward Look
It is hard, if not impossible, to plow a straight furrow while looking back. Luke 9:57-62, Phil. 3:13 *Context: There were those that wanted to follow Jesus but:* I: Plowing is a Man Size Job. 1. Your mind must be on the job. 2. Not all soil will be loose and sandy. 3. The stumps, rocks, or sprouts are apt to discourage. 4. The backward look may let the plow slip out of the ground or run under a stump and hurt the power. II: The Backward Look is Dangerous. 1. The backward look of Israel caused them to murmur and complain. It stirred their appetite for fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic, but they failed to see the brick kelns. 2. The backward look turned Lots wife to a pillar of salt. 3. The backward look caused Mark to desert Barnabas and Paul. 4....
Synthetic Heroes
Our standards of real life are too often confused with the synthetic. Man has made many substitutes but he can never change the hearts of sin by robes of make-belief. Be not conformed. Rom. 12:1-21 I: The Family Mold is Changing. 1. Today’s marriage is based upon personal like, and dislikes rather than upon duties and responsibilities. 2. America is becoming less and less family-minded and more individual minded. 3. Rome was strong while she had the corporation spirit in family, community, and state. (40,000 – 37,000 = 3,000 Germans). 4. We need to put a higher price on a happy family and less on a better job or keeping up with Jonses. II: The New World “Models,” are Molding Our Children. 1. “A half-century ago a sociologist named...
“Stretch Forth the Curtains Of Your Habitations”
Isaiah 54: Israel was being urged to make room for the blessings God had for them. I: The Challenge To Grow In Service: 1. Christians grow under the pressure of responsibility (Take up thy cross). 2. Our own spiritual life is enlarged when we serve others (deny thyself). 3. “Enlarge the place of thy tent” make room for others. 4. “Spare not.” He that soweth sparingly shall also reap sparingly. 5. “Lengthen thy cords.” Short ropes of selfishness will never rescue the perishing. Our Christian lives must reach beyond our own little group. 6. “Strengthen the stakes.” Prayer and spiritual preparation will fasten the stakes firmly to the rock. II: If We Fail To Make Room 1. Business is making room. 2. Places of pleasure...
Standards of the Doctorine of Christ
John 2: 1-13 I: The New Testament Church. 1. Ecclesia — called out. 2. “I will build my church.” Matt. 16:18 3. Jesus used the name twice, 113 times in the N.T. 96 times to the local church. 4. The Church & Kingdom not identical. a. “The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation; neither shall they say, Lo here, or lo there. For behold, the Kingdom of God is within you.” Luke 19: b. The Church is the divine agency for promoting and extending the Kingdom. 5. Founded by Jesus and instructed to his followers. Bought by his blood. Acts 20:28. II: The Marks of the New Testament Church. 1. Called out people of God. 2. Only saved were accepted. 3. Immersion it’s way of baptism. 4. Empowered by Holy Spirit and fruitful. 5....
Short Beds and Scanty Covers
Have you ever tried to sleep on a bed that was too short? Have you ever tried to cover with a quilt that was too narrow? This is a picture of a man trying to hide his sin from God. Isiah 28:14-20 I: Man Has Always Tried to Cover Sin. 1. Adam and Eve tried to cover their sin with an apron of fig leaves, then both shifted the blame. 2. Cain tried to hide murder, he lied, he tried to shift his responsibility. 3. Achan tried to bury sin in his tent. 4. David tried to cover adultery with murder. 5. Arab tried to let his wife take the blame. 6. Ananias and Sapphira tried to cover covetousness with a lie. II: The Short Bed of Excuses. 1. “And they all with one consent began to make excuse.” Luke 14:18 2. But they made light of it. Matt. 22 3. Some try to...
She Perfumed the World
John 12:1-6, John 11:52-57 I: “They Made Him a Supper.” vs. 12 1. “6 days before the passover,” the time of his death. 2. “The house of simon the leper.” Mark 14:3 3. “Martha served.” 4. “Lazarus was 1 of them that sat at the table with him.” (other observers) 5. “Then took Mary a proud of ointment of spikenard, very costly.” II: “Very Costly.” 1. Equivalent to 300 days of labor or enough to feed 5,000 men. 2. Probably the most precious thing she owned in this life. 3. The price astonished those present. 4. Judas started the murmur of discontent. 5. He judged her gift and suggested a better way to serve Christ. 6. His own heart was prepared to sell Jesus for 30 pieces of silver....
Saved Soul, Lost Life?
What do we mean when we say saved, regenerated, born again, etc. “Communication is not simply a process of taking meaning out of words; it is also the process of putting meaning into words.” Many times we find we are using the same words, but getting different meanings. John 5:1-14, Mark 10:17-22, Living of James 2:14-20 I: Problems We Confront: 1. Ones view of being saved influences the way he enters into Christian life. 2. To some it may mean an easy way to escape Hell and gain Heaven. 3. To some it means embarking on a life’s mistake. 4. To some it means salvation of the soul with no interference in daily living. 5. To some it is a completely new way of life. 6. To some it may mean adding a little room for God. 7. To others it means a new...
Pushed or Pulled
Romans 7:14-25, Galatians 5:13-26, Mark 7:15-22 I: Man’s Heart a Battle Ground. 1. Out of the heart comes that which defiles a man. 2. Jesus knew that man was pushed by forces from within. 3. A demon possessed person was one that had been pushed too hard. 4. Man’s least advancement is found in this field. Oliver Wendell Holmes said: “When two people are talking, there are in reality, six person’s involved. First there is you as I think you are, and I as you think I am, then there is you, you think you are and I as I think I am; Finally there are two more each of us as we really are.” II: Pushed by Fleshy Desires. 1. The Alcoholic pushed by his desire. 2. The Libertine his lust. 3. The pleasure seeker that must have excitement. 4. The...
There Is A Friend That Sticketh Closer Than A Brother
Prov. 18:24 I: False Friends 1. Friends money, fame, or power can buy. Prov. 19:4 2. Friends that a whispered falsehood will drive away. Prov. 17:9 3. Friends of sunshine that depart when the storm clouds gather. 4. Heal friendship grows slow but steady. II: “A brother is born for adversity.” Prov. 17:17 1. Blood is thicker than water. 2. A true friend loves us in spite of our faults. 3. A real friend will tell us our faults and help us to overcome them. III: Jesus the friend that never forsaketh. 1. John 15:13-15. Jesus was our friend even unto death. 2. He will be our friend in sickness, poverty, prosperity, adversities, and in disgrace. 3. “I won’t have to cross Jordan alone.” 4. When I stand before the judgment bar of God. We...
