The Bible is the Christian’s Standard
Hurry! Only three days left. “For four days only — April 28-May 1, 2008 — for every $95 of Vision Forum merchandise purchased, you will receive a free $50 in gift certificates (passport), redeemable between June 1 and December 31, 2008, good toward any items from our three Vision Forum catalogs….” Recommended: the CD “How to Think Like a Christian.” This CD is or should be a reminder to all Christians!
https://affiliates.visionforum.com/idevaffiliate.php?id=367
The above link is for a company—Vision Forum—that provides unique products for the family. I am an affiliate for the company and receive a small commission whenever someone uses this link and then makes an unreturned purchase while using the link. Check it out. I think you might like the products offered. I do. See my more complete explanation on my post of February 1, 2008 entitled “Affiliate program with Vision Forum.”
Recently, I came across the following website. I suggest you check it out if you are a policy holder of Farmers Insurance Group or thinking about having them insure you in any capacity: http://www.farmersinsurancegroupsucks.com/
Based upon past historical data: 3,287+ UNBORN BABY MURDERS have occurred in the last 24 hours in the United States. See my post “BABY HOLOCAUST” posted January 22, 2008.
Recently, I’ve been involved in a problem one of my clients has with Farmers Insurance Group. My previous posts in relation to this problem were:
September 10, 2007 post: “Beware of Farmers Insurance Group”
September 11, 2007 post: “Farmers Insurance Group’s response”
September 18, 2007 post: “Farmers Insurance Company received the requested list”
September 19, 2007 post: “Farmers Insurance Company’s response to the list”
October 16, 2007 post: “Farmers Insurance Group and my request for information”
November 27, 2007 post: “Farmers Insurance Group does not respond to my request”
January 11, 2008 post: “Farmers Insurance Group latest stall”
January 12, 2008 post: “Farmers Insurance Group is sent a response”
January 14, 2008 post: “Farmers Insurance Group pays some money”
January 19, 2008 post: “Farmers Insurance Group continues to be obstinate”
January 26, 2008 post: “Farmers Insurance Group receives another request”
February 11, 2008 post: “Farmers Insurance Group shows how low they will go?”
February 12, 2008 post: “Farmers Insurance Group: If I were going to respond to the final letter”
February 13, 2008 post: “Farmers Insurance Group and associated companies”
February 14, 2008 post: “Farmers Insurance Group and how others rate the company”
I will not be continuing my Creationism posts today. I do plan to return to them soon.
Then, I plan to answer the response about Iraq. I am sorry for the change in plans. Plans, in reality, often are altered for one reason or another. “The best laid plans … often go astray.” Thank you for your understanding and patience.
How many unborn toddlers were murdered today because of the humanistic, paganish, barbaric decisions of the United States Supreme Court?
Stop the
Murder of
Unborn
Toddlers
“Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.” James 4: 17 (NIV)
http://www.farmersinsurancegroupsucks.com/
http://www.childpredators.com/
http://www.lifedynamics.com/
http://www.libertylegal.org/
http://www.alliancedefensefund.org/
http://www.searchtv.org/
“Give Us a Standard
Judges 21: 25
Greetings to you, my friend, and welcome to our program of Bible study In Search of the Lord’s Way to become a Christian and to live the blessed Christian life. The other day I had my car radio tuned to a talk show as I was driving home for lunch. A caller was vehemently accusing the host of imposing his standard of morals on his listeners. As free people, he was saying, there should be no prescribed morality. Really! Let’s study about that.
It must be obvious to every thinking American that we do have a serious and rapidly growing moral problem in our beloved country. A four-year-old girl goes to pre-school intoxicated—drunk. She drank from her mother’s supply. A father sexually abuses his infant daughter and calls me for help. A trusted elected official admits to, or is found guilty of embezzlement of public funds, drunk driving and illicit sex. Shootings and killings on school and college campuses are reported almost weekly. One of every four teenage girls has a sexually transmitted disease. About half the babies being born are to unwed mothers. Well, we are smitten with addictions: with alcohol, drugs, sex, tobacco, pornography, gambling and others. The legal merciless killing of about a million little innocent, helpless pre-born (or being born) babies every year is our nation’s shame. There are daily reports in the news media of child-abuse, kidnapping and murder. No nation in history has survived the acceptance of the homosexual lifestyle, same sex marriages, along with acceptance of blasphemy, taking God’s name in vain—as we see it in the movies and even in the media. Well, you know that is only a partial description of the ugly American culture of the Twenty-first Century, don’t you? We simply must get to the heart of the problem, and I believe that’s where we are relevant. The solution is the Lord’s Way to live—and to treat each other. And that is what we do in these programs. We search the Bible for His way to live together and to treat one another. We sincerely believe the Lord’s way is the best way to live that mankind has ever known. Our program today is titled, Give Us a Standard.
If you would like a copy, a printed copy of the message, or maybe a copy on a CD or an audio cassette tape, or in booklet form, simply write us: In Search of the Lord’s Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083. Our e-mail address is searchtv@searchtv.org. They are free. And our toll-free telephone number is 1-800-321-8633. After Ken Helterbrand leads us in a hymn of praise to God, I’ll be back for Bible reading and prayer.
Our Bible reading today consists of one verse only. The children of Israel had entered the Promise Land, and the land had been divided to them by tribes, and God had ruled over them by judges; and now the book of Judges closes with this one verse, verse 25 of the 21st chapter. “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” Now let us pray. Holy Father, we are thankful to You for Your revelation of these things in the Bible that can mean so much to us as we study them. They are examples to us, given to us to encourage us to be faithful; and we pray Your blessings on our study of this one verse today, and the things that relate to it. In the lovely name of Jesus we pray You, Amen!
William F. Buckley died a few days ago. The youth won’t remember him, but you parents and grandparents and great-grandparents will. Newsweek had his picture on the front page, the cover and two good articles about him in the March 10th issue. I’ve had an aversion to the use of the words “conservative” and “liberal” in my preaching. They seemed to be too divisive to be used in sermons. But, Buckley helped me with that. I’m a conservative. You knew that, didn’t you? Or did you? Buckley was a conservative and he did as much as anybody, I suppose, to give it respect. I like the way he said, “The goal of freedom” (In case you missed that now, let me say it again.) “The goal of freedom is to live an obedient man—but obedient to God, subservient to the wisdom of my ancestors; never to the authority of political truths arrived at yesterday—at the voting booth.” I like that.
Our country was founded by people who sought the freedom to be obedient to God. Now, as we said earlier, our once proud and mighty nation is in a state of decline, because we have rejected God and abandoned truth for the preconceived new freedom. Now in our days, freedom means everybody does what is right in his own eyes. And we are saying, “God give us a standard”
Imagine the confusion that would exist in interstate commerce, if we had no standards of weights and measures. Suppose a man bought a million bushels of wheat in one state and sold it in another whose bushel measure was somewhat larger. Oh, what a loss he would suffer! President John Quincy Adams, sixth president of the United States, called both Houses of Congress together for a Special Session. He walked in carrying two “bushel” baskets; one he said, “The bushel measure on my right hand came from South Carolina; the one on my left hand came from the city of New York. One of these bushel measures contains sixty-eight cubic inches more than the other.” He paused a moment to let that fall on the minds of the Senators and Representatives; and then he asked, as he walked up to a table and picked up two one-pound weights, he said, “This weight on my right hand came from Massachusetts; this one on the other came from Maine. One of them weighs nearly an ounce more than the other.” He gave them a little time to think about that; then he concluded, “Gentlemen, we need a standard measurement and a standard weight for the United States of America.”
Well, the result of that speech and demonstration was the establishment of the Bureau of Standards of Weights and Measures. Now, whether you live in South Carolina or New York City, a bushel of wheat is a bushel; and whether you live in Massachusetts or Maine, there are sixteen ounces in a pound, always.
Perhaps you have heard grandmother and granddad tell about “the good ole days,” when a person would go to the general store for a pound of coffee. The merchant would scoop up a scoop of coffee, a scoop full of it, and pour it slowly into a sack which he balanced carefully in the other hand until it felt about like a pound; then he would drop the remaining coffee and the scoop back into the barrel, tie up the purchase in a paper sack (or “poke,” depending on where all this was happening), and the customer would pay for a pound and go on his way. He may have paid for a pound and gotten fifteen ounces or, perhaps eighteen ounces.
A lady might have gone to the store to purchase some “yard goods,” they called them in those days, only to have the merchant measure it out between two notches which had been cut on the counter-top by the merchant’s grandfather who operated the business before he passed it on to his son, who in turn passed it on to the present owner. Well, they may have sincerely thought they were measuring out a full yard to their customers, but it might well have been only thirty-four, thirty-five and a quarter inches, or it could have been as much as thirty-six inches and three-quarters inches. Well, there was nothing dishonest about it; the old man who cut the notches there was as honest and sincere as he could be; and his son knew that and so did the grandson; so they never questioned the measurement.
But, there are differences now, aren’t they? A pound is sixteen ounces now—wherever you go—no guess work. When we pump a gallon of fuel into the tank of our vehicle, the pump is regulated so as to measure out a gallon. And a gallon is a gallon in every state in America. Well, President Adams was right. We sorely needed a standard of weights and measures.
And the need for a standard in morals and religious faith is just that critical today! We need a standard—a truth that will be truth everywhere and always, to all people—a standard by which all of us can determine what is right and what is wrong, and what will be right and what will be wrong everywhere and with all people wherever we go. The pluralism of the prevailing postmodern thought is just not working, friend. It’s wreaking havoc on our national faith and morals.
Like the merchant who carefully balanced the sack of coffee in his hand until it felt like a pound, many people do what they do in religion simply because, “it feels right to them” or they “feel led to do it.” They seem not to be aware of the truth of which the Bible speaks, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” (Proverbs 16: 25) Chaos and confusion abound everywhere! Anarchy reigns! And we cry, “Oh God, give us a standard!”
Well, like the old-time merchant who measured out his yard of gingham between two notches cut in the counter by his grandfather or grandmother; he knew full well that his grandfather was honest and would never cheat a customer. Though really, he might have been doing it all along without even knowing it—so many people today are clinging to the religious beliefs and the practices of their honest and good fore parents. They have no reason for being what they are or doing what they do, but that their grandparents were that, and that is the way they did. Oh, how we do need a standard; something by which everyone can live and be certain he is doing and believing what’s right.
Just as it was before we had a Bureau of Standards of Weights and Measures, when each state had its own, in religion today, there is no standard. Each group has its own authoritative council or maybe it is a creed that defines truth for them. What is said to be right for one group is not right for others. Each one does what is right in his own eyes. The result is confusion and chaos—even unbelief just as Jesus said it would be in John 17, verses 20 and 21. Oh, how we need a standard!
Well, that one short verse we read for our text aptly describes, not only the conditions that existed in a period of some of the formative days of Israel’s history, but it just as aptly describes the conditions in our own period of religious and moral decline in America. It was during the reign of the judges, and the times were difficult because God’s will had been abandoned and the Scripture says, “Every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” My friend, God has given us a standard already. Yes, He has! Even as He had then, but the people scorned it then, as many do now. The Bible is God’s word. When man rejects it and sets his own rules for life, he is on a downward course to disaster. Jeremiah, the Old Testament prophet who wept over the sinful and condemned state of Israel cried, “O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.” (Jeremiah 10: 23)
It’s an awesome truth that God has spoken and revealed His way to man. It is awesome, I say, not only because it’s inspired and inspiring and wondrous, but because it’s fearful and appalling and it makes a dreadful demand on man for an appropriate response. The only such response is obedience to it. It is irreverent and even blasphemous, the way some people who profess to speak for God pretend such comradery with Him as to carry on casual conversations with Him at their own will and at their command. My friend, God does not come down and sit on the side of the bed and talk to these people like that. He never did. Even Moses was not permitted to do that. In Exodus 33: 20 God said to Him, “You cannot see My face; for no one shall see Me and live” (Exodus 33 and 20). Nor, does God speak to us through the traditions of our ancestry, not even through the councils of the best-of-intentioned men, neither in the creeds written by the most scholarly of them, but through His word, the Bible. There is our standard!
And it says, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3: 16-17) The Bible, then, is here by the breath of God. And it's to be used for teaching doctrine, for reproving the erring, for correcting the course of a misled life, for instruction in the things that are right, so that the man of God can be completely, and is completely supplied by the Scriptures with everything necessary to every good work. There’s our standard. Oh my, we must get back to it!
Of course there have always been, in every generation, those who have given short weights and measures for ill-gotten-gain. They flourish and prosper in spite of the Bureau of Standards of Weights and Measures. And so it is in Christianity. There have always been, and always shall be I suppose, the Elmer Gantry’s, who prey upon the unlearned and unsuspecting for profit. That’s why the Scripture says, “Be diligent (King James says, “study”) to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (some versions say, “handling aright the word of truth.”) It is “the word of truth.” Let’s not forget that. Let us pray. Holy Father, thank You for the revelation, the translation, the preservation of Your holy word, a standard by which we can all live in unison. We pray Your blessings as we strive to walk in its light. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen!
Corinth is said to have been the most important city of Greece when the apostle Paul went there to preach, as recorded in Acts chapter 18, verses 1 to 17. It was the capital of the Province of Achaia, and it was a city of political and commercial importance. It was known, as America is, for its luxury, its wickedness and its moral corruption. Paul preached the word of God and by doing so he established a church of God there. He later wrote them two letters. Listen to some of what he wrote them in the first letter: Hear him now: “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But, you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.” That is 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verses 9 to 11. So, my friend, sinners— fornicators, idolaters, homosexuals, sodomites, thieves, the covetous, the drunkards can change. The word of God has the power to do that. And that’s why we preach the word.
What we have said, then, is that the Lord’s way of life described in the Scriptures is the solution to the loss of faith and the depraved state of our American morality. It’s the standard that we seek today. Oh! How we do need to get back to the Bible, friend. Some of us now living may yet witness the demise of our beloved nation, if we don’t do so and do it soon. When we open the Bible to study it, we must really and truthfully want to conform our faith and our lives to it as God’s everlasting and unchangeable standard. And, we must always be on guard against imposing our opinions and prejudices on the word of God, and of trying to use the Bible to justify our preconceived ideas and twisted views. It’s true! Faith is accepting everything God says in His word, and conforming our lives to it. Now, this is what the apostle Paul is saying in Galatians chapter 2, verse 20: “I have been crucified with Christ;” he said, “it is no longer I who lives, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Of course you couldn’t say that of yourself, if you hadn’t done as he did in complete obedience to God’s will. Read about that in Acts chapters 9 and 22 and 26. It will inspire you and it will encourage you to believe in Christ and to confess Him, to repent of your sins and to be baptized to have those sins washed away, just as he did. (Acts 22: 16) Oh, my friend, I hope you will do that today and then let us hear from you!”
If you would like a free audio cassette—or a CD—or a printed copy of today's program, you may have one simply by writing In Search of the Lord’s Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083, or by e-mail searchtv@searchtv.org. Or, you may use our toll free telephone number 1-800-321-8633. Or, you may access the program on our website, searchtv.org. Say! We are so glad that you were with us today. We pray you’ve been blessed. And, we hope you will join us again next week. God bless you now. We love you.”
Hurry! Only three days left. “For four days only — April 28-May 1, 2008 — for every $95 of Vision Forum merchandise purchased, you will receive a free $50 in gift certificates (passport), redeemable between June 1 and December 31, 2008, good toward any items from our three Vision Forum catalogs….” Recommended: the CD “How to Think Like a Christian.” This CD is or should be a reminder to all Christians!
https://affiliates.visionforum.com/idevaffiliate.php?id=367
The above link is for a company—Vision Forum—that provides unique products for the family. I am an affiliate for the company and receive a small commission whenever someone uses this link and then makes an unreturned purchase while using the link. Check it out. I think you might like the products offered. I do. See my more complete explanation on my post of February 1, 2008 entitled “Affiliate program with Vision Forum.”
Recently, I came across the following website. I suggest you check it out if you are a policy holder of Farmers Insurance Group or thinking about having them insure you in any capacity: http://www.farmersinsurancegroupsucks.com/
Based upon past historical data: 3,287+ UNBORN BABY MURDERS have occurred in the last 24 hours in the United States. See my post “BABY HOLOCAUST” posted January 22, 2008.
Recently, I’ve been involved in a problem one of my clients has with Farmers Insurance Group. My previous posts in relation to this problem were:
September 10, 2007 post: “Beware of Farmers Insurance Group”
September 11, 2007 post: “Farmers Insurance Group’s response”
September 18, 2007 post: “Farmers Insurance Company received the requested list”
September 19, 2007 post: “Farmers Insurance Company’s response to the list”
October 16, 2007 post: “Farmers Insurance Group and my request for information”
November 27, 2007 post: “Farmers Insurance Group does not respond to my request”
January 11, 2008 post: “Farmers Insurance Group latest stall”
January 12, 2008 post: “Farmers Insurance Group is sent a response”
January 14, 2008 post: “Farmers Insurance Group pays some money”
January 19, 2008 post: “Farmers Insurance Group continues to be obstinate”
January 26, 2008 post: “Farmers Insurance Group receives another request”
February 11, 2008 post: “Farmers Insurance Group shows how low they will go?”
February 12, 2008 post: “Farmers Insurance Group: If I were going to respond to the final letter”
February 13, 2008 post: “Farmers Insurance Group and associated companies”
February 14, 2008 post: “Farmers Insurance Group and how others rate the company”
I will not be continuing my Creationism posts today. I do plan to return to them soon.
Then, I plan to answer the response about Iraq. I am sorry for the change in plans. Plans, in reality, often are altered for one reason or another. “The best laid plans … often go astray.” Thank you for your understanding and patience.
How many unborn toddlers were murdered today because of the humanistic, paganish, barbaric decisions of the United States Supreme Court?
Stop the
Murder of
Unborn
Toddlers
“Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.” James 4: 17 (NIV)
http://www.farmersinsurancegroupsucks.com/
http://www.childpredators.com/
http://www.lifedynamics.com/
http://www.libertylegal.org/
http://www.alliancedefensefund.org/
http://www.searchtv.org/
“Give Us a Standard
Judges 21: 25
Greetings to you, my friend, and welcome to our program of Bible study In Search of the Lord’s Way to become a Christian and to live the blessed Christian life. The other day I had my car radio tuned to a talk show as I was driving home for lunch. A caller was vehemently accusing the host of imposing his standard of morals on his listeners. As free people, he was saying, there should be no prescribed morality. Really! Let’s study about that.
It must be obvious to every thinking American that we do have a serious and rapidly growing moral problem in our beloved country. A four-year-old girl goes to pre-school intoxicated—drunk. She drank from her mother’s supply. A father sexually abuses his infant daughter and calls me for help. A trusted elected official admits to, or is found guilty of embezzlement of public funds, drunk driving and illicit sex. Shootings and killings on school and college campuses are reported almost weekly. One of every four teenage girls has a sexually transmitted disease. About half the babies being born are to unwed mothers. Well, we are smitten with addictions: with alcohol, drugs, sex, tobacco, pornography, gambling and others. The legal merciless killing of about a million little innocent, helpless pre-born (or being born) babies every year is our nation’s shame. There are daily reports in the news media of child-abuse, kidnapping and murder. No nation in history has survived the acceptance of the homosexual lifestyle, same sex marriages, along with acceptance of blasphemy, taking God’s name in vain—as we see it in the movies and even in the media. Well, you know that is only a partial description of the ugly American culture of the Twenty-first Century, don’t you? We simply must get to the heart of the problem, and I believe that’s where we are relevant. The solution is the Lord’s Way to live—and to treat each other. And that is what we do in these programs. We search the Bible for His way to live together and to treat one another. We sincerely believe the Lord’s way is the best way to live that mankind has ever known. Our program today is titled, Give Us a Standard.
If you would like a copy, a printed copy of the message, or maybe a copy on a CD or an audio cassette tape, or in booklet form, simply write us: In Search of the Lord’s Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083. Our e-mail address is searchtv@searchtv.org. They are free. And our toll-free telephone number is 1-800-321-8633. After Ken Helterbrand leads us in a hymn of praise to God, I’ll be back for Bible reading and prayer.
Our Bible reading today consists of one verse only. The children of Israel had entered the Promise Land, and the land had been divided to them by tribes, and God had ruled over them by judges; and now the book of Judges closes with this one verse, verse 25 of the 21st chapter. “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” Now let us pray. Holy Father, we are thankful to You for Your revelation of these things in the Bible that can mean so much to us as we study them. They are examples to us, given to us to encourage us to be faithful; and we pray Your blessings on our study of this one verse today, and the things that relate to it. In the lovely name of Jesus we pray You, Amen!
William F. Buckley died a few days ago. The youth won’t remember him, but you parents and grandparents and great-grandparents will. Newsweek had his picture on the front page, the cover and two good articles about him in the March 10th issue. I’ve had an aversion to the use of the words “conservative” and “liberal” in my preaching. They seemed to be too divisive to be used in sermons. But, Buckley helped me with that. I’m a conservative. You knew that, didn’t you? Or did you? Buckley was a conservative and he did as much as anybody, I suppose, to give it respect. I like the way he said, “The goal of freedom” (In case you missed that now, let me say it again.) “The goal of freedom is to live an obedient man—but obedient to God, subservient to the wisdom of my ancestors; never to the authority of political truths arrived at yesterday—at the voting booth.” I like that.
Our country was founded by people who sought the freedom to be obedient to God. Now, as we said earlier, our once proud and mighty nation is in a state of decline, because we have rejected God and abandoned truth for the preconceived new freedom. Now in our days, freedom means everybody does what is right in his own eyes. And we are saying, “God give us a standard”
Imagine the confusion that would exist in interstate commerce, if we had no standards of weights and measures. Suppose a man bought a million bushels of wheat in one state and sold it in another whose bushel measure was somewhat larger. Oh, what a loss he would suffer! President John Quincy Adams, sixth president of the United States, called both Houses of Congress together for a Special Session. He walked in carrying two “bushel” baskets; one he said, “The bushel measure on my right hand came from South Carolina; the one on my left hand came from the city of New York. One of these bushel measures contains sixty-eight cubic inches more than the other.” He paused a moment to let that fall on the minds of the Senators and Representatives; and then he asked, as he walked up to a table and picked up two one-pound weights, he said, “This weight on my right hand came from Massachusetts; this one on the other came from Maine. One of them weighs nearly an ounce more than the other.” He gave them a little time to think about that; then he concluded, “Gentlemen, we need a standard measurement and a standard weight for the United States of America.”
Well, the result of that speech and demonstration was the establishment of the Bureau of Standards of Weights and Measures. Now, whether you live in South Carolina or New York City, a bushel of wheat is a bushel; and whether you live in Massachusetts or Maine, there are sixteen ounces in a pound, always.
Perhaps you have heard grandmother and granddad tell about “the good ole days,” when a person would go to the general store for a pound of coffee. The merchant would scoop up a scoop of coffee, a scoop full of it, and pour it slowly into a sack which he balanced carefully in the other hand until it felt about like a pound; then he would drop the remaining coffee and the scoop back into the barrel, tie up the purchase in a paper sack (or “poke,” depending on where all this was happening), and the customer would pay for a pound and go on his way. He may have paid for a pound and gotten fifteen ounces or, perhaps eighteen ounces.
A lady might have gone to the store to purchase some “yard goods,” they called them in those days, only to have the merchant measure it out between two notches which had been cut on the counter-top by the merchant’s grandfather who operated the business before he passed it on to his son, who in turn passed it on to the present owner. Well, they may have sincerely thought they were measuring out a full yard to their customers, but it might well have been only thirty-four, thirty-five and a quarter inches, or it could have been as much as thirty-six inches and three-quarters inches. Well, there was nothing dishonest about it; the old man who cut the notches there was as honest and sincere as he could be; and his son knew that and so did the grandson; so they never questioned the measurement.
But, there are differences now, aren’t they? A pound is sixteen ounces now—wherever you go—no guess work. When we pump a gallon of fuel into the tank of our vehicle, the pump is regulated so as to measure out a gallon. And a gallon is a gallon in every state in America. Well, President Adams was right. We sorely needed a standard of weights and measures.
And the need for a standard in morals and religious faith is just that critical today! We need a standard—a truth that will be truth everywhere and always, to all people—a standard by which all of us can determine what is right and what is wrong, and what will be right and what will be wrong everywhere and with all people wherever we go. The pluralism of the prevailing postmodern thought is just not working, friend. It’s wreaking havoc on our national faith and morals.
Like the merchant who carefully balanced the sack of coffee in his hand until it felt like a pound, many people do what they do in religion simply because, “it feels right to them” or they “feel led to do it.” They seem not to be aware of the truth of which the Bible speaks, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” (Proverbs 16: 25) Chaos and confusion abound everywhere! Anarchy reigns! And we cry, “Oh God, give us a standard!”
Well, like the old-time merchant who measured out his yard of gingham between two notches cut in the counter by his grandfather or grandmother; he knew full well that his grandfather was honest and would never cheat a customer. Though really, he might have been doing it all along without even knowing it—so many people today are clinging to the religious beliefs and the practices of their honest and good fore parents. They have no reason for being what they are or doing what they do, but that their grandparents were that, and that is the way they did. Oh, how we do need a standard; something by which everyone can live and be certain he is doing and believing what’s right.
Just as it was before we had a Bureau of Standards of Weights and Measures, when each state had its own, in religion today, there is no standard. Each group has its own authoritative council or maybe it is a creed that defines truth for them. What is said to be right for one group is not right for others. Each one does what is right in his own eyes. The result is confusion and chaos—even unbelief just as Jesus said it would be in John 17, verses 20 and 21. Oh, how we need a standard!
Well, that one short verse we read for our text aptly describes, not only the conditions that existed in a period of some of the formative days of Israel’s history, but it just as aptly describes the conditions in our own period of religious and moral decline in America. It was during the reign of the judges, and the times were difficult because God’s will had been abandoned and the Scripture says, “Every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” My friend, God has given us a standard already. Yes, He has! Even as He had then, but the people scorned it then, as many do now. The Bible is God’s word. When man rejects it and sets his own rules for life, he is on a downward course to disaster. Jeremiah, the Old Testament prophet who wept over the sinful and condemned state of Israel cried, “O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.” (Jeremiah 10: 23)
It’s an awesome truth that God has spoken and revealed His way to man. It is awesome, I say, not only because it’s inspired and inspiring and wondrous, but because it’s fearful and appalling and it makes a dreadful demand on man for an appropriate response. The only such response is obedience to it. It is irreverent and even blasphemous, the way some people who profess to speak for God pretend such comradery with Him as to carry on casual conversations with Him at their own will and at their command. My friend, God does not come down and sit on the side of the bed and talk to these people like that. He never did. Even Moses was not permitted to do that. In Exodus 33: 20 God said to Him, “You cannot see My face; for no one shall see Me and live” (Exodus 33 and 20). Nor, does God speak to us through the traditions of our ancestry, not even through the councils of the best-of-intentioned men, neither in the creeds written by the most scholarly of them, but through His word, the Bible. There is our standard!
And it says, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3: 16-17) The Bible, then, is here by the breath of God. And it's to be used for teaching doctrine, for reproving the erring, for correcting the course of a misled life, for instruction in the things that are right, so that the man of God can be completely, and is completely supplied by the Scriptures with everything necessary to every good work. There’s our standard. Oh my, we must get back to it!
Of course there have always been, in every generation, those who have given short weights and measures for ill-gotten-gain. They flourish and prosper in spite of the Bureau of Standards of Weights and Measures. And so it is in Christianity. There have always been, and always shall be I suppose, the Elmer Gantry’s, who prey upon the unlearned and unsuspecting for profit. That’s why the Scripture says, “Be diligent (King James says, “study”) to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (some versions say, “handling aright the word of truth.”) It is “the word of truth.” Let’s not forget that. Let us pray. Holy Father, thank You for the revelation, the translation, the preservation of Your holy word, a standard by which we can all live in unison. We pray Your blessings as we strive to walk in its light. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen!
Corinth is said to have been the most important city of Greece when the apostle Paul went there to preach, as recorded in Acts chapter 18, verses 1 to 17. It was the capital of the Province of Achaia, and it was a city of political and commercial importance. It was known, as America is, for its luxury, its wickedness and its moral corruption. Paul preached the word of God and by doing so he established a church of God there. He later wrote them two letters. Listen to some of what he wrote them in the first letter: Hear him now: “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But, you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.” That is 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verses 9 to 11. So, my friend, sinners— fornicators, idolaters, homosexuals, sodomites, thieves, the covetous, the drunkards can change. The word of God has the power to do that. And that’s why we preach the word.
What we have said, then, is that the Lord’s way of life described in the Scriptures is the solution to the loss of faith and the depraved state of our American morality. It’s the standard that we seek today. Oh! How we do need to get back to the Bible, friend. Some of us now living may yet witness the demise of our beloved nation, if we don’t do so and do it soon. When we open the Bible to study it, we must really and truthfully want to conform our faith and our lives to it as God’s everlasting and unchangeable standard. And, we must always be on guard against imposing our opinions and prejudices on the word of God, and of trying to use the Bible to justify our preconceived ideas and twisted views. It’s true! Faith is accepting everything God says in His word, and conforming our lives to it. Now, this is what the apostle Paul is saying in Galatians chapter 2, verse 20: “I have been crucified with Christ;” he said, “it is no longer I who lives, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Of course you couldn’t say that of yourself, if you hadn’t done as he did in complete obedience to God’s will. Read about that in Acts chapters 9 and 22 and 26. It will inspire you and it will encourage you to believe in Christ and to confess Him, to repent of your sins and to be baptized to have those sins washed away, just as he did. (Acts 22: 16) Oh, my friend, I hope you will do that today and then let us hear from you!”
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posted by Christian Gunslinger at 9:33 PM
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