THE POUND
PROCLAIMER
Volume IV
August 2009
Number 10
Sing
to the Lord, bless His name; proclaim the good news of His salvation from day
to day. Psalms 96:2
LET US MAKE SURE
OF HEAVEN
BY Wallace Whitehorn
It is a fearful and awesome thought to
think of the possibility of being lost in Hell. The writer of the book of
Hebrews tells us, “It is a fearful thing
to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Hebrews 10:31).
Therefore it behooves each of us to check, double check and check again to
determine the accuracy on our road to Heaven. If we miss Heaven, we will have
missed everything that is worth anything. We will have eternity to think about
it in a burning hell. Does it not seem reasonable that we should study God’s
word, the Bible, to see if we are right? If you are right and I am wrong, you
need to help me. If I am right and you are wrong, then I need to help you.
There is no big I and little you in this. We all have the same guidelines, the
Bible, to guide us from earth to Heaven. It becomes an obligation to help each
other in this.
We may say “We know we are going to
Heaven.” How do we know it? One answer might be, “I feel it.” Jesus tells us
about some people who were relying on their feelings. “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the
kingdom of heaven; but he that DOETH the will of my father which is in heaven.
Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name
and in thy name have cast out devils and in they name done many wonderful works?
And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that
work iniquity.” (Matthew 7:21-23). To put it in
language that no one could misunderstand, Jesus said, “Therefore whoever heareth these sayings of mine, and DOETH THEM, I
will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock.” (Matthew
7:24). “And every one that
heareth these sayings of mine, and DOETH THEM NOT, shall he likened unto a
foolish man, which built his house upon the sand.” (Matthew 7:26), Are we
being wise and building on the solid rock by DOING what Jesus in his word tells
us to do?
Not one place in all the Bible has God,
through Christ, promised to save us by our feelings. We must understand that
false teachers play and prey on the feelings of people. They cause division
among people by teaching that we are safe, if we feel we are safe. OBEDIENCE is
the doctrine taught by Christ and the apostles. Paul warns us of these false
teachers. “Now I beseech you, brethren,
mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which ye
have learned; and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus
Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the
hearts of the simple.” (Romans 16:17-18).
The only sure way to know that we will be
saved in Heaven is to obey the Lord. False teachers tell us we are saved by
faith only, but God’s word, the Bible, tells us we are not saved by faith only.
How then are we saved? It is by the works of obedience. (James 2:24). Modern
day false teachers tell us we do not need to be baptized. Jesus said “He that believeth and is baptized shall he
saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned,” (Mark 16:16). Baptism
is obedient faith. Who shall we follow? Christ or false teachers? Let us follow
Christ and have the promise of Heaven.
In the second chapter of Acts, we read
about the beginning of the Lord’s church. Peter preached Christ to a large
group of people. He told them they had put to death Jesus, the Son of God. They
believed this and wanted to know “What shall we do?” Peter gave them the answer
from Heaven. “Repent, and be baptized
every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for (or unto) the remission of
sins.” (Acts 2:37-38). We are then told “They that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day
there were added unto them about three thousand souls.” (Acts
2:41) Who did the adding? False teachers tell us to join the church
of our choice. The Bible tells us that the Lord adds to His church those who
obey him. (Acts 2:47)
We not only have the assurance of Heaven
by OBEYING the gospel of Christ, we have the assurance of hell if we OBEY NOT
the gospel of Christ (1 Thessalonians 1:7-9). May God help
us to give up all false teachers with their false doctrines.
Let us obey the gospel of Christ. The Lord will then add us to His church and
we can live for Him. When it is time for us to leave this life, we can move
over into that land that is fairer than day, which is Heaven itself, and live
together forever.
- 10323 Orby
The Editor’s
Page
In second Peter chapter three, Peter
reminds Christians that in the last days scoffers
would come. Of these scoffers Peter said, “They
will say, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell
asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation’”
(2
Peter 3:4).
The thing that separates faithful
Christians from the scoffers is a love and a hope that looks with longing
toward the Day of The Lord.
To hearts filled with love and hope, what
otherwise might seem like ages will pass away quickly. It can be illustrated by
looking into the life of Jacob. We are all familiar with Laban’s deception of
tricking Jacob into marrying Leah first. However, consider what is said about Jacob’s
extra time to gain Rachel. “So Jacob
served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of
the love he had for her” (Genesis 29:20).
We all know that time passes at exactly
the same rate every day. Although this is true, the passage of time can drag
slowly for those who have no expectation for a joyous future. For those whose
hearts are filled with the anticipation of joy unspeakable, years will seem but
a few days. As with Jacob, those who expect the fulfillment of their love for
God and the hope of their salvation will think it a small thing to labor for
years to gain Heaven.
It is for this reason that we should live
out our lives here on earth in hope. Regardless of the number of days until we
meet the Lord, it will seem but a few days.
Lest we are tempted to think “Where is the promise of his coming?”
Remember that Jesus promised, “Let not
your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also
in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have
told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may
be also” (John 14:1-3; cf. Acts 1:9-11). Failure to know the
day or hour of His return (1 Thessalonians 5:1-2) does not
negate the fact of His return.
The Lord’s promise is to come back to
take the faithful Christian home to Heaven. For this reason, Christians should
live each day as if the Lord’s return will be that day because it may be. No
day, present or future, is exempted from being the Day of the Lord. Truly it
can be said that the Day of the Lord is at hand (see Philippians 4:5).
See that this life with all that is
associated with it shall pass away, Peter asks, “what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and
godliness” (2 Peter 3:11). He then answers his question pointing out
that we should “look for” and “hasten” the coming of the day of the Lord
(v.12). Does this not suggest that, like Jacob looking for the day of his
marriage to Rachael, we labor lovingly and hopefully ‘hastening’ the Day of the
Lord?
As we pass the times of this life in
hope, we are blessed “though now you (we)
do not see Him, yet believing, you (we) rejoice with joy inexpressible” (1 Peter
1:8). If anticipation for the Day of the Lord is lacking in your
heart, it would behoove you to examine your love for God.
- END -
WORKING FOR THE
MASTER
DON’T WANT TO
Early one morning, a mother went in to
wake up her son. “Wake up, son. It’s time to go to school!”
“But why, Mom? I don’t want to go.”
“Give me two reasons why you don’t want
to go.”
“Well, the kids hate me for one, and the
teachers hate me, too!”
“Oh, that’s no reason not to go to
school. Come on now and get ready.”
“Give me two reasons why I should go to
school.”
“Well, for one, you’re 52 years old. And
for another, you’re the principal!”
Too often, we make decisions based upon
our personal desire to do a thing? We feel justified in refusing to do ‘IT’ if ‘IT’ is something we don’t want to do. The task may be unpleasant or
it may be that we would rather do something else. Whatever the case, the fact
is, we do pretty much what we want to do and refuse to do the rest.
Our society is suffering from this
malady. There is too many who think they should have the highest paying job in
the company simply because they want it. They are not willing to put forth the
effort of hard work, yes, doing things they don’t want to do, to obtain that
position. When I was growing up, we were taught that we must work for what we
got and that meant doing those unpleasant jobs, the ones that we didn’t want to
do. We were taught to practice what was called the ‘WORK ETHIC.’
This unproductive attitude has made its
way into the church. Christians have a responsibility to obey and serve God. That
means doing things, even when we don’t feel like doing them! It’s called having
a sense of duty. The concept of duty in our society today has taken a back seat
to personal desire.
I hear talk about the importance of doing
things for God because we ‘WANT TO.’ The idea that we do things out of
necessity is thought to be archaic and ill advised. I agree that our actions
should be motivated out of a love for our Father, but if we only served God
when we ‘FELT’ like it, our service would be minimal at best. What about those
times when the feelings aren’t there? Are we justified to forego our service?
Or, should we continue to serve knowing that it is the ‘RIGHT’ thing to do?
“Will
any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has
come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’? Will he not rather
say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I
eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’? Does he thank the servant
because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you
were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our
duty’” (Luke
17:7-10).
There are many areas where Christians
neglect their duty, but none is more obvious or prevalent than in their
assembling with a local church on Sunday evening and Wednesday evening. This
sad state of affairs is often defended on the misguided reasoning that the
Scriptures say nothing about two services on Sunday or a mid-week service. I
doubt that this is the real reason for their absenteeism. I think it is more in
the category of ‘WANT TO’!
The Hebrew writer informs us of our duty
toward other Christians by saying “And
let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting
to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all
the more as you see the Day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:24-25).
Now, we can get hung-up on whether this
is speaking of two services on Sunday, a Wednesday night service and gospel
meetings, but it will not change the verses. They will still be in the Bible
and they will still teach what they teach. The question is not, ‘Does Hebrews
10:25 include Sunday and Wednesday nights?’ The question should be,
‘Why don’t you want to be present Sunday and Wednesday nights?’
It is amazing how that we can get up on
weekdays and trudge off to work. We have headaches, stomach aches, lack of
sleep, etc. and yet, we would not think of forsaking work. We walk out of the
house to a beautiful blue sky with loads of sunshine and think how wonderful it
would be to play golf, go fishing, visit granny or just loaf, but we go to work
anyway.
Some Christians act like the two year old
who, when Pap-paw with out stretched arms said, ‘Come, give us a hug and kiss!’
responded by saying, ‘Don’t want to!’ Jesus stands with out stretched arms
saying, ‘Come, learn of me, and grow in knowledge. Come; develop a close
personal relationship with me and my other children.’ How sad it must make Him
when the response comes back, ‘DON’T
WANT TO!’
- END -
THE LAST WORD
####################
WHAT MUST
I DO
Hear: Rom 10:17
Believe: Heb 11:6
Repent: Lk 13:5; Ac
17:30
Confess: Matt 10:32; Ac
8:36
Be Baptized: Ac 2:38;
22:16
TO BE
SAVED?
###################
FAMILY
MATTERS
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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