Category: Solve Church Problems

by: Dr. Bob Gray Sr.

Have you ever had the “blues?”  Have you ever wondered why you feel close to God at times, yet, at other times you feel so far from Him? If you are married, are there times when you feel close to your spouse, yet there are other times you feel the two of you do not get along at all? Do you sometimes have trouble in your relationships with other people?

You have not changed your habits, your schedule or your lifestyle in any way, yet you do not feel as close to God as you used to feel. Sometimes when you read your Bible, you feel like It is a love letter from Heaven; yet, sometimes you feel you cannot receive anything from the Bible. Sometimes you feel that prayer is fellowship with the King of kings; other times, you feel that you cannot reach Heaven. You are the same person, you are doing the same things, and you have the same God. Yet, you feel things are not always the same. I am not talking about sin; I am talking about times when you feel less zealous, less attentive, or less affectionate.

People in the Bible suffered the same lows and highs we suffer. Take, for example, Elijah.  After he had a high of praying down fire from Heaven and defeating the prophets of Baal, he suffered a low time. He became discouraged, sat under a juniper tree, and declared he was the only person left who was following God. Elijah challenged King Ahab, but then he ran from Jezebel, Ahab’s wife.

Jeremiah, the great prophet of tears and compassion, also suffered low times. He prayed for Israel and wept for her as no other man had done; yet, the day came when he drew back and decided to quit.  He had lost his burden, his compassion and his enthusiasm. He even wished he had never been born.

Paul, the great missionary, had low times. He wrote the book of Colossians and Galatians, warning the Jews about returning to their former religious rituals. Then he had a low time and took a Jewish vow and shaved his own head.

John Mark was traveling with Paul on one of the great missionary journeys. At Pamphylia, he lost his nerve, became homesick, and turned back. James and John decided one day that they wanted the main seats in the Kingdom.

I was working my way through Bible college, paying my tuition, and the tuition of my four children in the Christian school. I went to work one day, and there was a padlock on the door. I took my paycheck to the bank, and the banker laughed at me. He said, “Haven’t you read the paper? Your company went bankrupt.” The check was not worth the paper it was written on! How could such a thing happen to me? I decided either I could sit and cry, waiting for Ed McMahon to ring my doorbell and give me $1 million, or I could grab my snow shovel and earn some money shoveling snow. That day I earned $175 shoveling snow!

This feeling is as normal as breathing. It is necessary, because life is made that way. Christians are half human and half spirit. A man’s eternality is found in his spirit, and his natural man is found in the flesh. The spirit has unending energy is eternal. The spirit is power; it causes you to go to the heavenlies, to feel you are with Christ and He is with you. Yet, you are still trapped by your flesh and the limitations of time. You have energy on the inside that wants to do so much, but you can only go as far as your flesh allows you to go.

Everyone has low times. These low times do not come to you because you are wicked. It is not caused by not being right with God. Sometimes, the flesh and the material things of this world cannot keep up with your spirit. The spirit is flying high, and the flesh cannot keep up. Your spirit will always have the lead, but sometimes you have to slow down so your flesh can catch up with your spirit.

Sometimes, I preach on Heaven and feel so happy—almost as if I were actually there. At other times I preach on Heaven, but I feel nothing. If I have low times, then I will appreciate the high times more.

Physical appetites also have peaks and valleys. Sometimes you crave a certain food, but other times you have no desire for that food. At times your affection increases, but at other times it wanes. At times your interests’ peak, and at other times they wane.

You inhabit a changing body, yet you have the Holy Spirit Who does not change.  Part of you is thrilled by the things of God, yet part of you is thrilled by the things of this world. This combination causes both valleys and peaks in every area of life. However, if you have no valleys, you cannot have peaks. If you have no lows, then you cannot have highs. You will never enjoy the highs if you do not have lows. After you suffer a cloudy day with its blustery winds, sleet, and snow, you will truly enjoy the next sunny day.

This could be compared to a person who has suffered a physical problem. For example, a stroke. His spirit is alive, but his flesh will not allow him to do what he wants to do.

These feelings are perfectly normal.

When you hammer a nail, there are two motions involved: you must pull the hammer back, and then you must strike forward with the hammer. You cannot keep hitting with the hammer without first pulling back. The more you pull back, the more force is delivered when the hammer hits.

If your car has ever been stuck in the mud or snow, you probably know you cannot escape by simply stepping on the accelerator and spinning your wheels. If you do that, you will tear up your transmission. The best way to loosen your car from the mud or snow is to rock it back and forth. The more you move back and forth, the easier it will be to release your car. When you use a saw, you must move it back and forth. When you chop wood, you must go back with the ax before you can chop down with it.

Likewise, you spend your life pulling back and pushing forward. When you feel blue, you should rock back and forth with your feelings; do not wallow in the mud. These feelings do not cause you to be a bad person. You are trapped by the flesh, and these feelings are normal. Realize, also, that these feelings are normal for other people. Men, if your wife is crying, do not become angry and accuse her of being backslidden. These feelings are a part of the normal cycle of life. They are not an indication that you are not right with God.

These feelings are necessary for success. 

The drawing back times are necessary to success. You must spend some time alone, away from the crowd. You need to meditate, and spend time alone with God. You must walk alone in the woods and let the tears flow.

Maybe you are the type of person who must have the television or radio on in each room of the house. You do this because you do not want to be alone. However, you are running from the very thing that will bring you success. You must spend time meditating and thinking. You must take time to allow God to speak to your heart.

These feelings are not sinful by themselves.

These feelings of being blue, or sad, are not a sin unless you commit sin when you are feeling blue. If you quit going to church or serving God, if you become angry at God when you are blue, then you are sinning.

My wife has so many physical problems. There have been times when she has just sat down and cried, saying that she cannot take another step. This does not mean she is not a good Christian.

Jeremiah reached his limit and decided to quit. If he had continued to quit, then he would have sinned. However, he realized he had a burning in his bones, which was the Word of God. He had to keep on going.

Do not make decisions during the blue times.

You must realize that, when you have these blue feelings, you are not at your best. It is not sin, but you are not at your best. Therefore, you must not make decisions during these times. When your husband hurts you with his words, sit down and cry, but do not decide to divorce him. Your boss may hurt you, but that is not the time to quit your job. Your best decisions are made before and after the blue times. Everyone has down Sundays or Mondays. Everyone has down soul-winning times; however, this is not the time to quit or make decisions. It is not the time to quit the bus route, nor is it the time to quit the church. When Peter backslid, he followed Jesus from far away and may have been sitting on the back row, but he was still in church

You are never called to preach during the times when you have quit reading your Bible or praying. You will not be called to preach during those times when you quit soul winning. When you are backslidden, you will not be called to do anything. Your best decisions are made on the mountaintop.

Seek counsel from someone who is on a high.

When you need advice, you should not seek advice from someone who is down. Find someone who is shouting and walking with God. Seek counsel from your pastor.

Keep reading your Bible, even if you think you are not getting anything out of It. There is power in the Bible. Stay in It, and God will speak to your heart.

When you are down, be a “put on.”

In two different places in the Bible, God tells us to “put on” the new man. A hypocrite is not the church member who gets drunk on Saturday night and then puts on a white shirt and tie to go to church on Sunday morning. The real hypocrite is the person who is saved on the inside, but does not look like it on the outside. Even though you do not feel like going to church and serving God, “put on” the new man, and pretend you want to do so.

Be with people who are on topside.

When you are down, being with people who are on topside will make a difference for you. Do not be around people who are down, because they will drag you down more.

One day, I was sitting in an airport in West Virginia. The pilot could not start the engine. They told us that if it did not start soon, we would not be able to leave the airport before three o’clock in the afternoon. That meant I would not be able to make it back to Longview in time for the evening service.

Several businessmen started getting upset, and they yelled at the lady at the counter, even though she could not do anything about the situation. She was very frustrated. I walked up to her and told her I had good news for her. I told her how to be saved. I turned around and told the businessmen they had complained long enough, and I had something that would solve their grouchy attitude. They suddenly felt led to use the restroom!  While they were gone, the plane finally was ready to go. The lady let us on the plane, but the businessmen in the restroom missed the plane! It pays to be topside even when things are going wrong.

Yes, you are having a down time, but that is not a good reason to leave God. You can frown at the pastor, but it will not affect his preaching. You can pull your children out of the Christian school during your down time, but the church will not be hurt by your action.

Instead of hurting yourself, realize you are on your way to Heaven, and sit down and enjoy the trip. The blue times will come, but it is what you do during those times that will make the difference for you.

Dr. Bob Gray Sr.
http://solvechurchproblems.com

by: Dr. Bob Gray Sr.

Matthew 17:20, “And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder-place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.”

Matthew 28:18, “All power is given unto me.”

Matthew 19:20, “With God all things are possible.”

Mark 10:27, “With God all things are possible.”

Luke 18:27, “With God nothing shall be impossible.”

Luke 1:31, “With God nothing shall be impossible.”

Mark 9:23, “All things are possible to him that believeth.”

Mark 14:36, “All things are possible unto thee.”

Genesis 18:14, “Is anything too hard for the LORD?”

If we were to put it in our modern day slant, our language would be, “Ain’t nothin’ impossible for our God” for with God all things are possible. When Mary heard that she, a virgin, was going to become the mother of the Christ child said, “I’ve never known a man” and the angel replied, “With God nothing shall be impossible.”

Sarah in Genesis 18:14, when it was announced to Abraham that at age 90 she would have a child with him, laughed in unbelief. God then said, “Is anything too hard for the LORD?” That question was answered in Jeremiah 32:17 plainly, “There is nothing too hard for the LORD.”

THERE IS NO SINNER THAT GOD CANNOT SAVE FROM GOING TO HELL.

“Preacher my husband is unsaved and a hard man!” Yes, but God specializes in saving the souls of hard men. I am thinking of a truck driver named Shorty Eakin who was the last of 18 family members who trusted Christ. He was a rough man and fought conviction for a long time. I am thinking of a local newsman who attacked our church, the Longview Baptist Temple, in a series about the baptizing of children.

Ali Martin was a rough man when it came to the things of God. Yet, one of our soul winners led his wife to Christ and eventually he trusted Christ and now has a national radio ministry. He left the left-wing biased media and gave his talents to Christ.

I am thinking of one our faithful deacons, Dane Matney, who was a bar-hopping, hard, and tough man. He had little to do with God, and yet a soul winner led him to Christ and he and his dear wife have for over 3 decades served faithfully at the Longview Baptist Temple of Longview, Texas. They have a son, J. D., who is a Texas Baptist College graduate.

I am thinking of one of our LBT men named Jack Rickman who gambled, lived like the Devil, and was on the verge of losing everything. Yet, a soul winner gave Jack the Gospel, and in spite of bad health he has been a faithful soul winner for 3 decades since he trusted Christ and his life was turned right side up.

I could list a hundred men and women like these dear people whom Christ did what no one thought was possible. We have an Almighty God! LBT is filled with stories of what God can do! Do not think for a second that there is someone too hard for God to save his or her soul from going to Hell.

THERE IS NO PRAYER THAT GOD CANNOT ANSWER.

We can travel no further than we travel on our knees as God’s people. The prayer life is life! No relationship can sustain itself without communication. Nine out of ten times the main stumbling block to marital bliss is the lack of communication. The same is true of our relationship with our God.

Dr. John R. Rice would often tell of going to Heaven and being taken on a tour by an angel. They would come to one room, and Dr. Rice asked the angel what are all of these gift-wrapped packages, and the angel replied, “These are the things God had for you that you did not ask for!”

Prayer is asking and receiving! Prayer is getting to know the mind of Christ and staying in tune with Christ. God has no hands but our hands, no mind but our mind, no feet but our feet, and no tongue but our tongue. “What know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost?” We could not save our own soul and neither can we save our own lives. Prayer is aligning our life’s purpose with God’s purpose. Prayer is adjusting our mind to Christ’s mind. Prayer is lining up our work to God’s work.

Prayer is tapping in to God’s power and God’s mind while channeling it not to us, but through us, to be able to accomplish that which man considers impossible. God’s people can align their lives with God’s Word, but can only stay aligned through the power of prayer.

When God instructs us in the Scriptures, equips us, empowers us, and then sends us on a mission that the world deems impossible, we must stay in touch with Heaven through prayer so the supply line from Heaven to Earth remains healthy.

THERE IS NO PROBLEM THAT GOD CANNOT SOLVE.

The 38 years of ministry that God has given to this preacher have not gone without problems. There is no mountain peak in anyone’s life without a corresponding valley. We are to pass through the valley and not to stay in the valley. When we stop to focus on that which many times are things out of our control, we paralyze ourselves.

Who has the answers? Only God has the answers, and to fail to pray is ridiculous rationale. He who must face tomorrow must consult Him Who holds tomorrow in His hands. I must stay on course and I need God’s Word, God’s power, and prayer to stay on course. God’s GPS cannot work without prayer!

THERE IS NO PLACE THAT GOD CANNOT SEND REVIVAL.

Jonah was used of God to send revival to Nineveh. There is no sinner too hard and no society too hard for God. The secret is to do it God’s way and not man’s way. We must not sit around waiting for another Day of Pentecost. We must be obedient to the Great Commission and provide the foundation for revival.

The secret of Nineveh’s revival was the conversion factor that preceded the revival factor. If not, man will end up blaming God eventually for the lack of revival while the truth is man is to blame because of a lack of soul consciousness. Personal soul winning will always, and must always, precede revival. God’s people must provide the material which God can utilize to bring about revival.

There is no place that is too hard for God to bring revival if man will do his part in sowing the incorruptible seed! The great campaigns of every generation were based and bathed in the winning of souls to Christ. Jesus commanded His people to go into all the world and preach the Gospel. He never said to us to go into all the world and bring about revival, for God is the author of revival not man!

THERE IS NO THING TOO HARD THAT GOD CANNOT DO.

We serve an all powerful God, for He can heal disease, save a drunkard husband, save an atheist, save agnostics, bring revival anywhere and answer any prayer.

Psalm 46:1, “He is a very present help in time of need.”

Hebrews 4:16, “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Psalm 8:1-4, “Oh, LORD, our LORD how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hath set thy glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and suckling’s hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him: and the son of man, that thou visitest him?”

It’s amazing to think that God, Who placed the moon and the stars in the skies, knows each of us and that He can help each of us.

• There is no sinner that God cannot save.
• There is no prayer that God cannot answer.
• There is no problem that God cannot solve.
• There is no place that God cannot send revival.
• There is no thing that God cannot do.

How can this be? It is plausible because God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent.

Psalm 139 says God is in Heaven, God is in the sea, and God is everywhere. Habakkuk 2:20 says the Lord is in his holy temple. Isaiah 66:1, “Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool.” God is saying my throne is in Heaven and my feet rest on the Earth. God said in Jeremiah 22:24, “I fill the earth.” Proverbs 15:3, “The eyes of the LORD are in every place.”

366 times God says He is with the individual! Five times in the Scriptures God tells us, “I will never leave thee.” Nine times God says, “I will not leave thee.”

Hebrews 13:5, “…I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” There are five negatives in that verse emphasizing the fact that God will never leave his people. Matthew 28:20 says, “…lo I am with you always.”

Acts 17:27, “…he be not far from every one of us:” He is not far from the educable slow, the deaf, the mission men, the homeless, the blind, the cripple and the brokenhearted.

God is omni-present, meaning God is with us individually. He knows where you are at every moment of the day. God is with the truck driver in the cab of a truck driving across the nation’s highways all night. Those serving on foreign soil fighting the war on terrorism have a God Who is with them.

Our God is in the college dorms with those preparing for life, in the barracks as a lonely service man or woman Who thinks of home, in the woods where the luckless, friendless, and homeless people think of what might have been. Our God is in the rescue mission with the one who laments his mistaken decisions. Our God is in the college apartment where the patient wife awaits her small allotment of time with her husband.

God is not only Omnipotent, but God is also Omni-present for He is with you! God is Omnipotent for he is all-powerful.

God parted the waters of the Red Sea, spoke and the heavens danced through the skies, the stars twinkled at night, the moon came out as the great light of the night, and the sun rose as the king of the day, and that same God is with you! God, who keeps the universe in perfect alignment, also hears the cry of the baby in the nursery.

God is in the rest home where memories are the only future that is known. He is in the prison where both the innocent and the guilty are serving time. He is in the parsonage with the country preacher who tosses and turns throughout the night because his people do not understand. He is in the little dwelling place where a father has left a mother to care and provide for her children alone. He is in the steel mill where the hard-working honest man provides for his family.

He is in the lonely place where an evangelist in a motel room looks at a picture of his wife and wishes they were together. He is in the hospital room where the doctor says, “I’m sorry, it’s malignant.” He is in the funeral home where friends try to say, “I love you” to the bereaved. He is in the bedroom with a child who tries to accept the fact that his or her father is not coming back home. He is in the maternity ward when a baby boy is born with major physical problems or the death of a baby girl like our granddaughter Katie.

Our God is not only in the heavens and not only does his platform span the heavens, but our God is in the delivery room when a repentant unwed mother suffers and travails to give birth alone. He is there when a mother bathes a child who never will be able to bath itself. He is there when a doctor says, “I must operate.” He is there when Mayo Clinic says we have done all we can do. He is there when all of your dreams for your child have fallen on the pavement of providence and your adult child has broken your heart.

God is there when those who were friends walk away on a cloudy day. He is there in the courtroom when the innocent is pronounced guilty. He is there in babyland where you have laid your baby to rest.

He is in the room of silence where the deaf reside. He is there in the room of darkness where the blind live. He is in the room of confusion where the educable slow live. He is in the home of the busy housewife where it seems the day will never end. He is in the schoolroom where the underpaid teacher tries to balance his bills with his income.

God is Omni-present which means He is with you everywhere you are, but He is also Omniscient which means God knows everything.

Job 23 says, “He knoweth the way I take.”

• Psalm 44:1 – God knows the secrets of our hearts.
• Psalm 103:14 – God knows our frame.
• Matthew 6:8 – God knows what we need.
• Acts 15:8 – God knows what is in our hearts.
• 2 Timothy 2:19 – God knows that I am his.
• Psalm 8:4 – God is mindful of us.

God knows your loneliness, heartache, heartbreak, and pain, and every bird that takes off from the runway in your yard is guided by God for He charts his course of flight.

• God knows all.
• God can do all.
• God is with all.

The wonderful thing is that the same God can forgive your sins, answer your prayers, solve your problems, bring revival, and do that tough seemingly impossible thing.

Dr. Bob Gray Sr.
Pastor Emeritus
Longview Baptist Temple
Longview, TX
http://solvechurchproblems.com

by: Dr. Bob Gray Sr.

Rick Warren has succeeded in doing what many evangelicals before him have failed to do. He has drawn our Baptist churches into evangelicalism and then into the “emerging church” drama. With his numerically large church attendance and his Baptist background and his conservative-sounding doctrine, he has introduced evangelical practices into what were once traditional Baptist churches.

Rick Warren criticizes Baptist churches clinging to “tradition” that does not take into account modern culture; like the tradition of Bible preaching as defined in 2 Timothy 3:16, “doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness.” Baptist Warrenites now use evangelical-style preaching that uplifts people without sweeping out the dirt from underneath their feet, preaching which professes righteousness without condemning sin. Preaching, which “reaches the people where they are,”without guiding them by the hand to where they ought to be.

Baptist evangelicals are forsaking the tradition of “Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught…” (Titus 1:9) Holding fast to the King James Bible, which has been handed down to us through the centuries from the Textus Receptus Greek text, and not forsaking God’s words for the new boys on the block, Wescott and Hort and Nestle and Aland and Black and Metzger, who have beguiled us with better manuscripts, which lay in dusty libraries, Vatican trash bins, and hidden caves, unused for centuries.

Baptist people are forsaking the tradition of godly, spiritual music that refreshes the soul without swaying the hips, as commanded by God in Ephesians 5:19, “Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and SPIRITUAL songs (apparently there are UNSPIRITUAL songs), singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord:”

Baptist people are forsaking the tradition of modest dress, as God commanded in 1 Timothy 2:9. Isaiah 47:3 teaches that it is a shame to be unclothed, and lack of clothing is associated in the Bible with bad music (Exodus 32:18-19, 25), drunkenness (Lamentations 4:21, Habakkuk 2:15), and prostitution (Ezekiel 16:36, 23:18, Revelation 17:16).

Yet, the preaching of dress standards is labeled by Warren, and now some Independent Baptists, as legalistic, as found on page 236 of THE PURPOSE DRIVEN CHURCH. Pastor Warren does not even understand basic Bible terminology. Legalism is adding works to faith to produce salvation. (Galatians chapters 2-3, Romans 9:32, Hebrews 6:1)

On the copyright page of his book, THE PURPOSE DRIVEN CHURCH, before you even arrive at the Table of Contents, you will find something on the copyright page. On that page Pastor Warren lists seven different “bibles” he quotes within the pages of his book. These include the New International Version, then New Revised Standard Version, New Century Version, J. B. Phillips, and The Message.

Interesting, Rick does quote several times from the King James Bible, but since it is not copyrighted, he did not have to receive any man’s permission to use it.

Baptist pastors, Rick Warren does not respect what your fathers stood for! On page 236, he refers to “isolationists” who “reject new translations of Scripture, current musical styles, and any attempt to modify man-made traditions…” Scriptures have already been mentioned in this article to support “man-made” tradition, despite the fact that Warren goes on to say that isolationists have a “list of what is permissible and what isn’t regarding issues that the Bible is silent on.” (Emphasis mine) Of course, it is entirely possible that his Bibles ARE silent on these issues, but the King James Bible is very clear.

On page 55, Warren accuses us old-fashioned Baptists of being dishonest by saying, “In contrast, churches that try to perpetuate the culture of the 1950’s usually deny their intent or they try to prove with proof-texts that they are doing it the way it was done in New Testament times.”

Well, excuse us for using the Bible as our guide! If I stand accused of preferring the 1950’s to the 2000’s, I will not be offended. In the 1950’s women still wore dresses, sodomites were still afraid to come out of their closets, and men still led their homes. Yes, we still prefer that era to today, when modestly-dressed women must make their own clothes, certain states (and Disney) recognize the “rights” of sodomite “couples,” and more than half of all marriages end in divorce – when the couple bothers to marry at all.

Of course my question is how in the world did Rick Warren fool so many Baptists, and especially our young ones?

HIS SEEMING STRONG STAND ON EVANGELISM

Page 64 of his book reads, “Any church that is not obeying the Great Commission is failing its purpose, no matter what else it does.” Page 32 reads, “You measure the health or strength of a church by its sending capacity, not by its seating capacity.”

These standards could easily have been made from a Baptist pulpit. By these statements, however, he does not mean the confrontational, on the streets, one-on-one soul winning demonstrated in the Gospels and the book of Acts. Instead, he teaches the drawing of the “unchurched” into a “seeker service” designed specifically to win souls.

He accomplishes this not by door-to-door soul winning, but with advertising, surveys, seeking out what the people want, and community programs. He brings the “unchurched” in, then preaches the plan of salvation from the pulpit sandwiched in between a rock and roll show with Jesus’ name added.

Warren teaches not to pressure a man to receive Christ (page 304), despite the great Apostle Paul’s example, who “disputed with” and “persuaded” men in Acts 19:8. At the invitation, rather than bring sinners to the altar, he asks visitors to indicate on their visitor card whether, (A) they believed in Christ that day, (B) they had previously “committed their life to Christ,” (C) they were still thinking about it, or (D) they doubted they would ever receive Christ.

The use of a “seeker service” instead of one-on-one soul winning is man’s method, not God’s method. Even at the day of Pentecost, the thousands who heard the Gospel had not come to any service at all. Peter and the other Apostles took advantage of the crowds on the street during a Jewish feast day. They had no church building yet. In fact, in the Book of Acts, there is not one record of anyone being saved or even baptized in a church building.

It would be stretching the imagination to believe that 3,000 were baptized in the upper room.  More likely, in Acts 2, the Apostles baptized in one or more of the twelve public pools of Jerusalem.

In Acts 8, Philip preached and baptized in a city of Samaria, where no church existed yet. The Ethiopian Eunuch was baptized in an oasis in the desert in Acts 8:26-36. The Apostle Paul was baptized by Ananias in the house of a disciple named Judas in Acts 9:11-18.

Cornelius and his companions were baptized in Cornelius’ house in Acts chapter 10. Lydia and her household were baptized in a river in Acts 18:7-8.

Holding a seeker service to bring the “unchurched” to the church, then not inviting them to trust Christ as their Saviour and to be baptized immediately after salvation is not Scriptural. In the Book of Acts, those who were saved were baptized “the same day” (Acts 2:41) and “the same hour” (Acts 16:13). The non-confrontational, non-personal method of soul winning is not scriptural.

D. L. Moody once let a crowd go without pushing for a definite decision for Christ, and the next day scores of them died in the Chicago fire. Rick Warren’s salvation survey at the end of his seeker service lets sincere sinners slip out unsaved.

CULTURE OR WORLDLINESS?

The book should be titled, THE CULTURE DRIVEN CHURCH, for that is its central theme.  The basic premise of the book is that the church should adapt itself to the culture of those whom they are attempting to reach with the Gospel.

Yet, the Bible says, “come out from among them, and be ye separate…” (2 Corinthians 6:17). Jesus was “separate from sinners.” (Hebrews 7:26). In fact, separation is not on the part of the saved, but the unsaved and unspiritual, who “separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.” (Jude 19). There is a definite division in the New Testament between the lives of believers and unbelievers, the spiritual, and the carnal. Anyone can be saved, but the saved are commanded to be separate from their carnal culture.

However, Pastor Warren makes such statements as: “One of my favorite movies is…” (page 28). “I intentionally dress down to match the mindset of those I’m trying to reach.” (Page 171) “There is no such thing as ‘Christian music’, only Christian lyrics.” (Page 282)

While it is true there is no verse in the Bible specifically mentioning some of these issues, since there were no movie theaters in Peter’s day, there are some definite Bible precepts which pastor Warren has on purpose overlooked.

“I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes…” (Psalm 101:3) “Abstain from all appearance of evil…” (1 Thessalonians 5:22) “Mine eye affecteth mine heart…” (Lamentations 3:51) “…he hearth cursing and bewrayeth it not.” (Proverbs 29:24) Did Pastor Warren stand up in the middle of a movie with cursing and denounce (bewray) the bad and vile language during a movie? I wouldn’t count on it!

Pastor Warren is bringing sinners out of the world into an environment that is no different from the world. He is like King Ahaz in 2 Kings 16, who saw an altar in a pagan temple in Damascus. He liked it so much, he had the priests in Jerusalem make one just like it. He then arranged the furniture of the temple around the Syrian altar. It was there that his priests performed sacrifices.

However, it did not stop there. The people continued to model their religion after the world, until they had become wholly pagan. Hezekiah, Ahaz’s son, had to remove the high places where the people worshipped instead of at the temple, and break the idols whom they worshipped instead of God.

Go ahead, Baptist Warrenites, rearrange the furniture of the temple; it’s your children who will abandon the temple. It is your children who will worship idols. It is the men of God of the next generation who will have to evangelize your children and grandchildren.

As the adults enjoy their rock and roll in the confines of their churches, the children will develop a taste for rock music, which they will fulfill in smoke-filled arenas. As parents dress down to go to church, their children will dress down even more to go to the mall or the beach.

CONCLUSION

Pastor Warren labels our churches as “traditionalists” unwilling to give up “man-made” traditions, clinging to a few “proof-texts,” and “isolationism” that is stuck in the “culture” of the 50’s. He then encourages our young men to mix and mingle with the world, and model the next generation’s churches after the “worldly lifestyles,” abandoning such ideas as confrontational soul winning, old-fashioned church music, and modest dress standards, and especially hard-hitting preaching.

Yes, he has a crowd. Yes, he is rich. Yes, by worldly standards he is successful. However, the main question is this, “Is he right?”

Warren and other evangelicals reach into our Baptist churches and entice our young people away because they have proven themselves incapable of producing their own young people who are spiritual and who would go into the ministry.

Although they talk much about “life application,” their encouraging messages uplift the spirit without touching the soul. They minister to spiritual junkies looking for a quick fix. Because this generation cannot “endure sound doctrine”, Rick Warren has become the teacher willing to tickle their ears. (2 Timothy 4:3-5) Much like Billy Graham, Warren will impact this generation, but leave no godly heritage for the children and will ruin the orchard. Warren has given birth to the EMERGING CHURCH movement, which is nothing more than the Jesus Freaks of the 60’s.

Pardon me, but give me a Dr. Jack Hyles, who produced a second-generation and a third-generation of Christians serving God. The real proof of a church is in succeeding generations. There is rarely a second-generation Warrenite. Their children develop a taste for the worldly lifestyle by which their own pastors have taught them to live.

A church ought to be a haven from the world, not an extension of it. Baptists are being fooled by Warren’s conservative-sounding doctrine while being influenced by his worldly philosophy and lifestyles. We are to work at bringing man up to God, and not bring God down to man in our churches. The local church must be a foretaste of Heaven and not a foretaste of the world.

Dr. Bob Gray Sr.
http://solvechurchproblems.com

HOW SHALL THEY HEAR WITHOUT A PREACHER?
by: Dr. Bob Gray Sr.

Romans 10:14, “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?”

In this wild, weird, and wicked time in which we live, the work of the preacher is being rethought, revamped, and re-examined. Some think the preacher is just to be an equipper of the laymen for their ministry. He has been pushed from the center of the platform to the wings in favor of celebrated experts and entertainers.

 

However, the Bible still says, “How shall they hear without a preacher?” Just what kind of preaching do we need today is the question in front of us? Do we need “seminars” for the worship hour? Do we need “lectures” for the so-called “worship” hour? Do we need a low-key monotone non-invasive speech for the so-called “worship” hour?

Shall we enter into the Warren Wiersbe sound alike contest? How about the John McArthur talk alike contest or the Rick Warren look alike contest? What kind of preaching do we need?

What kind of preaching do we need? Ladies and gentlemen we need the same kind we have always needed. Nothing important has changed! Just because we have split the atom and sent a man to the moon does not mean we need a new kind of Christianity. We have a new kind of preacher in some quarters, but we do not need him for we need the old kind of preacher in all quarters of our nation.

APOSTOLIC PREACHING

Naturally there are no Apostles today in the original sense, but an Apostle is one sent and a preacher is also a man sent from God. The Apostles studied at the feet of Jesus Christ. Our Lord said, “Learn of me” and that means studying the school of Jesus himself. It is possible to have a Magna Cum Laude from a college and be a first grader in the school of Jesus.

•  An Apostle is a sent man
•  An Apostle is a soul-winning man
•  An Apostle is a separated man
•  An Apostle is a spirit-filled man
•  An Apostle is a scriptural man
•  An Apostle is a schooled man

ANOINTED PREACHING

Divinely appointed and divinely anointed are divine twins! We have a new Madison Ave. school of the prophets complete with degrees, personality, travel experience, sophisticated methods, up-to-date communication, technically advanced, and public relations departments, but how many are God appointed and God anointed?

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In Exodus 30:32-33 instructions are given about the anointing oil for a priest, “Upon man’s flesh shall it not be poured…whosoever compoundeth any like it, or whosoever putteth any of it upon a stranger, shall even be cut off from the people.”

One of our problems today is that we are running an old Adam improvement society. An unsanctified flesh that has never died to sin and risen to walk in newness of life is running down our church aisles to volunteer to be anointed. God cannot use such if it runs down those church aisles a thousand times!

Not many wise, mighty, or noble have been called. Why? “That no flesh should glory in his presence.” I wonder how long it is going to take us to learn that they that are controlled by the flesh cannot please God. The closer we are too God the closer we are too pleasing him.

The unction, the anointing oil, is not sold over any old counter! Simon attempted to buy it, but it was not for sale. It is not compounded by any Apothecary; it is not put together by chemistry. A preacher may be wrapped in the robes of learning and his study walls may be decked with diplomas. His home may be filled with travel souvenirs from many lands. He may wear all the trappings of ecclesiastical prestige and pageantry, but he cannot function without Holy Ghost unction!

John Wesley demonstrated that a long time ago! He began his ministry equipped with formidable qualifications. No man was ever better prepared and less ready to preach than he was. Many a pre-Pentecost Wesley today starts out to convert the lost without ever having been converted himself.

When we speak of being anointed by the Holy Spirit, we are not advocating weird hallucinations pretending to be the work of the Holy Spirit with unintelligible rambling or incoherent babbling or a false “thus saith the Lord” proclamation.

When the Holy Spirit becomes the figurehead in any blueprint, that movement becomes eccentric because the business of the Holy Spirit is to magnify Jesus Christ. My friend there must be a divine enduement when God calls a man to Apostolic preaching, for he must be in the appointed place for his anointing.

Matthew 28:16, “Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mount where Jesus had appointed them.”

The appointing and the anointing are God’s business not our business. My question is, were you at your appointed place last week and do you plan to be in your appointed place this week? Could it be the Sunday you missed was the Sunday where God gave the man of God an anointed message for an appointed place for you, but you missed it?

Sunday school is an appointed time, Sunday night preaching is an appointed time, Wednesday night Bible study is an appointed time, and weekly soul winning is an appointed time.

Were you at the appointed time for teachers and workers’ meeting, your appointed prayer time, your appointed quiet time, and your appointed Bible study time? I wonder how many, not only preachers, but laymen missed an appointed time and place for the special anointing of God?

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No appointment, no anointment! All God asks of us is consent and cooperation! This does not mean that everyone who is appointed and anointed will become famous or well-known; however, he or she will be qualified for the tasks before them.

AUTHORITATIVE PREACHING

Jesus taught us with authority and not as the Scribes. Too much of our preaching today sounds like the Scribes. There is no King in Israel, and every man does what is right in his own eyes. When authority leaves, anarchy enters!

Jesus met the Devil not in his own name, not in his power, but with the Scriptures, “It is written…it is written…it is written…” If Jesus could defeat the Devil with three verses out of Deuteronomy, we ought to be able to do it with the whole Bible! This is the Word of God period, and It can be preached with authority.

The Scribes do not know what book to call the Bible, but we do, it is the King James Bible for the English speaking people! Never be ashamed of the old-time religion for there is nothing newer!

We have a NEW Testament about a NEW and living way. We are a NEW creature with a NEW name and a NEW song, walking in NEWNESS of life, and living a NEW commandment! We are headed for a NEW Earth and a NEW Jerusalem and almost the last word of the New Testament in Revelation 21:5 is, “Behold, I make all things new.”

No wonder the Gospel is good news. Old-time, new time, any time, and all the time! God is not running an antique shop!

Titus 2:5, “These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority, let no man despise thee.”

However, you can’t preach it like it is if you don’t believe it like it is! If you do not believe that the King James Bible is inspired, for the English speaking people, that Jesus Christ was virgin born, that he died for our sins, rose again from the grave bodily, is coming back again for us, then you can’t preach it like it is with authority.

You cannot preach “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever” if you don’t believe what He was yesterday. For what He was He is! This is no time to be apologetic with an inferiority complex in the presence of the new left that calls itself fundamental.

This modern day preacher with his Jesse Jackson tie bar, his sparkling cuff links, satin inside his thousand dollar suit coat, with his screens for preaching, his latest Rick Warren material for props, his non-offensive non-denominational sign out front, his certificate from the Shepherds Conference, his questionable KJB, along with his Wiersbe monotone style of speaking, and with Jack Taylor praise books have infiltrated old-fashioned authoritative pulpits and ruined many a good soul-winning church.

They have caused real men of God to be scared to say the KJB is the inspired Word of God, or say that Barak Obama is acting like a Socialist, or be afraid to pound their pulpits and cry aloud, that being a independent Baptist is better than belonging to a denomination, that the Shepherds Conference will kill a soul-winning church, or to preach against their Alma Mater when they begin to stray from the fundamentals, and preaching standards is going to destroy God’s work!

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When a preacher forfeits his calling and lets the families just do whatever they feel right in their own eyes, it will destroy what God had in mind for his local church. If every family determines their own standards, the local church will soon have no standards. If anyone is embarrassed today it should not be the men of God who preach the Word of God with authority. The truth is it ought to be those who skirt their responsibility to cry aloud!

We do not need the latest Hollywood star to put the Gospel over. We are attempting to fix something that does not need fixing; it just need proclaiming. We are attempting to gild the lily, paint the sunset, hobnob with Sodom, and get chummy with Gomorrah.

We do not need something new so much as we need something so old it would be new to everybody. It is an insult to the intelligence of young people to give them the impression we have to cheapen the Gospel to make it understandable. The medical schools do not simplify their phraseology to please. The legal profession has not changed its terminology!

All the local church needs to do is to be a New Testament church. God never called his churches or his men to be an accompanist. He called his churches and his men to be a soloist. They say the end justifies the means, but the truth is the means determines the end.

•  Apostolic preaching
•  Anointed preaching
•  Authoritative preaching

ABSOLUTE PREACHING

Today has become a day of relativism. Right used to be right, and wrong used to be wrong! Joseph Parker said of Spurgeon, “The only colors Mr. Spurgeon knew were black and white. In all things he was definite. You either were in or out, up or down, alive or dead to Mr. Spurgeon.”

Matthew 12:30, “He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.”

Wow, Jesus was awfully dogmatic there in Matthew 12:30! To Christ there is no such thing as an inactive church member.

When the Titanic sank in 1912 there were only two lists posted on the Canard Office in New York. The lost and the saved!

JUST A THOUGHT!

Dr. Bob Gray Sr.
Pastor Emeritus
Longview Baptist Temple
Longview, TX
http://solvechurchproblems.com

LIBERTY OR LEGALISM?
by: Dr. Bob Gray Sr.

Psalm 119:45, “And I will walk at liberty: for I seek thy precepts.”

The Psalmist is saying I will walk in liberty because I keep thy commandments. This is a strange statement to me for it seems to me that the opposite would be true. It seems like one would walk in liberty if one did not keep commandments. However, verse 45 is amazing for God says that those who keep his precepts or his commandments will walk in liberty. I will walk in liberty because I keep God’s commandments!

In our fundamental churches, schools, and colleges we have some rules, regulations, and standards. We have rules about dating, dress, haircuts on the males, makeup on the females, hairstyles, clothing, smoking, dancing, bad music, Hollywood movies, speech, respect for authority, proper conduct, etc.

Immediately the accusations begin to come when such a stand is taken. The cry is always the same, and the charge is always the same. “Why, that is nothing but legalism with all those rules, standards, and regulations for they are nothing but promoting legalism!”

The truth of the matter is, when you associate legalism with rules, regulations and standards, people with neo-evangelical hearts who masquerade make such statements in fundamental Baptist clothing. Sometimes they are made by people who were real fundamental Baptist at one time, and yet have become weary of the battle and long to return to the onions, watermelons, leaks, cucumbers, and garlic of acceptance. Also, this cry of legalism often comes from the desks of colleges and seminaries built on fundamental foundations with walls of compromise and a leaking roof of pseudo liberty.

We have grown to desire that our truth be accredited by worldly educated error. We want a license from wrong to do right! My I remind all of us of that fundamental world we believed in and practiced before we had teenagers, home-schoolers, liberal fundamental colleges, Bill Gothard, Oral Roberts University, Benny Hinn, his girlfriend Evangelist Paula White, amusement parks, and before Jerry Falwell slid down a charismatic water slide!

May I push what Dr. Jack Hyles used to call that little “reset button” to return us back to the old-fashioned fundamental Baptist convictions. I’m speaking of when we believed in separating ourselves from the world and building walls to protect the next generation from being sucker punched by Satan and his crowd.

Since when did it hurt to not smoke? I would suggest that separation is not bad but good for the next generation. No one can sow wild oats and then pray for no crop failure with success! Each institution must decide themselves what is going to be good or bad for those following them. I am talking of old-fashioned standards our fathers use to have for us.

Faith of our fathers living still

In spite of dungeon fire and sword

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This generation must not listen to the prophets of compromise who are silently bridging fundamentalism to a liberal Southern Baptist Convention in order to garner the crowds. No one is legalistic who insists on standards. When someone adds anything to salvation, other than the shed and applied blood of Jesus Christ, is by definition a legalist.

When you conveniently compromise you are not only betraying Billy Sunday, Sam Jones, Bob Jones Sr., Mordecai Ham, John Wesley, John R. Rice, Curtis Hutson, Lester Roloff, Lee Roberson, Tom Malone, and Jack Hyles, but you are betraying your own standards of just a few years back.

If we cannot have our padded pews with hell-fire and brimstone preaching, then let us go back to the sawdust trail and the store front buildings while sitting on wooden benches.

If we cannot have organs with trained choirs without the seven-fold Amens and the crusty anthems, then let us go back to the “pie-anar” and tuning fork.

If we cannot have a marriage of proper grammar and the mourner’s bench with preaching on Hell, Heaven, the rapture, the second coming, and separation, then let us go back to split infinitives, dangling participles, and hung gerunds.

If tiled restrooms and chandeliers are not conducive to the old-time religion, then let us mark off a path and build an outhouse. Let us screw a 60-watt light bulb in it and order a Sears & Roebuck catalogue for the outhouse and get right with God.

If we have to include Kierkegaard, Brunner, and Niebuhr in our required reading in order to be intellectual theologically, then let us go back to the Blue-black Speller, the ABC’s, the alphabet, and the simple preaching of thus saith the Lord God! We have listened too much to psychologists in the pulpit and not enough to leather lunged Baptist preachers. We have listened too much to philosophers and not enough to old-fashioned prophets of God. We have listened too much to so-called Christian TV and radio and not enough to men of God.

Ladies and gentlemen, common shoes have historically shod the beautiful feet of those who preach the Gospel of peace. The hands that have wielded the sword of the Spirit have been old and calloused ones. The eyes that have looked through the helmet of salvation have been tear stained ones. The bodies that have been protected by the shield of faith have been pure and separated ones.

It is sad to say, but there are those inside the walls of a local independent Baptist church who would have their man of God forsake his standards simply because their daughter does not like them. It is sad to say, but there are those outside the walls of the local church who would have you forsake your standards or as they refer to as “legalism.”

Standards do not make nor keep you right with God, but they do keep you from wrecking your life with one stupid stunt. No man of God is attempting to run anyone’s life, but he must do his best to use his influence to warn. I hate to say this, but there are more people in fundamentalism who want us to lower our standards than who want to raise the standards. These are the ones who cry “legalism.”

Legalism has nothing to do with living right, talking right, or walking right. Legalism is adding to faith something else required for salvation other than just faith in Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection.

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Dr. Bill Rice, the late Evangelist, was a half-brother to Dr. John R. Rice. He was preaching a revival camp meeting when a deacon jumped him about being so negative with his preaching. One night Dr. Bill preached against dancing, then the next night against movies, then the next night against smoking, then the next night against teen petting and necking.

The deacon told Dr. Bill that he would have to preach something positive or he would see to it that the meeting was closed down. Dr. Bill agreed to do so. The next night Dr. Bill stood up behind the pulpit and announced that a deacon had asked him to preach a positive message. So he told them he was going to do that very thing. He said tonight my sermon is “If you don’t get saved, you are positively going to Hell!”

Legalism is salvation by faith plus works! It is salvation plus baptism, plus church membership, plus keeping the law, plus communion, plus confession.

The Seventh Day Adventist doctrine, Church of Christ doctrine, Catholic doctrine, Armenian doctrine, Armstrong World-Wide Church of God doctrine, the Mormon doctrine, and the Jehovah (False) Witness doctrine are legalism.

Legalism is not a godly mother who insists that her daughter dress modestly. Legalism is not parents enrolling their children in a Christian school that believes as they do about separation from the world. Legalism is not a dedicated aged godly dad who takes his son to the barbershop instead of a beauty shop every two weeks.

Legalism is not a faithful youth director who insists his teenagers dress appropriately. Legalism is not a hard working pastor who insists that his Sunday school teachers not smoke, not drink alcohol, no tobacco use, no movies, they visit absentees, and go soul winning.

Legalism is not the careful godly educator who forbids his students to dance or listen to bad music. Legalism is not the man of God who cries aloud against mixed swimming, in essence mixed nudity, against vampire lipstick promoting drugs, and young males with their Billy Idol bleached porky pine spiked chili bowl hair do!

Right has not changed and wrong has not changed just because you enter into a different century. Black is still black and white is still white. Good is still good and bad is still bad. Legalism is not the faithful man of God who cries aloud against sin.

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Was Paul a legalist when he told men not to have long hair in 1 Corinthians chapter 11? Was Paul a legalist when he told the ladies not to have short hair in the same chapter? Sit still and read the rest of the article before you become mad!

Was Moses a legalist when he said, “Thou shalt not kill,” “Thou shalt not steal,” or when he said, “Thou shalt not commit adultery?” Was Paul a legalist when he said in 1 Timothy chapter 3 that the deacon should not be double tongued, or when he said a deacon should be the husband of one wife, or should be honest, or should be temperate?

Was Paul a legalist in 1 Timothy chapter 3 when he said the pastor should be sober, or the husband of one wife, or not greedy of filthy lucre? Was Titus a legalist if he obeyed the Apostle Paul in Titus chapter 2 when he told the aged men to be sober, grave, temperate, sound, loving, patient and the aged women to be holy and temperate? Was he a legalist when the told the young ladies to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, obedient to their husband, and the young men to be sober and of sound speech?

Most of the Scriptures are about rules on how Christians ought to live! I challenge you to take Genesis and try to show unsaved people how to be saved or redeemed from going to Hell. Now you will find types of salvation, but you will have a tough time finding the plan of salvation in Genesis.

Ok, after that go to Exodus. You will find the Passover, and it is a type of salvation, but the plan of salvation is not listed there. Try Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and you will have a tough time finding the plan of salvation.

That is why in Acts when the Ethiopian Eunuch was reading Isaiah, the best chapter on salvation in the Old Testament and the best part of that chapter on salvation, he said, “How can I understand unless some man should guide me.”

You will find how to live in Genesis and rules in Exodus, standards in Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, and in Nehemiah. The truth is if you do not believe in standards and rules you will have to neglect most of the Scriptures.

These pussyfooters dote in 2 Corinthians 3:17, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty.” The truth is that verse is not talking about where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty for the child of God to do what he wants to do.  It is not saying that where the Spirit of the Lord is the deacons can drink liquor or the Sunday school teachers can smoke. He is saying where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty for the Holy Spirit to work among his people.

WHY THEN HAVE STANDARDS OR RULES?

Psalm 119:45 is saying, “I will walk in liberty because I keep thy commandments” or “I will walk in liberty because I walk within the walls of the city.” Let us suppose that your church building is a city. Suppose your pastor were the mayor. Suppose outside the walls the enemy lurks with his weapons of warfare. Now are you at liberty outside the walls or inside the walls of the church auditorium?

Where is the freedom inside or outside the walls? I will walk in liberty if I keep thy commandments and the commandments of God are walls built around us to give us a little area where we can walk in liberty and not be enslaved with the captor outside of the walls. The enemy is outside and he cannot reach those inside of the walls.

God’s people have a choice! You can be free inside of the walls or you can be enslaved outside the walls. It bothers me when I hear God’s people using liberty as a license to sin. Liberty is inside of the Laws of God and not outside of the Laws of God. Every commandment, rule, or standard of God has been given for one purpose, and that is to build walls around his people especially the young people.

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Liquor, dope, elicit sex, Hollywood, cigarettes, bad music, etc., enslaves and is addictive. God’s do’s and don’ts builds walls of protection for his people!

If fundamentalism is not careful we will lose everything that is near and dear to us! Being a fundamentalist is more than believing salvation by grace, verbal inspiration, plenary inspiration, preserved inspiration, virgin birth, sinless life of Christ, security of the believer, and vicarious death of Christ. Being a fundamentalist also includes having some rules and standards to live by so we can be free.

Those rules are bricks in a mighty wall that has been built by our founding fathers so that we might have a place of freedom in this world of slavery. Rules and standards have never enslaved, for the truth is they liberate, for all that enslaves has been placed outside the wall.

We know cigarettes enslave so we put nicotine warnings on the outside of the packages so why shouldn’t God’s people put them outside the wall. The same is true of marijuana, liquor, and dope.

Rationalize with me as I ask you a question. “Thou shalt not kill” is a law, but you say I want my freedom. So, who is free, the man who does not kill or the man who does kill?

I’m free, and if I want to go outside the walls of God’s Laws for dope I’ll do it! Yes, and you will find out when you arrived outside those walls that you will be a slave on the outside and that you left your freedom inside of those walls from which you escaped. Where is the freedom in, “I am free to drink liquor?” Where is the freedom in, “I am free to use dope?” Where is the freedom?

Love is not breaking down the walls, for love is the building up of the walls! Love is not freedom to go to the captor, for love is freedom from the captor!

Elvis Presley thought was free, and yet ended his life enslaved to dope. The same is true of Jimmy Hendricks, Janis Joplin, and hundreds of rock stars. The youth director who breaks down those walls loves himself more than he does his youth. The truth is he loves their love and not them.

The preacher who breaks down those walls does not love you, for he loves your love. The principal who breaks down those walls does not love his students, for he loves their love. The preacher, youth director and principal that loves will build up the wall of standards and rules to keep the ones they love from that which enslaves them.

•  There is dope outside those walls.
•  There is liquor outside those walls.
•  There is addiction outside those walls.
•  There is indecency outside those walls.
•  There is heartache outside those walls.
•  There is heartbreak outside those walls.
•  There is disease outside those walls.
•  There is divorce outside those walls.
• There is wife beating outside those walls.
• There is child abuse outside those walls.
• There is enslavement outside those walls.
  

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The Psalmist said he would walk in liberty because he kept God’s commandments and not because he broke them. God has built for his people a wall where He can protect His people. This gives freedom to His people from those enemies outside of that wall who would enslave them.

FREEDOM IS NOT DETACHMENT

If I unplug the microphone from a pulpit because the microphone cries and pleads to be free, that does not give freedom to the microphone. The microphone was made for one purpose and that purpose is to be attached to the source of power.

Here is a piece of steel or iron in the ground. It is held captive by Earth. A man takes a pick and shovel. He digs, digs, digs, and digs! He reaches down into the ground and retrieves that piece of steel or iron. That piece of steel or iron is detached but not free because that piece of steel or iron is meant to be apart of a great machine somewhere. It is not free because it is detached! It is free only when it is being used for what it was intended to be used.

When you go to servitude that is a higher servitude from a lower servitude you are free. It is not leaving a purpose, but arriving at a greater service, that is true freedom. Jesus pleaded, “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden. I will give you rest…” However, He did not stop there for he continued, “…take my yoke upon you and learn of me for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

He is saying come unto me and I will free you, not to be detached, but so you can be attached! That is why the Scriptures speak of “the law of liberty.”

Here is a piece of coal held captive by the Earth, and the Earth says, “I’ll hold you.” The piece of coal says, “I want to be free!” A miner comes to that Kentucky mine and he goes down into that mine. He breaks free that piece of coal from its captor. He puts that piece of coal from that mine on the ground outside the mine. That piece of coal is not free it is just detached! That coal was not made to just be detached and to lie there on the ground. That coal was meant to give warmth, blessing, energy, or comfort to human beings by its usage somewhere!

Jeremiah puts it this way, “Thou hast broken the yokes of wood but thou shalt make for them yokes of iron.” A young person says, “I’m tired of rules and slavery of my Christian school. Let me be free!” So he or she runs from the yoke of wood of the rules of their school and so the yoke of dope overtakes him or her. “I’m free to drink liquor if I want too!” He or she breaks away from the yoke of wood of the rules and the yoke of liquor captures him or her.

God is saying to the government, parents, schools, colleges, and churches, free the young people by building walls of standards and rules around them so they will be safe from the captors outside of the walls.

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That is what Romans 8:2 means when it says, “For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” A law made me free from a law! Freedom is when you are liberated from a bad law by a good law.

King David said, “I’ll be free to court Bathsheba.” He went outside the wall that he thought enslaved him and found slavery was outside the wall. He ultimately discovered he was really free on the inside of the wall.

Samson said, “I’ll be free! If I want Delilah’s head in my lap, or if I want to live in sin with Delilah, I’ll be free to do so!” He later found out he was really free on the inside. While on the outside of those walls they put out his eyes. They bound him to the mill. Blind and bound while grinding around and around and around on that giant grinding wheel!

I do not hear him saying how much he loves this freedom now! Samson you are a slave!

Leaders must take this seriously and quit massaging their egos by being like Aaron and allowing the people to do what they want to do and start speaking for God to man. Leaders must quit bringing God down to man and start bringing man up to God. We are made in his image! God is not made in our image! We conform to Him not He to us!

Leaders, please keep the people free with walls of standards, rules, and protection so that the enemy from without will not capture those whom God loves and we love!

I thank God every day for an old-fashioned wall-building mama, teachers, and preachers! Thank God for wall-building schools, colleges, churches, Bible conferences, and leaders who stand firm inside the walls. This is not legalism, but rather it is liberty!

We need the walls to remain strong so that our young people can stay innocent and remain fearful of an enemy that lurks on the outside of the walls of protection where there is the bondage of compromise. Give me liberty inside of the walls.

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The rules must be consistent between the pulpit, parent, and peer pressures. If all three are going in the same direction and provide the same consistency, the odds are in favor of the follower being allowed to make right decisions! Liberty or legalism?

OBSERVATIONS

• Rules do not make rebels, they merely expose rebels.
• Obeying the rules does not make one spiritual.
• Rules keep you from that which will scar for a lifetime.
• Rules will keep one innocent.
• It is the responsibility of leaders to provide standards and rules.
• Rules cannot be established by a novice.
• Rules come from the Scriptures.
• Rules come from seniority that has dealt with destructive behavior.

JUST A THOUGHT!

Dr. Bob Gray Sr.
Pastor Emeritus
Longview Baptist Temple
Longview, TX
http://solvechurchproblems.com

GROWING NOT GROWN
by: Dr. Bob Gray Sr.

2 Peter 3:18, “But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.”

Grow in grace or grow in what God offers you that you do not deserve. God did not say, “grow in works.”  No one grows by works, we grow by grace. We sustain our growth by works, but we do not grow by works. We grow by grace or “in grace.” We grow in that which we do not deserve which is given to us by God. God’s people do and accomplish growth via grace. The redeemed sustain what they do and accomplish by grace. We sustain growth by greater works. We are saved by grace through faith in Christ, and we grow by grace through faith in Christ. We do and accomplish by works because of grace through faith in Christ.

Works come from growth, growth comes by grace, and grace comes by faith in Christ. When your work gets ahead of grace you will cease to grow in grace.

Matthew 5:48 says, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” In other words the flow of the sentence “Be ye therefore perfect” could be, “be becoming perfect” or “be on your way.” The world “perfect” is a word for maturity or “be becoming mature” or “be on your way to maturity.” “Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” God is saying to be on your way to being perfect so when you do, you become mature and you will be like your heavenly Father. I can hear you say, “But that will never happen.” Ok, but you could be on your way. You cannot quit growing in grace if you are to obey this Scripture. You will never arrive, but you can always be arriving.

1 John 3:2, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” “So, when will I be mature?” The Scriptures says when we are like him. Thus, I am not mature now, you are not mature now, and we are not a grown Christian at this moment. When will we be like him? The answer is at the rapture of the redeemed and until then we are to be growing not grown!

If the Bible says, “Be ye therefore perfect…” then I am to be becoming mature or I am to be on my way to becoming mature realizing I will not become mature until the rapture. Every person who is redeemed is immature to some extent and everyone who is a Christian is not mature at all.

Romans 8:23 says, “And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.” The redeemed will be totally mature when our bodies will be redeemed. When will our bodies be redeemed? The answer is at the rapture of the saints. We are commanded by God to grow in grace until the rapture or until you become like your heavenly Father. When will we become like the Father? It will be at the rapture.

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How will this occur? It will happen with the redemption of our bodies. Apparently the thing that fights that growth and hinders that growth is our flesh.

THERE ARE NO MATURE CHRISTIANS ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH.

I am not a mature Christian and you are not a mature Christian. None of us will be mature Christians until we awake in His likeness. (1 John 3:2) At the redemption of our body we will become mature. Thus, there are no mature Christians on this planet.

We are commanded to grow in grace, and such a command demands continual growth and the opposition to such growth is our flesh. There is no command to be grown, but there is a command to grow. It is not the amount of growth, but the fact of growing that pleases God.

THERE ARE NO MATURE CHRISTIANS IN HEAVEN.

The rapture has not taken place, and thus the redemption of the bodies of the redeemed has not occurred on Earth and in Heaven. Those in Heaven do not have their glorified bodies yet because the rapture is necessary. The great D. L. Moody is in Heaven, but he is not a mature Christian. Evangelist Billy Sunday is in Heaven, but he is not a mature Christian. The great Charles Hadden Spurgeon is in Heaven, but he is not a mature Christian. B. R. Lakin, Bill Rice, John R. Rice, Lester Roloff, Lee Roberson, and the late Jack Hyles are all in Heaven, but none of these will be mature until the rapture and the resurrection of the old bodies from their graves.

The old flesh hinders our growth on Earth, and absence of the new body hinders growth in Heaven.

THERE ARE ONLY GROWING CHRISTIANS AND NON-GROWING CHRISTIANS ON EARTH.

The question is which are we? Are we growing? Until the rapture there are either growing or non-growing Christians. The truth is we are all learning and growing. In Heaven they are still growing. At the Bema Seat during Bible times an adoption ceremony took place where the “minor’s” outer garment of the “Toga Barillas” was replaced by the “Toga Praetexto” to indicate the completion of the adoption process to the person becoming a “major.”

At the rapture this will happen to all of God’s children for we will all be at the “Judgment Seat of Christ” immediately after the rapture. Until then we are commanded by God to continue to grow in grace. Thus, we are growing in grace on Earth and those in Heaven are growing in grace.

THE REDEEMED WILL ENTER HEAVEN AT THE SAME SPIRITUAL LEVEL OF GROWTH THAT THEY LEFT EARTH.

At whatever level God’s children are spiritually, and whatever level of growth there is will all be revealed when we enter Heaven. God’s people will not know any more Bible than they know when they exit this life. Why, because you will continue to grow. If you do not praise God here, you will not praise God there. If you take a trip to Dallas tomorrow you will not be any smarter when you arrive at Dallas. If you go to Heaven tomorrow, you will not be any smarter in Heaven than you are here.

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DO NOT ATTEMPT TO BE GROWN, ATTEMPT TO GROW

There is nothing as sickening as a college freshman theologian, or a sophomore theologian who thinks he or she is mature. Do not be a know it all! Learn something new everyday is my life’s motto. Now is the time to learn more Bible, learn more about God, learn more about prayer, learn more about loving, and do more for God with what we know. Dig into the Scriptures and allow the Holy Spirit to teach you a truth.

It is not how much you know, but how much you are learning. It is not whether you arrive it is whether you are still arriving that counts. It is not the amount of growth, it is the process of growing that is important.

THOSE WHO THINK THEY ARE MATURE ARE REALLY NON-GROWING CHRISTIANS.

Many have mistaken maturity for seniority. They have mistaken maturity for a plateau. God deliver me from these suave pastors, deacons or charter church members. These know-it-all Christians are really dead Christians. Grow or die! It is imperative that God’s people avoid becoming like the Dead Sea by just taking in and never giving out. I have smelled the stench of the Dead Sea, and I have smelled the stench of dead Christians. Grow or die!

GOD’S PEOPLE GROW IN GRACE PERIODS.

Sunday school, Sunday morning preaching, Sunday night preaching, Wednesday night Bible study, church-wide soul winning, prayer time, Bible reading time, giving time, teaching time, etc., are all periods of living in grace. Those are the periods when a child of God grows.

1 Peter 2:21 says, “For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:”

It did not say that we should arrive at His destination, but we are to follow His steps, and when we do so these are grace periods. Remember the old adage, “Make hay while the sun shines.” The question then is are we growing in grace? Some of those reading this article stopped growing because they think they have arrived.

There are no mature Christians in your church, only the ones who are growing and those who are not growing.

JUST A THOUGHT!

Dr. Bob Gray Sr.
Pastor Emeritus
Longview Baptist Temple
Longview, TX
http://solvechurchproblems.com

TREMBLING AT THE WORD OF GOD
by: Dr. Bob Gray Sr.

Ezra 9:4, “Then were assembled unto me every one that trembled at the words of the God of Israel, because of the transgression of those that had been carried away; and I sat astonied until the evening sacrifice.”

Ezra 10:3, “Now therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives, and such as are born of them, according to the counsel of my lord, and of those that tremble at the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the law.”

 

 

Isaiah 66:2, “For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite sprit, and trembleth at my word.”

Isaiah 66:5, “Hear the word of the LORD, ye that tremble at his word; Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name’s sake, said, Let the LORD be glorified: but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed.”

All four of these Scriptures have something in common for they all deal with the trembling at the Word of God. The word “tremble” is often used in the Bible. Let me give you some synonyms for the word “tremble.”

•  Shaken
•  Terrified
•  Quake
•  Afraid
•  Frightened
•  Kindled
•  Startled

All of these are synonyms are for the word “tremble.” The Bible says twice in the book of Ezra they trembled at the words of God. In Isaiah chapter 66 it says twice that they trembled at the words of God. The word “tremble” comes from a word that means a “burning sensation.” In Luke 24:32 the Emmaus disciples said about being with Jesus, “Did not our hearts burn.” One may tremble with excitement, with anger, with fear, and with surprise all relating to a “burning sensation.”

Exodus 19:18 there was the quaking on Mount Sinai when Moses went to the mount and the word “quaking” is used and is akin to the word “tremble.” When Isaac heard that Jacob had deceived him, a root word for “tremble” in Genesis 27:33 is used.

Adonijah, David’s son, who thought he should be king, by the way David’s three boys had died, and he was the fourth oldest, thought by rights he should have been king. However, David chose Solomon to be king. When Adonijah and his guests discovered that Solomon would be king, the word that is used is akin to “tremble.”

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An army that was in terror in Judges 8:12 the root word for “tremble” is used to describe them. Joseph’s brothers when they found out that Joseph was still alive when they went to Egypt, the same root word for “tremble” is used. When Israel went into captivity and God punished them and sent them into captivity, the response to that captivity was that they “trembled.”

Concerning the unprepared when Jesus comes again the word for “tremble” is used. When Daniel’s companions heard about a certain vision, the word for “tremble” is used once again. The Bible says at the downfall of Tyre the nations “trembled.” When Potiphar heard the accusations that Joseph had supposedly seduced his wife he was angry, and the root word used is the word “tremble.”

God’s feeling over Israel’s murmuring and complaining is described by this root word of “tremble” or a burning sensation if you please. God is upset! When the Bible came into the presence of a king their feeling was a feeling like this word “tremble.” When Eli heard that the Philistines took the Ark of the Covenant, the word used to describe his feeling was “tremble.”

In Luke 24, this burning sensation of trembling is connected with the Word of God. Every verse we covered tells about somebody who trembled at the Word of God.

MAN SHOULD TREMBLE AT THE READING OF THE WORD OF GOD.

This is no way does not mean man is to be frightened about the Word of God, but there should be a burning sensation. In Jeremiah 20:9 Jeremiah decided to quit the ministry, and did quit the ministry, but the Bible says the Word of God was like a fire in his bones and that is the same burning the word “tremble” represents.

Dr. Tom Malone was asked about how long he would read the Scriptures, and he would always reply, “I read the Bible until my heart burns.” He would read it until God spoke to him. This certainly is convicting!

How long has it been seen the Word of God brought a burning sensation and God spoke to you?

•  How long has it been since Psalm 91:1 burned in your heart? “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the almighty.”
•  How long has it been since John chapter 14 spoke to you? “Let not your heart be trouble ye believe in God believe also in me. In my fathers house are many mansions if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you and if I go to prepare a place for you I will come again.”
•  How long has it been since Revelation 20:2 spoke to you? “And I John saw the holy city coming down from God out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.”
•  How long has it been since Romans 8:28 spoke to you? “We know that all things work together for good for them that love God for them that are called according to his purpose.”
•  How long has it been since you have read Philippians 4:19 and your heart burned? “My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Jesus Christ.”
  

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•  How long has it been since your heart burned when you read Romans 8:37, “For we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.”
•  How long has it been since Isaiah 54:17 spoke to your heart when you read it? “No weapon that is formed against shall prosper.”

How long has it been since you were alone with the Bible and your heart burned on the inside as you read the Bible? We beg for revival, and yet are not excited about the very words of God! There will never be revival until God’s people tremble with a burning sensation, thrill, become excited, or the heart pounding with anticipation about God speaking through his words.

MAN SHOULD TREMBLE AT THE PREACHING OF THE WORD OF GOD.

This should not only occur at the reading of the Word of God, but also at the preaching of the Word of God. When the resurrected Christ walked on the road to Emmaus with the Emmaus disciples, they talked and Jesus asked them what was wrong? They said we trusted the Messiah and He has been crucified and now He is dead. Jesus began speaking and started at the prophets and preached to them and revealed Himself to them, and they said truly our hearts did burn within us.

I have always loved the preaching of the Word of God. I love to hear It and I love to do it! I have been preaching the Word of God for 38 years and I always ask God to speak to the hearts of the people to whom I am speaking. I desire for something to happen on the inside of the congregation as I preach. I want there to be an excitement, anticipation, and a burning because of the preaching of the Word of God or trembling if you will at the very words of God.

I preached at the Longview Baptist Temple, Longview, Texas, one Sunday night on “FOLLY IN ISRAEL” and I preached on the subject of vows. I preached about God’s people stealing God’s money. At the invitation time one of our members Jack Rickman walked the aisle with many others to the altar. He motioned for me and I went to him at the altar and he handed me $2,000 cash. He said this is God’s money and I was going to buy a car with it! I cannot go on without making this right. I have been stealing from God! He had that money in his pocket to go buy a car, but because of the preaching of the Word of God his heart began to burn!

MAN OUGHT TO TREMBLE AT THE COMMANDMENTS OF THE WORD OF GOD.

Man should look at Sodom and tremble because of sodomy! Man should look at the Word of God at how Sodom was destroyed and tremble. Man should look at the Word of God and see how God poured out fire and brimstone on the wicked city of Sodom because of their sin of sodomy. Man should look at it and fear.

Man should look at Ananias and Sapphira and tremble those who steal God’s money. Look at Achan and tremble those who take what belongs to God. Look at Noah and tremble drunkards. Look at Absalom and tremble disloyal traitors. Look at Lot and tremble mercenaries. Look at Cain and tremble liberals. Look at Balaam and tremble new Evangelicals and pseudo-fundamentalist. Look at Esau and tremble carnal Christians. Look at Naomi and Elimelech and tremble you who leave the will of God and move your family for money.

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Look at Jacob and tremble you who deceive. Look at Korah and tremble you who rebel. Look at the prodigal and tremble despisers of parents and disobeyers of parents. Look at Judas Iscariot and tremble you who are money hungry. Look at Demas and tremble you who are worldly. Look at Solomon and tremble womanizer. Look at David and tremble lustful men. Look at Bathsheba and tremble immodestly dressed women.

Look at King Saul and tremble proud people. Look at John Mark and tremble quitter. Look at Rehoboam and tremble you who fail to follow the advice of your elders and their experience. Look at Ephraim at tremble you who turn back in the day of battle.

The God of Sodom is still alive today, and then to keep on pushing sodomy, one of these days God will suddenly bring judgment. The God Who caused the flood to cover the Earth is still alive today. The God Who smote Ananias and Sapphira is still alive today. The God Who caused Korah and his family to be stoned to death is still alive today. The God of judgment is still alive today, then man ought to tremble. Look at Lot and tremble those involved in incest.

Look at Jezebel and tremble bossy wives. Look at Ahab and tremble hen-pecked husbands.  Look at what God did to Ahab, that same God is alive today. Look at Jezebel and Ahab and look at their blood being shed because of their wicked sin. That same God of judgment is still alive today. The God Who reigned fire and brimstone down on Sodom is alive today. Hey take time and read the Word of God and tremble.

Look at Jehoshaphat you who are Ecumenical and tremble. Look at Pilate and tremble you who are compromisers. Look at Lot’s wife and tremble those of you who look back to the world. Look at Tyre, Sidon, Chorazin, Bethsaida, Gomorrah, Laodicea, and Thyatira and other cities that reject God. San Francisco should look at Sodom.

Look and tremble John MacArthur as you make light of the blood of Jesus Christ. Look and tremble Hugh Heffner as you face God with the moral blood of a nation on your hands. Look and tremble Kennedy family as you answer to God for the broken homes, bones, hearts, and lives caused by your families’ liquor empire. Look and tremble Arnold Swartznegger as you led men to admire your body while your movies destroy their souls.

Look at tremble Ted Turner as you make fun of Jesus Christ. Look and tremble Madonna as you ruin the morality of young people. Look and tremble Oprah as you call Jesus Christ an egomaniac. Look and tremble Donald Trump as you glorify gambling.

Look and tremble state legislature with your legalization of gambling, lotteries, and riverboat gambling. Look and tremble athletes and sports franchises that help destroy the Lord’s Day. Look and tremble Supreme Court for taking God out of the public schools. Look and tremble Bible publishers for changing, adding to, and subtracting from God’s Word for the almighty buck.

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Look and tremble doctors for your vicious murdering and dismembering of innocent babies in the womb of mothers.

•  Man should tremble at the reading of the Word of God.
•  Man should tremble at the preaching of the Word of God.
•  Man should tremble at the commandments of the Word of God.

Man has just about put out of his mind that God is the God of judgment as well as love. America is without excuse, but God’s people are held accountable. 2 Chronicles 7:14 places the responsibility on God’s people when God said, “If God’s people…” not the world. If God’s people will tremble at the reading, preaching, and the commandments of God, then it would infuse a spirit of necessity to reach the world with the Gospel.

MAN SHOULD TEMBLE AT THE CHANGING OF THE WORD OF GOD.

When I realize that we have those who call themselves fundamentalists using only the King James Bible without believing that the King James Bible they use is inspired it infuriates me. However, more than that it scares me.

I burn, or tremble, on the inside when I read the Bible, hear the Bible preached, and read its commandments. However, I also burn at the changing of the words of God.

Do you pseudo-fundamentalists know that the Jehovah Witnesses’ Bible is exactly like the NIV, and that the RSV changes “behold a virgin shall conceive” to “behold a young woman shall conceive”? If, my friend, that does not burn you up you are not a sold out Christian!

Revised Standard Version takes Colossians 1:14, “In whom we have redemption through his blood” and they leave out “through his blood” and that burns me up! Acts 8:37, “And Philip said if thou believest with all thine heart thou mayest” is left out of the RSV and that burns me up! Matthew 1:16, “And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary of whom Jesus was born.” Nowhere does it mention Joseph as being the father. In the footnotes of the New English Bible it says, “Joseph to whom Mary a virgin was betrothed was the father of Jesus” and that burns me up! My Bible says before they came together she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.

Every child of God ought to tremble and burn on the inside over the attempts to change the Word of God.

Luke 2:33 says, “Joseph and his mother marveled at those things which were spoken of him” while the NASV says, “His father and his mother.” Joseph is no more the father of Jesus than I, and the changing of the Word of God burns me up.

In Acts 16:31 the word “Christ” is left out of the NASV. The word “Christ” is left out of Romans 1:16, 1 Corinthians 9:1, and Ephesians 3:14. The words “through his blood” are left out of Colossians 1:14. It is so bad that the theologian who wrote the introduction to the NASV asked that his name be removed.

There are 50,000 changes from the King James Bible and New King James Bible. They claim to make reading easier for the reader and more understandable. In Daniel 3:12 they took the word “governor” and changed it to say, “traps.” Oh yes, that is easier for the reader! Ha! They took the word “figure” from 1 Peter 3:21 and changed it to “antitype.” Much easier? I don’t think so! The NKJB omits the word “Lord” 66 times, “God” 51 times, “heaven” 50 times, “Jehovah” is taken out, “new testament” is taken out, and the word “damnation” is taken out.

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Matthew 17:21, “Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting” is left out of the NIV. Matthew 18:11 says, “the Son of man is come to save that which was lost” is omitted. Mark 7:26 says, “But if you do not forgive neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses” is omitted. Mark 9:44 says, “Where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched” is omitted. Mark 9:46 says, “But the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched” is omitted. Mark 15:28, “And the scripture was fulfilled, which sayeth he was numbered among the transgressions” is also omitted.

Luke 17:26, “Two men shall be in the field one shall be taken and the other left” is omitted. Romans 16:24 says, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all” is omitted, and 150 other scriptures with significant portions are missing, and that burns me up! 69 times the names of our Lord God are omitted from the New Testament alone.

The New International Version was copyrighted by Zondervan Publishers, which means only a limited number of verses can be duplicated or even memorized. In 1966 Rupert Murdock bought Zondervan. He is the owner of Fox and a pornography paper in England among other questionable things. Ladies and gentlemen it is all about money.

Bob Gray Sr.
Pastor Emeritus
Longview Baptist Temple
Longview, TX
http://solvechurchproblems.com

A SUCCESSFUL FINISH
by: Dr. Bob Gray Sr.

2 Timothy 4:7, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.”

God says that no leader should be double-hearted, double-tongued, or double-minded. The Apostle Paul said, “I finished my course.” God has a course for each of us especially those who lead us. The success in life is not how big a church his men pastor, or how famous his men are, or how much money his men acquire, or how much power his men have. The success or failure is determined by one thing, did God’s men finish the course set before them?

 

Hebrews 12:1-2, “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

God planned my course for life as well as your course for your life. God also has a course set for every person who lives or has ever lived or ever will live. Success or failure will be determined by how you finish. If you live a normal life you will be seventy years of age someday, or probably older than that. You and I will face God one day sooner or later. How can we ensure that we will finish our course, be a success, and not a failure at the end?

DO NOT BE DOULE-MINDED

A double-minded person is unstable in all his ways according to God’s Word. To be single-minded means you have found your one great purpose in life. It also means that you are giving your all for that one great purpose of your life.

God is saying that wherever you are you are to give it your all. Enter the word “passion.” So it is not only the purpose, but also the passion within the place of service that will help keep you single-minded.

Since 1972 I have never been where I should not have been geographically. I have not always been what I should have been, but I have always been physically where I should have been. When I left General Motors, Fisher Body Division, to attend Bible college, and then left Bible college to pastor in Illinois, and finally left the pastorate in Illinois to pastor in East Texas, I have never physically been where I was not supposed to be.

When I walked onto the campus of the Bible college, that was the day I was supposed to be there. When I walked off that campus, that was the day I was supposed to leave. When I stepped onto the grounds of Faith Baptist Church in Bourbonnais, Illinois, it was the day I was supposed to be there. When I left Illinois to come to Longview, Texas, to pastor the Longview Baptist Temple, it was the very day I was supposed to go to Texas.

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How can that be? I have been single-minded for all of those three decades of my life. God knows what is best for my life and your life. Every one of us ought to allow God to control us. Quit being double-minded by being single-minded.

• Figure out what God wants and do it.
• Do not change your mind about what God wants.
• When a need arises on the journey fill it.
• When trouble comes on the journey overcome it.
• When evil comes on the journey overcome it with good.
• When corrections come or chastisement on the journey, take it and keep heading for the finish line.
• Keep you eye on the finish line.

Thirty-nine years later I am still on course. I have been single-minded when it comes to the King James Bible, soul winning, standards, being an independent Baptist, Holy Spirit fulness, bus ministry, local church, local church missions, the old-time religion, and a pastor led church.

I feel so sorry for some churches because every time the pastor goes to a conference and returns home he changes every thing with the poor people wondering who are we this week with security fleeing out the window. Decide what you believe and believe it. Never revisit your decision by being a single-minded leader.

Look at the pictures of our church summer camps of fifty years ago and compare it to today’s church summer camps. Someone has become double-minded. The Nazarenes, Pentecostals, Assembly of God, Methodist, and even the Catholics used to have standards. Someone changed!

The music has changed, fashions have changed, Bibles have been perverted, and doctrine has changed all because someone became double-minded. How can we be assured that we can successfully finish our course? Simple answer, by being single-minded! Find out what God wants and do it regardless.

DO NOT BE DOUBLE-HEARTED

Single-minded means doing what God wants you to do. Single-hearted simply means doing it like God wants you to do it. How can we successfully finish our course? Do not harbor secret loves. Have a fixed heart! Do not possess two loves. Single-minded people with a single-hearted love will be more assured of successfully finishing their course than the double-minded and the double-hearted will.

Find God’s purpose and do it. Quit exchanging his purpose every time you attend a conference. Then allow God’s purpose to be baptized with your entire devotion. For thirty-nine years I have been an ordained independent Baptist preacher. I have with single-mindedness done what God wanted me to do. I have with single-heartedness done what God wanted me to do with devotion. I have given God all of my energy, emotion, and devotion.

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I have refused to allow any one to steal my heart, my emotions, and my devotion. The reason some leaders do not have any zip, any energy, any zeal, any excitement, or any thrill is because they are double-hearted. Something else has stolen their emotions, devotions, and heart. Basically, they are double-hearted. To finish your course successfully means you have done what God wanted you to do and you have done it like God wanted you to do it.

Give it all you have and do not let someone or something steal a part of your heart. God allowed Longview Baptist Temple to see over one million souls come to Christ in the Ark-La-Tex area in my three decades of ministry. That did not just happen! All that God has given to that church did not just happen! Please forgive me for saying this, but if I had been double-minded and double-hearted there would be no million souls saved.

DO NOT BE DOUBLE-TONGUED

What does that mean? It means while you are doing what God wanted you to do, like God wanted you to do it, then make sure you “say” what you are supposed to say. Do not be double-tongued. Check out my sermon tapes or CD’s of 35 years ago, 30 years ago, 25 years ago, and you will find I am still saying the same thing today. My message has stayed the same!

How can a leader successfully finish his course? Be single-minded and do what God wants you to do. Be single-hearted and do what God wants you to do like God wants you to do it. Be single-tongued and do what God wants you to do like God wants you to do it and tell every one what God wants you to do and how God wants you to do it. Then, my friend, you as a leader will successfully finish your course.

Dr. Bob Gray Sr.
Pastor Emeritus
Longview Baptist Temple
http://solvechurchproblems.com

PAUL THE EPISTLE
by: Dr. Bob Gray Sr.

2 Corinthians 3:2, “Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men.”

Look at any page of your Bible, God’s Holy Word! When you observe that little piece of paper realize that it was once a part of a tree in a forest. It was planted as a seed in the ground, and from that seed there grew a tree. That tree no doubt withstood many a storm.

 

I wonder how many hurricane winds blew across and against the tree from which that one piece of paper came? I wonder how many storms that little piece of paper has weathered? I wonder how many times tornado winds came and almost blew the tree down that finally gave us that piece of paper on which Scripture is printed? I wonder how many gusts of wind and thunderstorms that little piece of paper has endured?

You see, we did not receive the Gospel on paper easily, for someone had to plant a seed, the seed had to germinate, grow and then withstand all the elements of rough weather. However, something else happened to that tree, for it had to be cut down. There would be no epistle without the tree being cut down. We would not have the epistle from which I read without the tree being cut down.

That is not all! It then had to be processed into paper. Then it had to be purchased. Someone had to pay the cost of the epistle. That is not all! It had to be owned by the purchaser. That is not all! There had to be some type of printing press that put what was on the machine onto that piece of paper. A printing machine of some type had to make its impression on that piece of paper. The truth is that piece of paper is an impression. This piece of paper then becomes an epistle that I can read.

John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Think about what it cost for you to hold in your hand a piece of paper with Scripture on it! It took planting! It took growing! It took withstanding many a storm! If it had not withstood the storm, it would not be here on that piece of paper you hold called Scripture. Then the tree was cut down. It had to die! It was then processed, purchased, owned, printed on, and then, and only then, could it be read.

The Apostle Paul wrote the church at Corinth and said, “Ye are my epistle.” Now, just as this epistle we call Scripture did not come cheaply, neither will it be a cheap purchase if you and I become God’s epistle.

You are the only Gospel this careless world will read. You are the sinner’s Gospel. You are the scoffers creed. Hey, you are the Lord’s last message written in deed and word. What if the line is crooked, what if the print is blurred! What if our hands are busy with works other than His? What if our feet are leading where sin’s allurement is? What if our tongues are speaking of things that Christ would spurn? How can we hope to aid Him and hasten His return?

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We can take filth, blood, and garbage, and smear the piece of paper containing the Scripture, and though the epistle is there, you won’t be able to read it. That is why we ought to live clean lives. We are His epistles! That is why we ought not to live like the world lives, for we are His epistle. The world doesn’t like the words I read off of that piece of paper, for in fact the big battle in America today is over the inspiration of those very words that exist in our hands today. The issue is not over women’s rights. The issue is over whether the King James Bible inspired or not! The issue is not over abortion, but rather is the King James Bible preserved inspiration!

The battle being fought today is against the King James Epistle being preserved inspiration. The world doesn’t like what is written in the King James Epistle, and unfortunately some fundamental know-it-alls, with their egos being bigger than their brain, like little children ridicule those of us who believe by faith that God did preserve His Words, and they did not lose any inspiration at all!

The question today is not whether the world likes you or not, for the question is concerning the message that Jesus wants sent to the world being seen clearly by your life. You are His epistle. I am His epistle, not written on tablets of stone or tablets of paper.

Please follow my reasoning! A seed was planted in Paul. It was planted at the death of Stephen. The Apostle Paul was a young man known as Saul of Tarsus. He was holding the coats of those who killed the deacon, Stephen. He watched Stephen die. He heard his great sermon while being persecuted and martyred. He heard him say that he saw Heaven opened, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God the Father.

The Apostle Paul saw Stephen die and heard him say, “Lay not this sin to their charge” to God. At that very moment something pricked the Apostle Paul. Do you know why, because Stephen was an epistle revealing what God wanted Paul to see! Paul had read the epistle of Stephen, not on tablets of stone or pieces of paper, and not with ink, but the Saviour Himself imprinted into a Baptist deacon who died preaching and was martyred. He was a clear message from God, and Paul could not remove Stephen from his mind. A seed was planted in Paul, and it was Stephen’s sermon and Stephen’s death!

That is not all, in order for the Apostle Paul to become an epistle, he had weathered many a storm. If you are going to be a great Christian, you are going to have to weather some storms. You are not going to go through life, eat, drink, and be merry, and have a big time with no enemies, no battles, or no fights! The greatest churches that have ever existed have weathered the storms, and the greatest Christians who have ever live have weathered the storms.

Read PILGRIM’S PROGRESS, written by John Bunyan. He had a seed planted. He grew and weathered some storms, thus we have PILGRIM’S PROGRESS. There is no other way! You and I must weather the storms!

Dad, you must weather the storms. Mom, you must weather the storms. Son, you must weather the storms. Daughter, you must weather the storms. Young preacher, you must weather the storms. College students, you must weather the storms.

2 Corinthians 6:4-5, “…in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses,”

“In stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watching’s, in fastings;”

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What was God doing? God was making an epistle not written in stone, or paper, or with ink. God was making an epistle out of the Apostle Paul, and no epistle can come if the tree continues to just grow. Thus, the Apostle Paul was cut down! He died as a martyr, and today the Apostle Paul is considered the greatest Christian who ever lived. It was not because he was a good-looking man, for the truth is he was not. He was a little man with bad eyesight. His speech was contemptible, maybe a squeaky, irritating voice. Maybe he had a speech impediment, or maybe he was tongue tied, or maybe a cleft pallet, or worse than that, maybe he had a northern accent!

The Apostle Paul is considered today to be the greatest Christian who ever lived! Why, because he weathered the storms. He could not have become an epistle without weathering the storms.

FANNY CROSBY

She was a great songwriter and became an epistle. Why, because though she was blind she weathered the storms.

Must I be carried to the skies?
On flowery beds of ease
While others fought to win the prize
And sailed through bloody seas.

No, I must fight if I am to gain
Increase my courage Lord
I’ll bear the toil, endure the pain
Supported by thy word.

The truth is, this Christian life is not a life of playing “paddy cake.” This is a battle! God did not call us to a pink tea and lemonade party. God called us to spiritual warfare! Paul said we are soldiers of the cross, and if you and I are to be epistles, we must weather the storms. Do not be surprised when the liberal media, whether over the air or in print, attack Christians and their values. When God’s people mean business about God’s business of winning souls to Christ, it will irritate this world!

DAVID LIVINGSTON

If this great missionary had just surrendered to the mission field and gone to Africa to build a little church building no one would have bothered him, and no one would have ever known him. However, a seed was planted in him. He was pressed to win Africa to Christ, and when he did the storms came. He weathered them, and thus he became an epistle. He has motivated and encouraged millions and millions of Christians through the years.

•  Paul had a seed planted in him
•  Paul grew
•  Paul weathered the storms
•  Paul died to self
•  Paul was purchased and owned by a Greater
  

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One of the great philosophical debates today is whether or not you have a right to your own life or not. The world says, “I am my own man!” However, God says, “You are not your own. You are bought with a price.” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)

CHARLES H. SPURGEON

The prince of preachers he is called. He was the great preacher, not because of his sermons, but because of his life. He suffered! He weathered storms! He died to himself! His life was not his own! He gave his life to Christ as well as his soul and became an epistle!

So many others I could write of such as Evangelist Lester Roloff, Dr. John R. Rice, Dr. Lee Roberson, Dr. Jack Hyles, Dr. Tom Malone, Dr. Curtis Hutson, Evangelist Carl Hatch, etc., but a great preacher is not necessarily an epistle.

•  An epistle must have a seed planted
•  An epistle must grow
•  An epistle must weather the storms
• An epistle must die to self
• An epistle must be owned by a Greater

JUST A THOUGHT!

Dr. Bob Gray Sr.
Pastor Emeritus
Longview Baptist Temple
Longview, TX
www.solvechurchproblems.com

SEVEN PRINCIPLES FOR REACHING ONE’S POTENTIAL
by: Dr. Bob Gray Sr.

Philippians 3:13-16, “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as man as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.”

Every 58 minutes someone in America becomes a millionaire. 80% of them will have a blue-collar background. 80% of them will have average intelligence. 75% of them will have average grades in school. There is an intelligence trap and a spiritual trap that stops people from reaching their potential. People stop learning. People stop being teachable. People fail to develop a second effort mentality. There is a second effort barrier that stops people from reaching their potential. The issue is not how high one’s potential is, but rather are you reaching your potential?

A SENSE OF PURPOSE

Leaders need to decide now what God wants them to do. The people who reach their potential are intensely goal oriented in the short term, not the long term. There is a difference between a man who dreams and a man who has a vision. Those who reach their potential have a sense of mission. There is a vast difference between a position and a purpose. Those who live for a purpose will keep on going while those who live for a position may lose their position, but they can never lose a purpose.

Those who reach their potential have a clear picture of what they believe God wants for them. Billionaire H. L. Hunt said, “There are only two clear requirements. One is to decide what you want, and two is determine the price and pay the price in advance.”

Short-term goal oriented people have two thoughts in mind: quantified and qualified. The first is numerical and the second is staying within Biblical boundaries. 75% of these people who reach their potential have written short-term goals. They have their life on paper!

EXCELLENCE

Leaders must decide to be the best early in life and commit themselves to quality. Average commitment brings average market price. Work should be the play of a leader. There is no substitute for quality of work. Work ethics have been sliding in our society, and within a few generations we will have an undercutting of our moral values, and the slide of the work ethic always follow.

Leaders lead by example and exhortation; however, example gives the punch to the exhortation of the leader. Exhortation is necessary but not viable without the example of the leader. Excellence is the quality that will lead to quantity.

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CONTRIBUTION

The leader must focus on what he or she can give and not what they can’t get. Consumer needs that go unmet is where failure lives. Spiritual needs that go unmet is where failure lives in God’s economy. The law of compensation of sowing and reaping brings with it good results if the proper seed is sown.

The Wal-Mart’s of the world exist because they meet the needs of the consumer. The McDonald’s of the world prosper because they meet the needs of the consumer. It is the common man they reach. May I suggest to you that real leadership is meeting the needs of the common man? Spiritually there has to be contributing centered on the need not the wants. When a ministry asks the unsaved sinner what he wants in a ministry, he will always end up with carnality. Only God knows the needs of the common man. We were made in the image of God, not the other way around. God is not made in the image of man.

RESPONSIBILITY

Until leaders are willing to accept 100% responsibility for their lives, they cannot grow. The followers then become the losers. It is imperative that we remember we are totally responsible from birth to death for our lives. When leaders convince themselves they are self-employed and quit being co-dependent, then they can tap the depths of wisdom. Some leaders recognize it and some do not recognize the principle of responsibility from birth to death.

Those who do reach their potential act as though they own the company. The timeserver is one who will never reach, let alone expand their potential. All high achievers see themselves as self-employed and indispensable.

SECOND EFFORT

There are second effort barriers that must be broken at will. Multi-millionaire, Dr. Russell Anderson, teaches that one makes a living from 8 to 5 and becomes a success from 5 to 8. One works for 8 hours a day to survive while everything over 8 hours is an investment in ones future.

Stress comes from working below our performance level. The second effort barriers being broken explains those in history who have given us the great inventions that we take for granted. The telephone, the computers, the satellites, the automobile, aircraft, etc., have become commonplace; yet, all began with second barriers being broken by the second milers of life.

TIME MANAGEMENT

In order to be efficient time managers, there is a necessity of developing a bias for action, speed, dependability, accuracy and heroes.

• Set priorities.
• Concentrate on one thing at a time.
• Put your life on paper.
• Keep your life in balance.

Time is an event not seconds, not minutes, not hours and not days. What we throw away may be more important than what we keep. The file 13 mentality will save more time than any other concept of time management you can think of.

STAY WITH IT

The ability to stick with it longer than the other man is foundational. When the president of IBM was asked his reason for his success he said, “I last one day longer than the other guy!” The doubling of a person’s failure rate was a common denominator to those who reach their potential.

Possessing a non-teachable spirit is deadly for a leader. Intellectual arrogance is a cancer to the spirit of a leader. A leader can be right so much of the time that he or she thinks they are right all of the time.

Courage in a willingness to take calculated risks exists in all who strive to reach their potential. Playing it too safe will always steal ones courage. Keeping ones heart in their throat will build ones courage. In order to develop courage, it is necessary to classify obstacles as opportunities and build resistance to quit.

Persistence builds character, and character helps one handle the success of reaching their potential. If the leader doesn’t jump ten feet then the follower will not jump five feet.

Dr. Bob Gray Sr.
Pastor Emeritus
Longview Baptist Temple
Longview, TX
www.solvechurchproblems.com