The church of Christ must seek and save the lost! I do not know that there is any subject more important for us to discuss than this one. When Jesus was on the earth, He said that His mission was “to seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10). As His body, our mission is the same. It seems, however, that sometimes we get distracted from our mission by the things going on around us. In the meantime, 110 souls die every minute and go into eternity. It is estimated that in 2005, 57.9 million people will depart from this earth. Almost 2 people per second pass into the Hadian realm to await their eternal reward. The percentage of these people who are prepared for eternity is very small. The vast majority of them are destined to eternal torment in Hell. Let us consider some reasons the church of Christ must seek and save the lost. #1 – The church of Christ must seek and save the lost because no one else is qualified to do it! The Apostle Paul said, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for IT is the power of God unto salvation” (Romans 1:16). Anything less than that gospel offers less than salvation. And anything less than salvation is damnation. I recently decided to count the number of “churches” in the Atlanta phone book. When I got to 1000, I gave up. There were still about as many pages left as I had counted. Therefore, …

Have you ever been so tired that you just wanted lie down and rest for a long time? Just as one’s physical body can become weary with the toils of labor, so the soul can become weary of the heavy burden of sin. Jesus gave the answer. It is found in Matthew 11:28-30. Listen to His words of invitation to every soul that is tired of sin and the burden it causes one to carry: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Notice please, that the one who comes to Him, comes at His invitation; they take His yoke; they are submitting to Him. His burden is light. It is His rest one enters. QUESTION: Have you placed your burden of sin on Him by your obedience to His Word, or are you still in the clutches of denominationalism? Read 2 Corinthians 13:5.

An old judge told of a troublesome dog that whenever the moon was shining, went out and barked at it all night! Someone asked the judge what eventually came of the matter. “Oh,” said the judge, “the moon just kept on shining.” One of the hardest things for a Christian to do is to keep on shining when being barked at by others. Many times even insignificant matters can disturb and discourage us. Paul’s approach was to “Press on to the goal…” (Philippians 3:14). No doubt, the enemies of Christ often barked at Him and tried to get Him to react in a mean and sinful way. However, He was the light of the world and wouldn’t give up His glory. He just kept on shining, and in doing that, He left us an example to follow when those who are teaching error bark at you for exposing their error. Do you bark at those who try to teach you the truth?

James said, “If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain” (James 1:26). In the third chapter of James, he gives us a clear picture of the power and danger of an uncontrolled tongue. Any student of the Holy Scriptures should be able to realize the need to watch and control the tongue. We should be aware of the fact that the words we use (and how we use them) will be brought into judgment (Matthew 12:36). Therefore, we should be careful about the words we use, but how about euphemisms? Many Christians use euphemisms for the name of God, and perhaps it is because we simply have not been properly educated about them. However, we need to remember, ignorance in this area is not an excuse. What is a euphemism? Webster states: “the use of a word or phrase that is less expressive or direct but considered less distasteful, less offensive, etc. than another; a word or phrase so substituted” (Webster’s New World College Dictionary, 4th Edition, 490). An example of a euphemism would be the word “remains” for the word “corpse.” The Bible often uses euphemisms. For example, Peter said, “…for since the fathers fell asleep…,” which is a euphemism for having died. The question then arises, “Are all euphemisms wrong to use?” If not, which ones are? Moses was given the commandment on Mount Sinai, “Thou shalt not take the name of …

Conscience—everyone has one, but not everyone has one that works as it should. The dictionary defines it as “the sense or consciousness of the moral goodness or blameworthiness of one’s own conduct, intentions, or character, together with a feeling of obligation to do right or be good.” Having a conscience separates us from the animal world; it distinguishes us as being created in the image of God. A conscience, however, doesn’t come preprogrammed at birth. It is shaped by what we are taught, along with life experiences. One’s conscience, then, is influenced and changed through the course of life. Parental influence, education, friends, media, experience, all this and more, helps make our consciences what they are. Having a good conscience, then, depends on having good input into what shapes it. If one receives the wrong input, you can do the wrong thing, thinking it’s right. Paul’s persecution of Christians is a great example of this (Acts 23:1; 1 Timothy 1:12-13). What we need, then, is the right source of information to train our consciences in good and evil, right and wrong. Paul reminds us the goal of his instruction, of his preaching the Gospel, was to promote love from a good conscience (1 Timothy 1:5). Only God’s Word is our perfect standard and guide, coming from God to us by inspired men (2 Peter 1:20-21). It is able to equip us for every good work (2 Timothy 3:17). Knowledge of Scripture is integral to having a good conscience. No wonder …

In an effort to understand a passage of Scripture, two questions among others should be considered, namely, who is the speaker and to whom is he speaking. This will contribute greatly to the right exegesis of a passage of Scripture. We have no problem in understanding that it was God who was speaking to Noah, instructing him to build the ark (Genesis 6). It was to Abraham that God directed to offer up his son Isaac upon an alter (Genesis 22). It was of the rich young ruler that Jesus required to sell all that he had and give to the poor (Mark 10). This principle would be true in the study of the epistles that men who were inspired of the Holy Spirit wrote to various congregations and individuals. Some of the most misunderstood passages in the New Testament regarding the Holy Spirit are found in the Gospel according to John, chapters 14-16. It is plain to see that the setting of these particular chapters in John is the occasion when Jesus was eating the Passover Supper with his twelve apostles. (See Matthew 26:20; Mark 14:17; Luke 22:14.) Therefore, Jesus was the speaker and the twelve apostles were the ones to whom Jesus was addressing when He spoke of the promise of another Comforter who would be sent to help and assist them in the preaching of the truth after His departure. Religious leaders of various denominations often apply what Jesus said to the apostles about the Holy Spirit …

That section of Scripture describing the great Judgment (Matthew 25:31-46) ends with, “And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (46). Every man’s reward will be consistent with his respective works (Matthew 16:27). Our Lord revealed that “there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known” (Luke 12:2). Further, no man will be exempt from his day before the throne of God (2 Corinthians 5:10; Acts 17:31). In our brief study of the eternal state of the dead, we shall consider the two possibilities in the order that our Lord used them in Matthew 25:46: (1) everlasting punishment (Hell) and (2) eternal life (Heaven). Seemingly inconsistent with His reputation as, no doubt, the most loving man history is the frequency of His mention and description of Hell. In eleven texts Jesus used the word Gehenna, rightly translated “hell.” It is only used by one other New Testament writer, James, half brother of Jesus. Undeniably, the most loving man of all time said more about hell than any other New Testament writer. Gary Workman commented: The original and predominant New Testament term for “hell” is the Greek word geena. It represents the Aramaic expression ge hinnom, meaning “valley of Hinnom” (Neh. 11:30; cf. Josh. 15:8), and for this reason the word is commonly transliterated in English as Gehenna. This was a valley on the south side of Jerusalem where, during idolatrous periods under Ahaz and Manasseh, the Jews had caused their children to be burned as …

A man breaks the law, and he is put in jail for his crime. Once inside, he plunges even deeper into trouble; he violates some stringent code of prison behavior. So how does the warden and criminal justice system handle his latest misconduct? Often times, the offender, depending upon the severity of his deed, is placed into solitary confinement. The inmate is purposely isolated and cut off from his peers; he is denied any opportunity to interact with his fellow convicts. He is unable to see or hear from another human being until and unless the administration decides he can. It’s “lockdown” for days, weeks, perhaps even months on end. It occurs to me that a prison is not the only place where folks employ solitary confinement. A husband and wife have a spat. The disagreement reaches a heated, fever pitch and both members are left wounded and hurting. How does the couple address each other’s rude conduct? At least some married people I know force one another into isolation. First, they engage, and then they withdraw. They put each other in a sort of mental “cage.” They stop talking (Proverbs 15:23); they withhold love, affection and marital intimacy (1 Corinthians 7:1-5). They sequester themselves and refuse to interact until the other humbly (and perhaps even repeatedly) apologizes and repents. It’s verbal, emotional and physical lockdown until one mate decides the length of detachment has been long and harsh enough (cf. Mark 9:33-34). I’m certainly no expert on how to handle …

In Matthew 13, Jesus spoke His famous Parable of the Sower. Thousands of sermons have been preached on this august text. After the Lord taught the parable, the disciples came to Him asking Him why He taught the people in parables rather than with plain language. Jesus explained that He spoke to them in parables because they were too defiant to see and understand the truth, just as Isaiah the prophet said they would be. Then to his apostles the Lord said, “But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it” (Matthew 13:16-17). The part of the statement in which we are interested is really v. 17, where He told the apostles that many of the prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see and did not see it, and they desired to hear what the apostles were hearing and did not hear it. Since Jesus had just quoted the Old Testament prophet, Isaiah, we are sure that it was to this great group of men He referred. This statement of Jesus coincides perfectly with the statement Peter later by inspiration made concerning the Old Testament prophets. He wrote, “Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, …

One thing some people resist is another person trying to change them. A young lady may not appreciate it when her boyfriend starts trying to mold her into something of his “ideal woman.” Therefore, she insists: “Don’t try to change me; that’s not me.” Occasionally you hear people say, “That’s just the way I am.” A man may have a problem controlling his temper. In a variety of circumstances, he may become angered, and therefore, show it through piercing words, sarcasm or unkind actions. When brought to his attention, he says something like, “Everybody knows that’s just me; everyone knows I have a problem controlling my temper.” The idea often conveyed is that you should just accept me the way I am with my spiritual weaknesses and flaws: “Don’t try to change me.” While it is true that you and I have our weaknesses, it is not “a given” that we should just accept them, learn to live with them and not be bothered by them. Jesus did not come to reinforce our flaws. He did not come and say, “Just be your natural self however ugly and selfish you may happen to be.” Becoming a disciple and follower of Jesus, we have committed ourselves to adopting the totality of his teaching, his spirit of meekness, humility, longsuffering, forgiveness and compassion; yes, we have obligated ourselves to adopting His way of thought and imitating His way of life. The Christian life involves a process of growth, development, transformation—becoming like Jesus. …

Yesterday morning, my wife and I climbed into our car at about 5:00 a.m. and began a journey to Valdosta, GA. I had been asked by an old and dear friend to come and preach the funeral of her sister. It is about a 5½-hour drive from our house. After the funeral and a quick hospital visit, we headed home. We got home about 9:00 p.m. last night. It was a long trip, but it was well worth the time and travel. As we travelled, I would look down at our odometer, and I would see the miles click away behind us. I could not help but think of the journey we were taking, but more so about the journey that we had already taken. In April of 1981, we travelled the same road. It was totally different then. Highway 84 from Dothan to Valdosta was, frankly, not a very good road back then. As we went through one little town, the electric sign on a bank said 93°. We were moving from north Mississippi, and it was not anywhere near that hot up there yet. We had a child that had just turned two the month before. We were moving to a brand new place with no certainty of exactly what to expect. We stayed there for nearly ten years. A daughter and our youngest son were both born while we were in Valdosta. Yesterday, we travelled, just the two of us. It is totally different now. First of …