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The Gospel Observer
"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations...teaching them
to observe all that I commanded you, and lo, I am with you always,
even to the end of the age" (Matt. 28:19,20).
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March 1, 2015
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Contents:
1) Matthew 7:1 (Frank Himmel)
2) Propitiation (Steven F. Deaton)
3) "I Just Don't Go To Church..." (Bill Crews)
4) News & Notes
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Matthew 7:1
by Frank Himmel
Matthew 7:1 is an oft-quoted text: "Do not judge so that you will
not be judged." Even folks who know or care little about what
else the Bible says seem to know this verse! All too often it
is interpreted as a blanket prohibition of any kind of judgment on
our part, especially a condemnation of someone's conduct. Just
what was the Lord's point?
The New Testament word rendered judge is a common one,
occurring over a hundred times. It has a variety of
meanings. The fundamental idea is to separate or distinguish,
then to prefer or select (Arndt and Gingrich 451). It
is used both of the process of selecting ("weighing the
alternatives") and the outcome, the verdict one reaches. It
can be used positively of approval or negatively of
disapproval. It is used across the spectrum of formality, from
simple personal decisions to divine verdicts. One might judge
a practice (e.g., 1 Corinthians 10:15), or a person (e.g., 1
Corinthians 4:3-4). In several places, including our text, it
has an especially unfavorable connotation, the idea of being harsh,
hypercritical, fault-finding, and self-righteous in one's
assessments.
Surely Jesus was not teaching that His disciples be, in D.A.
Carson's words, "undiscerning blobs who never under any circumstance
whatsoever hold any opinions about right and wrong" (Jesus'
Sermon on the Mount 105). Matthew 7:1 does not outlaw
speaking against conduct which God says is sinful. If it did, Jesus
repeatedly violated His own maxim! Neither does it prohibit
identifying those who teach or practice doctrines that are contrary
to God's revealed truth; both Jesus and His apostles often did that.
Verse 2 speaks of the way we judge and by what standard.
The parallel account, Luke 6:36-37, puts being merciful in contrast
to judging. Rather than being harsh, self-righteous, and
hypercritical, we must be merciful. Rather than having a
fault-finding disposition, we ought to give others the
benefit-of-the-doubt. and when we do assess that they are in some
way in the wrong, rather than gloating about that or using it to
make ourselves look better in comparison, we must try to help them.
In verses 3-5, Jesus addresses the all-too-common problem of
applying God's truth to others before first applying it to
ourselves.
The Bible calls on us to make numerous judgments about people:
teachers (1 John 4:1), church leaders (1 Timothy 5:1-7), brethren
caught in a trespass (Galatians 6:1), the unruly, fainthearted, and
weak (1 Thessalonians 5:14), ungodly church members (1 Corinthians
5:12), a brother who has turned to sin (James 5:20), etc. Our text
warns us that all such assessments require the utmost care.
They must be approached with humility and fairness, with pure
motives, with a keen sense of our own limitations and the
fallibility of our appraisals. "Judgment will be merciless to
one who has shown no mercy" (James 2:13).
-- Via Pathlights, February 22, 2015
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Propitiation
by Steven F. Deaton
Greek: Hilasmos
Vine: "signifies an expiation, a means whereby sin is covered and
remitted."
Thayer: "an appeasing, propitiating."
Propitiation as translated from hilasmos is used in reference to
Jesus four times:
"Whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith,
to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had
passed over the sins that were previously committed" (Rom. 3:25).
"Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that
He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining
to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people" (Heb.
2:17).
"And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours
only but also for the whole world" (1 Jn. 2:2).
"In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and
sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 Jn. 4:10).
Since man could not do or offer anything to remove his own sins,
something else was needed to appease the wrath of God. The only
appeasement that would work was that of a perfect sacrifice. Hence,
the blood of the Son of God had to be offered as an expiatory
sacrifice so our sins could be remitted.
What does this mean for us? It means we owe a debt of gratitude to
God and Jesus. God sent Him; Jesus voluntarily came. Without this
act of mercy, we would have no hope of heaven. Rather, we would be
left to face the wrath of Almighty God.
It means we must live daily for Him who gave Himself for us. Our
short service in this life is the least we can do to express our
thanks. It is the height of ingratitude to live according to our own
selfish ways and desires.
-- via Articles from the Hebron Lane church of Christ
(Shepherdsville, Kentucky)
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"I Just Don't Go To Church..."
by Bill Crews
"But he, desiring to justify himself, said . . ." (Luke. 10:29).
These words were uttered by a certain lawyer, and how like that
lawyer many of us become. We desire to justify ourselves, to excuse
the sins we commit before God, to minimize, to overlook our own
transgressions. May God help us to face our sins, to have a sense of
sin, to be aware of our weaknesses, to be penitent and humble, to
confess and forsake our wrong, to amend and serve anew.
One of the most common and, indeed, most tragic statements made by
unfaithful brethren is this: "The only thing wrong in my life is
that I just don't go to church." Surely such confession exhibits the
climax of misapprehension and understatement. Be it understood that
one sin persisted in before God is enough to condemn us; but,
brethren, how can any one of us forsake "the assembling of ourselves
together" (Heb. 10:25) without being guilty of a number of sins?
When we cease to meet with our brethren to worship God, we will soon
cease to read our Bibles, cease to pray, cease to teach our
neighbors, cease to train our children in things holy. We may
continue to be morally upright, honest, sincere, and charitable as
far as men are concerned, but we have turned away from God. When we
"just don't go to church," do we obey God's instructions to eat the
Lord's Supper, to sing together, to lay by in store of our means, to
pray together and to study and learn together? We cannot remember
the sacrifice of God's Son nor show forth His death until He comes;
we cannot teach and admonish one another; we cannot help to edify
the saints and to glorify God; we cannot stand behind and support
the work of God in this world; we cannot grow in grace and knowledge
WITHOUT FAITHFULLY ASSEMBLING FOR THE APPOINTED PERIODS OF BIBLE
STUDY AND WORSHIP! One Christian does not a congregation make, and
the Lord's supper cannot be eaten privately at home (I Cor.
11:20-34; Acts 20:7).
A young couple who had not been to such services for a number of
years asked: "What have we done wrong besides not going to church?"
They had robbed God of thousands of dollars (I Cor. 16:2; cf. Mal.
3:8); they had forsaken the Lord's own memorial supper (I Cor.
11:23-26); for years their voices were unheard in the praises of the
saints, their petitions and thanksgiving absent from the prayers of
the saints, and their knowledge of God's word stifled and fading,
while their spiritual growth was completely neglected -- to say
nothing of the bad example set and the wrong influence exerted upon
others around them! Indeed, their souls had become dead to God, and
yet they ask: "What have we done wrong besides not going to church?"
May God help us to see ourselves as He sees us!
Brethren, we need God and His church, and we need the local
congregation. We need to serve and honor Him as God in the divinely
ordered way of His will. Let us not forsake "assembling of ourselves
together." And let us remember that all sins are not matters of
transgression; some are matters of neglect -- a failure to do right.
James 4:17 warns: "To him therefore that knoweth to do good, and
doeth it not, to him it is sin."
-- Via The Way of Truth and Life, September 15, 2013, Volume
4, No. 37
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News & Notes
Let those of us who are God's children continue to remember the
following in our prayers: Myrna Jordan, Danielle Howard, Jim
Lively, Doyle Rittenhouse (back trouble), Joyce
Rittenhouse (fell and hurt her right hand), Jewell Wilson
(recent eye surgery), Melotine Davis (having some pain, but
healing and receiving physical therapy for a knee replacement), Mary
Vandevander (at Baptist Village nursing home), Deborah
Medlock, Shirley Davis, Penny Medlock (glaucoma), Cheryl
Corbitt (seeking employment), Rex and Frankie Hadley,
Jesse Bailey (cancer), Dexter Roberts (cancer), Sue
Wooten (at Baptist village nursing home), Dolly Moody,
and Collen Henson.
As also mentioned in the previous bulletin, there will be a Gospel
Meeting March 6-8 at the church of Christ in
Hoboken with Bob Waldron as the guest speaker.
Time: Friday (7:30 PM), Saturday (6 PM), and Sunday (9:30,
10:30, and 5). The church meets at 5101 Main Street.
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Tebeau Street
CHURCH OF CHRIST
1402 Tebeau Street, Waycross, GA 31501
Sunday services: 9:00 AM (Bible class); 10 AM & 5 PM (worship)
Wednesday: 7 PM (Bible class)
evangelist/editor: Tom Edwards (912) 614-8593
Tom@ThomasTEdwards.com
http://tebeaustreetchurchofChrist.org
http://ThomasTEdwards.com/go
(Gospel Observer website)
http://ThomasTEdwards.com/audioser.html
(audio sermons)