NO COST RELIGION

After David had been told by God to build an altar and worship God on the threshing floor of Araunah, this Jebusite offered the king the threshing floor and everything necessary to worship God. David refused the offer with these words: “Nay, but I will verily buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt-offerings unto Jehovah my God which cost me nothing” (II Samuel 24:24).

Would that all Christians had the attitude of David. Instead, they often show the very opposite disposition. David realized that an offering which cost him nothing was worth exactly that to him—nothing. God has always demanded the best that each person has—not what somebody else has (Leviticus 22:21).

All we have has been given to us by God to use for His glory and in His service. We are but stewards of these things (1 Pet. 4:10). The Lord expects us to be good stewards, but giving what comes without cost to us is not practicing faithful stewardship. The measure of our devotion, reverence, and love for God is in direct proportion to how much we are willing to commit to the service of God, or how much we are willing to sacrifice (John 12:3ff). Those who take the easiest, cheapest way to serve God are, in reality, servants of self, not God.

There is to be nothing cheap about our religion. It is to be the best we have—the same attitude that characterized David. “I will not offer... unto Jehovah my God [that] which cost me nothing.”

Al Brown

Hold to God's Unchanging Hand

The Bible is under attack, but, then, it always has been by those enslaved to Satan, The world has consistently hated the restraints God’s law places on them. They delude themselves with the empty hope that their eternal destiny is not hell although the Bible says it is.

Denominational people do not consider themselves as being part of the world, but they are. They make no effort to believe or practice what the Bible teaches. In fact, they readily ignore, twist, pervert, or explain away any part of God’s Word that does not conform to their humanly-devised theories. Then, in arrogance and pride, they claim such rebellion is pleasing to God! In what way are they different from the rest of the world?

Only one group of people has the approval of God—those who submit to His will in humble, faithful obedience (Matthew 7:21-23). Obeying God’s will involves, among other things, complying with the conditions of salvation and being added by the Lord to His church (Acts 2:38; Colossians 2:12-13; I Corinthians 12:13).

It is not, never has been, and never will be, the place of man to sit in judgment on the law of the all-wise God (James 4:11-12). Mere men have never been given the power to add to or take away from God’s Word in even the most minute way (Deuteronomy 4:2; Galatians 1:6-9; Revelation 22:18-19). On the contrary, men are repeatedly warned of the severe consequences they can expect if they do.

Even in the church of Christ a certain element (who are more worldly than like their Savior) is continually assaulting some portion of God’s will. God’s people have always done this. Israel was warned about it repeatedly, yet she was in rebellion far more than she was faithful.

This has also been a problem in the body of Christ. Apostasy is condemned in the strongest terms (Matthew 7:15; Acts 20:29-30; I Timothy 4:1-3; II Timothy 3:1-5; 4:3; Revelation 22:18-19). Still, for whatever cause, some brethren refuse to speak where the Bible speaks and be silent where it is silent (I Peter 4:11). They do not believe in the verbal inspiration, inerrancy, or the authority of God’s Word, and they are working diligently to destroy your faith.

We do not have to let their worldly wisdom undermine our faith in God’s Word. They may have advanced degrees, but remember: their training was not in the Bible; it was in theology—what infidels to pure Christianity think about God and His religion. This is a classic example of misguided men, who love the sectarian world more than Christ and His will, trying to change pure Christianity into another man-made sect. To believe them is spiritual suicide (Galatians 1:6-9).

Al Brown

Automatic Forgiveness

No one, as long as he is clothed with this body of flesh, will be immune to fleshly desires. Even Jesus was tempted (Matthew 4:1ff; Hebrews 2:18), but like Him the Christian can be so committed to God that he will be adamantly determined not to give in to such desires. Indeed, this is what Christ expects him to do (Matthew 16:24). He may sin in a moment of weakness, but sin will not be the rule of his life (cf. Romans 7:21ff). On the contrary, the rule is that he does not sin; the exception to the rule is that occasionally he does, but his determination to walk with God will cause him to quickly repent of his weakness and sin and ask for forgiveness. It is because he has such an attitude of submission, and such a determined commitment, that Jesus’ blood is said to continually cleanse him of his sins (I John 1:7-10). 

No one should assume, however, that such cleansing will automatically continue if he refuses to repent, no matter how trivial and insignificant the sin may seem to be. The commission of even one sin, for which one will not or does not repent, will result in his alienation from God (James 2:10). 

Simon is an inspired example of this (Acts 8:9-24). Although some claim he was never a believer, Luke clearly says that he was (Acts 8:13) and that he was baptized just as the other Samaritans were. Simon sinned by lusting for, and trying to purchase, the power of imparting miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands (Acts 8:18-19). Peter, in rebuking him, named the sin he had committed: “Thou hast thought to obtain the gift of God with money” (Acts 8:20). 

He charged that Simon’s heart was “not right before God” (Acts 8:21) and that he was “in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity” (Acts 8:23). Although Simon was a Christian, who can doubt that he was cut off from God’s favor at that moment and fallen from grace? Yet, Peter told him to repent of his wickedness and pray to the Lord “if perhaps the thought of thy heart shall be forgiven thee” (Acts 8:22). It would appear that Simon believed what Peter told him, for he asked the apostle to pray for him (Acts 8:24). 

Since Peter told Simon that he would “perish” in his present condition (Acts 8:20), it is ludicrous to think that Jesus’ blood was cleansing him of his sin before he repented. On the other hand, if he obeyed Peter’s command, there is every reason to believe that Jesus’ blood did continue to cleanse him after his repentance and prayer. Since God is no respecter of persons (Romans 2:11), He likewise expects repentance and prayer from Christians today whenever awareness of sin takes place—if they expect the blood of Christ to continue cleansing them.  

Al Brown